10 Most Famous House Shows In WWE History

The humble house show doesn’t always get the love and appreciation it deserves. Also known as live events, these untelevised performances are a great chance to see your favourite wrestlers in their natural environment.

With no TV cameras to play up to or storylines to worry about continuing, wrestlers are allowed to have a bit more fun, which can often have great results. Sometimes, though, something massive will go down at one of these events, leaving the wrestling world wondering why such a momentous occurrence wasn’t captured on film.

10. The Rockers Collide - June 6, 1993

In late 1991, Marty Jannetty tried to escape his former tag team partner Shawn Michaels by jumping out of a barbershop window, according to Bobby Heenan at least.

In reality, Michaels and Jannetty had been part of The Rockers; a very successful, very sexy tag team throughout the 80s and early 90s. Michaels turned heel on his friend, beginning a feud that was meant to culminate with the pair wrestling at WrestleMania 8. However, that was scrapped when Jannetty got arrested.

It wouldn’t be until 1993 that the pair finally worked a proper programme, with Jannetty actually beating Michaels for the Intercontinental Championship on an episode of Raw. A couple of weeks later, at a random house show in Albany, New York, HBK and Party Marty faced off for the belt again. Michaels would regain the title with a little help from a debuting performer by the name of Diesel. This would be the final major match between the ex-Rockers in their prime, as Jannetty would be gone from the company again in 1995.

9. Prequel to the Iron Man Match - January 9, 1993

The first ever Iron Man match in WWE history took place at WrestleMania 12 and was between Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart for the WWE Championship… well, it actually wasn’t. The actual first ever WWE Iron Man match took place almost seven years earlier than this, although it did feature one of the same participants.

The Rockers teamed up to defeat The Fabulous Rougeaus at a 1989 live event in Montreal, Canada. They would repeat the concept two days later, before the format went dormant for another three and a half years. Bret Hart would wrestle in the first ever singles Iron Man match, but his dance partner was not The Showstopper.

At the January 9, 1993 house show in Boston, Massachusetts, Bret Hart defended his WWE Championship in a 60-minute Iron Man match against The Nature Boy himself, Ric Flair. Hart had beaten Flair for the gold at another house show a few months earlier and was now putting it back on the line in what was known at the time as a “Marathon Match”. He was victorious by three falls to two, with those in Boston likely unaware that they had just witnessed history.

8. Where are all the wrestlers? - March 30, 2005

Considering that they run approximately numerous live events a year, it’s amazing that more doesn’t go wrong when it comes to WWE’s touring schedule. But, when stuff does go wrong, it goes really wrong. Just two weeks out from WrestleMania 21, the SmackDown brand ran a house show in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Due to various travel issues, over two thirds of the talent scheduled to appear on this night failed to show up. This included Rey Mysterio, a young Bobby Lashley, and Funaki! In the end, a backup plan was hastily cobbled together.

A special one-night tournament was devised featuring a majority of the wrestlers who had made it to the venue. John Cena would win it after defeating Booker T, before coming up short in his promised WWE Title match against JBL. It might not have been what was advertised, but at least those in attendance got to see several big names wrestle multiple matches in one night.

7. Little Rock Riot - December 15, 1997

Fans in Little Rock, Arkansas in December 1997 had been expecting an episode of Monday Night Raw, so got very annoyed when they found out it was an insignificant house show instead.

The rowdy audience got more and more agitated with what they perceived to be a lacklustre card. In the end, the proposed main event of Triple H vs. Ken Shamrock got cancelled after Shawn Michaels stormed out and legitimately told the fans that they didn’t deserve it.

This was the final straw and all hell broke loose. Fans rioted like they were back in the territory days, as the 6,000 strong cohort fought security guards, each other, and various inanimate parts of the arena. One report even said a guy’s shirt was set on fire, but there had been a lot of alcohol consumed on the night, so take that with a pinch of salt.

6. Seth Rollins' injury ends his WWE World Heavyweight Title reign - November 4, 2015

Seth Rollins was heading into Survivor Series 2015 in great shape. He was WWE Champion, had been for most of the year, and was set to face off against Roman Reigns in that night’s main event. Unfortunately for The Architect, his ligaments had other ideas. On November 4, 2015, Rollins was wrestling Kane at a live event in Dublin, Ireland. The luck of the Irish clearly didn’t apply to the champ, as he landed wrong on a sunset flip powerbomb and blew out several parts of his knee.

Rollins’ ACL, MCL, and medial meniscus were completely shot, and the injury would keep him out of action for a presumed six to nine months. One thing that also went kaput was his WWE Title reign, as the belt was vacated shortly thereafter.

This threw everything into complete disarray - not just Survivor Series, but all the plans WWE had for the rest of the year and beyond. This was an omen of things to come, as several other high-profile performers also went down with injuries in the lead-up to WrestleMania 32, which helped account for why that show was severely underwhelming.

5. Chris Jericho vs. Brazil - May 24, 2012

When travelling to a country outside of your own, it’s important to take into consideration the laws and customs of your destination. Chris Jericho clearly didn’t read up on the laws of Brazil when he travelled there for a WWE show in May of 2012.

Y2J was facing off against CM Punk, who was wielding the Brazilian flag like a good little babyface. In order to get heat, Jericho snatched the flag, threw it on the ground, and stamped all over it.

Not a bad tactic, except for the fact that desecrating the Brazilian flag is a big deal. Jericho was faced with arrest if he didn’t apologise to the crowd right then and there. After the fact, WWE suspended him for performing the action without their consent.

Considering that Lionheart could have gone to jail for this, an earnest apology and a short suspension was probably the best outcome.

4. JBL's bad decision in Germany - June 5, 2004

“JBL’s Bad Decision” could refer to a lot of things, but this surrounds an incident that went down during a June 5, 2004 house show in Munich, Germany. JBL was the heel in his match and so tried to draw some heat from the crowd. Nothing wrong with that, except when your idea of “drawing heat” is popping several Nazi salutes and goose-stepping around the ring.

Needless to say this drew a lot of negative reaction and not the kind JBL was after. All of this goes without mentioning the fact that Nazi iconography and actions are highly illegal in Germany, a country that has often struggled to reconcile with its past.

In a shocking turn of events, WWE never punished JBL for this incident. In fact, they gave him the WWE Championship a few weeks later.

3. Samoa Joe wins the WWE NXT Championship - April 21, 2016

Title changes don’t happen that often at house shows, because why would you waste a big moment like that on a non-televised crowd? Sometimes, though, WWE like to throw fans at live events a bone, including on this night in April 2016 in Lowell, Massachusetts.

One of the matches that night was Finn Balor defending his NXT Championship against Samoa Joe. The two had been feuding for a few months now and fans expected this to be just a throwaway match in keeping with their televised rivalry… but that was not the case. In a move no one saw coming, Joe hit Balor with a Muscle Buster and pinned the Irishman to end his reign as King of NXT. And this wasn’t just any old reign - this was the longest reign in the history of that belt up to that point! And they ended it at a house show! Unbelievable.

This was actually a really smart move, as it made the already-radical developmental brand seem even more cutting edge. No doubt it also shifted a bunch more tickets to future NXT events, as fans hoped they’d see a repeat of what went down in Lowell.

2. Diesel Becomes WWE Champion - November 26, 1994

Arguably the most famous and insane championship change in WWE house show history went down at Madison Square Garden in November 1994. Bob Backlund, at that time the living embodiment of middle-agedness, had just beaten Bret Hart for the WWE Championship in a major upset at Survivor Series.

Backlund, whose last world title win had come in 1978, was surely too old to be the company’s top champion for very long. This statement was proven true, as he dropped the belt just 3 days later. Not only was his reign short, but so was the match in which it ended. Backlund faced off against Diesel at this untelevised event and lost in a staggering eight seconds to crown Big Daddy Cool as the new champ.

This accomplished several things. Not only did it get the belt off Backlund and onto Diesel, but it also made Diesel look like a total monster, demolishing a respected legend in less time than it takes to change the channel. It also signalled to WWE’s ‘home’ arena that anything could still happen at the World’s Most Famous Arena.

1. The Curtain Call - May 19, 1996

In April 1996, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall signed lucrative contracts with WCW. Not only were WWE losing two of their top stars, but this move also broke up one of the most powerful backstage entities in wrestling history. The Kliq, which consisted primarily of Nash, Hall, Shawn Michaels, Sean Waltman, and Triple H, were all real-life chums who used their considerable influence to essentially run WWE for themselves.

The group’s final night together was the May 19, 1996 house show at MSG. The four men celebrated in the ring together after the main event, even though they were all meant to be feuding with each other. This would have been fine, had a fan not caught it all on camera.

This shattering of kayfabe at a time where it was still enforced was a huge no-no. All four men involved would be severely punished… well, except for Nash and Hall who’d left the company… and Shawn Michaels who was WWE Champion. Triple H received the brunt of the punishment in the aftermath. The so-called Curtain Call remains one of the most infamous WWE house show incidents of all time and is often viewed as the thing that put kayfabe down for the three count.