Untelevised professional wrestling event
This article is about a professional wrestling event. For a musical performance at a private residence, see
House concert
. For the TV show, see
House (TV series)
.
A
house show
is a
professional wrestling
event produced by a major
promotion
that is not televised, though they can be recorded. Promotions use house shows mainly to cash in on the exposure that they and their wrestlers receive during televised events, as well as to test reactions to matches, wrestlers, and
gimmicks
that are being considered for the main televised programming and upcoming
pay-per-views
. As house shows are not televised, all matches are technically
dark matches
, though that term is usually reserved for non-televised matches at otherwise televised events.
House shows are also often scripted to make the
face
wrestlers win most matches, largely to send the crowd home happy. If a
heel
defends a title, the face may win by disqualification, preventing the title from changing hands.
Until the 1990s, most televised professional wrestling programs were taped weeks in advance in small studios and featured primarily matches with lesser-known wrestlers while interviews revolved around feuds between upper level talent that were to be settled at an upcoming major show at the promotion's flagship venues. Prior to the 1980s, these were house shows, though with the advent of
closed-circuit television
, and later
pay-per-view
, these became televised events as well. Later on in the 1990s, the advent of weekly shows such as WWF's
Monday Night Raw
and
WCW Monday Nitro
, where competitive matches between upper level talent and storylines play out as they happen in front of a live audience, and with the increase in number of pay-per-view events held by promotions, angles are now typically developed during weekly shows, and resolved during the next pay-per-view (or, on occasion, a special episode of the series), rendering house shows to be mostly minor events with no long-term story significance.
Production
[
edit
]
Since house shows are not televised, promotions do not usually deploy the same setup for staging or
pyrotechnics
used for their television counterparts. In the past, a WWE house show would consist mainly of a ring, essential lighting, and a crowd.
[1]
In late 2011, WWE invested US$1.5 million in production improvements, which included three
LED
-lit entrance stages (one each for
Raw
and
SmackDown
, and one backup)
[2]
featuring a ramp and video display, and leveraging venues' existing AV equipment for multimedia such as
entrances
.
[1]
As of 2021, a new stage was introduced that closer-resembles the stages used by televised events at the time.
[3]
During the first
brand extension
, each WWE tour was exclusive to either the Raw or SmackDown brand. This remained the case through 2012, even after the first brand extension ended in 2011 on televised programming.
[4]
In 2013, the shows were rebranded as "WWE Live", with
NXT
house shows subsequently branded as "NXT Live".
[1]
After
WrestleMania 38
in April 2022, WWE began to brand house shows held on weekends as "Saturday Night's Main Event" (reviving the branding of a
former WWE television series
) and "Sunday Night Stunner".
[5]
Because house shows are not televised, sometimes controversial things occur during them (although this is rare) which might not happen on a televised show. For example, on May 19, 1996, the
MSG "Curtain Call"
, which was also a rare example of a
shoot
, occurred at a house show taped at
Madison Square Garden
. At the same show,
The Bodydonnas
lost their
WWF Tag Team Championship
to
The Godwinns
.
[6]
With the advent of
WWE Network
, WWE has televised portions of what are otherwise house shows as hour-long specials on the service, such as
Starrcade
?an event that shares the name with the flagship pay-per-view of the now-defunct WCW (whose assets were acquired by WWE), and
The Shield's Final Chapter
?a special which featured
Dean Ambrose
's final WWE appearance with his stable
The Shield
before his departure from the promotion.
[7]
[8]
Starting in March 2023,
All Elite Wrestling
launched a series of house shows under the "House Rules" brand.
[9]
Title changes
[
edit
]
Most major promotions try to develop their
angles
only during televised shows and will rarely
book
a major development (such as a title change) for house shows. House show title changes can occur both to
gauge how fans would react
to a certain outcome, and allow for outcomes that would appeal to local fans?such as Edge winning his first
WWF Intercontinental Championship
over
Jeff Jarrett
at a 1999 house show in
Toronto
.
[10]
[11]
If there is a title change, the title usually changes back during the same show or at another show on the loop before another televised event, like several titles changes of the
WWE Hardcore Championship
or when
Booker T
and
Chris Benoit
traded the
WCW World Television Championship
back-and-forth on several house shows, with Booker (the official champion) always having the title back in time for
Nitro
. Edge similarly lost the aforementioned Intercontinental Championship back to Jarrett at
Fully Loaded
the next evening in
Buffalo
.
[12]
Even rarer is the top title of a promotion changing hands. This has occurred relatively few times, notable occurrences include
Bret Hart
winning the then-
WWF Championship
from
Ric Flair
in 1992 at a live event in
Saskatchewan
and
Diesel
winning the WWF Championship from
Bob Backlund
in 1994 at a live event in
Madison Square Garden
.
There have also occasions when title changes occur but are not recognized by the promotion. Some notable house show title changes include an August 10, 1987 match where
The Rougeau Brothers
(
Raymond
and
Jacques
) won over the champion
Hart Foundation
(
Bret Hart
and
Jim Neidhart
) to take the
WWF Tag Team championship
in the Rougeau's home town of Montreal. This change (and the eventual "decision reversal") was only ever mentioned during segments taped specifically for and shown in the Montreal market.
[10]
A
fictional
house show can be used to explain a sudden vacation or change of a title caused due to backstage issues on television. For example, on October 4, 1999 edition of
WCW Monday Nitro
, the commentators stated that
Psychosis
had defeated
Lenny Lane
for the
WCW Cruiserweight Championship
on an unspecified house show (thereby giving the title to Psychosis), after WCW management was forced to drop Lane's gimmick that was perceived as offensive by the
GLAAD
.
[13]
As a metaphor
[
edit
]
The phrase has been used to pejoratively describe WWE pay-per-views intended primarily for specific markets, including UK-only pay-per-views such as
Insurrextion
and
Rebellion
,
[14]
and
WWE's events in Saudi Arabia
.
[15]
[16]
In 2019,
Shawn Michaels
defended his one-off return at WWE's 2018
Crown Jewel
pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia (reuniting
D-Generation X
to participate in a tag team match against
The Brothers of Destruction
) despite his retirement, describing the event as being a "glorified house show" that was not as important as
WrestleMania
or "coming back as the Heartbreak Kid".
[17]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Bishop, Matt.
"House show upgrade helps WWE show in East Lansing"
.
Slam! Sports
. Canoe.ca
. Retrieved
3 May
2013
.
- ^
Styles, Joey; Patts, James.
"WWE debuts set for live events"
.
WWE.com
.
WWE
. Retrieved
3 May
2013
.
- ^
Mientus, Joe (2021-07-25).
"WWE DEBUTS A NEW SET AND MORE NOTES FROM THEIR PITTSBURGH, PA SUPER SHOW"
. Retrieved
2023-10-05
.
- ^
Atkinson, Bill.
"WWE Reportedly Wants to End House Show Branding, Give the Tour a New Name"
.
Bleacher Report
. Retrieved
2022-03-16
.
- ^
"WWE REBRANDING MORE LIVE EVENTS | PWInsider.com"
.
www.pwinsider.com
. Retrieved
2022-09-04
.
- ^
"The Godwinns's First Reign"
.
World Wrestling Entertainment
. Archived from
the original
on 2007-07-03
. Retrieved
2007-06-20
.
- ^
"The Shield's Final Chapter live results: Ambrose's farewell match"
.
F4W
. 2019-04-21
. Retrieved
2019-12-02
.
- ^
"WWE moves Starrcade to YouTube amid WWE Network outages"
.
Awful Announcing
. 2019-12-01
. Retrieved
2019-12-02
.
- ^
"AEW Announces Launch of Live Events Series: "AEW House Rules"
"
.
- ^
a
b
TJ Madigan (August 16, 2003).
"Final chapter for Booker T?"
. SLAM! Wrestling. Archived from the original on August 1, 2012
. Retrieved
2008-04-17
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (
link
)
- ^
Copeland, Adam
(2004).
Adam Copeland On Edge
. World Wrestling Entertainment Books. p. 130.
ISBN
978-1-4165-0523-5
.
- ^
Copeland, Adam
(2004).
Adam Copeland On Edge
. World Wrestling Entertainment Books. p. 131.
ISBN
978-1-4165-0523-5
.
- ^
"Lenny Lane profile"
. OWOW
. Retrieved
2009-08-14
.
- ^
Furious, Arnold.
"The Furious Flashbacks ? WWF Rebellion 2000"
.
411Mania
. Retrieved
2019-12-12
.
- ^
"Piledriver: Bad reviews for 'Greatest Royal Rumble'
"
.
The Montgomery Advertiser
. Retrieved
2019-10-29
.
- ^
Beaston, Erik.
"WWE Raw Preview: Money in the Bank Fallout and More for May 20 Episode"
.
Bleacher Report
. Retrieved
2019-10-29
.
- ^
Rueter, Sean (2019-06-24).
"Shawn Michaels still says his comeback at 'glorified house show' Crown Jewel doesn't count"
.
Cageside Seats
. Retrieved
2019-10-29
.