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A house show is a professional wrestling show run by a major promotion (such as the WWE), that is not televised. Promotions use house shows mainly to cash in on the exposure that they and their wrestlers receive during televised events. For example, each WWE brand (RAW and SmackDown!) runs four shows in a typical week, but televises only one. Promotions also use house shows to promote upcoming televised events, especially PPVs; typically, wrestlers who are scheduled to work a match at the promotion's next PPV will work matches against one another at house shows.
Today, most major promotions try to develop their storylines only during televised shows, and will almost never book a major development (such as a storyline or a title change) for a house show. In 1992, Bret Hart won the WWF Championship from Ric Flair during a house show in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. In 1994, Diesel defeated Bob Backlund for the WWF Championship at a house show at Madison Square Garden. In recent years, one of the few major events to take place at a house show was the MSG Incident (see The Clique for details). This was also a rare example of a shoot.
Another major event that took place at a house show, in this case planned, occurred in May 2004. As part of an ongoing feud between Eddie Guerrero and John Bradshaw Layfield, WWE ran a storyline in which Guerrero's mother suffered a heart attack while Layfield attacked Guerrero during an in-ring celebration in Guerrero's hometown of El Paso. The heart attack was a complete work. WWE taped the entire lead-in to the "heart attack" for broadcast on SmackDown! later in the week.
Layfield was also involved in a somewhat controversial event the next month at a house show in Munich, Germany. In an attempt to draw heel heat, he gave the crowd several Nazi salutes while goose-stepping around the ring. Such a display is illegal in Germany if used for political purposes. However Layfield's actions were clearly for show only, and so no action was taken. Several days later, the financial cable network CNBC fired Layfield as an analyst as a result of his actions in Munich. The WWE was less concerned about the controversy; it soon placed one of its main championship belts on Layfield.
One major championship change occurred on January 16, 2005 in Winnipeg, Manitoba when La Résistance defeated William Regal and Jonathan Coachman to win the World Tag Team Championship. Regal's actual partner, Eugene, had been injured at New Year's Revolution so Coachman was Regal's tag team partner for the match, though Regal never tagged him in.
The WWE Cruiserweight Championship also recently changed hands at a house show overseas. It switched hands from Juventud Guerrera to Nunzio on November 15, 2005 in Rome (while Nunzio is American, his gimmick plays up his Italian heritage and was likely the reason for this brief title change).
TNA periodically has house shows. Most of their shows are taped at the Universal Studios in Orlando. One incident where a house show was used in a storyline was the "International Incident" which happened in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The decision of the match had Jeff Jarrett winning the NWA World Heavyweight Championship from Raven. This is the first ever title change at a house show since the TNA promotion started in 2002. At an house show in Hidalgo, Texas on May 12, 2006, The Spirit Squad attempted to draw heel heat from the mostly Mexican American crowd by saying "Calm down! Just because we are wearing green, doesn't mean we're with the Border Patrol." Fans in Hidalgo expressed outrage over these racist remarks.
See also
"House show"