Repost - WWF IYH Canadian Stampede

The Furious Flashbacks – In Your House 16 – Canadian Stampede

Back in 1997 the WCW was on top of the world with their New World Order storyline but in the WWF something else was going on. Stonecold Steve Austin was becoming the most over wrestler in sports entertainment and Bret Hart was the biggest turncoat in US wrestling history. But this pay per view went north of the border and the villian turned to hero. Bret and the Hart Foundation faced off against the best America had to offer in a 10 man tag match.

This PPV will be graded on the Furious Grading Scale. FGS grades are as follows –

A One of the greatest matches anywhere, ever.
A- Damn near perfect
B+ Excellent
B Very Good
B- Good
C+ Average
C Mediocre
C- Bad
D Terrible
F Hulk Hogan
U or Ungraded = Hacksaw Jim Duggan v Ultimate Warrior v Goldberg in a submissions only Ironman match. My worst nightmare.

On commentary up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler. We join the action in the free for all.

Free for all – The New Blackjacks v The Godwinns

The Blackjacks come out to their awesome music. The Godwinns just turned heel because LOD broke Henry Godwinn’s neck. This is an absolute slobberknocker. 4 big horses. The first big move is Bradshaw giving the large Phinneas a pumphandle slam. Bradshaw and Windham spend most of the match working over the farmers but a Godwinns double team (a really poor double team) results in Windham getting rolled up at 5.27. Match rating – C-. Not appalling but decent enough to persuade a few more people to order the PPV at the time I guess. Interesting to note that Henry bad mouths Vinnny Mac on his way out.

Triple H v Mankind

Triple H is accompanied by Chyna and is hot off his King of the Ring win. Mankind comes out quick with a bulldog, a scoop slam and a leg drop. Mankind insults Trips by mocking his curtsy. Trips comes straight back with a knee to the face but Mankind back drops him over the top rope. Mankind drops an elbow off the apron and shows his confused state of mind with a Cactus Jack style “bang, bang”. Back inside and Trips takes a Flair bump over the ropes to the floor. Trips tries to walk out of the match but Mankind stops him and suplexes him on the steel ramp. Trips tries to sunset slip back into the ring only for Mankind to slap on the Mandible claw which Chyna breaks up. Mankind goes outside to face Chyna and Trips follows. Trips Irish whips Mankind into Chyna and she powerslams him into the ring steps and it looks like Mankind should have a broken leg. With the referee distracted Trips nails Mankind with a chair to the injured leg. Trips wipes out Mankind’s knee as he comes back into to the ring. JR calls Trips “cerebral”. Trips promptly works over the bad leg for a while. Trips Irish whips Mankind and he collapses because his leg is so bad. Psychology rules. Trips slaps on the figure 4 leglock and, of course, cheats by using the ropes for extra leverage. Mick squrims out of a pedigree and ‘accidentally’ hits a low blow on the future Game. Mick drives his bad knee straight into Trips’s face in the corner. Trips gets caught in the tree of woe so Mick drops an elbow into his face. Mick piledrives Trips for a two count. Mick does his double running clothesline over the ropes and this one has spilt outside again. Chyna distracts the ref and Trips belts Mick in the knee with a chair again. Back inside and Triple H gets crotched and Mick uses the Mandible claw. Chyna, once again, breaks up the hold. Back outside and Trips smacks Mick’s head off the guard rail and dumps him into the crowd. As they fight back a few rows the ref calls for a double count out at 13.23. Match rating – B+. If it had gone 5 more minutes and gone to a finish it was an A. Awesome stuff. They continue to fight into the Calgary Flames penalty box and then brawl to the back.

Taka Michinoku v Great Sasuke

Yep, this PPV has something for everyone. Here come the fliers. Taka goes for an every leglock which is countered straight into an armbar from Sasuke. Sasuke then kicks Taka right in the throat and goes for a reverse chinlock. Taka comes out into a version of the Fujiwara armbar. Taka works a few moves on the arm to wear Sasuke down. Sasuke comes back with a brutal spinning heel kick to the face and then pops on a half crab. Taka makes the ropes to escape. Taka dropkicks Sasuke into the back of the head and then dropkicks him square in the face for the pair. Taka takes to the air and ends up on the floor outside. Sasuke heads up top and hits a leaping sidekick to the floor. Sasuke kicks the shit out of Taka with one of them looking like he’s busted Taka’s nose. Taka nails a dragon screw to put Sasuke down and hits a dropkick to the knee. Sasuke bails and Taka hits a springboard plancha and wipes out Sasuke on the floor. Sasuke hits a release German suplex but Taka lands on his feet and goes straight into the hurracurana. And people question me when I say that Taka is better than Tajiri. Cartwheel back elbow from Sasuke. Taka bails and Sasuke hits an Asai moonsault. Back inside Taka hits a belly to belly suplex. Springboard drop kick from Taka to the back of Sasuke’s head. Michinoku driver and Taka has won. No he hasn’t Sasuke kicks out. Taka goes off the top and gets met with a drop kick. Sasuke with a lionsault press (perfect) on the standing Taka. Vince has no clue what these moves are which is why he should employ someone else to run his cruiserweight division. Sasuke with a massive powerbomb and then a tiger suplex for the pin at 10.00 exactly. Match rating – B+. Again, awesome stuff. 2 matches – 2 great matches.

WWF title – Undertaker (c) v Vader

This is a rematch from the Royal Rumble where Vader won clean (ish) but it’s only taking place because Ahmed Johnson injured himself and lost his spot in the match. Paul Bearer has just started labelling the Undertaker a murderer. Undertaker hits an early top rope walk of doom proving that Vader learned nothing from his match earlier in the year. Taker gets a two count and then another from a flying clothesline. Vader spends about a minute using a side headlock. They fight outside and Taker gets whipped into the ring steps. Taker hits a clothesline off the top rope to come back and gets another two count. Vader mimmicks the dead man with a clothesline from the second rope but also gets a two count. Suplex from Vader then a big splash and he gets another two count. Vader goes to really badly applied nerve hold which Taker fights out of with ease. Taker goes for a chokeslam and Vader hits a low blow which he bizarrely doesn’t get DQ’d for so Taker goes for a tombstone which gets reversed but Vader falls over. Taker does a nice improvised roll up for another two count. Vader goes up for the Vaderbomb but Taker punches him in the nuts as a receipt for the earlier low blow and chokeslams him off the top rope. Cool. Only a two count though and he chokeslams him again but again he only gets a two count. Taker gets him up for the tombstone and scores the three at 12.43. Match rating – C+. Pretty good considering how long they had to drag it out.

Bret Hart/Owen Hart/Jim Neidhart/British Bulldog/Brian Pillman v Steve Austin/Hawk/Animal/Goldust/Ken Shamrock

All the Americans get booed like crazy and Austin is loving it. Team Canada get one of the largest ovations I think I’ve ever heard despite the fact that Pillman is from America and so the Anvil. Plus Bulldog is English. Where are all the Canadians at? Bret’s pop is so loud you can hardly hear his music. Bret and Austin start it out with fists and Bret backs Austin into the corner and stomps a mudhole in him. The crowd goes nuts. Every move Bret hits is met with the biggest cheers imaginable. Austin hits a Flairesque low blow and the heat is amazing. I love those wacky Canadians. Austin slaps on the Million Dollar Dream and Bret does his turnbuckle escape into a pin as a tribute to Survivor Series 96 but Austin lets go of the hold. Anvil tags in and Austin hits him with a Lou Thesz press. Austin tags in Shamrock and he goes straight to the ankle lock but Pillman breaks it up. Pillman tags in and he bites Shamrock around the face somewhere. Pillmans hits a backbreaker and then makes Shamrock ‘tap out’ by tapping Ken’s own hand down. Hilarious. Shamrock comes back with a belly to belly and Owen tags in along with Goldust. Huge “Owen” chant. Owen nails the inziguri on Goldust. Goldust tags in Hawk. Hawk hits a scoop slam and a fist drop. Hawk heads upstairs and hits a horrible splash off the ropes so Owen slaps him in the sharpshooter. Animal breaks it up so Owen tags in Bulldog who hits his big vertical suplex and a powerslam. Animal breaks it up and tags in while Bret tags in too. Bret controls the pace and Animal tags in Goldust. Bret ties Goldust in the Hart corner tree of woe and the Harts give him a good kicking. Owen tags in and hits a backbreaker but misses a shoulder into the corner. Animal tags in so Owen hits him with a spinning heel kick. Owen hits a drop kick from the top rope. Animal counters a hurracurana into a powerbomb and Animal hits a powerslam and the LOD hit the Doomsday Device but Anvil breaks it up. All 10 men spill into the ring and Austin works Owen’s knee over with a steel chair where the ref isn’t looking. Austin gets into it with Bruce Hart at ringside before Bret punks him out. Owen is nursing a bad wheel so he tags out to Anvil. Austin tags in on the other side. Anvil dumps Austin into the Hart corner and they kick his ass. Pillman comes in and Austin hits the stunner on him. Bret pulls Austin down though and drives Austin’s knee into the ringpost as a receipt for Owen. He then hits Austin in the knee with a fire extinguisher and puts on the figure 4 round the ringpost. Awesome. Austin tags out and it’s Bulldog and Hawk. Hawk gets crotched and Bulldog tags in Anvil. Austin heads to the back to get treatment on the knee and the USA is down one man. Oh, sorry Owen is also back in the locker room with the bad knee so now it’s 4 on 4. Animal tags in and beats Anvil in a test of strength so Anvil tags in Bret. The Harts hit the double team on Animal but only get a two count. Shamrock tags in and starts working Bret’s leg. Pillman knocks him out to stop a submission though. Bret takes a front turnbuckle and Shamrock goes back to the leg. Shamrock lets Bret get back up so he throws Shamrock outside where Bulldog attacks him and it’s broken down into a big brawl again. Back inside and Bret gets a two on Shamrock from a russian leg sweep. Bulldog tags in and starts wailing on Shamrock. Shamrock hits a low blow and Goldust comes in with a bulldog on Bulldog. Pillman breaks up a curtain call. Bulldog crotches Goldust and hits a superplex for a two count which Hawk breaks up. Austin has returned after getting medical attention on his knee. Austin tags in and so does Bret. Bret takes a front turnbuckle and Austin hits a suplex. Bret comes back with a neckbreaker and a backbreaker. He follows up with a second turnbuckle elbow and then he goes to the sleeper. Austin drops out of it (another SS96 flashback). Bret gets the sharpshooter on Austin and Animal breaks it up. Austin puts the sharpshooter on Bret. Owen returns to the match and breaks it up. Owen tags in and works Austin over. Austin clotheslines Owen out in front of the Hart family at ringside. Austin nearly has a fight with Stu Hart and a couple of Harts come over the guard rail as a fight breaks out. Austin jaws with the Hart family and Owen Hart rolls him up for the count of 3 and the match at 24.33. Match rating – A-. This is how to work a 10 man tag match.

Best matches –
3. Great Sasuke v Taka Michinoku. Taka used to be a showstealer on almost every show and yet he just disappeared at some point in 1998 and never really came back.
2. Mankind v Triple H. A pre-cursor to their later battles for the WWF title. A lot of spots here at repeated in their later matches. A lot better than I remember.
1. Bret/Owen/Pillman/Bulldog/Anvil v Austin/Goldust/LOD/Shamrock/Goldust. Huge heat and some lovely psychology plus it was good to see Owen go over in a PPV main event.

Overall PPV rating –
B+. Not a bad match to speak of unless you include the Free for all. The variety was good considering it was 1997 where variety meant more than one slobberknocker, a tag slobberknocker and a big 6 man slobberknocker and of course Bret’s match. Every match here meant something and the main event had some of the best heat I’ve ever heard proving that Canadian fans are indeed awesome.