Stampede Classics Vol. III Page 2
- The Great Gama v.
Robbie Stewart. We’re JIP
at 10:00 or so. Stewart is
a Scottish kid who didn’t amount to a hill of beans in this mixed up
world. Robbie
gets a piledriver and a flying elbow for two.
Suplex gets two. Gama
does some stalling. They
slug it out, and Gama bails again.
Back in, Stewart dodges him, but gets caught with a cheapshot and
a kneelift. Gama works on
the neck, but gets dropkicked and bodypressed for two.
Gama tosses Stewart (with help from a sympathetic evil referee)
and suplexes him for the finish via Cobra sleeper at 6:40.
Nothing special. *1/2
- Phil LaFleur v.
Rotten Ron Starr. This is
the same LaFleur who later teamed with Doug Furnas.
Ed explains the story about how he used to be known as Dan
Kroffat as a tribute to the original Kroffat.
LaFleur gets a spinkick for two.
Gutwrench backbreaker gets two.
Now THAT’S a cool move. Small
package gets two. Monkey
flip and he goes up, but misses a splash.
Starr gets two. Starr
gets a gutwrench for two, but LaFleur comes back with a dropkick.
Starr keeps pounding. Ref
is bumped and LaFleur gets the devastating abdominal stretch, but Gama
and Cobra both run in to set up a later tag match that we don’t see
here. It’s a wash at
3:47. Bleh.
½*
- The Great Gama v.
Chris Benoit. We’re JIP
at 10:00. This is from
1988, and it’s Benoit’s first shot at the Commonwealth
Mid-Heavyweight title. I always find it funny that people talk about Benoit needing
to “pay his dues” when he’s been in the business far longer than
anyone currently in the WWF outside of Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan. Benoit drops an elbow, and gets a running version.
Sharpshooter (a year before Sting “debuted” the move in the
US) but Gama pulls the tights to break.
Abdominal stretch, but Benoit breaks and Gama throws himself over
the top rope in a clever attempt to draw a DQ.
Evil ref Jurgen Hermman buys it, too, but luckily senior referee
Wayne Hart is at ringside and immediately overrules the bad decision.
Gama gets a suplex for two, and hotshots him.
Gama drops some knees and goes up for a flying version, which
gets two. Gama hammers him
down and gets the cobra sleeper, but Benoit fights out.
Back to it, but Chris is still alive.
They tumble out and Gama puts the boots to him.
When they head in, Benoit gets a quick sleeper, but
recently-turned Johnny Smith jumps on the apron and throws powder at
him. It hits the wrong guy,
of course, and Benoit bodypresses Gama for the pin and the title at
4:53. Benoit & Smith would spend the next year trading the
title every couple of months, until the promotion folded in 1989.
**
- Keichi Yamada v.
The Cuban Assassin. Yup,
that’s Jushin Liger, also in his rookie year.
We’re JIP at 10:00 as Cuban plays “hide the weapon”.
Ed helpfully explains the dynamic behind how that particular
tactic works, because Calgarians need that sort of thing explained, I
guess. Backdrop gets two for the Assassin, and a drop suplex gets two.
Cuban Assassin is actually neither Cuban nor an Assassin.
Discuss. Legsweep
gets two. Yamada gets tossed and assualted on the apron.
Back in, elbow gets two. Back
out he goes, and and he eats table for good measure.
Back in, Cuban puts the boots to him for two.
Lariat gets two, and Cuban hits the chinlock.
Yamada finally gets some offense with a pair of spinning forearms
and a missile dropkick for two. Snap
suplex and a headbutt get two. Clothesline
sets up a top-rope splash for two.
Cuban takes a breaker, so Yamada tries a pescado and goes SPLAT. It’s a countout win for the bad people at 6:17.
Mostly a squash, albeit an energetic one.
*
- The Great Gama v.
Hiro Hase. Gama pounds him
down for two. They tumble
out and brawl as Ed notes that it’s no-DQ.
This would be right after Hase got unmasked as Viet Cong #2 and
beaten up by the Karachi Vice. Back
in, Gama keeps pounding him with forearms and gets two.
Suplex onto the top reinjures Hase’s ribs.
Hase comes back and goes up, but gets crotched.
Atomic drop and Gama goes up, but now Hase superplexes him.
Roundhouse kick and Northern Lights suplex set up a somersault
senton. Butterfly suplex
and another backdrop suplex that looks close to a backdrop driver, and
Gama gets the fuck out of Dodge. They
brawl on the floor, but when they head back in Makhan Singh runs in for
a quick Karachi Krunch that sets up the cobra sleeper, but now Pillman
runs in and kicks the crap out of Gama.
A big brawl erupts, and tag team warfare is imminent for a later
date. **1/2
- Brian Pillman v.
Garfield Portz. Kind of an
interesting story behind Mr. Portz, as he was the storyline son of
ex-Stampede star Jeff Portz (although with Bruce Hart booking you never
know if it’s legit or another Wacky Wrestling Relationship like Makhan
Singh’s endless supply of illegitimate relatives) and aped Davey Boy
Smith’s act almost as blatantly as Benoit aped Dynamite Kid.
In fact, he did it so well that the AWA grabbed him up soon after
as Scottie McGhee, which is certainly a better name than “Garfield
Portz”. After a minor
push he was on the fast track to the WWF (since everyone who had a body
from the AWA was going there) but he suffered a mysterious stroke in
1989 that left him in pretty bad shape, and retired from the business
completely. I have no clue
what he’s doing now. This
is early in Pillman’s career, of course.
Portz drops a knee for two, and tosses Pillman.
Pillman is apparently just back from giving anti-drug speeches. Truth is truly funnier than any cheap laugh I could go for
there. Snap suplex and
legdrop get two for Portz. He
gets this sort-of STO-looking thing for two.
Piledriver is reversed, as Pillman comes back and gets a beauty
dropkick. Flying forearm
gets two. Leg lariat and
legdrop get two. Tombstone
and Pillman goes up for the flying splash, but it’s Gama as usual for
the DQ at 5:58. Quite solid before the dumb finish. **1/2 One thing
with Stampede, though – the dumb finish always set up a rematch the
next week.
- Owen Hart v.
Johnny Smith. This is,
again, just after Johnny’s big heel turn.
The pre-match interview is included, as Diana Hart makes an
impassioned plea to Johnny to turn back for the sake of his
brother/cousin Davey Boy. Remember
what I said about Wacky Wrestling Relationships?
They never could quite decide how Davey & Johnny were
related. Johnny is sick of
Davey getting all the respect in the family (man, how deluded is THAT
guy?) and he goes off on Diana for stealing Davey away from the Smith
family. But once he starts
trashing the Harts, Owen comes in to defend his sister’s honor.
Makhan Singh then destroys Owen with a chair.
And away we go. Owen
gets a dropkick and monkey flip, and Johnny begs off.
Smith comes back with a tombstone, which is reversed by Owen.
Owen goes up, but stops to nail Makhan instead and thus gets
beaten up for his efforts. Back
in, Smith gets a shoulderbreaker and kneedrop, and he pounds away. Powerslam gets two. Owen
reverses a whip and hiptosses him to come back, then drops a knee.
Owen’s PISSED, and he suplexes Smith for two.
Gutwrench gets two. Backbreaker
gets two. Another one sets
up a Boston Crab, but Makhan yells insults at Owen until he lets go, at
which point Johnny rolls him up…and Owen reverses for the pin at 6:05.
Owen still rules. **1/2
The Bottom Line:
While not the best of the series, this certainly offers a neat
look at the early career of Jushin Liger, Hiro Hase, Chris Benoit and
others. Plus the good is
REALLY good here, especially Dynamite’s stuff.
Recommended.