Stampede Classics Vol. V Page 2
Slingshot splash back in hits knee, however, and
Bret pulls out a chain to KO Smith and buy some time. Davey does a gory bladejob
and Bret dropkicks him. Backbreaker gets two. The crowd is just DYING to see
Davey make the comeback. Piledriver gets two. Smith presses him crotch-first
onto the top rope in desperation and finally makes the superman comeback as the
crowd is just going insane for the guy. Bret’s corner bump gets two. Sleeper,
but Bret nails the ref and goes for the chain again. Dynamite comes in to save,
but the Bulldogs get caught holding the chain and it’s a DQ at 10:04. This
would, naturally, lead to a chain match between Bret & Davey Boy soon after.
God I loved Stampede. ***
- Elimination match: Duke Myers, Dynamite Kid, Great Gama, Hubert Gallant &
Danny Davis v. Bruce Hart, Bret Hart, Keith Hart, Davey Boy Smith & Mr. Hito.
Little bit of everything on this tape, no? The faces work on Gama in their
corner, but Myers goes after Keith. Keith monkey-flips him and we’re cruelly
clipped to 30:00 with Bruce, Hito, Davis, Keith and Gallant all gone. Duke drops
an elbow on Bret for two. Gama works him over with kneedrops for two, and a
suplex gets two. Dynamite comes in and they clothesline each other, then collide
for a double KO. Kid gives him an awesome, Maven-like dropkick and Myers drops
elbows for two. Gama follows in suit and he gets two. He goes up with a kneedrop
for two. Another one misses, but Kid smartly charges in to cut off the hot tag.
Myers chokes Bret out and drops an elbow, and Gama drops a knee for two.
Bret’s sunset flip on Gama is stopped by Kid. Bret fights him off, but Gama
comes in and joins the fight. The ref escorts Kid out, and Bret backdrops Gama
over the top to eliminate him (battle royal rules also applied). It’s suddenly
BONZO GONZO as everyone brawls, and Smith catapults Kid into Bret’s boot. Same
for Myers, as it’s turned into a wild texas tornado match. Bret piledrives
Kid, and the heels meet in the center against their will, and that’s enough
for them, as they take a walk back to the dressing room at 9:42 to make Bret
& Davey your survivors. Interesting to note that none of the eliminations
were by pinfall or submission – everything was DQ, countout, or over-the-top.
That’s an impressive way to book a total screwjob finish while still keeping
the fans happy. ***
- Street fight: Owen Hart v. Dynamite Kid. This is from the dying days of the
promotion in 1989 when even Bruce Hart had given up and was letting Bulldog Bob
Brown do the booking. You could tell that he was booking because he played color
commentator and put himself and son Kerry Brown over Benoit & Wellington to
win the tag titles, when he was obviously more than 60 years old and could
hardly move. Dynamite clotheslines Owen for two, but gets whipped into the
turnbuckle and missile dropkicked. They brawl out and Owen piledrives him on the
concrete. Keep in mind that Dynamite was nearly crippled at this point as it
was. Back in, Owen goes up with a fistdrop for two. Elbowdrop gets two. Ref is
bumped and Johnny Smith runs in to beat on Hart with a tombstone. It gets two.
Kid goes up with a flying headbutt for two. Owen fights back with a dropkick and
then goes up for a flying elbow, which gets two. Kid wants help from Johnny
again, but this time it backfires and Owen gets the pin at 5:53. Nothing
special, but this was basically the end of Dynamite’s career in North America
and the end of Stampede Wrestling, so it’s worth a look. **
- Owen Hart v. Bad News Allen. This is back from the highpoint of Stampede in
1987, and it’s the blowoff to those Stampede TV reviews I was doing WAAAY back
when, where Allen was calling Hart a chicken every week and alleging that Owen
was ducking him. Owen gets a somersault senton for two. He dropkicks him and
goes up with an elbow for two. Neckbreaker and back up for a legdrop that gets
two. Allen headbutts him down, but Owen atomic drops him for two. He pounds away
and gets two after a suplex. Boston Crab, but Allen powers out. Owen gets a
backbreaker for two. Allen bails, but Owen stops him and gets a tombstone, then
goes up and hits knee. Allen slams him and goes up (slowly), but gets slammed
off. Owen follows with a missile dropkick, but Allen blocks a monkey flip. Owen
comes right back with a bodypress, but then dives after Makhan Singh like an
idiot and the match breaks down completely at 7:35. Owen was so awesome in those
days. **1/2
- Strap match: Bad News Allen v. Archie “The Stomper” Gouldie. Okay, THIS is
the match I was referring to in the first tape when talking about Stomper. This
match is not notable for the match itself, but for the angle that set it up.
Stomper & Bad News were longtime blood enemies, until the entrance of
Archie’s son Jeff into the wrestling business mellowed Stomper out and made
him offer a truce with Allen to end the feud. Allen agreed, but they were
attacked by the heel group du jour, and Jeff Goldie decided to make his
wrestling debut as part of a six-man match. If I’m messing up the details,
it’s because it was a long time ago, but that’s the general idea. Anyway,
Bad News & Stomper helped train Jeff for his debut, and when the match
happened Stomper ended up playing face-in-peril for most of the way and got beat
up by the heels. However, before he could make the tag to Bad News, Allen
suddenly betrayed him, revealing that he had orchestrated the whole thing. While
the heels continued pounding on Stomper, Bad News took Jeff to the floor and
piledrove him several times, breaking his neck and thus ending his career after
his first match. The message was basically “I can’t get to you, but I can
get to your family”. Is that great or what? So then the REALLY awesome part
came later in the show, as a bloodied Archie Gouldie was interviewed by Ed
Whalen, and he proceeded to give the sympathetic babyface interview of a
LIFETIME, maintaining a really quiet and introspective tone of voice, as he
talked about raising his son and wanting to see him succeed in his footsteps,
only to have that ripped away from him by Bad News Allen over some petty grudge
from years before. The payoff line, “My son may be retired now, but I’m
still here…I’m still here”, is so emotionally delivered that it will send
chills down your spine if you’ve never heard it before. Without even yelling,
screaming, or threatening violence (or even raising his voice) you can tell
Gouldie is angrier than anyone has ever seen him before and there’s gonna be a
huge can of whoop-ass opened on Allen if he’s dumb enough to sign a match. But
at the same time he manages to mix in guilt and regret over having used his son
like that and costing him a career in wrestling as a result. This is quite
simply one of the best babyface promos I’ve ever seen, showing range and
emotion far beyond anything most wrestlers are even capable of doing.
Unfortunately, the blowoff match doesn’t live up to the hype, but then nothing
would be able to, really, short of Allen getting his own neck broken. Anyway,
Stomper drags him into the ring to start and they brawl out again right away,
with Stomper going low a few times. In the ring, Stomper chokes him out, but
Allen clotheslines him. Allen pounds the hell out of him to draw blood, and
drops the leg. Allen keeps hammering him mercilessly, but Stomper gets pissed
and makes the superman comeback. He starts unloading on Allen, who bails and
it’s a no-contest at around 5:00. Disappointing. *
- Lumberjack match: Bret Hart v. The Stomper. Then for a swing completely to the
OTHER side of Stomper’s personality, I present the buildup interview to this
match, where Bret challenges him to a lumberjack match and Stomper responds with
a deranged heel interview where he talks about what a moron Bret is, because
he’s been all over the US competing in lumberjack matches and getting his ass
kicked for years, and he LOVES it. “I LOVE lumberjack matches! I love them!”
Has to be heard to be appreciated how insane he sounds. Bret pounds away in the
corner and then stomps. Stomper returns the favor and gets two. Clipped to 7:00
as Bret is bleeding. Stomper keeps pounding to work on the cut and gets a
clothesline for two. Big stomp gets two. Piledriver gets two. He keeps working
the pinfall attempt until Bret finally gets pissed and starts firing away on
him. Stomper starts bleeding and a disgusted Ed Whalen pulls the plug at 5:16.
No finish shown. ** Man, I love Ed Whalen to death, but his editing jobs bugged
the heck out of me and everyone else who watched on a regular basis.
- Mask v. Mask: Jason the Terrible v. The Zodiak. And what better way to end the
tape than with this? We get yet another A-1 Zodiak promo to set this up, and
would turn out to be his last. We pick things up as Zodiak gets his DDT
finisher, but Jason no-sells it. He comes back with a powerslam and goes up, but
Zodiak crotches him. Apparently Jason has BALLS OF STEEL, because he no-sells
that too, headbutts Zodiak back down to the mat, and finishes with the flying
headbutt after a brisk 1:16. DUD Zodiak is unceremonioiusly unmasked, and Ed’s
closing line, a non-chalant “I don’t know him”, completes the burial of
poor Barry O. He would be formally acknowledged as Barry Orton the next week,
once he had left the territory for good.
The Bottom Line:
If you’re looking for Stampede, THIS is the tape to get out of the set. Great
matches, great angles, and the semi-historic unmasking of the Zodiak make this
my absolute favorite out of the set and one that’s well worth watching again
and again. There’s nothing really bad in the standard sense of the word here
– everything is either packed with action or blood or big names or a great
setup angle. It’s stuff like this that reminds me why I love watching and
writing about wrestling so much.
Highest recommendation.