WWF In Your House: Canadian Stampede
July 6, 1997
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Reviewed on September 19, 2014
WCW was still winning…but suddenly, the WWF had something hot on their hands.
Say what you want about Bret Hart, his 1997 heel run is one of the great heel runs in pro wrestling. This heel run made Stone Cold Steve Austin and established him as THE face of pro wrestling.
At this point Vince was still in trouble financially (practically because of Bret’s deal), but in reality he just had to hang on. Austin was on his way. The WWF in 1997 was an exciting show once again.
Now in Canada, Austin would have a chance to further his legacy. He might have been a face…but in Canada because of the Harts he was still the biggest heel in the world. And…he would.
Careful WCW, the WWF is coming.
The Card
One of my favorite intro promos here. A black and white montage…explaining that the world is black and white. One of the fantastic things about Bret’s heel turn was that he felt he hadn’t changed…he felt the fans changed. He actually wasn’t wrong.
Mankind vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley
Story: HHH won the King of the Ring over Mankind last month (Pedigree on the table for the first time). Chyna interfered immensely. Mankind wanted a rematch.
Pretty hot start, including the elbow off the apron.
One of the brilliant aspects of this feud was that before it, Mankind was higher up the card than HHH. Yet Foley and HHH told a great story that brought HHH up.
Mandible Claw! Chyna though breaks it up.
Awesome spot here: Mankind looks to whip HHH into the steps…but HHH reverses and Chyna slams Mankind into the steps! It’s interesting that so many wrestlers didn’t want to sell for Chyna, and Mankind had no problem getting his ass kicked by her. (SeeJohnson, Ahmed).
Loving Mankind’s selling of the knee. Even the small grasp of the knee after piledriving HHH matters so much.
Chyna is playing the role of equalizer perfectly.
Double Countout in 13:14. HHH and Mankind brawl on the outside and are counted out. They keep going at it though, fighting in the penalty box. HHH shows great aggression here. Anyway, great opener. Normally I’d hate the double countout, but it made sense in this context. HHH owes Foley pretty much everything in his in ring career.
We get a Hart Foundation interview…until Stone Cold looks to fight he Foundation 1 on 5. Bret points out that he wants 5 on 5, not 5 on 1.
The Great Sasuke vs. Taka Michinoku
The WWF Light Heavyweight Division had pretty much been a joke before this point. I guess Brian Christopher vs. Steve Rogers or whomever wasn’t getting it done.
JR says that Taka is making his American PPV debut…in singles competition. It’s like he remembered Barely Legal midway through the sentence and added the single thing.
Mankind and HHH are going at it again! Brilliant!
Anyway, here we go. Lawler explains this Japanese style using Inoki vs. Muhammad Ali as an example.
Nice kick from Sasuke! Crowd isn’t into it yet. Slow build so far.
Knockout spin kick from Sasuke! Crowd reacted to that!
Nice slap by Taka and Sasuke does a great sell.
Taka with some nice dropkick spots. Shame no one would care about them later.
Sasuke with a karate kick off the top to the outside!
More crazy kicks from Sasuke! Taka is getting killed.
Taka goes airbourne, springboard plancha! Another move people stopped caring about over time sadly.
Taka perfectly lands on his feet out of a German. Hurricanrana gets two.
Awesome backspring elbow from Sasauke…and a perfect Asai Moonsault to follow up!
Michinoku Driver gets a huge reaction…and Sasuke kicks out! JR talks about it being his finisher…which should tell you who they were gonna build the division around.
The Great Sasuke pins Taka Michinoku in 10:00. Thunder Fire Bomb then Tiger Suplex for the win. What a match! This may be the greatest match in the history of the entire division…which sadly tells you how much they screwed that up (Malenko vs. Scottyis the other contender). Incredible though. Lawler screaming everywhere is also awesome.
HHH and Mankind are STILL going at it outside! Shovels, garbage cans! Everything! Great stuff.
We are told Ahmed Johnson was injured and can’t wrestle The Undertaker for the WWF Title. Bullet dodged there…because Vader is taking his place for what should be a good match (although their Rumble 97 match was a mess).
Paul Bearer interview. Wonders how Taker can live with himself for killing his family. Of course, this all led to Kane.
WWF World Championship
The Undertaker© vs. Vader
Undertaker in 1997 looked like a freaking bad ass World Champion.
Paul Bearer hides behind the apron. What a great heel.
Taker just levels Vader with a clothesline. Somehow this is already better than the Rumble.
I wonder when Taker added that Stinger Splash to his arsenal.
This was a couple months after the Vader Kuwait thing. I wonder if Vader knew he was only going downhill from this point forward in the WWF (unless you think him getting his ass handed to him by Shamrock in May was good for him)…and looked to make the best out of this opportunity.
Vader hot some height on that 2nd rope body tackle.
You know what’s weird? Bearer and Vader here remind me of Heyman and Lesnar in 2014.
Low blow from Vader! Ref letting it go…
Vader Bomb time? No, Taker sits up and low blows Vader! Good symmetry with the letting it go from the ref! Then Taker Chokeslams Vader off the second rope! Wow! I woulda bought that as a finish.
Taker had to be in top form physically here. He’s throwing the 450 pound Vader around like he’s Taka.
The Undertaker retains by pin in 12:39. Vader kicks out of another chokeslam…but Taker puts him away for good with a Tombstone! We are THREE for THREE with great matches here. Vader’s last great match (in the USA at least) ever. I mean, imagine if this was Ahmed?
The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart, Owen Hart, The British Bulldog, Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart and Brian Pillman) vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ken Shamrock, Goldust and L.O.D.
We get interviews from team Austin side. Austin doesn’t say a work though. I also don’t think Hawk knew where the camera was.
We get the Canadian National Anthem from Farmer’s Daughter. Weird group name.
Stu and Helen Hart get huge ovations.
Huge boos for Austin. Amazingly though, he’d actually get cheered beating Owen at Survivor Series four months later.
Brian Pillman gets the biggest pop of his career. Pops get bigger and bigger with each guy. You can barely hear Owen’s music. Unless you listen closely…it’s difficult to hear when Bret’s theme begins. I argue this is the biggest pop in wrestling history, although I know it has competition.
We get an awesome face off between both teams…and then Hart and Austin go at it!
Hart beats the hell out of Austin and the crowd is has come unglued!
Austin takes over…and HUGE boos.
They randomly bust out the Survivor Series 96 finish!
Neidhart mocking Shamrock was great.
This is one of the all time great crowds.
Huge Austin sucks chants…he’s not even in the ring…
We get our first out of control brawl when Goldust gets trapped in the tree of woe.
Owen with a perfect missile dropkick and a nip up! Animal stuns the crowd by powerbombing Owen though.
Anvil breaks up a pin and it’s a melee everywhere!
Austin slams Owen’s knee across the ring post, then beats it with a chair! Bruce Hart attacks Austin from the crowd, but Austin takes him out.
Owen gets carried to the back as crowd gets on Austin again.
Stunner to Pillman!
Bret grabs Austin though and slams Austin’s knee into the ringpost! Then he hits Austin’s knee with a fire extinguisher! Of course…he follows it with a Figure Four around the ringpost! Now Austin is being helped to the back.
Some old school Hart Foundation!
Brian Pillman was absolutely brilliant in this thing…just being a pesky jerk.
Another brawl!
Shamrock gets the FIVE MOVES OF DOOM!
JR with an awesome Dusty impression here.
PILLMAN AGAIN!
Austin’s back! Austin’s back!
We get Bret vs. Austin again! This time Austin stomps a mudhole in Bret though!
Sick DDT on Austin by Bret!
FIVE MOVES OF DOOM! He didn’t finish against Shamrock.
Bret gets the Sharpshooter…but Animal saves Austin to huge boos.
Austin locks Bret in the Sharpshooter…but here comes OWEN!
Austin clotheslines Owen out, and Austin goes after him.
The Hart Foundation win when Owen pinned Austin in 24:31. Bruce Hart throws his drink at Austin, and Austin goes after Stu! The Harts get involved and it’s chaotic everywhere (and Bruce begins to kick ass and gets a Bruce chant, which apparently pissed Vince off). Austin gets rolled back in by Bret…and Owen rolls him up, 1…2…3! HUGE pop. Security breaks up the fight and the Harts remain tall in the ring….Bret’s music plays and everything, they wave the flags, etc. etc…
Until Austin comes back with a chair! Austin comes in by himself and everyone beats him up! “THAT RATTLESNAKE IS NOT AFRAID OF ANYTHING!”
Austin gets handcuffed…but makes sure to give the Canadian crowd the middle finger on hos way out. As Austin would say, “you might have tied my hands behind my back…but you didn’t shut up the fingers!”
Anyway, with all due respect to all the War Games matches I’ve seen, this is the best ten man tag team match ever. Ever. 24 minutes of nonstop action. Incredible.
An incredible PPV. Four great matches out of four. Bret Hart’s last great moment in the WWF as a babyface. Further established Austin as a not caring rebel. Helped establish HHH as well. Random awesome light heavyweight match. There’s just so much greatness on this show. There’s not ONE bad moment.
It’s a shame it all went downhill for Bret after this. Maybe it wouldn’t have been as good as the Attitude Era…but Bret Hart showed he could be a draw and a top guy. It would have probably always been in 2nd place…but the WWF would have survived surely.
Anyway, this whole show was incredible.
Final Grade: A+