The SmarK Rant for Stampede Wrestling – 02.06.87
Taped from Calgary, AB
Your hosts are Ed Whalen & Jungle Jim Davies, promising at LEAST one dandy, perhaps more.
Kerry Brown & Duke Myers v. Jeff Wheeler & Kenny Johnson
Picked up with Myers choking out Kenny Johnson on the ropes and putting him down with a headbutt, and then Brown comes in with a pretty impressive overhead suplex for two. Kerry slams him and does a dramatic running legdrop from one corner to another, and that gets two. Neckbreaker gets two, but Johnson keeps getting his foot in the ropes and frustrating the heels. Myers with a neckbreaker while Davies runs down the upcoming WWF card on Valentine’s Day and they’re still burying the Fed with snide remarks about “huge egos”, since the plugs for the show were probably solely at the behest of Bruce Hart while on the phone with Vince begging for a job. I love that Vince completely double-crossed Stu Hart on the Stampede deal and Bruce still spent the next two decades trying to make Vince love him. Wheeler gets a hot tag and hits Myers with a monkey flip while running wild, but he tries a springboard crossbody and Myers does the Samoa Joe spot where he just decides not to catch him, and Wheeler splats on the mat. Brown slams him and goes up with a flying elbow with some STANK on it for the pin at 5:37 aired. Kerry Brown was mostly a useless worker but he was kind of working his ass off here.
Bill Kazmaier talks about all the times he’s beaten Ted Arcidi over the past couple of weeks around the horn, and apparently Arcidi has now left the territory, never to return. That’s a shame.
Rod Hayter, the referee named after a local city council member as part of a beef from Bruce Hart, denies being a “stupid moron” just because he stopped the match last week and awarded the North American title to Makhan Singh.
Rotten Ron Starr v. Mr. Hito
Ron Starr was generally in Puerto Rico but had a pretty good run in Stampede as a heel. Kind of like a discount version of Dr. D David Shultz. He slugs Hito down for two and goes to a chinlock while the announcers remind us of his biggest success, his tag team with Honky Tonk Man a little while before this. Also Ed notes that you can’t trust someone whose first name is “Rotten”. Ron with a legdrop for two and he goes to a facelock on the mat and then back to a chinlock as this one drags on. Starr with another slam and legdrop for two, but Hito makes the comeback and puts the boots to him for two. But then he charges and runs into a clothesline out of the corner, and Starr puts him away with a gourdbuster at 5:53.
Ron Starr joins Jim and notes that Dan Kroffat is going around telling lies about beating him in the Caribbean. So Ron runs down all the Hart Family members that he’s going to beat and demands better competition than the first and second match on the card.
Ben Bassarab v. The Cuban Assassin
Joined with Cuban holding a facelock as we learn that during the break, Drago Zhivago tried to bribe Rotten Ron Starr with $1000 in order to join his team of communists. But Starr, despite being a rotten human being, was also a staunchly anti-communist former Vietnam vet, and beat the shit out of Zhivago for making the offer. Wait, so he offered cash in order to become a communist? Someone has a fundamental misunderstanding of how that works. Cuban tosses him and won’t let him back into the ring, which prompts a pair of yellow cards from the ref for bad behavior. Ed explains the card system at this point for new viewers, as you can be issued two yellow cards, basically warnings, and the third one is a red card for a DQ. And then there’s the dreaded BLACK CARD, which is immediate suspension. Also rarely seen was the green card, which allowed the recipient to emigrate to the US. Bassarab makes a comeback and runs Cuban into the post, drawing his own yellow card, but he charges and runs into a knee. Cuban finds one of his many foreign objects and knocks Bassarab out with the ref distracted. But Bassarab shakes it off and makes another comeback, hitting him with a clothesline and running Bulldog powerslam. To the top for a flying splash and that gets two. Tombstone and he goes up again, but Viet Cong #1 this the ring and crotches him behind the ref’s back, and Bassarab takes a good bump to the floor. And then Cuban hits him with a dramatic DDT on the concrete and takes the countout win at 7:17. That was a pretty hellacious DDT bump for a midcard TV match. Also Bassarab was clearly trying to channel both Bulldogs at this point with his gear and moveset, which was interesting to see.
Owen Hart joins us and he’s taking some off to regroup, but Makhan Singh and Great Gama hit the ring and go after him, until Bruce Hart makes the save. But then Ron Starr jumps Bruce and shoves a kendo stick into Owen’s burned eye, and even Stu Hart hits the ring and lays in the forearms on Starr to save his son from the beating. After order is restored, Owen and Bruce declare WAR on the Karachi Vice.
Karachi Vice, with new member Ron Starr, think that Owen Hart going on vacation is good news, and if they have to go up the ladder and beat up fossil Stu, then so be it.
Russian Chain Match: Viet Cong Express #1 v. The Great Gama
Joined with Gama choking Viet Cong out with the chain and beating on him with forearms, but VC dropkicks him in the corner and adds a suplex for two. Bridging fallaway slam gets two, although the chain messed up his suplex mojo there. Northern lights suplex gets two. Viet Cong with the high kicks and a leg lariat to put Gama down for a count of 8. Another series of kicks puts him down again for another count, so Viet Cong punches him down with the chain and Gama makes it up again. Gama fights back and goes up top, but VC pulls him down with the chain and crotches him. Viet Cong suplexes him in from the apron, and Zhivago adds a shot with a foreign object onto Gama, which puts him down for the 10 count at 5:38 aired.
Ben Bassarab wants Viet Cong next week in retribution for his interference earlier in the night. So Drago and Viet Cong come out to reply, and Ed Whalen notes that they have 60 seconds for their promo and he’s already used 15 seconds of it introducing them. That’s a pretty funny bit. Odd that they did the heel v. heel feud with Gama and Viet Cong, which basically turned VC babyface, but then immediately pivoted the Viet Cong to a feud against pure babyface Ben Bassarab.
Makhan Singh v. Ron Ritchie
Although Makhan won the North American title last week, he is not defending it against Ritchie. Makhan cuts off a Ritchie comeback and uses a foreign object to put him down, then follows with a legdrop for two. Makhan chokes him out on the ropes and earns a yellow card. Makhan beats on him In the corner but earns a second yellow card for tossing Ritchie to the floor. Back in the ring, Makhan elbows him down for two, but Ritchie makes the comeback until the idiot ref gets in the way and allows Makhan to hit the Karachi Krunch. But Makhan decides to get cute and go up for the flying splash, and Bruce Hart runs out and nails Makhan with the kendo stick, and Ron gets the pin at 7:30 to earn a title shot next week.
Makhan Singh complains about people interfering in his matches because he strives to be a scientific and clean wrestler, so now he’ll have to make it a personal crusade to put Bruce Hart on a stretcher and run the Harts out of promotion one by one.
And in the meantime and in between time, that’s another edition of Stampede Wrestling!
I thought the Russian chain match was kind of disappointing given the quality of matches that Gama and Viet Cong had been having for the past month, and otherwise this was a bit of a reset show as they started the next programs.