The SmarK Rant for Stampede Wrestling – 02.13.87
Taped from Calgary, AB
Your hosts are Ed Whalen & Jungle Jim Davies
Duke Myers v. Ken Johnson
Duke working a singles match here for some reason. Apparently Johnson was fined by referee Rod Hayter due to overly long fingernails before the match, and had to clip them to Hayter’s satisfaction in order to compete. Well there’s an angle you don’t see every day. Kenny takes Myers down with an armdrag to start, but Duke beats him down with the allegedly loaded forearm gauntlet thanks to the ref getting in the way. Duke with a nerve pinch and Johnson makes a comeback in the corner, but Hayter grabs his arm and Duke slugs him down. “Good judgment call by the referee!” notes Drago Zhivago at ringside. Myers goes back to the pinch and puts him down with a back elbow. Davies hypes up the impending debut of a former football star, a blond kid named…Rick Goeltz? Thought he was going to say a different name there. Myers chokes him out on the ropes, drawing a yellow card, and then puts him down with a headbutt for two before picking him up, which draws a second yellow card. Neckbreaker finishes at 5:40 in a total borefest.
Johnny Smith joins Ed and he’s back from injury and he’s got scores to settle.
Brian Pillman joins Jim, and he’s the name I thought they were leading towards earlier. He was apparently injured by Makhan Singh, like Johnny Smith was, and he’s coming for revenge very shortly. So Makhan interrupts and he’s sick of all the little punks talking about him. So PIllman wants him right now, but Makhan suggests he retire from wrestling and go play ping-pong instead. I was unhappy about Owen Hart losing the North American title so quickly at the time, but clearly they had a host of hot young babyfaces to feed to Makhan at this point.
Jeff Wheeler v. Rotten Ron Starr
Starr rakes Wheeler’s face on the ropes and runs him into the turnbuckles while Davies updates us on the current careers of Vladimir Krupov and Jerry Morrow, both of whom are doing well overseas after making their name in Stampede. I barely remember Krupov. Wheeler tries a rollup and Starr blocks him and beats him down again, then puts him down with kneelifts while Whalen notes that Wheeler’s face is so beat up that he should be a road in Saskatchewan. Hey! Actually he’s got a point, I rescind my objection. Starr with a bulldog for two and he puts Wheeler down with a back elbow for two. Starr hits him with a backdrop suplex for two. Wheeler finally makes the comeback with a small package for two and a sunset flip for two, but he goes for a Boston crab and Starr powers out and sends Wheeler to the floor as a result. So Ron hauls him into the back and beats on him out there and it’s a double countout at 6:50 as Starr is unable to make it back in time. Turned into a pretty good match, actually.
Bruce Hart joins Ed and he’s DISGUSTED by all the lowlife scum injuring people.
Speaking of which, Rotten Ron Starr is sick of everyone ducking him and claiming to be injured.
Kerry Brown v. Bill Kazmaier
Joined with Brown holding a chinlock on Kazmaier, and then he tosses Bill and beats on him outside on the apron. Kazmaier makes a comeback and slugs away in the corner, as Kerry bumps all over for him and Kazmaier gets a kneedrop for two. Kazmaier with a clothesline for two and yet another kneedrop for two. Kazmaier pounds him with shoulderblocks in the corner, but Duke Myers runs in for the DQ at 4:15 aired and they double-team him for the beatdown. And it’s so effective that some idiot fan in the front row tries to run in and help before security convinces him to go sit down. This was 100% Brown bumping for Kazmaier and holding him by the hand.
Bill Kazmaier demands a rematch next week in a handicap match against both heels.
Kerry Brown & Duke Myers think that a handicap match against them is the stupidest thing they’ve ever heard, and they speculate that Kazmaier took too many steroids and rotted his brain cells.
Viet Cong Express #1 v. Ben Bassarab
Viet Cong works for a Boston crab and Bassarab makes the ropes right away, so VC puts the boots to him and then puts him down with an enzuigiri. Bassarab tries a piledriver but VC backdrops out, so Bassarab turns it into a sunset flip for two. VC gets a northern lights suplex and goes up, but Bassarab brings him down with a superplex and makes the comeback with a running powerslam for two. Tombstone follows and he goes up for a diving headbutt, but they get their wires crossed and he kind of lands on his knees before VC throws him to the floor. Bassarab goes after Zhivago out there, but Cong nails him with a dive and then hauls him back into the ring for a dragon suplex that gets the pin at 6:49 aired. They had some pretty impressive stuff going for 1987.
Ed Whalen interviews a representative for the CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind) in advance of a special show on March 15. Fitting considering that all the referees in wrestling are legally blind.
North American title: Makhan Singh v. Ron Ritchie
Ron won his non-title match last week, so this is the title match. Makhan beats on Ritchie in the corner and tosses him right into the announce table, and then finds a foreign object and runs it into the ribs before going to a bearhug. Ron fights out of that and catches Makhan with his head down, but Makhan slugs away on him and Ritchie gets all fired up as a result. Ron puts him down with a back elbow and slugs away in the corner, but Makhan uses the terrible refereeing job of Rod Hayter to slug away again. Makhan tries the Karachi Krunch but hits the ref by mistake to wipe him out, and Ron gets the sleeper and puts Makhan out with no ref. But then Rod revives and calls for the bell, disqualifying Ron as a result of nebulous reasons. So next week, it’s a no DQ rematch with a competent referee.
Not much going into this one but it ended up being a pretty good show!
So in the mean time, and in between time, that’s it, another edition of Stampede Wrestling!