The Fan-Cam Files — page 2

When I dive into the archives of hand-helds or “Fan-Cams”, Madison Square Garden is represented well in that library, so while I would love to keep digging into the MSG well, I’m trying to pace them out so I don’t look too much like a New York homer. Without going into detail, between the years 1993 and 1996, there’s probably somewhere around 15-20 shows recorded from the World’s most famous arena.

Welcome to another edition of the Fan-Cam Files. Last time we looked at a small show in the even smaller Cornwall, Ontario, and gave everyone a glimpse at what a B-tier house show lineup would look like during the “New Generation” era with a lack of superstars and a ton of goofy gimmicks to pad the under-card. This is the first WWF card held at the brand-new Molson Centre (now known as the Bell Centre), taking the place of the Montreal Forum, and to this day is still home of the Montreal Canadiens.

We’re in Cornwall, Ontario, home of Cornwall Aces of the AHL and… well, not much else. It’s a 40,000+ population area according to more recent census reports (so you can likely knock it down a little bit for mid 90’s estimations), situated where Ontario, Quebec, and New York state converge. The building seated roughly 4,000 people in 1994 (renovations expanded it to 5,000 in the early 2000’s), and if the numbers are accurate, this was a mostly capacity crowd for a matinee. It’s also the only listed card for Cornwall in 1994, and the WWF wouldn’t return until the following September.

As a youngster first discovering the internet and going down the rabbit hole of professional wrestling, it was cool to see that the King of the Ring concept existed before it became a Pay-Per-View event in 1993. I remember combing through the results of each tournament and trying to make sense of some of the matches and winners. When I discovered Fan-Cams, this was one of the first shows that caught my attention, just for the curiosity of watching a tournament I have never seen before. Back in the day, I LOVED tournaments, but I really am more a fan of one-night events, not stretching them out for weeks.

“A Night to Remember” is a special night as it marks the last time the WWF is running the Garden, with the FleetCenter (now known as the TD Garden) opening later that Summer. On top of being a somewhat loaded card (by 1995 standards), a bunch of legends are also on hand to be involved in the show (most of them who were road agents already working behind the scenes, so it’s not like we were calling up Bruno for this show). Two matches took place that were not preserved via this recording: The Bushwhackers (with Tony Garea in their corner) defeated The Heavenly Bodies, and Hunter Hearst Helmsley defeated Phil “Don’t Call Me Ray” Apollo. Helmsley has gone on record saying he begged to be added to the show and flew himself in, and based on the arena lineup sheet, I’m assuming his match was not the “one other exciting match!” To be fair, calling a Bushwhackers match, especially in 1995, exciting would also be a bit of a stretch.

Last time we dove into the archives of WWF Fan-Cams, we took a look at the WWF’s stop at Madison Square Garden on May 20th for the WrestleMania Revenge Tour. I don’t plan on making it a habit of dipping into the same well too much too soon, but I thought that it would be a decent idea to check out another stop on the tour, but with a less-loaded lineup (and featuring matches that didn’t make it to the Northeast portion of the tour). There’s also one match featured that intrigues me, and is worth going into detail about, at least for dorks like myself who can’t get enough talking about professional wrestling from 30+ years ago.

For my first recap of the Fan-Cam series, I decided to go with one that stood out to me as a kid. For whatever reason, probably a marketing gimmick to make everything seem more important and juice attendance, the WWF started branding each tour with a unique name, a practice beginning after WrestleMania X with the “WrestleMania Revenge Tour”. Every time through the market, they would have a new name (The Summer Sizzler Tour, Hart Attack Tour, and Holiday Wish Tour being several of them) until the Summer or Fall of 1995, when they started using “World Tour de Force”, a name they would use for the live events branding until the early days of the Attitude Era.