The SmarK Rant for WWE Vault – Montreal 10.21.94

The SmarK Rant for WWE Vault – Montreal Show 10.21.94

Originally written 01.23.26

I KNEW IT. Once they posted the matches from this show to the Hidden Gems deal they did a couple of months ago, I figured they’d be pulling out the full show sooner or later. And I guess with Smackdown in Montreal this weekend, they figured this was the time. You magnificent bastards. Although this video has Undertaker v. Yokozuna as the “main event”, it’s actually the battle of the Quebecers in Jacques Rougeau’s retirement match that sold it. In fact the thumbnail doesn’t even mention that match.

https://youtu.be/xJzs24XFhP8?si=AcbuScUuuW2LUa2T

Taped from Montreal QC on 10.21.94, drawing 16843

Just for fun, let’s check out what was happening at the same time in Sudbury, Ontario for the other touring group:

WWF @ Sudbury, Ontario – October 20, 1994

PJ Walker pinned Abe Schwartz with a reverse cradle

WWF Women’s Champion Alundra Blayze pinned Bull Nakano (w/ Luna Vachon) with a German suplex

The Smoking Gunns defeated the Heavenly Bodies following the Sidewinder

Davey Boy Smith pinned Owen Hart with a reverse cradle

King Kong Bundy pinned Doink The Clown when Doink failed a bodyslam on Bundy

Lex Luger defeated Tatanka via submission with the Torture Rack

Not the worst house show lineup, actually.

Adam Bomb v. KWANG

Kwang immediately uses some illegal karate blows off the lockup, drawing the ire of the Montreal crowd, who famously hates illegally delivered martial arts. It’s a strong cultural thing there. Just like steak spice. Bomb fights back and clotheslines him to the floor, and then back in for the slingshot clothesline. Adam goes for the mask (spoiler: It’s Savio Vega under there) but Kwang uses more martial arts and blows some mist to celebrate. Kwang with the leg lariat in the corner and Bomb looks like he’s reached his half-life and is ready to start decaying at an atomic level, but he gets a bodypress for two. Kwang goes to the nerve pinch, trying to disarm Bomb (WAKA WAKA! I’m here all night!) but Adam regains an electron and makes the comeback, with a dropkick for two. Bodypress gets two. Powerslam gets two. Kwang with the leg lariat, but it misses and Bomb finishes with a DDT at 9:32. I hear he calls it Cut The Red Wire (No, Wait, The Blue Wire). A fine house show opener. **

Well Dunn v. The Bushwhackers

This crowd is so hot that WELL DUNN got a reaction coming out. Well Dunn look like complete morons to start, as the Whackers reverse their double-team attempts and chase them out of the ring. Back in, Well goes to work on Butch after a cheapshot in the corner and this crowd is HOT for the Whackers, so they quickly make the heels look like dopes and clear the ring again. Back in the ring, it’s over to Luke, and he blocks a blind charge from Dunn and we get more shenanigans as the heels look like the Three Stooges and run into each other. But they cut off Luke again and do some basic tag team heel stuff to take over. Here’s a thought for you based on yesterday’s house show review: Do ya reckon Vince learned from the tremendous mistake of Outback Jack and actually honed the basic concept into the Bushwhackers? Jack was barely even a year into the sport when he got the role and he wasn’t prepared for it, whereas the Whackers were 20 year vets who knew exactly what was expected of them and took the “wacky guys from Down Under” gimmick and ran with it for a decade. Anyway, they do the same finish from a recent Coliseum Video review that had the same match, as Butch gets a pin on Dunn behind the ref’s back, so Well turns them over, but then Luke turns them over again and puts Butch on top for the pin at 10:33. And all the kids go home happy and probably made the Whackers another $1000 in merch that night. The older I get, the more I think wrestling desperately needs more fun gimmicks like that to draw actual kids into the sport again. Honestly that’s why I think Danhausen was so wasted in AEW. DUD

WWF Intercontinental title: Razor Ramon v. Jeff Jarrett

We get the stalling to start and Jarrett takes him down to slap him around a bit, so Razor slugs him into the corner and Jarrett goes to the floor off that. Back in, Razor catches him with the sack of shit slam for two and goes to the armbar, returning the slaps from earlier. Jarrett hits him with dropkicks NOT ONCE, NOT TWICE, BUT THRICE and follows with a back suplex for two. Sunset flip gets two. JJ with the chinlock, but Razor escapes with a backslide for two and then Jeff slugs him down again and puts the boots to him. Enzuigiri gets two. Jarrett goes back to the chinlock and then turns it into a sleeper and follows with a neckbreaker for two. To the top, but Razor rolls through a bodypress and gets two. Jarrett goes back to the chinlock. Razor fights out of it and makes the comeback, and they fight to the floor off that, but Jarrett runs him into the apron and beats the count at 13:44. Decent match with a lame finish. **1/2. BUT WAIT! Jeff didn’t come here to Montreal for a tainted victory that he didn’t deserve, so he demands that Razor stop being such a chicken and face him again! And of course Razor takes him up on it, thanks to Jarrett’s expert chicken imitation, and Razor immediately hits him with the Razor’s Edge and pins him to retain.

IRS v. Bob Holly

They bring out some kid to be guest ring announcer but he can’t even speak English so I don’t know what they were thinking. Bob goes for a wristlock and Irwin hides in the ropes to escape. You know, I have to wonder if Bob changed his name from Sparky Plugg so he could disguise his racing winnings from the IRS under a false identity? Irwin runs him into the corner, but Bob gets a bodypress for two and a dropkick for two before going to a headlock. Enzuigiri gets two and it’s back to the headlock on the mat, but IRS tosses him and Bob crashes to the floor like some kind of auto wreck. Back in the ring, we get the patented IRS chinlock for a few minutes, but Bob eventually fights out and makes the comeback, before missing an elbow and getting pinned by the old feet on the ropes trick at 9:50. Bob was trying but this was every cheap heat IRS formula match you’ve ever seen. *1/2

Diesel v. Headshrinker Sionne

Diesel hadn’t officially turned yet but you could tell who the babyface was here. Even after he does the “Diesel won’t come out first because he’s a tag team champion” thing for heat, fans still chant his name and boo the Barbarian. So Barbie just embraces it and attacks at the bell, choking Diesel out on the ropes and dropping an elbow for two before tossing him, not even trying to be “Headshrinker Sionne” or play babyface in the slightest. Now that’s a pro. Back in the ring, Barbarian puts the boots to him and does all his heel sneering that he knows best, but Diesel hits him with the big boot and powerbombs him for the pin at 3:02 and a massive babyface pop.

WWF World title: Bret Hart v. Jim Neidhart

This was also on the Unreleased DVD set that I love so much but I don’t specifically remember it. Anvil attacks and Bret quickly lays him out and puts him in the Sharpshooter, which brings in Jeff Jarrett for an immediate brawl. Finally the refs pull Jeff off and the match starts for real, with Bret slugging Anvil down and raking his face on the ropes. Anvil escapes a rollup and points to his head to indicate intelligence, but no. Just no. So they do a chase on the floor and Bret nails JJ on the way by, and rolls up Anvil for two on the way back into the ring. Neidhart runs Bret into the corner for the Bret Hart Bump to take over, and goes to the chinlock. Amazing that Bret actually carried Anvil to World title matches in a sold out arena, and likely the World tag team titles shortly after, and Anvil managed to even fuck that up and get fired again. Anvil with a bearhug and he takes Bret to the floor for some abuse out there, but Bret slingshots him back into the ring and makes the comeback with the bulldog for two. Bret with the legsweep for two. Small package gets two. Anvil blocks a suplex and puts Bret on the top before slamming him off and going AIRBORNE, but he misses a splash like a dying gazelle and Bret goes for the Sharpshooter. JJ tries to interfere, but collides with Anvil, and Bret rolls him up for the pin at 8:40 to retain. This was…fine. Obviously Bret knew how to work around Neidhart’s many many many many limitations. **

Match de Cercueil: Undertaker v. Yokozuna

First we get a Paul Bearer imitation contest. Weird how this was a pretty huge arena show and they’re still doing all the silly gimmick stuff from the rest of the house show tour that was boost attendance in the small markets. Taker slugs away on Yoko to start and puts him on the floor with a big boot. Back in the ring, Yoko clotheslines him to the floor, but Taker necks him on the top rope and hits the ropewalk. Yoko with the samoan drop to cut him off again and whips him around the ring. Taker comes back with a DDT, but Yoko clotheslines him and calls for the casket. But he’s unable to close the lid and Taker makes the comeback. Yoko had the high ground there. If it was Star Wars the fight would have been OVER. Yoko hits him with the uranage, but Paul Bearer fires up the crowd with the comically oversized urn, only to see Yoko cut off the comeback again with another clothesline. Yoko drops the leg on him, but he takes too long celebrating and Taker makes the comeback for real this time, no fooling. Taker with a chokeslam that was mostly just Yoko falling back, and he rolls Yoko into the casket and shuts the lid at 13:08. Well this was definitely an Undertaker v. Yokozuna match in 1994. Of that we can be sure. *

Retirement match: Jacques Rougeau v. Pierre Ouelette

Yes it’s the BATTLE OF THE QUEBECERS to end things, with the Mountie riding into the sunset and into a hopeful position of WWF promoter in Quebec as a reward. Spoiler: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA not quite, Jacques. Off to WCW with you! Pierre attacks in the corner before the bell, but Jacques fights back, so Pierre gives him a press slam onto the top rope. They take it to the floor and back in for some choking from Pierre, but he charges and gets backdropped to the floor. Jacques fights back with a dropkick, but Pierre hangs him in the Tree of Woe and chokes him out with help from Johnny Polo, while Raymond protests to the ref. Pierre with a powerslam for two. Pierre tosses him and hits him with a pretty wicked flip dive to the floor, and back in with a slingshot legdrop for two. Pierre goes up with a swanton bomb for two, but he tries it again and Jacques crotches him. They slug it out and Jacques puts him down with a back elbow and follows with an Alabama Slam for two. They fight to the floor again and Jacques runs him into the stairs and then hauls him back in and slugs away on him in the corner. Ref is bumped at “trois” and Polo trips Jacques up, prompting Raymond to take matters into his own hands and beat the hell out of him. Pierre goes to the top again, but misses a splash and Jacques goes up with a missile dropkick for two. Pierre reverses into a cradle for two and they trade cradles for two, with Pierre doing the work there, and then he hits a DDT for two. Pierre tries a tombstone and Jacques reverses to his own, hitting him something akin to the OwenDriver 97, and that gets the pin at 19:00. Good thing too because Jacques was gasping for air after 10 minutes of trying to keep up, and so blown up that he was on the verge of having a heart attack and dying in the ring if they tried to go any longer. They almost needed the shock stick at ringside to defibrillate him. Kudos to Pierre for carrying him on his back to a really good match. ***1/2. It turned out to not only be Jacques’ “retirement” match, but also the finale for Johnny Polo in the WWF as well. And then they both came back a few years later.

Although I’m very confused, because I was assured by supposedly reliable sources that when people in wrestling decide to retire, they always lose their final match as a “time honored tradition” that everyone understands to be true? I dunno, maybe it was under Province of Quebec Rules and so that didn’t apply here. Maybe Vince McMahon just, I dunno, made it up out of thin air in 1997, who’s to say?

Anyway, a good house show with a super hot crowd, as long as you adjust your expectations accordingly. I’d say give it a look and continue to support the awesome work of the WWE Vault team as much as possible.