Archive for category Stampede

Stampede (10/31/86)

The cheesy Ed Whalen has an even cheesier sidekick, Jim Davies, who opens the show with a terrible Halloween poem.

Match No. 1: Vladimir Krupov vs. Tom Kavitis joined in progress. Back and forth action until Krupov throws Kavitis into the corner and rolls him over for the pin. Boring match. Rating: **

Interview with Drago Zhivago with the Cuban Assasin and Krupov. Ed Whalen interviews Brian Pillman. Damn is he big. He talks about his debut next week. Terrible promo.

Match No. 2: Ted Arcidi vs. Brad Foster. He press slams him and drops him on the corner turnbuckle. Arcidi wins with backbreaker. Another terrible match. Rating: **

Interview with Makhan Singh. He rips on Bill Kazmaier for using steroids unlike Mr. Natural, Ted Arcidi. Singh is hillarious on the interview. WCW wasted him as Norman.

Whalen interviews Owen Hart, the new Commenwealth champion. He’s holding a tiny belt. Stu must be a cheapskate.

Match No. 3: Bill Kazmaier & Mr. Hito vs. Adolph Barbee & Cuban Assassin. Referee Wayne Hart pulls out a yellow card. What the hell is that all about? Stu must be turning senile. Kazmaier doesn’t look that big compared to Arcidi. He barely press slams fatass Assassin. He powerslams Barbee for the pin. Another terrible match. Rating: **

Interview with Arcidi. Kazmaier rips on Arcidi.

Match No. 4: Les Thornton vs. Ben Bassarab joined in progress. J.R. Foley at ringside is dressed up as Adloph Hitler. That shit wouldn’t fly these days, surprised it made WWE TV. Foley hits Thornton accidentally and Bassarab wins. Another weak match. Rating: **

Bassarab cuts a terrible promo in the ring. He has a mullet and he’s going bald.

Makhan Singh with another great interview. He’s in the ring with some skank. Whalen keeps eyeing her.

Match No. 5: Viet Cong Express (Hiroshi Hase & Fumihiro Niikura) vs. Keith Hart & Johnny Smith. Stu Hart is also a stereotypical wrestling racist. A Russian wrestler, a Russian manager who speaks perfect English, a German ref, three Brit heels, including one dressed up as Hitler, two North Koreans who are really Japanese, an Amerian wrestler who thinks he is Pakistani, a wrestler from India, a Japanse wrestler who has Mr. in his name but is not a salt-throwing heel surprisingly and two steroid pumped American bodybuilders. Stu is also big on nepotism as one son is a referre, two sons are wrestlers and a son-in-law is a wrestler. Whatever. Viet Cong wins with piledriver. Another waste of time match. Rating: **

Another interview with Dr. Drago Zhavago, who is awful on interview. He does have a good line calling Bassarb, Bassa-hart.

Match No. 6: Makhan Singh vs. Owen Hart for North American Heavyweight title. Singh is sure a fat hair bastard. But a funny one. Owen is doing a great job of selling. Nice knee drop by Owen. Hart has Singh tied up in the ropes and he runs the ropes and “a fan” in a mask pulls down the top rope and Hart hits the floor. He then gets posted. Owen juices big time and he gets counted out. He then gets beaten on by Gama Singh and company before Pillman and Bassarab make the save. Even Stu comes to the ring with his grey trousers hiked up his ass. Rating: ***

Whalen interviews Bassarab and Pillman. Pillman acts pissed and says he will put an end to the bullcrap going on here.

Show ends with all the hells in the ring. Whalen acts outraged. I’m outraged at how piss poor the announcing was for the show. Great final angle though.

Stampede (12/8/79)

Match No. 1: Keith Hart vs. Joe Ventura. Ed Whalen opens with a cheesy poem. And some bad jokes. What a hoot. This program was shot in film. It looks pretty damn good for the late 70’s. Hart sidesteps a knee lift and rolls up Ventura for the pin. Decent old school physical match. Rating: ***

Interview with Keith Hart. With Whalen’s sportscasting background, there is less promo and more interview. 
Interview with Don Gagne, better known as Frenchy Martin.
Match No. 2: Andre Zvezda vs. Bruce Hart. Zvezda is billed as being from Ukraine. He is wearing all red, naturally, since he is from the USSR. Hart hits a huge clothesline for the pin. John Foley hits Zvezda afterwards. Squash. Rating: **
Interview with Bruce Hart. John Foley interrupts. A very young and very small Dynamite Kid is in the ring along with Mr. Sekigawa, better known as Japanese hardcore wrestler Mr. Pogo. Dynamite cuts pretty bad promo.
Match No. 3: Leo Burke & Hubert Gallant vs. Tatsumi Osura & Tommy Stanton. Old school match. Burke and Gallant irish whip Osura and Stanton into each other, Stanton cross body blocks his partner for the pin. Average match, but creative finish. Rating: ***
Interview with Burke and Gallant. 
Match No. 4: Dynamite Kid vs. Hiroshi Yagi. Yagi was later known as Ryuma Go and Ninja Go. It’s hard to believe how tiny Kid was at this time. He’s listed at 208 but he’s maybe 180 or 190 tops. Yagi is bleeding from the mouth. Dynamite with nice double underhook suplex. He barely picks up Yagi. Yagi dropkicks Kid from middle rope and he takes huge bump. Yagi then does cross body block onto Kid onto the floor. Bell rings. Great match, bullshit finish. Rating: ***1/2
Yagi does interview. He challenges Kid and cuts a better promo than Kid.
John Foley does interview. Kid grabs the mic. His face is all busted up. 
Match No. 5: Don Gagne vs. Mr. Sekigawa. Match joined five minutes in. Sekigawa slams Gagne on the floor. Stu Hart is outside the ring. He looks in pretty good shape for a 64-year-old. These two beat on each other in an old school match. They cut away from the match and said it ended as a no contest. That was beyond weak. Rating: *
Stu Hart does interview. He makes no sense. Just like his booking of the last match — or at least the way they showed it on TV. Leo Burke will be the guest referee next week.

Stampede (2/17/79)

Ed Whalen opens the show with John Foley in the ring. He’s talking about all the money he now has. He wants to pay Big Daddy Ritter to get rid of his problems.

Match No. 1: Hercules Ayala vs. Louie Lawrence. Ayala with some big fists follwed by an elbow and then some stomps. He uses a bear hug and Lawrence submits. Squash. Rating: **

Whalen in the ring with Bruce Hart and Mr. Wrestling II. They both talk about Dynamite Kid, who was only 20 at the time. Mr. Wrestling is terrible on the mic.

Match No. 2: Mr. Wrestling II vs. Dynamite Kid. Dynamite is tiny, maybe 175 pounds. His frame just wasn’t big enough to support all the muscle he packed on using the juice. Dyanamite cheap shots Mr. Wrestling and he gets pissed. Nice head scissors by Dynamite. Crowd is dead. This one is mostly mat work. This one is putting me to sleep. Wrestling uses a bulldog. Dyanamite opens the ropes for Wrestling, then when he climbs through, Dynamite rolls him up for the pin. Average match, but I liked the finish. Rating: ***

Ed Whalen interviews Stu with a couple of fans

Match No. 3: Big Daddy Ritter vs. Gilbert Hayes. Like Dynamite, Ritter is a lot smaller than he was during his Junk Yard Dog days and in pretty good shape. Not sure what to think of this one. Hayes is actually getting most of the offense, working on Ritter’s leg. Jim Neidhart is in the corner of Hayes. Ritter misses a headbutt. Neidhart, who has hair, holds back John Foley on the ring apron and Ritter runs into him and Hayes rolls him up for the pin. This is a best-of-three falls match, which is now tied. These guys are sloppy. Either Ritter isn’t working well with Hayes, or Hayes just sucks. That’s two botched roll up attempts so far. Ritter is winded so even when he was in shape his cardio still sucked. Neidhart comes into the ring and Hayes is disqualified. Boring match, with a somewhat interesting ending. Rating: **1/2