Mike Reviews WWF In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede

Happy Stampeding Saturday Everyone!

Sometimes I feel like watching a good show for the sake of watching a good show, so on that note we’re going to watch In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede. In Your House 16 is one of the best shows the WWF ever put on, with great matches up and down the card with a real variety going on in the match types.

The big match is the hometown Hart Foundation being babyfaces for the night as they take on a team of pesky American’s, but we’ve also got Undertaker defending the WWF Title and the WWF debut of The Great Sasuke.

You can view the card by clicking below;

Card with guide « WWF In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede « Events Database « CAGEMATCH – The Internet Wrestling Database

Let’s review In Your House 16

The event is emanating from Calgary *dramatic pause*, Alberta, Canada on the 6th of July 1997

Calling the action are Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

The opening video package muses on how the WWF has been all SHADES OF GREY BRO in recent times, what with Bret Hart being hated in the USA whilst still being loved in Canada, whilst Stone Cold is vice versa.

Opening Match
The 1997 King of the Ring Hunter Hearst Helmsley w/ Chyna Vs Mankind

Triple H had won the King of the Ring, brutalising Mankind in the Final on his way to the crown. Mankind was a bit narked off by this as you’d imagine, so a feud has started between the two wrestlers, with Chyna constantly getting involved as well. Mick Foley wasn’t the first man on the roster to take a bump for Chyna (I think that was Goldust) but he certainly had no qualms getting clobbered by her whenever the need arose, and that went a long way to the fan base and the rest of the roster accepting her in the role of Tri’s killing machine.

Tri was more of a generic Heel with a meaty bodyguard at this stage in his career, which was more effective than his previous Connecticut Blueblood gimmick that he’d had prior, but he didn’t really start getting significantly over until he teamed up with Shawn Michaels as part of DX. He was on his way here though, and by 1997 he was a solid in-ring performer, so once he got a gimmick that clicked he was well on his way. A funny line in the video package is Chyna telling Mankind to kiss her butt, to which Mankind replies that it’s her lucky day as he’s a good kisser.

This one is a brawl right from the off, with Mankind laying out Tri with a Double Arm DDT before mocking Hunter’s formal bow in a fun moment. Mankind sends Tri to the floor and follows with his trademark elbow from the apron, which gets a two back inside. Tri is taking some darn impressive bumps here, including his customary one from inside the ring to the floor following an Irish Whip. The crowd gets into the action and Mankind gets some really good reactions, showing that the WWF was doing an effective job at getting Mick Foley over as a sympathetic figure in the mid-card.

Chyna ends up being the difference maker for Tri, as she clobbers Mankind when the ref isn’t looking and then gives Mankind a hip toss onto the ring steps. I know, Mick Foley taking a wild crazy bump onto an inanimate object, what else is new? Mankind comes up selling his leg following that, so Hunter adds a weapon shot whilst Chyna is distracting the ref and then goes to town on the injured appendage back inside the ring, whilst Jim Ross refers to Tri as being “cerebral” for possibly the first time. Mankind does a good job selling all of that and Hunter’s offence looks solid, including a rope assisted Figure Four at one stage.

Mankind accidentally falls shoulder first right into Hunter’s summer residence soon after that, which of course levels the playing field and Mankind makes the comeback soon after, with the crowd still being very into this match. Mankind gets a piledriver following that, but his injured leg slows him down in making the cover, which allows Tri to kick out, which is a smart way to protect the big move as the delay played it’s part in the kick out and left the question as to whether Mankind would have won if he’d been able to get the pin earlier.

Tri bails following that and Chyna again takes Mankind out, this time with a clothesline, whilst the ref tries to prevent Hunter from using a chair. Mankind keeps coming though and jams the ropes when Tri goes up top before following with the Mandible Claw. Chyna again rescues her boss though, whilst Hunter grabs hold of the ref so that the much harangued official misses it. They’ve done an excellent job of making sure the referee has missed all of this cheating, with the heat going on the Heels for being devious rather than the ref for being dumb. Sadly the match has an unsatisfying double count out ending, but it led to two very good rematches, so I’ll let it slide.

DOUBLE COUNT OUT
RATING: ***3/4

Thoughts: This was a cracking opener. Give it a proper finish and I’d add the extra ¼*, as it was all it was missing in order to break into that category in my opinion. Great brawling, good selling from both wrestlers, Chyna was fantastic in her role of bruising bodyguard, and the crowd enjoyed everything mightily. A darn good way to start the event!

Both wrestlers brawl into the crowd following that, with security finally managing to seemingly break it up.

The Hart Foundation goes out to meet the fans during the annual Calgary Stampede. It should shock no one that they are super over here in Canada.

Michael Hayes is backstage with The Hart Foundation, who don’t seem to think they’ll lose tonight. Stone Cold tries to start a fight, but the agents hold him back and Bret Hart says they will wait till later on when it’s 5 Vs 5.

Match Two
TAKA Michinoku Vs The Great Sasuke

The WWF was going to try and compete with WCW’s Cruiserweight division so they were looking for big lighter weight stars across the world who they could bring in. TAKA and Sasuke had impressed on the ECW pay per view Barley Legal back in April 97, so they got brought in here. Interestingly it was Sasuke who was supposed to be the big star whilst TAKA was just coming in to put him over, but Vince McMahon ended up being higher on TAKA and he ended up becoming the inaugural Light Heavyweight Champ as a result.

You can tell Vince likes TAKA as he chuckles when TAKA gives a thumbs up to the crowd during his entrance. Was Yamamoto Suite TAKA’s music in Japan around this time or was it always a WWF theme? It remains intact here, so I’m guessing either the WWF owns it or its production music that anyone can use. Sasuke’s music seems to have escaped the censors as well, but I know the WWF doesn’t own that one, so maybe that’s production music that anyone can use as well? Anyway, whilst I muse about music rights, Tri and Mankind are brawling in the crowd again, and Hunter seems to be bleeding.

The two wild brawlers finally fight out of sight and the Light Heavyweight bout begins. You get the sense that the crowd doesn’t really know what to make of it in the early going whilst they go for the patient traditional Japanese build of using holds and technical wrestling first before upping the ante with bigger strikes and moves. The wrestling itself is solid stuff, with the wrestlers trading the momentum, as Sasuke targets the leg and TAKA goes for the arm.

The intensity picks up when Sasuke catches TAKA with a big kick and TAKA starts returning fire with strikes of his own, leading to the crowd getting more invested. Often if you want a reaction in wrestling the best thing to do is just lamp your opponent with something sturdy. Sasuke gets his absolutely insane flying kick from the top rope to the floor at one stage, and it always amazes me that he doesn’t break every bone in his body whenever he delivers that.

TAKA more than holds his own here, getting a big pop from the crowd when he does a dive to the outside onto Sasuke, as you can tell just how much Vince is digging his work on commentary. It shouldn’t shock me that Vince was more into the handsome non-masked wrestler than the less flashy masked one. Once they hit their stride this match becomes super entertaining, with both wrestlers trying to top the other with the big moves.

Jim Ross does a great job getting the match and both wrestlers over with his commentary, whilst Vince and King are more there to add some flavour and react to the big moves, which is a dynamic that worked well. They were a solid three man booth that worked well together in that respect. TAKA manages to get the Michinoku Driver at one stage, but he isn’t able to put Sasuke away and Sasuke ends up catching TAKA with a dropkick out of mid-air and then following with a Powerbomb and Tiger Suplex for three.

WINNER: THE GREAT SASUKE
RATING: ***1/2

Hunter and Mankind are still fighting outside the building, as a gaggle of referees and agents try to break them up. Tri eventually escapes with his life, setting up a cage match at SummerSlam in booking that made sense as it meant he couldn’t get away in that one.

We see footage of Ahmed Johnson getting injured during an angle on Raw. Well, it was a day of the week ending in a “y” so I’m not too surprised…

Michael Hayes is backstage with Paul Bearer and Vader. Bearer reiterates that Undertaker killed his family (as in Taker’s family, not Bearer’s), which was building to Kane making his WWF debut. We get clips of when Vader defeated Taker at Royal Rumble 97, which is a solid way to make Vader look like a genuine contender at least.

Semi-Main
WWF Title
Champ: The Undertaker Vs The Man They Call Vader w/ Paul Bearer

This was supposed to be Ahmed Johnson getting the Title shot, but he got injured and ended up getting replaced with Vader. Vader has Bearer with him because Bearer is annoyed that Taker wouldn’t bring Bearer back as his manager. Bearer was talking about Undertaker’s brother Kane at this stage but Kane wouldn’t actually show up until October. Vader made as good a choice as any to throw in as a last minute challenger, although I’m not sure how many people actually bought that Vader could leave Canada with the belt here. Feel free to share in the comments if you were watching at the time and thought Vader had a shot to win.

Taker slugs away to start, with Vader selling well and taking some nice bumps, with them doing a good job of getting the story across that Taker is in a really bad mood due to Bearer and he’s taking it out on Vader. The crowd is into the action as well, as they enjoy watching Taker clobber his opponent. Vader is moving here, doing some running spots and even taking a tumble from inside the ring all the way to the floor at one stage. Being outside ends up being an advantage for Vader though, as he flings Taker into the metal ring steps, but Taker responds with a top rope clothesline back inside for two.

Bearer ends up earning his corn as manager by providing a distraction, which allows Vader to clobber Taker from behind for the cut off. Bearer makes sure to get some cheap shots in with his shoe following that, just to be a jerk. Taker was pretty much selling like a normal wrestler at this stage in his career, and he’s good at it, so the heat segment works well. Undertaker becoming an actual wrestler who could register pain and not a slow moving invulnerable zombie did wonders for his in-ring performances, and this phase of his career is one of my personal favourites.

Vader looks good on offence and has one of the better nights of his WWF run, as they never really understood what made him Vader most of the time, kind of like how they completely missed the mark with Goldberg during his first run with the company as well. I’ll never get a company signing a wrestler based on them doing something very well elsewhere and then trying to make sure that they don’t do that thing they did so well in your company.

The only real negative to this match is that there are two blatant low blows in full view of the ref that the ref has to ignore, thus making him look dumb in the process. Taker delivers the second one whilst Vader is prepping for the Pump Splash and then brings the big man back into the ring with a Choke Slam for two in a really good near fall. Taker won’t be denied though and gets another Choke Slam before finishing Vader off with an improbable Tombstone Piledriver for the three count as the crowd goes absolutely HOSS.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: THE UNDERTAKER
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: This was a darn good Heavyweight slugfest, as both wrestlers had their working boots on and the crowd really enjoyed the action. Vader took some super impressive bumps as well considering his size. The only thing that hurt it for me was the low blow spots, as I didn’t think they worked and just made the ref look silly. If the story was that the ref let Taker’s low blow go because he showed leniency to Vader earlier, then they needed to do a better job of getting that across, with Tim White yelling at both wrestlers and then doing a sort of “right, you both get one, but that’s it” gesture to sell the idea that he was showing some discretion rather than just being an ineffective official. Making the refs look stupid is a personal bugbear of mine though so there’s a chance others won’t be as bothered by it

We get more footage of The Hart Foundation being super popular in Calgary, as they’re doing an excellent job in making the group seem like a big deal in order to get us primed for what’s to come in the Main Event.

We get a video package for the Main Event set to Fit Finlay’s WCW theme.

Team Austin has some promo time with Michael Hayes, with Goldust saying that he was the peacekeeper who will hold the team together tonight. Stone Cold looks suitably uncomfortable having to coexist with other people in a nice touch.

The Canadian National Anthem is performed by the band Farmer’s Daughter. They do it acapella and it’s a very good rendition. It’s always disappointing as a Brit to hear stirring national anthems like “Oh Canada” when you consider what dirge our own anthem is.

The Hart Family is in the crowd, and Bruce is up to his usual antics of trying to make it all about him. He really was the Scrappy Doo of the family when you think about it, which is ironic as Owen was the youngest but he was actually deserving of accolades and attention.

Main Event
The Hart Foundation (Bret The Hitman Hart, WWF Intercontinental Champion The Double Slammy Award Winning Owen Hart, WWF European Champion The British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith, The Loose Cannon Brian Pillman and Jim The Anvil Neidhart) w/ Diana Smith Vs Stone Cold Steve Austin, Goldust, Road Warrior Hawk, Road Warrior Animal and The World’s Most Dangerous Man Ken Shamrock

Bret had been feuding with Austin for months and had gone Heel back at WrestleMania 13, leading to him realigning with Owen and Smith. Bret’s Heel promos became more anti-American, which only made him more popular in the rest of the world. This led to the fun dynamic where Bret and his stablemates would be booed in the USA but be mostly cheered everywhere else. The UK was a very pro-Hart territory due to Smith being part of the team, and when the WWF came to the UK for One Night Only, all of them got cheered.

The Hart Family is all at ringside to watch and the American team gets booed out of the building, much to their enjoyment, with the exception of Shamrock, who seems genuinely offended by it all as I don’t think he’d ever experienced a kind of reaction like this before where the fans have gone against the script in such a vocal manner. There are some hot girls in the crowd who do like Shamrock though, so he can console himself with that at least. They then cut to a sign that says “Ken Shamrock Fights like a GIRL” which is classic 90’s wrestling crowd snark if I ever saw it.

The Hart Foundation are of course over like rover here, with all of them getting a rousing reception, although Bret obviously gets the biggest pop because he’s Bret. Bret gives his sunglasses to his mum in a very nice moment, which of course gives Lawler a chance to make fun of Helen in his usual manner. Interestingly Pillman and Shamrock do a lot of jawing in the early going, even though the SummerSlam matches were going to be Pillman Vs Goldust and Davey Boy Vs Shamrock. I guess they either pivoted or they just got mixed up with who was supposed to face-off with who?

Bret and Austin trade punches to start, with Bret getting the better of it and the crowd losing their minds. That segment alone has already made this a great match. Bret and Austin have a very good mini-match here actually, which is no surprise as they had excellent chemistry as opponents, and the invested crowd have just made it all the better. Anvil and Shamrock go next, with Anvil almost doing a martial arts stance at one stage, as I think I might have officially seen everything. Sadly Anvil didn’t try and bust out a Crane Kick, otherwise I think I would have been forced to give the match an automatic 10 star rating on the spot. Rules are rules I’m afraid.

Pillman seems jazzed by the crowd and he does a decent bit with Shamrock considering how banged up he was this late into his career. It’s a shame Pillman put such pressure on himself to perform to his old standards during this period as he might have been able to work around his physical limitations in the vein of a Keiji Muto and still had some good matches but just in a different way. All of The Hart Foundation get a chance to shine early on, with Davey Boy flinging The Road Warriors around with alarming ease. Seeing Davey Boy do unreal feats of strength will always be cool.

The Hart Foundation hangs Goldust in the Tree of Woe in their corner at one stage and all just swarm him with attacks, which is met with a bloodthirsty zeal from the crowd. I honestly think The Hart Foundation could say they prefer Dunkin’ Donuts to Tim Horton’s and they’d still get cheered here. THAT’S how much this Calgary crowd loves them. Things breakdown not too soon after that, with Austin destroying Owen’s leg with a chair and then getting into a spat with Bruce at ringside. This was to switch the heat from Bret to Owen so that they could have Owen and Austin feud over the Intercontinental Title.

Owen gets helped to the back following that, giving Team Austin the man advantage and leading to Austin giving Pillman a Stunner. However, Bret gets revenge for his brother by destroying Austin’s leg, leading to Austin getting helped out as well and making the match 4 Vs 4. The Calgary crowd continues to lose their mind at basically everything, staking a claim for being one of the best wrestling crowds of all-time. Seriously, they’re up near the top. In a nice touch, Bret and The Anvil bust out some classic double teams as a call back to when they used to tag in the 80’s.

You can tell that The Road Warriors are probably getting a bit overexcited at points, as they are just running over and attacking every member of the opposing team whenever the slightest opportunity presents itself, even when The Hart Foundation are clearly trying to set something up on the floor by attacking Shamrock. It’s nice that they’re so motivated at least. Eventually Austin limps back down to the ring and re-joins the battle following a tag from Goldust, giving us some more Bret Vs Austin goodness. Bret looks like he might have that won with The Sharpshooter, but Animal saves and Austin goes to his own version of the move on Bret.

However, this is Owen’s cue to re-join the fight, as he breaks the hold to a big pop and then goes at it with Austin, as you can clearly seeing them position Owen as Austin’s new rival here, which would have probably led to long and entertaining feud had the Owen Driver incident not taken place. Austin ends up getting into a brawl with The Hart Family at ringside again, and that leads to him being distracted and getting rolled up by Owen for the three count, setting up their Kiss My Butt match at SummerSlam.

WINNERS: DAVEY BOY SMITH & HIS WACKY NON-ENGLISH CHUMS (IT’S COMING HOME!!)
RATING: *****

Thoughts: This match is fantastic. Lots of exciting action, an all-time legendary hot crowd, a good story being told throughout the bout, and they did an excellent job of setting up some of the big issues for SummerSlam. The match was an unequivocal success and I don’t see how it possibly could have been better, so for that reason it gets the perfect score!

Stone Cold tries to start the fight up again at the end, but he’s eventually outnumbered and arrested. He does make sure to flip off the crowd whilst wearing handcuffs though, in one of the many great examples as to why the character got so over.

The Hart Family celebrates once Austin is dragged away and that’s the end of the show.

In Conclusion

Every single match on this show was varying degrees of good to awesome; with each bout telling its own story and doing something different. The opener was all about hate filled brawling and big bumps, the second match was a slick high flying and technical wrestling exhibition between two smaller more athletic wrestlers, the third match was your classic Heavyweight World Title fight between two skilled bigger wrestlers, and the Main Event was a wild story match with an amazing crowd. Basically, if you like Pro Wrestling then there’s probably at least one match on this show that you’ll really like, and there’s an equally great chance that you might even like them all.

The easiest recommendation of all-time this one. Go watch it!