Twenty years ago today, on February 25th, 1992, Gene Kiniski’s final appearance in the ring occurred in Winnipeg, Canada for the West Four Wrestling Alliance (WFWA) promotion. Kiniski would perform in four matches on the card. The fourth, and final bout, was a three man tag team match with Kiniski’s partners being a young Chris Jericho and Lance Storm. Their opponents were “Bulldog” Bob Brown, “Champagne” Gerry Morrow, and The Natural. “The Natural” went on to be known as Don Callis (a.k.a. The Jackel and Cyrus).
Welcome back to another classic encounter in Calgary’s rich past. This time around we will take a look at a young “cocky” wrestler by the name of B.G. Holliday as he takes on a young Chris Benoit. Holliday never became an international super star like Benoit did, he would never become multi time world champion in the major federations. However, he was a talented grappler and had one important thing that many of the famous wrestler’s lacked in this promotion. He had absolutely great mic skills, he had the gift of gab. While legends such as Bret Hart, Chris Benoit & The Dynamite Kid may have been some of the greatest technical wrestlers of all time, most Stampede stars were not great on the microphone, especially early in their careers. And this is where Holliday really shined. His mic skills, even at this early stage of his young wrestling career, were some of the best in the territory and he reminded me very much of Chris Jericho in both his wrestling and his mic skills. A cocky Jonathan Holliday quickly became “the man that fans loved to hate” in the territory. Interestingly, Holliday was involved in some of the “darker moments” of Stampedes history. This was a time when the promotions business side became less well run by its promoters and as a result wrestlers were leaving for bigger organizations with bigger wallets. There is a story that the Dynamite Kid, after returning from the WWF injured, broken and addicted to drugs,became jealous of Holliday’s quick success in Calgary, wanted to run him out of town and bad mouth him in the industry. If this famous story was an exaggeration of real events I can not tell you, however there are great stories of a back ally fight in Calgary on electric avenue between the former British Bulldog and Holiday over drugs, jealousy, and pay days that needed to be settled. Other events are rumored to have taken place between the two, but as they are both unconfirmed and very illegal, I shall not get into them. Just realise that both men left Canada soon after, and it was not because they didn’t like the cold weather! Enjoy the match and I will return with another “ring- a ding-dong -dandy” next week!
Its time once again to travel back into Calgary’s rich wrestling past for some classic Stampede action. This time around I have a match showcasing the members of my favorite tag team of all time, the famous British Bulldogs. Or should I say future favorite tag team of all time. The catch is, this match takes place well before they ever teamed together, left for the WWF to became world champions, dominated in Japan and then returned back to Calgary once again. As a matter of fact , as you will soon see, Davey boy Smith is VERY young and practically unrecognizable when compared to his much more muscular, future Bulldog self. It is very evident that both of these yet to be world famous British Bulldogs are clearly not spending the same time working out in the gym and are not “into the juice” at this point in their careers. This is a great match for the Stampede mid-heavyweight title , held by the” heel ” Dynamite Kid as he defends against a very popular new ” face”, young Smith. As usual the crowd is very into the match, and also as usual in Stampede Wrestling the referee acts both idiotic and blind, driving the crowd nuts with his final decision. Worth noting this time around is the post match interviews with both future Bulldogs. This is where you will really see how young these future legends both were at this time and also how much time they must have spent in the gym soon after! Enjoy this classic encounter that took place in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and I will see you for another ” Ring -A- Ding- Dong- Dandy” next time. Dont forget to check out www.wonderpodonline.com for more “PatMan picks” , also episode 84 of our video game podcast and much more!
Its time once again for another old school classic Stampede Wrestling moment from the PatMan. This time around I am including one of Stampede Wrestlings most talented wrestlers who, like many others, went on to enjoy great Success in the WCW ,WWE and Japan. Unfortunately, his story did not end with success but rather with horror and shocking acts of brutal crime that I need not remind any of you about. Yes, of course, I am referring to Chris Benoit. Lets look away from his horrific end to life and temporarily concentrate on him at a much younger age where his wrestling was all that mattered. Chris Benoits in ring abilities were very impressive right from the get go, and his obsession with emulating his icon The Dynamite Kid are visible in many of his earlier matches. I have for you today what could very well be Chris Benoits first chance at the taste of a championship belt. His opponent was a very talented grappler by the name of The Great Gama, the mid heavyweight champion and a much more experienced wrestler than young Chris was at the time. Worth noting in the video is the appearance of Davey Boy Smiths “evil cousin” Jonny Smith who is up to his usual heel antics. Also worth noting later in the video is an in ring interview where another young wrestler destined for success, Flying Brian Pillman , can be quickly seen several times to the left of Chris Benoit. Our very own Audio Master G ,who was actually body slammed by Chris Benoit onto a couch in his childhood back in Calgary may be interested in this classic match as he is the only person I know who took some bumps form him. Maybe he could have given the Great Gama a few tips? If you don’t know that G had encounters with Chris Benoit & Bad News Brown while I took an accidental hit from The British Bulldog & encountered an angry Bret Hart at Safeway, you clearly must download our Stampede Wrestling podcast, found at both Wonderpodonline.com and right here at BoredWrestlingFan.com ! You can check out my Classic PC Game Picks & Wonderpod video game podcast episode 70 over at Wonderpodonline.com also, if your interested! See you all next time.
It’s been an intense week in the world of wrestling. It seems pretty unlikely that TNA will be able to come close to topping The Rock’s return to the WWE, but they are coming off the heels of the Turning Point PPV that aired on Sunday. It was an interesting show (I think that’s a nice way to put it), that ended with the enigma Jeff Hardy recapturing his ugly Championship Title from Mr. Anderson… and the wait for March 3rd will likely continue to simmer… ok, enough of this introductory paragraph, let’s just get to the suffering, alright? (more…)
We’ve got a tag team match for the main event. Four guys who shouldn’t like each other are teaming with Shelton Benjamin teaming with Christian to take on Vladimir Kozlov and Ezekial Jackson. Apparently pummeling the boss and only other employee isn’t firing grounds
Still feeling out the whole reviewer thing here, My last review didn’t get as many comments as my first. I’m not sure if that’s because I focused to heavily on calling the show, or the first week out was just people welcoming me to the site.
I’m a little more familiar with the way things work this week though.
Anyway on this week’s ECW out main event is Christian teaming with Yoshi Tatsu against Ezekial and Vladimir Kozlov. We also should have an in ring confrontation between The Hurricane and Paul Burchill.
Ok… Raw sucked (read the results, didn’t watch) and ECW was very mediocre this week, so let’s see what Superstars has in store for us.
Match 1: John Morrison vs David Hart Smith
WWE is Canada is always ass backwards. David Hart Smith and Natalya get the huge pops in their home country. John Morrison is one of the few bright spots in WWE right now. Hell of a main event for Smackdown as Morrison takes on CM Punk. Little Bulldog is massive! He pounds on the Shaman of Sexy for a lot of the match. He hit a terrific suplex off the top rope. Morrison eventually hit all of his spots (Pele kick, standing moonsault, spinning kick, etc.) The Guru of Greatness gets the win with Starship Pain.
Match 2: Goldust vs Sheamus
The Celtic Warrior is huge, but looks smaller than he is because of his almost transparent skin. Dude is ghostly. How many times in a row are they going to do this match? Shouldn’t Sheamus be taking on other people to gain experience? This is just another example of WWE’s lazy booking. Anyway, Goldust wins with a rollup for some reason. Sheamus didn’t look weak, but shouldn’t they be booking him better than to lose to Goldust?
Random main event time: Mickie James and Kofi Kingston vs Rosa Mendez and Carlito in a Mixed Tag match
Alrighty then. This does nothing to enhance any feud. What’s up with Carlito’s hair? He look’s like a shi tzu who hasn’t been groomed in a while. I guess its part of his new dark and gloomy persona. This match was dominated in time by Kofi and Carlito. I think Mickie and Rosa were in the ring for about 15 seconds. Carlito gets the win after a backstabber off the top rope.
Random Random Random. I get that Carlito should be in the mix for the US title, but shouldn’t he also be dealing with his brother? Isn’t Gail Kim the number one contender for the Diva title? Why wasn’t she in that match? Sheamus should be booked to be taking people out…not losing to Goldust. John Morrison is great…nuf said.
Remember to check out Smackdown, which is obviously the best show WWE has to offer right now. See you next week.
