In Your House 16: Canadian Stampete - Saddledome, Calgary Alberta, Canada, July 6th 1997

What a great video package! It sums up the changing of the WWF audience’s tastes perfectly and the shades of grey motif doesn’t just apply to the Hart Foundation and the main event but to Mankind’s unexpected babyface turn as well as The Undertaker being called a murder by Paul Bearer. I’ll get to all of that later.

Commentary tonight is handled by Jim Ross, Vince McMahon and “King of the cowboys” Jerry Lawler. I mentioned at the end of the Preview that this is the final two hour long In Your House PPV as well as being the final one to have a number in its title but it's also the final show to feature the staging which looks like a domestic house. Times, they are a changin’

Hunter Hearst Helmsley (w/Chyna) vs. Mankind

This match gets a video package which is good because Mankind’s shift from demented, dangerous heel to loveable goofball babyface was, while incredibly well done, pretty fast! There’s some clips from his awesome series of interviews with Jim Ross in there too. Chyna and Hunter get their share of focus in this one too. This is very much two guys on a main event trajectory. 

Mankind gets a hero's welcome from the Canadians which I just love to see. He’s stopped pulling his own hair out and you can see that the bald patches he’d shaved have started to grow back in - that’ll be important in the coming months!

Mankind hammers HHH and slams and leg drops him as the crowd goes nuts! It’s a hot crowd. He hits a nice double arm DDT and then mocks Helmsley’s curtsey which got some laughs and a big cheer too. Much like with Stone Cold’s face turn, Vince McMahon deserves credit for hearing the fan reaction to these guys and going with it rather than try to fight it - I can’t imagine this “ugly demented maniac” or the foul mouthed cheater were top of his list to be his top babyfaces but here we are.

Mankind sends HHH out of the ring and comes flying off the apron with a hard elbow drop and then beats him in and out of the ring. Hunter tries to leave so Mick chases him up the ramp and gives him a hard suplex on the steel! The crowd are red hot for all of this and it's a very entertaining brawl so far. 

Mankind locks in the Mandible Claw early and it looks like this is going to be a one-sided squash of the King of the Ring but unseen by the referee, Chyna blasts him with a forearm to break it. Mankind can’t be stopped though and as he pursues Chyna he sees HHH’s attack from behind coming. Helmsley FINALLY turns the tide when he reverses an irish whip which sends Mankind into Chyna who hip-tosses him up and over, legs first into the ring steps! Brutal. King Helmsley hits him with a steel chair and then goes to work on his leg in the ring. 

Helmsley works over the leg with elbows, kicks and an illegal figure four using the ropes for leverage but the referee catches him and breaks it by force. Mankind counters a Pedigree attempt and is kicked into the corner, falling back head-first into HHH’s crotch which gets a big cheer! Mankind mounts his comeback and spikes the blueblood with a gorgeous piledriver but Hunter kicks out! The crowd rallies behind Mankind who takes the fight back outside the ring with a clothesline up and over the top. Chyna stops him from using a chair and then distracts the referee so that HHH can use it followed by clobbering Foley with a big clothesline of her own! Chyna is all over this match and the crowd is really into her; I forget if I mentioned it during the preview but there were Chyna chants on Raw a couple of weeks ago! Mankind blocks HHH from coming off the top rope and locks in the Mandible Claw but with Helmsley on the ropes it needs to be broken. Chyna comes back into play by tripping Mick and then pulling him crotch-first into the ring post! This match needs two referees. They fight on the outside and Hunter sends Mick into the security railing and the ring steps. They fight up and over the security wall and sadly, that’s the finish - both men get counted out and so it’s a draw.

The fight isn’t over and they go up into the crowd and into the arena’s penalty box! Chyna joins in and the crowd don’t seem to mind the finish to this match and are still very into this fight, only booing when referees finally show up to break it up. They don’t succeed and the fight just continues backstage and the cameras stop following them. This was an awesome match and the double count out finish could have ruined it but the after match brawl saved that too. Loved it!

Here’s a video narrated by Dok Hendrix about all of the festivities that the WWF have taken part in over this weekend in Calgary. This was a big homecoming for The Hart Foundation which wasn’t just useful as far as promoting this PPV but also played beautifully into the ongoing storyline; look at how much more respected these Canadian Heroes are outside of the evil United States! Dok also tried to get an interview with The Harts but Stone Cold had other ideas.

There are only four matches on this PPV but I’ll throw in this little trivia tidbit here; The Godwins defeated The New Blackjacks on the PPV pre-show. 

Taka Michinoku vs. The Great Sasuke

The WWF was trying to get a Light Heavyweight division off the ground to combat WCW’s cruiserweight division and had been showcasing matches on Raw for a couple of months. This is the biggest match of the division so far as The Great Sasuke was a legend in Japan and Taka was a 23 year old up and comer. Taka Michinoku is one of my all time favourite boys so I’m delighted to see his debut match in the WWF. He also has an AWESOME theme song!

Jim Ross carries the weight of this match of course; he’s done his homework and speaks glowingly of both of these men’s reputations internationally as well as the number of different championships Sasuke has held. Lawler actually steps his game up for this one too and provides some analysis of Japanese wrestling; they tend to start slowly, feeling each other out and not wanting to make the first mistake. He cheers on Sasuke because he cheats a little by pulling on Taka’s hair during a mat wrestling exchange. 

There’s a series of stiff kicks to the head with Sasuke scoring first but then Taka rallying with a sliding dropkick right into his mentor’s face. Taka is sent up and over the top rope and then Sasuke comes off the top rope with what I think was supposed to be a dropkick; incredibly dangerous and I don’t think it quite landed right because there’s no replay. They pick up the pace with more kicks back and forth and after a dropkick to the knee Sasuke rolls to the outside so Taka hits a running springboard crossbody, diving to the outside which gets a big reaction from the crowd and from the commentary trio. There’s more of that with Sasuke and Taka exchanging hurricanranas and German suplexes, each landing on their feet to avoid impact. Sasuke is next to show off with a springboard moonsault off the middle rope to the outside which wipes out Taka too. 

Back in the ring Taka gets the crowd behind him with a beautiful missile dropkick and belly to belly suplex followed by the move JR correctly identifies as the Michinoku Driver! That’s his finisher but Sasuke kicks out and with a standing moonsault, more kicks and then a German suplex into a bridge picks up the win. This was a great match and I’m glad it took place in front of this crowd because they were into it, respectful and cheered for both men.

During the entrances for the previous match, HHH and Mankind were shown to STILL be fighting in the crowd. After the match? They’ve made their way outside of the arena! Helmsley is bleeding and they fight on the concrete. Mankind is thrown into some pallets and metal barrels and HHH uses a shovel as a weapon! They throw punches at the referees and officials who are still trying desperately to stop the fighting but by this point in the show, including their match in the opener, these two men have been fighting non-stop for over 40 minutes! HHH tries to Pedigree Mankind on an elevated platform but is backdropped out of it and it seems like the fight might finally have been controlled.

Before the next match we get a quick injury update on Ahmed Johnson; he was supposed to be in this match but suffered a knee injury during his first appearance as a member of the Nation of Domination. Dok Hendrix interviews Paul Bearer and calls him disgusting for having called Undertaker a murderer on Raw is War. It seems like Dok believes Undertaker’s version of the story and I think most fans will. Bearer does thankfully bring the focus back onto Vader, reminding us that Vader actually pinned Undertaker at the 1996 Royal Rumble. That was a long time ago now but it is helpful! 

WWF Championship

The Undertaker © vs. Vader (w/Paul Bearer)

So did The Undertaker kill his mother, father and brother? Paul Bearer claimed that Undertaker intentionally set a fire which did but Undertaker’s defense was that he didn’t set the fire, his younger brother Kane did. Bearer called him a liar and he knows it because, unbeknownst to The Undertaker, Kane survived and is still alive and TOLD him what happened! That brings us to tonight and a storyline which will run throughout the rest of 1997 and into 1998. The Undertaker is a tortured soul. Even more than usual. Vader does a good job of getting a little fright during Undertaker’s entrance and makes him look very intimidating. 

The WWF Champion cannot be focused on this match given all of the personal things going on with Paul Bearer who cowers away from the Deadman. Vince and Lawler spend much of the match bickering over who really set the fire which killed Undertaker’s parents and whether Paul Bearer can be trusted; is Kane really alive, or is that just more mind games and manipulation?

This is a slow match and sadly I don’t have much to talk about in terms of the in-ring action. Undertaker hits his big trademark moves like the top rope walk, jumping clothesline and big running DDT which Vader continually kicks out of. Vader gets a bit of offense on the outside sending the champion into the ringsteps but Undertaker shakes that off too. He makes a point of going after Paul Bearer on the outside but that comes back to bite him as Vader can attack him from behind. Bearer actually gets some clubs to the Undertaker’s head with his shoe and looks very proud of himself for doing so. Vader slows things down and hits a jumping clothesline off the middle rope and Bearer is furious that it was only a two count.

A splash on the mat also gets a two count. The fans are pretty quiet for this portion of the match but get really loud when Undertaker starts to fight back with punch after punch to Vader’s body, booing and going quiet again when Vader stops it with a big clothesline out of the corner. I love this crowd, the Canadians are so into every match that even when they’re quiet you get the feeling it's because they’re just watching and paying attention! There’s a messy botch as Vader tries to counter the Tombstone by flipping up and over onto his feet but loses his balance. They get things back on track when Undertaker stops a Vader Bomb attempt with a chokeslam off the top rope! Vader kicks out of that, and kicks out of the second chokeslam but in a really impressive display Undertaker lifts the 400lbs Vader up into a Tombstone and drills him to retain the WWF Championship in a slow match but I enjoyed it thanks to the crowd being so hot for it! Bearer quickly leaves to avoid Undertaker catching up with him and leaves the Deadman to celebrate in peace.

Ahead of the main event there’s a video package about the chaos in the WWF as of late; gang warfare reigns! 

Dok Hendrix interviews the Stone Cold led opposition for The Harts tonight and each of them says their piece; Goldust brought this unit together and played peacemaker, Shamrock says no one stands a chance when he enters his zone and the LOD scream about this not being about America vs. Canada, it's about them kicking the Hart Foundation’s asses for what they’ve done lately. Austin refuses to speak and marches off towards the ring.

The crowd is rallied up into a pro-Hart frenzy for this match with the singing of the Canadian National Anthem as well as Howard Finkle giving grand introductions to the rest of the Hart family in the front row to watch this event. 

Before I get into the meat of this match, yes Shawn Michaels was almost certainly supposed to be in this match but is currently off TV due to the backstage fight he had with Bret Hart. I’ve detailed it elsewhere but Shawn was at home placing calls to his buddies in WCW, so unwilling to work with Bret that he wanted to leave the company. Sycho Sid was likely supposed to be included too but is gone again thanks to a flare up of his neck and back injuries. 

10 Man Tag Team match

The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, Brian Pillman, WWF Intercontinental Champion Owen Hart and WWF European Champion The British Bulldog)

vs.

WWF Tag Team Champion Stone Cold Steve Austin, Ken Shamrock, Goldust and The Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal)

All the babyfaces get their own ring introductions and each of them gets a mixed reaction. They’re all popular even in Canada but when forced to pick sides they’re all going to side with the Harts. Each of them gets their own introduction with their own theme music and assembles at the top of the ramp; the crowd is SO loud for each member of the Hart Foundation that you can barely hear a word Howard Finkle is saying. It is crazy loud for all of them but the loudest by far is of course for The Hitman who is greeted by the fans in Calgary like he’s the second coming of Jesus himself! They drown out his theme music! Wild.

This marks Bret’s first televised match since the April PPV but he’s now all healed up from his knee surgery and ready to get back at it. For the first time since his heel turn Bret gives his sunglasses out to a fan in the front row; his mother Helen.

All ten men square up to each other and while they’re all talking trash it’s Austin and Bret who hold attention, silent and glaring at each other. It looks like it's silently agreed that they’ll kick things off and they do, throwing punches which Bret gets the better of. The crowd is SO loud, I cannot do it justice. Austin and Bret fight for a bit before tagging out to Neidhart and Shamrock. The world’s most dangerous man gets the better of that exchange so Neidhart tags out to Pillman who gets loudly cheered for cheating and biting Shamrock’s fingers and face! They then tag out to Goldust and Owen Hart and the crowd immediately breaks out into a deafening “Owen” chant. This is an incredible atmosphere and I can’t really do the match justice as they all just take turns tagging in and out to get the crowd to see them. Owen has a nice new haircut for this match too. The fans chant “Austin sucks” as he goes over to shove his middle fingers in the Hart’s faces and rile up the audience.

After more back and forth, Owen Hart hits a really nice missile dropkick on Goldust and kips up to his feet. She’s shut down by Hawk and the LOD hit the Doomsday Device on Owen! Neidhart breaks up the pin and the match turns into chaos with Stone Cold going right after Owen’s leg, pulling him into the ring post and wrapping his knee around it before clubbing it with a steel chair! He’s stopped from going further by Bret but the damage is done and Owen Hart has to be helped to the back, apparently unable to continue and leaving the Harts at a 4 vs. 5 disadvantage.

Stone Cold continues to act like he has no partners and fights all four Foundation members single handedly, dropping Pillman with a Stone Cold Stunner! Bret grabs Austin’s leg and returns the favour for Owen, wrapping his leg around the post and trying to break it, hitting him in the knee with a fire extinguisher from under the ring!

The fans explode as Bret locks in the Figure Four but Hawk breaks that up. The damage is done and Stone Cold has no choice but to tag out to Hawk. The damage is done and just like Owen, Stone Cold is helped to the back leaving this match as now 4 vs. 4! There’s some good character work as Shamrock goes after Bret’s leg but hesitates which JR calls his inexperience in this style of fighting. He lets Bret get back to his feet to make this a fair fight but the Hitman uses a thumb to the eye to stop that and then the Hart Foundation work over the former UFC champion in and out of the ring, throwing him into the ring steps and tagging in and out quickly to grind him down. JR gets really excited about Bulldog vs. Shamrock in particular which gives you an idea of what match they want you to be excited about for next month! Shamrock uses a low blow to get a break and tags out to Goldust. I realise a lot of my match details here are just tags in and out but everyone is playing an equal part in this match. Brian Pillman is the MVP of this match as he’s always on the scene to break up moves and rescue his teammates. He stops a Curtain Call and Bulldog gets Goldust with a nice superplex. 

The quick tags continue as Stone Cold Steve Austin hobbles back to the ring and insists on getting back into this match! Bret takes him down and tries for the Sharpshooter but Hawk breaks it up to boos. Stone Cold tries to lock in a Sharpshooter of his own but Owen also returns and breaks that up too! He tags in and that leaves Austin and Owen as the legal men. They fight to the outside and Austin stomps the Intercontinental Champion down right in front of his family. Austin actually grabs Stu Hart and pulls one of the Hart brothers up and over the railing to beat on him! 

It's a wild scene and it costs Austin as he gets back into the ring and is rolled up by Owen Hart for the victory! The Hart Foundation win this match but it doesn’t matter as the Hart family fills the ring en masse to fight with Austin and co. Officials and security fill the ring too to try and break up this insane scene and manage to get Goldust, Shamrock, Hawk and Animal to leave peacefully. The match is over and they are vastly outnumbered.

It looks like it’ll end with the Hart family celebrating in the ring but Stone Cold won’t be stopped and runs back to the ring with a steel chair to take them all on! He has no fear. He’s tackled by security and handcuffed even while the Harts punch and kick at him. He looks like a million dollars here as even with his hands handcuffed behind his back he continues to try and fight the entire Hart family, one man vs. about twenty! He’s led away from the ring, throwing middle fingers at the crowd even handcuffed. He does not give a damn! So awesome.

The Hart boys help the elderly Stu and Helen into the ring and it's a happy ending for the Canadians, soaking up the love from the audience. All the grandkids get in the ring too now that it's safe with no Austin trying to throw hands and kicks at everyone in sight. 

This was an awesome PPV and that’s not just my opinion; WWE named this the 10th greatest PPV of all time, other wrestling publications regularly name this in the top 10 shows as well and Dave Meltzer called this the best wrestling PPV of 1997. Great stuff from everyone involved from top to bottom.