Posted July 18, 201213 yr comment_5510454 Great Hito v. Randy Thatcher JIP. Basically a long extended squash. Nothing to see really. Another Zodiac/Jason Star Wars screen promo. Karachi Vice promo. As usual these are good. Goldie Rogers v. Gillies Des Fosses JIP. What an odd match up to make tv. Honestly this was pretty good too. Nothing flashy, particularly by the standards of Stampede from this era. Rogers hits some sharp forearms and elbows. Gilles comeback is short but well done. Perfectly resepctable and nearly complete tv match. Makhan Singh promo Badd Company promo Biff Wellington v. Johnny Smith This opens up really fast with some flashy and interesting exchanges but nothing that really grabbed me. As the match developed I liked a few of the escapes a lot. Both Smith and Biff get more and more prickish as the match goes on. Finish is Smith catching him with a mid-air powerslam. Pretty good but this woul have been the third best match on an average Worldwide in 1997. Interview with Stampede rookies Bad News Allen promo. He talks about being the Jack Johnson of wrestling and how he's suspended all the time because he's black. Makhan Singh/Jerry Morrow v. Vietcong Express 2/Hiro Hase JIP at about five minutes. No word on why Vietcong Express is a face teaming with Hase again here but we are still in the face shine segment. They are working Singh's leg and at one point Morrow gets shook off the top rope by Hase which was pretty neat. Hase locks the Scorpion on Morrow, but Singh breaks it up. Faces are really working the shit out of Morrow's legs too. Singh eventually tags in and goes to work on Hase with a foreign object. Gotta love Morrow running in and choking him with a rope. Then Singh goes to work on Hase's taped ribs. Cool monkey flip hope spot of all things that Singh cuts down. The heels are working over Hase when an imposter VietCong Express member chloroforms the other one and takes his place on the apron. Heels run off some nice spots and Hase takes them all well and keeps kicking out. Singh misses his big Avalanche and Hase hits a great looking spinkick that Singh sells in this awesome way. Fake Vietcong is Gama and he hits him with a cheap shot rather than in. Then Sing hits the avalanche for the finish. This is fourteen or fifteen minutes of a twenty match and definitely enough for a nomination given the quality of the work. Post-match Hase and company cut a promo. Jason The Terrible/Zodiac/Great Gama v. Bruce Hart/Brian Pillman/Chris Benoit JIP at fifteen minutes. Benoit is in peril. Gotta love Jason hitting a sick running dropkick. This is a very good heat section, it's a shame it's Benoit as the face and the match is so eaten up. Benoit just runs through the offense of these guys, it's no surprise the guy had Alzheimer's brain. Benoit hits a nice running dropkick and Bruce gets the hot tag. He runs in and his crowbarring the fuck out of people. Bruce is in peril now and the ring is totally cut off on him with the Karachi's bringing some fun heel offense and tactics. Jason with a fucking sick second rope elbow. Bruce tags in Pillman and it was crazy to see how over Pillman was as he ran through some explosive shots and took out the whole heel side. Jason was a bump machine, but now Pillman gets decked in the head on a cover. Pillman hits a tombstone and a huge splash on Gama for a near fall. all hell breaks loose and Bruce hits his big clothesline followed by a Pillman splash off the top for a near fall. Chaos reigns and the match gets tossed. This is slightly more than half the match. The action is good and might merit a look, though I'm not sure you can justify 17 of 31 minutes on a set. Badd Company promo Karachi Vice promo Biff Wellington v. Randy Thatcher This is an extremely respectable match. Wellington comes across as the go to guy for the company when it comes to working with younger guys as he bumps hard and keeps the match focused. This had a botched finish or I might have nominated it. Corporal Kirchner promo Johnny Smith v. Mr. Hito JIP at about four minutes. All these Smith matches have an extremely back and fourth feel to them. That's not to say they are bad, but they lack depth. The wrestling in this had a very tight feel almost like they were legit trying to play "top this." Strikes in this also looked really sick as both guy look like they are going for the jugular. Smith takes a really nice bump on a missed Vader bomb and sells the knee on impact which I liked. Honestly the unprofessionalism makes this a far more interesting match and I enjoyed the finish. This is ten minutes of a fourteen minute match and I suspect some of the Canadaphiles may be higher on Smith's style than I am so I will pass it through. Another Zodiac/Jason promo Badd Company promo with Benoit. The shades are classic.
