{"id":69748,"date":"2020-06-06T12:06:30","date_gmt":"2020-06-06T16:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonprowrestling.com\/?p=69748"},"modified":"2022-02-01T11:41:38","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T16:41:38","slug":"canadian-stampede-in-your-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2020\/06\/06\/canadian-stampede-in-your-house\/","title":{"rendered":"In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede – A Retrospect"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, WWE revisits their past with NXT’s latest TakeOver paying homage to the original WWF pay-per-view franchise, In Your House<\/strong><\/em>. From 1995 to 1999, the series ran as WWF’s PPV brand, as supplementary PPVs alongside the company’s Big Five at the time – Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, King of the Ring, SummerSlam<\/em><\/strong>, and Survivor Series<\/strong><\/em> – and were designed to combat the decision by competitors World Championship Wrestling (WCW)<\/strong> which had expanded their own PPV schedule in 1995. On July 6, 1997, WWF held\u00a0In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede<\/em><\/strong> live from Calgary, Alberta, Canada in the middle of Calgary Stampede Week, an event that has become for many, the best\u00a0In Your House\u00a0<\/em>pay-per-view in the franchise’s four-year run. And during a time where shows without an audience has become the norm due to COVID-19 restrictions, the show is a reminder just how important a crowd’s reaction is to an event and a story – as it was the ravenous Calgary audience that practically stole the show and made it the moment in time that is has become. Earlier this year in a review of must-see events on the WWE Network<\/a>, the late great wrestling journalist Larry Csonka<\/strong> of 411Mania<\/strong> stated that “Make no mistake, this show is almost perfection.” In 1997, Dave Meltzer<\/strong> of the Wrestling Observer<\/strong> named\u00a0In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede\u00a0<\/em>“Best Major Wrestling Show of the Year”.\u00a0Canadian Stampede\u00a0<\/em>would also be the final\u00a0In Your House\u00a0<\/em>event to be numbered, and starting the following month,\u00a0In Your House\u00a0<\/em>would serve as a subtitle to the pay-per-view’s actual name, Ground Zero: In Your House<\/strong>. <\/em>The final event to use the\u00a0In Your House\u00a0<\/em>branding (prior to Sunday’s NXT TakeOver: In Your House<\/strong><\/em>) was\u00a0St. Valentine’s Day Massacre: In Your House<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>on February 14, 1999.\u00a0<\/strong>While April’s\u00a0Backlash<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>originally featured\u00a0In Your House\u00a0<\/em>as its subtitle early in the promotional stages, by the time the event aired on April 25, 1999, In Your House\u00a0<\/em>was completely removed, making it the first non-Big Five pay-per-view to abolish the In Your House\u00a0<\/em>branding.<\/p>\n

In Your House: Canadian Stampede – THE UNDERCARD<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For much of\u00a0In Your House’<\/em>s run, the events were roughly two hours in length, more supplementary pay-per-views than the longer Big Five events, meaning less matches on the card and with more time spent on each. The event opened with a dark match that featured The Godwinns<\/strong> (Henry O. Godwinn & Phineas I. Godwinn) defeating the New Blackjacks<\/strong> (Blackjack Windham & Blackjack Bradshaw) and while it didn’t air for those watching live, the match did appear as a bonus match on the event’s release on home video. The show’s televised opener featured the Connecticut blue blood, Hunter Hearst Helmsley<\/strong> – who was still a month away from uniting with Shawn Michaels<\/strong> to form D-Generation X<\/strong> – taking on Mankind<\/strong>. It was only the third singles meeting of these two stars at the time – Mankind had defeated Helmsley by DQ on Shotgun Saturday Night<\/strong><\/em> that May and followed it up with a meeting in the King of the Ring<\/em> finals that June, that saw Helmsely win the crown.<\/p>\n

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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But these two were far from done, and at\u00a0Canadian Stampede\u00a0<\/em>they took their feud to a new level of brutality, with their best match together to date. At the time, Mankind was still new to much of the WWF Universe, many of whom were unaware that under that leather mask lurked former WCW star and international hardcore icon Cactus Jack<\/strong>. But that night Mankind showed all kinds of Cactus Jack mannerisms and unleashed some brutal offense on the pre-Game, back before WWF switched gears and made Mick Foley more of the proverbial punching bag that simply a tough brawler who could take the lumps instead of just taking them. The match also featured plenty of interference from Helmsley’s new ring side enforcer, the 9th wonder of the world, Chyna<\/strong>, who had only just made her debut that February at\u00a0In Your House 13: Final Four<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/em>The brawling would be unstoppable, and the match ended in double count-out as Mankind, Chyna, and Hunter Hearst Helmsley (who was quite bloodied) ended up out in the stands and into the parking lot. “Probably one of the best and most underappreciated openers in WWE pay-per-view history,” said Brandon Stroud<\/strong> in a retro review of the event for Uproxx<\/strong> in 2017<\/a>. The story of Mick Foley and Triple H would continue through WWE history for years to come.<\/p>\n

The second match was a rare time when the WWF actually seemed to care about its fledgling rebooted Light Heavyweight division. The event marked the in-ring debut for Michinoku Pro<\/strong> star TAKA Michinoku<\/strong> in the WWF and for his opponent, the WWF went outside their own promotion, bringing in TAKA’s mentor and trainer (and Michinoku Pro founder) The Great Sasuke<\/strong>. At the time of his introduction to the WWF Universe that night in Calgary, Alberta, TAKA Michinoku was a former Frontier Martial-arts Wrestling (FMW)<\/strong> Junior Heavyweight Champion (who would win the title again just over a month after the\u00a0Canadian Stampede\u00a0<\/em>pay-per-view). It would also mark the official WWF debut for The Great Sasuke, which is ironic considering he had won the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship the previous year in his quest to win the coveted J-Crown Championship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The WWF Light Heavyweight title had originally been created in 1981 in association with the WWF’s Mexican alliance with Universal Wrestling Association (UWA)<\/strong>, and in 1995, its ownership was transferred to Michinoku Pro in Japan. In 1997, when WWF decided to officially create its own Light Heavyweight division in the United States (in an answer to WCW’s popular Cruiserweight Division), they took back ownership of the title and stripped Shinjiro Otani of the belt later that November. In December of 1997, at\u00a0In Your House: D-Generation X<\/strong><\/em>,\u00a0<\/em>TAKA Michinoku would defeat Brian Christopher in the finals of the Light Heavyweight Championship tournament to become WWF’s first official Light Heavyweight Champion. The title was ultimately merged with WCW’s Cruiserweight Championship when X-Pac<\/strong> (the reigning WWE Light Heavyweight Champion) defeated WCW Cruiserweight Champion Tajiri<\/strong> in 2001, unifying the titles. But in July of 1997, TAKA Michinoku and The Great Sasuke brought\u00a0puroresu\u00a0<\/em>to the WWF Universe for the first time proper, and despite losing to Sasuke that night (as well as losing the rematch to Sasuke the following night on Monday Night Raw<\/strong><\/em> in Edmonton, a star was born in TAKA, that would propel him to his title victory that December. The location of TAKA’s debut couldn’t have been better either – the Calgary crowd was well accustomed to both Japanese wrestling and junior heavyweight wrestling thanks to a healthy dose of Stu Hart<\/strong>‘s Stampede Wrestling<\/strong> over the past six decades. One of their own stars, Chris Benoit<\/strong>, had actually held the WWF Light Heavyweight title in Mexico in 1991 as the Pegasus Kid<\/strong>.<\/p>\n