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Throwback Thursday: Looking back at In Your House: Canadian Stampede

Each and every Thursday I will look back at a different pay-per-view event from the past via the WWE Network. Want to see a certain event covered? Send your suggestions to @VaughnMJohnson on Twitter.

Last time, I covered Starrcade 1985. Next week, we'll look back at In Your House: Ground Zero.

In Your House: Canadian Stampede

Date: July 6, 1997

Venue: Saddledome, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Some random notes

Canadian Stampede was one of the last In Your House events from WWE. The final In Your House was D-Generation X in December of 1997.

The event was held during the famous Calgary Stampede, which is one of the biggest festivals in Canada not named the Grey Cup.

WWE apparently had a float in that year's Calgary Stampede parade that featured the Hart Foundation. British Bulldog's wife, Diana Hart Smith, was even named Mrs. Calgary 1997.

Because the event took place during the Stampede, the announcers — Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler — were all wearing cowboy hats at ringside. Cowboy hats were the norm for Ross and still are until this day, but were something new for McMahon and Lawler. Lawler's was quite ridiculous, however, due to the enormity of it. You could barely see his face.

Michael Hayes handled the backstage interviews under the idiotic name of Doc Hendrix.

With that said, let's get to the matches.

Mankind vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley went to a double count-out

This event took place prior to the formation of D-Generation X, meaning that the man we all know as Triple H was still known as the blue blood from Greenwich, Conn.

Helmsley was fresh off a victory over Mankind to become the 1997 King of the Ring, the title he was supposed to win the year before the memorable curtain call in Madison Square Garden earned him essentially a year-long losing streak.

Mankind entered this match as the babyface by WWE fans, which was still new to the man formerly known as Cactus Jack.

Seeing this match was another reminder of how vital Chyna was to the maturation and progression of Helmsley. She played a huge factor in all of his matches and helped him immensely in getting over as a heel. This match was no different.

Early in the match, she power slammed Mankind onto the steel steps, but instead of his body hitting the steps, it was mostly Mankind's leg. Helmsley worked on the leg the rest of the match.

Chyna pretty much came into play at every turn to help Helmsley, but things broke down and both participants eventually started to fight through the crowd, which earned them both a count-out. They even fought in the penalty box.

While the match was over, the fight between these two was just getting started and eventually led to a steel cage match between these two at SummerSlam.

The Great Sasuka def. Taka Michinoku

WWE billed this match as part of its junior heavyweight division. The company eventually went away from that and referred to it as the light heavyweight division. I'd prefer junior heavyweight.

Before the match got underway, the cameras cut to Mankind and Helmsley still fighting through the stands. Once there were ushered backstage again, the match got underway.

Sasuke, a former IWGP Junior Heavyweight and Junior Heavyweight Tag Team champion, was apparently supposed to become the first WWE Light Heavyweight champion, but some comments he made to the Japanese media about manner he was going to defend the title drew the ire of WWE and the company terminated his contract as a result.

Michinoku was the beneficiary and became the first-ever WWE Light Heavyweight champion.

On this night, Michinoku was not so lucky as Sasuke routinely kicked the daylights out of him, including once right to the face.

Besides the stiff kicks, Sasuke and Michinoku put on a very exciting match, especially given that they did a lot of things that the American/Canadian audiences were not used to seeing in 1997.

Sasuke eventually picked up the victory, but after the match, the cameras cut to Mankind and Helmsley fighting in the parking lot.

They fought outside of the arena and Helmsley even got busted open. This time, officials and security were able to break these two up for good.

WWE championship – The Undertaker def. Vader

The Undertaker was originally supposed to face Ahmed Johnson in this title match, but Johnson suffered one of his many injuries and was replaced by Vader.

By this point in 1997, The Undertaker was conflicted, as not long before this match, Paul Bearer told him that his brother that was thought to be dead was actually alive. That brother eventually turned out to be Kane and he debuted at Badd Blood in October of 1997.

One of the best parts of the match was Bearer's antics on the outside in an effort to thwart The Undertaker. Bearer would routinely shout random things about The Undertaker, even calling him a murderer. And for whatever reason, he did not want those cameras to be in his face.

He also hit The Undertaker with his shoe. A shoe.

That did not slow down The Undertaker, however, as he eventually made a comeback, which caused the fans to get so loud that the hard camera began to shake.

What shook me was how both Vader and Undertaker did blatant low blows in front of the referee and did not get disqualified.

At the end of the day, The Undertaker landed two choke slams, including one from the top rope, and a tombstone to finally defeat Vader.

The Hart Foundation def. Steve Austin, Ken Shamrock, Goldust, & The Legion of Doom

All of that other stuff was cool, but this entire show was essentially built around this one match and the emotion that surrounded.

Before I dig into this match, I feel the need to explain the context for those that may not know.

In 1997, fans began to cheer more for villainous characters. A prime example was Steve Austin, who despite doing one dastardly deed after the other, was constantly being cheered by the fans.

Instead of just rolling with the punches, Bret Hart decided to voice his displeasure with the state of wrestling. Instead of people listening to a man they considered a hero, they looked at him like he was a whiner and turned on him.

This was especially the case in the United States, where he and his comrades in the Hart Foundation were certainly bad guys. Hart, who had played a babyface the majority of his career, embraced it.

However, Canada never turned its proverbial back on Hart and the Hart Foundation. Instead, Canadians embraced them as heroes, creating quite the border war between wrestling fans in the United States and wrestling fans in Canada.

In Calgary, Alberta, which was the hometown of the Hart family, they were revered as folk heroes. This went beyond admiration. This was the home team much like the Calgary Flames or Stampeders. Heck, even Calgary's junior hockey team — the Calgary Hitmen — was named after Bret Hart in 1994.

(Side note for Flyers fans: The Hitmen posses two Flyers draft picks on their roster in Travis Sanheim and Radel Fazleev.)

Because the Harts were the home team, that made their opposition the de-facto visiting team. And that is what this match felt like.

It did not feel like the typical wrestling match between a heel and a babyface. It felt like the Stampeders were hosting the Edmonton Eskimos on Labor Day or Labour Day up in Canada.

For those unfamiliar, that is a big deal in Alberta.

Needless to say, there was a lot of emotion involved in this match, especially with nearly the entire Hart family, including Stu and Helen, taking up the first few rows of ringside. They came into play later on.

Despite the Hart Foundation being the "home team," only two members of the team were Canadian: Bret and Owen Hart. The others weren't even from Canada, but they all shared some form of connection with either Calgary or the Hart family.

Neidhart — a native of Florida — had obviously been tag team partners with Bret Hart for years in the WWE, but began his wrestling career with the Hart family in Calgary. He eventually married Bret and Owen Hart's sister Ellie.

Before traveling to Calgary, Neidhart was a professional football player. The same goes for Pillman, who ended his football career with the Stampeders.

The Cincinnati, Ohio native began his wrestling career in Calgary and was trained by the Harts.

Bulldog was the only member of the group that did not begin his career/life in Calgary. Hailing all the way from the United Kingdom, Bulldog found his way into the family by marrying Diana Hart.

The Americans came out first and were greeted by plenty of boos. It was the first I have ever heard the Legion of Doom (much better known as the Road Warriors) not get a huge pop.

Last to come out was Austin and he was public enemy No. 1 in Calgary. It sounded strange to hear an entire arena yell "Austin sucks!"

The Hart Foundation came out one by one and got extremely loud ovations. You would have thought the Flames had brought home the Stanley Cup.

Everything in the match was emotionally charged. You can tell the wrestlers in the ring fed of the emotions of the fans in the stands.

During the course of the match, Bruce Hart, who was sitting ringside with the rest of the Hart family, got involved from his seat and attacked Austin. He did not fare too well.

Once Austin took care of Bruce Hart, he took care of his little brother Owen by hitting his knee with a chair, which forced him to head to the locker room.

Bret Hart eventually retaliated and attacked Austin's knee by putting him in the figure four around the ring post. Austin was taken to the locker room as well.

The most active member of the match had to have been Pillman, as he constantly jumped into the ring to attack the opposition without tagging in.

Eventually, Austin and Owen Hart made their way back down to the ring. At one point, Austin essentially had to fend off the entire Hart family before being pinned by Owen Hart.

After the match, cops came down to separate both teams and the Hart family, which had jumped into the ring to get a piece of the action. You can tell Bruce Hart was itching to mix it up.

Austin and his team eventually left the ring to leave the Hart contingent to celebrate, but Austin came back by himself with a steel chair and hit Neidhart in the back with it.

The entire Hart family jumped on Austin, forcing the cops to come back down to get him out of the ring before he was torn a part. The cops even had to go as far as to handcuff him in order to get him out of there.

After Austin exited the premises, Stu, Helen and even the grandchildren got into the ring to join in the celebration. There had to be 25 members of the Hart family in the ring. Even Lawler asked, "How many of them is it?"

And the show went off the air with the Hart family celebrating a hard-fought victory over those dastardly Americans.

The emotions in this match alone made this very memorable. It didn't have a bunch of fancy spots. Quite frankly, it didn't need any. This was a fight between two sides that did not like each other and that emotion carried this match.

To me, that is what professional wrestling is all about. It isn't all about the fancy moves or holds. It isn't about "This is awesome!" chants. It is about the emotion. When you have that, you have magic.