411’s Tales from The Territories Episode 5 Report: ‘Stampede: The Hart of Pro Wrestling’

-This week we head North of The Border to Calgary….Alberta….Canada. Let’s get to it!

-Roundtable: Abdullah The Butcher, ‘No Class’ Bobby Bass, Bret Hart, ‘Dr. D’ David Schultz

-Abdullah calls Stu Hart the man and notes all the Hart kids were crazy. Bret remembers when Abdullah first came in to Calgary, he was the scariest wrestler he ever saw. He credits Abdullah for making them sell out every week.

-Schultz tells us he loved Calgary and thought about moving there and becoming a Canadian Citizen. He then tells us we can call him late for dinner, but never call him fake. Of course, that means we have to see him slapping the reporter again. Dark Side of the Ring did a show about that and you can find my review here.

-Bass tells us that he got his nickname from Ed Whalen when he and his partner tossed a midget into the lights during a match.

-Bret tells a story about amateur wrestling coaches giving Stu a hard time about fake wrestling. Stu caught on that they were mocking him, so he buttered them up and got one of the coaches on the mat to show him a move. Sixty five year old Stu stretched the shit out of this coach and was telling everyone what he was doing to make the guy scream more. Awesome!

-Don’t Mess with Stu: Bret remembers having friends over the house and they were scared of the screams they heard from the basement as Stu was stretching guys. Bret quietly went down and saw Stu stretching Anvil and four hours later he went down again and Anvil was stuck in the same hold. Schultz notes that Stu tried to get him down in the basement for three years and David wouldn’t do it. Stu did have David in a hold and he needed to leave, so he had Stu show the hold to his wife and took off. Nice!

-Abdullah talks about how Stu rarely put his money in the bank and noticed a safe in the dungeon. He notes that Stu never short changed him and often would given extra. When he heard that Stu passed he broke down as Stu was a father feather to him and nobody will ever say a bad word about Stu while he is alive. He does joke with Bret that there should be one last check for him and Bret tells him he will search The Hart House.

-Bret would always get guys telling him they loved Stu and yet, never met him. It was from all the stories the boys shared. Bret tells a story of Stu getting into a fight with a guy in the driveway and carrying him into the kitchen to stretch him. Apparently it was a guy trying to steal Stu’s car and he got caught, so Stu stretched him for four hours. He never called the police and instead called the kid’s parents and then even got the kid a job as an usher at the shows to get him on a better path. That’s great!

-Andre Hart Attack: Bret notes that anytime Andre came to Calgary it was like Mardi Gras. Bret and Smith were given the job to drive and pick up Andre to take him to the airport. Bret let Smith drive and they arrived late and Andre was annoyed. Bret promised him they could still get him to the airport. They were doing like 120 and the police were following, but Smith and Bret decided to floor it up a ramp and nearly flipped the car. Andre was rather pissed but they got him to the airport. The police arrive and pull a gun on Bret to get him out of the car.

-Commercials!

-Bret tells the police he can explain everything and lies that his brother was running a show in Montana and all his mother was tied into the show and they needed to get Andre on the plane. They let Smith off with his sob story. Andre never said a word to Stu after that and never returned to Calgary. Bret notes Andre had every right to be mad and it took him years to get Andre to become friends with him. “He could hold a grudge!” Stu always wondered why Andre didn’t talk to him and Bret could only tell him he had to be there in the car to understand why Andre was rightly, angry.

-The Language of Kayfabe: Abdullah had to live the gimmick and couldn’t cut promos as he was billed as being from The Sudan. Adbullah would frequent a bar in Calgary and have to pretend like he couldn’t read or speak English. The waitress whispered to Abdullah the she wouldn’t tell anyone, but she knew he could talk.

-Scultz tells the story of some kids threatening to kidnap his daughter. His car was set on fire with lighter fire countless times and it looked good, but didn’t damage the car. Bass notes the fans always wanted to get back at the heels for what they did to Bret.

-Schultz says he come out of the building and saw a guy threatening to toss a stone through his windshield. The guy turned to Schultz and threatened to throw the stone at Schultz, but he had a hockey stick and cracked the guy in the face with it. The guy’s brother tried to get involved, so Schultz give him a shot to the shins. “That hockey stick makes a good weapon.” Schultz still as the hockey stick in his house.

-Bret Risks His Life: Abdullah had an angle where he bloodied Smith and that brought Stu into the ring where he threw some heavy elbows. They brawled to the back and that set up Stu vs. Abdullah for the next six weeks. Bret was 12 and watched in the crowd as his dad was bleeding and getting his forehead bitten by Abdullah. Bret kicked Abdullah and left footprints on his pants. Abdullah gave him a pass though Abdullah notes that Stu told him to “kill the sons of bitches” the next time. That was Stu apparently!

-Commercials!

-How Bret Got Smart: Archie ‘The Stomper’ Gouldie came to Stampede in the 60s and made Stu a bunch of money. Bret watched on TV as Archie threatened to piledrive Helen on the Interstate and it terrified Bret. His dad left the house one day and Archie came to the house and Bret was scared. His mom just slipped the check out the door, but they said some nice words to each other. Bret was annoyed his mom was being nice to Archie The Stomper as he broke Stu’s arm. Bret started to get smart as his dad wouldn’t wear the cast until someone showed up to the house. He picked up on what was really happening, but every time he was at a show he believed again.

-Dr. D’s Revenge: D notes that people would make the mistake of leaving their coffee alone. David did it once when he went to the bathroom and then he drank it and in 20 minutes he realized he was on an acid trip. Schultz told them he didn’t care what they put in his coffee, but he wanted to know how much they put in and nobody said anything. David went home and his wife was making cookies, so he told her to make 25-30 more and he added Exlax. They looked just like his wife’s cookies, so he decided to take them to the boys.

-Commercials!

-Apparently he also added horse laxative to the cookies. The boys are the cookies and some couldn’t get off the toilet and some wanted to go to the hospital. A light bulb goes off for Bass as he thought it was the hotdogs and notes he hasn’t had a hotdog since.

-Mabel Party: Bret says Calgary was famous for Mabel Parties. There was a red head that was apparently a smoke show and her husband was out of town a lot. She would throw a party for the wrestlers and start flirting with them. The husband would come home and break in with a shotgun and start shooting blanks. The boys who were in on it would pretend to be shot and one would have ketchup smeared on his hand to rub over his shirt. They would yell for the mark to run and they would take off through the door and show up later with the RCP. Bret notes it was a well done rib that was done too well. The RCP would go in and drink beers because they knew the rib.

-Commercials!

-Roadside Assistance: Abdullah had never seen so much snow like he saw in Calgary. Schultz learned that when driving and a big truck passed, it would cause snow to block out vision, so he just let go of the wheel and waited for the truck to pass as trying to steer only made it worse. He notes he never had a problem driving up there. Stu was told that the van broke down and he told them it was warm where he was and hung up. The guys were burning things in the van to keep warm.

-Bret remembers breaking down and trying to hitchhike. He was able to get an old couple to stop and he floored it when he saw all these wrestlers pouring off the bus. They were able to get people to give the first match a ride and then the second which bought time until they could fix the bus.

-Death of The Territory: Schultz talks about Bad News Allen and how everyone talked bad about him. They worked together for two tours in Japan and got along fine. When they came back to Calgary he realized Bad News was trying to get him out of the picture to take his place. He asks Bret if he heard anything bad about Allen. Bret calls him a meat chopper and what he learned in Japan isn’t the way to sell tickets in North America as they are different markets. Allen was always getting suspended for using a fork as that was a no no with the commission. So Allen would go back to Japan.

-Allen returned and they were going to turn Stomper face by having Bad News turn on him by beating up “his son.” Bret felt it would be big business and Allen again asked if he should use the fork. He was told no as the commission was watching them closely. Bad News ignored and used the fork anyway. He then attacked a 90 year old man that was a long time fan. The fan had hit Bad News in the leg, so Allen picked him up by the hair.

-Commercials!

-Next week it’s Polynesian Pro Wrestling!

-Allen’s actions lead to Ed Whalen quitting as he felt the show was getting too violent. The next night in Edmonton Bad News nearly caused a riot and then swung a chair at a fan that hit him on the leg. That cost Stu his license in Edmonton and Bad News was suspended. Bad News had killed two towns in two days. Bret feels that it killed the company as they never got back on their feet. That was in Dec of 83 and he sold the business to Vince in Aug 1984. Bret tells us that Vince never paid Stu a dime, so Stu got the territory back, but the damage had been done.

-Bret talks about all the guys that got their start in Calgary and became huge stars. Bret mentions himself, Schultz, and Abdullah and then, “Bobby you did the best you could.” Savage!

-Bret says being with the boys like this makes everything they did worth it. They all want Bret to start Stampede back in Calgary. Abdullah says the joke that was owed him was only a joke and he will gladly take cash. Bret: “I’ll see if I can find you that check.”

-Like the rest of this series this show was fun. It can listen to guys sit around telling wrestling stories for hours and that’s what you get with this show. Naturally, Bret was the star of this one, but it was his father’s territory and nobody is going to have more stories than him. We didn’t get much from Bass, but overall this was another good entry. Thanks for reading!