Austin welcomes MLW’s Court Bauer to the show to discuss WWE’s In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede.

Austin says that this Canadian crowd was one of the hottest crowds he ever worked in front of. Austin worked in a 10-man tag match, and his team of babyfaces were immediately forced to work as heels on this night since they went up against The Hart Foundation in Canada. During this time, Bret Hart and The Hart Foundation were enormous heels in the United States but they were huge babyfaces in their home country of Canada.

Bauer says that this was a very good show overall, and he thought all the matches and packages were timed out very well. The broadcast team for this show was Vince McMahon, Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler, and they were phenomenal on this night. Austin agrees entirely, noting that a lot of fans didn’t like McMahon as lead commentator, but he thinks that’s one of the greatest three-men booths of all time.

The opening match of the evening was Triple H (w/Chyna) versus Mankind. Austin thought this was a great match, and he specifically enjoyed the understated, yet powerful performance from Chyna. He says that Chyna had an incredible impact on the business and she needs to be in the WWE Hall of Fame. Even though this match ended in a double count-out, Bauer thought the finish was irrelevant because these two men had a great bout that set the tone for the evening.

Austin thought the WWE Title match between The Undertaker and Vader was a solid match. Bauer mentions that Paul Bearer was terrific during this bout, and he thought Bearer stole the show here. He thinks it’s unfortunate that Vader didn’t really take off in WWE because he was one of the greater ‘monster heels’ of all time. Austin agrees, saying that Vader was so great at getting heat on sympathetic babyfaces.

Austin says he knew from very early on that Mark Callaway was going to be a huge star, and once Callaway was given The Undertaker as his gimmick, there was nothing that could stop him. Austin says that McMahon could have given that gimmick to anyone else and they may have done okay with it, but nobody could have done with it what Callaway has done.

Austin thought Vader needed to control more of this match offensively, especially since Undertaker was ultimately going to retain his Title in the end. He points out that Vader and Undertaker botched the tombstone reversal spot in this match, and Austin recalls botching that exact same spot with Undertaker in the past.

Bauer thought the production of this show was very well done, with all the littlest details receiving attention. Performing the Canadian National Anthem before the beginning of the 5 on 5 match was a very nice touch in Bauer’s opinion. Austin agrees, saying this entire presentation made the Hart’s look like Gods in their home Country.

In that main event, The Hart Foundation, consisting of Bret & Owen Hart, Brian Pillman, British Bulldog and Jim Neidhart, squared off against Austin’s team which featured Austin, Goldust, Ken Shamrock and The Road Warriors, Animal & Hawk.

Bauer points out that Ken Shamrock was a natural professional wrestler, and if he would have stuck with WWE he would have made a lot of money and had a lengthy run. Austin agrees entirely and says that Shamrock’s WWE run was short, but it was easy to see what an amazing athlete he was. He thinks WWE missed the boat on a Shamrock/Bret Hart angle.

Austin says that when he was on the outside of the ring at one point, Bruce Hart reached over the barricade and threw his drink on him. Austin and Bruce got into an altercation and Austin says that was basically a shoot because although there was a spot planned involving Bruce, a drink being thrown was not part of it. Austin says that whole scenario was, “…a whole lot of fun”.

Owen Hart rolled up Austin with a School Boy for the finish of this match, and just a month later the roles would be reversed when Austin pinned Owen with a school boy after the famous botched piledriver that nearly paralyzed Austin. Austin informs that he was actually supposed to pin Owen with a stunner in that bout, but after being piledriven on his head Austin couldn’t move, so he called an audible on the fly and changed the finish to a school boy roll up.

Austin points out that all 10 of the performers in the 10-man tag match at Canadian Stampede are either already in the WWE Hall of Fame, or they should be in there. Unfortunately, several of the performers in this match passed away shortly after this event.

That sums up this week’s episode of The Steve Austin Show Unleashed. You can listen to the show yourself anytime here, and I’ll catch ya next week for another recap!