Unfortunately for the four participants, at this point the show was running close to four hours due to lengthy speeches earlier on, so a number of the people in the crowd had left. Despite this, the four men went into it full-throttle. Styles played the cocky, arrogant heel perfectly, cracking up the crowd with his antics, such as patting himself down for the referee and saying "I got nothing! See!" before submitting to the pat down.
AJ and TJ (gets confusing after a bit) kicked things off with mat wrestling. A snapmare and a brutal kick to the back by AJ got the crowd going right off the bat. TJ kicked AJ in the face and sent him flying across the ring. Both guys go down, kip-up at the same time, and TJ clotheslined AJ down and followed up with a series of armdrags to Dragon. A dual-plancha is teased when both heels bail to the outside, but they ducked out of the way.
Black Dragon and Harry then showcased their own mat wrestling skills before AJ and Harry locked up. Harry reversed a whip to the ropes, dropped down, went for a leapfrog and AJ dropkicked him right in the crotch, and then kipped up into a frankenstiener for the first major spot of the match that is one of the coolest things I have seen in a long time. The heels take over, beating on Harry. A double-elbow and AJ continues his heelish coolness by going for a pin with one finger. AJ looks like he is stiffing the heck out of both youngsters during this match, including clotheslining Harry's head off when he hits the ropes after elbowing out of a headlock. After the match however both TJ and Harry commented that this wasn't the case. Dragon shows signs of his namesake, Ultimo Dragon, by taking Harry down with a La Magistral Cradle for a two count.
A cool spot sees Harry get sent into the corner, AJ catch his foot, and Harry kicks his other leg up and down to break it, followed by a boot to the chest that sends AJ flying across the ring and the hot tag to TJ who goes crazy with a series of amazing dropkicks as well as armdrags and clotheslines. Dragon grabs the top rope to avoid a superkick, Harry trips him outside and drags him out. TJ puts AJ on the top rope and puts him over his shoulders for his finisher, a somersault senton with AJ on his shoulders. Dragon runs on the apron, nails TJ in the back and pushes AJ's legs, turning it into an insane tornado DDT to turn things back in the heels favor. AJ hits a double-underhook into a gutbuster, suplexes TJ over the top rope and has Dragon "punt him like a football." AJ follows up with a beautiful delayed brainbuster and a one-handed cover for a 2. Dragon follows this up with a over-the-top jump to the second rope Asai Moonsault, and AJ takes a page out of Eddie Guerrero's playbook with the hilo dive. Dragon hits his finisher, the shooting star press, but Harry breaks up the count.
More craziness, including a moonsault mule kick by AJ, a gutwrench powerbomb by Dragon on Harry that is broken up by a springboard ax-handle by TJ, and some nice power moves by Harry, who shows a lot of his Dad in this match. The crowd pops as the recognize the set-up for the Styles Clash, but Harry boots AJ to the chest and TJ rolls with it into a cradle for a two count. Harry nails Dragon with the running powerslam and that only gets a two count. Following up with the Dragon sleeper, AJ comes in, and grabs a sleeper of his own, goes for a reverse suplex, a series of sweet reversals end up with a nasty neckbreaker by Styles.
AJ ends up outside, TJ takes AJ and himself out with a no hands somersault plancha, allowing Harry to hit a second powerslam and the dragon sleeper to end an incredible match. AJ blows off Dragon after the loss and stalks to the back as Harry and TJ celebrate.
Although drastically different than the final match, the semi-main event of Sabu vs. Ted Hart also lived up to its hype as an insane, bloody and brilliant match that "scared the hell out of" Ted's Mom Georgia, who watched from ringside.
Although the crowd was confused when "The Call" by The Backstreet Boys played, when Sabu came to the ring, they forgot about that strangeness. Ted is booed big time by the Calgary crowd that seems to despise him. They have matwork to start before Sabu heads outside and Ted goes for a plancha, that misses, and the crowd legitimately thought he blew out his knee. An awesome sell job by Hart followed as Sabu worked the leg. Sabu hit all of his signature spots, throwing a chair into Teddy's face, the somersault legdrop, Arabian facebuster and the camel clutch, which Ted refused to submit too.
After heading outside, Ted gets the crowd on their feet by climbing a lighting fixture and moonsaulting off it onto Sabu! Dr. Kyoto, who accompanied Sabu, tried to set up the table and failed, so a obviously irritated Sabu set it up himself and ended up on it, receiving a corkscrew moonsault off the top rope through the table by Ted. Kyoto tries to put the other table in the ring, and Ted's sidekick Steve Benoit does a really sad job of trying to get him not too. Finally security helps put the table in the ring, and Sabu breaks it and Hart in half with a Arabian chestbuster from the top.
The craziness continues minutes later when Ted tries Sabu's triple-jump moonsault and gets tripped up, busting himself open on the chair. Sabu beats the hell out of him, tosses the chair at him, Ted catches it, throws it back and dropkicks it in his face! Crowd is just so into the match by this point it is unbelievable. Ted is soaked in his own blood when Sabu gets him in the Camel clutch for the third time. Benoit throws in the towel, and the referee decides that Ted can't continue and calls it a no-contest. Sabu helps Ted up, reviving him with water and raising his arm. The crowd shows a lot of respect by chanting "Teddy" as he leaves.
Coupled with a fantastic undercard, and with the exception of some lengthy (and boring) speeches, the four-hour show was well worth it for those who attended.
Other Results:
Match 1
Triple-Threat Match
"Jumpin" Jack Flash vs. Pete Wilson vs. Nick Nogg
Winner: "Jumpin" Jack Flash at 15:02
Match Rating: 8/10
Match 2
Ted Hart Wrestling Camp Exhibition Match.
Trevor Ing vs. Braydyn Schultz vs. Dan Fox
Winner: Dan Fox at 9:00
Match Rating: 2/10
Match 3
"Hotshot" Johnny Devine, "Ravenous" Randy Myers & "Dirty" Duke Durrango
vs. Rod Rage, "Kwik Kick" Kirk Melnyk & "Turtle Boy" Jason Carter.
Winners: Devine, Durrango & Myers in 11:25
Match Rating: 9/10
Match 4
Nattie Niedhart vs. Belle Lovitz.
Winner: Nattie Niedhart in 10:12
Rating: 6.5/10
Match 5
Bruce Hart vs. Principal Pound.
Winner: Bruce Hart by Count-out.
Rating: 1/10
Match 6
Juggernaut & Apocalypse vs. Dave Swift and Highlander.
Winners: Juggernaut & Apocalypse at 18:12
Match Rating: 7/10
Match 7 - Semi Main Event No DQ
"Terminator" Ted Hart vs. Sabu
Winner: No Contest at 18:12.
Match Rating: 10/10
Match 8
Main Event
"Stampede Kid" TJ Wilson & "Bulldog" Harry Smith vs. AJ Styles & The
Black Dragon
Winners: TJ Wilson & Harry Smith at 22:50
Rating: 10/10
Overall Show Rating: 10/10
Jason Clevett, formerly of Calgary and presently of Saskatoon is still having residual mark out symptoms from meeting Randy Myers. He is a full-time Student in Business Management and is not as hairy as Albert.
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Mon, May 5, 2003
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