One of the great things about Stampede Wrestling was its inter promotional matches. Many classic encounters took place in Calgary between the Stampede roster and champions from other wrestling territories such as the AWA, NWA, Japan and even other Canadian organizations. Here is a classic encounter out of Stampede Wrestlings rich past thats bound to interest wrestling historians. A young Bret Hart challenges the 4 year world title reign of the legendary AWA heavyweight champion, Nick Bockwinkle. Bret was legitimately injured at this time and, of course, in the early “learning phase” of his career. However that did not stop Bret , the future “best there ever will be” and Nick,who was at the time “the best there was” from putting on a good wrestling match for all the fans. Worth noting is the mention of Davey Boy Smith winning the Stampede light heavyweight title, earlier in that same night.  Worth also noting are the post match interviews by Ed Whalen with Nick Bockwinkle and  “Dr. D” Shultz ,who of course, competed in Stampede for several years. Dr. D also competed in the AWA, NWA, WWF and is most famous for his assault on a reporter who told him wrestling was fake! Enjoy the classic match and I will see you all for another ” ring-a-ding-dong-dandy”, next week!

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