Welcome back to another classic encounter in Calgary’s rich past. This time around we will take a look at a young “cocky” wrestler by the name of B.G. Holliday as he takes on a young Chris Benoit. Holliday never became an international super star like Benoit did, he would never become multi time world champion in the major federations. However, he was a  talented grappler and had one important thing that many of the famous wrestler’s lacked in this promotion. He had absolutely great mic skills, he had the gift of gab. While legends such as Bret Hart, Chris Benoit & The Dynamite Kid may have been some of the greatest technical wrestlers of all time, most Stampede stars were not great on the microphone, especially early in their careers. And this is where  Holliday really shined. His mic skills, even at this early stage of his young wrestling career, were some of the best in the territory and he reminded me very much of Chris Jericho in both his wrestling and his mic skills. A cocky Jonathan Holliday quickly became “the man that fans loved to hate” in the territory. Interestingly, Holliday was involved in some of the “darker moments” of Stampedes history. This was a time when the promotions business side became less well run by its promoters and as a result wrestlers were leaving for bigger organizations with bigger wallets. There is a story that the Dynamite Kid, after returning from the WWF injured, broken and addicted to drugs,became  jealous of Holliday’s quick success in Calgary, wanted to run him out of town and bad mouth him in the industry. If this famous story was an exaggeration of real events I can not tell you, however there are great stories of a back ally fight in Calgary on electric avenue between the former British Bulldog and Holiday over drugs, jealousy, and pay days that needed to be settled. Other events are rumored to have taken place between the two, but as they are both unconfirmed and very illegal, I shall not get into them. Just realise that both men left Canada soon after, and it was not because they didn’t like the cold weather! Enjoy the match and I will return with another “ring- a ding-dong -dandy” next week!

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