Superstars on the Superstation

Legacy Review- From the Vault

Superstars on the Superstation

February 7, 1986 (taped February 2) from the Omni in Atlanta, GA

 

Commentary: David Crockett and Tony Schiavone

 

Somehow I missed this when I was first marking out full shows in the WWE Vault to review, so I'm going back to do this a bit out of order. Not that it matters to anyone reading this but still. This is very much a forerunner or early test from Jim Crockett Promotions for what would later be Clash of the Champions, a mini PPV level card being broadcast on basic cable TBS. There was also a fan interaction component, as the fans got to vote (phone vote I assume) on what "dream matches" they wanted to see. Both the Omni and being on TBS were recent additions to the JCP portfolio too, they had just reached a deal to buy the old Georgia territory and the accompanying TBS timeslot from WWF in the aftermath of the whole Black Saturday fiasco.

 

Current US champ Magnum TA is the host for tonight. Sadly, that's a role he's soon going to have to get used to. I didn't catch the name of the "lovely lady" next to him and I have no idea who she is. I like the "SuperStation" logo on the ring mat. Presentation wise they've really gone all out for this show considering the time period. Tom Miller has come over from the Greensboro Coliseum to be the ring announcer tonight. Commentary then does their intro and make sure to point out that all matches tonight will be 20 minute time limits due to TV time constraints.

 

NWA World Tag Team Championship: The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette) def The Rock 'N' Roll Express (c) in 16:27- This alone is worth the price of admission. JCP and WCW didn't get nearly enough Midnight/RNR matches onto their major shows, especially the Eaton/Condrey version of the Midnights. The concept of career defining forever rivals is a bit more prevalent in Japan than here (Mutoh/Chono, Liger/Kanemoto, Suzuki/Nagata to name a few), but if there was ever a pair of wrestlers or teams that were the definition of forever rivals in the US it was the Midnights and RNR Express. This is nowhere near the start either, at this point they had wrestled each other across the southern territories, mainly Mid-South, for nearly two years and the rivalry had already reached legendary proportions. Like everywhere else in the newly expanded territory the RNR are BONKERS over in the Omni. The Midnights jump during intros! Gotta get going, a 20 minute time limit is a short match by these teams' standards, they regularly went 30+ with each other. Gibson gets tossed out and Morton is isolated in the ring. After a few shots he's tossed out too, then Gibson is flipped back in to take a beating. They try the same with Morton but Morton uses the top rope to flip both Midnights down to the floor! The RNR take over on offense on the floor and in the ring. Condrey gives Eaton an inadvertent stinkface, then the RNR atomic drop both Midnights into each other. After that we have a reset as the Midnights regroup on the floor, then settle in with Eaton and Gibson. Eaton tries a cheap shot on a corner break and Gibson gives it right back to him. Gibson blocks Eaton hiptoss attempts and hits his own, then a flying headscissors. Morton slows things down a little working on Eaton's leg on the mat. Eaton eye rakes free and tosses Morton out to the floor again. Morton backdrops Eaton on the floor! The still unpadded floor. Back in Eaton fights Morton off and tags Condrey in. Gibson gets a leg takedown and works on Condrey's leg a bit. Morton does a straight up senton onto Condrey's leg. The RNR stay on that as the target. Condrey fights back and tries to give Morton a knee to the gut, but it's with the knee that's been worked on and it hurts him more than Morton. Not A1 strategery there. Gibson goes into a full spinning toe hold on Condrey. Morton then makes his own tactical error, letting Condrey get too into the center of the ring and he's able to scurry over and tag out to Eaton. Eaton POPS Morton with some open hand strikes in the corner. Gibson comes off the ropes and hits a flash suplex on Eaton. Gibson tries a dropkick but Eaton blocks it and slingshots him into a Condrey clothesline! TV goes to commercial, but thanks to the magic of pretaping we come back to the exact same spot we left off at with nothing lost. Eaton holds Gibson against the ropes so Cornette can whip him with his belt! Condrey covers for 2. Eaton snap mares Gibson over and goes up top. Alabama Jam! Though it wasn't called that or a finisher yet. Eaton gets into a slugfest with Morton so Condrey can hit some extra shots, then covers for 2. Gibson and Condrey get into an abdominal stretch fight that Gibson wins. Condrey quickly hiptosses out. Eaton hits a back elbow. Another snap mare and he goes up top again. Kneedrop off the top this time. Condrey pulls Gibson up to hit him with a HUGE clothesline and covers for 2. Wait, is Tony right? That's Pee Wee Anderson reffing this match? I didn't recognize him under the freaking afro. The Midnights work the distraction game again so Cornette can hit some more belt shots. Gibson fights up in a Condrey chinlock into a top wristlock fight. Condrey pulls his hair to get him back down. Morton comes in to protest that, allowing Eaton to hit an elbow off the top on Gibson. Condrey covers for 2. Gibson leaps over a Condrey backdrop attempt and hits a kneelift! But he fell into the wrong corner and still can't tag. Gibson stays isolated and in peril. Swinging neckbreaker from Eaton for 2. Gibson counters a double team attempt with a sunset flip on Eaton. Condrey tries to hold Eaton up but Morton comes in and dropkicks him down! 2 count on Eaton. Condrey then covers Gibson for 2. Backbreaker from Condrey. The Midnights set up for the rocket launcher. Gibson dodges! Tag to Morton! DONNYBROOK! Morton gets a crossbody on Eaton but there's too much chaos for the ref to count. Double dropkick on Eaton! But Anderson was behind Eaton and he tumbles out of the ring! Double dropkick on Condrey that sends him out. Cornette gets on the apron and the RNR flip him in. Morton has the belt and loads up to hit Cornette with it. Condrey sneaks in from behind and WHACKS Morton with Cornette's tennis racket! Cornette drags Eaton on top of Morton, pushes Anderson back in the ring, and the Midnights get the pin to win the titles! Just another night at the office for these teams. ****1/4

 

Magnum is SHOCKED that the Midnights would use such nefarious means to win the match. The lady with him says some stuff about how great the crowd and energy are, clearly clueless and just there for likely some network cross promotion of some kind. 

 

The Road Warriors (w/Paul Ellering) def The Russian Team by DQ in 6:55- The continuation of a months long feud. At this time the Roadies were still with AWA though they had dropped those tag titles, but they would soon be signing full time with JCP. They also got their start in Georgia so they're pretty popular in the Omni too, like everywhere else they ever stopped in. Tommy Young is in to ref this one, with no afro. Nikita and Animal start. Animal no sells everything Nikita throws at him. A boot up from Nikita staggers him a little, but then he catches Nikita coming off the second rope into a bear hug. Nikita eye rakes free and slams him. Animal dodges an elbow drop, hits his own slam but misses a legdrop. Hawk tags in for a go. Lockup stalemates. Nikita gets a punch to Hawk's gut and Ivan hits an ax handle off the top rope to Hawk's back. Ivan tries coming off the top again but Hawk catches him in the gut and hits a shoulderbreaker. Big boot from Hawk. Animal press slam on Ivan. Classic Hawk fistdrop for 2. While the Roadies continue to pound on Ivan commentary notices someone new at ringside. It's Baron von Raschke. He goes into the Russian corner. A German teaming up with the Soviets? I guess the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is active again. Wait, Raschke is supposed to be East German. Makes more sense then. Meanwhile Hawk goes to the running tackle well once too often, as Ivan sidesteps him and pushes him into the brick wall that is Nikita. He tags in and slams Hawk for 2. Ivan uses his chain to choke Hawk in the corner. Ivan hits a legdrop for 2. Swinging neckbreaker for 2. Double back elbow from the Russians. They work Animal to chain choke Hawk in the corner again. Hawk ducks an Ivan clothesline and hits a flying tackle. EVERYONE IN THE POOL! Raschke comes in and puts Hawk down. Ivan covers for 2. Hawk gets back up and slams Ivan. Someone off camera trips Hawk, then Raschke comes in again and attacks Hawk in front of Young for a cheap DQ. The fight continues for a bit until the Roadies take the Russians out with their own chain. The epitome of meh. *1/2

 

Magnum TA is with......BENNY PARSONS?! What? As an old school NASCAR fan this is, frankly, awesome. BP was still an active driver at this point. He's even in his freaking firesuit tonight, I guess that's the only way they thought he'd be recognizable. Ah, BP says he's going to be doing commentary instead of racing at the Richmond race in February, which TBS had coverage of at the time. Network synergy.

 

After commercial we go to tape of Tony interviewing Dusty Rhodes and Willie f'n Nelson. OK, so Nelson was filming a new made for TV western movie called Stagecoach that Dusty a bit part in. Wouldn't be surprised if Turner had a stake in it too. The best part about this is Dusty being chill and talking more as real life Dusty than wrestler Dusty. 

 

NWA National Heavyweight Championship: "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes (c) (w/Baby Doll) and Tully Blanchard (w/JJ Dillon) 20:00 time limit draw- Tully and Dusty had also been feuding off and on for months. First it was over the TV title, now it's over the old Georgia territory title that would soon be phased out. Baby Doll was also involved in all that. Dusty initially "won" her for 30 days at Great American Bash '85, but she's since fully turned face. The on screen reason was Blanchard was being (PG) abusive to her, but the plain fact was there wasn't room for two managers in the Horsemen after they officially formed. After a rope break Dusty does a little strutting. Another commercial break with a probable clip this time, but not too much of one. Blanchard is trying to keep his distance but Dusty gets a leg takedown and starts up with some leg work with lots of posing and stalling. Quick figure four wrapup from Dusty. Blanchard quickly reaches over and gets a rope. Blanchard slowly drags himself off the apron to the floor, making it look like his knee has been completely destroyed. Back in Blanchard tries to beg off while limping around. Dusty grabs him by the bad leg and goes to work on it again. The fans starts chanting "Break it!". Well that's just mean. Like going to a football game hoping to see an injury. Well, if it was Tom Brady that'd probably be OK. Dusty hits a standing elbow off the top rope, but when he lands he aggravates the ankle the not quite yet Horsemen broke in the build to Starrcade! Now Blanchard has his target and goes to work on it. Blanchard hits a kick right on it and goes into some spinning toe holds. Figure four from Blanchard! Dusty slowly fights over and reverses it. Dillon gives Blanchard an assist for a rope break. Blanchard tries a reverse crossbody but Dusty catches him into a backbreaker! Belly to belly suplex from Dusty! Magnum must have taught him that one. He's got the pin but Dillon has Young distracted. Blanchard charges in with a knee that barely catches Dusty in the back and Dusty goes tumbling out to the floor. We get the 5 minutes left call as Dusty gets back in. He starts slugging back with jabs on Blanchard. Blanchard goes to the apron and Dusty suplexes him back in. Young counts 3, but Dillon put Blanchard's foot on the rope just before 3! Dusty goes out and stalks Dillon, giving Blanchard an opening to hit him from behind. The side. Whatever. Back in Blanchard slugs away on Dusty. He tries a snap mare but Dusty blocks it into a backslide. Blanchard's feet fall on the ropes so no count there. Atomic drop from Dusty. 3 minutes left. Dusty goes down into a 3 point stance and clips Blanchard's knee. Cover for 2. 2 minutes left. Bionic elbows and chops from Dusty in the corner. Dusty tosses Young away, allowing Dillon to trip Dusty in the corner. Blanchard falls on top for 2. Dusty goes to the floor after Dillon again at the one minute left call. This time he cuts off Blanchard's ambush attempt. More jabs from Dusty. He gets Blanchard down in a Boston crab. The bell rings for the time limit before Blanchard can submit. After the bell Blanchard lays Dusty out with a piledriver. Blanchard would succeed in taking this title from Dusty in March. Just fine but no more. Blanchard was giving it his all, as he always did in this period before his personal life crash and burn. **1/2

 

After commercial Magnum is with JCP owner Jim Crockett Jr.. After pushing the Bunkhouse Stampede a bit they announce a huge new event they have upcoming: the Crockett Cup, co-promoted with Mid-South and being held in the Superdome. The clip provided by Mid-South with the Superdome owner is hilarious, as the Mid-South interview guy is clearly not even in the same building as the guy he's supposedly interviewing. Thanks to the magic of time travel, or accidentally going out of order, I've already reviewed that one. Quick summary: it's long, but well worth your time. After that we go ringside to Tony, who's with another guest Turner celebrity, Gaylord Perry. He's here to promote the Braves on TBS. They needed all the help they could get too, the mid-late '80s Braves were trash and permanently stuck in the NL basement.

 

NWA World Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) def Ron Garvin in 14:33- This is good old "TV time remaining". Garvin's a bit of an odd choice, not an obvious world title contender. Maybe him being from Georgia had something to do with it? And a bit ironic considering Garvin would end up being the unexpected beneficiary of Flair wanting to win the title back at Starrcade '87 instead of retain it again. Flair's still got the 10 Pounds of Gold, this is *just* before the Big Gold Belt was introduced. Like weeks, if that long. Flair's out for his usual slow, feel your way in start but Garvin wants to GO right now. Flair gets him in the corner and hits a chop. Garvin responds with his own. Speed run and Garvin hits another big chop. Flair rolls out to kill the momentum. Back in Garvin grabs a headlock. Flair tries a kneebreaker counter but backs him into the corner instead. More Flair chops. Garvin fires back with punches and hits a headbutt. Flair Flop! More huge Garvin chops. He lived up to his Hands of Stone moniker, that's for sure. He tries a cover but Flair gets out and has about the most pissed off beg off you'll ever see. Garvin cranks a knucklelock but Flair straight grabs his throat in a choke and backs him into the corner. More chops. It's like he's determined to prove he can hit as hard as Garvin. Garvin fires back with his chops. Flair shoves Garvin by the throat as it's breaking down into a fight more than a wrestling match. The intensity meter is pegged for sure. Garvin grabs Flair by the nose! Flair regroups in the corner again. Again we do the chop exchange into a shoving fight. Corner whip and Garvin backdrops Flair. Garvin stomps away on one Flair arm while cranking back on another. Forearm to Flair's chest and Flair flops right out of the ring. Young holds Garvin back and Flair rolls back in. More Garvin chops. Flair's chest is hamburger by now. Off a whip Flair goes shoulder first into the corner and Garvin wraps that arm up on the mat. Flair fights out with a knee, more chops, and tosses Garvin to the floor. Garvin pops right back up into the ring! More stiff strikes exchanged in the corner. A Garvin shot sends Flair over the top rope to the floor! Of course we have to have the whole "momentum" thing mentioned to cover for the stupid over the top DQ rule. My only big issue with JCP/NWA in this period, that stupid rule. Back in Garvin gets a sleeper on! Flair counters with a back suplex to get free. Leaping double stomp to Garvin's midsection! Suplex from Flair for 2. Kneedrop. "WOOOOOO!". Flair mounts Garvin and slaps him to try to humiliate him. Again it devolves into a fight on the mat. Advantage Garvin there. Another stand up slugfest. Down goes Flair! Garvin covers for 2. Flair begs off hard in the corner. Corner whip. Flair Flip! He falls back into the ring. Garvin grabs a front facelock. Flair tries to counter into a suplex but Garvin blocks it. Garvin suplex! That gets a long 2 count. Flair gets a headlock takedown. Garvin counters with a headscissors and we get the bridge up/backslide spot. Garvin gets a crossbody for 2. Not at all his wheelhouse. More chops from Garvin. He bites Flair! Another Flair Flip! He goes over onto the apron, runs across in one smooth motion, hops up top, gets off but right into a Garvin punch! Garvin small package! Flair kicks out! A Flair chop puts Garvin down for 2. Garvin tries a roll up, but Young got knocked out of the ring. Full Hand of Stone punch! Flair's out, but Young is still on the floor. He drags himself up and Garvin checks on him. Flair knee to Garvin's back! Cover and he gets the pin, even though Garvin's foot was on the rope. Where Young was positioned he couldn't see it. Crockett shouts at Young "His foot was on the rope!" and Flair yells at him to shut up. Fantastic. As was the match. You can debate about Garvin being a realistic world champ (a real debate that will be had later), but this match was brilliant as Flair let Garvin take the reins and work his style, and Flair adapted perfectly. Stiff, intense and awesome. ****1/4

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- When two out of four matches are as great as that the other two almost don't matter. This ruled, and is a great forerunner to what the Clash would later be. One negative, if you've never heard David Crockett on commentary before, he is as useless as his reputation suggests. Tony was clearly still learning at this point too.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A- 

Crockett Cup '86

Legacy Review- From the Vault

Crockett Cup '86

April 19, 1986 from the Superdome in New Orleans, LA

 

The full name for this is the Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Tag Team Tournament, but that's a hell of a mouthful so everyone just calls it the Crockett Cup instead. Jim Crockett Promotions, now under Jim Crockett Jr. and in the midst of both a creative and commercial hot streak, cooked this up as a way to honor the company's founder. A (completely fictitious) one million dollar prize was promoted for the tournament's winner. They opened up invitations to the remaining NWA affiliated territories, and even made a deal with Bill Watts' newly named UWF (formerly Mid-South) to co-promote the show and hold it in Mid-South's stadium venue, the Superdome. Very ironic, as almost exactly this time the next year JCP will be buying out a bankrupt UWF. Classic black and gold NXT was paying tribute to this very tournament when they created the Dusty Rhodes Classic. 

 

Later Crockett Cups would be held over two nights, but this first one is crammed all into one day. One show in the afternoon, a break and then another show in the evening. A total of 24 teams were invited, making for an odd looking bracket. Eight teams received first round byes, giving us eight matches in both the first and second rounds.

 

Afternoon Session

 

Unfortunately we only have part of this portion, the first five matches are still unavailable. There's no commentary and all the action is shot from a handheld ringside camera, no hard cam. 

 

Results of the first five matches not on the WWE Vault copy, all first round matchups:

 

Mark Youngblood & Wahoo McDaniel (JCP) def Bobby Jaggers & Mike Miller (Pacific Northwest)

Nelson Royal & Sam Houston (JCP) def CSW Tag Team Champions The Batten Twins (Central States)

Jimmy Valiant & Manny Fernandez (JCP) def Baron von Raschke & The Barbarian (JCP)

"Dr. Death" Steve Williams & Terry Taylor (UWF) def Bill Dundee & "Nature Boy" Buddy Landell (Memphis)

The Sheepherders (UWF) def Los Guerreros (Florida)

 

First Round: UWF Tag Team Champions The Fantastics (UWF) def The Fabulous Ones (Florida) in 13:10- Two legendary southern territory teams here, on different ends of their runs. Fantastics early, Fabulous Ones late. The Fantastics had just returned to the UWF territory, and on their first night back less than a month before this show they defeated the Sheepherders for their first UWF tag title win. The Fabulous Ones are announced as just "The Fabs". Weird. This is also a battle of two bowtie wearing teams. The Fantastics offer a handshake and the Fabs (going with that just because it's easier to type) blow it off to clearly establish themselves as the heels for the night. Fulton starts with future Midnight Express member Stan Lane. They try locking up but it quickly degenerates into jawing and shoving. All four guys stand off before order is restored. Speed run with Fulton completely outmaneuvering Lane. The Fantastics do some arm work while we hear someone trying to sell programs in the arena. A flash roll up attempt from Rogers annoys the Fabs and they complain about a supposed tights pull. Right after that Lane, naturally, uses a hair pull to get Rogers down. Steve Keirn (future Skinner) tags in and also hair pulls into some arm work on Rogers. Rogers does a fancy flippy escape and the Fantastics get control back on Keirn. They keep Keirn down a while with arm work and some fancy double teams. Keirn tries a desperation eye rake but still can't get himself free. The Fantastics are having way too much fun, even swapping without tags behind the refs back to annoy the heels even more. Keirn hits a kick to the back of Fulton's head that sends Fulton over the top and out to the floor! That'll change things. Rogers goes out to check on his partner, then rolls him back in. In contrast to the Fantastics' arm work the Fabs start laying into Fulton with high impact moves. Keirn drops him over the top rope with a nice spit sell. Another straight hot shot from Keirn, then he mocks the Fantastics' strutting around. They're not having as much fun now. Fulton fires back with a couple of right hands but Keirn literally pulls his trunks down to keep him from tagging. That's hilariously blurred out on the official WWE copy. Why that and not all the other ass shots we've gotten. If I ever see Shawn Michaels' or Ric Flair's bare ass again in my life it'll be too soon. Lane hits his signature superkick style back kick. The Fabs work the ref to deliberately toss Fulton over the top to the floor, which would be a DQ under traditional NWA rules. Again Rogers provides the assist and tries to fire his teammate back up. Back in Keirn hits a punch combo and covers for 2. Fulton gets a flash sunset flip on Lane for 2. Keirn wraps up Fulton's leg and tries for a stack up pin, with a handful of tights for extra help. The ref catches that. Fulton/Keirn midring collision. Tag to Rogers! Rogers has dropkicks for everyone. Double noggin knocker. The Fantastics get Keirn caught in a roll up for the pin! Very fun match with two teams that were clearly having a blast working with each other. ***1/2

 

First Round: Buzz Sawyer & Rick Steiner (UWF) def Koko B Ware & The Italian Stallion (UWF) in 15:05- Very young just getting started Rick Steiner here. He's wearing plan black trunks and nothing else, very much like a New Japan Young Lion. His boots even match. This is just a few months before Ware became the latest established Mid-South/UWF star to jump to WWF, following Junkyard Dog and Jake Roberts. And there'll be more after him. Ware and Sawyer start with Sawyer hitting the first shots in the corner. Ware reverses and hits a backdrop, then dropkicks Sawyer out to the floor. Steiner tries to register his disapproval but also gets knocked to the floor. Ware works a headlock a while despite Sawyer's best attempts to get free. Sawyer finally hits a back suplex hard enough to get out and tags. Steiner comes in with a diving headbutt that Ware dodges. He's a Steiner, falling on his head won't hurt him any. Stallion knocks Steiner around with some move combos. Ware lays into Sawyer with some jabs. Sawyer shows off some agility dodging around Ware, but turns around into a Ware crossbody for 2. Sawyer continues to get nowhere against either the faces. Oh, I just realized Earl Hebner is reffing this match. Still in his JCP days before jumping to WWF, where his twin brother already was. Sawyer tries to trap Stallion in his corner but Stallion quickly gets free. Ware powerslam on Steiner for 2. And back to a Ware headlock on Sawyer. That's been most of the match so far. Sawyer finally manages to hit a flying forearm that sends Ware out to the floor. Steiner distracts the ref and Sawyer suplexes Ware on the floor! The unpadded floor. We all know from his later turn as WCW's lead exec, Bill Watts doesn't believe in floor mats. Sawyer runs Ware into the guardrail for good measure. Great close up shot of Sawyer on his knees in the ring laughing at Ware. The guy working the only camera shooting this has done a hell of a job the whole show so far considering it's all on him. When Ware gets back on the apron Sawyer suplexes him back in for 2. Steiner comes in with that one hold a still learning power heel can always lean on, the bear hug. But then he turns it into an almost classic Steiner belly to belly suplex for 2. Steiner puts the bear hug on again on the mat. Sawyer continues the focus on Ware's back. He shows his veteran heel wiles by getting extra rope leverage for his bear hug. Hebner eventually catches him. Ware roll up for 2! Steiner hits a side suplex for 2 before putting the bear hug back on. Can't fault the psychology. After arm drops Ware tries to slowly fight back up and bell rings free, but is too damaged to follow up or tag out. Another suplex from Sawyer and he goes up top. Ware dodges a splash! Or headbutt, that was a long way away. Tag to Stallion. Sawyer does a nice catch of Stallion mid-leapfrog, hits a powerslam and gets the pin. Pretty solid. Kinda wish the last match had gotten some of this match's time though. **1/4

 

First Round: Black Bart & "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin (w/Precious) (JCP) def Brett Sawyer & Dave Peterson (UWF) in 6:35- Wrapping up the first round. "Dave" is more regularly known as DJ Peterson, mostly in AWA. Bart quickly fires away on Sawyer. He tries to catch a Sawyer crossbody but can't and Sawyer gets a 2 count. Saywer sells Bart uppercuts like he just got hit by Dark Helmet's Schwartz right where Helmet liked to hit people with it. Hiptoss and a couple of flying headscissors from Sawyer. Garvin catches Peterson with a knee in the gut to put him in peril in the wrong corner. Garvin's knee is all wrapped up, he's clearly nursing something. Peterson pretty quickly comes back on Bart and the faces do some arm work on him. A Bart eye rake on Sawyer turns things around again. Sawyer takes a hot shot. Backdrop from Garvin for 2. Clothesline for 2. Bart hits a backbreaker. Sawyer hits a running kneelift on Garvin and both sides tag. Bart takes a Peterson backdrop, but quickly comes back with a slam/legdrop combo. Garvin tags in, plants Peterson with a brain buster, and it's over. Pretty nothing match. 3/4*

 

Second Round: NWA World Tag Team Champions The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette) (JCP) def Nelson Royal & Sam Houston (JCP) in 1:50- The second round kicks off with YOUR reigning, defending tag team champions of the world. The Midnights defeated their forever rivals, the Rock N Roll Express, for the titles in February for their first NWA World tag titles win. It's criminal that JCP didn't get more RNR/Midnight matches onto major shows. The Midnights unsurprisingly quickly get beanpole Houston in trouble. Houston manages to catch Condrey with a kneelift and tags out. Old man Royal unloads and we're quickly into a DONNYBROOK. Royal gets Condrey in an abdominal stretch, but Eaton hits him from behind off the top rope and Condrey covers for the quick pin. Good squash to make the champs look good early in the tournament over a perfectly expendable team. 1/2*

 

Second Round: Magnum TA & Ron Garvin (JCP) def Buzz Sawyer & Rick Steiner (UWF) in 5:05- Pretty quick turnaround for Sawyer and Steiner. Magnum is now the NWA US Champ, riding the rocketship JCP strapped him to. Rocketships went a bit slower in the '80s, but he was definitely on one. Garvin and Sawyer start up with some expected rough lockups. Magnum works around Sawyer to keep him in ARMBARs. Garvin does a nice wobble off a Steiner shoulderblock, then puts Steiner down with one hard chop. Magnum comes off the top rope onto Steiner's arm, then fireman carry takedowns him. Steiner uses a hair pull to get Magnum in the wrong corner. Straight bite from Sawyer as he goes completely nuts on Magnum. Sawyer goes wild, Steiner puts on a loose chinlock. Kid's definitely still learning. From the camera angle we can clearly see Magnum calling spots to Steiner while in that. Magnum fights up and runs Steiner into the corner, but gets blocked from tagging out. Suplex from Sawyer for 2. Magnum gets a flash small package for 2. He fights Sawyer into a backslide for 2. Steiner makes another rookie mistake, going for a backdrop that Magnum easily counters, and Magnum tags out. Garvin unloads the Hands of Stone on both heels. Magnum tags in, hits Steiner with a belly to belly suplex, and that gets the win. Just fine for the time they got. **

 

So ends the afternoon portion of the program. Everyone go take a piss, go out and get some fresh air, and come back for part two. Bit of a weird place to stop, having the first two second round matches on the early show, but I guess they were trying to keep the shows roughly even.

 

Evening Session

 

The evening portion opens up with Tony Schiavone in the ring welcoming the crowd to the show and generally hyping things up. He then hands the mic to the voice of Mid-South/UWF, one Jim Ross, making to my memory his first appearance at a JCP show. JR clarifies the rules modifications that have been made for this jointly promoted show. 20 minute time limits in the tournament matches, any draw, double DQ or double countout means a double elimination, teams allowed only "one save" (yeah right), piledrivers or coming off the top rope are "legal moves" (again we know how Watts feels about off the top rope from his stint running WCW), but an intentional over the top rope throw is a DQ (see how long that lasts too). Tony then goes over all the remaining second round matchups, including the two teams that have already advanced. After the National Anthem they turn over to tonight's ring announcer....Bruce f'n Pritchard. Looking about 15 years old. By the way, we do have a hard cam for the evening show so we're not just relying on the one ringside guy. Though, again, he did a hell of a job. Despite Tony and JR being here there's still no commentary.

 

Second Round: The Road Warriors (w/Paul Ellering) (JCP) def Mark Youngblood & Wahoo McDaniel (JCP) in 6:20- The Roadies got their start in Georgia, then moved to the AWA where they won the first of their world tag titles. They'd been making appearances in JCP as AWA tag champs, including at the first Great American Bash in '85, but right before this show they fully signed with JCP to jump ship. After this show they'd catch a redeye flight for their final AWA match literally the next day at the AWA's big WrestleRock show at the Minneapolis BaggieDome. Two different stadiums in two nights. They've definitely hit the big time. The less said about the Roadies' self-sung entrance music the better. I'll pay the money for JCP to license Iron Man. Wahoo is introduced from Midland, TX for this show instead of the usual Oklahoma. Not too far from my neck of the woods. Animal starts with Youngblood and I do NOT like the kid's chances. As expected, Animal manhandles him. Hawk comes in with a top rope fistdrop and kneelift. Wahoo tags in and he and Hawk have some lockup stalemates before getting into a stifffest with chops. Hawk grabs a headlock and Wahoo does a leg takedown out of it that I'm not sure Hawk was expecting. Slightly odd after that. Knucklelock test of strength. Wahoo goes down then fights free. Animal back elbows Wahoo for 2. Wahoo ducks a clothesline and puts Animal down with a huge chop. Then he tags Youngblood in, which seems like a major tactical error. Hawk flying tackle on Youngblood. Youngblood manages to stagger Hawk with a dropkick, but then Hawk casually ducks a flying back elbow attempt. Clothesline off the second rope from Hawk. HAHAHAHA Wahoo gets in and literally stands there and lets Youngblood get pinned! That's so Wahoo. Personification of old style tough love. Everyone my age had at least one sports coach or PE teacher like that. OK little warmup match for the Roadies. *

 

Before the next match Shaska Whatley, along with manager Paul Jones, comes out and brags about cutting Jimmy Valiant's ponytail off. He also calls Valiant "yellow" and "a white Uncle Tom". I need some clarification on that last one. This is all part of the long ongoing Valiant vs Paul Jones feud, and will be revisited again in this summer's Great American Bash shows. We then have an edit and flash to Valiant yelling at Whatley while refs cart him off. Valiant's tights are yellow and black tonight. Whatley was half right.

 

Second Round: The Russian Team (JCP) def Jimmy Valiant & Manny Fernandez (JCP) in 9:00- I'll give it to Ivan Koloff, that cape is pretty freaking cool. For some reason Eddie Gilbert comes out with the Russians and endorses them to win the tournament. OK then. Nikita Koloff, with a small bandage on his head, starts with Fernandez and wants a test of strength. Fernandez is reluctant, having not verified and therefore not trusting. Little Reagan era reference for you there. Eventually he does knucklelock up. Nikita takes the edge on that and Fernandez has to back up to the corner to escape. When he does he drop toe holds Nikita into some leg work. Nikita manages to reach out and get a tag. Fernandez gives Ivan a back elbow and Valiant hits him from the apron. Sunset flip from Fernandez for 2. After a Fernandez double leg takedown Valiant tags in, gets the ref's attention elsewhere, and gives Ivan a Greco Roman Nut Stomp. Pretty yellow move if you ask me. Fernandez then posts Ivan's now very sore crotch. Double back elbow from the faces for 2. Ivan dodges a Fernandez dropkick and tags out. Nikita drops Fernandez on the top rope. Legdrop from Ivan for 2. Russian bear hug time. In Soviet Russia bear hug you. Fernandez gets free relatively easily and hiptosses Ivan, but is cut off from a tag. Nikita tosses him around some more before putting on his own bear hug. After a tag Ivan tries going up top but Fernandez slams him off, then rolls over to get a tag. Wild Valiant punches on everyone. His punches make the Rock's look subtle. He gets the sleeper on Ivan. Nikita breaks it up and we go DONNYBROOK. Nikita gives Valiant a blindside Sickle from the apron, and Ivan covers for the pin. Not all that bad considering Fernandez pretty much had to carry three other guys. Nikita is improving as he gets more experience though. *3/4

 

Next up, Doc Death Steve Williams and Terry Taylor are in the ring to take a forfeit. They were scheduled to face a team from the short lived Montreal promotion named Lutte, consisting of two guys that will soon be familiar to WWF fans: Rick Martel (who had just dropped the AWA World title at the end of '85) and Dino Bravo. The reason given is Bravo had a sudden onset of appendicitis and had to be rushed to the hospital. Whether that's true or not records don't show, but it being wrestling and all that I'm dubious. Bravo had actually already been working for WWF some before this so there might have been some legal sniping.

 

Second Round: The Sheepherders (w/Jack Victory) (UWF) def The Rock 'N' Roll Express (JCP) by DQ in 8:10- Quite the contrast in styles and appearances here. The RNR Express are slightly over. As usual the Herders want everyone to salute the Kiwi flag before the match. The Express respond by getting Old Glory out. Gibson starts out with Luke. He quickly gets trapped in the heel corner and Morton has to come in to help him out. Luke takes a crazy bump off a double team and goes out for a think. Back in the days the Herders could actually bump, which was pretty much gone by their WWF Bushwhackers days. Luke gets a blind tag to Butch, who blindsides Gibson. Then Luke pulls the same trick tagging back in. Dude, you're getting outsmarted by the BUSHWHACKERS. Might need to go home and rethink your life. Gibson gives Luke some buckle shots to come back and tags out. Dropkicks from Morton send both Herders back out to the floor. Back in Morton absorbs some Luke shots before hitting a crossbody for 2. Then Morton does the same thing with Butch, except this time it's a sunset flip. Pretty paint by numbers match so far. Luke dodges in the corner and Gibson posts his shoulder. The Herders immediately go to work on it. Gibson gets tossed to the floor and his shoulder is run into the post again. Slam from Luke back in and he hits a diving....open hand slap something for 2. Gibson manages to leapfrog over Butch, hit a dropkick, roll over and get a tag. Morton takes both Herders out and it's quickly bonzo gonzo. Double dropkick from the RNR. Victory comes into the ring with the flag but Morton cuts him off. He gets the flag and hits Victory with it! Hebner calls for the bell. He DQ'd the RNR! For hitting Victory with the flagpole? He's not even in the match! And he brought it in there in the first place! Pretty poor reffing there, I have to say. WWF might have needed to remedial train him after he jumped. That is NOT a popular decision in the Superdome, with a pretty loud "bullshit" chant. The RNR Express out of the tournament after just one match (they had a bye) is a massive upset. The match was OK enough minus that result, though under 10 minutes is barely enough time for the RNR Express to get loose and really into a groove. **1/2

 

Second Round: The Fantastics (UWF) def Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard (w/JJ Dillon) (JCP) in 11:02- The original version of the Four Horsemen formed just after Starrcade '85 (Flair, Blanchard, Arn & Ole Anderson with JJ Dillon managing), so this is very early days for Arn and Blanchard teaming together, working their way toward the legendary team they'll become. Arn is also in his first of many reigns as NWA TV champ, while Tully is carrying the soon to be defunct NWA National title, the top title of the former Georgia territory JCP had recently bought out. This is another match we join sort of in progress. Before intros, but with the Fantastics on the floor with a chair having some words with Blanchard. The classic silver NWA TV title belt is now here, that thing is so damn sweet looking. Rogers and Blanchard start out and quickly get into a full on slugfest. HUGE right hand from Rogers that wobblelegs Blanchard. Blanchard quickly backs into his corner to regroup. Another slugfest slowly ensues and both guys do some fancy blocks and counters out of atomic drops. Rogers hits a dropkick and Blanchard slides out. Dillon calls for a time out, then Blanchard tries to tag out to Arn from the floor but Hebner is having NONE of it. That's better reffing. Hebner fast counts Blanchard to try to get him back in, then Rogers says never mind that and flips him back in. The Horsemen try to sucker Rogers into their corner, but the Fantastics are one step ahead of them and everyone stands off in the ring. Arn does legally tag in this time. Big shoulderblock from Arn on Rogers. That gets Arn on offense for a bit, until Rogers gives him a hiptoss and a couple of dropkicks. The Fantastics strut around in the ring while Arn regroups on the floor. Fulton tags in for the first time. He and Arn jockey with each other. Fulton quickly reverses an Arn hammerlock. Arn tries to find an escape but can't so he takes a rope break instead. Again the Horsemen look for a double team opportunity but are denied. Blanchard tags in and gets some hard shots in on Fulton. "Arn, give me a knee!". Arn does and Fulton is run into it. While Blanchard antagonizes Rogers Arn tosses Fulton to the floor. Dillon gets a cheap stomp in. Fulton comes back in with a sunset flip for 2. Arn quickly drags him back into the Horsemen corner. Fulton fires some comeback punches on Blanchard so Blanchard tights pulls him out to the floor. Arn comes over and gives him an eye rake with his boot laces. Fulton staggers around half blind on the floor after that. Back in Arn hits the World's Greatest Spinebuster! But as usual he takes slightly too long to cover and Fulton kicks out. More comeback punches from Fulton but Arn grabs a toe hold to keep him from tagging. Big punch from Blanchard and he tries to leverage Fulton down for a 3 count. Again Fulton gets tossed to the floor. Blanchard hooks up for a suplex on the floor but Rogers comes over to make the save. Arn comes over to get Rogers occupied and Blanchard tries again. Fulton slips out of it and pops Blanchard! Back in Blanchard pulls Fulton's trunks down to prevent a tag. No blurring this time. I guess the kids have already gone to bed. Fulton dodges an Arn charge in the corner and makes it to Rogers! Backdrop on Arn. One for Blanchard. Arn counters another backdrop attempt into a front drop suplex! Fulton just saves the pin. Arn lifts Rogers up to slam him. Fulton dropkicks Rogers in the back onto Arn, and Rogers gets the pin! Phenomenal match. The Fantastics have been gold all tournament so far, and you can already see Arn and Blanchard rounding into form as one of the greatest teams of all time. Pretty much everything The Revival/FTR does is an extension of what Arn and Blanchard started. ****1/2

 

Second Round: Giant Baba & Tiger Mask (All Japan) def Black Bart & "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin (w/Precious) (JCP) in 6:05- This is Tiger Mask II, All Japan legend Mitsuharu Misawa. Baba was a legend in his time but he's getting into Jimmy Valiant levels of past it at this point. Needless to say the deep south crowd isn't much interested in the Japanese team at the start. Probably a lot of WWII vets in the audience. TM starts with Bart. Bart hits a chop on a rope break that TM doesn't appreciate. Someone in the crowd shouts "That was an open hand, referee, nothing wrong with it!". Yeah, but it was on the ropes. When he has the option TM does not take a shot on the ropes. They knucklelock for a test of strength that the larger Bart has the edge on. TM escapes into an arm wringer. Bart reaches back and tags out. Now this is a matchup I'm much more interested in seeing. Garvin and TM trade some arm counters with TM adding a bit of '80s flippydo. Speed run. TM hits a dropkick and Garvin slides out. But unlike everyone else tonight, TM doesn't care and he immediately gives Garvin a baseball slide that sends him into the guardrail! Now the crowd is getting behind TM. TM teases a dive but handsprings back into the ring to another appreciative ovation. Precious is absolutely beside herself that TM went so far to hit Garvin on the floor. Both sides tag and now we have to deal with Baba. I compared him to Valiant, but the more accurate comparison might be Great Khali. That's pretty much Baba's offense. After some chops he gives Bart a Russian leg sweep. The heels get some shots in on Baba but he puts Garvin down with a big overhand chop. Baba hits Garvin with a piledriver. Good thing they were declared legal tonight. But when Garvin falls it's right into his corner and he tags out! Poor ring awareness from Baba there. TM hits Bart with a backdrop. Bart fires back with uppercuts. Suplex on TM from Bart, then Garvin tags in and covers for 2. TM gets stuck in the heel corner and takes some chokes there. Garvin small packages TM for 2. TM fires back with some strikes. Baba tags back in with some shots on Garvin. He barely manages to hit the ropes right then nudges Garvin. Garvin sells it like he got hit by a truck. Baba shoulderblocks wobble Bart. A double hand chop puts him down. TM hits a crossbody off the top rope. Garvin breaks the pin up. Baba "big" boot on Bart and that gets the pin. TM got to hit a few cool moves but there was nothing happening here outside of that. 3/4*

 

That wraps up the second round and we move straight into the quarterfinals. 

 

Quarterfinals: The Road Warriors (w/Paul Ellering) (JCP) def The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette) (JCP) by DQ in 10:30- You have to figure this is a preview for an NWA tag title match somewhere down the line. Animal starts off with Condrey. A shoulderblock try doesn't move Animal an inch. More speed and Animal hits a back elbow, then a dropkick. Condrey gets the hell out of town. Hawk tags in and Condrey wants to get in a pose off with him. That's a losing proposition. Hawk fights off both Midnights and gives them a double clothesline. Another roll out to regroup. Back in Condrey eye rakes Hawk and gives him a piledriver. Hawk actually sort of sells it. For a second, then he stalks behind Condrey and headbutts him. Eaton finally tags in for a try. He turns on the jets, sees a Hawk clothesline coming, grabs the ropes and makes a very quick escape. Animal comes from behind and presses him back in, then Hawk runs him over to knock him back out! Condrey gives it another go with Hawk, and pulls off an eye rake into a slam. The Midnights quickly set up for a rocket launcher, but Hawk is already up. He catches Eaton and tosses him away. Shoulderbreaker on Eaton. Fistdrop. The Roadies double backdrop Eaton. The heel go out to regroup for the 5th or 6th time this match. I've lost count. Condrey suckers Hawk in so Eaton can hit Animal from the corner. Again Animal quickly shrugs it off and powerslams Condrey. Cornette gets desperate and trips Animal from the floor! The ref saw it and calls for the bell. The champs are out of the tournament without having to take a real loss. The whole match was the Midnights running away from the Roadies' overwhelming power game and the Roadies no selling what few moves they took. I suspect that was more about setting up a future tag title feud than serving the tournament. *1/2

 

Quarterfinals: The Russian Team (JCP) and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams & Terry Taylor (UWF) 20:00 time limit draw- Eddie Gilbert is with the Russians again. I think there was some angle going on with him but it was outside my usual territory viewing. Taylor and Ivan start. Taylor cranks arm wringers and Ivan pulls hair. Monkey flip from Taylor, followed by a dropkick. Ivan tries to pull Williams' hair but Williams is having none of it. Big delayed press slam from Williams on Ivan with multiple presses. Williams is probably one of the more underrated physical specimens in wrestling history. Dude was a pretty legit freak for the time. The faces continue some basic arm work on Ivan. Ivan tries a charge and posts his shoulder. Nothing going right for him so far. Nikita keeps distracting the ref so Ivan doesn't get pinned. Ivan finally gets a couple of kicks in on Taylor, but misses an elbow drop on the bad arm and Taylor armdrags him back down. The pummeling on Ivan's arm continues. At near the 10 minute call he uses a ref distraction to eye rake Williams and finally tag out. Nikita and Williams pose down. After a long staredown we get some lockup stalemates. Nikita tries to hair pull out of a headlock but can't find an opening. Shoulderblock standoff. Another one. Nikita poses and Williams shotgun dropkicks him out to the floor! Fantastic. When Nikita gets back in he wants a test of strength. Williams slowly locks up into it. Neither guy budges an inch and it ends in another stalemate. Nikita gets Williams in the Russian corner and they both pepper him with clubbing blows. Ivan snap mare/legdrop combo for 2. The Russians quick tag on Williams as we get to 5 minutes left. Williams lifts Ivan up and deposits him on the top rope, then slams him off. Weird bit where both guys swing kicks and both go down. Ivan hits a swinging neckbreaker. The Russians use front facelocks to try to wear Williams down. Williams comes back with a powerslam on Ivan for 2. Tag to Taylor! Ivan weathers the hot tag storm and kicks Taylor down. Slam from Nikita and he tosses Taylor out, all the way into the guardrail. Ivan gives him a guardrail shot. Williams helps Taylor back in. 2 minutes left. Nikita drops Taylor on the top rope. Speed run and Taylor gets a crossbody for 2. Nikita gets the bear hug on. One minute left. Taylor fights over and gets a tag, but the ref didn't see it! Ivan hits an elbow off the top rope for a long 2. 30 seconds. Taylor gets a small package on Ivan for 2. The Russians keep Taylor from tagging, but the bell rings for the time limit. Both teams are eliminated. The fight continues after the bell, with Gilbert and his big Russian heavy I never caught his name helping. Damn fine time limit draw there. You knew Williams and Taylor could bring it, but the Russians kept up with them the whole way. Williams and Nikita in particular had some very fun power vs power stuff going on. ***1/4

 

Quarterfinals: The Fantastics (UWF) and The Sheepherders (w/Jack Victory) (UWF) double DQ in 15:45- The Fantastics have been doing the Randy Savage one night tournament thing of changing into new gear between each match. Once again we get flag shenanigans before the match. The Fantastics go so far as to go out, take Pritchard's mic, and leads the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance. Sad to say that'd probably get them massive heel heat in more than a few cities in the modern US. As soon as they're done the jump the Herders in the ring! 2v2 brawl to start and the Fantastics clear the ring, then strut a bit. Reset with Fulton and Luke. The Herders again use trapping holds and quick tags to get Fulton isolated early. It's all high impact early from the Herders, no wear down holds to be seen. Fulton tries a shoulderblock that fails, but then manages to monkey flip Luke and give him a couple of dropkicks. Butch comes in and takes dropkicks as the Herders go to the floor to regroup again. Back in Rogers drop toe holds Luke into a headlock. Speed run and Rogers gets a super flippy sunset flip for 2. Butch tags in, gets knocked around like crazy, and quickly tags back out. Luke then again gets the edge on Fulton. Full on Fulton/Luke slugfest. Fulton ducks a punch and atomic drops Luke into the Herders corner, knocking Butch down too! So far the Fantastics have done a great job of adapting to the Herders more brawling style, working more that kind of match. Butch uses a top wristlock fight to eye rake Fulton and toss him to the floor. Fulton dropkicks Butch on the floor! Full 2v2 brawl on the floor with Fulton taking a post shot and Luke almost knocking the barricade down getting run into it. Luke gives Fulton one more post shot for the road and Fulton is bleeding. First one tonight, that took a while. Fulton wobbles around on the floor for a while, but back in manages to catch Butch with a clothesline. The Herders just barely prevent a tag to keep bloody Fulton in peril. Luke bites on the cut and pounds Fulton back to the floor. Barricade shot for Fulton and he looks just this side of dead. Coming back in Fulton catches Luke with some wild kicks from the mat. He tags out to Rogers, but Butch had the ref distracted and he didn't see it. The Herders try a double team with the flagpole but Fulton runs them into it! Tag to Rogers! He pounds on a now also bleeding Luke. Ax handle off the second rope. Another one. We go full EVERYONE IN THE POOL again. The ref gets knocked out of the ring as the brawl goes on. The whole thing degenerates into a fight, Luke and Rogers in the ring, Butch and Fulton on the floor with Victory also trying to get involved. They get Fulton down, then Butch takes a part of the flagpole off and hits Rogers with it in the ring. The Herders lay into Rogers with it until Fulton makes a save and the Fantastics give the Herders a piece of their own medicine. As that's going on a second ref has come out to try to revive the match's ref. The bell rings and the match is thrown out, too chaotic to be allowed to continue. For the second straight match, both teams are eliminated. No one cares and keeps fighting. Finally the Herders decide they've had enough and leave. Another brilliant Fantastics match. It was going great before the ref bump and degenerating into a bar fight, with a proper finish it'd be even better. ****

 

Quarterfinals: Magnum TA & Ron Garvin (JCP) def Giant Baba & Tiger Mask (All Japan) in 13:12- With the double double elimination the semifinal round will now be bypassed entirely and the winners of this match will face the Road Warriors in the finals. Or if we get yet another double elimination the Roadies automatically win the whole thing. Hell of a one night tournament time saver. Garvin starts off with TM. Quite the contrast in styles here. They spend a bit trading off hammerlocks and arm wringers. Garvin gets a leg takedown and puts on a half crab. TM takes a rope break. Magnum runs over TM with a shoulderblock and works headlocks. Garvin tries a flash roll up for 2. TM takes another rope break and has been surprisingly thoroughly outwrestled so far. He gets some elbow shots in on Garvin and tags Baba in. Someone in the crowd shouts something about "slow motion" and yup, that's Baba. Honorable Baba won't hit Garvin while TM is holding him so TM just lets him go. Baba does some arm work on Garvin. He actually manages an armdrag. Garvin reverses on the mat and pulls Baba's tights to get him into his corner. Heeling it up a little. Baba puts Mangum down with a chop. TM dropkick on Magnum. Slam/elbow drop combo for 2. Magnum blocks a suplex and hits his own. Baba grinds Magnum down with a front facelock. Another TM dropkick for 2 as it really feels like Misawa is dogging it. To that point he sticks with a grounded chinlock and front facelock. Magnum shows off some impressive strength by using that to lift TM up almost all the way into a suplex, but he settles for an almost inverted atomic drop instead. Sunset flip from Magnum for 2. Baba tries a roll up into leverage pin attempts. Then he seemingly almost lets Magnum back him into his corner to tag out to Garvin. Very, very bad night for Baba as far as tag team tactics go. Garvin comes in with Hands of Stone chops that Baba barely sells. He gives Garvin some overhand chops. This time he'll hit Garvin as TM holds him. That brings Magnum in for a DONNYBROOK. The Japanese team are whipped into each other. TM goes down, Baba doesn't. Magunm dropkicks Baba over Garvin and Magnum covers for 2. TM hits a crossbody on Garvin for 2. TM finally starts breaking out the good stuff, cartwheeling over Magnum off the ropes and hitting a dropkick. Senton from TM for 2. He goes up top and tries a crossbody, but Magnum catches him into the belly to belly suplex for the pin! Great finish to a pretty terrible match. It was a bit of a mess as neither team seemed sure who was supposed to be the faces or the heels and kept trying to split the middle. Plus the continued presence of washed up Baba, who gets an earful from the crowd on the way out. *1/4

 

While the teams in the finals get ready, we've got two singles title matches on the docket to give this show a little more pizazz. And not just any titles, the top UWF title and the biggest one of them all.

 

UWF North American Heavyweight Championship: "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan (c) def Dick Slater in 10:07- The North American title had been the top territory title when Mid-South was still Mid-South. This is in a weird gap where the company name had been changed to UWF, but the title hadn't morphed into the UWF Heavyweight title just yet. JR takes over as ring announcer for this match. And puts a bit of wellie into it. Duggan hits the first shot on a corner break and gets told off by Hebner. More corner shots from Duggan and a clothesline. Slater pulls hair out of a top wristlock fight but misses an elbow drop. He's breathing so damn hard they can hear him in Baton Rouge. Duggan counters a backdrop attempt with an elbow to the back of the head. He gets Slater draped over the corner and hits another couple of elbows. Slater tosses Duggan out to the floor. He backs Duggan into the guardrail and that section collapses! Good thing the seats are a bit further back. Back in Slater continues to wear down Duggan. Duggan fires back with punches that send Slater out. Duggan chases him around and Slater catches him coming back into the ring. He grabs the mic and hits Duggan with it, as far as the cord will stretch. Swinging neckbreaker for 2. Duggan fades down off a chinlock and we go to arm drops. Slater lets go and hits a Harley Race style diving headbutt. He tries coming off the top rope but Duggan catches him. Duggan starts firing back with jabs. Slam/kneedrop combo for 2. Slater dodges an atomic drop and hits a running elbow for 2. Duggan's kickout sent Slater on top of Hebner, then he knees Hebner in the back for good measure. Slater dodges a Duggan charge in the corner and tries up top again. A diving elbow hits. He drags Hebner over, but Duggan kicks out. Duggan backdrops out of a piledriver attempt. Slater ties Duggan up in the ropes. Hebner backs him up. Duggan gets free, hits the 3 point stance tackle, and it's over. It got OK by the end but both guys were phoning it in pretty bad for most of it. **

 

NWA World Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) def "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes (w/Baby Doll) by DQ in 22:15- A major change came to the NWA World title in early '86. Out was the 10 Pounds of Gold, in was the brand new Big Gold Belt. This is its first appearance at a really major show. Dusty thought he had the title won at Starrcade, but the decision was later reversed due to Dusty knocking the ref down during the match. JR announces legendary Houston promoter Paul Bosch, who'll be the ring announcer this match. Baby Doll recently turned face after being "abused" by her former wrestler Tully Blanchard. Truth is there was no room for two managers in the Horsemen, much less a female one. Lots of jockeying on a corner break and Tommy Young yells "All right, all right, all right!" at them. I thought it was funny. These are the kinds of things that no commentary/only ringside mics shows can catch. Flair tries his hammerlock workaround but Dusty was ready for it and cranks Flair's arm. Top wristlock fight with Baby Doll shouting "PUSH! PUSH HIM!" at the top of her lungs. Flair backs Dusty into the corner, tries some shoulderblocks (too much padding there) and hits the first chops. Dusty reverses for his own chops. Flair walks into jabs and goes down. We get a little flip, flop and fly and Flair goes out for a think. Back in Dusty hits a shoulderblock, then suckers Flair into an elbow. Flair literally stops selling to get up and shout "SHUT UP!" at Baby Doll. Probably what a lot of people were thinking. Flair sells Dusty cranking a knucklelock to the cheap seats. Flair starts getting some offensive momentum and hits the snap mare/kneedrop combo with Baby Doll shouting at Dusty to move out of the way. That's very helpful, thanks. "WOOOOOO!" and another kneedrop. Flair tosses Dusty out to the floor. Dusty's bleeding. Off the kneedrops? Seems excessive. Looks like it might be the same area cut around the eye that forced their Starrcade '84 match to be stopped. Dusty hulks up off punches back in. More Flair chops and another snap mare. This time Dusty dodges the kneedrop. He drags Fair across the ring and posts his crotch. Flair begs off. In the corner Flair tries the double leg takedown leverage pin but Young catches him. Another elbow from Dusty. He starts working on Flair's knee. Flair eye rakes to get free. Flair gets a sleeper on! Arm drops and Dusty fights back up. He runs Flair into the corner. Flair Flop! Flair finally targets the ankle that he and the not quite yet Horsemen broke the previous fall before Starrcade. Figure four! Dusty fights and reverses it. Dusty tries for Flair's legs but Flair pulls himself out to the floor with the ropes. Post shot for Flair! His turn to bleed. Flair sunset flips back in but Dusty blocks it. Mounted punches from Dusty. Flair Flip! He falls into the tree of woe! Young pushes him free. Flair runs into a clothesline for 2. Dusty gets a sleeper on. Flair tries for a rope but can't get a full grip on one. He goes down and Dusty covers. Flair just barely gets a foot on the rope before 3. Flair gets on the apron and Dusty suplexes him back in for 2. Another clothesline from Dusty. Dusty figure four! He gets a couple of near falls off of it. Flair gets a second wind and manages a rope break. "AH GOD!" and Flair begs off again. Dusty stays on the leg. Flair hits a gut punch and elbow to put Dusty back down. Flair goes up top. That never works. And, of course, Dusty slams him back down. Big tackle from Dusty and Flair backs into Young, sending him FLYING out of the ring! Dusty gets a small package but there's no ref. Baby Doll tries to revive Young. Flair takes Dusty's boot off and hits him with it. He drags Young back in. Dusty kicks out! Baby Doll gets on the apron. Flair RUNS over and accosts her! I can't tell if they're fighting or if Flair's trying to kiss her. Or both. Dusty gets his boot and hits Flair with it, drawing the obvious DQ. Sucker. Then he hits Young with the boot for DQ'ing him. Perfectly standard Flair/Dusty match. Good but not top shelf stuff. ***1/2

 

Crockett Cup Finals: The Road Warriors (w/Paul Ellering) (JCP) def Magnum TA & Ron Garvin (JCP) in 9:18- Tony takes over as ring announcer for the main event. We get a shot of the trophy at ringside, and it's actually pretty damn nice. Hopefully not about to get wrecked as usual in wrestling tradition. Animal and Magnum start. Long speed run. Animal hits a hiptoss, Magnum responds with an armdrag and dropkick, stalemate. Both teams do some back and forth stuff and tag with neither having a clear advantage. Garvin tries a chop on Hawk. I think Hawk liked it. He and Minoru Suzuki, that kind of stuff just turns them on. Hawk lays in shots on Garvin in the corner. Press slam from Hawk. Garvin dodges a fistdrop off the second rope and wraps up a small package for 2. More Hand of Stone chops. Garvin bites Hawk! Both teams heeling it up a little in this face vs face matchup to show how much they want to win. Magnum hits a dropkick on Hawk for 2. He hooks on a front facelock. Hawk casually scoops Magnum up and deposits him in the Roadies' corner. Animal lays in hard shots to Magnum's back. Probably feeling like he was in a car wreck. Too soon? Bear hug from Animal. Hawk hits a gutwrench suplex for 2. Another gutwrench lift into a Canadian backbreaker, then Hawk just drops Magnum on his shoulder. That gets a pretty big reaction from the crowd. Cover for 2. Big boot from Hawk. Magnum tries to fight out of a chinlock but Animal hair pulls him back down. Magnum tries a sunset flip on Hawk but Hawk's having none of it. Headbutt from Hawk, followed by a fistdrop. Powerslam from Animal for 2. He continues pounding on Magnum's back. Magnum hits the belly to belly suplex outta nowhere! Hawk just barely breaks the pin up! Both sides tag. Hard headed Hawk and Garvin trade headbutts. Garvin tries for an abdominal stretch but Hawk fights it off. Hand of Stone punch! But Garvin hurt his own hand on Hawk's rock hard cranium! It's so bad Magnum runs in to check on him. While Hebner's getting him out Animal clotheslines Garvin! Cover and Animal gets the pin to win the match and the tournament! After the bell Garvin is still nursing is hurt hand. Perfectly solid final for a one night tournament. ***

 

The trophy, thankfully, does not get busted up. It'd turn out they'd need it for future years. Mrs. Jim Crockett Sr., as well as Jim Crockett Jr. and Bill Watts, join us for the official trophy presentation. Mrs. Crockett congratulates the winning team, the "Road Runners". HAHAHAHA. Poor woman had no idea what was happening. Hawk shows off the one million dollar check that is completely and totally legitimate take it to the bank tomorrow.

 

Meep meep. 

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- First things first, at 4 hours long it's definitely a beast. That aside, the whole thing hangs together really well and is a fun watch. I absolutely recommend having something alongside to help explain the background of each team and bigger picture in the absence of commentary if you're not already familiar with this period. Of course I took care of that for you right here, but if you choose another source so be it. I'm not bitter, lots of good ones out there. It's a great showcase of the tag team style so popular in the south in the '80s, and you can almost never go wrong with any peak era JCP. It's also an opportunity to see why the largely forgotten Fantastics were a legitimately all time great team. Now get ready for next year's Crockett Cup, which is even longer.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B 

WCCW Thanksgiving Star Wars 1985

Legacy Review- From the Vault

WCCW Thanksgiving Star Wars 1985

Taped November 28, 1985 from Reunion Arena in Dallas, TX

 

Commentary: Bill Mercer

 

Like with the other Star Wars show currently (as of this writing) available in the WWE Vault, Christmas Star Wars '82, this is two strung together episodes of weekly WCCW TV featuring taped matches from one of the promotion's tentpole events, slightly out of order versus how they took place in the arena. WCCW is coming to the end of their red hot run that was fueled by the legendary Von Erichs/Fabulous Freebirds war. It was about this time that the Freebirds were starting to branch out to other areas like the AWA and UWF (formerly Mid-South) and were appearing less and less in Texas. Case in point, they don't have a match at all on this show.

 

The Grappler & The Missing Link (w/Percy Pringle III) def Dave Peterson & Johnny Mantell in 12:30- Pringle will become famous later on as Paul Bearer in WWF. As he makes sure to tell the ring announcer, don't you dare forget "the third". There's a longer term story going on here that Link is a complete wild man that Pringle has no control over and is only reluctantly managing. Case in point, after intros Link goes to the floor and Pringle shouts at him to get in the ring. I love it when someone in the crowd shouts at Pringle and he turns round and says "You shut your mouth! I'm having a hard enough time as it is!". Pringle manages to get Link on the apron as the masked Grappler starts with Mantell. After some slow basics they go into a criss cross. Mantell slides out to go after Pringle, who gets the hell out of town in a hurry! You'd never think Paul Bearer could run that fast in his younger days. The faces bounce Grappler around a bit. Within the 5 count of course. Pringle asks Grappler what the hell, then tells the ref "He's using a fist! That's a violation of the rules, man!". Pringle freaking owning this whole match so far. Good thing too, because things are moving at a glacial pace in the ring. Mantell decides to tag out to Peterson. Pringle tells Grappler "You can beat him!". Test of strength knucklelock that Peterson wins. Speed run and Peterson gets a sunset flip for 2. The faces take turns working headlocks on Grappler. Link starts wandering again and Pringle has to wrangle him back into the corner. Mantell and Grappler have an ugly collision that I think was supposed to be a Grappler back elbow or something. That gets Grappler on offense for the first time. Mercer calls him "the man of 500 moves". So just under half of Chris Jericho. Pringle tries to set up a double team. Mantell blocks it and Grapper is run into Link's apparently Samoan level cranium. Pringle is beside himself. Link tries to get in to make up for it and Peterson gives the heels a double nogging knocker. Doesn't hurt Link any, he barely notices it, but it nearly murders Grappler as he falls out of the ring. After some recovery time Grappler tags Link in. Link gets in but still doesn't seem to know what to do. He manages to hook Peterson up for Grappler to hit. Link runs Peterson around the turnbuckles and Peterson falls to the floor. When he gets back in Link puts on the Nerve Pinch of Unhinged +1. Grappler tags himself in and that soon leads to an all out DONNYBROOK. Link is absolutely PUMMELING Peterson in the back with headbutts. Order is restored with Peterson still In Peril with Grappler. Peterson gets a flash crossbody on him for 2 but Grappler quickly gets him back down. Link tags back in and knocks Peterson around some more. Peterson dodges him in the corner and gets a tag. EVERYONE IN THE POOL! Mantell gets a sleeper on Grappler. Grappler gets a rope break. He blocks a Mantell monkey flip attempt and hits a clothesline. That gets the pin. Clean as a sheet heel win. The match started agonizingly slow and never really got into any kind of high gear, but the heels' antics were pretty entertaining. *3/4

 

Lance Von Erich def "Killer" Tim Brooks in 2:25- Oh man, Lance "Von Erich". In true wrestling fashion, Lance was not related to the Von Erich family in any way. His real name was William Vaughn. He was recruited by WCCW in late '84, then sent off on excursion as they'd say in Japan to Portland to continue learning in the NWA's Pacific Northwest territory. Then, in October '85 when real Von Erich Mike suffered near fatal toxic shock syndrome following surgery for a shoulder injury, Fritz Von Erich recalled Vaughn from the northwest and christened him a Von Erich "cousin" to replace Mike, over the strong objections of the other brothers. Lance is wrestling barefoot like his "cousin" Kevin, which looks so strange. Books offers a handshake after the bell. After teasing that forever of course Brooks was just using it as a ploy to attack. Now you see evil will always triumph, because good is dumb. Brooks knocks him around with heel 101 punchy kicky chokey stuff until Lance hits a barefoot dropkick. Back elbow for 2. Lance ducks a clothesline and puts on a sleeper, a weird one with Brooks' arm trapped too. Arm drops on the unhooked arm and it's over. Lance was not ready for prime time. 1/4*

 

NWA American Heavyweight Championship: "Ravishing" Rick Rude (c) (w/Percy Pringle III) def Iceman King Parsons in 11:05- The American title was the top singles title in the territory. Very young and still learning Rude defeated Parsons for it during the summer, this is the rematch. We all know Rude's tights game would be among the best ever in his WWF and WCW runs. The ones he's got tonight are....something. I honestly can't decide if they're awful or incredible. Rude heels it up with some shoving and posing. Parsons responds in kind, then ducks a Rude swing that sends Rude over the top rope to the floor. Parsons dodges Rude in the corner, causing Rude to hit the corner with his shoulder, and Parsons goes to work on it. Mercer is going into overdrive advertising the Hyatt Regency "right across the street" from the arena, getting me to wonder how much the Hyatt paid for some prominent mentions. Criss cross in the ring. Parsons hits the brakes and lets Rude keep on running. Atomic drop from Parsons and Rude slides out again. Pringle claims Parsons pulled the tights to get Rude up for that. Back in Rude puts on a headlock, then pulls what hair Parsons has to get him into a chinlock. When Parsons fights back up Rude pulls the hair again. Classic Rude forearm shots into another chinlock. Speed run and Parsons gets a hiptoss. Rude powders again. Back in an eye rake gets Rude in control again. He gives Parsons a receipt atomic drop and goes to work on Parsons' back. Reverse double chinlock that's almost a camel clutch. Parsons pushes free, which sends Rude out into Pringle! Rude gets on the back again and puts on an abdominal stretch. With some extra tights leverage. Parsons eventually hiptosses free. Bear hug from Rude. Parsons bell rings free and hits a headbutt. Kneelift. Backdrop. Another headbutt. Parsons does some flip flop and fly style jabs. He tries a reverse crossbody but misses badly. Rude cradles him and gets the pin to retain. Rude was still very limited in what he could do and not a quarter as good as he'll eventually be, which is pretty freaking great, but that was still a rock solid match. **1/2

 

Pringle taunts Parsons with the belt to the point that Parsons attacks him. Rude hits Parsons from behind, knocks him to the floor, and hits a DDT on the unpadded floor! In an interview after Rude says he was protecting his manager from Parsons' attack, which honestly is a pretty honorable move. Pringle was taunting Parsons but never tried to attack him. The flag always gets thrown on the guy that throws the punch no matter what's said. Mercer asks Rude if he'll give Parsons another title shot. Rude: "He's going to be down for a LONG time. I think I heard him whimpering something about retirement while he was laying there, tears running down his face!". Fantastic. Rude was still learning in the ring, but he was always a natural talker. So ends episode one of our double bill.

 

One Man Gang and Kamala (w/Skandor Akbar) double DQ in 3:25- Episode 2 opens with the card's mandatory hoss fight. Pretty sure it's heel vs heel too. OMG jumps and we're off. He bites Kamala's forehead. Kamala responds with his usual overhand chops. After some choking OMG fires back with big swings. Kamala backs up and actually does some kind of "bring it" gesture. He pounds OMG in the ropes, then pushes the ref aside. The fight goes to the floor. OMG chokes Kamala with one of the ropes acting as a barricade. Back in Kamala hits shots and OMG fires up off them. Shoulderblock with no one going down. Now OMG whacks the ref when he tries to break up a choke. The ref rings the bell, tossing the match out. Utterly horrible. Nearly as bad as getting stuck having to eat tofurkey at Thanksiving. DUD

 

NWA Texas Heavyweight Championship: Brian Adias (c) def Jack Victory in 7:07- The American title was the top title, but this is the oldest not just in the territory but one of the oldest anywhere. The Texas title was created sometime in the '30s, no one is quite sure when due to spotty record keeping, and historically was only defended within the borders of Texas. Adias was the Von Erichs' best friend, which had some truth to it as he was legitimately close with the family and even went to high school with Kerry. Victory will later become somewhat legendary among us nutters that keep track of these things as the guy that played nearly every one off masked wrestler in Jim Crockett and WCW. If there was a one night masked guy in WCW, 95% chance it was Jack Victory under it. Adias outmaneuvers Victory early. Speed run and Adias fakes Victory out with a dropkick, then works a headlock. More speed and Victory hits a knee to the gut. That leads to Victory going into heel 101 stompy chokey stuff. Victory finally mixes things up a bit with a figure four attempt that Adias easily fights off. Midring collision and both guys are down. Diving clothesline from Victory for 2. Adias tries to fight out of a chinlock and they trade more gut shots. Adias dodges in the corner and Victory posts his shoulder. Backdrop from Adias. Dropkick that Victory has to stop and wait for. Adias starts up a spinning toe hold but Victory is too close to the ropes. Victory counters a backdrop attempt with a big punt kick. Slam for 2. Powerslam from Adias and he goes up top. Reverse crossbody off the top, and that gets the pin to retain. Took a bit to get going, but once it did it was fine. **

 

One good thing about being on tape delay is you don't have to sit through the cage setup. Once again for WCCW it's a shorter cage than you normally see that barely goes higher than the ring posts. 

 

Steel Cage Texas Death Match: "Hollywood" John Tatum (w/Missy Hyatt) def "Cowboy" Scott Casey (w/Sunshine) in 9:25- In this case Texas Death Match means falls don't count and the match continues until one man is "physically unable to stop his opponent from leaving the cage". So basically, WWF style escape only rules under a harder sounding name. Tatum is seriously giving off "Temu Ric Flair" vibes, at least with his look. Not in how he wrestles. In a twist, both the women are inside the cage so I'm sure we'll be fulfilling our cat fight quota at some point. I think Hyatt and Tatum are in a relationship in real life at this point. She went through her guys. Later married Eddie Gilbert for like two years, then had that cradle robbing relationship with actor Jason Hervey from The Wonder Years that I was never sure if it was real or just something WCW made up for promotion. Lots of caution before locking up. Tatum gives Casey a shot on the ropes then gives him our first cage shot already. He makes a point of slamming Casey in the corner right in front of Sunshine. Casey fires back with some shots out of the corner and makes for the door. Tatum's nowhere near beat up enough for that. Tatum slingshots Casey into the cage, which is I guess is too violent for us to see because we cut to a crowd shot while it happens. He makes for the door but Casey stops him. Cage shot for Tatum. Casey hits a piledriver. Knee to the gut from Tatum. Casey stops him at the door again, then drags him into the corner to give him some buckle shots right in front of Hyatt. Shoulderbreaker from Casey. Tatum stops him at the door and grounds things with a chinlock. He goes to the corner and gets a bit of leverage help from Hyatt. In theory, I don't know how much tugging on his leg is going to help out here. Sunshine steps in the ring and says something so Hyatt runs over and clobbers her. Casey comes back with an elbow drop on Tatum. Swinging neckbreaker. Casey tries to crawl out the door but Tatum cuts him off. Now Tatum tries to crawl over Casey to get out but Casey fights him off. Tatum gives Casey another cage shot. Sleeper from Tatum. Casey runs him face first into the corner to get free. He tries another piledriver but Tatum fights it off. Tatum is the first guy to try to climb the cage instead of go out the door. Casey drags him back down. He goes for a bulldog but Tatum pushes him into the corner. Tatum climbs again and again Casey pulls him down. Now Casey tries to climb. Hyatt shakes the top rope and Casey falls down on it! Crotch first, in a day that was still taken seriously. Sunshine rushes in to check on him while Tatum slides out the door to win. Not too shabby, and they thankfully kept the women's involvement to a minimum. **3/4

 

Hyatt comes in and it's cat fight time. For some reason the Great Kabuki gets in the ring and attacks everyone. The heels vacate the premises while Kabuki tries to go after Sunshine. She escapes out the cage, but Kabuki closes the door behind her and lays into Casey. After Casey's beat up for a bit the face locker room empties to save him.

 

Steel Cage Match for the Vacant NWA American Tag Team Championship: The Dynamic Duo def The Cosmic Cowboys in 7:15- The Cosmic Cowboys are the current top Von Erichs, Kerry and Kevin. The Dynamic Duo are top non-Freebird WCCW heel Gino Hernandez and "Gentleman" Chris Adams. Both are wearing masks for some reason. These two teams had a title match with an inconclusive finish last month, so the belts were held up and this is the match to decide the new champions. To try to make sure of a conclusive finish we have not one but two special guest referees, one on each side. Von Erich BFF Brian Adias on the face side, and Freebird Terry Gordy for the heels. This is one fall "anything goes", which I assume means tornado rules with no tags. The Von Erichs strike first after the bell and give the heels the first cage shots. I hope commentary can tell the masked heels apart, I can't. The Von Erichs try to help by gong for the masks but can't get either off. That lets the heels take control. Kerry takes a hard cage shot. He fires back and hits a discus punch. Kevin hits a barefoot kick and the Von Erichs go for the masks again. One of the heels gives Gordy and earful for not stopping it sooner. The heels continue to get pummeled with cage shots. Kerry gets the Iron Claw on one of the heels. Kevin almost has the other's mask off, so the refs are over there with that and the one in the Claw gives Kerry a low blow to get free. Kerry gets slingshot into the cage. One heel gets Kerry in a small package but neither ref bothers to come over and count. Kerry gets crucifixed for 2 as the lights start to go nuts, flickering on and off. Kevin has a Claw on and Kerry puts the other in an abdominal stretch. Gordy finally has enough of Adias and punches him out. One of the real refs runs in and stops Kerry and Gordy getting into it. The real ref tells both Gordy and Adias to get the hell out, they've done a horrible job and it's time for a real ref to take over. Kerry has a Claw on again. Whichever heel he has it on gets free and hits a suplex. Kerry dodges him coming off the top rope with something. Double dropkick. The Von Erichs get the mask off Adams. Finally. Behind that, Hernandez loads his mask up with a piece of metal. Loaded headbutt on Kerry! Kevin tries to break the pin up but is a tick too late and the heels take the win and the titles. After the bell fake Von Erich Lance comes in and helps the real Von Erichs get Hernandez's mask off for a bit of revenge. Pure chaos, but overall decentish. **1/4

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Average at best across the board, but it's another nice look into WCCW's peak run, even at the tail end of it. '86 would bring a lot of change to the promotion. Gino Hernandez died in February, another young death in the promotion. After that Jim Crockett said they wouldn't book Flair there with the NWA World title anymore, so WCCW left the NWA and tried to go it alone. That'd be the start of their slow slide downward. In retrospect leaning so heavily on one family to carry the entire company probably wasn't the best idea either, especially with that family about to go into complete implosion.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C 

WCCW David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions

Legacy Review- From The Vault

WCCW David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions

May 6, 1984 from Texas Stadium in Irving, TX

 

Commentary: Bill Mercer (I assume but correct me if I'm wrong)

 

Parade of Champions was an irregular major show held by WCCW, and it was being revived by promoter Fritz Von Erich for one very specific reason- a memorial show for his late son David. David was generally considered the best wrestler and biggest star of the many Von Erich boys, or at worst side by side with his brother Kevin. He passed away in February '84 in Tokyo during a tour there due what's widely believed but never officially confirmed to be a drug overdose. Sadly he would only be the first Von Erich to die young, a story that's grown beyond wrestling to mainstream exposure, recently thanks to the movie The Iron Claw. In his memory WCCW has set up this show, and even manged to book it in good old Hole in the Roof Stadium. As a lifelong Cowboys fan I miss that place. Due to the shock over David's death and WCCW still being in their peak years thanks to the ongoing Von Erichs/Fabulous Freebirds feud this show was a massive success, drawing over 30K in attendance. That would lead to the Memorial Parade of Champions being an annual show in the stadium for most of the rest of the promotion's existence.

 

No intro, we go straight to JYD walking to the ring. Texas Stadium looks AWESOME in this format. I'd know those two play clocks across from hard camera anywhere from years of watching the Cowboys play here. The show is during the day too, which to me is more of a plus for the overall look.  

 

The Junkyard Dog def The Missing Link (w/Skandor Akbar) by DQ in 3:30- Missing Link looks like he needs a better barber. Link charges, but right into a JYD punch. Link flops onto the apron a couple of times, then grabs a chair and tosses it into the ring. JYD catches it and whacks Link with it, right in front of the ref. Another crazy flop to the floor from Link. Back in we get a lockup. Link tries a headbutt, which of course has no effect on JYD. JYD hits his own headbutts. Buckle shots that JYD also no sells. Link hits himself on the buckle! He's a few stenbolts short of a full assembly. Both guys get on their knees and JYD hits his crawling headbutts. Link "dodges" in the corner, which somehow hurts JYD despite clearly on the camera angle he didn't hit anything. Link gives him some shots and goes to the second rope. JYD dodges a splash. Akbar gets on the apron and JYD nails him. Another shot from Link from behind. He hits a horrible fistdrop thing off the second rope, and Akbar holds JYD's foot down as Link gets the pin. Link is announced as the winner, but then another ref comes in and they reverse to JYD by DQ for Akbar's interference. Aggressively not good. 1/4*

 

"Gentleman" Chris Adams & Sunshine def "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin & Precious in 4:39- Mixed tag match here. Precious is Garvin's real life wife and they would later work together in Jim Crockett Promotions. Before the match Gino Herandez takes the mic and bitches about not being on the card. Adams and Sunshine tear Garvin's jacket in half after intros to rile him up. Usual mixed tag men vs men and women vs women only rules here. The guys start with some back and forth stuff. I'm guessing this was broadcast tape delay with the matches out of order because Mercer spoils the result of the main event. Adams gets a sunset flip for 2. Garvin is very determined to keep Adams from tagging out so Precious doesn't have to wrestle. Speed run and double clothesline. Superkick from Adams and he tags Sunshine in. Precious wants nothing to do with her so Sunshine pulls the rope to flip her in. After that it's.....not good. At all. Thankfully Precious gets back over and tags Garvin pretty quickly, despite Garvin still recovering. Adams runs over and suplexes him off the apron for 2. Slam/legdrop combo for 2. The old ref working this match only goes down to one knee to count. Garvin lifts Adams and hits him with a snake eyes in the heel corner. That busted Adams open and Garvin goes to work on him. Adams backdrops out of a piledriver and tags out. Garvin trips Sunshine! DONNYBROOK! Garvin holds Sunshine while Precious swings slaps in the general vicinity of her face. While the camera is on the women Adams does something and pins Garvin off camera. Great job, TV guys. And this was taped, not live! Adams and Garvin were borderline OK, the women were all kinds of awful. *

 

"Hacksaw" Butch Reed def Chick Donovan in 4:48- Reed, like JYD, was primarily a Mid-South wrestler at this time. Donovan, yes Chick that's not a typo, had short stints as a jobber in both WWF and WCW. Reed gives Donovan an earful and then some during the initial lockups, and won't stop trash talking the whole match. Donovan has enough and dropkicks him! Off the rope rebound Donovan drop toe holds him and grabs a headlock. Mercer says the mixed tag bout is "coming" so yeah, these matches were definitely broadcast out of order. Thanks to the WWE Vault folks for putting them back in the correct card order for this release. There's two guys barely 10 rows back on the floor that are using binoculars to look at the ring. How much of a close up do you need? I've been 10 rows back before and as long as there's no one tall in front of you or some kind of grade in the seat level you're fine. If you're thinking all of this is more interesting than what's going on in the match, you'd be extremely correct. Reed's generous and lets Donovan get a few holds in before unloading on him. Gorilla press slam from Reed. Flying tackle and it's over. Total jobber squash and not a particularly good one. 1/2*

 

Kamala (w/Skandor Akbar & Friday) and The Great Kabuki (w/Gary Hart) double DQ in 7:28- I'm pretty sure this is heel vs heel. Friday is the same look character as Kim Chee will later be, but I'm sure being played by someone different. In WWF Kim Chee was the man of 1000 gimmicks Steve Lombardi. Kabuki lets off some green mist and we're off. In theory. We're standing around. Kamala gives us the "I'm hungry" stomach pat. Finally a lockup and Kamala hits the first shots and chokes Kabuki. Kabuki responds with a couple of back kicks. The action is so scintillating Mercer lets us know what the current temperature is. 90 degrees by the way, so a not untypical May day in Dallas. Kamala hooks on a bear hug. And there we stay. After Kabuki escapes they exchange some head chops. More choking from Kamala. No, it's some kind of pec nerve hold. An upper titty twister. Hart and Akbar go over and start jawing at each other in a desperate attempt to try to get some juice into this thing while Kamala continues to fondle Kabuki. Eventually Kabuki hits a couple more kicks to put Kamala down. Kamala quickly goes back on offense with more chops. Kabuki superkick. The managers all start fighting outside and inside the ring and the ref has to throw the match out. Should have been thrown out before it started. That was almost physically painful to watch. DUD

 

One unfortunate thing lost on this copy is I believe the debut of the Freebirds' Badstreet USA music video. Still some of the best entrance music of all time. 

 

NWA American Tag Team Championship: Rock & Soul def The Super Destroyers (c) in 8:12- The Americas tag title was the top tag title in the WCCW territory. Rock & Soul are Buck Zumhofe, who spent most of his time in the AWA and after his wrestling career became a convicted child molester, always want to get that out up front, and Iceman King Parsons. The Super Destroyers were a masked gimmick that passed between multiple different wrestlers and even territories. At this time they're the Irwin brothers, "Wild" Bill and Scott. And, never mind. This match isn't included on the Vault copy. Oh well. Doubt we're missing anything amazing. Could have lost the last match though. But if they didn't want to put Zumhofe up on their platform I get it.

 

WCCW World Six Man Tag Team Championship: Fritz, Kevin & Mike Von Erich def The Fabulous Freebirds (c) in 7:37- Thanks to the Von Erich/Freebirds war this is pretty much THE top title in the whole territory, one that only the Von Erichs or Freebirds have held. In fact its creation at Christmas Star Wars in '82 was the initial catalyst to get the feud started. Fritz is coming out of retirement to take what was usually David's place on the team. We jump right into the Von Erichs attacking the Freebirds as they get in the ring. Everyone's in jeans so I assume this is some kind of street fight or "come as you are" match. The Von Erichs clear the ring while the Freebirds go nuts on the floor. Especially Gordy, who's tossing chairs all over the place. A guy that I assume is the head official gets in the ring with a mic and says there's no rules except for one, tags will be enforced. Only two guys in the ring at a time. Kevin's got a cut on his hand, probably from trying to catch one of those chairs Gordy was throwing in. The bell rings to officially start with Kevin unloading on Buddy Roberts. HARD buckle shot. The Freebirds waste no time running in and the ref already has his hands full and then some. Kevin gets Roberts into his corner and tags out to Mike. From commentary Mercer calls Fritz "the greatest wrestler we've ever seen". It's good to be the territory owner. Mike works on Roberts' leg a bit. Roberts uses that to drag Mike into his corner and tag out to Hayes. Mike dodges a splash off the second rope and tags old man Fritz. Fritz does what he can on Hayes as things threaten to break down again. Fritz takes his belt off and whips Hayes with it. Hayes grabs his sore ass and runs off. Well, I can say from experience those things are no joke. Reset with Kevin and Gordy. Gordy pounds away on him against the ropes. Fritz comes over and gives Gordy a shot from the apron. Kevin goes for the Iron Claw. Gordy blocks it and pounds Kevin on the mat. Hayes clothesline on Kevin. He takes his boot off and nails Kevin with it. Roberts hits Kevin in the head with his belt buckle. Fantastic. Kevin does a crazy flip over Roberts and tags out to Fritz. Roberts backs the hell off. Fritz doesn't care and pounds him in the corner. EVERYONE IN THE POOL again. Fritz gets the Claw on Hayes! Roberts tries to break it up and we have a double claw! Gordy is able to break it up, hitting Fritz with his boot. Mike and Fritz get control back in the ring. Kevin crossbody off the top on Roberts! He gets the pin to win the titles back for the Von Erichs! Fun chaos brawl, with the usual nuclear heat this whole feud had. Fritz's return was a one night tribute thing, Kerry would take his place in the team after this. **3/4

 

After the bell "the biggest Oriental I've ever seen" according to Mercer runs in and helps the Freebirds attack the Von Erichs. Honestly I'm not sure who that is. Killer Khan maybe? Kerry comes out to help too.

 

The main event had previously been released as a single match, both in the Vault and in the old WWE Network Hidden Gems. Now we have it with (nearly) the whole show. The "presented in the most complete form possible" disclaimer comes up several times during the match. I'm pretty sure there's a few minutes missing from it somewhere but I'm not sure where and I don't think it hurts too bad.

 

NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Kerry Von Erich def "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) in 18:35- This also goes back to '82, when in his first pre-Starrcade '83 reign Flair narrowly escaped with the title after multiple matches with Kerry. Their steel cage match at Christmas Star Wars '82 was the spark that really lit the fuse on the Von Erich/Freebird war when the Freebirds, thanks to Michael Hayes working as a second ref in the match, helped Flair keep the title. Kerry unsurprisingly gets swarmed during his entrance. His robe says "In Memory of David" on the back. The DQ rule for this match has been waived, so Flair can lose the title on a DQ. The bell rings and Flair, feeling the crowd energy, struts around a little to cool things off before locking up. Takedown from Flair and mat stalemate. Big "go Kerry go" chant from the crowd and the wrestlers let that soak in a bit. Another mat exchange that ends in stalemate. Speed run and Kerry hits a couple of dropkicks. Flair bails to the corner to kill the momentum. Headlock into a top wristlock fight that the obviously bigger and stronger Kerry wins. Kerry starts in on some arm work. Flair backs him into the corner and hits some shoulderblocks, then the first chops. Kerry fires up and slugs back. Press slam! Flair tries to beg off again and sneaks out all the way to the floor. Back in Kerry backs Flair into the corner again. Flair gets out with a knee to the gut or slightly lower and puts Kerry down with a chop. He tosses Kerry out to the floor. Kerry pops right back up and tries a sunset flip for 2. Kerry gets a sleeper on! Flair fights around and back suplexes out. Snap mare/kneedrop combo from Flair. Suplex for 2. Kerry fires back with a standing dropkick! Abdominal stretch fight that Kerry wins to get it on. Flair shouts "Watch the tights!" then hiptosses free. Kneedrops from Kerry. Another speed run. Kerry gets the Claw on! Flair grabs Kerry's tights to hit another possibly low knee to get free. Another snap mare and Flair goes up top. Kerry slams him off. Flair tries another beg off but Kerry wants nothing to do with it! Flair Flip! He lands back in the ring and begs off again. Flair tries for a figure four but Kerry pushes him off. Kerry gets a backslide, and that gets the pin to win the title! It really happened! It's a good thing there's already a hole in the roof, there would have been after that pop. Huge celebration in the ring from all the Von Erichs. Flair's furious he got caught like that. He tells Kerry "I'll be back" before leaving. It's a genuine great moment even if Kerry really wasn't NWA World champ material, especially for a family that had just started to experience the tragedy they would. The match was very good but not encroaching on a classic. ***1/2

 

Kerry would get to carry the belt for a few weeks before dropping it back to Flair at an All Japan show in Yokohama, which would kick off the longest of all of Flair's reigns at 793 days.

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Very much a one match show, though the six man bout is also worth checking out just because there's so little Von Erich/Freebird stuff that's widely available.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-