The Last Battle of Atlanta

Legacy Review- From the Vault

The Last Battle of Atlanta

October 23, 1983 from the Omni in Atlanta, GA

 

For years, decades even, this was THE holy grail among wrestling tape traders. If any tape existed at all, the popular assumption was the show was never recorded or had been lost or destroyed. Then something unexpected happened. During the peak period of the WWE Network WWE's archivists discovered an unmarked can in their library that contained a tape of this supposed lost show. As soon as it could be arranged they uploaded first just the single match this show is famous for, Buzz Sawyer vs Tommy Rich, into the Hidden Gems section of the old Network, and then later put the entire show up for everyone to watch. It's taken a while, but they've finally uploaded it onto the modern version of that archive, the WWE Vault on Youtube.

 

I'm going to buck my usual trend here. Normally I don't like providing matches and shows in a vacuum and usually add on relevant historical context, but in this case we are going to be vacuuming it a bit, mostly because this will be the only GCW review I'll have up for the foreseeable future. I've watched most of the other GCW Omni shows the Vault has uploaded, but haven't really had the urge to go all out and do reviews on them all, especially when my plate is already so full elsewhere and after all this is something I do just for fun and artistic satisfaction with no monetary rewards. I will say in general that the Georgia territory is coming to the end of what had been a red hot period for them. Since the mid '70s they have been one of the most prominent and successful of all the NWA territories, making the Omni one of the preeminent wrestling arenas in the country, and getting extra exposure thanks to being on Ted Turner's growing WTBS "superstation". Not long after this things will go downhill fast with a power struggle over control of the territory, Black Saturday, and by mid '85 GCW being subsumed by Jim Crockett Promotions as JCP started to try to go national, or at least super-regional. Speaking of JCP, this show is taking place just a month before they invented the concept of the made for TV supercard with the first Starrcade.

 

Les Thornton def Chief Joe Lightfoot in 9:36- Thornton is announced as "The Man of 1000 Holds". Someone's going to go back in time and claim gimmick infringement. Code of Honor handshake at the bell and we're off in what I assume is a respectful face vs face match. Thornton quickly makes me think otherwise, hitting a quick forearm on a lockup rope break. The ref gets on him for that. Lightfoot gets an arm takedown, then puts on a cravat into a snap mare. After some pin attempts Thornton gets free. He responds with a hip toss, then Lightfoot comes off the mat with a beautiful bridge into a snap mare counter. He's very determined to work this cravat. Thornton pushes free again and off the ropes hits a quick gutwrench suplex on Lightfoot. Again Lightfoot bridges up with ease and get the cravat back on. Thornton tries to slam free but Lightfoot still keeps the cravat on. With no commentary the arena mics are picking up random crowd chatter which is amusing. Back in a standing position Thornton slowly counters the cravat into a full nelson. Lightfoot fights out and reverses. Yet another bridge up into the cravat. He is not deviating from his game plan one bit. Thornton pushes free and again looks to hit a move with Lightfoot coming off the ropes, but this time Lightfoot is ready for him and jumps him with a sunset flip. Thornton tries to counter that but Lightfoot is still a step ahead, hitting a flying headscissors. He goes to grab Thornton but Thornton backs off in a way that looks completely legit. Reset lockup right back into the Lightfoot cravat. Thornton pushes Lightfoot into the ropes and hits a knee to the gut, and then some European uppercuts for the first real strikes of the match. Cover off that for 2. He goes for a chinlock but Lightfoot's got another quick counter back into, say it with me, the cravat. It sounds like I'm mocking it but I'm not, it's working really well. Thornton struggles more to escape this time and Lightfoot really cranks it on. He's got Thornton draped throat first over his shoulder. Another quick counter flurry does Thornton no good. He tries a suplex counter but Lightfoot isn't letting go of that thing for anything. Bridge up from Thornton and he hits another uppercut. He tries to knucklelock Lightfoot down for a pin. Lightfoot counters into a monkey flip using the knucklelock and tries for his own pin. He goes for a dropkick but Thornton dodges it. Both guys trade full nelsons. Another crazy counter run ends with Thornton getting Lightfoot stacked up, and that gets the pin! Another Code of Honor handshake after the bell. That was quite the entertaining technical showcase, that. Very well done. It had, I'm not exaggerating here, some of the best bridge ups I've ever seen anywhere. ***1/4

 

Bruno Sammartino Jr def Pat Rose in 6:02- "Bruno Junior" is of course David Sammartino, using his dad's name outside WWF for recognition. He's in his initial learning run here before moving over to WWF next year. I see Pat Rose but I keep reading Pete Rose. I half expect Kane to show up and tombstone him during the match. Body wise these guys almost look like clones. Code of Honor hand slap and we're off with a very rough lockup. Sammartino reverses a corner whip and armdrags Rose down off the rebound. Speed run with Sammartino slamming on the brakes after ducking a leapfrog and he press slams Rose. Rose slides out to the floor to rethink things. Back in Rose grabs a headlock. More speed. Sammartino hits a hiptoss, then an armdrag into an ARMBAR. Side thought, not one of Thornton's 1000 holds the last match was an armbar. Shame. Rose manages to catch Sammartino with a slam but is quickly armbarred down again. Rose keeps grabbing at hair. He's clearly the heel for this match. Not that a Sammartino was going to be a heel anyway. Sammartino keeps Rose grounded with arm holds. Off the ropes Rose catches Sammartino with a back elbow and goes into generic heel punchy/chokey offense. He keeps Sammartino on the ground with a chinlock for a bit. Sammartino armdrags free. They have a long and pretty rough punch and buckle shot exchange in the corner as the wheels start to come off a little bit. Sammartino gets the crowd back into it with a big telegraphed punch. Backdrop from Sammartino. Kneedrop for 2. Powerslam from Sammartino that Rose barely got over for and that gets the pin. It's a David Sammartino match, and if anything this Rose guy might have looked even worse. Pete Rose might have been a better choice. 1/2*

 

Mask vs Mask: Mr. Wrestling II def Bob Roop (w/Mr. Wrestling I) in 10:58- This was supposed to be the Misters Wrestling facing each other with their masks on the line, but MW1 got injured just before this show so Roop is his stand in. In fact unbeknownst to anyone at the time, MW1 had already wrestled his last match and this injury would force him to retire. MW1's mask is still on the line if Roop loses. No pressure. The ring announcer saying MW1 has been ordered not to wrestle by his doctor gets HUGE boos from the Omni crowd, to the point he has to stop and ask for attention. I'm sure lots of people thought MW1 was ducking and wasn't really hurt. Before the bell the ref and MW2 have a long conversation that judging by the gestures is making clear that if MW2 wins MW1 still has to unmask. The bell rings and Roop is in no hurry to get things going. MW2 looks down and says a few words to MW1. Quick lockup stalemates lead to a top wristlock fight. Roop uses that opening to hit a knee to the ribs. MW2 goes down and does a drop toe hold that Roop just kind of eases himself down during, then rolls out for space. Back in MW2 works on Roop's arm, then takes him down into a headscissors. Roop takes a rope break to get free. When Roop pushes free from a headlock MW2 comes off the ropes and grabs a front facelock instead. Roop uses that to place MW2 on the top rope. He charges in...right into a MW2 kneelift! What a sell from Roop on that too. MW2 covers but Roop gets a foot on the rope. MW2 takes advantage of that by dropping right on his leg. Again Roop bails and hides under the bottom rope. MW2 tries to kick him so he goes all the way to the floor, shaking his leg off. Once again both guys are very cautious locking back up. MW2 cranks another headlock. Another speed run and MW2 counters a backdrop attempt with a kick, sending Roop out to the floor again. Roop grabs MW1's crutch and hits MW2 with it! The line of southern grannies sitting ringside across hard camera want NO PART of that malarkey. That got them riled up good. Gutbuster from Roop for 2. Roop tries to take MW2's mask off. Gotta win the match first, son. It's in the stips. That gets MW2 fired back up. Roop cuts him off with a diving clothesline for 2. Roop stays focused on MW2's ribs with a bunch of shots there, then switches to a swinging neckbreaker for 2. He puts MW2 into the tree of woe and goes for his mask again. MW2 hits a punch right on Roop's eye to get free. Full comeback strike flurry. Roop begs off. MW2 continues the strike onslaught and covers for 2. Roop hits a high knee or hip attack or MW2 runs into his ass or something. To say Roop's been sloppy in this match is an understatement. Roop scoops MW2 onto his shoulders and seems to be looking for a shoulderbreaker. MW2 squirms free, rolls Roop up, and gets a pin! HUGE pop! Fans almost completely obscuring the hard cam pop. The ref makes it clear to MW1 that he's got to unmask. It's hard to see exactly what happens, but when we can see clearly again he's down with the mask off. He tries to cover up with his shirt as Roop helps him to the back. As they leave a fan reaches in and yanks his shirt off! Damn. I wonder if that'd get you an arena ban back then? Probably not. The match was decent with absolutely insane crowd heat, but it moved at a glacial pace at times, even for the era. **1/4

 

NWA National Heavyweight Championship: Brett Wayne (c) and Jake "The Snake" Roberts no contest in 21:50- The National singles and tag titles were the top titles in GCW. Wayne is Brett Wayne Sawyer, real life brother to and occasional tag partner of Buzz Sawyer, and was in his short only reign in between two much more well known names, Larry Zbyszko and Ted DiBiase. Pre-WWF Roberts was a big time heel both in GCW and Mid-South. After instructions as the bell rings Roberts takes issue with a leg wrap Wayne is wearing and makes the ref check it. He tries to lull Wayne into an unsuspecting tackle but Wayne suspects it. Pretty standard basic start after that. Wayne hits a shoulderblock and Roberts backs up into the corner. Slithers would not be a poor description, he's really got that part of his character down. Wayne cranks some arm wringers. Roberts pushes free but takes a slam and dropkick. He goes out to the floor to kill the momentum. Back in both guys slowly ease into a knucklelock. Roberts hops to the bottom rope to get a leverage edge and get Wayne down, then does it again when Wayne fights back up. Next time Roberts tries it Wayne is ready for it, countering to twist Roberts' wrists and get him down. Roberts swings around and takes a rope break to get free. When Wayne grabs a headlock Roberts punches him on his wrapped leg. It's clearly a soft target as Wayne quickly backs up and shakes it off. Again Roberts targets it, as honestly he should. He even mocks Wayne a bit by dancing around like he's saying "Hey, my legs are fine". Wayne lands a punch and Roberts backs off again, complaining about the closed fist. He starts a charge but a look from Wayne quickly cuts it off. Another arm wringer gets Roberts extremely frustrated. He resorts to punching Wayne to try to get out but Wayne won't let go. He gets Roberts down and drops a knee on his arm. Someone sitting near the hard cam shouts "DO IT AGAIN, DO IT AGAIN". Roberts goes out again. Wayne reaches in to pull him back in, finally giving Roberts the opening he's been searching for. A punch leaves Wayne draped bad knee over the middle rope, and Roberts is all over it. Roberts starts tearing off the bandage wrap Wayne has on. Kick to the knee. Roberts is really tearing it apart now. He lifts Wayne up by the leg. Wayne punches back but Roberts seems almost amused by it. He really cranks back on Wayne's leg on the mat. Chop block to the leg! Spinning toe hold. Wayne manages to kick free. Another chop block. Roberts really lays it in by telling Wayne to get up. Wayne does and tries another bunch but collapses in a heap. Roberts puts on a half crab. With extra rope leverage. The guys by hard cam get really mad at the ref when he clearly should have seen it but had to pretend he didn't. Finally he does catch Roberts properly and breaks the hold. Roberts drags Wayne up and tosses him out to the floor. He gives Wayne a shot on I assume the timekeeper's table ringside. Then he goes around and drops Wayne on the guardrail. Roberts goes up top and seems to tease a crazy dive, but guys didn't do that in the early '80s. Roberts never did period. Wayne manages to drag himself up to the apron. Roberts lifts him up in suplex position and drops him gut first on the top rope. Snap mare and cover for 2. Just now seeing Wayne is bleeding, probably off the table shot. Back suplex from Roberts and very casual cover for 2. Roberts can't believe Wayne kicked out. Straight punch to Wayne's cut for another 2. Mr. Wrestling 2 has come out to ringside to cheer Wayne on. Or to throw the towel in, he's got one. Wayne blocks a punch and slugs back! Barely able to stand he manages to backdrop Roberts. Roberts dodges a dropkick. Not Wayne's best idea. Roberts is back all over the bad knee. Ole Anderson is now out there too trying to pump Wayne up. So is brother Buzz Sawyer. Another chop block from Roberts. Roberts continue to try to destroy the knee as the crowd is really starting to come unglued at him. The ref tries to back him off so he can check to see if Wayne can even continue. Ole gets in Wayne's face and tries to get him going. Roberts, however, is relentless on the knee. I'm not even sure he's trying to win anymore, he's just trying to destroy that knee. Ole grabs the towel and throws it in! It's over, Roberts wins! Roberts thinks he won the title. However, the ref has other instructions for the ring announcer. It turns out in a title match the only way you can win the title is by pinfall or submission. Ref stoppage doesn't count. Damn, Mr. McMahon pulled that one on Mankind against the Rock years later. But, doesn't throwing in the towel count as a submission? It's crazy how twisted some of these territories tried to make the rules. Still got nothing on the AWA's Stanley Blackburn though. Regardless, the match was phenomenal. A masterclass in psychology and limb work/selling. Retaining the title in this way does make Wayne look pretty weak though. ****

 

NWA Television Championship: The Great Kabuki (c) (w/Gary Hart) def Ron Garvin in 16:46- Kabuki is carrying JCP's NWA TV title and defending it here, on the same reign he'd drop it to Jimmy Valiant as Charlie Brown (From Outta Town) next month at the first Starrcade. This is under GCW's usual TV title setup where only the first 10 minutes of the match are for the title. If it goes beyond that the title is no longer on the line. When we come into this segment Hart is verbally giving Garvin the business. After he's done Garvin turns Hart around and decks him! Then the bell rings to start. Kabuki stands over Hart for protection while Hart recovers. It's hard to see from the camera's distance but it looks like Garvin has a full (and fully coiffed) head of hair instead of the flattop he'll sport later. That's almost as weird as that one time I saw young Tomohiro Ishii with hair. Lots of cautious jockeying once Hart gets out to the floor. Very, very cautious. They slowly work into a knucklelock. Kabuki takedown, Garvin counter, reset. Kabuki hits a shot to the gut and starts striking away on Garvin. The Oriental Nerve Pinch of Extreme Pinching +1 is on and knowing Kabuki I suspect we're going to stay here a while. Garvin gets free and comes off the ropes with a tackle. Kabuki cuts him off with a back kick to the gut and head chop. Kabuki does that weird thing where he goes all the way up to the second rope to put the nerve pinch on again. I guess it's extra momentum or something. Lots of "COME ON, RONNIE" from the guys sitting near the hard camera mics. We cross 5 and 4 minutes left of the title portion of the match. At the 3 minutes left call Garvin fights out again, hits an uppercut, but then collapses on the mat. Again Kabuki goes up the ropes just to put the pinch back on. When Hart distracts the ref Kabuki bites Garvin right in the throat. Kick to the back of Garvin's head. Garvin starts to slug back as time is running out. He bites Kabuki back. One minute left. Garvin fully embraces heel offense, eye poking Kabuki and giving him a couple of back rakes. Garvin thumb to Kabuki's throat. Kneedrop and cover for 2. Garvin small packages Kabuki for 2, and at the same time the time limit for the title expires. Garvin can still win the match, but not the title. As the ring announcer succinctly puts it, "That's it". Garvin continues to gouge at Kabuki's face (with the nearby hard cam crowd shouting "RIP IT OFF!"). Garvin teases a Greco Roman Nut Stomp but goes for a gut stomp instead. Suplex from Garvin for 2. He does a bit of joint manipulation on Kabuki's hand. Definitely a good anti-pinch move. That leads to a full ARMBAR. Garvin knees Kabuki from behind a bit south of Saskatchewan. We get a bit of a reset after that. Back kick from Kabuki. Swinging neckbreaker. Elbow drop for 2. He puts on a front facelock. Garvin grabs the ropes and throws Kabuki off. Elbow drop from Garvin for 2. He drags Kabuki over in the corner and, thanks go Hart protesting to the ref, crotches Kabuki right on the post. Garvin goes for a piledriver. Kabuki backdrops free, but Garvin reverses that into a cradle for 2. Slam from Garvin. Garvin Stomp! He drops another pair of elbows and covers. Hart reaches in and lights a lighter right by Garvin's ear! Garvin goes out and lays into Hart! Both Kabuki and then Hart eye rake Garvin, but that doesn't stop him! Again it's getting hard to see with people in front of hard cam standing up. Kabuki hits Garvin with something, probably a foreign object of one kind or another, and gets a pin. It's a Kabuki match, but Garvin was good enough to at least keep it moderately interesting. *3/4

 

NWA National Tag Team Championship: The Road Warriors (c) and Jimmy Valiant & Pez Whatley double DQ in 4:02- The Roadies had just debuted, I mean DEBUTED debuted, earlier in the year as heels. GCW saw massive potential in them and they were literally gifted the tag titles backstage in June just months into their careers after the Wild Samoans left for the WWF, with the kayfabe story being they won a tournament to win them. Probably took place in Rio. Seeing Valiant and Whatley teaming up is amusing for me as a JCP viewer because Whatley will be one of many guys to turn on Valiant during his years long war with Paul Jones a couple of years after this. Valiant's got sponsorship from local station FM 100 on his tights. I assume it's a local station. Valiant takes a bit of mic time coming into the ring, then he and Whatley jump in and jump the Roadies. Quick ring clearing from the faces. They flip the Roadies back in off the apron and double noggin knocker them. This is as much selling as the Roadies will do in a single match for years. Things settle in with Whatley still in control on Hawk. Shoulderblock standoff. Whatley hits a headbutt and dropkicks Hawk, then struts a bit. More than a bit actually. This is so early days for the Roadies, there's no way Hawk would let that go later. Valiant tags in and continues the onslaught. Sleeper! Animal runs in and Valiant puts the sleeper on him! I guess there was a blind tag because the ref's checking him. Whatley runs in to cut Hawk off from breaking the sleeper up and the ref is in the wrong place at the wrong time and goes down. Animal fades down as Whatley gives Hawk mounted punches. Animal is likely out, but so is the ref still. Valiant goes out, tosses a chair in, and gives Animal a post shot. And a crotch post shot. Someone, I think David Sammartino, has come in and tries to revive the ref. He then starts counting the Roadies out. Hawk pulls him out of the ring and runs him into the post! Back to the 2v2 brawl. The ref has come to and calls for the bell, throwing the match out due to all the chaos. The wrestlers don't care and keep on fighting. The faces do a final demolition of the Roadies to stand tall. Not much of a match, but man what a glimpse of the Road Warriors before they were really the ROAD WARRIORS. They literally didn't get a lick of offense in, completely the opposite of what we'll be accustomed to later. *

 

Steel Cage Match: "Wildfire" Tommy Rich def Buzz Sawyer in 12:05- Here it is, the blowoff of all blowoffs. This feud has been going on for a good two years, initially over the National title but it soon became even bigger than the title, and will finally be settled tonight. To really try to make this match special the regular steel cage has a full chicken wire roof tied on the top of it to make sure both guys are locked in with each other. It's a truly great visual. Modern WWE credits this match as being the inspiration for Hell in a Cell, which I think is a bit of a dubious claim but whatever. It's modified Texas Death Match rules here, you can win by either pinfall or your opponent not being able to answer a 10 count. There's an added stipulation that if Rich wins, then Sawyer's manager Paul Ellering will have to face Ole Anderson inside the cage. Ellering is suspended in his own cage for the duration of this match. The ring announcer makes it clear this is the LAST TIME these guys will ever meet. There's no ref in the ring, I guess he'll have to count everything from the floor. Too dangerous for him in there. Off the initial lockup Sawyer tries a punch but Rich dodges it and Sawyer punches the cage. Next lockup Rich teases a punch but lays up when Sawyer dodges. Sawyer keeps reaching up and pulling at the roof. Guess we know it's secure. They go to the apron. Rich tries for an elbow but Sawyer ducks it and Rich elbows the cage. Sawyer then runs that elbow into the cage a bunch of times. Continued shots from Sawyer on that arm. Rich has a huge elbow pad on, like that one match where Austin wrestled with a staph infection, so that might have been a hurt limb he carried into the match. Sawyer takes the elbow pad off and continues punishing the arm. And also bites Rich. Rich lands a knee to the gut to get some space, but he's too hurt to follow up. Full cage shot for Rich and he's already bleeding. Sawyer bites at the cut. Another cage shot. Rich is already a full crimson mask with a ton of blood down on his chest and even stomach. It's the LAST BATTLE, might as well go all the way. Rich low blow outta nowhere on Sawyer! He's desperate. Sawyer shrugs it off and continue to absolutely punish Rich's bleeding forehead. Rich's hair is already turning red, he's just gushing. He tries to slug back again, and catches Sawyer with a boot in the face. Receipt bite from Rich, followed by a receipt cage shot. Sawyer's turn to open up a gusher. He slugs Rich back down and faceplants him on the mat. Another cage shot for Rich. Rich grabs Sawyer and hits a piledriver! The ref starts counting 10 on the house mic. Rich gets up and tries a kneedrop that Sawyer dodges. Rich stays on offense as they get back up and gives Sawyer more cage shots. Not to overstate the point but both guys are just covered in blood, there's no telling how gruesome this would look if we had any more than the distant arena hard cam. Piledriver from Sawyer. Another bite on Rich's cut. And another cage shot that Sawyer slips down on during. Backbreaker from Sawyer and he covers for 2 (ref counting on the mic). Rich dodges an elbow drop. On knees slugfest that really looks like one last big burst of energy from both guys. Rich bites Sawyer and he goes down. He goes up top. Sawyer dodges a fistdrop. Sawyer sets Rich up against the ropes, backs up and charges. Rich dodges and Sawyer crossbodys himself into the cage! Shit he went for that full damn speed. Rich gives Sawyer another cage shot. And another. Rich covers for 2. Rich continues to ram Sawyer into the cage despite the fact he can barely stand himself. He barely crawls over, covers Sawyer, and the ref counts 3! Both guys lay in the middle of the ring, completely and utterly spent. The ref has to call for help from the back to get them out. That was every bit the bloody spectacle of a brawl you'd expect given the match's reputation. ****

 

Ellering takes a long time helping his buddy Sawyer out of the cage before we set up for our extra added match. 

 

Steel Cage Match: Ole Anderson def Paul Ellering in 9:26- As Ellering is still helping Saywer out through the door Ole, still in his street clothes, jumps him as he walks in the door! Cage shot for Ellering. The ref is in the ring for this one, I'm assuming it's just straight pinfall rules. As Ole continues beating on Ellering the ring announcer has to ask people to "please take your seats". There's not much to say on this one as it's just all Ole. This is getting to Undertaker vs DDP in WWF levels of one sided. But Ole was the Booker Man for GCW at the time, so he had virtual carte blanche. Somehow Ellering manages to kick out of a pin so the beatings will continue until morale improves. We can't see much but it looks like the crowd is visibly emptying as this match goes on. They've already seen what they came to see. Ellering finally manages to catch Ole with an inverted atomic drop after 5 minutes of a one sided beating. It looks like he tries to lift Ole up for something but can't. Cage shot for Ole as the tear in one of his jeans legs becomes bigger and bigger as this goes on. He's bleeding pretty good now too. Ole blocks and backdrops out of a piledriver attempt. That was enough selling, back to your regular scheduled beatdown. During a slugfest Ole literally tackles Ellering down around the waist. Ole tries coming off the second rope but with the roof it doesn't go very well. Another slugfest. Ole hits a headbutt, covers, and gets the pin. Very pointless needlessly tacked on extra match. There's a heel beatdown on Ole after the match but I'm honestly not sure who exactly that is doing the beating. 3/4*

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- For a show that had a reputation for years as a lost classic, this manages to just about live up to it. The big matches are definitely all worth checking out.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B 

WrestleFest '88

Legacy Review- From the Vault

WrestleFest '88

July 31, 1988 from Milwaukee County Stadium in Milwaukee, WI

 

Commentary: Post-production rotating

 

Before WWF made it to the first Summerslam in late August, they decided to put on one more old school style summertime outdoor stadium show. Milwaukee County Stadium was first home to the Braves in their 12 year stop between Boston and Atlanta, then the semi-expansion (it's a long story) Brewers until the opening of Miller Park in 2001. It's a huge, Wrestlemania sized 15 match card they're putting on tonight too. Every title is on the line, and the main event will be the absolutely final one on one confrontation between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant. The matches on this show were later chopped up and gradually shown on Prime Time Wrestling, the weekly show that was more a "compilation" show, and there was also a 2 hour edited Coliseum Video release. Because of that all the commentary was recorded off the tape in the Stamford post-production studios and will rotate around. Thanks again to the WWE Vault lads both for making this complete show available and for putting the matches back in original card order.

 

We start off with a classic Stamford green screen studio intro from Sean Mooney, Lord Alfred Hayes and Superstar Billy Graham and lots of piped in crowd noise. As is natural for WWF they set everything up to look as close to normal TV as possible. The ring is set up roughly over home plate to be close to the crowd in that section. Wrestlers make their entrance from the dugout area as they should for baseball stadium shows.

 

The Big Boss Man def Scott Casey in 4:15- Boss Man, formerly Big Bubba Rogers, made his WWF debut in the spring after spending his early years in JCP and Mid-South/UWF, mostly as the bodyguard for the Midnight Express and Jim Cornette, and he stayed a heel after coming over to WWF. As a big guy, much larger than he would later be in his underrated peak years as a worker, he was already being groomed to be a fresh Big Man opponent for Hogan. Mooney and Hayes are on the call for this one. Boss Man takes his sweet time before the match showing off his various law enforcement implements before we finally get going. Boss Man easily wins the first lockup so Casey tries to dodge around him. Casey actually gets a bit, cranking an arm wringer that Boss Man has to eye rake out of, then skinning the cat when Boss Man tries to toss him out. That leads to another arm wringer. Off the ropes Boss Man scoops him up into a backbreaker. Boss Man focuses on the back after that. Bear hug. Casey tries to bell ring out but Boss Man hangs on. Finally he bites Boss Man to get free. Who's the heel here? Casey slides under and puts a sleeper on with some difficulty. Boss Man easily gets free of that, but then runs into Casey's boot with a crazy delayed sell. Off the ropes again Boss Man (barely) hits the Boss Man Slam and it's over. Pretty much a jobber squash, but the crowd is definitely into things early. After the bell Boss Man does the night stick beatdown, but only drops his cuffs on Casey's chest instead of putting them on as he often did in these early days to really get over as a heel. 3/4*

 

Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake def Hercules in 9:37- The greatest commentary team of all time, Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan, take over for this one. Heenan isn't out with his wrestlers most of the show because he has a match toward the end. Monsoon mentions the crowd and Heenan quickly quips the Brewers are lucky to get 60 people in here. Heenan does sound like he's in a closet though. Very bad audio mix for the postproduction commentary. Lots of posturing before the initial rough lockup. Monsoon mentions Beefcake is challenging for the IC title again at Summerslam. That will end up changing between when this aired on Prime Time and Summerslam actually happening. Beefcake works a headlock. Speed run and neither guy seems to know what to do with it, settling on a slugfest. A jumping elbow to the head from Beefcake sends Herc out to the floor. Usual recovery stalling follows. Another headlock from Beefcake. Herc tries a corner cheap shot but Beefcake blocks it and gives Herc some buckle shots. Atomic drop. Herc uses a tights pull to pull Beefcake out to the floor. Snap mare from Herc and we have a small clip, I think because of a Prime Time commercial break, into a chinlock. Beefcake's comeback is cut off by a knee to the gut. Another Herc snap mare and he drops an elbow. Very delayed cover for 2. Another chinlock and we go to arm drops. Full Beefcake comeback time. Back elbow in the corner. Clothesline. Beefcake calls for the sleeper, but goes for more punches instead. Herc pulls Beefcake head first into the top turnbuckle. Herc goes for the full nelson. Beefcake blocks it being fully locked in, runs him into the corner, and slaps on the sleeper. Herc tries to get free, so Beefcake pushes him into the corner, rolls him up, and gets the pin. Dead simple match layout with not much effort happening, but the end run wasn't terrible. *

 

The Fabulous Rougeaus def The Killer Bees in 13:59- It took longer than I remembered, but the Rougeaus have finally turned heel. You can tell by the tiny US flags they carry into the ring, not just the crowd reaction. Weird long tights look for the Bees tonight instead of their usual trunks. The Mooney/Hays/Graham team return to commentary, I'm pretty sure they were the team for the Coliseum Video release version of this show. Brunzell and Raymond start. Raymond immediately grabs the ropes off a whip and bails to the floor to stall. After a couple of headlock/headscissors exchanges Brunzell takes Raymond down with a flying headscissors, but toward the wrong corner and Raymond can tag out while laying on the mat. Horrible tag tactics there from a tag veteran. Jacques wants Blair to tag in and he does. After some feeling out they trade some hammerlocks. Blair gets an arm takedown. Speed run and Jacques hits a monkey flip. An insincere handshake offer follows. Left handed and everything. Another speed run and Jacques flips over Blair. While he's celebrating that Blair takes him down with a clothesline. Jacques quickly rolls around into his corner and tags out. Now that was quality tag team tactics. Raymond uses a rope break to get a leg takedown on Brunzell. The Rougeaus take turn working on Brunzell's leg. Brunzell counters a Raymond backdrop attempt and tags out. Now Blair works on Raymond's leg. Classic wishbone spot from the Bees. Blair tries a Boston crab but Raymond gets to the ropes before it's on. Another tactical muff from the Bees as Blair lets Raymond tag out. Jacques amusingly tries to stretch Raymond's sore legs out for him, allowing Blair to roll him up for 2. Drop toe hold from Jacques. After a bit of struggle on the mat Jacques goes for another one. Blair blocks it and hits his own. The Bees start cranking away on Jacques' leg. Blair puts on nearly a full spinning toe hold, then after a long fight gets the Boston crab on. Raymond pushes the bottom rope out with his foot, allowing Jacques to get a break. Raymond tags in and gets a Boston crab on Blair. Blair counters into a cradle for 2. He gets back on Jacques' knee, then turns him over and puts a full nelson on. Raymond distracts and Jacques pops Blair in the back of the head. Abdominal stretch from Jacques, which Raymond uses to hit a kick to the gut for 2. The Rougeaus continue to work ref Joey Marella to keep Blair from mounting a comeback. Raymond tries for a corner monkey flip but Blair blocks it and hits an inverted atomic drop. Tag to Brunzell! He unloads on Jacques, including hitting the corner monkey flip. Backdrop. Double noggin knocker for the Rougeaus. Brunzell puts a figure four on! It's submission hold bingo in this match, not that I'm complaining. Raymond sneaks in and breaks it up. Brunzell atomic drops Jacques into the Bees corner. Brunzell hits the dropkick! That was, I kid you not, his finisher. DONNYBROOK! Raymond punches Brunzell down into a Jacques cover and that gets the pin. Decent tag stuff. The Rougeaus looked far superior here, the Bees did not look good at all. And this would turn out to be the final major match for the Bees as a team. They were broken up soon after this and neither made a significant impact in WWF again. **1/2

 

Bad News Brown def Bret "Hitman" Hart in 6:26- This is coming out of the Wrestlemania 4 battle royale, where Brown ambushed Bret at the end to win, then Bret got mad and destroyed Brown's winner's trophy. That was a face turn for Bret, and it was intended to be the start of a singles push for him but as we all know it wouldn't stick yet and he was already slowly starting to team back up with Anvil again. We're starting to get into sunset now. No music for Bret or the Hart Foundation yet. Bret can't find a ring attendant to take his sunglasses so he tosses them away. I should note regular sunglasses, he didn't have the custom ones yet. Bell rings and immediately Brown hides in the ropes in the corner. Lockup after that and Brown to the shock of no one does not clean break. Buckle shots with classic Bret sells. Bret tries a floatover in the corner but doesn't get high enough and they have to improv a bit, but do it well. These guys were very familiar with each other as they had a huge feud back in their Stampede days, when Brown was Bad News Allen. Bret hiptosses Brown out of the corner. Slam/elbow drop combo. Gut stomp. He scrapes Brown across the top rope and drops another elbow. Corner whip and Brown gets a boot up on Bret. Brown goes up top. Bret pops up and slams him off! Classic Bret goldbricking. The elbow off the second rope hits for 2. Snap suplex from Bret. Legdrop for 2. Bret goes for a backbreaker but Brown eye rakes him. Why in all the years after did no one ever think of doing that counter again? Bret reverses a corner whip, but Brown pops out with a clothesline. He goes for the Ghetto Blaster but Bret ducks it! He backdrops Brown over the top to the floor! BRET PLANCHA! That was a HUGE move in 1988. Back in Bret drops another elbow. Brown reverses a whip but Bret flat runs him over with a crossbody. Full speed impact there. Sunset flip from Bret for 2. The backbreaker hits this time. Punch to the gut and Bret rolls Brown up. Brown reverses it, grabs a handful of tights and gets the pin! Anvil runs in to lead block for Bret, then the Harts beat Brown down a bit before he bails. Good stuff there. It started a little rough but Bret visibly got more comfortable as it went and they were going damn nice in the second half. Brown's a guy I've become a fan of as I've gotten older, I need to check out more of his pre-WWF work. ***1/4

 

Before his defense Honky Tonk Man and Jimmy Hart join Mean Gene on the interview stage. All the usual things are said. 

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan def The Honky Tonk Man (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) by DQ in 4:38- Honky hit one year on his improbable title reign at the start of June, and this show actually represents a major historical mark in his reign. By my calculations it's on the very day of this show that he tied Pedro Morales' single reign record at 425 days. If he can squeak away one more time the record will be his. Hayes tries to recreate Duggan's HOOOOOOOO and, just.....no. Not even close. About as bad as me trying to do a Ric Flair WOOOOOO, which I'll admit has always eluded me. As usual Duggan wants to GO and Honky wants to stall. Duggan finally catches him in the ring and pounds away on him. Mounted punches from Duggan. Big delayed Honky flop. Now buckle shots for Honky. The crowd's counting to 10 so much it's like a reverse Royal Rumble. Another big shot and Honky goes to the floor. Duggan reaches down and gives the heels a double noggin knocker. Honky catches him coming back in the ring. Hart chokes Duggan with the bottom rope behind Hebner's back. Throat shots from Honky. Duggan blocks a buckle shot and goes into comeback mode. Back elbow. Duggan signals for the 3 point stance, but Honky begs off so Duggan kicks him instead. Clothesline. Now he gets in the 3 point stance. Hart grabs Duggan's leg and Hebner quickly calls for a DQ. If you've seen one Honky IC title defense you've seen them all. 1/2*

 

Honky swings at Duggan with his guitar but Duggan ducks! That was better than anything in the match. Duggan chases the heels off with the 2x4, then chases them down and pulls Hart back in the ring. Honky follows and loads up another guitar shot attempt. Duggan pushes Hart into Honky! Honky dropped the guitar and it fell right on Hart's head! Ouch. Completely unintentional, but that had to have hurt. Duggan is officially announced as the winner by DQ, and to celebrate he destroys Honky's guitar with his 2x4. It's OK, Honky gets them from the same mass production factory Jeff Jarrett will later use.

 

The Powers of Pain def The Bolsheviks in 6:47- The POP had just jumped over from JCP, and in the middle of a huge feud with the Road Warriors no less. They came into WWF as faces after being heels in JCP and were already getting mixed up with tag champs Demolition in a natural battle of face painted teams. The POP run in and we're off with our first jump start of the night. Double clothesline on Zhukov and the POP pose while Graham practically has an orgasm over their look. Likely channeling Vince with that too. Slow reset with Barbarian and Volkoff in the ring. We get some power lockup standoffs. Volkoff tries some shoulderblocks with no one moving. Commentary has a laugh over Barbarian telling Graham before the match that they're from "none of your business". That's just down the road from Parts Unknown. Zhukov tags in and Barbarian runs him over. Powerslam from Barbarian for 2. Another reset with Volkoff and Warlord. Volkoff wants a test of strength and Warlord goes for it. Zhukov provides an assist off the top rope behind Marella's back, but it doesn't help much. Zhukov tries again and this time Warlord maneuvers so he hits Volkoff. Zhukov takes some shots in the face corner. Dodge and Barbarian posts his shoulder. That lets the Russians get some token offense in. The crowd gets distracted by something. Double clothesline from Barbarian and tag to Warlord. EVERYONE IN THE POOL! The POP hit Zhukov with the running powerslam/headbutt off the top rope combo and it's over. A squash for the newbies over an expendable low card team to get them going, but not a particularly impressive one. WWF will quickly discover there's not a lot of "there" there with the POP. 1/2*

 

Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart def "Leaping" Lanny Poffo in 2:34- Poor Anvil was left twisting in the wind during Bret's attempted singles run as he just wasn't cut out to be a singles star. Poffo (Randy Savage's real life brother, never mentioned on WWF TV) had been with the company for years as a lowcarder but would soon be featured much more as a wrestler and manager after being repackaged as the Genius. Both guys are in a weird tweener state where they're transitioning but not fully converted, Anvil from heel to face and Poffo from face to heel. Case in point, Anvil tries to jump before the bell but Poffo was ready for him. Slam from Poffo and he goes up to the second rope. He tries for a short moonsault (he was doing that years before anyone else in the WWF) but Anvil gets his knees up. And gives us a classic Anvil laugh after. Anvil's definitely working this match as a heel despite helping Bret earlier. He drops Poffo on the top rope. More clubbing blows and he demands Poffo to "GET UP!". He bites Poffo! Anvil is furious at the lack of fight he's getting. Poffo finally swings back and tries a sunset flip. Anvil cuts that off. Corner shoulderblocks. Anvil sets up and goes for a corner avalanche. Poffo dodges and gets some more shots in, but then runs right into an Anvil powerslam. That gets the pin. Squashy McSquashiness. 1/4*

 

WWF Championship: "Macho Man" Randy Savage (c) (w/Elizabeth) def "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase (w/Virgil) in 14:52- Since Hogan and Andre are main eventing this is getting the classic pre-intermission semi-main slot. This is of course a rematch of the finals of the WM 4 tournament where Savage won the title. Without the constraints of the tournament these guys are fully capable of putting on a classic. We join the match after entrances are nearly fully completed. Virgil wanders over and annoys Elizabeth while the guys jockey in the ring. Savage then notices and you KNOW how he's going to react to anyone being within 15 feet of Elizabeth. While Savage is jawing at Virgil DiBiase hits him with an ex handle off the apron. Back in DiBiase pounds away. Back elbow. Corner chops. You can tell DiBiase was never an NWA/JCP guy by how weak those are. Savage comes off the ropes with a clothesline. Corner whip and back elbow. A kneelift sends DiBiase out to the floor. Virgil earns his pay blocking Savage and helping DiBiase up. But then Savage waffles DiBiase as soon as he gets back on the apron, frustrating DiBiase more. Back in DiBiase tries a kick but Savage blocks it. Spin into an atomic drop, which sends DiBiase over the top and back out to the floor. DiBiase takes a while out there and Savage holds the ropes open beckoning him back in. Back in DiBiase gets back on offense. He tries a sunset flip but Savage fights it off. Another clothesline and DiBiase begs off, then uses that to tights pull Savage to the floor. Elizabeth tries to help but Hebner flat yells at her to "GET OUT OF THERE!". DiBiase runs Savage into the tiny timekeeper's table. That thing's barely big enough to hold the bell. DiBiase continues to work Savage over back in. Savage comes off the ropes at 100 MPH and DiBiase clotheslines him for 2. Savage blocks a buckle shot and gives DiBiase one, but on the other side runs into DiBiase's boot. DiBiase gives Savage elbows to the throat on the apron. Double ax handle off the second rope from DiBiase. He takes forever and finally covers for 2. Backbreaker from DiBiase for 2. Savage blocks and hits a suplex. Both guys slug it out on their knees with Savage winning. Big Savage crossbody for 2. DiBiase pops up with a clothesline for 2. He tries to ground Savage with a chinlock. We go to arm drops and Savage powers back up. They get into a top wristlock fight and DiBiase possibly pulls hair to get Savage back down in the chinlock. More arm drops. Savage grabs DiBiase's hair to pull himself back up! He runs DiBiase into the top turnbuckle with a SPECTACULAR delayed flop from DiBiase. I'm always a sucker for those. But again Savage is cut off, this time with a punch to the gut from DiBiase. More corner chops. Corner dodge and Savage runs knee first into the top turnbuckle! Time for some classic Savage hurt leg selling, he was one of the best ever at that. DiBiase tries some spinning toe holds but Savage pushes him off into the corner. Another go at the toe holds and this time Savage pushes DiBiase so hard he goes 360 over the top rope to the floor! DiBiase goes up top. Savage catches him with a punch to the gut! Savage slugs back and DiBiase begs off again. Buckle shots for DiBiase. Savage is, naturally, still selling the leg by the way. Another good DiBiase flop and Savage covers for 2. Savage leaping clotheslines DiBiase over the top rope. Now he goes up top. The double ax handle hits. Savage says that's it and goes up again. Virgil gets on the apron and tries to shake the rope. Savage hops down and grabs him. DiBiase tries to ambush but Savage dodges it! Roll up for a long 2! That easily could have been the finish. DiBiase counters a backdrop attempt. Million Dollar Dream! Savage starts to fade, but then smartly falls sideways into the ropes to break the hold. Genius level ring awareness. Virgil gets a chair and hits Savage in the face with it! DiBiase had Hebner distracted. Cover. Savage kicks out! Fistdrops from a now very frustrated DiBiase at Savage still fighting. Savage counters a slam attempt into a Paul Smackage and gets the pin to retain! Great stuff, more on the level you'd expect than their WM match, but not *quite* upper echelon for me. Postmatch beatdown shenanigans follow with Savage having to rescue his belt from being stolen. During the whole victory celebration that follows Savage still sells the knee. ***3/4 

 

Curt Hennig def Terry Taylor in 4:52- Not one, but two recent WWF signees here. Former AWA World champ and future Mr. Perfect Hennig is making his WWF debut after shrewdly using WWF negotiations the past year plus as a real life backstage ploy to keep the AWA World title. Taylor had spent his whole career in various southern territories to this point, and had left JCP early in the year after seeing how his fellow former UWF wrestlers were being treated. He had a stop off in dying WCCW in the interim. This is in a short gap after his debut but before he was saddled with the all time awful Red Rooster gimmick. Both guys get jobber entrances. This match was cut out of the Coliseum release and never shown on TV, so we're doing a bit of time travel in the commentary booth as we're joined by Michael Cole and Mick Foley. The scratch WWE logo has also popped up. I think this long lost match was finally released as part of a Mr. Perfect DVD set when WWE was doing a bunch of those pre-streaming era. Lockup and Hennig hits a hiptoss while Foley pulls the curtain back and says both these guys were contenders for the Mr. Perfect gimmick. In fact, I think this was the very tryout match to see who fit it better. Another lockup and Hennig gets an armdrag. Taylor does....something that Hennig bumps off of. Hiptoss and armdrag from Taylor, then he dropkicks Hennig to the floor. Back in they do a headlock/headscissors exchange. Shoulderblock from Taylor, and he takes advantage of Hennig rolling right back up to grab a headlock. Another shoulderblock and Hennig counters another headlock with a back suplex. They're keeping it dead ass simple so far, it's almost like a training match. Hennig pounds away on Taylor's back. Taylor counters a hiptoss into a backslide for 2. Kneelift from Hennig as the crowd gets distracted again by something going on at the top of the stadium. Not that this match has deserved to hold their attention. Sleeper from Hennig. Taylor jawbreakers free. He fakes Hennig out with a crossbody, waits and hits it for 2. A corner punch results in a pretty classic Hennig oversell. Hennig pops out of the corner with a running forearm, almost Taylor's old fivearm finisher (which knowing Hennig might have been a deliberate rib), and that gets the pin. That was a bit of a mess. I don't know if they were instructed to keep it so simple or what, but it didn't do either guy, both normally great workers, any favors at all. It's easy to see why this stayed locked in the vault until being put out as a historical curio on Perfect's DVD set. A side note on that, Cole and Foley's commentary is excellent, largely because it's all real life and no kayfabe since they did it so long after. DUD

 

Jake "The Snake" Roberts and "Ravishing" Rick Rude double countout in 15:44- This is a WM 4 tournament first round rematch, and has turned out to be one of the big feuds of the summer, with Rude openly going after Roberts' wife Cheryl. The match is JIP'd with Roberts attacking Rude during intros. Rude tries to run and we have a chase around the ring. Roberts hits a gutbuster in the ring and Rude escapes back out to the floor. The main Coliseum commentary team of Mooney/Hayes/Graham is back by the way. This time Rude gets time to recover. He tries to jump Roberts but Roberts was ready for him and Rude is soon back on the floor again. Back in Rude picks his spot and gets his first offense of the match in. Then poses because it's Rude. Roberts slips out of a slam attempt and hits another kick to the gut. Gut shots have definitely been the order of the day for both guys so far. After that is the usual early DDT tease with Rude getting the hell out of town as soon as he felt it. On the floor Rude sneaks over, grabs Damien's bag, and pulls it out into the aisle. Roberts reacts like Savage when someone gets close to Elizabeth. As he puts Damien back in his corner Rude jumps him again. After a few shots and another pose it's chinlock time. Having bad flashbacks to their WM match now. After a bit Roberts armdrags free, but then Rude puts him back down with a clothesline. Rude drops a forearm for 2 then a bunch of elbows. Now he puts on a neck crank, but it quickly becomes another chinlock. Roberts reaches out and tries to grab a rope but it's just out of his reach. Rude turns around and gets some extra rope leverage. We go to arm drops and Roberts just barely stays in it. Roberts seems to tease a low blow to get free but that'd just be naughty. He's a good guy now. Roberts bites Rude's nipple to get free! That's sure what it looked like at least. Points for creativity. And a major commentary fail not even noticing it. Rude gets a knee up in the corner to put Roberts down again. Rude sneaks around the ring post on the apron to try to catch Roberts from behind and snaps him over the top rope. Rude goes up top and hits the fistdrop. Instead of covering he poses some more. He really needs Heenan at ringside to keep focused. Now he tries for an arrogant cover in an obvious position for Roberts to counter-cradle for 2. Rude rams Roberts' head into the mat. Roberts gets up and tells Rude to give him some more, hulking up off it. Full on slugfest. Rude cuts Roberts off with an eye rake. Running forearm from Rude and he goes up top again. Roberts pops up and punches him, dropping Rude crotch first on the top rope. Rude sells that wonderfully, as only Rude could. Roberts pulls himself up in the corner and Rude tries to back off. Classic Roberts jabs. Kneelift. He calls for the DDT. Rude hooks up in the ropes to block it. Another Roberts kneelift. Rude tries to escape again but Roberts literally pulls his tights down to get him back in the ring. Rude's ass is blurred out so the kids watching the video don't have to see it. Roberts short clothesline. He stands over Rude and does a crotch thrust over him. That's not PG. He goes for the DDT again. Rude pulls the ref down and lands on him when Roberts DDTs him! That an inventive DDT cushion. Roberts 360 clotheslines Rude to the floor, then gets the ref back up. Rude decides to take a walk. Roberts chases him down and attacks him in the aisle. Slam in the aisle. The bell rings for a double countout but both guys don't care and keep fighting until Rude pushes Roberts into the ring post. Roberts then gets Damien out and wraps him around Rude to send the crowd to the next match happy. Rude actually tries to make it look like Damien is squeezing him before escaping. There were definitely rough and slow patches but they kept working and got going fairly decent the latter part of the match. Rude is very slowly putting the pieces together. **1/4

 

King Haku def Sam Houston in 5:04- Haku never won a King of the Ring tournament, but was gifted the King gimmick that floated around like an unofficial title during this period after fellow Heenan Family member Harley Race was forced to retire due to injury. Haku comes out to the King music but walks out like a pleb rather than be carried out. He makes sure Hebner takes good care of the royal crown and the royal robe....then swiftly gives the unprepared Houston a royal back kick to the gut. Haku's even got new purple tights with a crown on it. Both guys hit the ropes. Midring crossbody collision! Damn, how did that not kill Houston as tiny as he is? He even ends up on top and gets a two count. Armdrags from Houston and Haku declares a royal tactical retreat to confer with advisors. Back in Houston tries an arm wringer but Haku rams him into the turnbuckle. Houston dodges and gets another armdrag. He stays on Haku's arm. More speed. Haku gets Houston up in a press and drops him right on the top rope. He slingshots Houston into the bottom rope. Clothesline from Haku. He's been very very noisy tonight. Not just breathing, like he's chanting or muttering to himself all match. Haku puts on a Nerve Pinch of Double Fistedness +2. Houston hits headbutts to the gut to break the hold. He needs two tries to counter a Haku backdrop with a kneelift. Haku eye rakes and hits a slam. Houston dodges an elbow drop, then hits a supposedly flying lariat for 2. Houston is then way out of position to take Haku's superkick and it barely grazes the back of his head. Big splash from Haku and it's over. Another squash, but the best one tonight thanks to Haku's stiffness and Houston's seeming from a distance willingness to play along. Of course Haku being Haku he might not have had much of a choice. *1/4

 

Loser Wears a Weasel Suit: The Ultimate Warrior def Bobby "The Brain" Heenan in 4:59- This is a match that had been taking place on other semi-main shows like at MSG to try to get Warrior to a point where he was at least manageable in the ring. Once again tonight we join late in entrances. Warrior's supplying the weasel suit. He lays it out nicely in the corner before we get going. Heenan tries to hide on the floor so Warrior grabs his arms and pulls him into the ring post. A very extended chase follows. Heenan's pulling the strategy of the guy in the colosseum scene in Life of Brian, getting the huge gladiator to run around and around until he has a heart attack. Warrior manages to corner him eventually. Heenan drops a "son of a bitch" during the beatdown. Also not PG. He gets something out of his tights and hits Warrior with it in the throat. That gets Warrior gasping around for a bit. Heenan works Joey Marella beautifully to continue to hit shots with the object, but then Marella was never too bright to start with. Just ask Jesse Ventura. Warrior eventually recovers and we return to your scheduled beatdown. Heenan takes an upside down bump into the corner. He could still move. Warrior puts a sleeper on, unusual for him, Heenan goes out and it's over. The weasel suit goes on the unconscious Heenan, which takes almost as long as the match did. Warrior slaps him awake, Heenan goes nuts to make the kids happy, and we're done here. Warrior may still be horrible as a wrestler, but he sure knew how to work a crowd. That will pay off big time for him when we get to Summerslam. DUD

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: Demolition (c) (w/Mr Fuji) def The British Bulldogs in 7:08- Former tag champs taking on the new dominant champs to try to get the titles back. Smash and Davey Boy start with some back and forth slugging. Davey Boy tries a corner floatover roll up but Smash quickly escapes. Davey Boy then grabs an ARMBAR. Smash counters into an arm wringer and Davey Boy does some World of Sport style escapes. Dynamite tags in and quickly gets backed into the wrong part of town. Ax axes. Dynamite counters a backdrop attempt with a headbutt for 2. Shoulderblock standoff. Ax scoops and slams Dynamite. Smash tags in and we get the classic Demolition double team axsmashing. That's a word I jut now made up and it's sticking. Smash grounds Dynamite with a Fuji taught nerve hold. I think Dynamite has some of Ax's face paint on his back. It came off so clean, like part of Ax's face got stuck back there. Smash tags in and Dynamite grabs him in a flash small package for 2. The Demos toss Dynamite out to the floor. Ax snaps him over the top rope and stomps away on him. Bear hug from Smash. We go to very quick arm drops and Davey Boy runs in to save his partner. Dynamite catches Ax with a back elbow. Tag to Davey Boy! He fights off both Demos while Dynamite recovers. Ax barely gets over on a backdrop for 2. Smash blindsides Davey Boy to kill the momentum. Dynamite then tags back in. Snap suplex on Smash for 2. Davey Boy presses Dynamite and throws him at Smash to flying headbutt him! Ax runs in as we go full DONNYBROOK. Dynamite gets whacked with Fuji's cane, Smash covers and the Demos get the pin to retain. Pretty short for a tag title match, but they did just fine with it. **1/2

 

Dino Bravo def Ken Patera in 3:28- Your textbook "throw out a shit match right before the main event so people will cheer Hogan more" match. Another JIP with Patera hiptossing Bravo out of the corner while Bravo's getting his jacket off. Patera chokes Bravo with his own jacket. Backdrop. Bravo goes through the ropes to the apron but Patera stays all over him. He slams Bravo back in and drops an elbow for 2. Bravo slides to the floor but again Patera won't give him any space. Bravo counters a backdrop and hits an inverted atomic drop to turn things around. Elbow drop and a choke from Bravo. Now Patera goes out to the floor for space. Hypocrite. Bravo actually gives him the space too. When Patera gets back in Bravo gets right back on him. Corner whip reversal and clothesline from Patera. More elbows from Patera for 2. He wraps up a small package for a long 2. Now Bravo dodges in the corner and hits a clothesline. The side suplex hits and good night. Honestly that was probably as good as you could possibly have hoped for. 1/4*

 

Steel Cage Match: Hulk Hogan def Andre the Giant (w/Bobby Heenan) in 9:52- This is Hogan's first match back after taking a few months off to film what would turn out to be a very important movie that shaped WWF storylines in 1989, No Holds Barred. The one with Zeus. One plus of a prerecorded show is you don't have to wait through the cage setup. Yes it is the blue bar cage, which quickly became the standard after WM 2. Heenan has recovered enough from his weasel suit experience to finally be ringside for one of his guys tonight. Unusual variant red shirt for Hogan tonight. Someone got the preorder bonus download. Usual WWF escape only rules for this one. Andre plays nice and lets Hogan tear his shirt off before attacking him. Big choke from Andre and he hits a headbutt. He chokes Hogan with the remains of his own shirt. Andre tries to run Hogan into the cage but Hogan blocks it, then eye rakes Andre. Now Hogan tries to choke Andre with the shirt, then climbs up the ropes and hits mounted punches. He actually climbs up and chokes Andre with his boot. Andre wraps up Hogan's arms and goes back to the shirt choke. Andre ties the shirt to the cage while it's around Hogan's neck! Hogan's trapped and Andre chops him, clearly enjoying himself. Heenan rattles the door to get Andre's attention, then tells him to walk out and finish it. Hogan, miraculously now free, runs over and grabs Andre's foot. He punches away as Andre goes down. Andre grabs a bear hug while on his knees. Hogan clubs free and starts to climb the cage. Andre stops him with a shot in the back. Another chop puts Hogan down. Elbow drop from Andre! Heenan again tells Andre to go out the door. Hogan stops him again. While Hogan grinds away on his face Andre takes the top turnbuckle pad off. After a long grapple session in the corner Andre gets free and runs Hogan into the exposed buckle. Andre pounds on Hogan in the middle of the ring, mixing a bite in. Hogan is bleeding. Cage shot for Hogan! Andre hits a headbutt. He goes for the door again. Hogan barely stops Andre getting out. Off a whip Andre tries for a big boot but Hogan dodges and hits a clothesline. Off a chop Andre falls backwards into the ropes so hard he almost takes a side of the cage down. It looks like Andre's trying to tie himself in the ropes as he liked to do but can't because the cage is in the way. Another Hogan clothesline. Andre wobbles and goes down! Hogan hits the legdrop! Heenan gets in the ring and attacks Hogan. I'm thinking that's a poor decision. But, he distracts Hogan enough that Andre's started to climb the cage! I don't think the cage can hold him if he gets all the way to the top. Hogan sees and punches him back down before any disasters happen. Andre manages to get tied in the ropes while facing the cage! Heenan takes a cage shot. Hogan climbs up, over, and out for the win. Well, that was better than their WM 4 match at least. The layout was pretty solid if nothing else. It's definitely time for these two to move on from each other though. *1/2

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- A pretty solid summer stadium show, the last gasp of that tradition before Summerslam took over the summer and PPVs took over the business in general. Nothing on here is going to blow you away, though Savage and DiBiase come pretty close. On the whole it's a decent watch.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C

Crockett Cup '87- Night Two

Legacy Review- From the Vault

Crockett Cup '87- Night Two

April 11, 1987 from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, MD

 

Commentary: Tony Schiavone

 

We're back for night two of Jim Crockett Promotions' second annual major tag team tournament. After knocking out all of the first and second rounds last night, tonight will kick off with the quarterfinals (truncated due to Ricky Morton's injury) and wrap up with the crowning of the second Crockett Cup winners and the $1 million dollars that goes with it (slight Jeff Probst voice there). The first night was less than spectacular to say the least so hopefully cutting things down to just the top teams will help. Also on the docket is a World Heavyweight Title defense. As with the first show Tony is doing solo commentary and Gary Michael Capetta is making his first major appearance for JCP as the ring announcer.

 

Quarterfinals: Tully Blanchard & Lex Luger (w/JJ Dillon) def The Armstrongs in 17:47- The Armstrongs (Brad and his dad "Bullet" Bob) are the last team left standing that had to wrestle in the first round. Another high pitched pop for Luger disrobing. It seems like the crowd as a whole wants to cheer for him, but won't yet because he's part of the Horsemen. Luger also didn't get the red gear memo. Blanchard and Brad start and Brad scores a quick armdrag. On the next lockup they trade forearms in the corner. Brad hiptosses Blanchard out and gives him a flying headscissors. Blanchard bails to the floor to regroup and slow things down. Back in both guys continue to be cautious. Blanchard tries to push out of a headlock but Brad holds on, literally dragging Blanchard by the head all the way across the ring. Blanchard tries both a tights hold and hair pull to escape, then lifts Brad up with an atomic drop attempt. Brad blocks it, spins around, atomic drops Blanchard and then armdrags him again when he rebounds off the ropes! Both son and father take turns working on Blanchard's arm. Blanchard tries to tag out and there's a small portion of the crowd that sounds like they're chanting "Luger". Blanchard actually makes contact with Luger's hand with his boot, but ref Earl Hebner's not having any of that. Behind him the Armstrongs swap without a tag! Another counter into a hiptoss from Brad and Blanchard's in the wrong part of town again. Brad wraps Blanchard's arms back right in front of Luger to continue to keep him from tagging. Blanchard gets free from Bob, but Bob runs over and chops Luger off the apron before he can tag in! It almost feels like both teams have swapped roles in this match. There's another small but definite "Luger" chant. Blanchard hiptosses Brad but Brad body blocks him from another tag! Another fight in the corner. Dillon lifts Luger's foot up to try to give him a bit more reach. The tag is made, but again Hebner won't allow it because Luger's feet weren't on the apron. And again the Armstrongs swap without a tag behind his back. This is tremendous stuff and again so much better because of the role reversals. Blanchard flat whiffs on a tag attempt when it looked like he was close enough. Eye rake on Brad and yet another fight. Brad goes full ground and pound on Blanchard as the Armstrongs continue to slowly dismember him. Finally Blanchard gets away from Bob just enough to get the tag! Not surprisingly the way this has gone, Luger gets a pretty big pop for finally tagging in. He easily powers Brad down out of lockups and the crowd loves it. On the third go Brad anticipates and uses Luger's own power to take him down, then hits a too close dropkick that actually catches Luger with his knees. Another dropkick and Luger powders. The crowd's pretty much said the hell with it and is cheering for both teams now. Back in Luger hits a knee against the ropes and clubbing blows. Brad ducks under off the ropes and gets a crossbody for 2. Luger wants a TO. He cranks some arm wringers as the Horsemen start working on Brad's arm. Brad dodges Blanchard in the corner and Blanchard crashes into the post! With the same arm the Armstrongs spent the whole first 10 minutes working on. Brad quickly goes up top. Missile dropkick! Blanchard just kicks out! Dillon pulls the top rope down and Brad crashes down to the floor! Dillon also gets a cheap kick in. Insult on top of injury. Barricade shot for Brad. Blanchard hits a standing elbow off the apron. Back suplex from Blanchard back in for 2. Back elbow from Luger for 2. Suplex for 2. Brad blocks a Blanchard hiptoss into a backslide for 2. He atomic drops Blanchard into Luger! Tag to Bob! He goes nuts on Luger, including Kojima style machine gun chops in the corner. Chops for both Horsemen as things completely break down. Dillon trips Bob from the floor. Blanchard and DILLON from the apron double clothesline Bob, and Blanchard covers to get the pin! Hell of a match. Only one match in and they've already blown everything from the previous night out of the water. This match is a great example of why I've long said Brad Armstrong is one of the most underrated guys of this era, he was superb in every aspect here. ****

 

Quarterfinals: The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette & Big Bubba Rogers) def The Road Warriors (w/Paul Ellering) by DQ in 12:28- This is the second straight year these teams have met in the quarterfinals, last year won by the Roadies by DQ on their way to winning the whole tournament. Of course last year it was the Eaton/Condrey Midnights, now it's the newly formed Eaton/Lane combo after Condrey's sudden departure from the promotion. Eaton and Hawk start with Eaton poking his finger right in Hawk's face. Not sure how smart that is. Eaton gets a few shots in before Hawk pushes him hard into the corner, then both Midnights take hiptosses and dropkicks. Eaton takes a crazy shot into the barricade on the way out of the ring. Things get no better for Eaton coming back in, as Hawk presses him up and drops him face first snake eyes style on the top turnbuckle. Lane tags in to have a go. Again Hawk shrugs off shots and whips Lane into the corner so hard Lane flips upside down into it! Double back elbow from the Roadies and Animal drops an elbow for 2. Animal gorilla presses Lane and Lane sells it by grabbing his crotch. I guess that hit first. Lane tries to get out of an arm wringer by climbing over the top rope. Animal pulls him back in over the top rope! Hawk actually backs off and lets Lane recover and reset. I think they're completely confident in victory. For some reason Rogers gets riled up, hops on the apron, takes his hat and jacket off, and wants in himself. The rest of the team hold him back knowing it'd be a DQ. Someone yells "Chicken shit!", I think Ellering. Things resume in the ring with Eaton pushed into the wrong corner again and Hawk absolutely POPS him with a chop right across Eaton's mouth! On a rope break Eaton slaps Animal right across the mouth, then leads him in a chase across and into the ring. After a long speed run and a possible muffed spot (if it was they did a very smooth transition into attempt #2) Animal hits a powerslam for 2. Lane tries again but takes a back elbow from Animal and flops back into the ropes. Cornette tries to fan Lane awake with his racket while shouting "A MILLION DOLLARS!". Hawk tosses Lane with a gutwrench suplex like he weighed nothing, then hits a clothesline off the top. Eaton comes in and stomps Hawk in the head, then Lane eye rakes him. Fist drop off the second rope from Eaton as the Midnights finally have Hawk down. Eaton chokes him with what looks like one of Rogers suspenders. High knee from Eaton. The Midnights keep working the ref to try to get a racket shot in but the never have a big enough window. Lane settles for tossing Hawk over the top rope to the floor. While that's being argued about Eaton lands the racket shot to Hawk's midsection. Hawk looks like he had some bad food truck tacos. Lane hits his karate kick for 2. Hawk's kickout sends him out to the floor, but the Midnights keep Hawk isolated. Hawk gets a boot up in the corner and tags Animal! Animal goes nuts. A dropkick to Eaton sends the ref tumbling out of the ring. Animal hits a flying tackle on Eaton. Cornette gets in and throws a fireball in Animal's face! It all breaks down with racket shots, Rogers taking a flying tackle and other pandemonium. The ref is back in and calls for the bell. The official decision is Midnights by DQ! Not sure about that call, but stuff was happening all over the place there's no telling what the ref was supposed to see. That gets a "bullshit" chant from the crowd as the defending champs are out. Very good match before that though. ***1/2

 

Quarterfinals: The Super Powers def NWA World Tag Team Champions Manny Fernandez & "Ravishing" Rick Rude (w/Paul Jones) in 9:44- Like last night, Nikita is wrestling with a neck brace on. I feel safe in saying it was from a Horsemen attack but I don't remember for sure. Rude starts with Nikita and is more concerned with posing so Nikita shoves him in the back. Off the lockup Rude tries a corner whip but Nikita is just too damn strong to be whipped anywhere. Rude unloads with forearms and knees but Nikita still refuses to be moved. Brick Soviet shithouse. Reversal and Rude goes hard into the corner. Rude manages a nifty takedown and tries to work on Nikita's leg but Nikita easily pushes free. Rude finally targets Nikita's neck with some elbows, then hooks on a full nelson. That gets Nikita on the ropes, figuratively speaking. After arm drops Nikita powers up and free. Slam from Nikita. Both sides tag. Rhodes about kills Fernandez with a crossbody, then hits a slam and elbow drop. Full bionic elbow. After a reset Fernandez gets Dusty down and drops a bunch of kneedrops to his head. Dusty rolls out to recover and Rude runs him into the post! I'm shocked Dusty's not bleeding off of that. Back in Fernandez hits a chop and takes forever to cover for 2. Dusty tries to fire up off Rude punches but Fernandez runs him over. Jones gets a cheap shot in. Slam on Dusty from Rude, no easy feat. Rude goes up top and hits a fistdrop for 2. Again Dusty tries to fire up off Fernandez headbutts, hitting one of his own, but Fernandez puts him back down with a punch. Dusty ducks under and hits a flying clothesline on Fernandez. EVERYONE IN THE POOL! Fernandez hits a crossbody off the top rope, but Dusty rolls through as best he can and gets a pin! The champs are out of the tournament. Solid enough match. **1/4

 

Later in the month while still holding the tag titles Rude would sign with WWF and take off up north, leaving both JCP and Fernandez high and dry. Rather than get Fernandez a new partner, JCP elected to put the tag titles back on a now healthy RNR Express via a phantom match that never actually happened. 

 

Semifinals: Tully Blanchard & Lex Luger (w/JJ Dillon) def Giant Baba & Isao Takagi in 8:53- The Japanese team of Baba and Takagi were the beneficiaries of Morton's injury, getting a bye into the semifinals. Given the state of both guys and what they could bring in the ring that was a 100% correct decision. Another interesting crowd mix here as the crowd doesn't want anything to do with the foreign team, but they still won't outright cheer the Horsemen. There's even a small section on camera loudly chanting "SUCKS" after Luger's intro. He's definitely getting big reactions already from both directions. Blanchard and Takagi start with Takagi hitting an armdrag out of the lockup. Blanchard takes a rope break to get out of an ARMBAR. Baba tags in and also does some arm work. Blanchard backs Baba into his corner and tags Luger. Baba gets out of trouble with chops that the Horsemen team do some crazy selling of. Now Baba does some weak arm work on Luger as the crowd gets restless for some action. Baba straight pulls Luger by the hair to back him into his corner, and falls down himself in the process. Don't think that was intentional. Takagi works a front facelock. Luger counters out into a half crab/legbar hold and works on Takagi's leg a bit. Blanchard continues in that vein. Takagi slowly counters around into an almost Asuka Lock type sleeper, then gives that up for another basic armbar. Baba tags in and again Blanchard has to crazy sell his weak looking offense. Luger and Baba is played off as some kind of huge power standoff but everyone knows better. Luger slams Baba to a pretty decent pop. Baba dodges an elbow drop. Russian leg sweep on Luger. Blanchard tags in and tries to fire away on Baba but gets put down with chops. Takagi takes both Horsemen down with shoulderblocks, including another three point stance one. Wonder if he played (American) football in school? It wouldn't be unheard of, that's Yota Tsuji's background and he's turned out great. My favorite wrestler in New Japan after Naito's departure. Baba gets a headlock takedown on Blanchard for 2. Big Boot of Death on Blanchard! Luger breaks the pin up! Both sides tag. Luger and Takagi have a weak slugfest. Luger dodges Takagi's three point stance charge, tries to get him up in the Torture Rack but can't hold him, then compensates by meekly dropping an elbow to get the pin and send the Horsemen team to the finals. Very not good. Easily the worst tag match you'll ever see prime Tully Blanchard be a part of, but he had absolutely nothing on the other side to work with and Luger was still putting all the pieces together. 1/4*

 

Semifinals: The Super Powers def The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette & Big Bubba Rogers) in 11:12- I think this one's a foregone conclusion. No way will there be a heel vs heel final, plus the fact Dusty and Nikita were riding the "Magnum TA tribute" wave. Eaton's got a bandage on his head now even though I'm pretty sure he never bled the last match. Eaton and Nikita start to a huge "Nikita" chant. Nikita breaks clean on the ropes and of course Eaton complains about it. Eaton does not break clean, hitting a cheap punch and running for his life. They go out and back in into a speed run. Eaton sees the Sickle being loaded up and bails. Nikita flips him back in off the apron, then dropkicks him out to the floor. Lane tags in, hits a couple of shots on the ropes but then takes a hiptoss. Everyone on the heel team complains about a tights pull. Cornette: "Who you gonna believe, a commie or me?!". Well.....he's got a point there. Dusty tags in and quickly bionic elbows Lane out to the apron. Then he see saws Eaton in the ropes with elbows. Dusty hiptosses Eaton on the floor! Eaton complains about his back but Cornette screams at him "ONE MILLION DOLLARS" and orders him to get back in. Dusty's got elbows for everyone on the heel team, including Rogers when he gets on the apron. Another reset with Lane and Nikita. Nikita cranks an arm wringer. Cornette distracts ref Teddy Long so Eaton can hit Nikita off the top rope from behind! That finally gets the Midnights in control for the first time. Snap mare/elbow drop combo from Eaton and he goes to work on Nikita's hurt neck. Swinging neckbreaker from Lane. They work Long to choke Nikita on the ropes and Rogers gets a shot in. Cornette has another great line, "You're not a defector, you're defective!". Cover from Lane for 2. Eaton continues to grind away on Nikita's neck, going all the way to arm drops. Lane drops Nikita throat first on the top rope. Eaton gets Cornette's racket to choke Nikita with. Another shot from Rogers. Nikita reverses a whip and hits Eaton with a flying tackle! That gets a 2 count as everyone runs in. Nikita ducks and Eaton knocks Lane out of the ring! Sickle on Eaton! That gets the pin! Solidly good stuff. Dusty barely did anything this match knowing he still had a match to work. Cornette throws a grade A tempter tantrum after the match. ***

 

NWA World Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) def Barry Windham in 25:49- Windham signed with JCP in the fall and quickly found success. In December he and Ron Garvin dethroned the Russian Team for the US tag titles, only losing them back to Ivan Koloff and Dick Murdoch about a month before this show. In January he kicked off a feud with World champ Flair, the first major program for Flair after his title reign was unexpectedly extended thanks to Magnum TA's injury just before Starrcade, a match Magnum was scheduled to win. They've been tearing the house down across the territory and even a couple of times on weekly TV, and tonight will be the final blowoff. For now at least, these two will be doing a lot more together in the future. Windham offers a handshake after intros and Flair actually takes it with no games. Lockup, clean corner break and Flair "WOOOOOOOO"s Windham out of the corner. Headlock takedown from Flair and he puts on a arm wringer. Windham kips up and Flair QUICKLY backs off. A Windham headlock leads to a top wristlock fight that Windham slowly wins. First shoulderblock goes to Windham. On another corner break Flair hits the first chop, and it's a big one. But it has no effect on Windham! He smiles and Flair quickly hides in the corner, then tries to strut a bit to get in Windham's head. Another chop with the same result. On the other side Windham threatens to give Flair mounted punches but backs down. Flair then tries to reverse and sucker punch but Windham was ready for him. He hiptosses Flair out of the corner. Dropkick for 2. Flair tries a trip on a speed run but Windham hits the brakes and wraps him up in a headlock. Another speed run and Windham uses his long legs to trip Flair. Flair stumbles out of the ring but doesn't go down and is proud of himself after. Back in Flair does his hammerlock workaround. Windham reverses. Flair drop toe holds him down but Windham does a nice counter on the mat. More speed and Flair catches Windham with a hot shot for the first real high impact hit of the match. Short kneedrop from Flair and he tosses Windham out to the floor. Chop and guardrail shot for Windham. Coming back in Flair snaps Windham over the top rope again. Stomps from Flair with a crazy great evil maniacal laugh. He's enjoying himself. Short jab from Flair and he hooks on an ARMBAR. Classic snap mare/kneedrop combo from Flair for 2. As usual it's Tommy Young's fault for counting too slow. Windham starts slowly slugging back. Flair Flop! Flair begs off hard. This time Windham goes through with the mounted punches. He hiptosses Flair out of the corner. Flair dodges a dropkick! Right into the figure four! Having done no setup on the knee Flair immediately goes for rope leverage behind Young's back. Finally Young catches him and forces a break. Flair shoves Young and Young shoves back! He threatens to give the match to Windham by DQ and Flair quickly backs down. Windham comes out of the corner with a diving clothesline! Again Flair begs off. A back elbow sends Windham 360 over the top rope to the floor! Tony gives some lip service to the dumb over the top rope DQ rule. Flair sets up to piledrive Windham on the unpadded floor. Young straight up says he'll DQ Flair if he does it and Flair lets go. Coming back in Windham gets a sunset flip for 2. Windham blocks a hiptoss into a backslide for 2. Flair rolls out with a bit of a hitch in his step to try to kill Windham's momentum. Corner slugfest that Windham wins. Flair just barely kicks out before 3. Full ground and pound from Windham. Flair goes to the apron and Windham suplexes him back in for another long 2. Windham goes up top. Flair dodges a senton! Or a legdrop. Either way it hurt Windham bad. Flair goes for the figure four again. Windham rolls him over into a cradle for 2. Flair gets a sleeper on! Windham quickly pulls Flair to get free and Flair goes chin first into the top turnbuckle. Flair Flop 2! Well, 1.5, it was a short one. A Windham punch sends Flair 360 out to the floor. Guardrail shots for Flair. Now Windham tries for a piledriver on the floor. Flair backdrops free! Going back in Flair goes up top. He actually gets off with a crossbody, but Windham reverses it! Flair BARELY kicks out! Flair Flip in the corner! He falls all the way to the floor. Flair gets a sneaky low blow on the floor where Young couldn't see it! Great sell from Windham too, looking as surprised as hurt. Flair tries for an apron suplex. Windham blocks it and flips free! Windham sleeper! He counters Flair's escape attempt and gets him back in! Flair is so close to the ropes but can't quite get there and starts to fade. His shoulders go down and Young counts. Flair gets a foot on the rope to break the pin AND the hold! Brilliant. Windham sets Flair up in the middle of the ring in a very People's Elbow setup way. I'd love it if Windham hit that. Windham goes for a big splash but Flair gets his knees up! Flair goes up top again. This time it goes as well as usual. Great job from Windham milking the moment too. Windham puts on a figure four! After a couple of near falls Flair eye rakes free. Powerslam from Windham for 2. He goes for the figure four again but Flair eye rakes him before it's on. Flair ducks a lariat. Crossbody from Flair and they both tumble into the ropes and to the floor! I think they were supposed to both go over the top but couldn't quite do it. No big deal, it still looked good. Flair whips Windham into the post but it's only a glancing blow and Windham isn't hurt. Missile dropkick from Windham in the ring! Young counts 3! HUGE pop! BUT....Flair got a foot on the rope just in the nick of time! Young immediately realizes it and waves for the match to continue. Flying lariat from Windham! Another cover where Windham doesn't hook the leg near the ropes and Flair gets a foot up there again. Almost as big a tactical error as Tuchel parking the bus after getting one goal against Argentina in the '26 World Cup semifinal. Seriously, what the fuck was that? That's exactly what he was hired NOT to do after it became Gareth Southgate's trademark. I'm typing this the day after so the hurt is still fresh. Anyway, Windham hits another suplex and floats over for 2. He tries for another figure four but Flair immediately realizes it and pushes Windham into the corner. They headlock/headscissors counter into the bridge up/backslide spot and Windham gets another 2 count. Flair goes for a back suplex but Windham flips free, pushes Flair into the corner and rolls him up. Flair reverses, grabs two handfuls of trunks, and gets the pin to retain! Absofrigginglutely brilliant. He doesn't come up nearly as often as he should on the lists of Flair's best opponents, but Flair and Windham went together like peanut butter and chocolate. Both as opponents and, as we'll see later, teammates. *****

 

Before the main event none other than Magnum TA makes his way into the arena, his first public appearance since the car accident that ended his career and nearly left him paralyzed. His arm is in a sling and he's using a cane to walk, but he is walking. He looks extremely emotional to be back in the arena. Well, the main event result is a foregone conclusion. No way is the Magnum tribute team losing with Magnum in the building. 

 

Crockett Cup Finals: The Super Powers def Tully Blanchard & Lex Luger (w/JJ Dillon) in 17:30- No split crowd here, they're completely behind Dusty and Nikita. Dusty actually starts with his old foe Blanchard. They've been feuding on and off again for the better part of two years over multiple titles. Dusty hits the first elbow in the corner, then jabs Blanchard down when Blanchard charges him. Dusty works a headlock and keeps Blanchard just far enough from tagging. Blanchard actually gets both feet up on the top rope for a break. Dusty lets go and Blanchard falls face first into the mat! Blanchard gets Dusty in the wrong corner but Dusty quickly fights out. Luger tags in to another big 50/50 reaction. Nikita tags in to a big 100% positive reaction. Luger wins the first lockup power fight. Second time, same result with much posing and bragging from Luger. Third time Nikita wins and give Luger a return pose. Both guys fight for suplex leverage but neither can get it. Luger wants a test of strength. Nikita goes for it. He starts winning, so Luger kicks him to get him down. Nikita powers back up, backs Luger into the ropes, and monkey flips him! Blanchard tags in and spits at Nikita! Yeah, make him even more mad. Great strategery. Nikita blocks a kick and hits an atomic drop that sends Blanchard all the way out to the floor. Back in Nikita hooks on a bear hug. Luger hits him off the top rope behind Hebner to get Blanchard free. Blanchard tries to slingshot suplex Nikita. Nikita lands on his feet. Sickle! Sickle for Luger! Sickle for Dillon on the apron! Nikita suplexes Blanchard back in off the apron for 2. Nikita hits "the hammer" which is kind of a half chokeslam. He hits Blanchard with the Sickle against the ropes, but the momentum sends them both over to the floor! Pretty much a Cactus clothesline except Nikita (kayfabe) didn't intend to do it. On the floor Blanchard goes right for Nikita's neck brace, taking it off! The Horsemen are all over it on the floor. Big guardrail shot. Back in Luger continues the neck punishment. Swinging neckbreaker from Blanchard for 2. They continue to bait Dusty in to double team. Luger drops Nikita on the top rope and covers for 2. Nikita tries to fight back on Blanchard but the Horsemen quickly cut the tag off. Standing clothesline from Luger for 2. Elbow off the top rope from Blanchard for 2. Nikita flips Blanchard out of a chinlock but again the tag is cut off. Blanchard uses Nikita's singlet straps to pull him over the top rope to the floor. Dillon hits a shoe shot on the floor! Who uses a shoe, honestly? Blanchard slingshots Nikita throat first into the bottom rope and covers for 2. Guess it wasn't Dillon's usual shoe, that normally finishes off most people. Or Nikita's head is that hard. Blanchard tries coming off the second rope but Nikita catches him with a punch. Tag to Dusty! Bionic elbows all around. Dillon takes one. Dusty 3 point stance tackles on Blanchard. Blanchard dodges one and Dusty goes to the floor! Luger attacks him out there while Nikita and Blanchard fight in the ring. Blanchard accidentally takes Dillon out with his own shoe! He still hits Nikita with it. Blanchard tries to get Nikita up for a piledriver. Dusty goes up top, hits Blanchard with a crossbody, and gets the pin for the tournament win! Get a spatula and scrape Blanchard off the mat. Very nice tournament final match, especially considering both teams were working their third match of the night. ***3/4

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- You couldn't have a bigger contrast between the two Crockett Cup '87 nights. As bad as night one was, this was all the way to the other extreme awesome. The tournament results were a bit predictable, but the matches were almost all good with only one excusable turd, a great opener and a really good if again predictable finish. Flair and Windham throwing in an all time classic for the World title is a very tasty cherry on top.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A 

Crockett Cup '87- Night One

Legacy Review- From the Vault

Crockett Cup '87- Night One

April 10, 1987 from the Baltimore Arena in Baltimore, MD

 

Commentary: Tony Schiavone

 

The first Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Tag Team Tournament, Crockett Cup for short, was a resounding success, so Jim Crockett Promotions quickly made it an annual tentpole live event in the days of just one PPV show per year (Starrcade for them), alongside the summertime Great American Bash tour and the end of year Bunkhouse Stampede matches. One difference this year is there would be no cross promotion with UWF (the former Mid-South), so the event was moved from the Superdome in New Orleans to the Baltimore Arena, which will later be the semi-regular home of the GAB when it became a PPV. Ironically, right when this show was taking place JCP was finalizing the deal to purchase the nearly bankrupt UWF, their last major territory acquisition before nearly going belly up themselves. JCP would spend the rest of the year soundly burying almost everything UWF related in a way very similar to the 2001 WCW Invasion in WWF.

 

For tonight, other NWA territories not already bought out by JCP were invited to send wrestlers over, but the cross-promotion aspect isn't played up nearly as much as it was the first year and most everyone in the tournament is JCP connected one way or another. Pretty much everyone brought in was from their longtime partners in Florida, Dusty's old stomping grounds, plus the token Japanese team. They also changed the event schedule. Last year there were afternoon and evening "sessions" on the same day, this time it's a proper two night show. The first and second round will take place tonight on a huge 16 match card, the rest on night two. Each night will also have a major singles match for some variety. Once again it's a strange 24 team bracket, meaning 8 teams will get a first round bye and there will be an equal number of first and second round matches, barring draws or other double eliminations. 

 

Unlike the last Crockett Cup there is commentary being provided by Tony solo, but I'm not sure if he's live in the arena or if it was recorded later. My guess is live because the mix is awful and he gets drowned out a lot. There is also a bit of history for our ring announcer, as future WCW mainstay Gary Michael Capetta is making his first appearance for the company on a big show.

 

First Round: The Thunderfoots def Bobby Jaggers & Rocky King in 6:10- Jaggers normally teamed with Dutch Mantell as the Kansas Jayhawks but Mantell got hurt just before this show. Replacing him is King, a jobber who'd worked his way up the ranks and was generally loved in the locker room. Later in WCW he'd manage the Freebirds for a short time as Little Richard Marley, then work as a referee for most of the '90s. The Thunderfoots sound like they should be a babyface Indian team, but they're in fact a short lived masked heel team. King starts out with let's just call him Thunderfoot 1 since there's no way to tell them apart and honestly neither of them matter much in the long run anyway. King absorbs some early shots to hit a springboard crossbody for 2. TF 2 comes in and takes a dropkick as the heels take a powder. Back in King takes a shoulderblock then maneuvers TF whatever into a hiptoss. Jaggers tags in, looking more like Dusty Rhodes in gear and girth than ever, and continues pounding away on him. Another dropkick from King and the TF does a crazy fall the opposite direction of what physics should say and manages to tag out. The faces quickly get TF other on the ropes too. The heels manages to get Jaggers into their corner and choke him with the tag rope. Double back elbow on Jaggers for 2. Standard tag team heel offense from the generic masked heels follows. Random "this match sucks" observation: the Thunderfoots' gear has "Foot" then a couple of lightning bolts under it. Shouldn't that make them the Foothunders? Footbolts? Jaggers avoids a double team, hits a double clothesline and tags out. TF in the ring does a crazy flop after being run into Jaggers' boot then King hits yet another dropkick. And again after that the TF falls in position to tag out. Not brilliant tag team tactics on display here. A TF kicks King in the head and King flat forgets to sell it, then slowly falls down. That gets HUGE boos from the crowd, even in the kayfabe still alive '80s. They literally repeat the spot and TF indeterminate gets the pin with one simple kick. Woof. Not a great opener even before that disaster of a finish sequence, but we've got a long way to go. 1/4*

 

First Round: Bill Dundee & The Barbarian def Tim Horner & Mike Rotunda in 7:12- Rotunda and his former US Express tag partner/real life brother in law and best friend Barry Windham are both making their major show JCP debuts in the Cup, though via separate paths. Rotunda was on a stopoff back in Florida before signing with JCP full time and is the reigning NWA Florida Heavyweight champion. This is one of those shows where it's "Rotundo" instead of "Rotunda" but I always go with the generally accepted one. Barbarian and Rotunda start out with some lockup gamesmanship. Shoulderblock standoffs, which is a win for Rotunda. He gives Barbarian a couple of uppercuts, then puts him down with a shoulderblock. He then takes advantage of Dundee arguing with ref Earl Hebner to hit a legdrop a bit south of Saskatchewan. Horner tags in and tries to do some arm work. Barbarian laughs, scoops him up like he's a child and slams him. Dundee tags in and walks into a couple of armdrags and a dropkick. They trade arm wringers and Horner does a fancy little flippy bit all around Dundee for another takedown. Dundee keeps backing off, trying to slow Horner down. Barbarian tags in and tries to bait Horner into a test of strength, then says frak it and just pounds on him. Press slam, with Dundee hilariously coaching Barbarian to turn around and drop him in the ring, not on the floor. Horner counters a backdrop attempt and tags out. Rotunda comes in with a dropkick. He tries some arm work on Barbarian and gets a bit further than Horner did. Dundee kicks Rotunda in the back from the apron and Rotunda runs into Barbarian. The heels gets Rotunda isolated in their half. Standing big boot from Barbarian, followed by a clothesline for 2. Powerslam for 2. Rotunda gets tossed to the padless floor and Dundee runs him into the barricade. The is the first JCP show I can remember seeing with a more "modern" style barricade. Another big boot from Barbarian back in for 2. Barbarian puts on a weird chinlock that's almost a smother. Arm drops and Rotunda fights back up. Double clothesline. Barbarian is up first and slams Rotunda, then he goes up top. Rotunda dodges the headbutt! Tag to Horner! He hits a springboard crossbody on Barbarian. It looks like he's got a pin but both Dundee and Rotunda run in, distracting Hebner. Horner gets a sleeper on Barbarian. Dundee whacks him in the head, possibly with a foreign object, and Barbarian covers for the pin. Good stuff all around. Kind of weird seeing Rotunda work such a high energy style considering how he'll get later in his career. ***

 

First Round: Shaska Whatley & Teijho Khan def Lazer Tron & Jimmy Valiant by DQ in 5:56- Khan made his pro debut the previous year and soon joined the Paul Jones Army. He's portraying an Asian despite being white and not having a drop of Asian blood in his body, a not unheard of thing in wrestling history. Basically he's as Asian as Elizabeth Warren is Cherokee. Lazer Tron is Hector Guerrero under a mask with a *very* '80s name. Tron currently holds whatever version of the NWA Junior Heavyweight title is currently in circulation, it's hard to keep track. Incidentally, the device Tron has on his chest is the exact sensor that's used as part of the home Lazer Tag game that was available in toy stores at the time, and fairly hot too. I remember really wanting one as a kid but never got one. Old foes Valiant and Whatley start things off. After putting Whatley down with one punch Valiant takes off his bandanna and chokes him with it. Whatley is run into Tron's raised forearms (did ref Pee Wee Anderson check to see if those were loaded?), does a crazy delayed flop and Valiant covers for 2. Tron dodges Whatley's charge in the corner, resulting in another crazy flop that lets Whatley tag out. Tron literally has to position Khan while trying to whip him out of a headlock, not a good sign. They get a good speed run going and Tron hits a dropkick. That's enough for Khan and he tags back out. The heels get Tron stuck in their corner, until Tron does the telegraphed dodge and Whatley takes Khan out. Double atomic drop on Whatley from the faces. Khan takes one and collides with Whatley again. After a reset Tron ducks and the heels collide again like a couple of goofs. They finally manage a successful double team on Valiant. That gets Valiant in peril with his patented spasm selling. Whatley's strut is a sight to behold too. Valiant dodges an elbow drop and tags out. Tron lasers his way through the heels (sorry, I had to). He rolls past Whatley and hits a flying forearm, but Valiant and Khan start fighting in the ring too. Tron backdrops a charging Whatley over the top rope to the floor right in front of Anderson, and he has no choice but to call for the bell thanks to that stupid over the top DQ rule. Lame finish. But somehow, despite having three eternally useless guys and Hector hampered by the Lazer Tron gimmick, this wasn't nearly as bad as the opener. *

 

First Round: Ron & Jimmy Garvin (w/Precious) def Ricky Lee Jones & The Italian Stallion in 2:22- Jimmy Garvin had just turned face and paired back up with the other Garvin, Ron. They teamed together semi-regularly in multiple territories. On screen they were portrayed as brothers, but in real life Jimmy was Ron's stepson. Jones is actually Ricky Gibson, older brother of Robert Gibson of the Rock N Roll Express. This is technically face vs face but the crowd wants nothing to do with the Stallion/Jones team. Code of Honor handshakes all around because this is face vs face, then Ron starts with Jones. We stay with a very distant hard camera shot for the first part of the match for some reason. Pretty even start as neither team can get an edge. Since they're all good guys neither team will press an advantage when they get their opponents into their corner. I suspect that won't last too long. Ron hits a backdrop on Jones for 2. Stallion gets a dropkick on Jimmy for barely 1. Sunset flip from Jimmy, and that gets a pin! Cagematch lists this match as going over 10 minutes, so I'm not sure if something got seriously clipped here because they're usually pretty reliable. For what was shown there wasn't a lot happening and they didn't have enough time to make anything happen. 1/2*

 

First Round: Denny Brown & Todd Champion def The Mulkey Brothers in 3:21- Champion is another guy that had recently made his pro debut under the JCP banner and would be a semi-regular face in WCW for years. His looking similar to '80s movie star Dolph Lundgren didn't hurt his career any I'm sure. The Mulkeys were a very short lived jobber tag team that as far as I know really were brothers, Randy and Bill. Capetta announces them as MULKEYMANIA and they're super duper over in Baltimore, so they've clearly got a Tomoaki Honma style lovable loser thing going on. Kokeshi make you happy. One Mulkey, I don't know which is which and Tony's sparse commentary isn't helping, starts with Brown and the crazy crowd reactions continue. Cheers for all Mulkey offense, boos every time Brown does anything. Champion hits a slam/legdrop combo to big boos. The Mulkey tries to fight out of a chinlock but much larger Champion gets him back down. Finally Tony tells us this is Randy Mulkey. Thanks for that. Randy gets a flash roll up for 2! Bill tags in for a go with Champion. It doesn't go well for him. Brown continues the punishment. Bill gets a hiptoss and armdrag! Double Mulkey back elbow on Brown for 2. Double backdrop for 2. Bill hits a suplex! Long 2 count! Brown counters with a suplex that Bill almost hits his head coming down on. Oklahoma roll and Brown gets the pin, killing the Mulkeymania dream stone dead in the first round. The crowd doesn't like that at all. I don't think it would have hurt anything to have given them a win in the first round and let them be destroyed in the second. *1/2

 

First Round: George South & Steve Keirn and Mike Graham & Nelson Royal 20:00 time limit draw- Keirn wrestled the '86 Cup still in the Fabulous Ones team with Stan Lane. With Lane now otherwise engaged (more on that later), he's been teamed up with jobber South here. Apparently it was a pretty last second deal too, with the Fabulous Ones originally being advertised. Pretty Florida feel here, as that was the primary territory for both Keirn and Graham. This is again face vs face with some Code of Honor handshakes to start. Graham and South start with some back and forth. Graham goes a drop toe hold into some leg work. Royal tags in and stays on that target. There's already some "boring" chants floating around the arena. They haven't seemed too pleased about the Fabulous Ones not teaming up. South gets a flash small package on Graham for 2 to end the leg work portion of the program. Keirn gets trapped in the wrong corner but since this is face vs face they let him go. Royal doesn't seem happy about it, pointing at Keirn and yelling something that clearly ends with "motherfucker". After tagging in Royal still seems bent out of shape about something. Trying to get some juice into this thing because it badly needs it. The endless corner stalemates don't help any. Against the ropes Royal gives Keirn a straight Greco Roman knee to the groin! Right in front of Hebner too but he doesn't do anything about it. Royal tries to work on Keirn's leg but Keirn fights out of it. I'm honestly having a hard time telling if this is all planned or if they're having some real life issues in there. Graham tags in and things seem to go smoother as he does start working on Keirn's leg. Keirn counters into some arm work on Graham while jawing at Royal. South holds an armbar for a couple of minutes before Graham slams out, but he's quickly right back into it. At this point the crowd's so dead they don't even have the energy to chant "boring" anymore. Tags and Royal tries to liven things up by heeling away on Keirn again. This time Keirn hits a shot against the ropes to take the edge and pounds away on Royal. Inverted atomic drop. After South tags in Royal backs him into the corner and gives him a knee to the nads. South sunset flip on Graham for 2. Once again Graham goes to the leg work. Fuck, we're only 10 minutes in. It's felt like 30. Keirn tags back in and hits a hot shot on Graham. Press slam from Keirn for 2. Graham takes a crazy bump off a corner whip. Kern gives him a shoulderbreaker and South covers for 2. South is at least trying to sell the leg that was worked on earlier. He hits a diving clothesline on Graham and covers for 2. Kerin hits an atomic drop, and Graham turns around and punches him as he goes down. Keirn shrugs it off and tosses Graham out to the floor. Keirn suplexes him back in as we mercifully get the 5 minutes left call. Kerin hits some shoulderblocks but goes down too in what I guess was supposed to be a 50/50 collision. Tags on both sides. Royal gives South about the worst Thesz press you've ever seen. I guess that's what that was supposed to be. Keirn comes in and cheap shots Royal from behind. That goes absolutely nowhere as the other two keep going like nothing happened. Royal flops over the top to the floor off a corner whip. Everyone in the ring looks like they want this to be done as much as the rest of us do. Graham hits a couple of suplexes on Keirn for 2. Capetta gives the two minutes left call and the crowd POPS for that! Holy crap that's fantastic. Baltimore doing their best Chicago impression during this match. Keirn literally just walks around after hitting Graham with a knee before tossing him out again. Behind Hebner's back he tosses Graham over the top rope and then flops down like he just got hit, but again the setup goes absolutely nowhere. Everyone argues and does some more weak brawling. The crowd counts down with Capetta's final 10 second countdown like it's the Royal Rumble as thank God this is over and both teams are eliminated. I want to say this died a slow death, but it was dead on arrival and for some insane reason kept lurching on for the entire time limit. The crowd didn't care, there was clearly no plan at all, and Keirn in particular looked like he didn't want to be there at all without his regular partner. A slow motion disaster of the worst order. DUD

 

The draw gives the Rock N Roll Express a bye into the quarterfinals. That's one reason this travesty was allowed to go all the way to the time limit, the RNR Express couldn't compete at all because Ricky Morton was injured, but they were trying to keep anyone in the arena from knowing about it until the last possible second. 

 

First Round: The Armstrongs def Ivan Koloff & Vladimir Petrov by DQ in 4:20- The slow dissolution of the old Russian Team continues after Nikita Koloff's seduction by the riches of capitalism (quite rightly). After Starrcade '86 Krusher Kruschev (Barry Darsow) departed for WWF to become Demolition Smash. His first replacement teaming with Ivan was, very strangely, the very southern Dick Murdoch. They held the US tag titles until Murdoch got hurt just before this show and were stripped. Petrov was a not all Russian (though no one in the team really was) former bouncer that had recently been recruited by JCP to train as a wrestler. He didn't last long. On the other side, Brad Armstrong is teaming with his dad "Bullet" Bob, still going strong well into his 50s. Ivan and Brad start. Speed run and Brad gets a monkey flip. Brad shrugs off an elbow to the gut and the Armstrongs do a double arm wringer double chop double team. Bob atomic drop on Ivan. Petrov knees Bob in the back from the apron, then tags in and does what little he can. Double back elbow from the Russians and Ivan hits a legdrop for 2. The Russians hit a weak double slam for 2. Petrov puts on that most reliable of holds for a learning power wrestler, the bear hug. Bob's attempts to get out push them into the Russian corner and Ivan tags back in. Midring collision. Tag to Brad. Backdrop and dropkick on Ivan. Dropkick for Petrov. Crossbody on Ivan. Petrov breaks the pin up as things break down. Petrov uses the chain, but right in front of ref Anderson, drawing an obvious DQ. This is another match that the shown time is much less than the Cagematch listed time. 3/4*

 

First Round: The MOD Squad (w/Bill Dundee) def Baron von Raschke & Wahoo McDaniel in 4:47- A former East German dictator and a no nonsense Indian walk into a bar.... Talk about an odd couple tag team. The MOD Squad were real life brothers that were a pretty regular midcard tag team across the southern territories in the '80s but this is their only semi-major show appearance. Capetta introduces them as the Florida tag team champions. Dundee has his yellow Elvis suit on to transfer from wrestler to manager for this one. He makes the mistake of getting in Wahoo's face and gets chopped down. After the heels confer Spike starts with Wahoo and also gets chopped down. After hitting a shoulderblock Spike runs into another chop. Raschke tags in and looks about 100 years old. He cranks a headlock on Basher. Basher tries to grab some hair to get free but that's not going to work on Raschke. Off a whip Basher pushes Wahoo into Raschke, knocking Raschke off the apron. Wahoo doesn't even notice, then he snap mares Spike so far over Spike is able to tag out to Basher. Again, not great tag tactics at play here. The heels get Wahoo in peril and Dundee gets a cheap eye rake in. Wahoo finally has enough, hitting a very Ric Flair style backwards low blow on Spike and he casually strides over to tag out. Raschke does as much of a hot tag run as he can. He starts goose stepping and slaps the claw on Basher. Dundee gives Spike knucks or something similar, he hits Raschke and the MODs take the win. 1/2*

 

So ends the first round. Honestly, it was kinda crap. But, we haven't seen any of the top teams yet thanks to all the byes so things should start picking up now.

 

Before the opening second round match starts Capetta announces Ric Flair to the ring to cut a short promo for his title defense on night two, and so the night one crowd can see Flair even if only for a moment. 

 

Second Round: NWA World Tag Team Champions Manny Fernandez & "Ravishing" Rick Rude (w/Paul Jones) def The Thunderfoots in 3:24- Fernandez and Rude took advantage of the RNR Express still being beat up from barely surviving the Andersons at Starrcade and upset them for the titles a couple of weeks later. Young Teddy Long is the ref for this match. This is heel vs heel, the first of several of these matchups in the second round. The bell rings and TF initial quickly tries to hide from Fernandez in the corner. Fernandez takes some forearms in the corner, this turns it around and hits a hiptoss. He then cranks away on the TF's arm. Rude continues that program. While holding an ARMBAR he looks into the camera and calls out the Road Warriors. That's never smart. The other TF tags in and thinks getting Fernandez in a headlock is an accomplishment. Fernandez responds by giving him a back elbow. Suplex from Rude for 2. The TF manages to eye rake Fernandez into a slam, then misses an elbow drop. Fernandez gets in the wrong corner for a half second and we go into a full on DONNYBROOK. Rude plants the TF left in the ring with a DDT, which is what the Rude Awakening was at the time, and gets the pin. The finishing move at least got a pop. Acceptable squash over an expendable team to get the champs going, but it probably went on a bit too long for what they were doing. 1/2*

 

Second Round: The Super Powers def Bill Dundee & The Barbarian in 6:07- The Super Powers are Dusty Rhodes teaming up with reformed communist Nikita Koloff, still in tribute to the injured Magnum TA. Nikita is in a neck brace (can't remember the story there but I'm willing to bet it's Horsemen related), but that's not stopping him wrestling. He's still the US champ. Dusty and Barbarian start. After the lockup Dusty starts right up swinging punches and dancing. Dundee tags in for a try and gets spun around into a bionic elbow. After some floor recovery time Dundee walks right into Dusty jabs. Barbarian tags back in and wants Nikita. I have to say, the work they've done on Nikita's face turn has paid off, the reaction he gets when he tags in is insane. He and Barbarian have some power lockup stalemates. Shoulderblocks with no one moving. Nikita flips the script with a quick standing dropkick! Nice. The heels again regroup on the floor. Back in Barbarian goes to the universal equalizer, an eye rake, to get Nikita in the wrong corner where Dundee chokes him. The heels work Hebner to double team and choke some more. Bear hug from Barbarian. Hebner gets worked some more for Dundee to hit a punch off the second rope and Barbarian covers for 2. Dundee tags in and his punches only piss Nikita off. Everyone runs in as things fully break down. Nikita hits Barbarian with the Sickle! Dusty slams Dundee off the top rope. Sickle for Dundee and Nikita covers him for the pin. Decentish. I cannot overstate how bonkers over Nikita is now his face turn has had a few months to settle in. **

 

Second Round: The Road Warriors (w/Paul Ellering) def Shaska Whatley & Teijho Khan in 3:46- The Roadies kick off their defending champion campaign, winning the first Cup last year right at the start of their full time JCP run. They're announced as the "International tag team champions". Sure. Is it from that JCP International branch that later became the WCW International branch that made the WCW International World title? Anyway, the heels jump before the bell, which is not a good move because you're just going make the Roadies even angrier than they normally are. Hawk hits Whatley with a flying tackle. Animal dropkick for Khan. The heels roll out to rethink their choices with some A+ selling from Whatley. Reset with Khan and Hawk. I don't like the kid's chances. Hawk drags him up into a Canadian backbreaker and drops him. Animal barely gets Khan up for a press slam. Khan dodges an elbow drop and tags out. Animal takes a double back elbow and gets (very gently) pounded down in the heel corner until he gets out by shoving both guys across the ring. Khan stays on him with what little he was capable of. Double suplex from the heels. Animal gets his knees up on a Khan big splash and tags out. Dropkick from Hawk. Neckbreaker. Fistdrop. A powerslam gets the pin. Too much heel offense, this should have been a Roadies squash and move on. *1/4

 

Second Round: The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette) def Ron & Jimmy Garvin (w/Precious) by DQ in 6:20- There's been a change on the Midnight Express roster. Dennis Condrey suddenly left JCP in March for reasons still not known today. To replace him JCP turned to Stan Lane, who as I mentioned before had already been part of a successful tag team with Steve Keirn as the Fabulous Ones in Florida. This would be the version of the Midnights that got the most national exposure, staying through the early years of WCW, and in my mind they're pretty underrated too. Once they got in their groove they knocked out an insane run of great matches all over the place, just like the former Eaton/Condrey combo. We join this in progress with all four guys brawling in the ring as the bell rings. Sadly that means we don't get a feel of the crowd reaction for Lane's first intro as a Midnight member, which I was really curious about. The Midnights are whipped into each other and Jimmy gives them a double noggin knocker while Precious chases Cornette around the ring. Eaton drags Cornette into the ring to get him away from Ron! Ron has Cornette's shoe and hits Lane with it! That ricochets Lane into Eaton, who had Cornette's tennis racket and was looking to hit someone with it. The heels finally roll out for a full regroup while the faces brandish the weapons in the ring. Cornette screams and runs away from Precious, trying to hide behind his team while also wielding his other shoe at her. So great. "Bobby, you've got to do something about that because I don't like being embarrassed!'. Restart in the ring with Ron and Eaton. Eaton pounds on Ron in the corner but gets backdropped after a whip reversal. Both sides swap and Jimmy and Lane do a similar sequence, except with Jimmy hitting a back elbow and dropkick. Eaton comes back in for a try. The new Midnights already have good chemistry considering they barely started working together. Lane kicks Jimmy in the back from the apron to finally get the Midnights on top. Lane whips out his patented karate kick. He whips Eaton into back elbowing Jimmy for 2. Jimmy leapfrogs and the Midnights run into each other. Tag to Ron, who comes in and unloads with the Hands of Stone. One of those sends Eaton out to the floor. Ron sets up for a piledriver out there but Cornette hits him with his racket! Jimmy tries to lift Ron back in, but he's not in time and the Garvins are counted out. Cornette's Racket of Death strikes again. Solid match, they did as much as they could in the time allowed. There's definitely a better one in there. **1/2

 

Second Round: Giant Baba & Isao Takagi def Denny Brown & Todd Champion in 6:10- I regret to say extremely washed up Baba is here another year. Last year he teamed with Tiger Mask II (Mitsuharu Misawa), which on paper should have helped but really didn't. This year he's paired up with Takagi (no relation to Shingo Takagi), a former sumo who would have a let's say checkered personal life in later years. No one knows how to pronounce Takagi's name right. Well, Baba probably does but no one gives him a mic. Takagi flips Champion out of a headlock to start, then Champion gets a headlock takedown. Baba and Brown exchange some shots. A Baba overhand chop puts Brown down. Slam from Takagi for 2. He armdrags Brown down into an armbar. Lots of clean corner and rope breaks as this is another respectful face vs face match. I do like how the tournament is not being predictable with nothing but face vs heel matchups, makes it feel more real. The crowd again seems to be getting restless as the lack of quality action. Arm work all around with nothing at all of note happening. Baba works Champion into a kind of Russian leg sweep, then hooks on a front facelock. Champion is then the first guy to not respect a rope break. Baba no sells everything and hits another overhand chop. Swinging neckbreaker from Baba. Champion wins a slugfest with Takagi and gives him some knees in the corner. Takagi reverses a corner whip and actually goes down into a 3 point stance before hitting an avalanche on Champion. Baba gives Champion the Big Boot of Instant Death and it's over. Not pretty. 1/4*

 

Because of Morton's injury the Japanese team will be the beneficiary of a bye to the semifinals. If that's announced on this night it's cut out of the Vault copy, but they won't be able to avoid it anymore the next night if it's not. 

 

Second Round: The Armstrongs def Arn Anderson & Kevin Sullivan in 5:33- Talk about an odd pairing. Earlier in the year the Four Horsemen kicked out Ole Anderson, turning him face. Arn's team with Tully Blanchard wasn't a set in stone thing yet even though they had teamed together at the previous Crockett Cup. Ric Flair was originally planned to be in the tournament teaming with Arn, but they scheduled a title defense on night two for him instead. As a last resort they brought in Sullivan from Florida, also soon before he'd sign with JCP full time. This is the first time he and Arn have ever teamed. We start out with easily the best options in this one, Arn and Brad. They have a very nice back and forth sequence to start. Arn gets caught in a drop toe hold. He eye rakes Brad before he can do too much leg damage and stomps him down on the apron. Tony mentions the announcement about the RNR Express, so I guess their injury forfeit was announced in the arena between matches tonight. Would have been nice if that was kept on this copy. Brad hits a crossbody off the top rope for 2. Fun's over as Sullivan tags in. He and Brad have a stiff chop exchange. Bob tags in and also deals out some chops. Arn hits a slam/kneedrop combo on Brad for 2. Sullivan does some arm work as the heels keep Brad isolated. Brad manages to escape from Arn and tag out. Arn quickly backs off the old man coming after him. He tries to trap Bob in the wrong corner but Bob quickly fights out. Sullivan hits a clothesline on Bob with a mess of a sell. Bob hits the brakes after an Arn leapfrog and unleashes punches. Sullivan trips Bob from the floor. Bob and Sullivan exchange slow strikes. Brad tags in with a flurry on both heels as things break down. Brad gets tossed to the floor. He comes back in with a sunset flip on Sullivan, and that gets the pin! Arn is the greatest tag wrestler ever and carried many guys to tag titles. Even he couldn't carry Sullivan to one win. The Armstrongs are the first team that wrestled in the first round to make it out of the second. All my digs at Sullivan aside, this was a damn good if short match with everyone doing their part. Even Sullivan. The Arn/Brad stuff in particular was by far the best thing so far tonight. ***1/4

 

Second Round: Tully Blanchard & Lex Luger (w/JJ Dillon) def The MOD Squad (w/Bill Dundee) in 6:31- Luger was the big new thing on the block, someone JCP saw huge future things in and right at a time they were desperate for a hot young prospect after Magnum TA's career ending injury. After cutting his teeth in Florida the past couple of years he signed with JCP at the start of the year, turned heel and became Ole Anderson's replacement in the Horsemen. For now. Blanchard is also the reigning TV champion. Another heel vs heel match this round here. Dundee didn't bother changing out of his wrestling gear into his Elvis suit this time. Luger disrobing gets a big high pitched pop. I'd even call it a shriek. Blanchard starts with I think Spike. Quick forehead jab from Spike. Blanchard does a workaround into a hammerlock and Spike quickly goes to the ropes. Luger works on Spike's arm, then hair pulls him back down. Dundee is FURIOUS Luger might be cheating. While he's distracting ref Teddy Long Spike hair pulls Luger down, but Luger quickly counters into a headscissors. We get a shot of Dillon already with his Shoe of Death off threatening Dundee with it. Both sides are definitely having fun with the heel vs heel setup. Basher tags in and quickly takes a Luger armdrag, then complains about a tights pull. Basher's able to get the edge on Blanchard. While Long's distracted Dundee gives Blanchard a long eye/face rake from the floor. Dillon then goes over and holds Spike's legs to try to keep him from getting involved. Luger tags in and hits Spike with a back elbow, then a slam. The Horsemen team keep Spike isolated for a bit. The Squad then get Luger isolated and choke him behind Long's back. I think they're swapping without tags too. Dundee and Dillon are still nearly going at it on the floor. Blanchard works Basher over and he falls all the way to the floor. Blanchard tries to suplex him back in but Basher falls on him! Dundee might have tripped him, we couldn't see. Luger breaks the pin up to trigger the final donnybrook. Blanchard takes Basher down in the corner, drops an elbow off the second rope and gets the pin. Dillon finally pops Dundee as the pin is happening too. Nothing amazing wrestling wise, but they kept the pace up all match and watching the two heel groups constantly try to out cheat each other was amusing. **1/4

 

Steel Cage Match: Ole Anderson def Big Bubba Rogers in 7:00- After all the tournament matches we're getting a singles grudge match to close things out for tonight. Rogers was the bodyguard for Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express, but the story here is the Horsemen hired him to take out Ole so now Ole is looking for revenge. This is more like a Texas Death Match than a regular cage match, to win you have to knock your opponent out so he can't answer the 10 count. As soon as his intro's done Ole jumps Rogers and gives him an early cage shot. Another cage shot. After some weak back and forth slugging Ole uses his shirt to give Rogers another cage shot. Rogers gets desperate and goes to the Greco Roman Nut Punch to turn things around. No DQ. Kneelift from Rogers. Ole takes a cage shot. Rogers continues to pound away and chokes Ole on the ropes. Ole's bleeding, the first guy all show. Unusual blood restraint from JCP tonight. It's not even that much blood either. Ole fires back and hits knees to the gut. Rogers puts Ole down with his own knee shot, then he chokes Ole on the mat. That gives us our first count of the match with Ole up at 8. Ole takes another big cage shot. He barely drags himself up at 9. Rogers gives him the cheese grater spot. Ole fires up after that and puts Rogers down with kicks out of the corner. The back and forth slugging continues. Ole has enough and gives Rogers a kick in the groin, then puts him down with a back fist. Rogers chokes Ole with his suspenders. When Ole goes down Rogers goes up top. Ole dodges a big splash! Piledriver from Ole! Rogers just barely can't get up in time and it's over. Kind of a dull brawl but not horrible. Rogers is still learning. **

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Bit of a slog, this one. Definitely not what you'd expect from peak or just past peak JCP, and it's a LOT of matches to get through in one show even if they are all kept short. Fortunately now all the riff raff is gone night two should be much better.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+