Crockett Cup '86

Legacy Review- From the Vault

Crockett Cup '86

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

 

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

 

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

 

Afternoon Session

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

The Sheepherders (UWF) def Los Guerreros (Florida)

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Evening Session

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Meep meep. 

 

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

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B 

WCCW Thanksgiving Star Wars 1985

Legacy Review- From the Vault

WCCW Thanksgiving Star Wars 1985

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

 

Commentary: Bill Mercer

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C 

WCCW David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions

Legacy Review- From The Vault

WCCW David Von Erich Memorial Parade of Champions

May 6, 1984 from Texas Stadium in Irving, TX

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C- 

WWF on MSG Network 1/23/84

Legacy Review- From the Vault

WWF on MSG Network 1/23/84

January 23, 1984 from Madison Square Garden in New York City

 

Commentary: Gorilla Monsoon and Pat Patterson

 

It may not look like it on the surface, but this is one of the most important events in not just WWF/E history, but all of wrestling history, for one simple reason: the birth of Hulkamania. It's January 1984. Vincent Kennedy McMahon (or Vince Jr to the old guard) was barely two years removed from purchasing the company from his father, much to the chagrin of many in that old guard. Vince the Younger had one immediate goal: make WWF national, the first wrestling promotion to ever do so. Step one was divesting from the NWA, which he did in '83. Step two, get a major star to carry the company. For that he only had one man in mind- Hulk Hogan.

 

Hogan had his initial run in WWF as a heel from '79-'81 under Vince Sr, but when he was offered an opportunity to star in Rocky III, anti-Hollywood Vince Sr made him choose. Ever the astute businessman himself, Hogan chose Rocky, which skyrocketed him in public perception. After that he moved over to the AWA, where he quickly became the most popular babyface in the company and the #1 AWA World title contender. The AWA, however, was legendary for its ass backwards World title booking, and constantly found new ways to screw Hogan out of the title rather than put it on him, even at their major Super Sunday show that was *designed* to get the title on Hogan. Or so it seemed. Hogan, seeing the writing on the wall, jumped at the chance when Vince offered to make him the face of the WWF if he came back over, and Vince wouldn't waste any time making it happen. And that's where we are today. 

 

Tony Garea def Jose Luis Rivera in 6:46- Garea was one of the most successful tag team wrestlers in WWF history, winning the tag titles five times with four different partners. He's on the downslope of his career now. If he was in New Japan he'd be a New Japan Dad. The Fink is still wearing his frilly '70s shirt. Love it. Not a fan of the bell ringing after everyone's introduction. That was very much an MSG thing at the time. Old bald ref for this match looks like Mills Lane before Mills Lane. Some standing switches at the start lead to a quick mat stalemate. Hammerlock tradeoffs. Garea pushes Rivera away with his boot after getting taken down. Long series of headlock/headscissors exchanges that end with Rivera holding the headlock. Speed run and Rivera gets a small crossbody for 2. Garea comes back with an armdrag takedown into an ARMBAR. More speed and Garea hits a couple of shoulderblocks, then another armdrag. Rivera tries to slam out of an armbar but Garea rolls through and hangs on. Rivera takes advantage of Garea's love of shoulderblocks to dodge and roll him up for 2. Garea dodges a monkey flip attempt with a cartwheel. Garea ducks down for a backdrop and Rivera counters with a dropkick that pretty much goes over Garea's head. Garea sells it anyway. That gets some boos in MSG even in this pre death of kayfabe era. Snap mare from Garea for 2. He goes back on Rivera's arm. Corner whip tradeoff. Rivera tries a reverse crossbody, but Garea rolls through and gets the pin. Other than the dropkick whiff it was mostly technically proficient, but also awfully dull. *1/4 

 

Mr. Fuji & Tiger Chung Lee and The Invaders 20:00 time limit draw- The Invaders are a rare masked team that are faces. They're billed from Puerto Rico and had recently arrived in WWF. Fuji was another tag team legend, like Garea a five time tag champ, and also winding down his in ring career. He'd soon transition to managing and be one of the famous deep roster of WWF managers in the late '80s and early '90s. Lee was more well known elsewhere under his real Korean name, Kim Duk. The Invaders are nearly identical and telling them apart will be hard but I'll try 1 and 2. Commentary is actually a better help in that than I anticipated. Thanks, Gorilla. 1 starts with Lee and they do some clean break gamesmanship. 1 gets a quick sunset flip for 2. 2 almost trips over the top rope trying to do the fancy leap over the top after tagging in. They crazy rapid fire tag on Lee's arm literally nearly a dozen times in one unbroken sequence. Lee finally picks one up and drags him to his corner, but for some reason doesn't tag out and 2 (per commentary) escapes. Fuji tags in, takes some shots and begs off. Invader 1 keeps leaping off the apron into the ring and back for reasons that are completely beyond me, other than he had too much caffeine before the match. No such thing as energy drinks back then. 2 catches Fuji with a crossbody for 2. Fuji takes an armdrag and looks like he's about to murder someone. 1 and Lee do some more back and forth stuff with the Invaders keeping more of an edge. They love their armdrags. Invader whichever gets caught in the wrong corner and Fuji chokes him with the tag rope. Fuji hits a diving headbutt to 1's gut or possibly lower. 1 goes officially In Peril. 1 comes back with a suplex, then slams Fuji off the top rope. Both sides tag. Lee does a nice flip upside down in the corner and 2 jumps all over him. Lee cuts the momentum off with a back suplex, almost a Saito. Gutwrench suplex from Fuji on 2 for 2. Big chop from Fuji. Lee hooks on a bear hug. 2 bell rings out but Lee cuts the tag off. Back to the bear hug. 2 starts to fade, so 1 comes in to break it up. The heels use that to swap without a tag. Fuji stays on the back with one of his nerve holds. Because he's Oriental, you see. 2 (who Monsoon keeps calling "Johnny Rivera", completely blowing the guy's secret identity, he can never fight crime again) kicks free and just manages to make a tag. Lee completely no sells 1's chop. 1 tries a crossbody, can't get his footing on the ropes and barely gets off, then Lee barely manages to catch him and drop him with some kind of atomic drop. Snap mare into a chinlock from Lee. 2 distracts the ref so Lee and Fuji quickly grab a double team nerve hold. Because they're Oriental, you see. 1 fires back with a dropkick. Lee dodges a big dive and 1 crashes into the corner hard. Cover from Lee, but 2 reaches in to break the pin up, allowing 1 to tag out. 2 dropkick with a jackknife cover on Lee for 2. He starts working on Lee's leg. The Invaders go to the rapid fire tags again, which really gets the MSG crowd that wasn't sure about them at the start behind them. Lee fights off a spinning toe hold. 2 cuts off a tag and hooks up a leg scissors. Lee fights it off and tags. Monsoon correctly gets on the Invaders for failing in basic tag team tactics, not cutting the ring in half. Now it's time for crazy rapid fire tags on Fuji's leg. A bit slower, they're getting a little tired. The Invader in the ring puts Fuji in an abdominal stretch. Fuji is able to work over and tag out. Lee runs into an abdominal stretch! I love Monsoon critiquing how the hold is being applied. Behind the ref's back Fuji runs in and hits Invader from behind and Lee covers for 2. 2 tags in and tries his own abdominal stretch on Lee. It's still not put on right as far as commentary is concerned. Things break down and it's EVERYONE IN THE POOL. The heels are run into each other and the Invaders start rowboating their legs. The bell rings. No one's sure at first if there was a submission or DQ because WWF didn't do time calls during the match, but Fink announces it as a time limit draw. You know, I wasn't expecting a whole lot there, but that turned into a pretty damn fun match. Kind of a shame the Invaders didn't stick, they definitely had potential. ***

 

The Masked Superstar def Chief Jay Strongbow in 7:26- Strongbow was kind of WWF's version of Wahoo McDaniel, a longtime popular wrestler in the territory with an Indian gimmick, though I don't think he delighted in stiffing the bejeesus out of all his opponents like Wahoo did. Like a lot of others so far on this show he's in the final wind up phase of his career. The Masked Superstar is Bill Eadie, the future Demolition Ax, still using his original gimmick that he'd been using in the southern territories before coming to WWF. Holy hell, once he gets his entrance gear off Strongbow does look like he needs to park it in a rocking chair and call it a career. Superstar shoves Strongbow a bit on the first rope break and Strongbow lets him know how he feels about that. Extensively. Headlock, another rope break and more jawing. Shoulderblock from Strongbow and he slaps the headlock right back on. He does a nice slide under Superstar to put it on again. OK, guess he can still move a little. After a while trying to catch a cradle pin Superstar does a headscissors counter. Strongbow pops right back out reading the riot act again and Superstar backs off, then hides in the ropes. Strongbow ducks a chop, hits his own, and right back to the headlock. Speed run and Strongbow hits another chop. He goes for Superstar's mask. Why is that OK just because Superstar is a heel? Superstar gets out of the ring to escape with his identity intact. Hey, at least Monsoon isn't spoiling it this match. Johnny Rivera. Superstar hangs out on the floor complaining that Strongbow isn't allowed to do that. When Superstar gets back in Strongbow starts warming up the war dance, then hits a series of kneelifts. He goes for the mask again. Superstar hits an elbow to the gut to get free this time. Strongbow immediately starts no selling and war dancing. Chops. Another kneelift. Sleeper! Superstar gets free and wallops Strongbow with a clothesline. That gets the pin. 1/2* 

 

Sgt. Slaughter def Ivan Putski by countout in 11:29- Our first real high profile match of the night. Slaughter was still a heel at this point following a feud with then WWF Champion Bob Backlund after coming back to WWF, but he was about to turn face to kick off a big feud with the Iron Sheik. Putski was another of the last of the old Vince Sr guard still standing, one of the most popular wrestlers in the company in the '70s despite the fact he never got a run with a singles title. Slaughter is the first guy tonight to have any kind of entrance, with music. I've always liked seeing the walk in from the MSG locker rooms in that very distinctive hallway. There's a great shot where we can see the ref reflected in Slaughter's sunglasses. The bell rings and Slaighter puts on a stall fest that could make Larry Zbyszko jealous. He slowly steps out of the ring and takes off his hat, sunglasses, whistle and belt. Damn, Slaughter's so young he's still got hair! Putski swings a bunch of jabs that Slaughter ducks, then he steps out to the apron again. Slaughter tries to get into a flex off. Putski's going to win that one every time. Now Slaughter backs out of a lockup. LOCKUP! Finally. Like three minutes into the match. And stalemate. On the third go Putski pushes Slaughter into the corner, then slams him as he comes back in. Slaughter immediately bails into the corner. Putski cranks a headlock, which gives us a great shot of Slaughter's bald spot. Spoiler: it's gonna grow. Speed run and Slaughter does one of his classic pinball bumps off a shoulderblock. Say one thing about Slaughter, he was always an enthusiastic bumper. Again Slaughter's in a headlock he can't escape. Finally he does by lifting Pustki up into an atomic drop. Backbreaker from Slaughter for 2. He runs Putski's back into the top turnbuckle and hits another backbreaker for 2. Putski blocks a buckle shot and rams Slaughter's head all the way into the ring post. Kicks to Slaughter's gut and Slaughter flies up and dangles over the top rope! Corner whip and Slaughter does another classic crazy face first bump into the corner. Another corner whip reversal and Slaughter hits a clothesline. He tries a slam but Putski falls on him for 2. Off the ropes Putski hits the Polish Hammer! A shoulderblock sends Slaughter out of the ring. Somehow he gets caught on the bottom rope. I know his chin is massive, but those ropes are loose as hell. Putski helps him get free and Slaughter goes to the floor. We can see he's bleeding a little. Slugfest on the apron. A punch sends Slaughter tumbling over the top back in. The ref calls for the bell, but Putski doesn't care as he's still all over Slaughter. Slaughter does another corner hit that sends him back out to the floor. He comes back in and tries to jump but Putski is still all over him. This brawl is going on almost as long as the match did. Finally the ref gets them separated and explains the decision. Slaughter wins by countout. Putski stayed on the apron too long, and punching Slaughter back in allowed him to beat the count. Weak. Pretty decent match before that once they got going though. **1/2 

 

"Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff (w/Roddy Piper) def Salavatore Bellomo in 14:06- More of the soon to be important new guard coming in. Orndorff and Piper had both just arrived in WWF, and this is Orndorff's MSG debut. This is just two months after Piper's bloody dog collar match war with Greg Valentine at the first Starrcade. He's managing here I think because he had a non-compete with Jim Crockett he was working through, but if so it was a short one and would be over before long. Bellomo was a Belgian wrestler billed as Italian that there was some high hopes in when he first came to WWF, but he quickly ended up as a jobber. Orndorff really gets into the cocky stalling, staying on the floor with his robe on all through intros. The stallfest continues after Orndorff finally saunters into the ring with Piper in tow. Bellomo and the ref try to get things going, so Orndorff and Piper hop back out and walk back up the aisle. Apparently they're using Bellomo's knee brace as an excuse, saying it's an illegal weapon. It's not even a knee brace as we know them know, just a wrapping. They get back in and Piper slowly disrobes Orndorff. Never mind, they're walking out again robe still on. Even Naito would have had his suit off by now. Orndorff takes his robe off on the floor while the ref finally starts a count up. Then Piper distracts Bellomo and Orndorff ambushes him. All Orndorff squash match style for the first portion while Piper provides extra commentary for it all from the floor. Orndorff only gets a 2 count after a backdrop and both heels complain about the count. Orndorff tries a slam and Bellomo falls on top of him for 2 with literally his first "offense" of the match. Now Piper's complaining about the ref counting too FAST for Bellomo! He's a natural. Bellomo dodges in the corner and Orndorff posts his shoulder with some A+ selling. A couple of desperate dropkicks from Bellomo hit. He goes to work on Orndorff's hurt arm. Orndorff tries a kneelift for space but Bellomo is back on the arm. Orndorff tries an armdrag but Bellomo hangs on. Piper claims a hair pull from the floor. Orndorff ducks under the arm and hits a modified northern lights suplex, but Bellomo uses that position to put on a headscissors, then again holds the arm. Orndorff finally gets Bellomo down again with a back suplex. Piper shouted "suplex" before Orndorff hit it. Reminds me of a house show I went to in my town one time, sitting not far away from a guy that delighted himself (not so much everyone around him) by calling every move just before it happened. Some stomps from Orndorff and he tosses Bellomo to the floor right in front of Piper. Piper makes a big show of not touching him while getting in his face. Or is possibly trying to kill him with his breath. Wonder if Piper is Scots enough to be a haggis eater, that might do it. Right when Bellomo gets back on the apron Orndorff hits him full speed to knock him down again. Orndorff then goes out and slams Bellomo on the floor. The still unpadded floor back then. Orndorff was very gentle with it. Back in Orndorff hits a delayed suplex. Cover for 2. Bellomo tries some more desperation comebacks but Orndorff cuts them all off. Setup slam and Orndorff goes up top. Bellomo dodges a kneedrop! He starts slugging back again, then hits a shot that Monsoon says "stretched the knee ligaments" but looked like a straight up low blow to me. Orndorff sells it that way too. Bellomo tries some speed stuff but runs into an Orndorff powerslam. The piledriver hits, and it's over. Honestly they probably would have been better off with a straight squash rather than Bellomo grabbing an arm for five minutes in the middle of it, but it's still mostly fine. A squash is perfectly fine booking since it's Orndorff's MSG debut, and he looked great here and would be a major player in short order. *3/4

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: The Magnificent Muraco (c) (w/Capt. Lou Albano) and Tito Santana double DQ in 16:03- Muraco is in his second reign as IC champ and had just hit the one year mark on this reign. Santana was another guy that had a cup of coffee in WWF under Vince Sr, including a short tag title reign teaming with Ivan Putski, but had just been brought back in by Vince K to be a near term major player. And.......never mind. For some reason this match has been cut out of the Vault copy of this show. Based on what I've read I don't think we're missing to much, but I hate it when things aren't complete. Like all those old New Japan Tokyo Dome shows that have matches not available on NJPW World. In this case I don't care enough to try to dig it up elsewhere though. After this double DQ Santana would stay focused on the target and a few weeks later succeeded in dethroning Muraco in WWF's #2 regular arena, the Boston Garden, for his first of two IC title reigns. 

 

There's also a midget match that took place here on the card that's been cut out of the Vault copy. No loss at all as far as I'm concerned. Nothing screams wrestling's carnie roots, in a bad way, more than comedy midget wrestling.

 

To set up for tonight's not the final match main event: on the last MSG show the day after Christmas the Iron Sheik upset Bob Backlund for the WWF Championship, ending Backlund's near six year reign as champion. WWF's business model all through the Vince Sr years was long multiyear babyface title reigns with short heel transitional champions in between. Backlund wasn't the longest (Bruno Sammartino's first reign was nearly eight years), and Sheik wouldn't even be the shortest. That match was hugely controversial, as Backlund's manager Arnold Skaaland threw in the towel while Backlund was in Sheik's camel clutch without Backlund ever submitting. A decade later in his WWF comeback crazy old man Backlund would insist he never lost the title and was still champion. When Hogan made his WWF return just a few weeks before this he saved Backlund to make it clear he was a good guy now for anyone that still remembered his previous heel run.

 

WWF Championship: Hulk Hogan def The Iron Sheik (c) (w/Freddie Blassie) in 5:40- Hogan makes his iconic walk out of the MSG hallway for the first time in his red "American Made" shirt with "Hulk-A-Mania" on the back. They're still settling on his look. His gear is the soon to be classic red and yellow. Real American is dubbed over his entrance on this copy even though it hadn't even been written yet. At this point Hogan was coming out to Eye of the Tiger from Rocky III.  He does a short version of the shirt tear as that also wasn't a Thing yet. The belt is awfully cheap looking, fortunately it would soon be replaced with a better version. Hogan jumps Sheik from behind before Sheik gets his robe off! What a bully. Running elbow in the corner. Hogan chokes the Sheik with his own robe! The ref gets it and tosses it away. Clothesline from Hogan. Kneedrop. Eye rake and Hogan chokes Sheik as he continues to do heel style moves. Big boot! Hogan covers for 2. Took the ref forever to get in position. Running elbow from Hogan, followed by an elbow drop for 2. Sheik dodges another corner elbow. He immediately stomps away on Hogan's back, setting the camel clutch up. Backbreaker. Cover and Hogan does a huge mini-Hulk up kickout. Sheik kicks Hogan right in the throat with that spike on his boot, then starts kicking his boot on the mat like he's getting a piece of steel or something in there into the right position. Another stomp to Hogan's back. Double leg takedown into a Boston crab. Hogan powers out! Gutwrench suplex from Sheik for 2. Much less energetic kickout from Hogan there. The camel clutch is on! In WWF's canon no one has ever escaped this before. He's got it fully on too. Hogan powers up and lifts Sheik on his back! He runs Sheik back into the corner. Legdrop! Hogan covers and gets the pin! MSG goes NUTS! Definitely no issue with the New York crowd accepting Hogan quickly. As Monsoon famously always said, history has been made. But even moreso than usual. In Monsoon's own words, "Hulkamaina is here". The industry would never, ever be the same again. The match was fine, pretty much all it needed to be. **1/4

 

Doctors come out to put Sheik on a stretcher. After several tries he eventually fights free of them and goes after Hogan again. Hogan tosses him over the top and out, taking out some of the commentary/officials table too.

 

After commercial we go back to Mean Gene in the locker room, where the celebration is on. It's kind of crazy seeing Hogan's emotion at this first title win given how many there would be after. Andre the Giant then comes in, pours a whole bottle of champagne on Hogan, and congratulates him on his win. That's a clip that will get played a LOT when we get into the build to Wrestlemania 3.

 

It was common on MSG cards at the time to have a couple of short "wind down" matches to close out the night, so here we go with those. Why the previous matches were cut out of the Vault copy and not these I have no idea.

 

"Superfly"Jimmy Snuka def Rene Goulet in 3:54- Snuka was one of the first "Vince Jr guys" brought in, initially as a heel but he was getting cheered for his crazy for the time athleticism so he was turned face in short order. The legendary moment where Snuka hit Muraco with a Superfly Splash from the top of a steel cage, an unheard of move at the time, had just happened in MSG the previous October. Goulet, with his blonde hair and glasses, would later be one of the most recognizable WWF officials/road agents that always ran out to stop big fights when they happened outside of matches. Even commentary is still recovering from the title match as this starts, much less the crowd. Goulet jumps Snuka before the bell. He bites Snuka! Back elbow and slam from Goulet for 2. He hits a gut stomp. Snuka fires back with those half open hand half chop/half punches of his and tosses Goulet out of the corner. Goulet begs off and tries to hide in the corner. That's not going to work. He does get an opening to get some more shots in though. Goulet snap mares Snuka and puts a claw on. There we stay for a while. Kneelift from Goulet. Snuka ducks another claw and hits a chop, then a leaping headbutt. Speed run and another big Snuka chop. He goes up top and hits a crossbody, not the full Superfly Splash, to get the pin. 3/4*

 

Andre the Giant and WWF Tag Team Champions Rocky Johnson & Tony Atlas def The Wild Samoans in 5:29- Quite the all star six man tag to close things out. Andre had just been convinced by Vince to sign a full time contract, ending his years as a roving special attraction. Johnson is of course the Rock's father, and unbeknownst to anyone outside the business had married into the same Samoan family he was wrestling against. Tony Atlas is.....Tony Atlas. Don't think much more needs to be said. He was a character. On the Samoan side we have Afa, his son Samula (later Samu) who was just starting his career, and Sika, father of Roman Reigns and Rosey. Johnson and Atlas defeated the regular Samoan team of Afa and Sika for the tag titles in November. Andre's still in trunks, not the half singlet yet. Young Samula starts with Atlas. I really like Atlas' trunks. Reminds me of the Harlem Globetrotters uniforms and basketball for some reason. I loved the Globetrotters when I was a kid. They go speed pretty quickly and Atlas hits a crossbody. Afa quickly comes in to save his kid. Atlas gets Samula into the face corner. Johnson tags in and holds him so Andre can chop him from the apron. Samula quickly recovers and we get a criss cross. Johnson stops and Samula keeps going! When he finally realizes he's been running for no reason he's slightly perturbed. Things stop as both teams reposition and posture. Samula gets Johnson in the heel corner, but Johnson ducks a chop and Afa takes it. Johnson then gives Afa and Samula double noggin knocker. Clearly Samula is young enough his thick Samoan skull hasn't developed yet as he goes down from that. Atlas takes some pity on the kid, giving him a clean rope break. Full nelson from Samula that Atlas easily powers out of. He whips Samula into another Andre shot. Andre tags in for the first time. He goes for a backdrop and Samula headbutts him. He finally tags out to Sika and Andre takes a double headbutt. More headbutts from Sika just annoy Andre. He gives Sika a headbutt right back and Sika goes down. Andre, the only guy with a skull big enough to hurt a Samoan coconut. Afa and Sika take an Andre double noggin knocker and actually get staggered. Andre big boot on Samula, butt splash and it's over. Combination training match for Samula and killing time until curfew, which was still a thing in NYC then. *

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- None of the wrestling is going to blow you away, but it's still a decent little MSG show to watch, topped off with arguably the single most important moment in WWF/E history. Hulkamania is the rocket the company will ride to going national and mainstream as we get further into the '80s, and it started right here.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+