Summerslam '89

Legacy Review

Summerslam '89

August 29, 1989 from the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, NJ

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura

WWF Tag Team Champions The Brain Busters (w/Bobby Heenan) def The Hart Foundation in 16:23- The Busters defeated Demolition for the titles on the July Saturday Night's Main Event, ending Demolition's then-record 478 day reign. The titles aren't on the line here because "the match was signed before they won the titles". The Harts are in all pink tonight. Bret and Tully start with Bret hitting a couple of quick armdrags and going right to the arm. Tully blind tags Arn behind Bret. Arn tries to sneak in but Bret is ready for him. Drop toe hold from Arn, and again Bret is a step ahead. Both Harts pick Arn's arm apart a bit. Arn tries to reach over for a tag but Anvil is too damn strong and pulls him back to the middle of the ring by the arm. Finally Arn manages to power Anvil over, but the ref doesn't allow the tag because Tully's feet were on the bottom rope! The Revival nods in approval at the following of the rules. Anvil traps Arn over in the face corner. Arn manages to outwrestle Bret clean and tags. Bret blocks a Tully kick and Anvil gives Tully a stiff hammy kick. Tully tries a hiptoss on Anvil. Nope. Anvil faceplants him. The Harts stay firmly in control. Arn tries to tag Tully's foot but the ref disallows that too. The Harts take advantage to swap without a tag and Anvil bites Tully's hand! Tony mentions that the Busters could have agreed to put the titles up regardless of the contracts. Ventura is appalled at the suggestion of good sportsmanship. Anvil no sells a bunch of Tully chops. Corner whip and Tully FLIES chest first into the corner. Heenan and Arn talk strategy. Tully slowly works his way out of a hammerlock and has a wristlock leverage fight with Bret. Nice bridge from Bret. Arn suckers Anvil in and the Busters try to double team but Bret fights them off. The Harts just cannot be stopped. The Busters both roll out for a rethink. Tully comes back in and shoves Bret. Slugfest. Tully gets Bret to chase him around the ring, quickly tags Arn coming back in, and Arn pummels Bret from behind. Brilliant, and completely above board, teamwork. Arn tries a Vader bomb off the second rope but Bret gets his knees up. Donnybrook! The Busters flee again and Arn calls for a time out on the outside. Bret calls an end to the heel strategy session and drags Tully back in. Kick counter, leg takedown and gut stomp from Bret. He throws Tully into Anvil's fist and Tully does a great wobblelegged sell. Tully tries a springboard crossbody off the second rope but Anvil catches him and dumps him right back in the corner. Big corner beatdown. After another set of run ins Arn pulls Tully out of the corner to avoid an Anvil avalanche and the Busters finally get some control. The champs wear Anvil down and Tully puts a double chinlock on. Anvil lifts Tully up on his back, but again Tully gets a blind tag and Arn saves him. Arn shoulder to the gut for 2 with a big Anvil kickout. Beatdown in the heel corner that Anvil fights out of. Anvil and Arn have a HUGE stiff collision in the middle of the ring. Arn cuts the tag off. Speed run with Arn hitting the ropes and Bret gets him with a kick in the back! The Harts are not afraid to dip in the old heel playbook tonight. Tags on both sides. Tully tries to back off but Bret attacks. Slams and clotheslines for both Busters. Elbow off the second rope on Tully. Suplex and everyone in the pool again. Bret clotheslines Tully while Anvil tackles Arn to the floor. Big fight on the floor between those two. Anvil ducks and Arn punches the post. Anvil slinghsot tackle on Tully! Heenan gets on the apron. Anvil powerslams Bret on Tully! I always loved that spot. But Heenan is still distracting the ref, allowing Arn to get up to the second rope and nail Bret in the back of the neck. He rolls Tully out and covers Bret while covering his head so the ref can't see it's him and gets the 3! Absolutely tremendous tag team wrestling with two of the best teams ever doing what they do. Brilliant psychology, stiff wrestling, and a unique layout with the Harts cheating as much as or even more than the heels before getting outsmarted. This went a long way to starting to get the Harts out of the midcard tag hell they'd been in since turning face. ****1/2

"The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes def The Honky Tonk Man (w/Jimmy Hart) in 9:36- This is Dusty's WWF PPV debut. He had been introduced to WWF audiences on weekly TV through a series of vignettes showing him doing a bunch of "common man" jobs: pizza delivery, butcher, (son of a) plumber, etc. In other hands they would have been an abject disaster, but with Dusty being Dusty and ranting to himself nonstop like Whizzo the Clown (my fellow Rifftrax fans know what I'm talking about) they reach some level of entertaining. Not sure what level, but some level. He's got a cop hat and nightstick as part of his ongoing feud with The Big Boss Man. Mini dance/strut off to start with Honky none too pleased the crowd cheered more for Dusty. Dusty breaks clean in the corner off a lockup and struts some more. Pissed off Honky charges into a backdrop, sees the elbow coming, and bails to the floor. Arm work from Dusty back in. Dusty musses up Honky's hair! No one does that! Dusty ducks a wild punch, hits an atomic drop and bionic elbow. Mounted punches. Great Honky flop sell. More slow offense from Dusty with lots of playing to the crowd. Honky gets some control with an eye poke but Dusty quickly turns it back around. Hart grabs Dusty's foot on a rope run and Dusty chases him into the ring. But Hart dropped the megaphone and Honky nails Dusty with it in the gut. Now we get the usual slow Honky offense with Hart getting some shots in. Long series of chinlocks that Dusty half sells and half plays to the crowd during. Dusty starts no selling punches in the corner and punches back, leading to some flip flop and fly. Honky runs Dusty right into the ref! Hart goes to get the guitar, then to the shock of absolutely no one (well, maybe that one guy over there), Dusty dodges and Honky takes the shot. An elbow drop, a recovered ref and a 3 count. Way too long for what they were doing. People complain that Vince wasn't interested in using an NWA product like Dusty right, and I'm sure there's truth in that, but it's also true that, like Harley Race before him, Dusty made the jump too late in his career and was already physically breaking down. Dusty in WWF was trying to get by purely on charisma and playing the hits. 3/4*

Sean Mooney stops Honky on the ramp. Honky's brains are scrambled and he really thinks he is Elvis and everyone's here for a concert.

Mr. Perfect def The Red Rooster in 3:21- Perfect is still riding his undefeated streak and quickly becoming one of the best workers on the roster. Despite that he gets a jobber entrance. He's also still managerless, presumably a highly sought after free agent. The Red Rooster is, of course, the ubertalented and always underrated Terry Taylor saddled with one of the worst thought out and silliest gimmicks of all time. Almost zero reaction for him. Shoving match to start. For some reason Rooster is HOT despite there not being much of a story here. Perfect schools Rooster with a series of takedowns and mocks the Rooster strut. HUGE right hand from Rooster. He's not playing around tonight. Ventura calls it a cheap shot and Perfect had been trying to keep it to wrestling, and he's not wrong. Crazy long speed run with Rooster doing a bunch of leapfrogs. Just before that sequence you could see his foot catch on the ring mat for some reason. He tries to slam Perfect, but his knee completely gives out. Perfect falls on top of him and gets a 2 count. Rooster limps around favoring the knee and is clearly legitimately hurt, but he tries to keep going and finish the damn match, as you should do. They fight on the outside a bit. After Perfect gets back in referee Tim White tells him to go ahead and end it because Rooster's hurt. As soon as Rooster gets in Perfect locks in the Perfectplex for the pin. Shame, these two could have put on something special. Perfect would get the Genius as a manager after this and be Hulk Hogan's fall/winter feud before moving into his all time great Intercontinental title runs. *1/2

Somewhere in here is Mean Gene's legendary "Fuck it!" sign collapse interview with Rick Rude. I remember the first time I watched this show on the Network soon after it started it was in there, but it's sadly since been taken out again. The redone version is still there.

The Fabulous Rougeaus and Rick Martel (w/Jimmy Hart and Slick) def The Rockers and Tito Santana in 14:58- Martel turned on his tag partner Santana at Wrestlemania 5, breaking up Strike Force. They would spend most of the rest of '89 feuding. And always manage to find each other in just about every Royal Rumble they were in after. Martel's being managed by Slick here, a partnership that wouldn't last long. The Rockers and Rougeaus were having one of the quietest red hot feuds in history, wrestling each other all over the house show circuit in what word of mouth says was a series of classic matches. They even had the first ever Ironman matches in WWF history. Sadly none of them were taped. Jacques and Santana start. Jacques offers the insincere handshake. Nothing doing. No Code of Honor tonight. The Rockers immediately jump in, both leapfrog over Jacques, and hit double team moves. The Rockers whip Santana into a crossbody on both Ramond and Martel! The faces clear the ring and the heels regroup. Reset with Janetty and Jacques. Jacques tries to fake Janetty out with a springboard crossbody but Janetty still catches him coming off. The Rougeaus get some shots in on Janetty and he gets beat down and choked in the heel corner. Martel leaps over a Janetty charge in the corner and celebrates in true heel fashion. Janetty gets him down and tags Santana! Santana charges in and Martel runs away quicker than the Knights of the Round Table from the killer rabbit, tagging Raymond on the way out. Hope he didn't soil his armor. Nice back and forth with Santana hitting a clothesline for 2. Jacques grabs Santana's foot and Raymond hits him with a knee in the back. Rougeau double teams. *Now* Martel gets in and stomps Santana while he's down. After a Jacques dropkick Santana tries to fight over for a tag but Jacques powers him back over to the heel corner. Santana/Martel slugfest! The Rougeaus help Martel. Santana rollover cradle in the corner on Martel for 2. Immediate ground and pound from Martel after kicking out. Raymond Boston crab. Jacques abdominal stretch with Martel leverage assistance. Santana fights out but Martel cuts the tag off. Martel blocks a Santana roll up. Santana crossbody on Jacques for 2. More Rougeau double teams. Santana sunset flip on Raymond for 2. Raymond slows things down with a chinlock, which at this point in this match the way it's been is not a bad move. Let things simmer. Santana dodges and Jacques high knees Raymond! Slow crawls. Hot tag! Shawn comes in hot and knocks Martel around. Fist drop off the top. 6 MAN DONNYBROOK! Heel sandwich with Martel in the middle. Santana hits Martel with the flying habanero! Hart tries to distract but Janetty gets rid of him. Jacques rolls Janetty up but Janetty reverses it. The ref is still busy elsewhere. Martel nails Janetty, covers him and gets the pin. Fantastic 6 man action, virtually nonstop. It's a shame there wasn't more Rockers/Rougeaus stuff, but this was the closest we got to a Santana/Martel singles match on PPV. ***1/2

WWF Intercontinental Championship: The Ultimate Warrior def "Ravishing" Rick Rude (c) (w/Bobby Heenan) in 16:02- This is a rematch from Wrestlemania 5, where Rude beat Warrior for the title with help from Heenan. Rude's music is still dubbed over with some cheap knockoff on the Network, which drives me bonkers because his real WWF music is frakking perfect. His psychological tights game is on point as usual, with crying Warrior face paint on the front and the show's Feel the Heat tagline on the back. A very cautious Rude tries to stick and move to start. Warrior no sells everything. Clothesline dodges and Rude goes 360 over but lands on the apron. Not a Rumble elimination. Rude sunset flips back in but Warrior effortlessly shrugs it off. Warrior press slams Rude straight down to the floor! He follows and rams Rude into the bell, then grabs the IC belt and hits Rude in the back with it, all in front of referee and frequent Ventura verbal punching bag Joey Marella, who Ventura lambasts for letting it go. Tony tries to argue that it's fair game because it's on the outside, and Ventura responds "So if someone had a gun and shot his opponent it would be allowed because it's on the outside?". Have to go with Ventura on that one. Suplex on the floor! Warrior rolls Rude back in, then throws him right out over the top rope again! Slam on the floor. Warrior double ax handle off the top back in for 2. Hard corner whips. Slam and suplex for 2. Classic Rude megasell of an inverted atomic drop while Warrior mocks his hip swivel. Warrior goes up top again, but Rude punches him and crotches him on the top turnbuckle. Forearms to Warrior's back. Rude suplex for 2. Vintage Rude double chinlock. Rude goes for the Rude Awakening. Warrior powers out. Rude ducks a clothesline and locks on a sleeper. After some fighting Warrior jawbreakers out. Midring collision that also collects the ref! Rude is up first and attacks, but Warrior is hulking up and nothing works. Big Warrior backdrop. Triple running clotheslines and a powerslam, but the ref is still down. Warrior spikes Rude with a jumping piledriver The ref recovers enough to slowly crawl over and count, but Rude JUST gets his foot on the bottom rope! The crowd really bought that one. Warrior goes for the big splash but Rude gets his knees up. Rude lifts Warrior up and plants him with a reverse tombstone! Ugly looking drop for Warrior on that. Warrior just kicks out! Rude fist drop off the top. Warrior kicks out again! During that count Roddy Piper, who'd also been feuding with Rude, comes to ringside. Regular piledriver from Rude for 2. Rude sees Piper and starts jawing and posing at him, so Piper shows him a reverse angle of what a Scotsman has under his kilt. An incensed Rude gets up on the second rope, allowing Warrior to grab him and hit a German suplex off the ropes. Tackle! Gorilla press! Big splash! Warrior gets the pin and the title back! Damn good match with some very quality near falls, especially for the era. Warrior proved here that with the right dance partner working with him he could put on a quality match, and Rude proved that he really was that damn good, though his full potential wouldn't be realized until after he jumped to WCW in late '91. ***3/4

Intermission time in the arena means promo time on TV. Piper dribbles some water on Mean Gene and says he can get a bit ruuuuuuuuuuuuuude too. Heenan interrupts Ron Garvin to rant about Rude's loss. We get the long recap of the main event feud here too. I'll get into that later.

Demolition and King "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan def The Twin Towers and Andre the Giant (w/Slick and Bobby Heenan) in 7:23- Duggan defeated Haku to win the King crown, which in this period was treated like a title that could be won or lost. Randy Savage would beat Duggan for it soon after this to become the Macho King. Duggan's 2x4 even has a crown on it. That's some serious beef on the heel team. Their announced combined weight is over 1300 pounds. Heenan is without his sparkly jacket, is disheveled and clearly unfocused after Rude's title loss. Fantastic. It's the little things. Duggan is wearing a mask like Demolition, and when he takes it off he's also got facepaint on, except his is the US flag. Ventura calls it a disgusting desecration of the flag and there should be "a Constitutional amendment passed" to prevent things like this. I don't think that's going to go over well with your Libertarian base, Jesse. And yeesh, that kid's "Demolition will topple the Twin Towers" sign, complete with a drawing of the World Trade Center, has not aged well. Duggan and Akeem start with some jaw jacking, then some jaw punching. All the faces take turns beating down Akeem and working his arm. Boss Man and Smash trade eye rakes with the faces staying in control. Boss Man gets Ax in the heel corner and tags in Andre, who is nothing that could remotely be considered mobile at this point. He barely gets out of the corner and does some kicks, rope assisted squashes and chokes. He really doesn't have any business out there, and I mean that in the most sympathetic way possible. His body is done. Ax sells the hell out of it though. Respect for Andre. Ax dodges an Akeem avalanche and tags. The Demos run wild on the Towers until Andre comes in and chops Smash. The match breaks down into chaos. Duggan hits Akeem behind the ref's back with the 2x4 and gets the pin. Meh. * 

Greg "The Hammer" Valentine (w/Jimmy Hart) def Hercules in 3:08- Ronnie Garvin is your special guest ring announcer. See, Valentine beat Garvin in a retirement match on weekly TV a few months back. Still needing an income, and looking for revenge, Garvin took up refereeing and somehow managed to get himself assigned to virtually every Valentine match before Jimmy Hart eventually got him fired from that. Garvin runs down Valentine and Hart during their intro, which goes on almost as long as the match. Herc jumps Valentine while he's arguing with Garvin and rolls through his usual power arsenal. Valentine slides out to stare down Garvin. Hart tries to get his mind on the match. Herc roll up for 2.Valentine's out again. Herc hits him from behind off the apron and runs him into the timekeeper's table. Valentine catches Herc coming back in and drops some hammers. Herc fights off the figure four. He catches Valentine coming off the top. Herc suplex. Valentine begs off. He gets a leg takedown in the corner, puts his feet on the ropes and gets the pin. Garvin tries to reverse the decision and declare Herc the winner, then Herc the winner by DQ. I don't think he has the authority. All three brawl after and Valentine eats a Hand of Stone. This was all about the angle, Herc was just a hanger on. This would lead to Garvin getting reinstated and a Submission Match at Royal Rumble '90 that was actually pretty durn good. 1/4*

Promo from the heels in the main event, and it's a weird one. There's a smoking witch's cauldron and Sherri and Savage are using is like a crystal ball while Zeus makes faces. OK then. 

"The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase (w/Virgil) def "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka by countout in 6:27- DiBiase was spinning his wheels in the midcard after his near miss at the WWF Title in early '88, but got the Million Dollar Belt as compensation. This match was thrown together due to Jake Roberts, who DiBiase was feuding with at the time, being out with an injury. You know, I've wondered about all those $100 bills Virgil always has. Is he waving around his real pay for the night? Is there a lockbox at Gorilla that Vince kept the DiBiase waving around money in, like petty cash? Did it get passed around as bonuses for the boys backstage after the match? Dibiase tries to jump Snuka before the bell but Snuka dodges and takes him out. Virgil tries to distract, but Snuka dodges again and DiBiase takes Virgil out. An atomic drop sends DiBiase 360 and out again. DiBiase takes his time getting back in and we get a reset lockup. They botch a leapfrog spot and DiBiase gets a face full of Snuka ass as they collapse on top of each other. Some very uninspired back and forth follows as they try to get their footing back. Snuka backdrop and DiBiase begs off. More speed and DiBiase hits a hot shot. Suplex for 2. Knees to Snuka's back and backbreaker for 2. DiBiase goes for that fallaway elbow off the second rope that he never hits. No change tonight. Snuka headbutts and DiBiase begs off again. Snuka headbutt off the second rope. He goes up top. Before he can launch Virgil distracts and Snuka chases him. DiBiase attacks from behind, posts Snuka, and rolls back in just before the 10 count to get the countout win. Snuka hits Virgil with the Superfly Splash after the bell. Crap finish, bad match. Far from DiBiase's greatest hits. 3/4*

Mean Gene is with Hogan and Beefcake. Beefcake gives his famous TITANIUN STEEL BLADES speech. "THE BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAADES ARE A PART OF ME!". Amazingly enough, that sounds more normal than Hogan's story of them riding motorcycles through the river.

MAIN EVENT FEUD RECAP- Hogan and Savage concluded their year plus long story of friendship and betrayal at Wrestlemania 5 when the Mega Powers exploded and Hogan beat Savage for his 2nd WWF Championship. Before winning the title back Hogan filmed his first movie featuring him in a starring role, No Holds Barred. In the movie, Tiny Lister plays the main villain, Zeus. Vince also had a financial stake in the movie, so as a way to drive up business he hired Lister, who had no wrestling experience whatsoever, to feud with Hogan on TV. While Hogan was on his way to the ring for a steel cage title defense against the Big Boss Man on an SNME, Zeus was standing outside waiting for him. Not Tiny Lister the actor. Not Tiny Lister playing Zeus. The character Zeus. The character Zeus had walked out of the movie and was now confronting Hogan. I know. I can't tell if we're destroying the fourth wall or creating new dimensions. Anyway, Zeus "beat down" (gently tapped) Hogan and the feud was on. In subsequent TV appearances Zeus' entire character would be narrowed down to one simple thing: he can't be hurt. Hogan threw everything he could at him, including a steel chair, and Zeus no sold it all. Hmmm.....big monster sized guy, moves slow, simple offense, no selling, "impervious to pain".....sounds like a template for someone......I can't quite put my finger on it......it'll come to me. Savage decided to hitch his wagon to Zeus and challenged Hogan and the original Best Friend of Hogan Brutus Beefcake, who Savage had also been feuding with, to a tag match for Summerslam..

WWF Champion Hulk Hogan and Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake (w/Elizabeth) def "Macho Man" Randy Savage and Zeus (w/Sensational Sherri) in 15:04- After intros Hogan whispers something to Fink, and Fink introduces Elizabeth, who's coming appearance in this match was an open secret. 2v2 brawl to start with Zeus no selling everything from Hogan. He fights of a Hogan slam, waves his arms around a lot, and chokes. Beefcake tries coming off the second rope but leaps right into a Zeus bearhug. He's used all his moves up already. You think I'm joking but I'm not. Hogan breaks that up. He tries a shoulderblock and bounces off Zeus like he's Ric Flair bouncing off the Giant. Quick bear hug. Savage hits a couple of double ax handles off the top. A knee to the back sends Hogan into the corner and Savage hits him with a clothesline off the rebound. Sleeper. Hogan goes down then fights out. He starts hitting shoulderblocks until Zeus knees him in the back from the apron. Zeus is back in and it's bear hug time. Hogan goes all the way down and Zeus gets a near fall. He gets back up and tries to fight out. Zeus deposits him in the heel corner. Savage comes back in and does his top rope snap clothesline. Back suplex for 2. Hogan goes into dodge mode and manages to work around to get a tag to Beefcake. Clothesline on Savage. High knee for 2. Beefcake hooks in his sleeper. Savage tries to back him into the corner but Beefcake hangs on. Finally Savage runs Beefcake face first into the turnbuckle and tags. Beefcake tries the sleeper on Zeus. Savage suckers Hogan in then hits Beefcake with Sherri's Purse of Extraordinary Heft +1. Savage tags in and covers. Hogan breaks the pin up and chases Savage around the ring. Savage goes for Elizabeth! Hogan makes the save. Sneaky Savage covers Beefcake again while Hogan is distracted, but again Hogan breaks it up. Zeus comes in works over Beefcake some more with his scintillating chokey offense. Savage tags himself in and Zeus is clearly annoyed. Double clothesline. Hot tag to Hogan. Corner elbow. A big boot sends Savage to the floor. Hogan tries to suplex Savage back in but Sherri grabs his foot and Savage falls on top of Hogan. Savage clothesline. He tags Zeus, but then goes up top and hits the Savage elbow. Hogan pops right back up! You should know by now not to hit him with a finisher. Hogan atomic drops Savage to the floor. It's Zeus and Hogan in again, and since we're now post Hulk Up, Hogan booking logic dictates that he can now hurt Zeus  Hogan staggers him with some punches, then gets him to one knee with a clothesline. Tony goes absolutely bonkers at Hogan staggering Zeus. Sherri tries to come in but Elizabeth trips her! Savage grabs the purse and tries to come off the second rope with it but Beefcake pushes him off. Hogan picks up the purse! He nails Zeus with it! Big man bodyslam! Tony hits a new octave on commentary. Ledgrop, 3 count, good night. Afterward Elizabeth hits Sherri with the purse and Beefcake cuts off her ponytail. You know, we make fun of Zeus, and much of the concept behind him was ridiculous, but this match really isn't that bad. The layout is fairly good, Hogan was still motivated and tries his damnedest to make it all work, Savage is Savage and Beefcake holds up his small end fine. It could have been much, much worse. **1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- This still holds up as one of the best Summerslams of all time. While there's a pretty big dead spot in the second half and not much in the way of long-term memorable moments, you've got an all time classic tag match between two legendary teams in a one time only encounter, a really good IC title match and a spunky good 6 man tag. Zeus the character was silly, but the main event holds together pretty well all things considered.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B+

Starrcade '83

Legacy Review

Starrcade '83

November 24, 1983 (Thanksgiving night) from the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC, more or less the home base arena for Jim Crockett's Mid-Atlantic Wrestling. The show's tagline is either A Flair for the Gold or A Flare for the Gold, depending on how they're spelling it this minute.

Commentary: Gordon Solie and Bob Caudle, with a VERY young Tony Schiavone handling backstage interviews

About 18 months before Vincent Kennedy McMahon bet the farm on Wrestlemania, the NWA and their flagship territory came up with the idea for the original cable TV supercard. Major supercard shows were common in wrestling in the 60s and 70s, often taking place in baseball and football stadiums, but this was the first time that one was attempted with a home TV audience more in mind than the live attendees. To anchor this show, the NWA decided this would also be the coronation of Ric Flair as the new face of the NWA, and the transition show between the Harley Race era and the Flair era.

The WWE Network copy of this show doesn't have any kind of intro, but starts right up with the participants for the first match already in the ring.

The Assassins (w/Paul Jones) def Rufus R Jones and Bugsey McGraw in 8:11- Jones is the Mid-Atlantic Champion. Unlike most masked tag teams The Assassins are fairly easy to tell apart. One is fat and one is thin. McGraw and Thin Assassin start. McGraw tries to get the mask off. Such poor sportsmanship. They do a dueling helicopter punches spot. Solie badly mispronounces Tony's name on commentary (SHA-phoney). Jones has similar mannerisms to the Junkyard Dog. Like JYD, he is anything but a smooth wrestler. Johnny Gargano or KUSHIDA (the two smoothest wrestlers working today in my opinion) this is not. Tommy Young is selling more than the wrestlers are. Lil' Naitch definitely sat under Young's learning tree. Fat Assassin takes control with an eye rake. DONNYBROOK! Fat Assassin schoolboys McGraw for the pin in the confusion. Not exactly a hot opener, but they never took a break either. *

Solie and Caudle stand up spot in front of a promo sign for the show that looks like it's on the same cardboard that kids use for science fair projects. Solie mentions Dusty Rhodes is in the building and is planning to challenge the winner of the world title match. They cut to Tony in the face locker room, bringing us a "first time ever" look behind the curtain.

Kevin Sullivan and Mark Lewin (w/Gary Hart) def Scott McGhee and Johnny Weaver in 6:43- This is a young Kevin Sullivan (yes, that Kevin Sullivan, future Taskmaster) and three guys that I don't even know. I'm Johnny Legacy, wrestling's greatest substitute history teacher, let that sink in for a minute. Gary Hart is not, repeat NOT, a Calgary Hart, but he is one of the NWA's top managers of this era, and from what I've seen pretty underrated. Sullivan and McGhee have a spunky looking basic sequence. Solie: "Some people have accused Sullivan of being a druid". He was always a weird guy. The heels control most of the match, and they work in the phantom tag spot. Lewin and Sullivan hit a double team spot off the ropes behind the ref's back to win. After the match they grab an international object from Hart and bust McGhee open. 1/2*

Tony is in the heel dressing room now. Harley Race says Greensboro, NC is THE WORST TOWN HE HAS EVER BEEN IN. KCU! In all seriousness, Race was an amazing promo guy, always grounded, believable and always selling the match.

Abdullah the Butcher def Carlos Colon in 4:30- Much like Andre the Giant, Abby was a big special attraction wrestler that worked practically every territory in the world. According to Solie this match was "banned in Puerto Rico" because they got too out of control, so they had it here instead. Colon is a wrestling god in Puerto Rico. Funny side story, Colon was involved in one of the most well known phantom, unofficial title changes in Ric Flair's career. Flair went down to work PR for a few days during his first reign in 1982. The local bookers realized that if Colon didn't win the title there might be a literal riot, so it was allowed for Colon to win the title at the start of the tour, then Flair won it back on the last night and got the hell out of town, and the whole thing was scrubbed from the record books. This was not completely uncommon in the territory days, which is why Flair is much more than a 16 time world champion. The real number is most likely at least 20. You've still got work to do, Cena. Anyway, Abby does what Abby does and starts biting Colon right away. Colon fights back, steals Abby's famous spike from inside his tights and starts going to town on Abby with it, fully allowed by the ref. Abby is busted open. They do a spot where Abby presses Colon off a pin attempt right on top of the ref, then Abby "accidentally" elbow drops the ref. This allows Hugo Savinovich (yes, the future WWE Spanish announcer) to run in and nail Colon. The ref recovers and Abby gets the pin. 3/4*, which is pretty much Abby's ceiling.

Bob Orton and Dick Slater def Mark Youngblood and Wahoo McDaniel in 14:48- Orton and Slater had been working as Race's heavys during the Flair feud. Yes, this is Randy Orton's dad. McDaniel was a major star of the 60s and 70s and is the grizzled old veteran of the show, teaming with the younger of the Youngblood brothers. Youngblood and Slater have some solid mat wrestling. Youngblood is full of BABYFACE FIRE and can't be stopped, so the heels use a sneaky (but legal) tag to take control. Youngblood is face in peril for a long while but gets a hot tag to Wahoo. Wahoo cleans house, but the heels double team to take him down, then dump him outside and isolate Youngblood. Orton hits a superplex (or superplay in Soliespeak) to win. Solid tag formula for the most part, with a great closing sequence where the heels were just too much. Slater is one of the more underrated solid hand midcarders of the era. ***

Dusty is in the crowd, and tries to cut a promo but the mic keeps cutting out. WWE has no issues with keeping botches in NWA/WCW shows.

Title vs Mask Match for the NWA World Television Championship- Charlie Brown (From Outta Town) def The Great Kabuki (w/Gary Hart) (c) in 10:35- Interesting setup here. The official time limit is 60 minutes, but because TV title matches always had short time limits, the title vs mask stip is only good for the first 15 minutes. Charlie Brown is Jimmy Valiant. Valiant had lost a loser leaves town match to Kabuki earlier in the year, so in grand wrestling tradition he came back with a mask. But the mask only covered the top half of his face, so everyone could see Valiant's distinctive beard and was in on the joke. The Great Kabuki has a very similar look to the Great Muta, mist and all. In fact, Kabuki is Muta's in-storyline father. Brown takes it right outside and gets a chairshot in, again allowed by the ref. These refs give more leeway than Red Shoes. The majority of the match is Brown's sleeper vs Kabuki's claw, as they each lock in their holds and the other fights out. Brown hulks up a couple of times and hits some ugly backdrops, then sells the effects of the claw while he's on offense. After another Brown hulk up he dodges a Kabuki knee, Kabuki knees the top turnbuckle, and Brown hits an elbow drop for the win. Brown may have been over and charismatic, but as a wrestler he's.....not good. 1/2*

Dusty promo take 2, with a working mic. He officially lays down the challenge for the world title winner.

Dog Collar Match, Non-title- Roddy Piper def NWA United States Champion Greg Valentine in 16:08- Piper and Valentine had been feuding over the US title for the bulk of '83, trading the title back and forth a couple of times. Piper also missed time after injuring his ear in one of those matches. Because of the brutal nature of those matches and the feud, this match was set up not for the title, but to get their personal issues settled once and for all. Commentary puts over how dangerous this match can be. The visual of both guys connected by the neck with thick dog collars and a large chain is quite a sight. You'll never, ever see anything like this again, with all the paranoia about neck and head injuries nowadays. They have a neck tug of war to start. Valentine keeps snapping his neck trying to pull Piper down, while Piper drags Valentine closer using the chain and gets the first shot in. Both trade shots using the chain wrapped around their knuckles. Valentine gets a shot in on Piper's injured ear, then wraps the chain around Piper's eyes and pulls. Piper counters by wrapping the chain around Valentine's mouth and tugging on it. Valentine gets trapped in the corner and gets busted open. Valentine gets a hard hit on Piper's injured ear then jumps at the opening, attacking the ear with the chain, busting Piper open just around the ear. Piper's equilibrium is gone, and I don't think it's all selling. Valentine even bites the ear. Piper uses the chain to jerk Valentine to the mat and jumps on him. Piper is a crimson mask, but only on one side of his face. It's like his Wrestlemania 6 look with blood. Piper pulls Valentine off the second rope, wallops him with the chain, then wraps the chain around Valentine's legs to get the pin. An incensed Valentine lays Piper out after the match and tries to strangle him with the chain. This was 15+ minutes of pure brutality, the kind you never see in wrestling anymore. Definitely not in North America, outside the extreme CZW/deathmatch cult. (A style of wrestling I have zero interest in for what it's worth. In my opinion if you need fluorescent light tubes and flaming truck beds it's just sadistic garbage, not wrestling. Stepping off the soapbox now.) Years later Piper would reveal that he suffered permanent hearing loss from the stiff shots in this match. ***3/4

NWA World Tag Team Championship- Ricky Steamboat and Jay Youngblood def The Brisco Brothers (c) in 13:24- This is the Briscos without an E. Jack was a two time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, while Jerry held numerous regional championships and in the future would be one of the most important behind the scenes figures in WWE, as well as being one of Vince's stooges on screen. They were also generally considered one of the greatest tag teams of all time to that point. Steamboat and Youngblood may seem like kids here, but they'd been teaming since 1979 and were already 4 time NWA Tag Team Champs. Jerry stands on the top rope for the entire introduction and doesn't flinch a muscle. Impressive. Jack celebrates breaking clean with Steamboat in the corner. Such great heel work. The Briscos do a few quick tags but Steamboat hits the DEEP armdrag. Youngblood finally gets tagged in 5 minutes into the match. There's a nice move where Youngblood knocks Jack off the apron a split second before Jerry could tag him. Jerry gets a boot in Steamboat's face and the Briscos take control. Steamboat manages to get a side suplex in (I can hear Tony shout "sidewalk slam!" from the locker room) and get the hot tag. But a quick suplex kills Youngblood's momentum. Lots of quick double teams from the Briscos. Tag, double team, get out before the five count. The Revival nods their heads in appreciation of the rules being followed. Jerry gets into a shoving match with the ref, allowing Youngblood to tag out. Now it's the face's turn to stick and move double team spots, and it wears Jerry down enough to get the pin and their 5th tag title win! Once again, following tonight's pattern, the heels beat down the winners after the match. ***3/4

While we're in a short intermission to get the cage set up for the main event, let's do a quick recap of how we got here with Flair and Race. Flair won his first world title in September of '81, defeating Dusty Rhodes. Unfortunately, this match took place in Race's home town of Kansas City and didn't get the reaction that was wanted. Flair still had a year and a half "trial run" with the title (minus the aforementioned phantom title changes) before dropping it to Race in June of '83 for Race's then-record 7th world title win. Their feud continued after that, with Race offering a $25,000 bounty to anyone that could put Flair out of wrestling for good. The bounty was collected by Bob Orton and Dick Slater, who attacked Flair during a TV taping and injured his neck with a piledriver. Flair initially announced his retirement, but over weeks of TV slowly began to claw his way back, eventually announcing he was ready to come back and challenge Race for the title at what was, to this point, the biggest wrestling show of all time. You could argue that this match was the biggest in wrestling history to this point.

Steel Cage Match for the NWA World's Heavyweight Championship- Ric Flair def Harley Race (c) in 23:49- Whenever it involves the 10 Pounds of Gold belt, it's World's, not World. Flair's entrance is unlike anything ever seen at the time. The arena is darkened, there's a disco ball, lasers, smoke, a back light, a spotlight, a classic Flair robe (If you want to be fair to Flair you gotta be fair and say that's a heck of a robe!) and Also sprach Zarathustra playing through the arena (more commonly known as the music from 2001: A Space Odyssey), one of the first instances of a wrestler having entrance music. Race gets a cool entrance of his own. No music, but the arena is still dark and there's a great shot looking at him from behind staring at the ring from across the floor. All the better, there's not a peep from commentary during either entrance, letting the moment speak for itself. Now it must be said, Ric Flair here is great but he's not quite RIC FLAIR yet. Most of the attitude and mannerisms we associate with him would be developed during his gradual heel turn over the next couple of years. At this point he's very much a white meat babyface. Commentary mentions the fact that the cage is there to prevent outside interference, which in this era more or less worked, and to keep the competitors inside the ring. Unlike WWF the NWA never ran escape rules cage matches. I also have to mention the special guest referee here, former world champion Gene Kiniski, because he gets himself involved a little too often. Flair lets out a WOOOOOOO right after the bell rings and we're on. Kiniski insinuates himself early, trying to force Flair to open his fist and physically pulling Race back for multiple rope breaks. Race hits the jumping knee but misses the fall down headbutt. Flair gets a Flair chop in that Race does a spit sell for. Flair keeps Race down for a long headlock sequence but Race gets a side suplex ("SIDEWALK SLAM!" Shut up, Tony) to get out. Race gets an ear punch in and Flair shouts out a classic Flair "OH GOD!". Race starts going after Flair's neck, his stated strategery from prematch interviews, hitting a piledriver and a swinging neckbreaker. Race then throws Flair into the cage for the first time, and Flair gets busted open. Again Kiniski physically pulls Race away when Flair is in the ropes, letting Flair get a punch and then a cage shot of his own in, and Race is now bleeding. Kiniski gets on to Flair for the cage shots. Flair does some ground and pound then struts just a little bit. Not a full on Flair strut, but getting there. Flair hooks in the figure four but Race is able to reverse it. According to Solie that's "only the second time I've ever seen someone reverse the figure four". Sure. Race starts to hit his signature fall down headbutts, including one off the second rope. He then accidentally headbutts the ref, allowing Flair to climb to the top and hit a (pretty off target) crossbody to get the 3! This won't be everyone's cup of tea compared to modern-style wrestling, but it was a physical battle that lived up to the prematch hype. You do have to knock it down a bit for Kiniski getting himself so involved though. ****1/2

The babyface locker room storms the ring to celebrate with Flair, as does one of his future alimony checks. There's also a long sports-style post show recap with multiple locker room visits and lots of talk from Solie and Caudle. Solie keeps calling Flair a three time champion even though it's officially only two. The phantom title changes are already confusing people.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- There's not a whole lot going on in the undercard, but the top matches definitely delivered. Back in those days and even into the Attitude Era shows were often sold on the main event only, anything else was gravy. You have to say the first attempt at a modern style supercard show was a success. This would be Race's final hurrah as a major player after being the NWA's biggest star of the 70s. A couple of years after this he would have a very uninspiring run in the WWF, a combination of his body breaking down and Vince not knowing what to do with him, before revitalizing his career as a manager for Lex Luger and Vader in the 90s. Race truly is one of the greats. It's unfortunate that so few matches from his peak years are available. I urge everyone to dig into the Hidden Gems section of the Network for every Race match that's available there, you won't be disappointed. Some of the other guys who made big names for themselves here (Piper, Steamboat, Valentine) would move on to bigger thjings in the WWF over the next few years, but Crockett and the NWA still had plenty of talent reserves remaining, and a new megastar to carry the company. Just two months after this Hulk Hogan would win the WWF Championship, giving birth to Hulkamania and cementing the top two faces that would help carry wrestling for the next decade. Starrcade would quickly become a fixture of the wrestling calendar.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE- B