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