Summerslam '88

Legacy Review

SummerSlam '88

August 29, 1988 from Madison Square Garden

Commentary: Gorilla Monsoon and Superstar Billy Graham. Graham is just plain awful. How awful? Think Booker T's worst night on commentary. Then think worse than that.

The British Bulldogs and The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers go to a 20:00 time limit draw- The Rougeaus had just turned heel and didn't have Jimmy Hart or, sadly, All American Boys yet. The do have the mini American flags and make sure Fink announces that they're "soon to relocate" to the US. DBS takes it to Jacques. After a bit of beating he dumps him in his own corner and lets him tag. The Rougeaus hug to regain HP. Raymond gets a cheap shot in on a rope break. DBS reverses a monkey flip and gets a deep armdrag. Jacques tries to start a USA chant while he's on the apron. The crowd surprisingly is having none of it. DBS and Raymond do a nice sunset flip/O'Connor Roll counter. The dog handler outside has his hands full keeping Matilda sitting on her platform. Jacques trips DBS from the outside to turn the tide. The heels work DBS's leg for a while. DBS uses a monkey flip to get time to get to the corner and tag. Dynamite cleans house. DBS hits the powerslam but Jacques runs in to break up the pin. Dynamite gets up on the second rope to give Raymond the 10 punches, but Jacques runs in and side suplexes him off. Dynamite goes face in peril. The Rougeaus work the ref to double team and swap without tags. Dynamite gets a small package but the ref misses it. They work the "ref doesn't see the tag" spot, but Dynamite quickly gets the real hot tag. DBS gorilla presses Jacques and crotches him on the top rope. All four guys are in. The Bulldogs hit their finisher, but the ref is trying to get Jacques out of the ring and the bell rings for the time limit. This was textbook tag team wrestling. They kept the pace slow enough to last the 20 minutes, but fast enough so it never got boring. The booking of the draw is a bit of a puzzler but I guess they didn't want either team to take a loss. It's the best Summerlam opener until the next year's opener, when the Harts and Brain Busters tore it up. ***1/2

Gorilla says they have breaking news- Beefcake is out of the IC title match later. They roll footage of Ron Bass attacking him on Superstars the week prior. Bass chokes him out with his whip then grabs his spur and rakes it across Beefcake's forehead, cutting him open. It's pretty grisly, and out of WWF's comfort zone for this era. To punch that point home, once the spur rakes start there's a giant red X with the word CENSORED put on the screen over the footage. It's not like no one's ever bled in wrestling before. Monsoon says that even though Beefcake is out there will be an IC title match with the "#1 contender".

Bad News Brown def Ken Patera in 6:33- Patera's pretty past it at this point, but he's got one of the more interesting bios in wrestling. The son of Czech immigrants, Patera was a decorated weightlifter, competing in the 1972 Olympics and winning a gold in the Pan American Games. He also finished 3rd in a World's Strongest Man competition. He transitioned to pro wrestling in the early '70s, winning numerous regional titles, including the NWA Mid-Atlantic title, and worked most of his career as a heel. He was also a former WWF Intercontinental champion. Also, he once gave a promo so bad that Mean Gene almost lost it during. It's interesting that Brown got prominent matches and title shots on house shows, but was always midcard fodder on PPVs. Brown jumps Patera as he's getting in the ring. Patera counters with a clothesline and gets his jacket off. Brown dodges an elbow. Patera actually sells pretty good, but is boring and uninteresting on offense. Bear hug! Brown eye rakes out of it. Patera goes for a full nelson but Brown gets in the ropes. There's an ugly whip spot that looks like a miscommunication. Going the other direction Patera posts his shoulder. Brown hits the Ghetto Blaster to win. Brown looked really good but didn't have much to work with. 3/4*

Mega Powers promo. They say that Elizabeth is their secret weapon tonight. Foreshadowing! 

"Ravishing" Rick Rude (w/Bobby Heenan) def The Junkyard Dog by DQ in 6:18-Rude has JYD on his tights. Rude jumps him as he's getting in. JYD counters with a backdrop and gets the crawling headbutts (thankfully without Gorilla talking about being on all fours is his favorite position this time). Rude powders and confers with Heenan. JYD drags him back in by the hair but Rude dodges a headbutt. Double ax handle off the top. Graham says Heenan looks "pasty and unhealthy". Man, wonder what he thought of Paul Bearer. Long chinlock spots. Rude somehow crotches himself on JYD's arm. More headbutts. Heenan distracts JYD and Rude gets a knee in the back. He goes up top for the fist drop, but as he's up there pulls his tights down and reveals a second set of tights with Cheryl Roberts, Jake's wife, on them! Roberts immediately runs in and pummels Rude. The ref calls for the bell and Rude wins by DQ. 1/2*

Honky Tonk promo. He issues an open challenge to anyone in the locker room. Okerlund tries to spill the beans on who's been selected to face him but Honky wants it to be a surprise.

The Powers of Pain (w/The Baron) def The Bolsheviks (w/Slick) in 5:27- The Baron is Baron von Rashke in a very short lived managerial stint in WWF. He's in a Sith Lord robe and has most of his face covered (I will make it legal), and he's got face paint on in a style similar to Warrior. This is the POP's WWF PPV debut shortly after leaving NWA/Crockett. Word was they didn't want to work scaffold matches, which were all the rage for tag teams down there at the time. They get a decent pop. Yet another match where the heels jump the faces before the bell. It's pure chaos for a while. The POP double team with no tags. The heels confer outside, and there's a reset with Barbarian and Zhukov in. Lots of power moves and unorganized run ins. The heels choke Warlord with the tag rope and he goes FIP. Baron and Slick face off outside. Slick is brandishing his cane. He should know Palpatine has a lightsaber hidden away somewhere. Hot tag. Double flying tackle. Powerslam and headbutt of the top and we're done. The opening match was 20 minutes that felt like 10. This was 5 minutes that felt like 30. *

Brother Love Show time, with guest Hacksaw Jim Duggan. They argue for a while until Duggan threatens to stick the 2x4 up Love's ass. A nothing segment and a waste of PPV time. More on this later.

Honky Tonk comes out for his title defense. Fink goes to announce the opponent but doesn't know who it is either. Honky grabs the mic and says "Get me someone out here for me to wrestle, I don't care who it is". Be careful what you ask for.....

WWF Intercontinental Championship: The Ultimate Warrior def The Honky Tonk Man (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) in :31- Warrior's music hits and here he comes! Fink and Jimmy Hart bail. Honky never got his entrance gear off. Flying shoulderblock. Clothesline. Big splash. Warrior squash. New champ! Honky's record IC title run of 454 days where he probably used about 454 different tricks out of the heel playbook to keep the title finally comes to a merciful end. An iconic moment. NR

Intermission time, which once again is mostly missing from the WWE Network copy. Heenan charges into commentary with an update on both teams in the main event. Andre is reading the Wall Street Journal. DiBiase has four briefcases of money out and is counting while Virgil looks on. Hogan and Savage have barricaded themselves in their locker room and are screaming and begging to be left alone. Monsoon and Graham are dubious.

Dino Bravo (w/Frenchy Martin) def "The Rock" Don Muraco in 5:28- Heenan stays on commentary! Yes! Sadly it's just for this match. He's jawing like crazy with Graham. This is a rematch of a first round match in the Wrestlemania 4 title tournament, which was not good but better than I expected. Paint by numbers start. Bravo goes out to confer with Frenchy. When he gets back in Muraco takes over again. He gets about 6 armdrags that range from slightly deep to kiddie pool shallow. The last one was pathetic. That was kind of like watching a truncated version of Scott Steiner hitting about 47 belly to belly suplexes against Triple H at the 2003 Royal Rumble. Muraco picks Bravo up to slam him but Bravo's feet his the ref. Bravo uses the distraction to switch into his sidewalk slam side suplex and get the win. That was more along the lines of what I was expecting. This was Muraco's last WWF match. 1/4*

Sean Mooney (pants optional) is in the back with Ventura. Ventura admits to taking the money that DiBiase put in his jacket on the Brother Love Show a couple of weeks before. "I'm no fool". Well, can't argue that he's not disclosing his campaign contributions properly. Hell of a slogan for a Libertarian candidate though. "I'll take your money, I'm no fool"

WWF Tag Team Championship: Demolition (w/Mr. Fuji and Jimmy Hart) def  The Hart Foundation in 10:49- The Harts had just completed the slow face turn that Bret started at Wrestlemania 4 and dumped Hart as their manager. Hart is with out with Fuji to give away the playbook, so to speak. Bret and Smash start. Smash gets a quick advantage but Bret turns it around and the Harts work quick tags. Graham loves Anvil. Ax gets his boot up as Anvil's running the ropes and hits him in the back of the head. Anvil counters a backdrop and manages to get the tag. Bret gets thrown though Fuji's cane that was hung in the corner, hurting his shoulder. Why does Fuji keep leaving them there? It must be such a hassle having to buy new canes all the time. While Bret is face in peril Anvil chases Hart up the entrance ramp and out. The Demos tie Bret's arm in the ropes and work the shoulder. Bret gets thrown out and for some reason everyone lets him rest. Back in, Bret runs the ropes at 150 MPH and gets a clothesline. Hot tag! Anvil dropkick! The Demos go outside. Bret slingshots Anvil over the top rope on a dive onto them outside! You didn't see that every day in 1988. An Anvil powerslam only gets 2. The crowd really bit on that one. Donnybrook! Anvil gives Fuji a shot. While the ref is distracted Hart runs back out, gives Ax the megaphone, and Ax whacks Bret with it. Smash drapes an arm over for the 3. It was a bit pedestrian to start, but from the Anvil hot tag on it got pretty good. These two teams would have a better title match at Summerslam '90, the only bright spot on an otherwise dreary show. **3/4

Mean Gene is in the heel locker room. Honky is having a grade A hissy fit.

The Big Boss Man (w/Slick) def Koko B Ware in 5:57- This is Boss Man's WWF PPV debut. He had been wrestling for Bill Watts' UWF (the former Mid-South), and when UWF was bought out by Crockett it was expected internally in Crockett that we would go back with them, since that's where he got his start. He surprised everyone by jumping to Vince instead. It's early on for the gimmick, and he's wearing a real metal badge and has keys hung off his belt. Monsoon and Graham vehemently protest him being able to wear those while wrestling through the match. Slick distracts Ware and Boss Man ambushes him from behind. Ware fights back and gets a dropkick. Boss Man gets tied up in the ropes Andre style. Ware hits a Stingerish splash on him before he gets out. During that sequence the badge came off his shirt. Boss Man hits his own Stinger Splash in the corner! He got a whole 3 inches off the ground there. A few years after this he'd have been able to get good height on that. Boss Man nails Ware with a clothesline, but pulls him up on the pin attempt, refusing to take the win yet. He goes up top for a splash. Ware dodges but Boss Man doesn't sell missing. Ware goes up top and gets a very nice missile dropkick. A big splash only gets 2. Ware runs the ropes, but Boss Man catches him with the Boss Man slam to finish it off. Glorified squash. Yet another TV loss for Hall of Famer Koko B Ware. 1/2*

Mooney is in the face looker room with the new Intercontinental Champion The Ultimate Warrior. "I was sitting in Parts Unknown waiting for the next spaceship to the higher planes when the lightning bolts came down from the sky and the Warriors spoke and they said make it to the Garden!" Sure, who hasn't gotten a phone call like that from time to time?

Jake "The Snake" Roberts def Hercules in 10:06- Where's Heenan? Commentary wonders if he got lost getting back down from the booth earlier. Herc wants Damien gone. It's a ruse! Herc ambushes Roberts while he's moving Damien. The usual early DDT tease. Herc tries to side suplex out of a headlock but Roberts hangs on to it. Herc ends up needing a rope break for a headlock. Good thing this isn't under ROH Pure rules, that would have been a waste of a rope break. But it does let Herc get the advantage. Long chinlock spots follow. Herc drapes Roberts over the top, but Roberts manages to leverage him over and out. Herc grabs Roberts' head and clotheslines him over the top rope as he's getting back in. Roberts counters out of another chinlock and starts working his signature short punches and clothesline. Herc backdrops out of a DDT attempt. Herc counters a high knee. Monsoon gets the external occipital protuberance in, which sends Graham into a laughing fit. Roberts counters a bodyslam attempt into a DDT outta nowhere to get the win. Meh. Surprised Rude didn't show up. *1/4

The Mega Powers (w/Elizabeth) def The Mega Bucks (w/Virgil and Bobby Heenan) in 14:43-This is the final act of the long feud that started with Hogan/Andre a year and a half ago and grew to intersect and include all four guys. Ventura was appointed the guest ref by President Tunney as the only one that could keep order. The heels loved it because they knew they could buy Ventura off. Ventura makes a big show of instructions then makes everyone wait while he changes the corners the tag ropes are in. Finally we're off. Savage talks Hogan into starting but turns around into Andre. Andre pummels him into the heel corner, but Savage squeaks away when DiBiase tags in. DiBiase wants Hogan. Hogan atomic drops him into the face corner and he and Savage play whack a mole with him. Ventura chases Heenan and Virgil off the apron while the faces work quick tags on DiBiase. Savage gets on Ventura for not so much a slow count, but not starting his count in a timely manner. Hogan gets too close to the heel corner and Andre reaches out and headbutts him. Andre comes in and works Hogan over, including locking in the Nerve Pinch of Enlarged Fingers +4. While Ventura is distracted Andre switches to the hidden choke with his singlet strap. That was by far the best move in heel Andre's arsenal. It's pure sneaky style (copyright Rocky Romero). DiBiase comes in and hooks in a long chinlock that commentary keeps complaining is a choke and Ventura is an idiot or paid off for not seeing it. I don't see it, looks proper to me. Hogan gets out and they both run the ropes into a double clothesline. Hot tag to Savage. DiBiase does an A+ sell of Savage's draping top rope clothesline. DiBiase dodges a charge in the corner. Really good back and forth sequence, but it's killed when Andre tags in. Andre literally sits on Savage in the corner. DiBiase, like always, misses the fallaway reverse elbow off the second rope, allowing Savage to get hot tag 2 to Hogan. Hogan is in Hulk Up mode and takes Andre down with one clothesline. While Hogan has a sleeper on DiBiase Savage goes for the elbow on Andre, but Andre gets a boot up. Andre headbutt to Hogan, and both faces are outside on the floor recovering. Elizabeth gets on the apron. Heenan and Virgil get on the apron to demand Elizabeth get off the apron. Elizabeth pulls of her skirt and unleashes the secret weapon hinted at in the promo: her panties! Everyone is shocked. Hogan and Savage use the distraction to jump the heels from behind. Andre is taken out. They hit a Savage flying elbow/Hogan legdrop combo on DiBiase. Ventura counts two but can't bring himself to bring his hand down for three. Savage helps him and it's over. Not too shabby. Savage and DiBiase were on form. ***

A final note before signing off. Word on the street is that Vince was in heavy pursuit of Ric Flair to jump over in time for this show, possibly fueled by the fact that Crockett was about to go under and would soon be bought out by Ted Turner to start WCW proper. I've heard two different versions: that there was to be a Flair/Savage WWF title match, or that the Brother Love segment would have been a full on Four Horsemen debut, possibly with Heenan managing. Arn and Tully were already signed to come over, but Flair wanted to stay loyal to Crockett and the NWA and stayed put. How history would have been different. It would have been incredible if it had come together, but at the same time we would have lost the Flair/Steamboat '89 trilogy as well as much of the rest of the WCW '89 greatness that was booked by Flair. The main event was also an important signpost on the road of the Hogan/Savage friends to enemies story, and Flair's '91-'92 WWF run when he did come over was still great. So I say all's well that ends well.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: Much like the first Wrestlemania, this is as much a glorified MSG house show as a "proper" PPV. The opener, tag title match and main event are worth checking out and the IC title change is an all time great moment, but most of the rest is pretty bleak. Graham is so bad on commentary I really think it takes away from the show as well.
OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-

Halloween Havoc '90

Legacy Review

Halloween Havoc '90

October 27, 1990 from the UIC Pavillion in Chicago, IL

Commentary: Jim Ross and Paul E Dangerously

Sadly a complete version of this show has never been released. The WWE Network version is the same as the original home video release, with only the top 6 matches on it.

JR, Paul E and Tony are all decked out for Halloween. We start right off with a promo. Tommy Rich and Ricky Morton are out with Tony. There's what looks to be a piece of unfinished stage scaffolding behind them. Unfortunately the answer as to what that is will be much worse than typical WCW sloppiness. To really hammer the Halloween theme home, the ring ropes are all orange, the ring mat is red and, in a rare move for WCW, there's colored lighting in the arena.

"Wildfire" Tommy Rich and Ricky Morton def The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette) in 20:49- Morton is teaming with Rich because Robert Gibson was injured by the Freebirds just before this show. Schefter says it'll be 6-8 months out after reconstructive knee surgery. Paul E is asking the same question we all are: "Why Rich?". JR doesn't have an answer. Rich is probably the least impressive former NWA World Champion of all time. We've got 3 out of the 4 guys involved in the longest running feud in tag team history here, which is a bit sad because this would turn out to be the Midnights' last match. Lane and Cornette would leave WCW soon after this, giving Eaton a chance at a singles run. Morton and Eaton start. Eaton throws him around a bit until Morton turns the jets on. Rich gets a cheap shot in. The Chicago crowd, shockingly, is rooting for the heels. If Gibson was out there it'd probably be more 50/50. Eaton gets a blind tag to Lane, who gets a shot in on Morton. Morton posts his shoulder and falls outside. Eaton dives off the top all the way to the floor, misses but doesn't sell missing. Everyone wanders around a bit then keeps going like nothing happened. A bit of confusion there. Cornette gets his first racket shot in. A Cornette distraction allows the Midnights to double team. Morton gets slammed on the ramp, then Lane rocket launches Eaton off the top and onto Morton on the ramp! Eaton with a Diamond Cutter/Stunner/RKO/Gun Stun but it only gets 2. Another racket shot. Lane suckers Rich in, allowing Eaton to throw Morton over the top. Morton dodges an Eaton charge and Eaton posts himself. Morton with a flying headscissors on the floor! Lane still manages to keep Morton from tagging. Eaton hits the Alabama Jam but doesn't go for a cover. Morton starts no selling but still can't get a tag. The heels go for another rocket launcher, in the ring this time, but Morton gets his knees up and FINALLY gets a tag to Rich, who's in for the first time the whole match. Donnybrook! Rich goes up top but Cornette whacks him in the back with the racket. The Southern Boys run out, dressed up like Cornette to mock him, complete with cheap plastic tennis rackets. Rich grabs the real racket, nails Lane, and gets the 3. **3/4

There's an obvious clip here as JR throws it to replay but it really goes to Tony, later in the show. Tony is wearing lipstick as part of his Phantom costume. Sting is out with him. Sting says that Sid's "butt will overload with you know what" then corrects himself and says his "mouth will overload with you know what from his butt". I still blame Sid for that. It's promo botch spillover. Sid's Jedi Mind Trick. Sting is interrupted by Ole Anderson's voice a dark and "menacing" voice. THE BLACK SCORPION IS HERE. The Scorpion had been following Sting around warning him that he was coming. He was supposedly someone from Sting's past. He's here to give Sting a "taste of my black magic". He grabs a female stagehand and drags her to the scaffolding I mentioned earlier. While he does this it's patently obvious that the voice on the speakers is nowhere close to coming out of the mouth of the man in the mask. Scorpion drags the woman up into the scaffolding and a cheap glitzy curtain rolls up. Gee, I wonder what's happening behind there. It'd be hilarious if the curtain dropped and Scorpion and the woman were making out. After about 10 minutes, long enough for them to run to the other side of the building, there's a flash of pyro, the curtain drops, and THEY'RE GONE. Another pyro flash! Wait, they're on the other side of the stage! It's MAGIC! Scorpion says a few more words and scarpers. Over all of this there's been spooky music playing. Even with how long it took them to move from behind the curtain to the other side of the stage the whole segment felt rushed, like they knew it was going to bomb and they just wanted to get it over with. Everyone sells it like they just saw the scariest thing they've ever seen. Paul E's reaction is especially priceless. The Black Scorpion angle is one of the most infamous in wrestling history. It was devised by Ole Anderson to get Sting's first title run over. Spoiler: didn't work. Fortunately it didn't hurt Sting in the long run. The whole thing would culminate at Starrcade '90, where the Scorpion was revealed to be.....nah, I'll make you wait.

The Fabulous Freebirds (w/Little Richard Marley) def The Renegade Warriors in 17:28- The Renegade Warriors have nothing to do with the Renegade or the Ultimate Warrior. It's Chris and Mark Youngblood, who had started teaming together after their older brother Jay (the longtime tag partner of Ricky Steamboat in the late '70s and early '80s) passed away and had just come into WCW after a successful run in Puerto Rico's WWC. They're also the kind of white meat babyfaces that get eaten alive in Chicago. Marley is a jobber (under the name Rocky King) turned manager, which would be short lived and he'd soon be a referee. Marley is wearing Robert Gibson's tights and leaning on a crutch, celebrating the fact the Freebirds had just put him on the shelf. Hayes does his usual strutting at the start. Chris takes out both Freebirds with a double clothesline off the top rope. JR is losing his mind on Paul E over Gibson being hurt and Paul E is egging him on. Hayes wants a time out. Chris has a long headlock spot on Garvin. Chris rolls Garvin up, but Garvin pushes him off into the heel corner and Hayes clocks him with a left. Chris goes face in peril. There's several long chinlock spots, during all of which there's loud "DDT" chants from the crowd. JR says there's a "few" Freebird fans here. Chris backdrops out of a DDT attempt but can't tag. Eventually Hayes gets thrown over the top and Chris gets the "hot" tag with zero crowd reaction. Marley gets involved, and while he's got one Youngblood distracted Hayes nails the other with the DDT and gets the pin. The Freebirds didn't have too much to work with in this one. *1/2

Tony is out with three of the Four Horsemen: Flair, Arn Anderson, and Sid Vicious, all in title matches later. Barry Windham is conspicuous by his absence.

NWA United States Tag Team Championship: The Steiner Brothers (c) def The Nasty Boys in 15:24- We've got two hot, young teams here. The Steiners had been teaming in WCW just over a year, had already had a run with the world tag titles and were well on their way to becoming legends. The Nastys were having a cup of coffee in WCW before Vince saw them and scooped them up. Huge pop for the Steiners. The Steiners charge the ring and we are off and running quick. All four guys fight on the outside. Saggs gets posted, but recovers and turns around to give Scott a chair shot. Rick and Knobbs do something big in the ring judging by the crowd reaction but the cameras miss it. Must be using AXS TV guys. Saggs gets Scott up for a superplex but Scott slips out of it. He was supposed to land on the second rope but slips off. He gets back up and gives Saggs a belly to belly off the top. All four guys are still fighting, but finally Rick gets in the corner and there's some semblance of order. Scott gives Saggs a double underhook power bomb, then lifts him up and Rick does a Doomsday Device Bulldog off the top rope! Any wonder why the Steiners became legends? The ref tries to get Rick out, which allows Knobbs to nail Scott with a chair and take over for Saggs with no tag. Piss poor officiating. This guy must have taught Marty Asami. Scott goes face in peril. The Nastys work his back over, which had been previously hurt during the build to the match. The Nastys use more wrestling moves in this match than their entire WWF run. That hot head Rick keeps trying to run in, allowing the Nastys to swap with no tag. Bear hug! Scott belly to bellys out of it but can't get a tag. Rick runs in again and Steinerlines Knobbs, but Saggs throws him out. Spike piledriver on Scott. Rick runs in with a chair and nails Saggs with it in the head while the ref is conveniently distracted trying to get Knobbs out. Saggs is busted open. The heels still keep Scott in FIP status. Boston Crab. Camel Clutch. Scott dodges a corner charge and finally gets the hot tag to Rick. Steinerlines for everyone! Belly to belly! All four guys are in again. Both Steiners are thrown out. Rick sneaks up to the top and takes out both Nastys with a double Steinerline. Scott trips both Nastys from the floor, then posts Saggs, runs in, hits the Frankensteiner on Knobbs, and we're done. After the match the Nastys attack again. It's the Steiners so almost by default it was good, but the Nastys looked like a promising young brawler team here too. They should have gone with a tornado tag or hardcore match and kept the crazy fighting from the start and finish going on the whole match, instead of bogging it down in the middle with another long face in peril sequence after having two other tag matches before it with the same structure. That hurt the match a bit. ***

Rick's hurt and is going back to the locker room, but Scott stops off for a word with Tony. He's jumped by a guy with a concession tray and worker's outfit, fake beard and wig, who turns out to be Saggs. Impressive quick change.

NWA World Tag Team Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair & Arn Anderson and Doom (c) (w/Theodore R Long) go to a double countout in 18:20- From the "giving Flair something to do between world title runs" files. Arn was also the reigning World Television Champion. Doom is one of the more underrated teams of all time, and was a great vehicle to get Ron Simmons started on the road that would lead to him being world champ in 1992. This is nominally a heel vs heel match, but unsurprisingly the crowd seems mostly behind the Horsemen, even though the way the match is booked Doom acts more like faces. Arn and Simmons start. Arn tries to wrestle but Simmons' power is too much. Arn goes out and regroups. Reed like an idiot tries to get in and distracts the ref, allowing Flair to get a knee in his back on a rope run. Arn gives him a suplex but Simmons no sells it and pops Arn again. The Horsemen try a double team. Flair gets the chops in. Simmons double clotheslines out of it. The Horsemen take a powder. Flair chases Long into the ring. Long slaps Flair! That man has a death wish playa. All four guys stand off, but they slowly back down and reset. Arn wants Reed. After he tags in Reed wants Flair. Flair struts and plays around with Reed like a cat with a ball of yarn, taunting Simmons the whole time. Reed punches out. Simmons and Arn come in and Doom gives the Horsemen stereo gorilla press slams. Flair begs off and gets the eye poke in. Flair hits some seriously wicked chops, even by Flair standards. The pops are like gunshots. Reed tries to come back but it's pretty obvious Flair is playing with him. Reed rolls off about a dozen punches in a row. Flair turns around to tag Arn, but Flair Flops instead! That was absolutely hilarious. Flair Flip! The cameraman was in that corner and he goes down too. Flair walks into Simmons. Simmons no sells a chop, and Flair backs up and begs off halfway up the entrance ramp. Flair manages to get back in the ring on his side and tags out. Anyone that wonders why I think Flair is the greatest of all time, just watch what he does in the middle section of this match. It is absolutely, flawlessly perfect. Flair suckers Reed in. While the ref is distracted Arn gets Simmons in a Boston Crab and Flair gives him the kneedrop to the back of the neck. World's Greatest Spinebuster! But Simmons has too much power and powers out at 2. Flair starts working the knee. Figure 4! Flair gets extra leverage from Arn. After a while Simmons manages to flip it over. Flair tags out. Arn keeps working the knee over Anderson style. Arn throws Simmons out and taunts Reed in to distract the ref so Flair can work Simmons over outside. Backfire. Simmons counters and sends Flair face first into the guardrail. Arn manages to prevent a tag. Simmons counters an Arn backdrop by planting him face first in the mat (which Arn sells wonderfully like a flopping fish) and gets the tag. Reed cleans house. Donnybrooking! Reed hits a shoulderblock off the top but Flair saves the pin. Arn plants Reed with a DDT but Simmons makes the save. All four guys are still fighting. They go outside and fight all the way into the crowd and everyone gets counted out. They were heading to something really special. Flair and Arn had their working boots on as only they could do it, and let Doom play to their strengths. It's still great, but not as great as it could have been with a decisive finish. This would lead to a street fight rematch at Starrcade. ****

Quick Stan Hansen promo. He's in the back with a small fall looking setup and holding a mini pumpkin. He shouts "LEX LUGER", but his mouth is so full of chewing tobacco it's hard to make out the rest of it. For all I know he's reciting the "Alas, poor Yorick" speech with the pumpkin. Which makes me think.....what would be better: Stan Hansen Hamlet, or elcor Hamlet? Not that either stands up to the original Klingon.

NWA United States Championship: Stan Hansen def "The Total Package" Lex Luger (c) in 9:30- Hometown pop for Luger. I know I've ragged on Luger a lot in these reviews for his crappy world title run in '91, but this is from a period when he was motivated and really good. This is quite the body contrast. Luger: body guy. Hansen: not so much. Hansen is possibly still to this day the biggest American wrestling star ever in Japan. He spent most of his career there, this is part of a short, less than a year run back on American shores with WCW. Hansen's so crazy he goes after commentary before the bell. Luger gets a hot start. Hansen takes a walk to ponder, then takes over with an eye poke. The fight spills outside multiple times. Lots of back and forth brawling. Luger dodges a corner dive, Hansen slowly flops over the top and down to the floor. Luger chases him. JR speculates that Luger is making a mistake by playing Hansen's brawling game instead of trying to wrestle. Hansen gets a snap suplex and exposes his knee for a kneedrop. A bulldog gets 2. Hansen pounds on Luger in the corner and pushes the ref away when he tries to stop him. Dan Spivey, Hansen's tag partner in Japan, comes to ringside and gets Hansen his cowbell. Hansen tries to nail Luger with it but Luger counters it with a backdrop. Luger signals for the torture rack, but goes off the ropes instead. Hansen nails him with a lariat outta nowhere and gets the 3! The crowd is stunned. Hansen ends Luger's record US title run at 523 days, a record that still stands today. Hansen's run would be little more than a blip, as Luger would win it back at Starrcade and hold it another 210 days before vacating it after winning the world title at Great American Bash '91. They were trying hard, but there wasn't much "there" there. *3/4

NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Sting (c) def Sid Vicious in 12:38- This is part of the long running Sting vs the Four Horsemen angle. Sid had joined the stable soon after Sting was kicked out for refusing to give up his title shot at Flair. I love how in this period Sid was announced as being "from anywhere he darn well pleases". Sid gets a bit of a pop. Highish pitched pop for Sting. Commentary speculates if the Black Scorpion has messed with Sting's head. Well, it's certainly messing with all of ours trying to figure out why anyone would come up with such an awful idea. Mid-ring big match staredown. Sting turns around to play to the crowd and Sid ambushes him. Sting no sells a slam. Sid stalls. Sting dodges a punch, Sid flies all the way over the top and out. Sting works the arm for a long while. I think it's deliberate that there's no action in the ring, as there's lots of shots of people in the crowd cheering for Sting. I'd call it a serious hard sell but, it's Sting. It's legit. Sid kips up! and hits a clothesline. Sid locks in his favorite rest hold, the Nerve Pinch of Extreme Clutching +3. Sid fights off a Sting comeback with a powerslam, then dodges a Stinger Splash. The crowd is starting to turn on Sid. Or they're realizing they're watching a Sid match. Sid pauses to pose in the ring. Sting sneaks up and hits a cross body off the top, but only gets 1. They fight up the ramp. Sid goes back to the ring. Sting runs halfway down the entrance ramp then dives over the top rope and into Sid! Sid goes out and Sting hits a plancha. Flair and Arn show up as Sid and Sting fight into the back. The camera stays on Flair and Arn. Sid comes back with someone in Sting's tights, with Sting's hair and facepaint, but the body is completely different. It doesn't take long to realize it's Barry Windham's lanky body. WindSting picks Sid up for a slam, but falls down and lets Sid pin him. Sid is announced as the new champion. But during the celebration the real Sting comes back in with a rope tied around his wrist. JR figures out it was Windham that was pinned. While pyro is going off Sting hits the Stinger Splash and gets a Paul Smackage to win. For realsies. After the match there's a replay shot of WindSting and real Sting crossing paths. The match was OK. The finish was sloppy overbooking even if it made a bit of sense within the Horsemen dynamic. **1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: If you love tag wrestling like I do this is a decent show to watch, even if almost all the matches follow the same basic structure. Both tag title matches are worth checking out, especially the Doom/Horsemen match. The rest of the show has some notable historical moments, but nothing else I can really recommend. The Black Scorpion is always worth a laugh.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C

The Favorites (as of October 2019) Lists

Johnny Legacy's Deep Thoughts

The Favorites Lists

*** LIST HAS BEEN UPDATED AS OF JULY 2024: CLICK HERE ***

 

No real *deep* thoughts here, I just thought I'd get a record of my lists of favorite wrestlers in one place, if anyone was ever curious or to provide a bit of perspective on where I'm coming from in my reviews or modern articles. Here we go!

The Lists of Ten

Top 10 All Time Favorites (retired wrestlers only)

10. Arn Anderson
9. Shawn Michaels
8. Vader
7. Sting (mostly surfer Sting)
6. Steve Austin (all eras- WCW Stunning, ECW, Stone Cold)
5. CM Punk
4. Kurt Angle
3. Bret Hart
2. Randy Savage
1. Ric Flair

(note- when he finally, hopefully a long while from now, retires for real Daniel Bryan will be in the top five, which includes his Bryan Danielson ROH years when I became a fan of his)

Top 10 All Time Favorite Tag Teams (retired only)

10. The Hardy Boyz
9. The Fabulous Freebirds
8. Edge & Christian
7. Demolition
6. The Rockers
5. The Rock N Roll Express
4. The Brain Busters (or practically any team with Arn Anderson)
3. The Road Warriors/Legion of Doom
2. The Hart Foundation
1. The Steiner Brothers

The Lists of Five

WWE Main Roster- Men's

1. Daniel Bryan
2. Shinsuke Nakamura
3. Kevin Owens
4. AJ Styles
5. Seth Rollins

(addendum- BROKEN Matt Hardy is my favorite gimmick of all time and might crack the list if WWE did something with it again. Bray Wyatt/The Fiend is also getting up there)

NXT/NXTUK- Men's

1. Adam Cole BAY BAY
2. Johnny Gargano
3. WALTER
4. Pete Dunne
5. Finn Balor (late addition after this week's events)

All Non-WWE Companies- Men's

1. Kenny Omega (also my #1 overall current favorite)
2. Tetsuya Naito
3. Kota Ibushi
4. Will Ospreay
5. Minoru Suzuki

All Companies- Women's

1. Asuka
2. Becky Lynch
3. Io Shirai
4. Kairi Sane
5. Shayna Baszler

All Companies- Tag Teams

1. The Young Bucks
1A. The Revival
3. The New Day
4. War Raiding Viking Machine Experience
5. (tie) reDRagon/Undisputed ERA and Gallows & Anderson

Survivor Series '89

Legacy Review

Survivor Series '89

November 23, 1989 from the Rosemont Horizon in Rosemont (Chicago), IL

Commentary: Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura

This is the first Survivor Series where the teams were cut from 5 wrestlers to 4, and the first with team names. This was also the first year that the show wasn't up (within a couple of days) against Starrcade, as the new WCW regime in Atlanta had conceded Thanksgiving and moved Starrcade to December.

The show opens with rotating promos of wrestlers telling us what they're thankful for, starting with Hogan and ending with the usual Warrior craziness. The Brain Busters are still advertised in the card rundown.

The Dream Team ("The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake, The Red Rooster and Tito Santana) def The Enforcers (The Big Boss Man, Bad News Brown, "The Model" Rick Martel and The Honky Tonk Man w/Slick and Jimmy Hart) in 22:02- Brown is a replacement for Boss Man's Twin Towers tag partner Akeem. Notorious loner Brown walked out on his team at the '88 Survivor Series. The same thing can't happen two years in a row, right? Santana starts and he and the crowd want Martel, but Honky gets in instead. Martel distracts Santana and lets Honky get a cheap shot in, but it's only Honky and Santana is quickly on offense. Honky counters a backdrop attempt and tags Martel in while Santana is down. Santana reverses an atomic drop and gets a roll up for 2. All eight guys get in the ring, but only stare off and they quickly back off before there's any donnybrooking. Boss Man is in. Santana with a DEEP armdrag. Dusty works Boss Man over. Boss Man is starting to lose weight and slowly becoming the good worker he would be in the early '90s. Beefcake and Rooster take turns in short face in peril sequences. Brown refuses a tag. Rooster and Honky collide and both get tags, and Strike Force explodes again. I wish these guys had gotten a proper PPV blowoff, they worked so well together. Martel reverses a rollup and grabs a handful of tights to eliminate Santana. Dusty gets in and we see a shot of a Dusty superfan in the crowd. The superfan is, of course, Sapphire, his future manager. Dusty with a dropkick! Ventura is stunned. Boss Man gets a bear hug on Rooster. Rooster bites his way out of it. Boss Man tags Brown in whether he likes it or not. He refuses to get in, so Rooster flips him in. After an initial flurry Brown gets the advantage, and now he's beating someone up he's happy. It's so sad to see Terry Taylor have to pare his moveset down so much to play the Rooster character the way Vince wanted it (a guy that barely knew how to wrestle). The heels go for a double team but Boss Man hits Brown. Brown is displeased. He argues with the rest of the heel team then walks out, taking the countout. I guess they didn't learn from last year after all. A high knee from Beefcake eliminates Honky. Martel works a tired Beefcake over. The ref catches Martel holding the ropes on a pin attempt, allowing Beefcake to reverse it and eliminate Martel, making it 3 on 1. Boss Man Slam on Rooster and he's gone. Beefcake and Dusty work quick tags on Boss Man. Dusty gets a high cross body to eliminate Boss Man and win the match. After the bell Boss Man works Dusty over with the nightstick and Slick handcuffs him to the ropes. A classic heel Boss Man beat down ensues, until Beefcake chases the heels off with the TITANIUN STEEL BLADES. One of Dusty's 47 forehead scars from blading got opened up during the attack. SURVIVORS: Dusty Rhodes and Brutus Beefcake **3/4

The King's Court ("Macho King" Randy Savage, The Canadian Earthquake, Dino Bravo and Greg "The Hammer" Valentine w/Sensational Queen Sherri and Jimmy Hart) def The 4x4's ("Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, Bret "Hitman" Hart, "Rugged" Ronnie Garvin and Hercules) in 23:25- This is Earthquake's PPV debut. The "Canadian" part of his moniker wouldn't last long. Who ever heard of an earthquake in Canada? Even the ground is mild mannered there. Quake was a last second replacement for "The Widowmaker" Barry Windham, who had suddenly left the WWF after a short stint back. Savage had recently defeated Duggan for the King title and was running with it better than anyone ever would. Garvin had also just recently been reinstated as a wrestler as part of his long feud with Valentine. Bret and Anvil are in different matches because thought was being given again to a possible singles push for Bret, which was ultimately still almost two years away. Ring Gearhead fact: this is a rare early Macho King era match where Savage is still wearing trunks instead of long tights, complete with a cool but short lived Macho King logo. All of Duggan's team have 2x4s and they march in formation to and around the ring. Savage isn't sure what corner they're supposed to use and shouts "What corner?" while the camera is on him. Savage starts with a rotating group of faces that move in and out. There's a lot of guys going in and out throughout this match with seemingly no tags made. Valentine does an A+ sell of a Hercules atomic drop. One thing I've enjoyed doing these reviews is being reminded how good Valentine was. Garvin gets a sleeper but Valentine collapses into his corner to make a tag. Hercules and Bravo hoss it up a bit. When Herc's down Bravo tags Quake in. He immediately hits the Earthquake Splash and Hercules is eliminated. Duggan tries to chop Quake down, eventually doing it with a schoolboy assist from Bret. Garvin goes FIP for a while. He fights off a Valentine figure four attempt. Stiff chops from Valentine, and Garvin responds in kind. Garvin gets a blind tag to Duggan, who hits a clothesline hiding behind Garvin on Valentine and eliminates him. Garvin Stomp on Bravo. HERE WE GO. Bret and Savage are in. The crowd is going nuts in anticipation. Wow, I didn't know there were that many smart fans in 1989. Good for them. Bret gets the quick advantage and works Savage over with Savage selling at about 250% until he manages to tag in Bravo. Bravo hits his sidewalk slam side suplex to eliminate Garvin. Duggan fights Quake in the corner, then turns around and tell the ref to "get off my ass!". Savage and Bret are in again! Duggan grabs Savage and Bret gets a shot in. Savage gets tied up in the ropes. Quick pin attempts by Bret, including a (for them) slightly sloppy small package. Bravo gets a bear hug and Bret goes FIP. Bret gets to show some serious resilience by fighting off several Quake pin attempts. Savage does a crazy amateur takedown attempt to try to keep Bret from getting a tag but can't stop him. But Duggan, genius that he is, tags Bret back in almost immediately. Bret posts his shoulder. Savage gets the last laugh with the elbow drop and eliminates Bret. I can't wait to review their sadly barely talked about but awesome Saturday Night's Main Event match (which took place before this). It's 3 on 1. Duggan does a good job of fighting off the heels. After a regroup Quake ambushes him from behind but Duggan is still fighting. Finally the heels go to full on desperation mode and Sherri pulls the top rope down on Duggan, sending him spilling to the floor. Duggan gets counted out. Another match where everyone was working hard. It gets a ratings bump for the short but welcome Bret/Savage goodness. SURVIVORS: Randy Savage, Earthquake and Dino Bravo ***

Mean Gene is in the back, outside the room where doctors are working on Dusty. He says Dusty has bruised ribs and a possible slight concussion. Thankfully, no anal bleeding.

The Hulkamaniacs (WWF Champion Hulk Hogan, Jake "The Snake" Roberts" and WWF Tag Team Champions Demolition) def The Million Dollar Team ("The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, Zeus and The Powers of Pain w/Mr. Fuji) in 27:32- The DiBiase/Roberts feud was finally getting going after being delayed by Roberts' injury. Demolition won the tag titles back from the departing Arn and Tully in October at a TV taping. The Hogan/Zeus feud for some reason was continuing, despite having the perfect blowoff at Summerslam and No Holds Barred having already had its theatrical run. The most impressive thing about Zeus tonight is his unabrow. The heels stop Hogan from getting into the ring, so Roberts unleashes Damien to clear them out. Zeus and Hogan want to kill each other but their teams hold them back. Zeus starts with Roberts, but he demands Hogan so Roberts tags him in. Zeus no sells everything, including another Flair/Giant style shoulderblock bump from Hogan and an early match big guy bodyslam. Barbarian hits Hogan from behind and Zeus goes to work with his two moves. Hebner tries to pull Zeus off while he's choking Hogan, but Zeus pushes him away twice. On the second one Hebner DQ's Zeus. This was all to build up a special PPV WWF was putting on in December titled, shockingly, No Holds Barred. It was the movie, followed by a (pretaped) Summerslam rematch of Hogan and Beefcake against Zeus and Savage, but this time in a steel cage. DiBiase comes in and works on Hogan. Hogan gets a boot counter and tags Roberts in. Roberts 360 clotheslines DiBiase out and they fight on the floor. Demolition works their patented beatdown on DiBiase, and Hogan joins in! DiBiase gets a desperation counter and tags Barbarian. Fuji trips Ax, allowing Warlord to get the pin and eliminate him. Smash goes face in peril. DiBiase goes for and misses, as always, his fall down elbow off the second rope. That move succeeded less than Flair going off the top rope. But Smash doesn't tag, and pays for his stubbornness by getting eliminated after a Barbarian clothesline off the top rope. Roberts goes in and tries to DDT both Barbarian and Warlord but they're too strong and soon Roberts has also been FIP'd. Roberts is getting Bret-like bumps in off the buckles. DiBiase hits a piledriver but Roberts just gets a foot on the rope. Barbarian misses a headbutt off the top rope, allowing Roberts to get a hot tag to Hogan. Hogan cleans house until the ref gets distracted, allowing POP to double team him. They give Hogan a spike piledriver, but Hebner DQ's them for double teaming through about 15 5 counts. Ventura is absolutely furious. He accuses Hebner of protecting Hogan and treating guys beating on him like defensive lineman that dare to breathe on Tom Brady. DiBiase gets the Million Dollar Dream on Hogan. Hogan backs him up into the buckles to get out. Hot tag to Roberts. DiBiase goes from super selling mode to super special awesome selling mode. Virgil, who didn't come out with DiBiase at the start of the match, runs in. Roberts gives him a DDT for showing up late. But that distraction allows DiBiase to hit him from behind and get the pin with foot on rope extra leverage. It's down to DiBiase and Hogan. All the time Roberts was in Hogan was on the apron barely moving, selling the Million Dollar Dream. He continues to sell it, including showing one arm is very weak, while DiBiase pummels him, but we all know what's coming. Double clothesline! DiBiase reverses an atomic drop into a belly to back suplex. Hogan no sells it and pops right up. Punches, big boot, legdrop, good night. While DiBiase's leaving we get a clear shot of the outside referee and it's a *very* young Shane McMahon. Since the show's only half done Hogan manages to shorten his postmatch celebration a bit. Ventura is still livid at Hebner. As Monsoon says "Hogan thanks the big man upstairs" Ventura says "He should be thanking the ref instead!" SOLE SURVIVOR: Hulk Hogan **1/4

Intermission time, some of which is on the Network copy. We have dueling promos to hype up the No Holds Barred PPV/match. During the face promo Sherri ambushes them with powder and the heels attack.

Back to commentary for a bit. Ventura is wearing a shirt for his new movie Abraxas, which is available from our good friends at Rifftrax. Ventura says he's been hearing of dissension within the Heenan family which has broken down as far as pushing and shoving in the locker room. This is all to set up Tully Blanchard's absence later.

There's a promo from Piper and his team that's so insane it has to be seen to be believed. I'm not even trying.

The Rude Brood ("Ravishing" Rick Rude, Mr. Perfect and The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers w/The Genius and Jimmy Hart) def Roddy's Rowdies ("Rowdy" Roddy Piper, "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka and The Bushwackers) in 21:27- Rude and Piper had been feuding since Piper mooned Rude during Rude's IC title loss at Summerslam. Perfect is still being billed as undefeated. Commentary notes that Heenan is not with Rude. Rude's tights tonight have portraits of his team on the front, and portraits of Piper's team on tombstones on the back. The Genius is going for subtle heat in Chicago by being decked out in Packers' colors. Perfect and Luke start. The faces all take turns biting into Perfect like Thanksgiving turkey. Well, that ties into that crazy ass promo I suppose. Perfect bails and Jacques slows things down with some stalling. Jacques flips out of a backdrop attempt and celebrates. Snuka congratulates him with a flying headbutt. The Superfly Splash finishes Jacques off. Rude accidentally pulls the top rope down on Perfect and they start arguing. Perfect 360 sells a Piper kneelift. More biting from the Bushwackers. This is what happens when Piper insists on no dinner until after the match. Piper atomic drops Perfect into the heel corner and lets him tag out. And I thought Piper was the brains on this team! Grading on a massive curve, of course. A Piper piledriver eliminates Raymond. Piper goes FIP for a bit until he slingshots Perfect into the post. Both Bushwackers get close near falls on Perfect. How embarrassing would it be to lose a long undefeated streak to the Bushwackers? It'd be like Asuka getting beat by Carmella!.......Hell, I just made myself mad again. Piper taunts Rude with a hip swivel. Perfect 360 sells a punch. Perfect manages to roll up Butch and get the 3. Piper runs in and gives Perfect the same rollup but only gets 2. After a long heel in peril run Perfect finally gets a tag to Rude, but Luke immediately catches Rude coming off the top. Rude fights back and gets the Rude Awakening to eliminate Luke. Snuka comes in and it face in peril for what seems like forever. Perfect does a 360 on a midring collision with Snuka. Tags on both sides and we finally get Piper and Rude in together. They fall out of the ring as they fight and brawl all the way down the isle. Both are counted out. Perfect and Snuka do a decent sequence of near falls before Perfect finally finishes him off with the Perfectplex. Genius takes his mandatory bumps afterward. Perfect and Rude were trying to make this good but it was too much to overcome. Still entertaining though, and a star making performance for Perfect, who was not too far from his first IC title win. SOLE SURVIVOR: Mr. Perfect *3/4

After the match Rude blows off Mooney's questions about Heenan family problems.

Warrior does his usual mad group promo pacing around then says he bonded his team through darkness and pain. They participated in a Klingon wedding together? Tonight's Warrior belt strap color is.....classic black. Kinda disappointing.

The Ultimate Warriors (WWF Intercontinental Champion The Ultimate Warrior, Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart and The Rockers) def The Heenan Family (Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, Andre the Giant, Haku and Arn Anderson) in 20:28- Commentary is surprised Heenan is out in wrestling gear. No one mentions Blanchard but he's the odd man out. He an Arn were already set to go back to WCW after this show, but Tully got himself fired by WWF for failing a drug test, which WCW also got wind of and refused to take him back after. Interesting that Warrior is closing the show instead of Hogan. They were already thinking about Wrestlemania 6 and giving Warrior a test run in the main event slot. Everyone starts going at it before Warrior's even had his entrance. Everyone but Andre is cleared out of the ring. Warrior runs in and clotheslines him out while he still has the belt on. The bell rang while Warrior and Andre were in the ring so Andre is legal and is counted out. Smart way to get him out of the match quick. Andre was in no physical shape to wrestle anymore but was still months away from finally hanging it up. He and Haku would even win the tag titles soon after this show! Arn takes a beating in the face corner. Haku and Anvil trade some semi-stiff forearms. About .4 Suzuki/Ishii. Warrior is doing anything but standing in the corner waiting for a tag. He's pacing up and down the apron nonstop, and even goes around the post toward the heel corner on the apron once. Haku kicks Anvil in the back of the head and eliminates him. The faces start working quick tags on Haku, with Warrior pushing the Rockers off the ropes on all their moves. Arn gets in there with the Rockers one last time. Rockers/Brain Busters is one of the great WWF tag team feuds of the '80s. Warrrior finally tags in so he can work some of that roid rage or whatever it is off. The heels get Janetty down and Heenan finally tags in. He gets two kicks in and tags right back out. Haku pummels Janetty, then tags Heenan in again. Heenan gives Janetty a kneedrop and pins him! Warrior and Arn get in. Arn shouts at him to "calm down!". I think that was 50/50 character/shoot. Warrior and Shawn do a rocket launcher that only gets two. Shawn dodges a Haku cross body off the 2nd rope, goes up and hits his own off the top rope and eliminates Haku. Shawn's thrown out. Heenan teases coming off the top rope onto the floor! But he can't get a good foothold. Arn and Heenan argue a bit about Heenan not tagging in. Arn makes him tag out, but as soon as Heenan takes one shot he bails again. Arn plants Shawn with the World's Greatest Spinebuster to eliminate him. Heenan's in again, but tags right back out when Warrior resists. Arn and Heenan collide. Warrior gets the press slam and big splash and Arn is done for the night and in the WWF until after the fall of WCW. Arn Anderson, Consummate Professional, gave his usual max effort on his last night with the company and carried a lot of this match. It's down to Warrior and Heenan. Warrior sneaks around the ring so Heenan doesn't see him. Heenan gets on the second rope and yells at Arn to come back in, turns around, sees Warrior, and realizes he's a dead man. Heenan does some crazy bumps, including the Triple H flip over the top and to the floor! A flying tackle and big splash end it. Warrior clotheslines Heenan again on the floor on his way out. The last shot of the show is Heenan writhing in pain in the entrance isle. SOLE SURVIVOR: The Ultimate Warrior **1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: This is a perfectly typical and average no stakes early Survivor Series. Nothing will blow you away, but everyone was working hard and the whole show is watchable and usually entertaining. And even better, there's no Gobbeldy Gooker nonsense to suffer through.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B-

Starrcade '86

Legacy Review

Starrcade '86: The Skywalkers

November 27, 1986 from the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC and The Omni in Atlanta, GA

 

Commentary: Bob Caudle and Johnny Weaver (Greensboro), Tony Schiavone and Rick Stewart (Atlanta)

 

Last year's two city experiment went off without a hitch so we're back to it one more time this year, once again with half the show in JCP's traditional home and the other half in their adopted home, and again switching arenas with each match. There is one difference this year, instead of one commentary team in Atlanta trying to also do Greensboro remotely they've got a commentary team in each arena this time. Which unfortunately means we have Johnny Weaver in the booth half the night. The show's full tagline is "Night of the Skywalkers", but it's usually shortened to just "The Skywalkers". It's not a Star Wars reference, it's a reference to the scaffold match on the card. At four hours long this would turn out to be the longest Starrcade ever.

 

The show opens up with a very '80s style laser show in the Omni. The scaffold structure is already up and will stay up all show. We then smoothly transition to Tom Miller in Greensboro for the formal intro. The two arena hookup working very well again. After the National Anthem (dude holding his hand over his stomach thinking that's where his heart is will never not be funny) the connection is tested further with both commentary teams doing a bit of ballyhoo. I want to say this Rick Stewart guy used to do commentary in the old Georgia territory but I can't remember for sure. He doesn't last long in the big leagues regardless.

 

Nelson Royal & Tim Horner def Don & Rocky Kernodle in 7:30 (Greensboro)- We don't get intros for this match, the bell rings and we're off. And Weaver is already stumbling over himself. Rocky and Horner start out with some solid back and forth stuff. I think this is face vs face but don't hold me to it. I know the Kernodles are faces. Don powerslams Horner for 2. Royal tags in and the match's elder statesmen go at it. Royal gets Don in an abdominal stretch. Don crashes in the corner and Royal gives him a knee to the gut. Horner tags in and cradles Don for 2. After a hiptoss from Don we get a bit of a reset. Royal hops on Don's back with a sleeper. Don easily carries him over to tag out to Rocky. Rocky comes in with a sunset flip off the top rope for 2. Royal dodges a wild Rocky crossbody attempt and covers for 2. Powerslam from Horner for 2. Small package for 2. Both guys try for leapfrogs at the same time and hit heads! Looked like a corner kick from all the World Cup I've been watching lately. Don comes in and gives Horner a VERY delayed suplex for 2. Backdrop from Don, but Horner dodges the diving headbutt follow up. Royal wants a tag but Horner hits a dropkick instead for 2. Speed run and Don hits a clothesline. Don crawls over and tags out. Rocky press slams Horner for 2. Both guys do some spiffy roll up counters and Horner ends up on top, and gets a 3 count! Rock solid stuff all around. **1/2

 

Brad Armstrong and Jimmy Garvin (w/Precious) 15:00 time limit draw (Atlanta)- The eternally underrated Brad Armstrong of the Armstrong wrestling family (along with dad "Bullet" Bob Armstrong and brothers Road Dogg and ref Scott Armstrong) is making his Starrcade debut after arriving in JCP earlier in the year. Garvin gets the first full entrance of the night as that's slowly becoming more and more common for everyone. Tony actually gets up from commentary to do all the ring intros in Atlanta, and he does a fine job of it too. As usual real life husband/wife tandem Garvin and Precious have a kiss before things get going. Long rough lockup stalemate. Another one in the corner as it's super intense early, these guys want to tear into each other. Quick mat sequence that Armstrong has the edge on, followed by a headlock/headscissors standoff. Long top wristlock fight. Precious is yelling so loud the commentary mics are picking her up. The wristlock fight finally ends with another stalemate as this has been completely 50/50 so far. After a reset we're right back in the wristlock fight. This time Armstrong wins it into an ARMBAR. Both guys trade arm wringers. Armstrong grabs a headlock and Garvin uses the tights to try to get a cradle pin. Garvin gets a leg takedown and works on that a bit, while yelling "HE AIN'T GOING NOWHERE!". Garvin wraps up a kind of modified cloverleaf and again reiterates his belief that Armstrong's mobility is somewhat hampered. Armstrong does a nice counter into a chinlock on the mat. Speed run and Armstrong gets a drop toe hold into another armbar. Precious gets up on the apron to distract ref Scrappy McGowan (yes his real name, or at least his ref name) and that allows Garvin to hair pull Armstrong into a headscissors. Armstrong slowly works into the handstand escape. More speed and Armstrong gets a hiptoss, then another headlock takedown, but that gives Garvin an opening to get him back in the headscissors. Another Precious distraction lets Garvin choke a little. Armstrong escapes and works a headlock for a bit. Scrappy catches Garvin using the trunks to try to get a pin again. Tony gives the 10 minute call on commentary. That's the ring announcer's usual job, and tonight in Atlanta he is the ring announcer. Garvin finally back suplexes out of the headlock. Kneedrop on Armstrong for 2. Garvin tosses Armstrong out onto the still unpadded floor. Precious gives Armstrong a mouthful while Garvin gives him some stomps in the head as he tries to get back in. Pain from two sides. Tony says 3 minutes left. Seems a bit quick to me but whatever. Armstrong gets back in and Garvin snap mares him over for 2. He drops Armstrong on the top rope for 2. Backbreaker for 2. Midring collision at 2 minutes left and both guys are down. Garvin tries a slam but Armstrong falls on top of him for 2. Garvin gets a knee up in the corner and Armstrong goes down hard. Cover for 2 as we hit one minute left. Another Garvin cover for 2. He puts on a desperation sleeper. Armstrong quickly armdrags out. Garvin his a knee to the gut and small packages Armstrong for 2. Armstrong reverses it for 2. Slam from Garvin and he goes up top even though there's almost no time left. As Armstrong dodges his big splash the bell rings for the time limit. Good stuff. The wrestling was pretty basic for most of it, but both guys' intensity and hard work more than made up for it. They never for a second felt like they were stalling or dogging it for the time limit. ***

 

Baron von Raschke & Hector Guerrero def The Barbarian & Shaska Whatley in 7:25 (Greensboro)- Either this is heel vs heel or Raschke is having an extremely rare run as a face. He does get a pop on his intro so I guess that confirms that. Full 2v2 brawl at the start. The heels get whipped into each other. Whatley bumps off it while Barbarian casually steps out to the floor instead. Whatley stays in and Guerrero stays all over him. A Whatley headbutt finally turns things around for the heels. Barbarian hits a chop off the second rope. Guerrero rolls under a big boot, then tries a crossbody but Barbarian catches him and drops him on the top rope. Guerrero dodges a charge and Barbarian flies through the ropes to the floor! Raschke holds Barbarian and Guerrero hits a plancha! That's a big time high spot for 1986. Whatley hops down, jumps Guerrero and runs him into the post. Barbarian drops Guerrero on the guardrail that's about two miles away from the ring. Why is there so much ringside space in Greensboro? No such thing as a ringside seat, just closest to the ring. Back in Guerrero stays in peril. Backdrop and big headbutt from Barbarian. Double backdrop on Guerrero for 2. Whatley argues the count and just barely holds Guerrero back from tagging. Barbarian chokes Guerrero with the tag rope. Another go and this time he hits the big boot for 2. Whatley sets Guerrero up for a backdrop. Guerrero spits in his face, turns and tags! Raschke goose steps his way in and cleans house. Claw on Whatley! Barbarian breaks it up. DONNYBROOK! Raschke dodges Whatley in the corner, drops an elbow, and gets the pin. That could have been a lot worse considering who was in there. Raschke's about done and looks it, so Guerrero working almost the whole match made sense. *

 

Johnny Weaver is outside Dusty Rhodes' closed locker room. Dusty's refused to talk to any media leading up to this show to stay focused. Weaver gives it another try but Dusty tells him to leave him alone. 

 

No DQ Match for the NWA United States Tag Team Championship: Ivan Koloff & Krusher Kruschev (c) def The Kansas Jayhawks in 9:10 (Atlanta)- Other NWA territories had versions of US tag titles, but in late '86 JCP decided to create their own version for the first time, which would end up being the definitive version and last well into the WCW years. To give them some prestige from the start instead of creating them out of the blue JCP unified the old territory Mid-Atlantic tag titles with the National tag titles they inherited from the Georgia territory, both of which had pretty much been sitting on a shelf for months, to create the new title. This is a rematch of the finals of the tournament that was held to crown the inaugural champions. The Jayhawks are Bobby Jaggers and a very strange babyface Dutch Mantell. Mantell (looking like Albert needing an all over shave) and Ivan start. Quick start with Mantell hitting a backdrop and the Jayhawks knock him around while quick tagging. Ivan gets a flash roll up on Jaggers but Jaggers gets him back in a hammerlock on the mat. Ivan is able to reach out and gets a tag to Kruschev (future Demolition Smash Barry Darsow). The Russians get Mantell in the wrong corner for a bit. Mantell responds by getting Kruschev into their corner. Kruschev dodges a Mantell drop toe hold attempt and tags out. Corner dodge and Ivan posts his shoulder. Double back elbow from the Jayhawks for 2. Kruschev trips Mantell from the floor, then drags him out and gives him a shot on the commentary table. Mantell gets crotched on the guardrail. Or I guess it was on the knee, he's selling the knee. Ivan comes off the top rope with an elbow to Mantell's back. Mantell ducks a double clothesline and double clotheslines the Russians! Tag to Jaggers. Double noggin knocker on the Russians. Clothesline on Ivan for 2. EVERYONE IN THE POOL! Ivan sets up to hit Jaggers off the top rope with his chain. Mantell gets his whip and lashes Ivan in the foot, dropping him onto the top rope. Apparently the whip is called "Sue Baby". I don't want to know. Indiana Jones never named his whip. Kruschev takes a whip in the leg. He fights Mantell off on the floor, hits Jaggers with the chain, and Ivan covers for the pin to retain. Decentish, but didn't play into the no DQ stips as much as it could have. **

 

One more note on title histories because you know I'm obsessive when it comes to them- the NWA National title from Georgia was unified with the US title in September to deactivate that one as JCP tried to clean up their title structure a bit. The Mid-Atlantic title was still out there, I'll get to that here in just a bit.

 

Indian Strap Match: Wahoo McDaniel def "Ravishing" Rick Rude (w/Paul Jones) in 9:05 (Greensboro)- Rude's early career tour of the southern territories landed him in JCP in September, where he paired up with Manny Fernandez and Paul Jones against Wahoo. Rude's music starts with a woman saying "Ricky, you're sooooooo ravishing. Where did you come from?". That's hilarious. The soft lounge music fits him almost as well as the stripper rag he'll have in WWF. Rude makes a big show of disrobing like usual, then Wahoo gives him what can only be described as a playful little shot with the strap. Rude doesn't stall any more, cinches in and the bell rings to start. Rude tries some forearms but Wahoo clotheslines him with the strap, then chokes him with it. Rude tries a headlock of all things. In a strap match. He gets a pretty ugly headlock takedown (on Wahoo, not him) and mounts Wahoo but it doesn't go anywhere. Rude then pounds on Wahoo a little in the corner. He tries one half hearted strap whip then chokes Wahoo with the strap. More shots in the corner as I think Wahoo is bleeding. Right on cue. Slam from Rude and he wraps Wahoo up to go for corners. One, two, then Wahoo stops him and fights out. Wahoo's up with strap assisted punches. Man, Wahoo's getting soft in his old age, he's going super easy on Rude. None of his usual stiffness. Compare to his strap matches earlier this year with Garvin on the Great American Bash tour. Rude takes some full strap whips. He's also bleeding now. Wahoo wraps him up to go for corners. Rude manages to stop him at 3. Quick elbow .Rude goes up to the top rope and hits a fistdrop. He tries to wrap Wahoo up again but Wahoo stops him before he gets anywhere. Rude goes up top again and Wahoo flips him off with the strap, then drops an elbow. Another wrap up and Wahoo gets up to three corners. Jones tries to stop him but Wahoo chops him off the apron. Rude hits Wahoo from behind, sending Wahoo into the final corner. Commentary thinks it's over but the bell didn't ring. Rude ties Wahoo up on the ropes and he and Jones pound away on him until H Guerrero and Raschke make the save. Huh, guess that was the end. Hey, there's the bell! Finally. Ugly finish, ugly match. Rude wasn't ready for prime time yet and Wahoo was getting pretty past it. In fact this would be his final Starrcade as we start slowly transitioning from prime JCP to early WCW the next year. 1/2*

 

Ivan Koloff says they're looking forward to winning many "American dollars" in the upcoming Bunkhouse Stampedes. Glad he specified. No one wants those Canadian loonies. Also, winning that much money might get them in serious trouble with the Party. Communists aren't allowed to better themselves financially. Unless they have the right Party connections of course.They also blame Dusty Rhodes for poisoning comrade Nikita's mind with all that capitalism crap.

 

NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship: Sam Houston (c) def Bill Dundee by DQ in 10:24 (Atlanta)- As other redundant territory titles fall by the wayside, another one rises up to replace them. Central States was based in Kansas City and was one of the original NWA territories. When the promotion fell into financial difficulty they became the latest acquisition by the ever expanding JCP in their battle to keep up with the WWF's increasing nationalization. JCP vacated the title when they bought Central States out, then Houston won a tournament under JCP's banner to crown a new champion. It takes forever for the bell to ring for the start for some reason. Rough lockup and Dundee tosses beanpole Houston into the ropes. Arm wringer tradeoff and Dundee hair pulls out of an armbar. Corner whip reversal from Houston and he gets a flying headscissors. A couple of armdrags and a dropkick from Houston. Dundee hides in the corner and wants a TO. When he gets up he gets another hair pull takedown. Houston hits some strikes and gets a headlock takedown. He goes for the bulldog but Dundee blocks. That leads to some roll up counters and this time Dundee pulls tights. Fully going into the heel 101 playbook. And again as Dundee tights pulls Houston to the floor. Houston hits an atomic drop on the floor that sends Dundee flying over the barricade into the miles of foul territory. He flips Dundee back into the ring for 2. Dundee gets Houston down, goes up top and hits a fistdrop. He takes his time covering and Houston kicks out. Elbow to the back of Houston's head for 2. Dundee starts dancing around and hitting jabs, then struts around a bit. Another slow cover for 2. Dundee gets a Boston crab on. Houston fights out and they end up in the ropes trying to counter each other. Dundee chokes Houston on the bottom rope and tosses him out again. Dundee walks part of the top rope to hit a double ax handle as Houston gets back in for 2. Front facelock from Dundee. Houston backs Dundee into the corner and starts the comeback flurry. Back elbow for 2. Houston hits a slam but Dundee dodges a kneedrop. He sees the target and starts working on Houston's knee. Houston pushes free of a spinning toe hold and ref Scrappy goes down. Somehow Dundee gets Houston's boot off and hits Houston with it. But Scrappy was already up and saw, and he calls for the bell. Weak finish. Both guys were working with intensity and crispness, but beyond that there wasn't a whole lot of "there" there. The less said about what happened with the Central States title after this the better. *1/4

 

Hair vs Hair Match: Jimmy Valiant (w/Big Mama) def Paul Jones (w/Manny Fernandez) in 4:00 (Greensboro)- I am pleased to inform you that this is the honest to God final blowoff of the Valiant/Jones feud that's been going for literally years. I am even more pleased to inform you that this is Valiant's last ever match at a Starrcade. The latest developments over the course of the Great American Bash tour during the summer were Valiant won a match to shave then Paul Jones Army frontman Shaska Whatley bald, then Jones defeated Valiant later in the tour to shave Valiant bald. Since then Fernandez became the latest in a series of guys to turn on Valiant during the course of this feud. Music starts up for intros then we have an abrupt edit. Guess it was edited out of the official WWE copy. Music rights fees I'm sure, it always is. Oh, Tom Miller informs us it's not Valiant's hair on the line this time, it's Big Mama's. Guess he didn't want to have to grow it back again if he lost again. Fernandez is also supposed to be suspended in a cage during the match. Earl Hebner checks in to ref the rest of the Greensboro portion. We spend forever on Hernandez stalling on getting into the cage until the face locker room empties to force him inside. The cage is then raised up while Jones tries to stop it. Once Fernandez is all the way up the bell rings to start. Valiant jumps Jones from behind and knocks him around. Hiptoss from Valiant. Valiant looks more out of control than ever with his offense. While Hebner is forcing a corner break Jones gets some knucks out of his tights and lays Valiant out with them. Valiant, as usual, is bleeding. Jones drops some more shots and covers for 2. When Valiant puts his foot on the rope to break up a pin Jones sees the target and tries to drop a knee on the leg. Valiant gets his leg out of the way and Jones knees the mat! OK, that was well done. Jones gets his international object out and nails Valiant with it again. Another 2 count. Jones tries for some kind of leg hold but Valiant pulls him back head first into the mat. Slow slugfest that Valiant wins. Sleeper! Valiant sees Jones get the knucks out again, pushes Jones into the corner, picks up the knucks and hits Jones with them. Valiant covers and gets the pin to a huge pop! As soon as the bell rings Valiant already has the shears in his hand and goes to work on Jones' hair. Well, it's far from the worst match these two have had. I'm also inclined to go easy on it because I'm happy it's all over. 3/4*

 

As soon as Fernandez is out of the cage he attacks Valiant, and is soon joined by his tag partner Rude. They double DDT Valiant on a chair, then help get mostly bald Jones out. Fernandez and Rude were about to get a huge push in the tag division. In fact they'd win the World tag titles barely two weeks after this show.

 

Intermission time in the arena means promo time on TV. But not wrestler promos this time, promos for future JCP events. First up is a long and strange hype video for the upcoming Bunkhouse Stampede matches, JCP's battle royales with legal weapons for large purses. The whole thing is framed with Nelson Royal describing the match as a cowboy around a campfire telling a nighttime story. I'd say after a day of cattle rustling but his clothes are way too clean. The constant guitar noodling behind the whole thing is almost as bad as Rollergator. My fellow Rifftrax fans know what I'm talking about.

 

After a formal intermission Tony sets up the next hype video, this time for the second annual Crockett Cup coming in April. This one is less weird, it's a straight highlight package of the inaugural '86 edition. They also say the '87 Cup will be two nights this time instead of having afternoon and evening shows the same day, a good move. It'll also be in Baltimore instead of the Superdome in New Orleans. No cross promotion deal with Mid-South/UWF this year. Ironically when the Crockett Cup rolled around in '87 it would come at almost exactly the same time JCP ended up buying out UWF.

 

Louisville Street Fight: Big Bubba Rogers (w/Jim Cornette) def NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Champion Ron Garvin in 11:50 (Atlanta)- This is "Louisville" because that's where Rogers (future Big Boss Man) is being billed from even though he's legitimately from Cobb County, GA. This is pin or 10 count KO rules. Rogers has spent most of the year as the bodyguard for Cornette and the Midnight Express as he was still in training to wrestle himself. The by now completely redundant Mid-Atlantic title would finally be quietly euthanized just before the end of the year. Since it's a street fight Garvin's in his jeans and tank top while Rogers is wrestling in his usual ringside heavy suit. Tommy Young is in to ref the remainder of the Atlanta matches. Garvin tries some stick and move on the big man at the start. Rogers offers a test of strength. Garvin offers a few more punches instead that finally put Rogers down and he quickly rolls out to consult with Cornette. Off a lock up Rogers grabs Garvin's jeans and tosses him out to the floor. Back in Rogers hits a couple of clubbing blows and goes to toss Garvin out again, but can't seem to decide which side to do it on and finally decides on the side with the announce table. That was ugly. Garvin's ass hits the table on the way down. On his way back in Garvin picks up a cup of water or coke, then tosses it in Rogers face! That gives Garvin the opening to get some more shots in. After he's taken enough Rogers steps through the ropes for some more advice. Coming back in Garvin puts him in a front facelock, then goes to a straight choke which is legal in this one. They tie up again in the corner and Rogers squashes Garvin there, then hits a kneelift. Rogers has a roll of quarters or something in his hand from Cornette to hit Garvin with. After the last shot the coins go everywhere in the ring. Garvin's bleeding off that too. Garvin beats a couple of 10 counts and Rogers slams him. Big splash for 2. Garvin beats another 10 count. He gets a rope out of his boot and chokes Rogers. Then he uses it to try to hog tie Rogers like he's a calf! That doesn't work so he ties Rogers to the top rope instead. Now Rogers is bleeding a bit. Another clubbing blow and kneelift from Rogers. He hooks on a bear hug. Garvin headbutts free, then lands some more punches. Rogers goes 360 over the top rope to the floor! Thankfully since it's no DQ they don't have to give any lip service to the over the top rope rule. More punches and Rogers flops out to the floor again. Garvin follows and continues laying in shots. Rogers turns things around with another kneelift. He rolls Garvin back in and climbs up top. Garvin slams him off the top rope! Cover and Young gets squashed on the kickout. Garvin hits a piledriver! Cornette racket shot on Garvin! Young gets up and both guys are out for a 10 count. Since there MUST be a winner, we do the "first guy to his feet wins" thing. Cornette gets in the ring to try to help Rogers and Young tosses him back out! Rogers then pulls Young down so he doesn't see Garvin on his feet. Cornette trips Garvin, and Rogers gets up and is declared the winner! Bit of a "bullshit" chant for that. This had a very oil and water feel for most of it, but they persevered and got it pretty decent by the end. **3/4

 

First Blood Match for the NWA World Television Championship: Tully Blanchard (w/JJ Dillon) def "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes (c) in 7:30 (Greensboro)- Another feud that's been going off and on for well over a year that's finally mostly wrapping up here. First it was over the TV title, then the National title, and now they're back to the TV title. Also our first Four Horsemen match of the night. The momentum Blanchard had rising up the card in '84-'85 has started to stall out in the last year. Dusty ended the long first reign of Blanchard's fellow Horseman Arn Anderson in September to win this title for the third time. We follow Dusty out of his locker room and all the way into the arena for his entrance. I hadn't mentioned, there's actually a primitive entrance stage set up in Greensboro, the first time we've had that at a Starrcade. Dusty's got "Tully" cut into his hair above his ears to show how super cereal he is for this match. He's also wearing a Magnum TA shirt as a tribute. HAHAHAHA Dillon tries to put amateur wrestling headgear on Blanchard before the match starts to keep him from getting cut open! Hebner stops that real quick. Nice try though. Dillon then tries to put Vaseline or something on Blanchard's forehead. Hebner gets a towel and wipes that off, and none too gently. Dusty finally has enough and pops Dillon! And Dillon's busted open! Regardless of how the actual match goes all these preliminaries have been fantastic. So much fun. That's actually smart psychologically too, it shows Dusty can bust you open anytime with one shot from his elbow. The bell rings to start while Blanchard is on the floor trying to help Dillon wipe his blood off. Dillon is freaking gushing, man. His forehead is totally covered. In the ring Dusty gets the first couple of shots and Blanchard quickly backs up to get some space. Lockup and both guys are clearly looking to finish it early, targeting each other's forehead and both playing defense. Dusty does some of his strutting around and lounges in the corner to rile up Blanchard. Again Blanchard plays defense when Dusty loads up to hit him in the head. After another exchange Blanchard bails all the way to the floor to keep from getting hit. He's like a soccer team parking the bus and playing for a 0-0 draw in a group stage match. Again, writing this while in the midst of World Cup watching. Back in Dusty finally manages to land a headbutt, which staggers both guys. Dusty shifts gears and lands a stomp on Blancahrd's knee, probably to try to keep him from running. In the corner Blanchard covers up and goes for Dusty's leg. Dusty blocks that and finally lands an elbow off it but it doesn't bust Blanchard open. Again Dusty shifts to targeting Blanchard's leg for a bit. Blanchard again rolls out before another shot can be landed on his head. Blanchard tries again back in but still can't land much offense. He finally manages to snap mare Dusty over, drops an elbow then rakes at Dusty's face trying to cut him open. Dusty gets up and puts Blanchard back down with more shots. Dillon grabs Blanchard's foot in the corner and in the course of events Hebner goes down. Dillon gives Blanchard his Shoe of Death and Blanchard goes to the second rope with it. Dusty catches him and the shoe drops harmlessly to the mat. Suplex from Dusty and that knocks Hebner down again! Dusty gets the shoe, teases, then tosses it away. Elbow to Blanchard's head! Full ground and pound from Dusty. Blanchard's bleeding! But Hebner's still down. Behind Dusty Dillon wipes Blanchard's forehead off and rubs Vaseline on it. Blanchard nails Dusty with a roll of coins! Again coins go all over the place. Both arenas for that now. That busted Dusty open. Hebner gets up, the first thing he sees is Dusty bleeding, and he calls for the bell! Blanchard wins the title back! Dusty is FURIOUS! The psychology through all of this was sound, but it didn't exactly lead to an entertaining match. I do like it when the heels get genuinely clever though. **1/2

 

Scaffold Match: The Road Warriors (w/Paul Ellering) def The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette and Big Bubba Rogers) in 7:00 (Atlanta)- This isn't the main event, but it might as well be based on how much it was hyped up leading up to the show. Scaffold matches were invented in Memphis with the first one in the early '70s and a couple more taking place in the early '80s. The Midnights and RNR Express had one as part of their original feud in Mid-South in '84. This is the first one to be held under the JCP banner. This has never been one of my favorite gimmick matches, I think when you've seen one of these you've pretty much seen them all. The rules are you have to knock your opponents off the scaffold and down into the ring (or to the floor if you're feeling particularly brutal and want to recreate the Pit II stage fatality from Mortal Kombat II), so the big selling point here is the perceived chance to see someone fall nearly to their death. In practice of course everyone usually found the safest way possible to make the sky/mat transition. And the promised spectacle did sell tickets for this show, I won't deny that. The Roadies waste no time climbing up the scaffold on their entrance. The Midnights are a little more reluctant. Crazy side note, Hawk is actually working this match with a broken leg. Fortunately all he has to do it walk around the scaffold and his gear is covering up whatever cast he's wearing for it. After intros the Midnights slowly and reluctantly make their way up. I do love Condrey's US flag shirt. How did he get away with that as a heel? Cornette goes to commentary and calls the match "ludicrous" and "stupid" and I have to agree. The Midnights finally get up, try to wobble up on their feet, and we're on. Now for these guys to try to work on a narrow scaffold that's as high as the ring lights. Not a whole lot you can do other than some weak brawling. Both Midnights have powder and throw it into the Roadies' faces. That gets them the edge for a bit. Hawk teases going off the support structure and down onto the bare floor. That'd do a lot more than break his other leg. Eaton works himself down to the underside of the scaffold trying to drag Animal down. He saves himself by swinging onto the support structure and climbs back up. It's the Roadies back on offense again and both Midnights are bleeding. Condrey slowly works himself down the support structure. Hawk follows so he can't get back up that way. Hawk then goes down with him and they both tease falling. Now Eaton gets shuffled down the support structure. All four guys use the support rungs as monkey bars and dangle under the scaffold! Condrey goes down! Animal kicks Eaton and Eaton goes down! The Roadies win! Like I said, the safest way possible. After the bell Ellering chases Cornette up the scaffold. Cronette gets trapped up there between Ellering and Animal. He decides to also take the underneath route. Cornette dangles.....AND FALLS! That fall absolutely destroyed his knee for real, and you can see it on his face. Rogers was supposed to catch him, but....missed. For what it was that was fine. If you ever watch one scaffold match in your life, and you should only watch one as they're all the same, this is the one you should go for. **

 

Next up is some more future show hype, this time for the Great American Bash with highlights from the '86 tour. I'm so glad two of those shows are available now, but they show clips from shows beyond those two, leading me to wonder what else might be out there. Though I'd prefer to get something from the '87 GAB tour first as there's nothing released from it right now as I write this, especially because it was on that year's tour that War Games was first introduced.

 

A second intermission? "We've already had first intermission, what about second intermission?" Shut up, Pippin. We get the credits roll during this intermission instead of at the end of the show.

 

Steel Cage Match for the NWA World Tag Team Championship: The Rock 'N' Roll Express (c) def The Minnesota Wrecking Crew in 20:20 (Greensboro)- The main event for the Greensboro portion of the show. The RNR Express are on their third title reign, having taken them back from their forever rivals the Midnight Express back in August. The RNR Express are so bonkers over in Greensboro you can barely hear Tom Miller's intro for them over the crowd. The Express apparently asked for the cage to keep the other Horsemen from interfering. Ole and Gibson start and Ole wants to TEAR into him. Ole tries to get Gibson trapped in the wrong corner, and when that doesn't work they sucker Morton in to hit some double team shots behind Hebner's back. Gibson fights Arn off and rams him into the cage backwards. Again Gibson avoids the wrong corner, gets Ole over to his side and tags Morton in. Arn and Morton have a small reset before leaning into each other. Arn blocks Morton giving him a cage shot. Morton keeps trying to crank the pace up and Arn keeps backing off to slow it down. Arn dodges and Gibson crashes into the corner knee first. While Gibson's sitting on the top rope Arn runs his leg into the cage. The Andersons have a target, and that's never a good thing for their opponents. Ole tags in and starts working away on Gibson's leg. Arn rams Gibon's knee into the mat. Gibson pushes out of a spinning toe hold and Arn goes face first into the cage! Crazy double bump off that from Arn. Ole tags in, cuts off Gibson tagging and gets back on the knee. Both Andersons continue the destruction of Gibson's knee. Gibson manages an enzuguri! He gets free from Arn and tags out to Morton! Morton's hot tag run is quickly cut off by the Andersons and Morton is the first one properly run into the cage tonight. Now it's Morton's turn to be in peril. He tries to fight back on Ole but he's in the wrong half of the ring and Ole easily tags out. Arn bites on the cut Morton got from the cage shots, then gives him the old cheese grater spot. Ole does a bit of work on Morton's arm, which is always Ole's preferred target. Morton's bleeding pretty good now too. Ole sends him shoulder first into the top turnbuckle, then puts on his arm tearing off armbar. No one did an ARMBAR like Ole Anderson, not even Chris Jericho's best ones from the List. Hammerlock slam and kneedrop on the arm from Arn. Arn tries coming off the second rope but Morton catches him coming down! And gives him a DDT! Ole quickly gets in to cut a tag off and runs Morton arm first into the cage. Shoulderbreaker from Ole for 2. Morton ducks an Arn clothesline and hits a kneelift! Arn grabs Morton's tights to again keep him from tagging out. Ole cranks a spinning toe hold type hold on Morton's arm. While both guys are on their knees Morton tries to slug back but still can't get away. Now he tries some hammy kicks and punches on Ole. Again the Andersons keep him from tagging and double team beat him down. Arn hits the World's Greatest Spinebuster! Gibson breaks the pin up! Ole goes up top and drops a knee on Morton's arm. Another shoulder dislocating ARMBAR. Morton has another flurry. Midring collision! Ole gets to Arn and Arn gets to Morton. He switches gears and cranks on Morton's neck. Morton starts to string some comeback punches together. Down goes Arn! Ole JUST runs Morton over into the cage before he can tag out! Morton flash small package on Ole! Arn quickly runs in to break it up, triggering Gibson to run in too as Hebner loses control and we go full on DONNYBROOK. Gibson dropkicks Morton's back as Ole was holding him up, Morton falls on Ole and gets a pin out of nowhere to retain! The furious Andersons continue the beating but the RNR Express crawl out of the cage to get the hell out of town, too beat up to even celebrate their win but win they did. Absolutely brilliant tag wrestling from four of the best to ever do it. ****3/4

 

As I mentioned earlier, the team of Manny Fernandez and Rick Rude would upset the obviously still beat up and probably shouldn't have been defending yet RNR Express for the titles a couple of weeks after this. The RNR Express would win them back in April in a famous phantom match that never actually happened because Rude had left for the WWF.

 

On the other side, Ole Anderson would be kicked out of the Horsemen and turn face in February, as well as start flirting with on again/off again retirement. He'd also later take over as WCW's head booker for a time while Dusty was off in the WWF. We can thank him for, among other things, the Black Scorpion.

 

The main event of Starrcade '86 was long planned to be the coronation of Magnum TA as the new top babyface star in the NWA. JCP and NWA brass thought he was the guy they could put up against Hulk Hogan in the continued nationalization battle. I'm very dubious as to how that would have played out, but that was the plan. But it would become little more than one of the biggest what ifs in wrestling history, as everything changed one night in mid October. That night Magnum, driving at night in heavy rain, lost control of his car and crashed into a light pole. Doctors were unsure if he would ever walk again, to say nothing of wrestling. Fortunately he was able to eventually regain full mobility, but his wrestling career ended that night. Plans for the biggest show of the year would have to change, with barely over a month to change them, which in those days was almost no time at all. It'd be like having to rebook a Wrestlemania main event a week or two before the show today. The decision was made to have Magnum's most recent rival who had just defeated Magnum in a best of seven series to win the US title, Nikita Koloff, turn face to take Magnum's place in the main event. The on screen story was Magnum won Nikita's respect during their feud and Nikita wanted to honor his fallen comrade. It also happened to coincide with a period of cooling US/Soviet Union tensions as, little anyone knew at the time, the USSR was fully on the path that would lead to its collapse a few years later, so in that context it kind of worked. Spirit of glasnost and all that.

 

After Flair's entrance a tribute video for Magnum plays that can probably be best described as cheesy and is definitely sappy, but it's still soon enough after the accident emotions were still running pretty high so you can forgive it. 

 

NWA World Heavyweight Championship: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) and NWA United States Heavyweight Champion Nikita Koloff double DQ in 20:00 (Atlanta)- The crowd clearly hasn't fully embraced Nikita yet in this forced role. Some "Nikita" chants during his entrance (mostly high pitched) mixed in with pretty loud boos (mostly low pitched). But the same guys booing Nikita sound like they're booing Flair too. They have a staredown during Young's instructions, the bell rings and here we go. Nikita easily shoves Flair out of the first lockups. After the second time Flair teases locking up again, then backs up and steps out to the floor. Back in Nikita cranks a knucklelock. Flair backs him into the corner and hits some chops that have zero effect. Flair steps back out and goes over the guardrail and all the way nearly into the crowd to rethink. Coming back in he gives Nikita a short "WOOOO". Top wristlock fight that again Nikita pretty easily wins. When Flair gets up he shouts "Now you get your butt kicked!". He backs Nikita into the corner and tries a hiptoss but Nikita blocks it. Reversal and Nikita hits the hiptoss. Another Nikita hiptoss, followed up with a slam that tosses Flair across the mat. Another one of those. Nikita poses and Flair begs off. It sounds like the crowd might be getting a bit more behind Nikita now. Off the ropes Flair runs into a bear hug. Flair goes down and Nikita gets a near fall off of it. Nikita backs Flair into the corner and hits a couple of shoulderblocks. Flair dodges a charge and Nikita goes shoulder first into the corner. Flair then hits a delayed suplex. Nikita pops back up! Flair backs the hell up, to the floor and again over the guardrail. Back in Nikita cranks a headlock that Flair tries to side punch out of but can't. He backs Nikita into the corner and hits some chops that finally start to stagger him. Shoulderblock standoff, then Nikita literally plucks Flair out of the air by the throat and takes him down. Tony says that's the "Russian hammer". Well if that's a new signature move it won't last long. Nikita loads up for a Sickle. Flair dodges and Nikita tumbles over the top rope to the floor! Flair grabs Nikita on the apron and posts his knee. Here we go. Chop block in the ring. Sharpen your pencil and get your Trapper Keepers kids, we're going to school. Flair mixes a couple of chops in with more knee shots. Figure four! With added rope leverage behind Young's back. Powerful Nikita still manages to reverse it and Flair lets go. Corner shots from Flair start to fire Nikita back up. He is still selling the knee a bit. Nikita shoulderblock. Off the ropes again Flair tosses him back out to the floor. They go over and Flair runs Nikita into the scaffold support structure. About time someone used that. Nikita is on the floor blading for all he's worth, it's all caught on camera. When he gets back in he's bleeding. Snap mare/kneedrop combo from Flair for 2. Back suplex for 2. He pounds away on Nikita's cut. Again that just fires Nikita up. Shoulderblocks and another toss slam from Nikita. Another hiptoss. Flair Flip! He falls all the way to the floor right in front of a cameraman. This time Flair takes a shot on the scaffold and goes down into blading position. You knew Flair was going to bleed eventually. More scaffold shots for Flair. Back in Nikita runs Flair's shoulder into the corner. Strike exchange and Flair Flop! Flying tackle from Nikita and Young gets knocked out of the ring. Nikita hits the Sickle! He crawls over and covers but there's no ref. Scrappy is out but he's checking on Young. Nikita tries to pull Young back up by his shirt collar. That lets Flair hits Nikita with a knee in the back. Scrappy comes in to count and Flair gets 2. Flair ducks and Nikita Sickles Scrappy! It's full on ref murder tonight. Nikita chokes Flair in the corner. The recovered Young tries to stop it but Nikita tosses him aside. Again Nikita tosses Young across the ring. Young says that's it and calls for the bell. Eventually both locker rooms empty to break the fight up. Young confirms on the mic that it's a double DQ, modern online reports vary on that. Given the circumstances I guess that was as good as you could have hoped for, and it set it up for the feud to continue as they tried to figure out where to go from here after the Magnum accident turned all long term plans upside down. The match itself was pretty typical "Flair vs big man" formula that'd he'd later perfect with a much more able partner, Sting. ***3/4

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Not as great as Starrcade '85, but nowhere near the disaster '84 was. Overall it's OK. They definitely could have trimmed some fat off the card to get it closer to a normal 3 hour runtime and the show likely would have been better for it. The last two matches are worth your while though, especially the sensational World tag title match. This would be the last time the two arena experiment would be tried, it'll be back to normal single arena shows next year. This is also the last Starrcade to take place in either Greensboro or the Omni as JCP would start to try to branch out even further next year.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C

 

v2.0 posted 6/29/26