Monday, February 27, 2017
Tv Reviews 2/8/86
Memphis TV 2/8/86 Action packed show! A new Wrestler Abdul Kadaffi made his debut in the area. He won a squash match. Later in the show the Fantastics won their match with the masked "job team" of the Undertakers(no Mark Calloway here trust me). During their post-match interview Bill Dundee comes out and tells Bobby Fulton to stop acting like Him(shaking his ass no shit this beef is over ass shaking......Memphis folks!) Fulton says Dundee can't tell him what to do. Bill slaps him, Fulton lands a shot and Dundee scurries away. Kadaffi runs up and throws powder in the eyes of Tommy Rodgers. Dundee comes back in from a side door and blindsides Fulton and Pours something in his hair from a bottle(dye paint syrup who knows what) The Fantastics fight them off and tell Lance the war has just begun.
Bill Dundee and Dutch Mantell face Dirty Rhodes and Tracy Smothers The story of this match is simple the beat the LIVING HELL OUT OF SMOTHERS! They blast him with chair shots to the back, drive his head and back into the ringpost repeatedly. Dundee gives him a hard bodyslam on the floor. Every time Dirty comes around to help one man diverts his attention while the other continues the beating! Dundee and Mantell eventually get Dq'd for backdropping Smothers over the top rope. The mauling continues post match as Dundee Piledrives Tracy on the floor and hits him across the back 3 more times with the chair! They go to break when they come back Rhoades, Eddie Marlin, and referee Jerry Calhoun have Smothers on two chairs flat on his back(they are using them as a makeshit stretcher for Tracy.) During all this Dundee and mantel are in the ring taunting them. As the pick Smothers up Dundee comes flying of the apron and puts both of his feet right in the mid-section of Smothers(perfect timing). Dirty Rhoades and Rick Casey(who just happened to be there....I guess?) start brawling with Dundee/Mantell and finally send them packing. The Spoiler(Frank Morel) and Billy Travis have an interview Morel unmasks and says that he will have Travis back! Travis was "trained" by Phil Hickerson, long time partner of Hickerson. Tony Falk and Pat Rose Come out. Travis gets slapped and the Heels get chased away. Lance says "What a day" in a very frustrated tone(I concur!) Also happening THE MOD SQUAD with manager JD Costello did a taped promo about coming to the area. Lance said their would be "THUNDERDOME" bouts coming soon(bunkhouse Stampede matches). Buddy Landell and Larry "Thunderbolt" Hamilton also won matches!
Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling 2/8/86 This will be an ultra quick review They announced that the Midnight Express were new tag champs. Arn Anderson had a fairly competitive bout with " The Italian Stallion defending his TV Belt. Nothing else happened! Interviews and very quick squashes. That's it that's the review!
NWA Worldwide Wrestling 2/8/86 Nothing much happened on this show either. Babydoll did come out during a Double AA promo and threw a leg cast at him! As a reminder of Dusty's threat/promise to put Arn out like he did Ole. The squash matches were longer than Mid-Atlantic that's about it honestly! Dusty phoned in the booking this week!
Mid-South Wrestling 2/8/86 Show starts before the opening titles even with 30 seconds of a KOKO Ware hype video. After a Joel Watts intro we go to the ring where Jim Ross is interviewing "Sir" Oliver Humperdink about his new staple member Tarus Bulba(who had just lost a loser-leave-town match the week prior as a member of the Sheepherders to the Fantastics in Memphis!) With Sir Oliver is "Hotstuff" Eddie Gilbert another "House of Humperdink member. After the Bulba squash Humperdink is talking about how Bulba is going to hurt everybody in the Area. Eddie Interrupts and says "Actually Sir Oliver.....and then Bulba Attacks Humperdink leaving him laying mid-ring. Ross wants to know what the hell is going on? Gilbert says he has been waiting a whole year for this to happen. He says he is Bulba's manager, the two walk off laughing! (More happened in one segment here than two hours of NWA this week!) Next up Dick Slater does an in-ring interview before his match with Ricky Gibson. He says Jake Roberts needs to be run out of Mid-South for DDTing Dark Jouney. The match was the best I've seen all day. No shock as Ricky Gibson and Dick Stater were great workers. Gibson controlled a big part of the bout using a head scissors to great effect. He went for a brackdrop Slater dropped an elbow and scored with a nice Gourdbuster for the win. Next up was supposed to be Al Perez vs "Mad Dog" Buzz Sawyer. Buzz is in the ring stomping around, but Ross announces to the crowd that Perez has had transportation issues and is not there. Out walks(with 2X4 in hand) "Hacksaw Jim Duggan! Buzz makes a beeline for the dressing room. Hacksaw says we was in Japan and saw in a wrestling magazine that Sawyer was saying he ran Duggan out of Mid-south! Duggan said there was not a man alive who could run him out of his home. If Sawyer wants a fight he can come get one! The debuting Koko Ware and Sheepherders(Luke Williams and Butch Miller) both have winning debut contests Jake Roberts defends the TV title. The main event six-man barley gets in the ring(Murdoch Sawyer and Masked Superstar vs Williams Dibiase and Duggan) before the show goes off the air!
Bill Dundee and Dutch Mantell face Dirty Rhodes and Tracy Smothers The story of this match is simple the beat the LIVING HELL OUT OF SMOTHERS! They blast him with chair shots to the back, drive his head and back into the ringpost repeatedly. Dundee gives him a hard bodyslam on the floor. Every time Dirty comes around to help one man diverts his attention while the other continues the beating! Dundee and Mantell eventually get Dq'd for backdropping Smothers over the top rope. The mauling continues post match as Dundee Piledrives Tracy on the floor and hits him across the back 3 more times with the chair! They go to break when they come back Rhoades, Eddie Marlin, and referee Jerry Calhoun have Smothers on two chairs flat on his back(they are using them as a makeshit stretcher for Tracy.) During all this Dundee and mantel are in the ring taunting them. As the pick Smothers up Dundee comes flying of the apron and puts both of his feet right in the mid-section of Smothers(perfect timing). Dirty Rhoades and Rick Casey(who just happened to be there....I guess?) start brawling with Dundee/Mantell and finally send them packing. The Spoiler(Frank Morel) and Billy Travis have an interview Morel unmasks and says that he will have Travis back! Travis was "trained" by Phil Hickerson, long time partner of Hickerson. Tony Falk and Pat Rose Come out. Travis gets slapped and the Heels get chased away. Lance says "What a day" in a very frustrated tone(I concur!) Also happening THE MOD SQUAD with manager JD Costello did a taped promo about coming to the area. Lance said their would be "THUNDERDOME" bouts coming soon(bunkhouse Stampede matches). Buddy Landell and Larry "Thunderbolt" Hamilton also won matches!
Mid Atlantic Championship Wrestling 2/8/86 This will be an ultra quick review They announced that the Midnight Express were new tag champs. Arn Anderson had a fairly competitive bout with " The Italian Stallion defending his TV Belt. Nothing else happened! Interviews and very quick squashes. That's it that's the review!
NWA Worldwide Wrestling 2/8/86 Nothing much happened on this show either. Babydoll did come out during a Double AA promo and threw a leg cast at him! As a reminder of Dusty's threat/promise to put Arn out like he did Ole. The squash matches were longer than Mid-Atlantic that's about it honestly! Dusty phoned in the booking this week!
Mid-South Wrestling 2/8/86 Show starts before the opening titles even with 30 seconds of a KOKO Ware hype video. After a Joel Watts intro we go to the ring where Jim Ross is interviewing "Sir" Oliver Humperdink about his new staple member Tarus Bulba(who had just lost a loser-leave-town match the week prior as a member of the Sheepherders to the Fantastics in Memphis!) With Sir Oliver is "Hotstuff" Eddie Gilbert another "House of Humperdink member. After the Bulba squash Humperdink is talking about how Bulba is going to hurt everybody in the Area. Eddie Interrupts and says "Actually Sir Oliver.....and then Bulba Attacks Humperdink leaving him laying mid-ring. Ross wants to know what the hell is going on? Gilbert says he has been waiting a whole year for this to happen. He says he is Bulba's manager, the two walk off laughing! (More happened in one segment here than two hours of NWA this week!) Next up Dick Slater does an in-ring interview before his match with Ricky Gibson. He says Jake Roberts needs to be run out of Mid-South for DDTing Dark Jouney. The match was the best I've seen all day. No shock as Ricky Gibson and Dick Stater were great workers. Gibson controlled a big part of the bout using a head scissors to great effect. He went for a brackdrop Slater dropped an elbow and scored with a nice Gourdbuster for the win. Next up was supposed to be Al Perez vs "Mad Dog" Buzz Sawyer. Buzz is in the ring stomping around, but Ross announces to the crowd that Perez has had transportation issues and is not there. Out walks(with 2X4 in hand) "Hacksaw Jim Duggan! Buzz makes a beeline for the dressing room. Hacksaw says we was in Japan and saw in a wrestling magazine that Sawyer was saying he ran Duggan out of Mid-south! Duggan said there was not a man alive who could run him out of his home. If Sawyer wants a fight he can come get one! The debuting Koko Ware and Sheepherders(Luke Williams and Butch Miller) both have winning debut contests Jake Roberts defends the TV title. The main event six-man barley gets in the ring(Murdoch Sawyer and Masked Superstar vs Williams Dibiase and Duggan) before the show goes off the air!
One AWA bout, NWA Superstars on the Superstation show 2/7/86
AWA tv taping Oshkosh WI 2/7/86 Stan Hansen vs Curt Henning For the little time it had this was a solid match. The story going in was Henning had recently injured his back. Henning maintains control early by his speed and out wrestling "The Bad Man From Borger TX." Using a side headlock to slow down the big man. Curt gets a nice near fall by using a sunset flip to counter a back drop attempt by Hansen. Henning takes some stiff forearms and chops(those are the only kind Hansen throws)! He gives as good as he gets and matches the Texan blow-for-blow. The tide turns when Henning goes for a backdrop and Hansen counters by trying to punt his head off. Henning does something that would become a trademark of his. When Stan kicks him Curt does this spectacular spinning flying bump! Hansen delivers a backbreaker and a teeth jarring elbow drop. Henning gets a 2nd near fall when he pushes Hansen off in the turnbuckles to counter a "Bulldog" uses the old playground trip move to get a two count. Henning grabs a headlock, Hansen picks him up and straddles the top rope with him! Hansen goes for the Boston Crab (the move he won the belt with.) He drops the hold picks Henning up and tries to throw him over the top rope. Henning's head gets caught between the ropes( another future staple of Henning's move set). Hansen starts to beat on a helpless Curt and the ref calls for the bell! Scott Hall Henning's partner runs in and pulls Hansen off, Hall sends Hansen outside. As Hall goes over to check on his partner Hansen comes back in and drops elbows on both men! I guess this sets up Hall vs Hansen(I don't think it ever happened.)
Authors note: I will be posting the Supercards on the Superstation video links on my personal facebook page and in the A place to talk about pro wrestling group on facebook. The reason for this being that the show is on DailyMotion in two parts, DailyMotion does not link directly to Blogger so I will put the links on Facebook and Twitter.
This was a show taped at the Omnin Atlanta 2/2/86 and shown on TBS in primetime five nights later. The show open is the exact same as the TBS 605 show with "Special Edition" in red letters over the logo! (Spare no expense Crockett and or Dusty for heaven's sake!) The show opens with your hosts Magnum TA and some woman named Linda Curry (who I have never seen before and who to my knowledge after tonight we never see again) so far this is great tv huh??? Magnum throws it to ringside to Tony Schiavone and David Crockett. They run down the card and tell us that 3 of the 4 bouts will be 1 fall 20 minutes and the Main Event will be 1 fall tv time remaining. They throw it to the legendary Bob Caudle who(I swear to God I'm not making this up is standing in the dressing room of the R N' R Express and says after commercial break we will learn more about this exciting young team(while this is going on Ricky and Robert are behind him calmly lacing their boots. They come back from break and show The RNR winning their tag titles on July 8th 85 against the Russians. Then we go to the ring for the match. Bob never said one word to them and they never acknowledged him at all? So why go back there so we know they can tie their boots properly??? So far none of this has made any sense.
Match #1 The Rock N' Roll Express vs The Midnight Express (with my own personal hero James E Cornette at ringside.) They cut both teams entrances way short. Midnights attack before the bell, but the Rock N Roll fight back and send both Dennis and Bobby to the outside. First several Minutes every time the Midnight gets a slight advantage the RNR cut them off. Bobby Eaton being one of the supreme "bumpers" of his generation takes a big backdrop on the floor from Ricky Morton. The Rock N Roll focus their attack on the left leg of Dennis Condrey using inside toe holds stretching the hamstring. Plus spinning toe holds and both men dropping on it numerous times. Bobby makes the tag. They get heat on Robert by Eaton slingshoting him into Condrey( this was a counter to a dropkick)who punches him in the face. Commercial break, when they come back Robert is in trouble has the Midnights pound on him. He hits a desperation knee lift on Dennis but gets cut off before he can make a tag. He gets a near fall on a sunset flip. Robert finally makes the tag after he moves out of the way on a Midnight Express "Rocket Launcher" attempt. Ricky comes in a house on fire knocking both both of the opposition down multiple times. The RNR hit their Double Dropkick finish on Bobby Eaton who smashes into referee Randy Anderson who takes a spill between the ropes. They hit a second Double Dropkick on Dennis. Cornette jumps up on the apron. They catapult him into the ring he drops his tennis racket. Robert grabs the Racket and waffles Bobby with it. Meanwhile Ricky has gotten Cornette's belt from the manager and is threating him with it in the corner. Dennis who has recovered by this time picks up the Racket and smashes Ricky with it on the back of the skull. Dennis throws Robert outside and begins to brawl. In the Ring Cornette drags a lifeless Eaton on top of Morton and goes out side and rolls the Referee in the ring. Three seconds later New NWA Tag Team Champions THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS!!! (side note 9 year old me in Beaver Dam KY (yes that's a real place) was overjoyed at this result. The Midnights were my favorite team then as they are now! I remember every second of this)!
Match #2 The Road Warriors vs Ivan and Nikita Koloff They show a incident from Dec 3rd 85 Where the Russians attacked the Warriors hanging Hawk with a chain. Match begins with a power on power stalemate as Nikita and both Hawk/Animal will not take one back step or sell for more than a few seconds. Ivan tags in and he gets thrown around for a bit. The Momentum switch occurs when Ivan reverses a whip by Hawk and Nikita nails him from outside. Also showing up at ringside Baron Von Rashchke the six man partner of the Russians. Animal gets in the ring the official is distracted so Ivan takes the moment to choke Hawk in their corner with the chain. All four men are in the ring while the referee is occupied Von Rashchke comes in the ring kicks Hawk in the Mid-Section and drops an elbow. He scoots out and Ivan goes for the cover......Hawk kicks out at two. Hawk backs up to the ropes but as he does he gets tripped up by Nikita from the outside(this was awfully slow in happening I think somebody missed their cue). The ref sees the trip and calls for a dq om the Russians(for a trip really Tommy Young???) There is a post match brawl (must be a rule I guess where Ivan and Rashchke take throat shots with the chain. Now onto a interview of NASCAR legend Benny Parsons by Magnum promoting a upcoming race on WTBS(Parsons looked like he had no idea what the hell this was)! Next that Linda lady talks to some fans in a taped piece. Then they do a musical tribute video highlighting fans reactions to Dire Straits "Walk of Life" (what the udder blue hell, I love that tune, but nothing says Pro Wrestling fan more than "Here come Johnny singing ole love story, be bop a lulu baby what I'd say?" Really??? A interview with Willie damn Nelson was next (this show was on PCP at this point Tony talked to Dusty Rhodes and Willie about the remake of Stagecoach that Willie starred in and Dusty has a cameo in the film.
Match #3 Tully Blanchard vs Dusty Rhodes for the National Heavyweight Title. Dusty's walk out music Louis Armstrong's "Hello Dolly" obvious choice??? My head hurts! Anyway.... Match gets underway Dusty hits a leg dive, grabs the leg does an outside toe hold drops his weight down on the leg. Then puts on a figure four. Tully makes the ropes and scoots outside. Tully gets back in Dusty hits a spinning toehold then drops again on the leg and takes Tully's leg and snaps it across the apron. Dusty smashes Tully's leg against the ring post. Dusty goes to the top to deliver an elbow he does, but he comes down awkwardly on the previously broken ankle. Tully sees this and goes to work. Putting pressure on it dropping on it and like Big Dust minutes before, Slapping on the figure four! Dusty gets it reversed by rolling to his belly but JJ Dillon pulls Tully to the ropes to force a break. They fight outside Dusty eventually hits a outside to inside vertical suplex for a three count, but JJ drapes Tully's foot over the bottom rope. Referee sees the foot and orders the match to continue. JJ grabs Rhodes boot in the corner he goes down Tully gets a very close two count. Dusty is center ring with a Boston crab locked in when the 20 minute time limit expires! Dillon runs in and tries to nail Dusty, Blanchard lashes out clips Rhodes in the hurt ankle hits a piledriver and grabs the National Belt. He walks out with it(thus getting his heat back)! Nobody does pain better than Dusty Rhodes he might as well have been knifed, the way he sells!
Match #4 Main Event NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE BOUT RON GARVIN VS RIC FLAIR! My God Flair takes a good ole country ass whippin the 1st part of this match. Garvin and Flair trade blistering chops over and over. Garvin twists Flair's arm his leg his nose! Flair earned every bit of his paycheck/salary for 2/2/86 no doubt! Flair gets punched by Garvin in the head and takes a back bump over the top rope to the concrete floor and lays there dead(who could blame him watching this match 31 years later and I think i'm getting sore)! Flair climbs back in, Garvin hooks on a sleeper. Flair quick with the counter into a beauty of a back suplex. Flair does not keep the advantage for long as Garvin storms back with chops and punches. Flair does his upside down bump in the corner "spot"! Garvin gets several near falls with a suplex, and a body press. He pins flair for a four count with an O'Connor roll but hits poor referee Tommy young in the process who tumbles outside( I think he might have legit hurt his leg on the bump.) Garvin hits his hands of stone punch as Flair is again beaten. No referee Garvin goes over to check on Young. Flair hits the ropes and slams a knee in Garvin's back. Garvin puts his foot on the ropes but from his vantage point the official can't see it and counts the pin For your reigning WORLDS HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION RIC FLAIR! There were moments this show was spectacular(in-ring) and mind-numbingly silly(everything else!!!)
Authors note: I will be posting the Supercards on the Superstation video links on my personal facebook page and in the A place to talk about pro wrestling group on facebook. The reason for this being that the show is on DailyMotion in two parts, DailyMotion does not link directly to Blogger so I will put the links on Facebook and Twitter.
This was a show taped at the Omnin Atlanta 2/2/86 and shown on TBS in primetime five nights later. The show open is the exact same as the TBS 605 show with "Special Edition" in red letters over the logo! (Spare no expense Crockett and or Dusty for heaven's sake!) The show opens with your hosts Magnum TA and some woman named Linda Curry (who I have never seen before and who to my knowledge after tonight we never see again) so far this is great tv huh??? Magnum throws it to ringside to Tony Schiavone and David Crockett. They run down the card and tell us that 3 of the 4 bouts will be 1 fall 20 minutes and the Main Event will be 1 fall tv time remaining. They throw it to the legendary Bob Caudle who(I swear to God I'm not making this up is standing in the dressing room of the R N' R Express and says after commercial break we will learn more about this exciting young team(while this is going on Ricky and Robert are behind him calmly lacing their boots. They come back from break and show The RNR winning their tag titles on July 8th 85 against the Russians. Then we go to the ring for the match. Bob never said one word to them and they never acknowledged him at all? So why go back there so we know they can tie their boots properly??? So far none of this has made any sense.
Match #1 The Rock N' Roll Express vs The Midnight Express (with my own personal hero James E Cornette at ringside.) They cut both teams entrances way short. Midnights attack before the bell, but the Rock N Roll fight back and send both Dennis and Bobby to the outside. First several Minutes every time the Midnight gets a slight advantage the RNR cut them off. Bobby Eaton being one of the supreme "bumpers" of his generation takes a big backdrop on the floor from Ricky Morton. The Rock N Roll focus their attack on the left leg of Dennis Condrey using inside toe holds stretching the hamstring. Plus spinning toe holds and both men dropping on it numerous times. Bobby makes the tag. They get heat on Robert by Eaton slingshoting him into Condrey( this was a counter to a dropkick)who punches him in the face. Commercial break, when they come back Robert is in trouble has the Midnights pound on him. He hits a desperation knee lift on Dennis but gets cut off before he can make a tag. He gets a near fall on a sunset flip. Robert finally makes the tag after he moves out of the way on a Midnight Express "Rocket Launcher" attempt. Ricky comes in a house on fire knocking both both of the opposition down multiple times. The RNR hit their Double Dropkick finish on Bobby Eaton who smashes into referee Randy Anderson who takes a spill between the ropes. They hit a second Double Dropkick on Dennis. Cornette jumps up on the apron. They catapult him into the ring he drops his tennis racket. Robert grabs the Racket and waffles Bobby with it. Meanwhile Ricky has gotten Cornette's belt from the manager and is threating him with it in the corner. Dennis who has recovered by this time picks up the Racket and smashes Ricky with it on the back of the skull. Dennis throws Robert outside and begins to brawl. In the Ring Cornette drags a lifeless Eaton on top of Morton and goes out side and rolls the Referee in the ring. Three seconds later New NWA Tag Team Champions THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS!!! (side note 9 year old me in Beaver Dam KY (yes that's a real place) was overjoyed at this result. The Midnights were my favorite team then as they are now! I remember every second of this)!
Match #2 The Road Warriors vs Ivan and Nikita Koloff They show a incident from Dec 3rd 85 Where the Russians attacked the Warriors hanging Hawk with a chain. Match begins with a power on power stalemate as Nikita and both Hawk/Animal will not take one back step or sell for more than a few seconds. Ivan tags in and he gets thrown around for a bit. The Momentum switch occurs when Ivan reverses a whip by Hawk and Nikita nails him from outside. Also showing up at ringside Baron Von Rashchke the six man partner of the Russians. Animal gets in the ring the official is distracted so Ivan takes the moment to choke Hawk in their corner with the chain. All four men are in the ring while the referee is occupied Von Rashchke comes in the ring kicks Hawk in the Mid-Section and drops an elbow. He scoots out and Ivan goes for the cover......Hawk kicks out at two. Hawk backs up to the ropes but as he does he gets tripped up by Nikita from the outside(this was awfully slow in happening I think somebody missed their cue). The ref sees the trip and calls for a dq om the Russians(for a trip really Tommy Young???) There is a post match brawl (must be a rule I guess where Ivan and Rashchke take throat shots with the chain. Now onto a interview of NASCAR legend Benny Parsons by Magnum promoting a upcoming race on WTBS(Parsons looked like he had no idea what the hell this was)! Next that Linda lady talks to some fans in a taped piece. Then they do a musical tribute video highlighting fans reactions to Dire Straits "Walk of Life" (what the udder blue hell, I love that tune, but nothing says Pro Wrestling fan more than "Here come Johnny singing ole love story, be bop a lulu baby what I'd say?" Really??? A interview with Willie damn Nelson was next (this show was on PCP at this point Tony talked to Dusty Rhodes and Willie about the remake of Stagecoach that Willie starred in and Dusty has a cameo in the film.
Match #3 Tully Blanchard vs Dusty Rhodes for the National Heavyweight Title. Dusty's walk out music Louis Armstrong's "Hello Dolly" obvious choice??? My head hurts! Anyway.... Match gets underway Dusty hits a leg dive, grabs the leg does an outside toe hold drops his weight down on the leg. Then puts on a figure four. Tully makes the ropes and scoots outside. Tully gets back in Dusty hits a spinning toehold then drops again on the leg and takes Tully's leg and snaps it across the apron. Dusty smashes Tully's leg against the ring post. Dusty goes to the top to deliver an elbow he does, but he comes down awkwardly on the previously broken ankle. Tully sees this and goes to work. Putting pressure on it dropping on it and like Big Dust minutes before, Slapping on the figure four! Dusty gets it reversed by rolling to his belly but JJ Dillon pulls Tully to the ropes to force a break. They fight outside Dusty eventually hits a outside to inside vertical suplex for a three count, but JJ drapes Tully's foot over the bottom rope. Referee sees the foot and orders the match to continue. JJ grabs Rhodes boot in the corner he goes down Tully gets a very close two count. Dusty is center ring with a Boston crab locked in when the 20 minute time limit expires! Dillon runs in and tries to nail Dusty, Blanchard lashes out clips Rhodes in the hurt ankle hits a piledriver and grabs the National Belt. He walks out with it(thus getting his heat back)! Nobody does pain better than Dusty Rhodes he might as well have been knifed, the way he sells!
Match #4 Main Event NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE BOUT RON GARVIN VS RIC FLAIR! My God Flair takes a good ole country ass whippin the 1st part of this match. Garvin and Flair trade blistering chops over and over. Garvin twists Flair's arm his leg his nose! Flair earned every bit of his paycheck/salary for 2/2/86 no doubt! Flair gets punched by Garvin in the head and takes a back bump over the top rope to the concrete floor and lays there dead(who could blame him watching this match 31 years later and I think i'm getting sore)! Flair climbs back in, Garvin hooks on a sleeper. Flair quick with the counter into a beauty of a back suplex. Flair does not keep the advantage for long as Garvin storms back with chops and punches. Flair does his upside down bump in the corner "spot"! Garvin gets several near falls with a suplex, and a body press. He pins flair for a four count with an O'Connor roll but hits poor referee Tommy young in the process who tumbles outside( I think he might have legit hurt his leg on the bump.) Garvin hits his hands of stone punch as Flair is again beaten. No referee Garvin goes over to check on Young. Flair hits the ropes and slams a knee in Garvin's back. Garvin puts his foot on the ropes but from his vantage point the official can't see it and counts the pin For your reigning WORLDS HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION RIC FLAIR! There were moments this show was spectacular(in-ring) and mind-numbingly silly(everything else!!!)
Saturday, February 25, 2017
AJPW 2/5/86, N/JPW 2/5/86
AJPW 2/5/86 Tenryu/Jumbo Tsuruta vs Riki Choshu/Yoshiaki Yatsu Match started very fast as Choshu distracts Tsuruta from the apron. Yatsu hits a dropkick sending Jumbo to the floor. Where his is spike piledriven! (no slow build to this contest!) They quickly fire him back in and hit a second spike piledriver. They pound on Tsuruta, Yatsu hits a running knee to the solar plexus. A bulldog, then he tags Choshu and the hit a double suplex. The domination continues as both men put the Scorpion Deathlock on Tsuruta back to back. Choshu then clamps on a figure-four headlock. Jumbo finally gets over to his corner to make the tag after nailing Yatsu with a hard lariat. Yatsu and Tenryu get into a very tense "Sumo" style strike standoff. Nobody gains a real advantage but it adds to the tension(as if these four need help with that!) Tsuruta comes in via a tag and lands to of his running knees to the stomach of Yatsu. Then he puts on an Abdominal Stretch, Yatsu Reverses Jumbo gets to the ropes and throws Yatsu over the top rope to the floor with a hip toss. Yatsu comes back in and tags Choshu. The two men trade chops until Jumbo hits his Flying knee. Tenryu tags in but soon finds himself in the Scorpion Death Lock of Choshu. Tenryu makes a tag to Jumbo still in the hold. Tsuruta comes in and begins to work on Choshu's stomach(more heavily bandaged than their 1st tag bout on 1/28.) Putting Choshu in a body scissors. Choshu makes it to the ropes on the break another serious slap battle happens. Tsuruta tags Tenryu, Choshu hits a stiff lariat(what else!) and tags Yatsu. Who hits 6 moves in a row before a dazed Tenryu forces him in the corner and tags Jumbo. He lands a elbow smash, Lariat and Piledriver before Yatsu makes a desperate tag to Choshu. He and Tsuruta hit Lariat's simultaneously(what a sound!) Tenryu tags in and they trade headkicks. Yatsu tags in and hits a overhead belly to belly suplex and a powerslam. Tenryu whams Yatsu with a left side lariat. Jumbo tags and puts on a Boston Crab on Yatsu. He pushes out of it, so Tsuruta locks on the Camel Clutch. Choshu runs in and breaks the hold with a stomp to Jumbo's head. Tenryu gets the tag and picks Yatsu up in a power bomb position but slams him down across his knee, I couldn't tell whether this was a planned spot or a botch, but DAMN either way. Tenryu slaps on a Scorpion of his own. He tags to Tsuruta. Who tries his high knee in the corner, but Yatsu moves and Jumbo crumples holding his knee! He somehow Manages to keep Yatsu from tagging and Tenryu gets the tag. Jumbo and Tenryu hit a double team head kick on Yatsu, Then Tenryu hits a powerbomb for a very close near fall. Choshu comes in a breaks up the pin by Backsuplexing Tenryu. Tenryu gets up and runs at Yatsu in the corner with a lariat, Yatsu ducks and tries a German Suplex. Tenryu blocks by holding on to the top rope. Tsuruta sees Choshu on the apron and heads towards him but the ref forces him back towards his corner. While the ref has his back turned Choshu nails Tenryu with a lariat he lets go of the rope and Yatsu hits the suplex for the win! What a match! Your NEW NWA INTERNATIONAL TAG CHAMPIONS YATSU/CHOSHU!
NJPW 2/5/86 The Cobra vs Shiro Koshinaka They shake hands before the bell. Cobra starts super fast with a kick to the stomach a snap suplex and a dropkick so picture perfect my jaw is still on the floor! Koshinaka Comes storming back with a flying hip attack that knocks cobra outside and a perfect Plancha over the ropes. Koshinaka snap mares Cobra from the apron back into the ring and clamps on a reverse chinlock. Cobra turns into his man making the hold a side head lock and very quickly hits a tight high back suplex to break the hold. Cobra climbs to the top and hits a flying elbow to the top of the head to a standing Koshinaka. Then puts on a half crab, Cobra transitions from there into a bow and arrow(one of the most painful looking holds in wrestling history for my money.) Cobra then puts on a headscissors Koshinaka fights out and hits a flying body press for a near fall, then hooks in a Cobra Clutch(Ironic huh!!!) Corba escapes by sneaking out the back door grabbing Koshinaka's legs and pushing him forward. When they lock up Cobra hits a bodyslam and goes into a reverse chinlock. He lets go of the chinlock and hits 6 straight headbutts. Cobra starts to work on the back with multiple stomps and headbutts. He puts on a full Boston crab. Koshinaka makes the ropes, Cobra gives him no time to rest as he pounds the back and snap mares him into another chinlock. He moves that into a figure fore head scissors. Koshinaka counters by turning Cobra on his stomach and using his leverage to work his head out and come up tying both of Cobra's legs up and gaining the advantage. Cobra makes the ropes, but on the break Koshinaka drops an elbow smash on his back. Cobra scoots out under the bottom rope. Cobra gets in the ring grabs a headlock gets sent off the ropes ducks an elbow and hits a missile dropkick. Koshinaka answers with a great headkick knocking Cobra to the canvas. Koshinaka gets to his feet springs of the ropes, Cobra sidesteps him and he goes tumbling between the ropes. Cobra hits the ropes and does two backflips over the top rope(after watching this several times I think Cobra pretty much missed him, but they sold it like both were hurt.) Koshinaka attempts to whip Cobra into the barricade but he gets reversed and sells like he hurt his elbow. Cobra hits a suplex bringing Koshinaka in the ring for a near fall. Cobra hits a spinning leg lariat plus a bodyslam. Then goes to the top rope and lands a good missile dropkick for a 2nd near fall! Koshinaka blocks a hiplock attempt with a backslide, and then hits an O'Connor roll with a bridge for his 2nd near fall in 30 seconds! Koshinaka tries a backdrop Cobra counters with a "sunset flip" attempt. Koshinaka blocks that with a punch to the head drops down into a a pin, but only gets two. In the next sequence Koshinaka tries a monkey flip mid ring, but Cobra sees this and simply drops his knees across the shoulders for a pin. This time Koshinaka finds the strength to kick out before three! Cobra hits a running tombstone piledriver. Goes to the top but slams his skull on the upraised knee of Koshinaka. Who very quickly goes behind hits a German Suplex with a bridge for the pin! This match was spectacular they never stopped moving!
#2 Fujiwara vs Inoki They did not touch for what felt like minutes to start the match! Although this may sound tedious it was far from it. The crowd is electric. It shows both men although being superior wrestlers, realize the genuine threat and danger posed by the other. Great slow build storytelling! When the finally lockup Fujiwara manages to back Inoki slowly into the corner and slaps him in the face! Inoki looks at him as if to say" you are gonna regret that!" Both men try for armbars, but drop them. Inoki Backs Fujiwara into the ropes and slaps his shoulder, but breaks clean. The next Lockup Inoki again pushes to the corner, this time, however he fires a fist right to the head. He punches Fujiwara twice more and kicks him as well until the official makes him back away. Fujiwara gets up and the same thing Inoki tries to maul him in the corner. Fujiwara goes for a leg dive then a trip. He goes for the Leg grapevine, but gets partially blocked. He floats up to the head but Inoki counters in a armbar. Fujiwara gets to his feet back heel trips Inoki gets him down and puts on a reverse chinlock. He transitions from that to a figurefour headlock with Inoki's arm trapped as well. Inoki rolls over pops out of the hold and has the back of Fujiwara as he tries to secure a sleeper/choke. Fujiwara rolls over on his back grabs Inoki's Ankle and puts toque on it until Inoki lets go. Fujiwara stands up holding the leg and slaps on a grapevine. Inoki counters via his own leg lace or grapevine. They trade the dominate position for moment, Fujiwara stands up steps thru goes for Inoki's head, He avoids this and both men are back vertical. Fujiwara buries a kick to the mid section goes for a front headlock, Inoki spins out grabs a armbar. Fujiwara grabs a leg sweeps the other and applies another leg lace. (all these moves and counters are lightning fast)! Fujiwara stands up and switches to a straight kneebar. Inoki makes the ropes and they are stood up. Inoki hits four stiff kicks to the thigh, Fujiwara catches a 5th and falls back into the ropes causing a break. Inoki grabs a headlock on the next tie up gets sent to the ropes and headbutts Fujiwara in the stomach. He then hits a double arm suplex, goes for another but Fujiwara blocks it. Inoki keeps his hands locked behind the back. Fujiwara executes a textbook back heel trip grabs Inoki's leg and back to the leg lace. Fujiwara back to the knee bar. Inoki gets the legs of Fujiwara separated drops the leg grabs the arm of Fujiwara drops behind Fujiawa and now has a nasty armbar submission attempt. Fujiwara is doing great counter work here by keeping his hands clasp together and not letting Inoki straighten his arm! Inoki lets the hold go and both men back up. Both men have front headlocks. Fujiwara grabs Inoki's arm slides it behind his head. Grabs his leg and delivers a "FisermanBuster" suplex. He gets a one count. Fujiwara maintains top position and gets a wristlock/hammerlock. Inoki grabs the ropes, back to even. Fujiwara grabs a side headlock Inoki quickly hits a German Suplex and tries again for the cross arm breaker. He locks the hold on, Fujiwara manages to stand up grasp one of Inoki's arms and put on his own cross arm breaker! The crowd popped hard for this counter(hell so did I!) Inoki gets to his stomach and slides out of the hold. After another double leg lace stalemate Inoki lands some stiff kicks to the back of the thigh and chest. Inoki hits a vertical suplex and gets a near fall. Fujiwara gets a wristlock Inoki turns into Fujiwara goes down to a knee tries to kick the thigh but hits him in the groin! Fujiwara goes down like a shot, his corner his livid! Fujiwara is feeling that shot. He manages to work his way back up. Fujiwara Starts to headbutt on his third attempt Inoki crushes him with a stiff forearm that sends him flying. Inoki goes behind and cinches in his sleeper.......THAT'S IT! Inoki has won! (there was a huge brawl postmatch as all the guys at ringside got into it! What an intense bout!
NJPW 2/5/86 The Cobra vs Shiro Koshinaka They shake hands before the bell. Cobra starts super fast with a kick to the stomach a snap suplex and a dropkick so picture perfect my jaw is still on the floor! Koshinaka Comes storming back with a flying hip attack that knocks cobra outside and a perfect Plancha over the ropes. Koshinaka snap mares Cobra from the apron back into the ring and clamps on a reverse chinlock. Cobra turns into his man making the hold a side head lock and very quickly hits a tight high back suplex to break the hold. Cobra climbs to the top and hits a flying elbow to the top of the head to a standing Koshinaka. Then puts on a half crab, Cobra transitions from there into a bow and arrow(one of the most painful looking holds in wrestling history for my money.) Cobra then puts on a headscissors Koshinaka fights out and hits a flying body press for a near fall, then hooks in a Cobra Clutch(Ironic huh!!!) Corba escapes by sneaking out the back door grabbing Koshinaka's legs and pushing him forward. When they lock up Cobra hits a bodyslam and goes into a reverse chinlock. He lets go of the chinlock and hits 6 straight headbutts. Cobra starts to work on the back with multiple stomps and headbutts. He puts on a full Boston crab. Koshinaka makes the ropes, Cobra gives him no time to rest as he pounds the back and snap mares him into another chinlock. He moves that into a figure fore head scissors. Koshinaka counters by turning Cobra on his stomach and using his leverage to work his head out and come up tying both of Cobra's legs up and gaining the advantage. Cobra makes the ropes, but on the break Koshinaka drops an elbow smash on his back. Cobra scoots out under the bottom rope. Cobra gets in the ring grabs a headlock gets sent off the ropes ducks an elbow and hits a missile dropkick. Koshinaka answers with a great headkick knocking Cobra to the canvas. Koshinaka gets to his feet springs of the ropes, Cobra sidesteps him and he goes tumbling between the ropes. Cobra hits the ropes and does two backflips over the top rope(after watching this several times I think Cobra pretty much missed him, but they sold it like both were hurt.) Koshinaka attempts to whip Cobra into the barricade but he gets reversed and sells like he hurt his elbow. Cobra hits a suplex bringing Koshinaka in the ring for a near fall. Cobra hits a spinning leg lariat plus a bodyslam. Then goes to the top rope and lands a good missile dropkick for a 2nd near fall! Koshinaka blocks a hiplock attempt with a backslide, and then hits an O'Connor roll with a bridge for his 2nd near fall in 30 seconds! Koshinaka tries a backdrop Cobra counters with a "sunset flip" attempt. Koshinaka blocks that with a punch to the head drops down into a a pin, but only gets two. In the next sequence Koshinaka tries a monkey flip mid ring, but Cobra sees this and simply drops his knees across the shoulders for a pin. This time Koshinaka finds the strength to kick out before three! Cobra hits a running tombstone piledriver. Goes to the top but slams his skull on the upraised knee of Koshinaka. Who very quickly goes behind hits a German Suplex with a bridge for the pin! This match was spectacular they never stopped moving!
#2 Fujiwara vs Inoki They did not touch for what felt like minutes to start the match! Although this may sound tedious it was far from it. The crowd is electric. It shows both men although being superior wrestlers, realize the genuine threat and danger posed by the other. Great slow build storytelling! When the finally lockup Fujiwara manages to back Inoki slowly into the corner and slaps him in the face! Inoki looks at him as if to say" you are gonna regret that!" Both men try for armbars, but drop them. Inoki Backs Fujiwara into the ropes and slaps his shoulder, but breaks clean. The next Lockup Inoki again pushes to the corner, this time, however he fires a fist right to the head. He punches Fujiwara twice more and kicks him as well until the official makes him back away. Fujiwara gets up and the same thing Inoki tries to maul him in the corner. Fujiwara goes for a leg dive then a trip. He goes for the Leg grapevine, but gets partially blocked. He floats up to the head but Inoki counters in a armbar. Fujiwara gets to his feet back heel trips Inoki gets him down and puts on a reverse chinlock. He transitions from that to a figurefour headlock with Inoki's arm trapped as well. Inoki rolls over pops out of the hold and has the back of Fujiwara as he tries to secure a sleeper/choke. Fujiwara rolls over on his back grabs Inoki's Ankle and puts toque on it until Inoki lets go. Fujiwara stands up holding the leg and slaps on a grapevine. Inoki counters via his own leg lace or grapevine. They trade the dominate position for moment, Fujiwara stands up steps thru goes for Inoki's head, He avoids this and both men are back vertical. Fujiwara buries a kick to the mid section goes for a front headlock, Inoki spins out grabs a armbar. Fujiwara grabs a leg sweeps the other and applies another leg lace. (all these moves and counters are lightning fast)! Fujiwara stands up and switches to a straight kneebar. Inoki makes the ropes and they are stood up. Inoki hits four stiff kicks to the thigh, Fujiwara catches a 5th and falls back into the ropes causing a break. Inoki grabs a headlock on the next tie up gets sent to the ropes and headbutts Fujiwara in the stomach. He then hits a double arm suplex, goes for another but Fujiwara blocks it. Inoki keeps his hands locked behind the back. Fujiwara executes a textbook back heel trip grabs Inoki's leg and back to the leg lace. Fujiwara back to the knee bar. Inoki gets the legs of Fujiwara separated drops the leg grabs the arm of Fujiwara drops behind Fujiawa and now has a nasty armbar submission attempt. Fujiwara is doing great counter work here by keeping his hands clasp together and not letting Inoki straighten his arm! Inoki lets the hold go and both men back up. Both men have front headlocks. Fujiwara grabs Inoki's arm slides it behind his head. Grabs his leg and delivers a "FisermanBuster" suplex. He gets a one count. Fujiwara maintains top position and gets a wristlock/hammerlock. Inoki grabs the ropes, back to even. Fujiwara grabs a side headlock Inoki quickly hits a German Suplex and tries again for the cross arm breaker. He locks the hold on, Fujiwara manages to stand up grasp one of Inoki's arms and put on his own cross arm breaker! The crowd popped hard for this counter(hell so did I!) Inoki gets to his stomach and slides out of the hold. After another double leg lace stalemate Inoki lands some stiff kicks to the back of the thigh and chest. Inoki hits a vertical suplex and gets a near fall. Fujiwara gets a wristlock Inoki turns into Fujiwara goes down to a knee tries to kick the thigh but hits him in the groin! Fujiwara goes down like a shot, his corner his livid! Fujiwara is feeling that shot. He manages to work his way back up. Fujiwara Starts to headbutt on his third attempt Inoki crushes him with a stiff forearm that sends him flying. Inoki goes behind and cinches in his sleeper.......THAT'S IT! Inoki has won! (there was a huge brawl postmatch as all the guys at ringside got into it! What an intense bout!
Friday, February 24, 2017
NJPW 2/5/86
NJPW 2/5/86 Akira Maeda vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara Be aware this is very much a catch wrestling/MMA bout more than your typical wrestling match even for Japan(with these two what did expect) If this is not your style(I find the number of Pro Wrestling fans who are turned of by this style shocking, I personally love it, but I thought it fair to warn the reader there will be no chair shots or "Flippy Shit" here! I always wanted try my hand at MMA Reporting so here we go!
This is indeed billed as a UWF match. They start in Catch wrestling stances(one arm behind the head of the opponent) Maeda goes behind gets the takedown and tries immediately to transition to an arm bar. Fujiwara turns into his man stacks Maeda on his shoulders for a 1 count then lets him back up to a vertical base. They clasp hands and Maeda tries a kick, caught by Fujiwara who sweeps the other leg and claps on a side headlock. Maeda rolls him onto his back, their however he makes an era as he left his arm free for Fujiwara to clamp onto. Fujiwara gets the hammerlock(or the Americana if you like). Maeda gets to his feet but Fujiwara clamps on the headlock again and takes Maeda over in a side mare. Maeda gets back to his feet and gets Fujiwara down with a drop toe hold and quick as a cat transitions to a one-legged crab hold. Fujiwara manages to use his free foot to push Maeda off the hold. Both men back up now Fujiwara favoring the leg somewhat. Maeda uses the Thai plum clinch and drives knees into Fujiwara, he grabs Maeda foot who attempts to use the other foot for a vicious looking one foot roundhouse kick, but Fujiwara calmly ducks out of range. They lock up and Fujiwara picks up Maeda over one shoulder walks around with him and dumps him mid-ring and tries for a pinning combination. Maeda comes up out of that predicament with a armbar of his own. Fujiwara counters by trapping one of Maeda's legs with his own and attempting a choke. In order to prevent the choke Maeda rolls to his stomach giving up his back with Fujiwara in top positon. Fujiwara gets both hooks in and forces Maeda to go back on his back and tries to sink in the choke/sleeper?(i'm not sure what's legal?) Maeda manages to shed one leg and twist the other at an ugly angle putting a tremendous amount of toque on the knee joint and ligaments of Fujiwara! Fujiwara manages to roll Maeda back over and clap on his armbar once again. Maeda gets to his feet grabs one of Fujiwara's legs and stiff kicks him in the back so many times with such power Fujiwara is forced to cover up in the corner until the ref steps in and makes Maeda back off! They lock up mid-ring Fujiwara bullies Maeda to the corner and tries to strike him, but Maeda blocks it. When they lock up again Fujiwara grabs a headlock, but Maeda quickly counters with a devastating overhead back suplex and quickly goes into a figure four head scissors trying to make Fujiwara give up his arm for an another armbar. Fujiwara shifts all his weight and pressure down on the leg and knee of Maeda making him give up the hold. When the lock up the next time Maeda does a leg trip tries for what appears to be a heel hook, Fujiwara counters by bowing up, so Maeda counters his counter still has Fujiwara's leg trapped and turns the hold into a straight kneebar. Fujiwara has to grab the ropes to get the hold broken. During the next lockup Maeda tries for a spinning head kick in the corner but Fujiwara ducks and Maeda ends up on the ground. Fujiwara picks him up and delivers several headbutts(so it's not exactly MMA)but the crowd popped big for this. (I believe it's a signature Fujiwara move???) After the headbutts He goes around in behind Maeda who counters with hammerlock throw, but they are in the ropes so the ref forces a break. As the get back up Maeda hits multiple stiff kicks again(man his kicks are deadly) Fujiwara slumps in the corner and the ref once again makes Maeda back off. The ref administers a ten count Maeda gets up at 8. The two men grapple on the ground with no one having a clear advantage until Maeda does another beautiful back heel trip and puts Fujiwara in a leg grapevine. Fujiwara returns the favor and counters Maeda's grapevine with one of his own. Both men work their over to the bottom rope and roll out of the ring both maintaining the hold! The official is forced to stop the bout as they refuse to relinquish the hold and get back in the ring. Very quickly both men agree to continue the bout. The crowd loved that decision! As the match restarts both men are limping and very wary of the other Maeda explodes with a knee and a kick to the chest so hard you can hear the echo trough the building! Fujiwara goes down and rolls outside. He comes back in hits a leg dive, but in the scramble Maeda comes up with a nasty looking hammerlock in side control. Fujiwara is in obvious pain but manages to get his foot on the rope, hold is broken and he scoots outside again. Maeda Peppers Fujiwara again with kicks in the corner. They lock up Maeda ducks in behind, but Fujiwara sits out and locks on the armbar that bares his name. This time it's Maeda who has to struggle to get to the ropes to force the break! (Fujiwara had actually turned into a hammerlock when the rope break occurred.) Maeda tried those rapid fire kicks again, Fujiwara sidestepped them and went back to a tight armbar. Maeda again found the save harbor of the ropes with his foot. Fujiwara gets an inside leg dive again attacking the knee joint of Maeda, Maeda claps on a choke from the bottom and Fujiwara passes out! Your winner in one of the most epic struggles I've ever witnessed, Akira Maeda!
Match #2 Keiichi Yamada/Antonio Inoki vs Osamu Kido/Nobuhiko Takada The story of this bout was simple but well laid out. Kido and Takada out worked the youngster Yamada every time we was in the ring. He tried hard and never quit. Every Time Inoki made the tag it was even again until he made the tag! :REPEAT CYCLE! The match was crisp and fast and quite good despite the repetition. It began right at the bell as Yamada bows to Inoki and asks to start the match. Yamada hits a one-footed head kick, but gets taken to the mat quickly on the next exchange by Kido. Kido puts on a reverse chin lock. Yamada gets to his feet and turns into the hold so it becomes a side-headlock. Kido quickly transitions spins Yamada down and chinches up a hammerlock in side control. Yamada makes the ropes forcing a break. Takada comes in after a tag they lock up, Takada goes behind trips Yamada come up with the leg and puts on the grapevine. Yamada gets a rope break and when they are stood back up Takada kicks him 11 times in a row(I counted standing on the ground, to the chest head and back, just a mugging!) Takada attempts a cross-arm breaker Yamada blocks that so Takada picks him up and plants him like shrub with a jumping tombstone piledriver(lesson here next time take the armbar!) Kido tags in drops a knee in the chest and delivers a side backbreaker! Kido puts on the MMA style hammerlock/armbar. When he makes the ropes the crowd applauses is very loud. They try a Greco-Roman knuckle lock. Yamada is put on his back, but bridges up and hits a standing close in dropkick and quickly tags Inoki. Who quickly hits a leg dive and applies a grapevine of his own to Kido. Kido tags Takada, as the two men jockey for position Takada slaps Inoki in the face on a rope break. They grapple on the ground in a stalemate until Takada puts on the grapevine. Inoki makes the tag still in the leglock Yamada steps in a smacks a prone Takada across the face. He soon pays a heavy price however as Takada gets back to his feet and Knocks Yamada flat with three open hand face slaps and proceeds to kick the holly hell out of him again for the second time in about 7 minutes! Kido comes back in and hits Yamada with a back suplex. In a scramble on the ground Yamada puts on his leg grapevine(so now every man in the match has done one!) Kido escapes the hold and puts Yamada in a Boston Crab. Yamada powers out and hits his own back suplex. Inoki tags in and hits a nice standing dropkick. Takada tags in and soon finds himself in the leg grapevine Again! After he escapes Inoki hits him with his famous Insigeary (I know that spelling is in correct if you know what it should be, Please let me know!) Yamada takes a tag and hits a lariat. Yamada goes to the top rope and flies off, but eats a stiff kick to the ribs. Takada hits a flurry of five stiff kicks and hits a perfect Bridging overhead German Suplex for the pin!
This is indeed billed as a UWF match. They start in Catch wrestling stances(one arm behind the head of the opponent) Maeda goes behind gets the takedown and tries immediately to transition to an arm bar. Fujiwara turns into his man stacks Maeda on his shoulders for a 1 count then lets him back up to a vertical base. They clasp hands and Maeda tries a kick, caught by Fujiwara who sweeps the other leg and claps on a side headlock. Maeda rolls him onto his back, their however he makes an era as he left his arm free for Fujiwara to clamp onto. Fujiwara gets the hammerlock(or the Americana if you like). Maeda gets to his feet but Fujiwara clamps on the headlock again and takes Maeda over in a side mare. Maeda gets back to his feet and gets Fujiwara down with a drop toe hold and quick as a cat transitions to a one-legged crab hold. Fujiwara manages to use his free foot to push Maeda off the hold. Both men back up now Fujiwara favoring the leg somewhat. Maeda uses the Thai plum clinch and drives knees into Fujiwara, he grabs Maeda foot who attempts to use the other foot for a vicious looking one foot roundhouse kick, but Fujiwara calmly ducks out of range. They lock up and Fujiwara picks up Maeda over one shoulder walks around with him and dumps him mid-ring and tries for a pinning combination. Maeda comes up out of that predicament with a armbar of his own. Fujiwara counters by trapping one of Maeda's legs with his own and attempting a choke. In order to prevent the choke Maeda rolls to his stomach giving up his back with Fujiwara in top positon. Fujiwara gets both hooks in and forces Maeda to go back on his back and tries to sink in the choke/sleeper?(i'm not sure what's legal?) Maeda manages to shed one leg and twist the other at an ugly angle putting a tremendous amount of toque on the knee joint and ligaments of Fujiwara! Fujiwara manages to roll Maeda back over and clap on his armbar once again. Maeda gets to his feet grabs one of Fujiwara's legs and stiff kicks him in the back so many times with such power Fujiwara is forced to cover up in the corner until the ref steps in and makes Maeda back off! They lock up mid-ring Fujiwara bullies Maeda to the corner and tries to strike him, but Maeda blocks it. When they lock up again Fujiwara grabs a headlock, but Maeda quickly counters with a devastating overhead back suplex and quickly goes into a figure four head scissors trying to make Fujiwara give up his arm for an another armbar. Fujiwara shifts all his weight and pressure down on the leg and knee of Maeda making him give up the hold. When the lock up the next time Maeda does a leg trip tries for what appears to be a heel hook, Fujiwara counters by bowing up, so Maeda counters his counter still has Fujiwara's leg trapped and turns the hold into a straight kneebar. Fujiwara has to grab the ropes to get the hold broken. During the next lockup Maeda tries for a spinning head kick in the corner but Fujiwara ducks and Maeda ends up on the ground. Fujiwara picks him up and delivers several headbutts(so it's not exactly MMA)but the crowd popped big for this. (I believe it's a signature Fujiwara move???) After the headbutts He goes around in behind Maeda who counters with hammerlock throw, but they are in the ropes so the ref forces a break. As the get back up Maeda hits multiple stiff kicks again(man his kicks are deadly) Fujiwara slumps in the corner and the ref once again makes Maeda back off. The ref administers a ten count Maeda gets up at 8. The two men grapple on the ground with no one having a clear advantage until Maeda does another beautiful back heel trip and puts Fujiwara in a leg grapevine. Fujiwara returns the favor and counters Maeda's grapevine with one of his own. Both men work their over to the bottom rope and roll out of the ring both maintaining the hold! The official is forced to stop the bout as they refuse to relinquish the hold and get back in the ring. Very quickly both men agree to continue the bout. The crowd loved that decision! As the match restarts both men are limping and very wary of the other Maeda explodes with a knee and a kick to the chest so hard you can hear the echo trough the building! Fujiwara goes down and rolls outside. He comes back in hits a leg dive, but in the scramble Maeda comes up with a nasty looking hammerlock in side control. Fujiwara is in obvious pain but manages to get his foot on the rope, hold is broken and he scoots outside again. Maeda Peppers Fujiwara again with kicks in the corner. They lock up Maeda ducks in behind, but Fujiwara sits out and locks on the armbar that bares his name. This time it's Maeda who has to struggle to get to the ropes to force the break! (Fujiwara had actually turned into a hammerlock when the rope break occurred.) Maeda tried those rapid fire kicks again, Fujiwara sidestepped them and went back to a tight armbar. Maeda again found the save harbor of the ropes with his foot. Fujiwara gets an inside leg dive again attacking the knee joint of Maeda, Maeda claps on a choke from the bottom and Fujiwara passes out! Your winner in one of the most epic struggles I've ever witnessed, Akira Maeda!
Match #2 Keiichi Yamada/Antonio Inoki vs Osamu Kido/Nobuhiko Takada The story of this bout was simple but well laid out. Kido and Takada out worked the youngster Yamada every time we was in the ring. He tried hard and never quit. Every Time Inoki made the tag it was even again until he made the tag! :REPEAT CYCLE! The match was crisp and fast and quite good despite the repetition. It began right at the bell as Yamada bows to Inoki and asks to start the match. Yamada hits a one-footed head kick, but gets taken to the mat quickly on the next exchange by Kido. Kido puts on a reverse chin lock. Yamada gets to his feet and turns into the hold so it becomes a side-headlock. Kido quickly transitions spins Yamada down and chinches up a hammerlock in side control. Yamada makes the ropes forcing a break. Takada comes in after a tag they lock up, Takada goes behind trips Yamada come up with the leg and puts on the grapevine. Yamada gets a rope break and when they are stood back up Takada kicks him 11 times in a row(I counted standing on the ground, to the chest head and back, just a mugging!) Takada attempts a cross-arm breaker Yamada blocks that so Takada picks him up and plants him like shrub with a jumping tombstone piledriver(lesson here next time take the armbar!) Kido tags in drops a knee in the chest and delivers a side backbreaker! Kido puts on the MMA style hammerlock/armbar. When he makes the ropes the crowd applauses is very loud. They try a Greco-Roman knuckle lock. Yamada is put on his back, but bridges up and hits a standing close in dropkick and quickly tags Inoki. Who quickly hits a leg dive and applies a grapevine of his own to Kido. Kido tags Takada, as the two men jockey for position Takada slaps Inoki in the face on a rope break. They grapple on the ground in a stalemate until Takada puts on the grapevine. Inoki makes the tag still in the leglock Yamada steps in a smacks a prone Takada across the face. He soon pays a heavy price however as Takada gets back to his feet and Knocks Yamada flat with three open hand face slaps and proceeds to kick the holly hell out of him again for the second time in about 7 minutes! Kido comes back in and hits Yamada with a back suplex. In a scramble on the ground Yamada puts on his leg grapevine(so now every man in the match has done one!) Kido escapes the hold and puts Yamada in a Boston Crab. Yamada powers out and hits his own back suplex. Inoki tags in and hits a nice standing dropkick. Takada tags in and soon finds himself in the leg grapevine Again! After he escapes Inoki hits him with his famous Insigeary (I know that spelling is in correct if you know what it should be, Please let me know!) Yamada takes a tag and hits a lariat. Yamada goes to the top rope and flies off, but eats a stiff kick to the ribs. Takada hits a flurry of five stiff kicks and hits a perfect Bridging overhead German Suplex for the pin!
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Memphis And NWA Worldwide, An AWA bout from 2/1/86
Memphis tv 2/1/86 Biggest news of the show was a horribly acted promo. The angle was that Bill Dundee because of beating Jerry Lawler in a loser-leaves town bout in December of 85 was trying to get a legal court injunction against Lawler and a video company out of New Jersey. Trying to stop them from advertising and selling a Jerry Lawler video on Memphis tv. It was shot on location in front of a court house with awful wooden actors playing lawyer's! Words do yet yes exist to properly covey how bad this was. Anyway the injunction was lifted so they can sell the video again! Hooray for justice.
They recapped the Dundee Koko Ware feud(I had no idea there was one to start with.) with a nice video package including Dundee interfering in Koko's NWA world title bout in Memphis vs Ric Flair and costing him the match. Plus Buddy Landell beating Koko for the International title in Louisvillie Ky. Again with the help of Dundee.
Speaking of Koko he had the stiffest one minute squash match with some guy in a mask I've ever seen! I don't know if the jobber pissed him off or something else did but he beat the SHIT out of the poor guy. He stiff clotheslined him, the crowd gasped. He stiff kicked the guy in the ribs and back. Gave him a scary looking "Brainbuster",and slapped him silly while putting a knee on him for the pin! In other action the Fantastics beat mega loser Tony Faulk and another job guy to take Faulk's record on TV to 0-39! Dirty Rhodes and Rick Casey won a squash match and Dutch Mantell and Buddy Landell beat Billy Travis and Tracy Smothers in two straight falls.
NWA worldwide 2/1/86 Two big angles on this show.1st the Russians attacked "America's Team" of Dusty Rhodes and Magnum TA. Magnum and the late great Russian Bear" Ivan Koloff(may he rest in peach, one of the best most "Over" Heels in the long history of pro wrestling! He had scary real heat) were in the midst of a match. Magnum had just hit his belly-to-belly suplex. Nikita and Von Raschke on the outside could take no more. They run in, while Ivan and the Baron hold Magnum Nikita hits the Russian Sickle on him. BabyDoll runs in the ring and starts pushing and "punching Nikita with her tiny balled up fist. They hold her and it looks like they are gonna give a woman the same as Magnum got.(those evil commie bastards!) When here come Dusty to save the day! He takes the shot(pushing Babydoll out of the way) Then the evil threesome(or 2/3rd's of them anyway) hold Rhodes up so Nikita can come of the ropes with a chain Sickle! The heroes are left laying! In dueling promo's The Russians say that Magnum was cheating and Dusty attacked them! While Big Dust and TA vow vengeance and blood. Dusty says they will pay for trying to hurt a lady! Magnum says they tried to hurt him but they didn't get the job done!
In the other big event The Midnight Express attack The RNR Express(yes again) and lash Robert Gibson with a belt! They seem to do this every two weeks, but it was maybe the hottest program in the country, so it worked even if it seems repetitive! Flair, AA and Blanchard all had great interviews(big shock)! Good show overall!
Jerry Blackwell vs Bruiser Brody AWA TV taping Oshkosh Wisconsin Less a match and more a downright pier six brawl! This was a bout/angle to set up the supposed to be main event of WrestleRock 86(Gagne's odd half-attempt at a Mania like event!) (sadly Blackwell had to be replaced by Jimmy Snuka, if I recall correctly Blackwell had to be subbed for due to pneumonia, I could be wrong it has been 31 years! I was nine if you know for certain let me know)! Sheik Adnon and Brody attack Blackwell before the bell rings and bloody him up! Blackwell gets hit with multiple chair shots and must be helped to the dressing room. Brody wanders around ringside for a bit with a steel chair in hand making people scatter like crazy!( when Brody was in character you had to scatter it was much safer that way!) He spots Greg Gagne at the commentary table and grabs him and takes him to the ring(Previous to this in storyline Brody had injured Gagne's leg and sidelined him 8 months.)Gagne takes of his sport coat and he and ole Brody throw down! Greg takes his boot off and is just going toe to toe with the big man! Brody catches Gagne with a big boot knocking him down flat on his back. Brody's manager Sheik Adnon runs around the ring and holds Greg down while Brody drops three legs on his prone body! (Unlike Hogan, in my Opinion Brody did one hell of a leg drop). Gagne is "Dead" center ring. Blackwell comes back to the ring and Gagne gets better(miracle I say brothers and sisters a plain ole down home pro wrestling healing miracle!) The babyfaces clean house as Brody and Sheik scurry away. Blackwell and Gagne cut a hell of a fire filled babyface promo. Blackwell says they are the lowest form of life. Gagne says he has more heart in his pinkie than those two have in their entire G**Damn bodies(it gets bleeped!(I can't believe he said it! my mouth dropped open in 86 good Lord.......see what I did there?) Blackwell says he would be happy to whip their asses(2nd bleep in a minute who knew Verne was running ECW?) Really well done angle the crowd was losing their cheese loving minds!
They recapped the Dundee Koko Ware feud(I had no idea there was one to start with.) with a nice video package including Dundee interfering in Koko's NWA world title bout in Memphis vs Ric Flair and costing him the match. Plus Buddy Landell beating Koko for the International title in Louisvillie Ky. Again with the help of Dundee.
Speaking of Koko he had the stiffest one minute squash match with some guy in a mask I've ever seen! I don't know if the jobber pissed him off or something else did but he beat the SHIT out of the poor guy. He stiff clotheslined him, the crowd gasped. He stiff kicked the guy in the ribs and back. Gave him a scary looking "Brainbuster",and slapped him silly while putting a knee on him for the pin! In other action the Fantastics beat mega loser Tony Faulk and another job guy to take Faulk's record on TV to 0-39! Dirty Rhodes and Rick Casey won a squash match and Dutch Mantell and Buddy Landell beat Billy Travis and Tracy Smothers in two straight falls.
NWA worldwide 2/1/86 Two big angles on this show.1st the Russians attacked "America's Team" of Dusty Rhodes and Magnum TA. Magnum and the late great Russian Bear" Ivan Koloff(may he rest in peach, one of the best most "Over" Heels in the long history of pro wrestling! He had scary real heat) were in the midst of a match. Magnum had just hit his belly-to-belly suplex. Nikita and Von Raschke on the outside could take no more. They run in, while Ivan and the Baron hold Magnum Nikita hits the Russian Sickle on him. BabyDoll runs in the ring and starts pushing and "punching Nikita with her tiny balled up fist. They hold her and it looks like they are gonna give a woman the same as Magnum got.(those evil commie bastards!) When here come Dusty to save the day! He takes the shot(pushing Babydoll out of the way) Then the evil threesome(or 2/3rd's of them anyway) hold Rhodes up so Nikita can come of the ropes with a chain Sickle! The heroes are left laying! In dueling promo's The Russians say that Magnum was cheating and Dusty attacked them! While Big Dust and TA vow vengeance and blood. Dusty says they will pay for trying to hurt a lady! Magnum says they tried to hurt him but they didn't get the job done!
In the other big event The Midnight Express attack The RNR Express(yes again) and lash Robert Gibson with a belt! They seem to do this every two weeks, but it was maybe the hottest program in the country, so it worked even if it seems repetitive! Flair, AA and Blanchard all had great interviews(big shock)! Good show overall!
Jerry Blackwell vs Bruiser Brody AWA TV taping Oshkosh Wisconsin Less a match and more a downright pier six brawl! This was a bout/angle to set up the supposed to be main event of WrestleRock 86(Gagne's odd half-attempt at a Mania like event!) (sadly Blackwell had to be replaced by Jimmy Snuka, if I recall correctly Blackwell had to be subbed for due to pneumonia, I could be wrong it has been 31 years! I was nine if you know for certain let me know)! Sheik Adnon and Brody attack Blackwell before the bell rings and bloody him up! Blackwell gets hit with multiple chair shots and must be helped to the dressing room. Brody wanders around ringside for a bit with a steel chair in hand making people scatter like crazy!( when Brody was in character you had to scatter it was much safer that way!) He spots Greg Gagne at the commentary table and grabs him and takes him to the ring(Previous to this in storyline Brody had injured Gagne's leg and sidelined him 8 months.)Gagne takes of his sport coat and he and ole Brody throw down! Greg takes his boot off and is just going toe to toe with the big man! Brody catches Gagne with a big boot knocking him down flat on his back. Brody's manager Sheik Adnon runs around the ring and holds Greg down while Brody drops three legs on his prone body! (Unlike Hogan, in my Opinion Brody did one hell of a leg drop). Gagne is "Dead" center ring. Blackwell comes back to the ring and Gagne gets better(miracle I say brothers and sisters a plain ole down home pro wrestling healing miracle!) The babyfaces clean house as Brody and Sheik scurry away. Blackwell and Gagne cut a hell of a fire filled babyface promo. Blackwell says they are the lowest form of life. Gagne says he has more heart in his pinkie than those two have in their entire G**Damn bodies(it gets bleeped!(I can't believe he said it! my mouth dropped open in 86 good Lord.......see what I did there?) Blackwell says he would be happy to whip their asses(2nd bleep in a minute who knew Verne was running ECW?) Really well done angle the crowd was losing their cheese loving minds!
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
AJPW 1/31/86
All Japan Pro Wrestling 1/31/86 Mighty Inoue and Tiger Mask vs Kunaki Kobayashi/ Fumihiko Niikhura Joined in progress. In fact we only see five minutes of highlights! Basically a Tiger Mask highlight reel. As we see he and Kobayashi do a multi drop down leap frog spot that is full of split second timing that ends with Tiger hitting a baseball slide dropkick to Kobayashi under the bottom rope on the outside. Match finish Inoue and Tiger hit matching dropkicks, Inoue keeps Kobayashi busy on the outside. While in the ring Tiger delivers a suplex and hits a diving front flip to a standing Niikhura for the pin!
Match #2 A six-man tag Jumbo Tsuruta, Tenryu and Takashi Ishikawa vs Goro Tsurumi, Ashura Hara and The Great Kabuki A fair six man. The 1st huge momentum change in the bout was Tenryu taking a nice thrust kick from Kabuki. All three heels worked over Tenryu's wrist, it was heavily taped. It was bent in every direction possible(if it was not hurt before it may have been after!) Goto has a interesting hold he uses the old wrestling standby rest hold on the trapezius muscle in the shoulder, but he grinds is fingers in(makes it look more painful anyway.) Tenryu finally manages to make a tag to Ishikawa. He runs wild sumo slapping Hara to death(and manages to smack his partners asleep on the apron.) Until he tries to go up top and Hara cuts him off with a superplex followed by a lariat. Both Kabuki and Hara use Sleeper holds on Ishikawa, while Goto tries to get a submission using the afore mentioned nerve hold. Ishikawa gets a tag to Tsuruta(who has barley been in the match by this point) He runs wild hitting Hara with a Lariat, but the pin attempt gets broken up by Kabuki with a stomp to the head. Jumbo tags Tenyru and they do their best Funks imitation with the double punch. Ishikawa takes a tag and puts Goto in the Scorpion Death Lock. Kabuki comes in and breaks the hold with his trademark uppercut punches. Tsuruta and Tenryu run in grab Goto and Kabuki and throw them outside. Jumbo clobbers Hara with a chair Meanwhile, inside Ishikawa hits a back suplex for the pin! I have no idea what happened to lead up to the finish as in a rare mistake the camera crew missed it completely!( they were with Jumbo and Hara on the floor). Authors note: There was also a tag bout between Choshu/Yatsu vs Windham/Rotundo but the clip was under 5 minutes and it was your standard double coutout screwjob finish and nothing of merit happened so I skipped it here!
Match #2 A six-man tag Jumbo Tsuruta, Tenryu and Takashi Ishikawa vs Goro Tsurumi, Ashura Hara and The Great Kabuki A fair six man. The 1st huge momentum change in the bout was Tenryu taking a nice thrust kick from Kabuki. All three heels worked over Tenryu's wrist, it was heavily taped. It was bent in every direction possible(if it was not hurt before it may have been after!) Goto has a interesting hold he uses the old wrestling standby rest hold on the trapezius muscle in the shoulder, but he grinds is fingers in(makes it look more painful anyway.) Tenryu finally manages to make a tag to Ishikawa. He runs wild sumo slapping Hara to death(and manages to smack his partners asleep on the apron.) Until he tries to go up top and Hara cuts him off with a superplex followed by a lariat. Both Kabuki and Hara use Sleeper holds on Ishikawa, while Goto tries to get a submission using the afore mentioned nerve hold. Ishikawa gets a tag to Tsuruta(who has barley been in the match by this point) He runs wild hitting Hara with a Lariat, but the pin attempt gets broken up by Kabuki with a stomp to the head. Jumbo tags Tenyru and they do their best Funks imitation with the double punch. Ishikawa takes a tag and puts Goto in the Scorpion Death Lock. Kabuki comes in and breaks the hold with his trademark uppercut punches. Tsuruta and Tenryu run in grab Goto and Kabuki and throw them outside. Jumbo clobbers Hara with a chair Meanwhile, inside Ishikawa hits a back suplex for the pin! I have no idea what happened to lead up to the finish as in a rare mistake the camera crew missed it completely!( they were with Jumbo and Hara on the floor). Authors note: There was also a tag bout between Choshu/Yatsu vs Windham/Rotundo but the clip was under 5 minutes and it was your standard double coutout screwjob finish and nothing of merit happened so I skipped it here!
AJPW 1/28/86
AJPW 1/28/86 Match #1 IWA Heavyweight Title Match Champion Mill Mascarsas vs Kuniaki Kobayashi I hate to complain about a legend, but I gotta tell you I feel like Mascaras basically had the same match with different opponents over and over! Same formula here. Match starts with great move and counter move wrestling. Just flawless work by both early on. Then Kobayashi uses a chair outside to get the advantage. They brawl well. They both get in some high spots)Kobayashi hit a crossbody between the ropes to the outside that was so effortless it was crazy). The brawl continues until the eventual double count out! Mascaras is madding because his work is good but the pattern is so damn easy to call! All that said no doubt it worked for him!
Match #2 The Great Kabuki vs Tiger Mask This bout felt more like one from Charlotte than Japan. Match started very slowly with Kabuki working on the arm of Tiger mask like he was a long lost Anderson brother! For 8 or 9 minutes of a 18 minute bout he really punished the arm with armbar after armbar he broke out the ole short arm scissors for a stretch in the match. This never really got boring, for me anyway, because Kabuki was constantly smacking Tiger on the back of the head screaming in very loud English "ASK HIM" and "GIVE UP"! The bout confused me a bit because as the heel Kabuki out wrestled Tiger. Then Tiger got the advantage by using a chair. (odd thing for a face to do without provocation) He manages to hit a great dropkick on Kabuki, who ends up outside after Tiger ducked a charge and Kabuki went sailing over the tope rope. Tiger grabs the ropes and hits a nice Plancha. Then he grabs a chair from over the barrier and smashes Kabuki three times with it. They get back in the ring an as Kabuki shoves Tiger into the ropes off a headlock the ref gets caught and takes a bump outside! Kabuki hits a suplex and goes up top a delivers his flying thrust/chop to the throat. No ref to count the fall. The young boys on the floor manage to get the ref back in the ring. At that same moment Tiger hits a German suplex with a bridge(Kabuki had gotten up from the pin to see where the ref was Tiger snuck up behind him). The ref crawls in and starts the count, one of the young boys(I don't know his name jumps in the ring and kicks Tiger in the ribs breaking up the pin. He is explaining to the official that Kabuki had the pin 1st.Tiger gets up super hot(makes sense)and shoves the kid. They start to brawl Kabuki gets punched by this kid and now we get a three way pier six brawl! I assume the match was thrown out! I never in my life expected what this match was, but I will not forget it for some time!
Match #3 NWA International Tag team title bout, The Champs Jumbo Tsurta/Tenryu face the challenge of Yoshiaki Yatsu/Riki Choshu! (good God this might make the last match look tame!) Match begins with neither team getting real control for several minutes. The feeling out process ramped up a bit when twice on rope breaks Yatsu slaps the taste out of Tsuruta's mouth. Jumbo gives it back to Yatsu on the next rope break, slapping him twice. Tenryu takes the tag back in, Choshu and Yatsu get a quick upper hand and execute their spike piledriver on him. Tenryu manages to regain his bearings and scoops Choshu's leg turning a step-over toe hold into a figure four. Choshu's counter was something I have never seen before. He Manages to roll Tenryu while still in the figure four to his corner of the ring where Yatsu drops an elbow of the top rope to break the hold! A very unique counter. Yatsu makes the tag, throws Tenryu in the the corner who explodes out and Yatsu eats a lariat. Jumbo comes in legally and drives Yatsu outside with two knees right to the pit of the stomach. Yatsu gets back in and hits a great dropkick on Tsuruta. Choshu takes the tag and he and Jumbo chop the hell out of each other(open handed). Jumbo takes over when he hits his flying high knee(Choshu had come into the bout with one side of rib cage/belly all taped up.) After the knee Jumbo precedes to stomp the every loving shit out of that taped area. Choshu hits a back suplex but that just hurts his ribs even more. He and Jumbo both hit lariats on the other at the same time. Tsuruta manages to tag Tenryu who continues the pounding. They just beat on him till my ribs/side hurt! Tsuruta puts him in an Abdominal Stretch, Yatsu can take no more of his partner's agony. He comes of the top with a double axehandle on Tsuruta breaking the hold. Choshu makes the tag and pulls himself outside on the apron. Tenryu sees this goes over and pulls Choshu to the floor pounds him, pick him up whips him into the barricade back first, then picks up a chair from ringside and smashes into the side/back of the prone writhing Choshu! (note to self never ever piss off Tenryu!) Meanwhile in the ring, Yatsu has Jumbo in a spinning toe hold. Tenryu Runs in and gives Yatsu a backsuplex. Jumbo gets back to his feet and hits two lariat's in a row on Yatsu. ( The crowd is going apeshit for every bit of this, these people are in it!) Choshu has risen from the dead by this time and makes the tag! Jumbo take a dropkick and then Choshu slaps on the Scorpion Death Lock. Tsuruta struggles to escape. He finally does, Choshu just falls out of the hold in pain clutching at those ribs again. Tsuruta overpowers Yatsu and makes the tag to Tenryu. He comes in and hits a slingshot suplex(the crowd was in awe of this for a moment, I guess Tully Blanchard never made a tour of Japan). Jumbo tags back in, Yatsu nails him with the Baba "Neckbreaker Drop" or "the Hook in Ladder clothesline if you like. Then a bulldog headlock. Yatsu kicks him out of the ring where Choshu pick him up and slams his head/shoulder to the post three times! Tenryu sprints over and whips Choshu into the barricade. In the ring Yatsu gives a bloddy Jumbo a piledriver a backsuplex and puts on his own Scorpion Death Lock. Jumbo looks done so quiet unassuming Tenryu comes in and runs back and forth across the ring picking up so much momentum that when he hits Yatsu with a bone crunching lariat he almost goes out between the ropes! Tsuruta Makes the tag hits Yatsu with his headkick and backsuplex Choshu breaks up both pin attempts. Jumbo jumps in the fray and he hurls Choshu to the floor and follows him to continue the brawl. In the Ring Tenryu lands a second head kick and goes for a lariat, Yatsu ducks and hit the best overhead German Suplex I may have ever seen! This seems like the finish(the crowd sure as hell thought it was).They popped like crazy when Tenryu kicked out at two! It looks like Yatsu has it won again when he counters a bodyslam attempt with a beautiful small package for another incredible two count! Yatsu runs off the ropes but Tenryu counters with the "hot shot" (throat across the tope rope). Tenryu hits him with a 3rd head kick, and a powerbomb and this epic, five-star bout is over! With a hard fought grueling title defense by Tenryu and Tsuruta!
Match #2 The Great Kabuki vs Tiger Mask This bout felt more like one from Charlotte than Japan. Match started very slowly with Kabuki working on the arm of Tiger mask like he was a long lost Anderson brother! For 8 or 9 minutes of a 18 minute bout he really punished the arm with armbar after armbar he broke out the ole short arm scissors for a stretch in the match. This never really got boring, for me anyway, because Kabuki was constantly smacking Tiger on the back of the head screaming in very loud English "ASK HIM" and "GIVE UP"! The bout confused me a bit because as the heel Kabuki out wrestled Tiger. Then Tiger got the advantage by using a chair. (odd thing for a face to do without provocation) He manages to hit a great dropkick on Kabuki, who ends up outside after Tiger ducked a charge and Kabuki went sailing over the tope rope. Tiger grabs the ropes and hits a nice Plancha. Then he grabs a chair from over the barrier and smashes Kabuki three times with it. They get back in the ring an as Kabuki shoves Tiger into the ropes off a headlock the ref gets caught and takes a bump outside! Kabuki hits a suplex and goes up top a delivers his flying thrust/chop to the throat. No ref to count the fall. The young boys on the floor manage to get the ref back in the ring. At that same moment Tiger hits a German suplex with a bridge(Kabuki had gotten up from the pin to see where the ref was Tiger snuck up behind him). The ref crawls in and starts the count, one of the young boys(I don't know his name jumps in the ring and kicks Tiger in the ribs breaking up the pin. He is explaining to the official that Kabuki had the pin 1st.Tiger gets up super hot(makes sense)and shoves the kid. They start to brawl Kabuki gets punched by this kid and now we get a three way pier six brawl! I assume the match was thrown out! I never in my life expected what this match was, but I will not forget it for some time!
Match #3 NWA International Tag team title bout, The Champs Jumbo Tsurta/Tenryu face the challenge of Yoshiaki Yatsu/Riki Choshu! (good God this might make the last match look tame!) Match begins with neither team getting real control for several minutes. The feeling out process ramped up a bit when twice on rope breaks Yatsu slaps the taste out of Tsuruta's mouth. Jumbo gives it back to Yatsu on the next rope break, slapping him twice. Tenryu takes the tag back in, Choshu and Yatsu get a quick upper hand and execute their spike piledriver on him. Tenryu manages to regain his bearings and scoops Choshu's leg turning a step-over toe hold into a figure four. Choshu's counter was something I have never seen before. He Manages to roll Tenryu while still in the figure four to his corner of the ring where Yatsu drops an elbow of the top rope to break the hold! A very unique counter. Yatsu makes the tag, throws Tenryu in the the corner who explodes out and Yatsu eats a lariat. Jumbo comes in legally and drives Yatsu outside with two knees right to the pit of the stomach. Yatsu gets back in and hits a great dropkick on Tsuruta. Choshu takes the tag and he and Jumbo chop the hell out of each other(open handed). Jumbo takes over when he hits his flying high knee(Choshu had come into the bout with one side of rib cage/belly all taped up.) After the knee Jumbo precedes to stomp the every loving shit out of that taped area. Choshu hits a back suplex but that just hurts his ribs even more. He and Jumbo both hit lariats on the other at the same time. Tsuruta manages to tag Tenryu who continues the pounding. They just beat on him till my ribs/side hurt! Tsuruta puts him in an Abdominal Stretch, Yatsu can take no more of his partner's agony. He comes of the top with a double axehandle on Tsuruta breaking the hold. Choshu makes the tag and pulls himself outside on the apron. Tenryu sees this goes over and pulls Choshu to the floor pounds him, pick him up whips him into the barricade back first, then picks up a chair from ringside and smashes into the side/back of the prone writhing Choshu! (note to self never ever piss off Tenryu!) Meanwhile in the ring, Yatsu has Jumbo in a spinning toe hold. Tenryu Runs in and gives Yatsu a backsuplex. Jumbo gets back to his feet and hits two lariat's in a row on Yatsu. ( The crowd is going apeshit for every bit of this, these people are in it!) Choshu has risen from the dead by this time and makes the tag! Jumbo take a dropkick and then Choshu slaps on the Scorpion Death Lock. Tsuruta struggles to escape. He finally does, Choshu just falls out of the hold in pain clutching at those ribs again. Tsuruta overpowers Yatsu and makes the tag to Tenryu. He comes in and hits a slingshot suplex(the crowd was in awe of this for a moment, I guess Tully Blanchard never made a tour of Japan). Jumbo tags back in, Yatsu nails him with the Baba "Neckbreaker Drop" or "the Hook in Ladder clothesline if you like. Then a bulldog headlock. Yatsu kicks him out of the ring where Choshu pick him up and slams his head/shoulder to the post three times! Tenryu sprints over and whips Choshu into the barricade. In the ring Yatsu gives a bloddy Jumbo a piledriver a backsuplex and puts on his own Scorpion Death Lock. Jumbo looks done so quiet unassuming Tenryu comes in and runs back and forth across the ring picking up so much momentum that when he hits Yatsu with a bone crunching lariat he almost goes out between the ropes! Tsuruta Makes the tag hits Yatsu with his headkick and backsuplex Choshu breaks up both pin attempts. Jumbo jumps in the fray and he hurls Choshu to the floor and follows him to continue the brawl. In the Ring Tenryu lands a second head kick and goes for a lariat, Yatsu ducks and hit the best overhead German Suplex I may have ever seen! This seems like the finish(the crowd sure as hell thought it was).They popped like crazy when Tenryu kicked out at two! It looks like Yatsu has it won again when he counters a bodyslam attempt with a beautiful small package for another incredible two count! Yatsu runs off the ropes but Tenryu counters with the "hot shot" (throat across the tope rope). Tenryu hits him with a 3rd head kick, and a powerbomb and this epic, five-star bout is over! With a hard fought grueling title defense by Tenryu and Tsuruta!
Monday, February 20, 2017
Author's note, WWF Prime Time Wrestling 1/27/86
Author's note On February 2, 1986 Gino Hernandez was found dead of what was ruled by the police to have been a cocaine overdose! I have chosen to skip his last match in this blog. Allow me to explain Entire books I think could be written about the wild ride both wonderful and tragic that was Gino's life! I think he may have been one of the best heels ever! I mean no disrespect to his legacy by not covering his last bout on 1/27 vs former tag partner Chris Adams. I couldn't do Gino's life or impact on wrestling justice(in fact to try in this forum would be damn near impossible, I could write for days and that is not the purpose of this blog.) He was great! The pain we feel is for what might have been! Charles Eugene Wolfe Jr. 8/14/57- 2/2/86
WWF Prime Time Wrestling 1/27/86 1st match Mr. Fuji vs SD Jones(hey we got nowhere to go but up after this........ I hope!!! This match had the gall to go thru a commercial break(why God Why) If I had to sum up this bout in two words(Lord I wish it were that easy), those two words would be Trapezius hold! Three damn times in 14 damn minutes! SD hit him with three headbutts sprung of the ropes to hit another, got caught with a belly-to-belly suplex and Fuji wins! This was mind-numbing tedious boring and dumb and those were the positives!
Match #2 Johnny Rodz vs "Iron" Mike Sharpe Joined in Progress (this match between two solid undervalued workers joined in progress, but I had to sit through 11 minutes of that awfulness in the 1st match that I can't get back, my brain hurts (all credit to Mr RJ Gumby for the last complaint!) Simple match but done well! Rodz was very over with this MSG crowd(good to see a crowd acknowledge a guy who busted his ass in front of them for years give him his due.) At one point Rodz does a beautiful kick to Sharp coming from the apron over the tope rope, catapulting into the ring in one fluid motion. Finish saw Rodz get pushed off a head lock, hit a shoulder tackle, Sharpe drops down Rodz jumps over hits the ropes. Sharpe meanwhile gets up in a flash adjusts his black forearm band(horrible hockey injury very slow healer like 15 years or more) and nails Rodz across the throat with a clothesline for the victory! Another one in the win column for "Canada's greatest athlete" (Gretzky who?)
Match #3 "Now it's game time here on Prime time Wrestling" "It's random tag team match for no good reason time" "This week's participants are Danny Spivey and Lanny Poffo vs AJ Petruzzi and Moondog Spot!" A glorified squash for Spivey and Poffo Won with a Spivey bulldog on Petruzzi.
Match #4 Ron Shaw vs King Tonga Mid-card heaven continues with this barnburner( my guess the rating for this show to this point -2.5 that means 2 people and a child who didn't own televisions at the time we're told about the show and said if they had TV's they would not have watched it!) Tonga won with a thrust kick in case you were wondering.
Match #5 is the weekly "Flashback" Match segment. I don't know how this qualifies as a flashback when it could have taken place no earlier than 4/1/85. As Sheik and Volkoff face the team they beat for the belts Barry Windham and Mike Rontunda in a championship rematch, from WrestleMania 1 which took place on 3/31 of 1985. This rematch took place at the famed Boston Garden. Sheik and Volkoff had atomic heat that looks honestly scary at times! Match begins with many heel miscues like Sheik using is "loaded" boot to kick Volkoff in the throat, after Windham moved. Or Volkoff setting Windham on the ropes to counter a headlock and then turning to showboat to the crowd. Only to have Barry hit a flying body press when he turns back around! Well timed good spots. The heels got the heat on Windham by a knee to the back by the Sheik as Windham hit the ropes. Barry got suplexed and put in an abdominal stretch(the logic of putting that tall of an opponent in that hold escapes me, but a small gripe at best.) Rotunda has to come in and make the save as Sheik applies the dreaded Camel Clutch. Barry hits a suplex of his own and makes the "hot" tag. Finish was very simple Ref is trying to get Windham back in his corner. Meanwhile Rotunda has sheik in a small package. Volkoff runs in reverses the maneuver puts Sheik on top. Ref turns sees it just in time to count Rotunda's shoulders to the mat for 3! The heels triumph!
Main event WWF championship title bout As Hogan defends against his childhood buddy Brutus Beefcake! Good match by Hogan standards. Comedy early with Hogan mocking Beefcake's strut. Beefcake got the advantage by following Hogan into the corner with a clothesline. Brutus sent Hulk into the ringpost on the outside a little later. Hogan took a powerslam for a near fall. The finish was not your standard legdrop finish, this one had a wrinkle thrown in. Hogan hit the big boot and legdrop combo. As he was going for the Pin, Johnny V(Beefcake's manager) jumped up on the apron. Hogan grabs him, while this is happening Brutus gets up runs to the ropes and goes to hit the champ with his high knee(Beefcake's finisher) Hogan moves Brutus hit Johnny V who falls to the floor. Hogan scoops Beefcake with a "schoolboy" rollup for the pin! That show felt like it took days!
Match #3 "Now it's game time here on Prime time Wrestling" "It's random tag team match for no good reason time" "This week's participants are Danny Spivey and Lanny Poffo vs AJ Petruzzi and Moondog Spot!" A glorified squash for Spivey and Poffo Won with a Spivey bulldog on Petruzzi.
Match #4 Ron Shaw vs King Tonga Mid-card heaven continues with this barnburner( my guess the rating for this show to this point -2.5 that means 2 people and a child who didn't own televisions at the time we're told about the show and said if they had TV's they would not have watched it!) Tonga won with a thrust kick in case you were wondering.
Match #5 is the weekly "Flashback" Match segment. I don't know how this qualifies as a flashback when it could have taken place no earlier than 4/1/85. As Sheik and Volkoff face the team they beat for the belts Barry Windham and Mike Rontunda in a championship rematch, from WrestleMania 1 which took place on 3/31 of 1985. This rematch took place at the famed Boston Garden. Sheik and Volkoff had atomic heat that looks honestly scary at times! Match begins with many heel miscues like Sheik using is "loaded" boot to kick Volkoff in the throat, after Windham moved. Or Volkoff setting Windham on the ropes to counter a headlock and then turning to showboat to the crowd. Only to have Barry hit a flying body press when he turns back around! Well timed good spots. The heels got the heat on Windham by a knee to the back by the Sheik as Windham hit the ropes. Barry got suplexed and put in an abdominal stretch(the logic of putting that tall of an opponent in that hold escapes me, but a small gripe at best.) Rotunda has to come in and make the save as Sheik applies the dreaded Camel Clutch. Barry hits a suplex of his own and makes the "hot" tag. Finish was very simple Ref is trying to get Windham back in his corner. Meanwhile Rotunda has sheik in a small package. Volkoff runs in reverses the maneuver puts Sheik on top. Ref turns sees it just in time to count Rotunda's shoulders to the mat for 3! The heels triumph!
Main event WWF championship title bout As Hogan defends against his childhood buddy Brutus Beefcake! Good match by Hogan standards. Comedy early with Hogan mocking Beefcake's strut. Beefcake got the advantage by following Hogan into the corner with a clothesline. Brutus sent Hulk into the ringpost on the outside a little later. Hogan took a powerslam for a near fall. The finish was not your standard legdrop finish, this one had a wrinkle thrown in. Hogan hit the big boot and legdrop combo. As he was going for the Pin, Johnny V(Beefcake's manager) jumped up on the apron. Hogan grabs him, while this is happening Brutus gets up runs to the ropes and goes to hit the champ with his high knee(Beefcake's finisher) Hogan moves Brutus hit Johnny V who falls to the floor. Hogan scoops Beefcake with a "schoolboy" rollup for the pin! That show felt like it took days!
Sunday, February 19, 2017
TV reviews 1/25/86
Memphis TV 1/25/86 Big angle of the day The Fantastics were attacked and left bloody heaps by the KIWI Sheepherders(Taras Bulba/Rip Morgan and the quiet reserved Lord Johnathan Boyd) The Fantastics were doing a post match interview with Lance promoting the "win a date with the Fantastics" contest. 1st Buddy Landell comes out because he does not want his "Win a date with Buddy Landell"contest to be overlooked. Lance says the Fantastics have received over 400 letters entering their contest.While conversely Landell has gotten 2 responses to his contest! Buddy walks away in disgust saying the contest is fixed. While the Fantastics are answering those allegations the get blindsided by the Sheepherders with steel chairs. Bobby Fulton did one hell of a blade job on his own forehead.He looked horrible! Boyd grabbed the Mic from Lance and said his boys were gonna scar the Fantastics up so bad not even these hopeless desperate redneck women would date them! (that is a complete guess at what he said because he was screaming so loud with that thick Aussie accent that I did not understand a damn word. He may have asked viewers to send in their very favorite pie and sweet tea recipes!)
Bill Dundee defended the AWA Southern Title against a very young Tracy Smothers. Winning by hitting him with a chain because you know he's a heel!
Squash match victories by Larry Hamilton(never saw him before have no idea who he is.) The Fantastics had a damn good eight minute bout with Tony Faulk and Pat Rose. Buddy Landell/Dutch Mantell also won a tag bout. Dirty Rhodes quick victory! Solid show good wresting what a novel concept!
NWA Worldwide wrestling 1/25/86 Show starts with a Babydoll interview. Dusty is not on the show this week but Arn is still next. We do get a interview with Dusty's orthopedic surgeon who says he no longer needs to wear his steel toed boot as his ankle has healed after being broken four months previous by the Horsemen.
One other thing of note During a tag bout with Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard Babydoll again comes out running down JJ Dillon for being the scum of the earth, Dillon shows up and threatens to slap her like Blanchard had done. Because he knows Dusty is not there! But curses foiled again as Boogie Woogie comes to save the day as JJ runs scurrying away! Speaking of Jimmy Valiant during his squash with Vernon Deaton he threw ole Vernon out between the ropes He sails out of the ring and hits the concrete floor so damn hard the crowd gasped!(you gotta see this) Jimmy rolls him gingerly back in the ring and hits the gentlest elbow drop for the pin you have ever seen! Arn and Tully hit poor Rocky King with a top rope gourdbuster. It looked scary as hell!
Mid-south wrestling Tv 1/26/86 The 1st 15 minutes are spent recapping events from January(the reason given being to update new fans in the Mid-South tv market as new towns/stations get the show.) The have in ring interviews by Terry Taylor, and "Captain Redneck" Dick Murdoch.
A Mid-South tag team Title bout is next with champions "DR Death" Steve Williams and Ted Dibiase facing former champions The Nightmare( Moondog Rex) and "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert with their manager "Sir" Oliver Humperdink. Standard tag match very quick for a title match. The heels got the heat on Doc early(makes sense because when you think" babyface in Peril" you think Doc!) Match finish is Dibiase has the Nightmare in an O'Connor roll, Gilbert comes in to clothesline him, but Ted sees him coming ducks out of the way. Gilbert gets punched in the face by Williams. Dibiase maintains the rollup and gets the pin!
Dick Slater has a in-ring interview He says he wants Roberts TV title to go along with his North American Championship. Roberts comes out and says he wants a shot a Slater's belt as well. Dick says he will wrestle Jake anytime, but the DDT must be banned in the match! Roberts says ok as long as Slater's valet(and real life girlfriend)Dark Journey is banned too. Jake says she's trash. Well a man cannot take that a brawl breaks out. Journey sprays some sort of black stuff in Jake's face. He is in great pain and blind and Delivers a DDT to Journey thinking she is Slater! Slater goes crazy covering Dark Journey with his body screaming! Well done angle here folks! There were squash match victories by The Fabulous Ones and Buzz Sawyer. Plus Dick Murdoch /Masked Superstar lost via DQ vs Al Perez and Bret Sawyer for using a chair.
Bill Dundee defended the AWA Southern Title against a very young Tracy Smothers. Winning by hitting him with a chain because you know he's a heel!
Squash match victories by Larry Hamilton(never saw him before have no idea who he is.) The Fantastics had a damn good eight minute bout with Tony Faulk and Pat Rose. Buddy Landell/Dutch Mantell also won a tag bout. Dirty Rhodes quick victory! Solid show good wresting what a novel concept!
NWA Worldwide wrestling 1/25/86 Show starts with a Babydoll interview. Dusty is not on the show this week but Arn is still next. We do get a interview with Dusty's orthopedic surgeon who says he no longer needs to wear his steel toed boot as his ankle has healed after being broken four months previous by the Horsemen.
One other thing of note During a tag bout with Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard Babydoll again comes out running down JJ Dillon for being the scum of the earth, Dillon shows up and threatens to slap her like Blanchard had done. Because he knows Dusty is not there! But curses foiled again as Boogie Woogie comes to save the day as JJ runs scurrying away! Speaking of Jimmy Valiant during his squash with Vernon Deaton he threw ole Vernon out between the ropes He sails out of the ring and hits the concrete floor so damn hard the crowd gasped!(you gotta see this) Jimmy rolls him gingerly back in the ring and hits the gentlest elbow drop for the pin you have ever seen! Arn and Tully hit poor Rocky King with a top rope gourdbuster. It looked scary as hell!
Mid-south wrestling Tv 1/26/86 The 1st 15 minutes are spent recapping events from January(the reason given being to update new fans in the Mid-South tv market as new towns/stations get the show.) The have in ring interviews by Terry Taylor, and "Captain Redneck" Dick Murdoch.
A Mid-South tag team Title bout is next with champions "DR Death" Steve Williams and Ted Dibiase facing former champions The Nightmare( Moondog Rex) and "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert with their manager "Sir" Oliver Humperdink. Standard tag match very quick for a title match. The heels got the heat on Doc early(makes sense because when you think" babyface in Peril" you think Doc!) Match finish is Dibiase has the Nightmare in an O'Connor roll, Gilbert comes in to clothesline him, but Ted sees him coming ducks out of the way. Gilbert gets punched in the face by Williams. Dibiase maintains the rollup and gets the pin!
Dick Slater has a in-ring interview He says he wants Roberts TV title to go along with his North American Championship. Roberts comes out and says he wants a shot a Slater's belt as well. Dick says he will wrestle Jake anytime, but the DDT must be banned in the match! Roberts says ok as long as Slater's valet(and real life girlfriend)Dark Journey is banned too. Jake says she's trash. Well a man cannot take that a brawl breaks out. Journey sprays some sort of black stuff in Jake's face. He is in great pain and blind and Delivers a DDT to Journey thinking she is Slater! Slater goes crazy covering Dark Journey with his body screaming! Well done angle here folks! There were squash match victories by The Fabulous Ones and Buzz Sawyer. Plus Dick Murdoch /Masked Superstar lost via DQ vs Al Perez and Bret Sawyer for using a chair.
Saturday, February 18, 2017
AJPW 1/25/86
AJPW 1/25/86 Mill Mascaras vs Mighty Inoue In my somewhat limited viewing of Mill Mascaras bouts this is the best bout I've seen him have. He gave a ton of offense to Inoue! They exchanged arm drags and Pulling their opponents arms behind their backs in the "Surfboard" position(a standard move in Lucha).The matwork and transitions in this match were crisp and wonderfully pulled off. The two exchanged smashing the other's head into the ringside table at one point. Inoue attempted the Mascaras flying "cross chop", Mill ducked and Inoue went hurdling out over the top rope. Mascaras quickly took advantage of the miscue by hitting a beautiful cross body on Inoue from inside the ring to the floor. Finish saw Mascaras jump over Inoue who was on his stomach leap(I guess)to the 2nd turnbuckle on the inside and hit Inoue with his famous backwards Cross Body block for the win!
Match #2 Tenyru and Tiger Mask vs Great Kabuki and Ashura Hara Joined in progress As we join the bout Hara is being worked over. Soon Kabuki comes in without a tag and gives Tenryu a thrust kick that gives the advantage to his team. Hara throws him outside the ring, and whips him into the barricade. Picks up a chair and uses it twice once on Tenryu's throat and once across his back. Tenryu manages to escape the Hara sleeperhold by reaching behind him and flipping Hara over his head. Tenryu hits a dropkick throws Hara outside, tags Tiger Mask who promply springs of the ropes flies over them flawlessly and hits Hara with a perfect flying crossbody. Smashing his body and skull against the guardrail thus turning the tide for the third time in 5 minutes. The heels eventually get Tiger worn down and beat him up for several minutes. Cutting him off repeatedly when he tries to make a comeback. Kabuki has him down and attempts his famous walk-the-ropes karate thrust but as he is about to hit the move Tenryu hits a perfect head kick (I have no idea how to spell the Japanese term I searched for thirty minutes!) With Kabuki on his knees Tiger Mask climbs up top. As he is flying thru the air Kabuki sprays him with the "green mist"in the face! Forcing the ref to call for a DQ! Kabuki hits Tenryu with a 2nd round of mist and a all out brawl breaks loose as Kabuki tries to rip of the mask of the cartoon hero! Hara is choking Tenryu half to death while all this is happening. A wild scene indeed!
Match #3 Animal Hamaguchi and Riki Choshu vs Jumbo Tsuruta vs Takashi Ishikawa Choshu came to the ring with the left side of his rib cage heavily taped. Match starts super fast(as you might expect with the heat of this feud no feeling out needed!) All four square of center ring before the bell Choshu ducks a Tsuruta elbow and hits a stiff lariat sending Jumbo to the floor. Choshu posts Tsuruta then goes back in to help Hamaguchi double team Ishikawa. They beat him down until he manages a back suplex and tags a highly pissed off Jumbo. He takes control until he gives a tag back to Ishikawa who climbs to the top rope gets cutoff by Choshu who promptly superlexes him. Ishikawa gets spike pile driven and suffers 2 stiff(there are no other kind!) Choshu Lariats! Choshu then locks on his Scorpion Death Lock submission hold while Hamaguchi drops repeated elbows on a lifeless Ishikawa! Jumbo can take the blatant double team no longer grabs a chair from ringside and goes berserk! Hitting both of his foes multiple times! They return the favor by giving Hamaguchi a spike piledriver on the floor. Jumbo gets disqualified for shoving the ref out of the ring Yoshiaki Yatsu runs in and attacks Tsuruta. Then Tenryu shows up and brawls with Yatsu! This was a very heated compelling mess of a bout, Massively entertaining feud however!
Match #2 Tenyru and Tiger Mask vs Great Kabuki and Ashura Hara Joined in progress As we join the bout Hara is being worked over. Soon Kabuki comes in without a tag and gives Tenryu a thrust kick that gives the advantage to his team. Hara throws him outside the ring, and whips him into the barricade. Picks up a chair and uses it twice once on Tenryu's throat and once across his back. Tenryu manages to escape the Hara sleeperhold by reaching behind him and flipping Hara over his head. Tenryu hits a dropkick throws Hara outside, tags Tiger Mask who promply springs of the ropes flies over them flawlessly and hits Hara with a perfect flying crossbody. Smashing his body and skull against the guardrail thus turning the tide for the third time in 5 minutes. The heels eventually get Tiger worn down and beat him up for several minutes. Cutting him off repeatedly when he tries to make a comeback. Kabuki has him down and attempts his famous walk-the-ropes karate thrust but as he is about to hit the move Tenryu hits a perfect head kick (I have no idea how to spell the Japanese term I searched for thirty minutes!) With Kabuki on his knees Tiger Mask climbs up top. As he is flying thru the air Kabuki sprays him with the "green mist"in the face! Forcing the ref to call for a DQ! Kabuki hits Tenryu with a 2nd round of mist and a all out brawl breaks loose as Kabuki tries to rip of the mask of the cartoon hero! Hara is choking Tenryu half to death while all this is happening. A wild scene indeed!
Match #3 Animal Hamaguchi and Riki Choshu vs Jumbo Tsuruta vs Takashi Ishikawa Choshu came to the ring with the left side of his rib cage heavily taped. Match starts super fast(as you might expect with the heat of this feud no feeling out needed!) All four square of center ring before the bell Choshu ducks a Tsuruta elbow and hits a stiff lariat sending Jumbo to the floor. Choshu posts Tsuruta then goes back in to help Hamaguchi double team Ishikawa. They beat him down until he manages a back suplex and tags a highly pissed off Jumbo. He takes control until he gives a tag back to Ishikawa who climbs to the top rope gets cutoff by Choshu who promptly superlexes him. Ishikawa gets spike pile driven and suffers 2 stiff(there are no other kind!) Choshu Lariats! Choshu then locks on his Scorpion Death Lock submission hold while Hamaguchi drops repeated elbows on a lifeless Ishikawa! Jumbo can take the blatant double team no longer grabs a chair from ringside and goes berserk! Hitting both of his foes multiple times! They return the favor by giving Hamaguchi a spike piledriver on the floor. Jumbo gets disqualified for shoving the ref out of the ring Yoshiaki Yatsu runs in and attacks Tsuruta. Then Tenryu shows up and brawls with Yatsu! This was a very heated compelling mess of a bout, Massively entertaining feud however!
WWF house show Capitol Center Landover Maryland 1/18/86, WWF Prime Time Wrestling 1/120/86 AWA six-man tag bout Stephens Point WI 1-24/86
WWF house show, Capitol Centre Landover Maryland 1/18/86 1st match of 6 on the card, Rene Goulet vs SD Jones Not bad for an opener some comedy in the beginning with Jones using his movement to make Goulet look silly. Goulet raked the eyes several times. Goulet used a bear hug for the rest hold. Goulet did the upside-down flip bumb in the corner. Then got crotched on the ropes! SD ducked a clothesline and picked up the win with a headbutt in about 12 minutes!
Match #2 George Wells vs Barry O One Word can describe this match: STALLING! Barry was a master at that craft during this bout. Rumor was he could be a pain in the backside because he thought he could/should've been a major heel star! I know this after 3 minutes I wanted him to get hit by a cement truck! Wells finally won after a nice football shoulder tackle(he was a big star in the Canadian Football League so he knew what he was doing no doubt!)
Match #3 Randy Savage vs Scott McGee The pace and import of any show picks up the moment the "Macho Man" of the era shows up! Savage starts out by almost coming to blows with Gorilla Monsoon doing commentary at ringside with "his lordship" Alfred Hayes. He knocks Monsoon's headset off. Gorilla stands up(if this was planned Gino did a great job really seeming upset for a moment!) Cooler heads prevailed at the bout got underway. The pace and flow of this match leave the first two bouts in the shade! Savage at one point had McGee hurt and goes outside grabs a fan's popcorn bag and shoves in Scotty's face! Scotty soon returns the favor as Savage is upside down hanging by one leg in the corner McGee shoves what's left of the bag in his face. Savage holds on to the ropes to counter an O'Connor roll attempt. When McGee comes up Savage explodes on him with a-hook-in-ladder clothesline. Then goes up and hits his high elbow for the pin! A tremendous showcase for Savage here who at this point was on the shortlist for best worker in the world!
Match #4 Terry Funk vs Danny Spivey This match like the last one is a shining example of what a world class heel can do! Funk threatens Ring announcer Mel Phillips out the outset, and Monsoon again. After the match starts Funk is feeding Spivey and bumping all over creation for him. Multiple bodyslams and arm drags(one looked like Funk landed right on the point of his shoulder, scary!) Funk finally gets the heat by piledriving Spivey on the floor! A very uncommon bump in WWF in 1986 the crowd gasp was very audible! Funk took a back suplex and Spivey's bulldog but got his foot over the rope at two. Funk went for a backdrop Spivey countered with a sunset flip but the savvy veteran from the double cross ranch rolled thru stacked Danny up on his shoulders and got the win! Afterwards to give the kid more spotlight Spivey chased off Funk with his own branding iron!
Match #5 The British Bulldogs vs the Hart Foundation This was pretty damn close to tag team perfection! These four men knew each other extremely well from their time together in Stampede Wrestling and it shows! Close tight realistic looking moves. The crowd was into this the whole way. Bret Hart took a slingshot into the turnbuckles early on and a face first whip into them later that looked very stiff! They were given time here to have the ebbs and flows of a main event bout. Both Bulldogs had the heat on them at one point. The classic front face lock struggle for the tag spot was done. Where Dynamite Kid works and pushes to make it to his partner, but the ref gets distracted by Bret Hart at the last possible moment so misses the tag and therefore will not allow it. The Closing sequence was this there was chaos on the outside where Davey Boy and Jim "the Anvil are brawling, Meanwhile inside the Ring Dynamite Kid delivers a bone jarring Superplex off the top rope to Bret Hart, but knocks himself silly as well. Their partners make it back into the ring still going at it. The Ref manages to get in between them and makes Davey Boy go back to his corner. While the Ref's back is turned Neidhart runs over drags Bret on top of Dynamite ref turns around looks down and counts the fall! If you have never seen these four together, WATCH THIS MATCH!
Match #6 Don Muraco vs Ricky Steamboat Good bout here felt a but rushed however. Muraco does the stall bit for a few minutes, but Steamboat explodes on him when they lock up with chops and a good powerslam. Sending Muraco out of the ring on top of the announce desk. Don gets the advantage soon enough and Steamboat is just bumping all over the damn place taking a series of clothesline/bodyslam combos. The "Dragon"was so angry that the ref had to by force pull him off muraco several times. Steamboat hits a chop off the top rope, Muraco falls face first in a big muscled up heap. His manager Mr. Fuji jumps up on the apron, Steamboat goes after him and grabs his cane. Fuji Escapes and while the ref is trying to take the cane from Ricky, Fuji goes around the ring and slips Muraco an "Object." When a unsuspecting "Dragon" picks up Muraco he gets nailed with said object! 1-2-3 your Winner the man from sunset beach Hawaii Don Muraco! Very good house show all together.
WWF Prime Time Wrestling 1/20/86 With Gorilla Monson and Jesse Ventura 1st bout from MSG Lanny Poffo vs "Adorable" Adrian Adonis. Poffo got two really nice near falls in the match. One with a one footed backflip into a pin. The second with a nicely executed "Brisco" roll in the corner. Adrian did pick up the victory after he side-stepped Poffo coming into the corner and hit a flying bulldog headlock for the win.
Next up from the Vault a 1983 IC title defense by champ Don Muraco vs Rocky Johnson from MSG. Started out very slow with Johnson going to double leg grapevine three separate times. Muraco put his foot over the ropes once to save his title, then Rocky hit him with a hard right hand and this time Muraco managed to grab the ropes right before the three count. Johnson got the sleeper on Muraco three separate times the 1st two instances Muraco escaped the third time Rocky had him center ring looking for all the world like the WWF had a new IC champ then........ the 11 o'clock curfew bell rang!(yes you read that correctly the Garden had a curfew so folks could catch the last train home) you talk about a finish that would not hold with the modern audience today! So Muraco kept the title with the help of the city of New York! Next up a Gene Okerlund interview with King Kong Bundy. Bundy claimed to be the king of the casino's in his hometown of Atlantic City NY! To continue the theme of things you know longer see: A Midget match Haiti Kid vs Butch Cassidy There were your standard comedy spots of course but their was also very solid wrestling. Haiti Kid threw a mean open handed chop. Cassidy did a nice backdrop and a move combo I've never seen before. He picked up Haiti Kid in a over the shoulder backbreaker position walked around the ring with him and hit a tremendous looking shoulder breaker! The end came when both men were doing a crisscross spot, Butch Cassidy dropped on all fours, Haiti kid hooked his legs in Cassidy's arms and rolled him over/up for the pin! Best line of the show,we go back to the desk where Monsoon says "you know Jess I used that very same move a number of times in my career to win matches." Jessie says "against midgets"? I laughed out loud! Next up an Adrian Adonis skit from TNT(Tuesday Night Titans) where he gets a facial or makeover or some such bullshit! I skipped it give me some credit!
Next match Ray "the Crippler" Stevens vs Tony Garea At the time of this bout Stevens was 46 or 47 old (1982) another vault classic. No matter he still "bumped" all over the place! From the mid 60's thru the mid 70's Stevens was considered by many to be the best "worker" in the world! By this point in 82 he was older and much slower but still could go. Garea got most of the offense thru the match, but Stephens got his hand raised by rolling thru a Garea crossbody counter attempt and gaining the fall!
Main event Valentine/Beefcake defend the tag championships against Hillbilly Jim and Uncle Elmer(God grant me the strength.) Thank God this bout was very short. Elmer had Beefcake in a bearhug Hillbilly Jim was distracted by Johnny V on the ring apron. Valentine went up to the top rope and came off with a "Hammer" to the top of ole Uncle's head and Brutus fell on him for the pin! Midgets easily best wrestling on the show!
AWA six-man tag From Stephens Point WI 1/24/86 Boris Zhukof, Nord the Barbarian and the Mongolian Stomper vs Jerry Blackwell, Sgt. Slaughter and Curt Henning The AWA seemed to do these 6-man brawls fairly well. Match started off with the heels being dumb(that's okay they are heels after all!) and getting stuck in the face corner and beat on 2-on-1! Blackwell was so damn over every time he got a tag a wild cheer came from the crowd. Heels briefly got the heat on sarge when he did his famous "flew over the turnbuckle head smashed the ring post "spot." he bladed. Match ended on a dq as during a six way brawl Blackwell pulled Sheik Ad-non-el-kassy in the ring! Crowd loved every bit of this!
Match #2 George Wells vs Barry O One Word can describe this match: STALLING! Barry was a master at that craft during this bout. Rumor was he could be a pain in the backside because he thought he could/should've been a major heel star! I know this after 3 minutes I wanted him to get hit by a cement truck! Wells finally won after a nice football shoulder tackle(he was a big star in the Canadian Football League so he knew what he was doing no doubt!)
Match #3 Randy Savage vs Scott McGee The pace and import of any show picks up the moment the "Macho Man" of the era shows up! Savage starts out by almost coming to blows with Gorilla Monsoon doing commentary at ringside with "his lordship" Alfred Hayes. He knocks Monsoon's headset off. Gorilla stands up(if this was planned Gino did a great job really seeming upset for a moment!) Cooler heads prevailed at the bout got underway. The pace and flow of this match leave the first two bouts in the shade! Savage at one point had McGee hurt and goes outside grabs a fan's popcorn bag and shoves in Scotty's face! Scotty soon returns the favor as Savage is upside down hanging by one leg in the corner McGee shoves what's left of the bag in his face. Savage holds on to the ropes to counter an O'Connor roll attempt. When McGee comes up Savage explodes on him with a-hook-in-ladder clothesline. Then goes up and hits his high elbow for the pin! A tremendous showcase for Savage here who at this point was on the shortlist for best worker in the world!
Match #4 Terry Funk vs Danny Spivey This match like the last one is a shining example of what a world class heel can do! Funk threatens Ring announcer Mel Phillips out the outset, and Monsoon again. After the match starts Funk is feeding Spivey and bumping all over creation for him. Multiple bodyslams and arm drags(one looked like Funk landed right on the point of his shoulder, scary!) Funk finally gets the heat by piledriving Spivey on the floor! A very uncommon bump in WWF in 1986 the crowd gasp was very audible! Funk took a back suplex and Spivey's bulldog but got his foot over the rope at two. Funk went for a backdrop Spivey countered with a sunset flip but the savvy veteran from the double cross ranch rolled thru stacked Danny up on his shoulders and got the win! Afterwards to give the kid more spotlight Spivey chased off Funk with his own branding iron!
Match #5 The British Bulldogs vs the Hart Foundation This was pretty damn close to tag team perfection! These four men knew each other extremely well from their time together in Stampede Wrestling and it shows! Close tight realistic looking moves. The crowd was into this the whole way. Bret Hart took a slingshot into the turnbuckles early on and a face first whip into them later that looked very stiff! They were given time here to have the ebbs and flows of a main event bout. Both Bulldogs had the heat on them at one point. The classic front face lock struggle for the tag spot was done. Where Dynamite Kid works and pushes to make it to his partner, but the ref gets distracted by Bret Hart at the last possible moment so misses the tag and therefore will not allow it. The Closing sequence was this there was chaos on the outside where Davey Boy and Jim "the Anvil are brawling, Meanwhile inside the Ring Dynamite Kid delivers a bone jarring Superplex off the top rope to Bret Hart, but knocks himself silly as well. Their partners make it back into the ring still going at it. The Ref manages to get in between them and makes Davey Boy go back to his corner. While the Ref's back is turned Neidhart runs over drags Bret on top of Dynamite ref turns around looks down and counts the fall! If you have never seen these four together, WATCH THIS MATCH!
Match #6 Don Muraco vs Ricky Steamboat Good bout here felt a but rushed however. Muraco does the stall bit for a few minutes, but Steamboat explodes on him when they lock up with chops and a good powerslam. Sending Muraco out of the ring on top of the announce desk. Don gets the advantage soon enough and Steamboat is just bumping all over the damn place taking a series of clothesline/bodyslam combos. The "Dragon"was so angry that the ref had to by force pull him off muraco several times. Steamboat hits a chop off the top rope, Muraco falls face first in a big muscled up heap. His manager Mr. Fuji jumps up on the apron, Steamboat goes after him and grabs his cane. Fuji Escapes and while the ref is trying to take the cane from Ricky, Fuji goes around the ring and slips Muraco an "Object." When a unsuspecting "Dragon" picks up Muraco he gets nailed with said object! 1-2-3 your Winner the man from sunset beach Hawaii Don Muraco! Very good house show all together.
WWF Prime Time Wrestling 1/20/86 With Gorilla Monson and Jesse Ventura 1st bout from MSG Lanny Poffo vs "Adorable" Adrian Adonis. Poffo got two really nice near falls in the match. One with a one footed backflip into a pin. The second with a nicely executed "Brisco" roll in the corner. Adrian did pick up the victory after he side-stepped Poffo coming into the corner and hit a flying bulldog headlock for the win.
Next up from the Vault a 1983 IC title defense by champ Don Muraco vs Rocky Johnson from MSG. Started out very slow with Johnson going to double leg grapevine three separate times. Muraco put his foot over the ropes once to save his title, then Rocky hit him with a hard right hand and this time Muraco managed to grab the ropes right before the three count. Johnson got the sleeper on Muraco three separate times the 1st two instances Muraco escaped the third time Rocky had him center ring looking for all the world like the WWF had a new IC champ then........ the 11 o'clock curfew bell rang!(yes you read that correctly the Garden had a curfew so folks could catch the last train home) you talk about a finish that would not hold with the modern audience today! So Muraco kept the title with the help of the city of New York! Next up a Gene Okerlund interview with King Kong Bundy. Bundy claimed to be the king of the casino's in his hometown of Atlantic City NY! To continue the theme of things you know longer see: A Midget match Haiti Kid vs Butch Cassidy There were your standard comedy spots of course but their was also very solid wrestling. Haiti Kid threw a mean open handed chop. Cassidy did a nice backdrop and a move combo I've never seen before. He picked up Haiti Kid in a over the shoulder backbreaker position walked around the ring with him and hit a tremendous looking shoulder breaker! The end came when both men were doing a crisscross spot, Butch Cassidy dropped on all fours, Haiti kid hooked his legs in Cassidy's arms and rolled him over/up for the pin! Best line of the show,we go back to the desk where Monsoon says "you know Jess I used that very same move a number of times in my career to win matches." Jessie says "against midgets"? I laughed out loud! Next up an Adrian Adonis skit from TNT(Tuesday Night Titans) where he gets a facial or makeover or some such bullshit! I skipped it give me some credit!
Next match Ray "the Crippler" Stevens vs Tony Garea At the time of this bout Stevens was 46 or 47 old (1982) another vault classic. No matter he still "bumped" all over the place! From the mid 60's thru the mid 70's Stevens was considered by many to be the best "worker" in the world! By this point in 82 he was older and much slower but still could go. Garea got most of the offense thru the match, but Stephens got his hand raised by rolling thru a Garea crossbody counter attempt and gaining the fall!
Main event Valentine/Beefcake defend the tag championships against Hillbilly Jim and Uncle Elmer(God grant me the strength.) Thank God this bout was very short. Elmer had Beefcake in a bearhug Hillbilly Jim was distracted by Johnny V on the ring apron. Valentine went up to the top rope and came off with a "Hammer" to the top of ole Uncle's head and Brutus fell on him for the pin! Midgets easily best wrestling on the show!
AWA six-man tag From Stephens Point WI 1/24/86 Boris Zhukof, Nord the Barbarian and the Mongolian Stomper vs Jerry Blackwell, Sgt. Slaughter and Curt Henning The AWA seemed to do these 6-man brawls fairly well. Match started off with the heels being dumb(that's okay they are heels after all!) and getting stuck in the face corner and beat on 2-on-1! Blackwell was so damn over every time he got a tag a wild cheer came from the crowd. Heels briefly got the heat on sarge when he did his famous "flew over the turnbuckle head smashed the ring post "spot." he bladed. Match ended on a dq as during a six way brawl Blackwell pulled Sheik Ad-non-el-kassy in the ring! Crowd loved every bit of this!
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Tv Reviews 1/18/86
Memphis TV 1/18/86 After Lance and Dave do the standard intro Bill Dundee comes to the desk and says he's sick of Russell awful commentary on his matches. So, instead he and Buddy Landell and Dutch Mantell went to Dundee's private screening room inside his home and laid down their own commentary track of his bout in Memphis with "Big Red" Reese! A genius unique funny super heel cocky way to get over! Mystery Science Theater 3000 for wrestling! The made fun of Reese's ring attire(he wore a green jumpsuit) Dundee said he couldn't tell if he was wrestling a whale or Kermit the Frog! The three men couldn't for the life of them think of "That guy who was here who used to wear that dumb crown" Landell said it was very hard being a sex symbol, at one point, I believe, Dutch was eating a sandwich!
The match ended when Mantell threw Dundee a chain(or as I call it a Memphis headlock because I think every guy brought one to the ring) he nails Reese and gets the win! When they come back to the desk Dundee says this is his show now and throws it to break(Lance looks bemused and dumbfounded)! That was one segment folks!
They promoted "A Date With the Fantastics" Essay contest, Landell interrupted and said That he didn't want the fantastics trying to take his women. He announced his own contest send him an 8x10 glossy and he would pick multiple winners himself! They will also receive a poster of Landell to hang over their beds so they have something to live for every morning! No great in-ring stuff to speak of really All squash bouts!
Mid-south wrestling 1/18/86 Lot of action on this program. It kicked of with a recap of Dick Slater beating Butch Reed on last week on TV to win the North American Heavyweight title.(If Reed had won Dark Journey was to be Reed's valet for 30 days). Slater won by hitting Reed with Journey's boot in the head. Slater did a in-ring interview where he stated that just because he was the North American champ now it was not going to stop him from winning his TV Title tourney final vs Jake Roberts. Giving him both of them.
Roberts became the new TV champ by hitting a DDT to counter a suplex. He got a medal not a belt, odd to me, but hey, it works. "Mad Dog" Buzz Sawyer was up next after he won his bout he was beating up the poor guy. Who comes to make the save?.....Butch Reed! They have a brief stare down bought to an end when Dick Murdoch attacks Reed from behind. Murdock throws reed outside and gives him his patented "BrainBuster" on the floor! The announcers Joel "how did I get this job?.......oh yeah that's how" Watts, and Jim Ross acted like Reed had been killed on national television. Was it a bit much?....maybe but it got that angle over huge!
Terry Taylor beat Lord Humungous with a top rope forearm(Let me see if I understand this right? you cant hurt Humongous by punching him due to his head gear, but a forearm off the ropes to the mask causes him to be pinned! HUH???) Eddie Gilbert won a match. Ricky Gibson Bret Sawyer and Al Perez won a six man. Ted Dibiase won a squash too, but was attacked by Murdoch from behind(he was a busy heel today). Masked Superstar joined the battle. "Doctor Death" Steve Williams came to help his Mid-south tag team championship partner in Dibiase! During the brawl the break away from a fight to so us a "Fabulous Ones" music video and that's how the show ends. All that in 46 minutes!
NWA Worldwide Wrestling 1/18/86 Easy review not a damn thing of any real import happened! The Russians were mad that the Road Warriors because they helped Sam Houston win the Mid-Atlantic title over their running buddy. Paul Jones announced his man the Barbarian's 10 thousand dollar test of strength challenge! Squash bouts won by Pez Whatley, Jimmy Valiant, Tully Blanchard, Ron Bass/Don Kernodle and The Midnight Express(Bobby Eaton hit a kneedrop off the top rope as hard as I've seen!) The RNR came out post match to brawl with the Midnight as the show went off the air!
NWA TBS 605 Saturday show 1/18/86 The big angle coming out of this show a Ronnie Gavin/Ric Flair brawl. Where Gavin knocks Flair "out" and sits on him giving the visual of pinning the World Champion. This was to build up the "Superstars on the Superstation" Special on Feb 7th 1986! A work it was just a taped card from the Omni)!My thanks to Dave Meltzer for answering my question via twitter!The segment started by Garvin coming out and the re-airing of a bout from 12/23/85(a damn fine bout by the way stiff shots a plenty!) Flair runs out sucker punches Garvin, Throws him in the ring beats him up suplexes him and sits on him(mocking the way "Hands of Stone" liked to pin his fallen opponents!) Flair climbs out of the ring and saunters over to brag to announcer David Crockett. Garvin Wakes up and comes over and tackles Flair (Legit knocking him into Crockett and busting or breaking his nose! Ronnie fires Flair in the ring and beats him from pillar to post. Until Blanchard and Anderson come out to make it 3-on1.Just as Flair is about to nail a held Garvin with his shoe out run Dusty, Magnum TA and Sam Houston! Flair whacks Houston in the head with the shoe! But, while he is distracted Gavin escapes from the clutches of Double A and Tully, thanks to Big Dust and Magnum, and punches flair in the head knocking him "Out"! Garvin brags about whopping the champ while Flair's limp body is carried from the ring by him comrades! A damn terrific segment/angle(and one I remembered every beat of it these 31 years later!!!
The match ended when Mantell threw Dundee a chain(or as I call it a Memphis headlock because I think every guy brought one to the ring) he nails Reese and gets the win! When they come back to the desk Dundee says this is his show now and throws it to break(Lance looks bemused and dumbfounded)! That was one segment folks!
They promoted "A Date With the Fantastics" Essay contest, Landell interrupted and said That he didn't want the fantastics trying to take his women. He announced his own contest send him an 8x10 glossy and he would pick multiple winners himself! They will also receive a poster of Landell to hang over their beds so they have something to live for every morning! No great in-ring stuff to speak of really All squash bouts!
Mid-south wrestling 1/18/86 Lot of action on this program. It kicked of with a recap of Dick Slater beating Butch Reed on last week on TV to win the North American Heavyweight title.(If Reed had won Dark Journey was to be Reed's valet for 30 days). Slater won by hitting Reed with Journey's boot in the head. Slater did a in-ring interview where he stated that just because he was the North American champ now it was not going to stop him from winning his TV Title tourney final vs Jake Roberts. Giving him both of them.
Roberts became the new TV champ by hitting a DDT to counter a suplex. He got a medal not a belt, odd to me, but hey, it works. "Mad Dog" Buzz Sawyer was up next after he won his bout he was beating up the poor guy. Who comes to make the save?.....Butch Reed! They have a brief stare down bought to an end when Dick Murdoch attacks Reed from behind. Murdock throws reed outside and gives him his patented "BrainBuster" on the floor! The announcers Joel "how did I get this job?.......oh yeah that's how" Watts, and Jim Ross acted like Reed had been killed on national television. Was it a bit much?....maybe but it got that angle over huge!
Terry Taylor beat Lord Humungous with a top rope forearm(Let me see if I understand this right? you cant hurt Humongous by punching him due to his head gear, but a forearm off the ropes to the mask causes him to be pinned! HUH???) Eddie Gilbert won a match. Ricky Gibson Bret Sawyer and Al Perez won a six man. Ted Dibiase won a squash too, but was attacked by Murdoch from behind(he was a busy heel today). Masked Superstar joined the battle. "Doctor Death" Steve Williams came to help his Mid-south tag team championship partner in Dibiase! During the brawl the break away from a fight to so us a "Fabulous Ones" music video and that's how the show ends. All that in 46 minutes!
NWA Worldwide Wrestling 1/18/86 Easy review not a damn thing of any real import happened! The Russians were mad that the Road Warriors because they helped Sam Houston win the Mid-Atlantic title over their running buddy. Paul Jones announced his man the Barbarian's 10 thousand dollar test of strength challenge! Squash bouts won by Pez Whatley, Jimmy Valiant, Tully Blanchard, Ron Bass/Don Kernodle and The Midnight Express(Bobby Eaton hit a kneedrop off the top rope as hard as I've seen!) The RNR came out post match to brawl with the Midnight as the show went off the air!
NWA TBS 605 Saturday show 1/18/86 The big angle coming out of this show a Ronnie Gavin/Ric Flair brawl. Where Gavin knocks Flair "out" and sits on him giving the visual of pinning the World Champion. This was to build up the "Superstars on the Superstation" Special on Feb 7th 1986! A work it was just a taped card from the Omni)!My thanks to Dave Meltzer for answering my question via twitter!The segment started by Garvin coming out and the re-airing of a bout from 12/23/85(a damn fine bout by the way stiff shots a plenty!) Flair runs out sucker punches Garvin, Throws him in the ring beats him up suplexes him and sits on him(mocking the way "Hands of Stone" liked to pin his fallen opponents!) Flair climbs out of the ring and saunters over to brag to announcer David Crockett. Garvin Wakes up and comes over and tackles Flair (Legit knocking him into Crockett and busting or breaking his nose! Ronnie fires Flair in the ring and beats him from pillar to post. Until Blanchard and Anderson come out to make it 3-on1.Just as Flair is about to nail a held Garvin with his shoe out run Dusty, Magnum TA and Sam Houston! Flair whacks Houston in the head with the shoe! But, while he is distracted Gavin escapes from the clutches of Double A and Tully, thanks to Big Dust and Magnum, and punches flair in the head knocking him "Out"! Garvin brags about whopping the champ while Flair's limp body is carried from the ring by him comrades! A damn terrific segment/angle(and one I remembered every beat of it these 31 years later!!!
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
AWA from Winnipeg Canada 1/16/86 four bouts.
AWA Card from Winnipeg Canada 1/16/86 Match #1 "Big" Scott Hall(Verne spent days on that nickname I bet!) VS Anthony "Earthquake" Ferris. Very basic match here. They did your very elementary "big man" Match. Hall powered out of Ferris's go behind attempt. They tacked each other mid-ring, Ferris went for it again and Hall used the drop toe hold to get the mountain to the canvas. Hall won a fairly easy squash after Earthquake missed him in the corner. He turned into a bodyslam(a good show of power by Hall as Ferris was a bulky 350lbs) and took Hall hit a legdrop for the pin. Hall cut a standard "white meat" babyface promo post match saying he wanted champion Hansen, and that he and tag partner Curt Henning were coming after tag gold! It was obvious that Verne Gagne(booker and GOD overlord of the AWA) had huge plans for Hall. Scott would reach huge heights in wrestling just not for Verne.
Match #2 AWA Ladies Championship bout As Champ Sherri Martel faces Candi Divine. Martel did a pre-match interview where she outright flirted with interviewer Ken Resnick and said Candi was a dumb hick bleach blond who couldn't even talk! These two women wrestled each other I'm(guessing here)thousands of times. You can tell their is just natural chemistry between the two! Sherri screaming like only she could while in a body scissors is something you have to hear, friendly tip turn your sound down! Divine did the old rolling body scissors as well. Martel threw Candi out of the ring at one point and hit her with a chair shot to the spine! Unheard of for most ladies matches at the time. Candi Devine won the title again by ducking under a clothesline and hitting a crossbody for the win! Solid match here it seems dated now in 2017 when women do so much more, but the crowed popped big with the title change!
Match #3 AWA World tag team title bout The Road Warriors vs "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin and "MR Electricity" Steve Regal! The match was joined in progress. As we join the action the LOD are beating Garvin from pillar to post. Regal makes the tag and they beat on him for a while. There was a unique spot where Regal was in a front face lock and walked backwards to his corner. Garvin sees this happen and walks away down the apron fussing over his hair while regal is trying desperately to make the blind tag! As he is getting dragged back to mid-ring Gavin runs back to the corner! A great chicken-shit heel heat spot. After a ref bump Animal gave Garvin an over-the shoulder powerslam off the top rope. The ref was knocked out so Hawk counted the pin! After that the video cut off so I assume the decision was a double DQ! This was the only way to protect both teams as The warriors were working for Crockett at this point, neither team could/should lose!
Match 4 there are main events, then there are MAIN EVENTS! This belongs in the latter category as Ric Flair faces Nick Bockweinkel (two of the reasons I fell in love with wrestling as a child)! I have never seen this so I am pumped! It was good it was by no means a classic. I think they called most in the ring during the bout! They pulled it off for the most part but there was a lot of multiple pin attempts so they could figure out the next spot! Nick was the clear face here(makes sense Winnipeg was the AWA's northern boundary I believe so Bockweinkel was their guy. He put Flair in a figure four, as Flair did Nick as well. Bockweinkel used his patented sleeper hold twice but the master of the Woooooooo got to the ropes both times! The end was a double countout(not a chance in hell of a clean pin between these two!) They did a very clumsy both tumble over the top rope spot! The height between the apron and the floor in Winnipeg was quite high the tumble could have been very very bad! As I said no all-time classic, but well worth the time and effort to see!
Match #2 AWA Ladies Championship bout As Champ Sherri Martel faces Candi Divine. Martel did a pre-match interview where she outright flirted with interviewer Ken Resnick and said Candi was a dumb hick bleach blond who couldn't even talk! These two women wrestled each other I'm(guessing here)thousands of times. You can tell their is just natural chemistry between the two! Sherri screaming like only she could while in a body scissors is something you have to hear, friendly tip turn your sound down! Divine did the old rolling body scissors as well. Martel threw Candi out of the ring at one point and hit her with a chair shot to the spine! Unheard of for most ladies matches at the time. Candi Devine won the title again by ducking under a clothesline and hitting a crossbody for the win! Solid match here it seems dated now in 2017 when women do so much more, but the crowed popped big with the title change!
Match #3 AWA World tag team title bout The Road Warriors vs "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin and "MR Electricity" Steve Regal! The match was joined in progress. As we join the action the LOD are beating Garvin from pillar to post. Regal makes the tag and they beat on him for a while. There was a unique spot where Regal was in a front face lock and walked backwards to his corner. Garvin sees this happen and walks away down the apron fussing over his hair while regal is trying desperately to make the blind tag! As he is getting dragged back to mid-ring Gavin runs back to the corner! A great chicken-shit heel heat spot. After a ref bump Animal gave Garvin an over-the shoulder powerslam off the top rope. The ref was knocked out so Hawk counted the pin! After that the video cut off so I assume the decision was a double DQ! This was the only way to protect both teams as The warriors were working for Crockett at this point, neither team could/should lose!
Match 4 there are main events, then there are MAIN EVENTS! This belongs in the latter category as Ric Flair faces Nick Bockweinkel (two of the reasons I fell in love with wrestling as a child)! I have never seen this so I am pumped! It was good it was by no means a classic. I think they called most in the ring during the bout! They pulled it off for the most part but there was a lot of multiple pin attempts so they could figure out the next spot! Nick was the clear face here(makes sense Winnipeg was the AWA's northern boundary I believe so Bockweinkel was their guy. He put Flair in a figure four, as Flair did Nick as well. Bockweinkel used his patented sleeper hold twice but the master of the Woooooooo got to the ropes both times! The end was a double countout(not a chance in hell of a clean pin between these two!) They did a very clumsy both tumble over the top rope spot! The height between the apron and the floor in Winnipeg was quite high the tumble could have been very very bad! As I said no all-time classic, but well worth the time and effort to see!
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
All Japan Pro Wrestling 1/14/86
AJPW 1/14/86 Four bouts will be reviewed in the blog entry. Match #1 Tiger Mask/Haru Sonoda vs Kuniaki Kobayashi/Norio Honaga. I was let down by this match a bit, I gotta be honest! In the 7 and a half minutes we get to see(it was joined in progress) it was kinda sloppy and just there really! Kobayashi and Tiger Mask had spectacular chemistry and a great singles feud, but it didn't feel like that in this tag bout! Tiger did do a beauty of a high-crossbody but not much else to report. Kobayshi and Honaga won when he reversed a simple small package to score the pin over Sonoda. The other members of both teams were fighting on the floor at the time of the fall.
Match #2 Mill Mascaras vs Fuimihiro Niikura (bet you can't figure out who won this match) They showed Mascaras's long full entrance but cut several minutes out of the bout! The most interesting thing in this match happened during that ring entrance. The fans were so jubilant that the masked legend barley made it to the ring in one piece. He looked shaken/pissed off when he made it in the ring! Basic Mascaras bout as he did two surf boards and did not sell a damn thing this kid did to him for more than a half a second! Easy crossbody for the win!
Match #3 Isamu Teranishi/Riki Choshu vs Jumbo Tsuruta./Takashi Ishikawa For 14 minutes the match was wild told a compelling story and was action packed and brilliant! Tsuruta attacked Choshu before the opening bell with a chair busting him open and forcing the ring attendants to take him to the dressing room! Yoshiaki Yatsu then appeared and demanded he take Choshu's place! It was agreed to and the match legally began. Every time Yatsu and Jumbo touched it was a brawl! Oddly enough the bout ended when both men were calmly on the ring apron. As Ishikawa countered a body slam attempt by Teranishi with a beautiful backslide for the victory. Their were two separate pull apart brawls post match, Plus Jumbo and Yatsu getting on different house mics and making bodily harm threats(A reasonable assumption on my part I believe!) Just great stuff all the way around! If you have not seen this match Go to the All Japan Archive on Google share and find it!
The final bout of the evening Barry Windham/Mike Rotunda vs Giant Baba and Tenryu! A solid tag bout with several false finishes. Windham worked well with Baba for the most part, not an easy feat at this point! Baba sold a double dropkick like he was dead on the outside! All four ended up outside for the standard double countout(translation we don't want to beat anybody!)
Worth the time to see Jumbo and Choshu go at it!
Match #2 Mill Mascaras vs Fuimihiro Niikura (bet you can't figure out who won this match) They showed Mascaras's long full entrance but cut several minutes out of the bout! The most interesting thing in this match happened during that ring entrance. The fans were so jubilant that the masked legend barley made it to the ring in one piece. He looked shaken/pissed off when he made it in the ring! Basic Mascaras bout as he did two surf boards and did not sell a damn thing this kid did to him for more than a half a second! Easy crossbody for the win!
Match #3 Isamu Teranishi/Riki Choshu vs Jumbo Tsuruta./Takashi Ishikawa For 14 minutes the match was wild told a compelling story and was action packed and brilliant! Tsuruta attacked Choshu before the opening bell with a chair busting him open and forcing the ring attendants to take him to the dressing room! Yoshiaki Yatsu then appeared and demanded he take Choshu's place! It was agreed to and the match legally began. Every time Yatsu and Jumbo touched it was a brawl! Oddly enough the bout ended when both men were calmly on the ring apron. As Ishikawa countered a body slam attempt by Teranishi with a beautiful backslide for the victory. Their were two separate pull apart brawls post match, Plus Jumbo and Yatsu getting on different house mics and making bodily harm threats(A reasonable assumption on my part I believe!) Just great stuff all the way around! If you have not seen this match Go to the All Japan Archive on Google share and find it!
The final bout of the evening Barry Windham/Mike Rotunda vs Giant Baba and Tenryu! A solid tag bout with several false finishes. Windham worked well with Baba for the most part, not an easy feat at this point! Baba sold a double dropkick like he was dead on the outside! All four ended up outside for the standard double countout(translation we don't want to beat anybody!)
Worth the time to see Jumbo and Choshu go at it!
Monday, February 13, 2017
An AWA bout and a partial Philly Spectum WWF house show Jan/11/86-AWA title Stan hansen vs sgt Slaughter 1/12/86
Jan/11/1986 Rockford IL AWA six-man-tag Curt Henning, Marty Jannettty, and Buck(Incesting Child Molesting)Zumhofe vs Boris(Don't call me Private Nelson)Zhukov), Nord the Barbarian and The Mongolian Stomper! The match is only 10 minutes long, It may take longer to type then watch #BloggerProblems Anyway The heels won an okay brawl, Buck went into the heel corner to do his backwards splash finish and Ole Nord clubbed him he went down and Zhukof Pinned him(servers the moron right for going in the wrong corner! I cannot stand this idiot his in ring was silly and his actions outside of the ring are so hideous I don't want to write about them! He is rotting in prison were he deserves to be and I pray getting beaten to a pulp!)
This bout is worth seeing for one spot, Barbarian hits Jannetty with a picture perfect dropkick on the button! the crowd was in awe as was I! That guy could move folks!
Philly spectrum house show 1/11/86 Matches missing are Ron Shaw vs Danny Spivey, Hercules vs SD Jones and Brian Blair vs Jim Neidhart.(missing those 3 beauties is not going to keep me awake tonight tossing and turning with regret, Let me assure you!
1st match "Adorable" Adrian Adonis vs Tony Atlas I gotta say I love wrestling and I realize times change and era's get dated But Adonis's over the top swishy "gay" act is cringeworthy and embarrassing to watch! Their wasn't much to the match Adonis got the victory. They started with some homophobic "Comedy" spots. Adrian draping his ribbons on the ring attendant, and rubbing atlas's chest on a break. Adrian hit him with a good back suplex to get the heat. The finish was botched a bit. Atlas missed a corner splash, Adrian went for the pin. Ref counted two Atlas draped his foot over the bottom rope.Adonis knocked it off and the ref restarted the count and got three. Tony rolled out of the ring and went quickly to the dressing room. He seemed legit upset.
Match #2 King Tonga(aka Haku aka Meng) vs Tiger Chung Le. Tonga won a very basic match Chung Le got the heat then clapped on the dreaded "Nerve" Hold! Tonga fought back Slamming Chung Le of the ropes(why must large heels try to fly?) hitting a leg drop. Then a backdrop and "flying" headbutt to secure the win! (side note: The announcer Dick Graham said at the beginning of this segment the attendance was over 19 thousand people! I hope for the sake of the crowd the 3 matches I didn't see were better than the two I have seen!)
Your commentators for the evening were "Lord" Alfred Hayes and as always at the Spectrum Dick Graham He was legend for being heartfelt enthusiastic and being very bad at his job! Example in the last bout he referred to King Tonga as the Tonga Kid 6 times (I counted) Lord God almighty I can deal with him not knowing technical jargon but for the love of God learn their names!
Match 3 of 6 The Main Event, WWE still does this to this day many times the big match is mid card. A handicapped match with Andre the Giant and Champ Hulk Hogan vs Big John Studd, King Kong Bundy and Bobby Heenan.(A pure wrestling showcase no doubt) All kidding aside, for the moment this was the perfect WWF main event for the era! Heenan Got on the house mic during introductions and reminded the good people of Philly he was "MANAGER OF THE YEAR" Andre took the mic (I mean who was gonna stop him!) and said Heenan was "WEASEL OF THE YEAR"! The place went nuts! Early on Studd took bodyslams from both the Giant and Hogan. The heels got heat on Andre for a few minutes by Studd kicking him on a backdrop attempt. Heenan got the tag allowing Hogan to make the tag. Hogan went for a bodyslam of Bundy Heenan ran in and pushed Bundy over on Hogan. Thus the second heat spot in a 15 minute match! A five-way brawl broke out.Andre Hit Bobby with the big boot end of match! (Andre and Hogan had on matching yellow tights/boots why? To confuse the heels?) Not much wrestling to speak of but a tremendous spectacle of a main event!
match #4 Ivan Putski vs Bret Hart. This had to have been a rib. One of the best workers on earth against possibly the worst Main event star level worker ever! Putski Had more charisma in his pinkie than most guys ever! Ring work horrible but my God that man was over! I take nothing away from him! Nothing Match Hart won when he scooped Putski's Legs out from under him put his feet on the bottom rope, the ref looked right at the feet and counted the pin anyway!
I think we may get our 1st good match here as match 5 is Don Muraco vs Ricky Steamboat in a no DQ no countout Judo Jacket match! I was right this was very good indeed! Match started with Muraco being hampered by the gee(or jacket)if you like. Steamboat tossing him all over the place using the gee for leverage. Steamboat choked him with it(years before Royce Gracie)! Muraco Got the heat by hitting steamboat with a Samoan Drop grabbing a chair a delivering his patented Tombstone Piledriver on to it. Steamboat "Bladed" and played dead for several minutes while Don proceeded to beat the shit out of him! The crowd was into this one folks. End came when Muraco went for a second tombstone and Steamboat countered into a O'Connor roll for the victory! Muraco got his heat back post match when he attacked Ricky from behind tied him by the gee belt into the turnbuckles and hit him repeatedly with Fuji's cane! This match made me happy to be a fan again!
Final match of the show WWF Tag title bout as the British Bulldogs square off vs the Champs Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake. This should be great three great workers and Brutus Beefcake! Was no where near as good as it could have been. Very rushed for time.The champs got disqualified when their manger Johnny Valliant ran into break up a pin on Beefcake. The bout was no more than 7 minutes long, a real shame. This deserved much better! Go out of you way to see Steamboat/Muraco the rest is not much! (unless you like bad wresting)! I kinda do, I mean I have seen TNA!
1/12/86 St Paul Minn Sargent Slaughter vs AWA world champ Stan "the Lariat" Hansen! Personal note Stan Hansen and Ric Flair are in an eternal tie for my favorite wrestler ever! Before the match two Hansen interviews that are nuts and compelling at the same time! He says to the Sarge "You talk about GI Joe and Cobra(Slaughter was a character on the Saturday Morning Cartoon at this point.)This ain't about no little boys toys, this is about this title and beating people up"! The match was two big dudes hitting the over very hard!Hansen retained via count out. Slaughter Had Hansen in the Cobra clutch while he was on the apron but Hansen was in the ring, thus the countout!
This bout is worth seeing for one spot, Barbarian hits Jannetty with a picture perfect dropkick on the button! the crowd was in awe as was I! That guy could move folks!
Philly spectrum house show 1/11/86 Matches missing are Ron Shaw vs Danny Spivey, Hercules vs SD Jones and Brian Blair vs Jim Neidhart.(missing those 3 beauties is not going to keep me awake tonight tossing and turning with regret, Let me assure you!
1st match "Adorable" Adrian Adonis vs Tony Atlas I gotta say I love wrestling and I realize times change and era's get dated But Adonis's over the top swishy "gay" act is cringeworthy and embarrassing to watch! Their wasn't much to the match Adonis got the victory. They started with some homophobic "Comedy" spots. Adrian draping his ribbons on the ring attendant, and rubbing atlas's chest on a break. Adrian hit him with a good back suplex to get the heat. The finish was botched a bit. Atlas missed a corner splash, Adrian went for the pin. Ref counted two Atlas draped his foot over the bottom rope.Adonis knocked it off and the ref restarted the count and got three. Tony rolled out of the ring and went quickly to the dressing room. He seemed legit upset.
Match #2 King Tonga(aka Haku aka Meng) vs Tiger Chung Le. Tonga won a very basic match Chung Le got the heat then clapped on the dreaded "Nerve" Hold! Tonga fought back Slamming Chung Le of the ropes(why must large heels try to fly?) hitting a leg drop. Then a backdrop and "flying" headbutt to secure the win! (side note: The announcer Dick Graham said at the beginning of this segment the attendance was over 19 thousand people! I hope for the sake of the crowd the 3 matches I didn't see were better than the two I have seen!)
Your commentators for the evening were "Lord" Alfred Hayes and as always at the Spectrum Dick Graham He was legend for being heartfelt enthusiastic and being very bad at his job! Example in the last bout he referred to King Tonga as the Tonga Kid 6 times (I counted) Lord God almighty I can deal with him not knowing technical jargon but for the love of God learn their names!
Match 3 of 6 The Main Event, WWE still does this to this day many times the big match is mid card. A handicapped match with Andre the Giant and Champ Hulk Hogan vs Big John Studd, King Kong Bundy and Bobby Heenan.(A pure wrestling showcase no doubt) All kidding aside, for the moment this was the perfect WWF main event for the era! Heenan Got on the house mic during introductions and reminded the good people of Philly he was "MANAGER OF THE YEAR" Andre took the mic (I mean who was gonna stop him!) and said Heenan was "WEASEL OF THE YEAR"! The place went nuts! Early on Studd took bodyslams from both the Giant and Hogan. The heels got heat on Andre for a few minutes by Studd kicking him on a backdrop attempt. Heenan got the tag allowing Hogan to make the tag. Hogan went for a bodyslam of Bundy Heenan ran in and pushed Bundy over on Hogan. Thus the second heat spot in a 15 minute match! A five-way brawl broke out.Andre Hit Bobby with the big boot end of match! (Andre and Hogan had on matching yellow tights/boots why? To confuse the heels?) Not much wrestling to speak of but a tremendous spectacle of a main event!
match #4 Ivan Putski vs Bret Hart. This had to have been a rib. One of the best workers on earth against possibly the worst Main event star level worker ever! Putski Had more charisma in his pinkie than most guys ever! Ring work horrible but my God that man was over! I take nothing away from him! Nothing Match Hart won when he scooped Putski's Legs out from under him put his feet on the bottom rope, the ref looked right at the feet and counted the pin anyway!
I think we may get our 1st good match here as match 5 is Don Muraco vs Ricky Steamboat in a no DQ no countout Judo Jacket match! I was right this was very good indeed! Match started with Muraco being hampered by the gee(or jacket)if you like. Steamboat tossing him all over the place using the gee for leverage. Steamboat choked him with it(years before Royce Gracie)! Muraco Got the heat by hitting steamboat with a Samoan Drop grabbing a chair a delivering his patented Tombstone Piledriver on to it. Steamboat "Bladed" and played dead for several minutes while Don proceeded to beat the shit out of him! The crowd was into this one folks. End came when Muraco went for a second tombstone and Steamboat countered into a O'Connor roll for the victory! Muraco got his heat back post match when he attacked Ricky from behind tied him by the gee belt into the turnbuckles and hit him repeatedly with Fuji's cane! This match made me happy to be a fan again!
Final match of the show WWF Tag title bout as the British Bulldogs square off vs the Champs Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake. This should be great three great workers and Brutus Beefcake! Was no where near as good as it could have been. Very rushed for time.The champs got disqualified when their manger Johnny Valliant ran into break up a pin on Beefcake. The bout was no more than 7 minutes long, a real shame. This deserved much better! Go out of you way to see Steamboat/Muraco the rest is not much! (unless you like bad wresting)! I kinda do, I mean I have seen TNA!
1/12/86 St Paul Minn Sargent Slaughter vs AWA world champ Stan "the Lariat" Hansen! Personal note Stan Hansen and Ric Flair are in an eternal tie for my favorite wrestler ever! Before the match two Hansen interviews that are nuts and compelling at the same time! He says to the Sarge "You talk about GI Joe and Cobra(Slaughter was a character on the Saturday Morning Cartoon at this point.)This ain't about no little boys toys, this is about this title and beating people up"! The match was two big dudes hitting the over very hard!Hansen retained via count out. Slaughter Had Hansen in the Cobra clutch while he was on the apron but Hansen was in the ring, thus the countout!
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