wrestling / Video Reviews
The Name on the Marquee: NWA Battle of the Belts 2 (2.14.1986)
Loading...-It’s another Florida supercard syndicated across the country, and thankfully there’s no hurricane to sabotage this one, so we should be getting a pretty solid night of wrestling action.
-Originally aired February 14, 1986.
-We’re LIVE from the Eddie Graham Sports Center in Orlando.
-Your hosts are Gordon Solie & Mike Graham. Gordon, for some reason, is wearing as much jewelry as Brother Love, and Mike Graham says that “This is the biggest wrestling card taking place in Orlando tonight.”
BAHAMIAN CHAMPIONSHIP: TYREE PRIDE (Champion) vs RON SLINKER
-This is pretty much the peak of Pride’s wrestling career, while Slinker’s contributions were mostly after he retired: coming up with the name “Rob Van Dam” and helping Rocky Johnson train his son for his first few matches as Flex Kavana.
-Side headlock and a shoulderblock by Slinker. Slinker goes off the ropes and gets slammed down. Dropkick sends him out of the ring. Slinker calls for a time-out, and Gordon says “There are no time-outs in wrestling!…Except for a Texas Death Match, or a 2-out-of-3 falls match.” Thanks Gordon!
-Slinker chops Pride and goes for a slam, but Pride makes it a cradle for two. Another dropkick sends Slinker out to the floor. Now Slinker’s mad! He goes to work with chops, but Pride connects with a bodypress…for three. Yep, that was the whole thing. 0 for 1.
-Buddy Colt is in the locker room with Tyree Pride. He says wrestling moves too fast for karate, because moves like chops can take a full minute to set up, and a move like a bodypress only takes one second. I guess that explains the time that Ric Flair wrestled Ron Garvin and it went to a four-day time limit draw.
FLORIDA HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: KENDALL WINDHAM (Champion, without Heavyweight) vs PRINCE IAUKEA
-It doesn’t matter who his family is, I’m still mystified by the four years that were devoted to pushing quiet, 140-pound Kendall Windham as a star. He looks like just another victim on the Midnight Express squash parade. Prince Iaukea is not the one you’re thinking of, but apparently this one was legit the son of King Curtis.
-The Prince attacks Windham right away and throws him out to the floor. Bill Apter is at ringside, racking up his frequent flier miles this month. Kendall makes it back inside and works the leg. Iaukea rolls free and applies a side headlock, but Windham escapes with a back suplex. Iaukea comes right back with headscissors. He whips Windham into the corner but Windham comes right back at him with a lariat, but Windham’s arm is only as big as an actual clothes line, so Iaukea is still in this thing.
-Armbar by Windham, then he switches to a stepover. Iaukea gets aggressive and gets free. Suplay gets two. By the way, I just watched a video where somebody touched on the pronunciation of “suplex.” He actually did quite a bit of research and concluded that the correct French pronunciation is “Su-pless” and that Gordon, in his attempt to pronounce it properly, just totally mangled it.
-Kendall works the leg again and Iaukea aggressively gets out, but he misses a corner charge and falls victim to the bulldog for three. 1 for 2. I didn’t love it, but at least it told a story, with Iaukea TRYING to turn it violent and Windham just constantly stumping him by going back to straight wrestling.
-Kendall cuts a promo saying that you can’t take a breath when you’re champion because there’s constantly another challenger coming up. Real funny, as there’s about five seconds of silence until Buddy realizes, “Oh, you’re done” and throws it to the instant replay.
NWA JR. HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: DENNY BROWN (Champion) vs THE WHITE NINJA
-Ninja is actually an unpainted Great Muta.
-Headscissors by Ninja as Mike Graham admits that, as a light heavyweight himself, he wants to see this match because he’s scouting Ninja for a future match. Good luck, Mike!
-HARD spin kick by Ninja gets an “Ooooo” from the crowd. He goes off the ropes and Denny catches him with a drop toehold and a hiptoss. He works Ninja’s shoulder and they trade holds in a nice sequence. Forearms by Brown and he goes to a rear chinlock. Interest waning.
-Ninja gets free and pretzelizes. Brown comes back with a legdrop and returns to the rear chinlock. Gordon goes into his dissertation about how there’s only fifteen minutes of body-to-body contact in a football game, so a time limit draw is the same as four football games, and Mike actually calls bullshit on that one because the guy applying the chinlock is clearly getting a lot of rest while he does it.
-Half-crab by Ninja. Brown makes the ropes and Ninja gets a backbreaker for two. Ninja comes to life with a backflip and an elbow that catches the commentary team by surprise. Moonsault gets two. Interesting thing: Brown’s offense has been boring the shit out of the crowd. Crowd booed Ninja at the intros because he’s one of them foreigners, but by this point, the crowd has totally turned on Brown simply because Ninja is a more interesting guy.
-Brown charges at Ninja for an attempted Thesz press; they’re close to the ropes and Ninja simply dumps him, so the referee calls for the bell and gives it to Brown by DQ. Crowd absolutely boos the shit out of that verdict. 1 for 3. Brown carried the match and did a shit job of it, plus we got a cop-out finish that made both guys look bad.
-We recap the Jesse Barr/Lex Luger feud. Luger was defending the Southern Heavyweight Title against Barr. Hiro Matsuda, who trained Barr and then turned on him, attempted to distract Barr, but Barr doesn’t go for it and gets a roll-up on Luger to win the gold.
SOUTHERN HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: JESSE BARR (Champion) vs LEX LUGAR (with Hiro Matsuda)
-Oh, hey, original spelling! Neat.
-Waistlock takedown by Barr, but Lex makes the ropes quickly. Lugar goes to a toehold and Barr manages to apply a chinlock while trapped in the toehold, so it becomes a battle to see who breaks first. Lugar releases his hold but gets to the ropes right away. Lugar goes to a side headlock, Barr escapes it with an atomic drop. Toehold by Barr. Lugar powers out with a handful of hair. Barr tries to go to work on the leg, but Lex makes the ropes.
-Lugar wants a test of strength and overpowers him. Barr does a tumble and a leverage move to negate the effectiveness, and Lugar dashes over to the ropes to break. I’m going to keep using the “Lugar” spelling for this review just because a few years ago, I used the spelling “Eddy Guerrero” at a period in his career when, as everyone knows, he was going by “Eddie,” and I got a world of shit from a reader for being a smarky-smark who had to use his ECW spelling. Chyron says “Lugar,” I spell it Lugar.
-Lugar drops Barr throat-first on the top rope and kicks away at him. He throws Barr out to the floor and celebrates with an ARROGANT FLEX, the first trace of personality shown by either guy in this match.
-Lugar brings Barr back in and rams him in the corner a few times. Lugar tries to finish with what the commentators call a Boston crab, but shut my mouth, Lugar’s actually doing a lion tamer! Barr makes the rope, so Lugar just gives him forearm after forearm in the lower back. Backbreaker by Lugar gets two. Bearhug is clamped on. Barr continues being alive, to Lugar’s vexation, so he rams Barr into the corner just to break his own hold out of spite.
-Lugar tries for a body vice, but Barr resists and makes it a backdrop. It’s so effective that Barr does another one. Shoulderbreaker looks to finish, but he’s too close to the ropes and Lugar managers to break the count. Lariat by Lugar, and he’s too close to the ropes, too. Barr gets a leg on the ropes at one, but Lugar grabs it without the referee noticing and Lugar gets three, winning the belt back. Gordon & Mike’s call of the finish is just awful, acting like neither of them saw it for some reason—it happened right on camera in a nice close shot—and then Gordon totally rationalizes it by noting that Barr barely tapped the rope for a second before Lugar hooked his leg. Well, the hell with THAT rematch, then. 2 for 4. This gets a thumbs-up. This match was a two-act play. It was boring as all hell right up until Lugar threw Barr to the floor, and then suddenly both guys woke up and delivered a pretty exciting second half.
-Buddy Colt is in the locker room with Lugar and congratulates him on his big win, saying that there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind; the controversy is settled and Lugar is the clear champion. I got a hunch Jesse Barr gave his notice right before this show. Have fun being Jimmy Jack Jobber, dude. Anyway, Lugar says he wants a shot at the NWA World Title next. Buddy wants to know what his next career goal is. Lex and Hiro kind of look at him and Hiro just says “World Title.”
$20,000 BOUNTY MATCH: WAHOO MCDANIEL vs BRUISER BRODY (with Gary Hart)
-Both guys come out swinging with forearms and chops. Bruiser applies a side headlock. Wahoo escapes and they go to a test of strength. They criss-cross and Wahoo gets flattened by a big boot. Front facelock by Brody, but Wahoo gets to the ropes. Bruiser tosses him to the floor, where Gary Hart is ready and waiting. Wahoo goes into the post while Bruiser supplies the distraction.
-Bruiser heads out to the floor and Wahoo is bleeding and pissed off. He whacks him with a series of chops and sends him into the post. Brawl spills back inside. Bruiser connects with a dropkick but Wahoo just keeps coming at him with chops. Brawl spills back outside. They go over the barricade and fight in the stands. Referee’s lost control of this one, Brain.
-They trade chairshots for a while, and then Bruiser just raises his arm in a token of victory and walks back to the locker room. It’s a double countout. Barely five minutes and they killed it just when it started to get fun. 2 for 5.
-Buddy Colt talks to the Road Warriors & Blackjack Mulligan. The story here is that they did the impossible and stole Kevin Sullivan’s prized spike.
BLACKJACK MULLIGAN & ROAD WARRIORS (with Paul Ellering) vs KEVIN SULLIVAN, PURPLE HAZE, & MAYAH SINGH (with Miss Luna and a couple of snake handlers)
-Kevin Sullivan’s Florida entrance has to be seen to be believed if you’ve never had any exposure to this territory at all. Description doesn’t do it justice, but his gothic/Satanic act was REALLY different stuff at this point and it’s understandable why no other territory would let him do it. Purple Haze is the wrestler formerly known as Maniac Mark Lewin, who had a main event run in Detroit against the Sheik during the 1970s. Mayah Singh is Bob Roop.
-It’s a fight on the floor before the bell sounds. Haze and Mulligan both wind up in the crowd, and the Warriors grab chairs right out from under the fans to attack them. Warriors head back inside and beat the crap out of Sullivan. He goes out to the floor for a breather, but Mulligan is out there waiting and drills him with a chair. Mulligan is bleeding, Sullivan is bleeding. Back in the ring, Animal powerslams Singh for two. Commentators repeatedly call him Bob Roop even though the established story here is that he changed his name after joining Sullivan’s group.
-All six men are on the floor and Hawk chases Sullivan’s group back inside with a chair, and Animal is waiting for them with a staircase. Sullivan’s guys lob their own stairs in there. Referee tries to get them out of there, but they’re too heavy for him, so Sullivan takes some free shots with the stairs on Mulligan while he has the opening.
-Mulligan & Haze slug it out. Singh tags in and drives some boots into him. Hot tag to Animal and both Road Warriors come in and beat the crap out of everything with a pulse. Mulligan tags back in and clamps a bearhug on Sullivan, and that turns into a pier sixer. Referee gets knocked down in the middle of it. Animal whips out the forbidden spike and clears the ring with it, and the heels get the hell out of the ring. Road Warriors and Mulligan chase them back and the fight keeps going. See, if you do that finish with six guys instead of two guys, nobody notices that it’s the same finish. 3 for 6. Liked it more than the previous brawl, but literally the same underwhelming finish for two straight matches?
-Superstar Billy Graham returns to Florida and announces that he’ll be in Lakeland tomorrow night to team up with Wahoo McDaniel so they can do battle with Sullivan’s army.
-Buddy Colt is in the back with Ric Flair. Barry Windham is great, but greatness in others is what makes Ric Flair step up his game and become the greatest, night after night. Flair whips open his robe and reveals, for the first time, the new massive gold heavyweight title belt. Flair sticks his index finger right at the camera and uh, all of a sudden, I have a crazy hunch Flair is gonna bleed.
NWA WORLD TITLE: RIC FLAIR (Champion) vs BARRY WINDHAM
-Flair comes to the ring to, of all songs, “Easy Lover” by Phil Collins. It barely worked as the theme to Wrestlemania I and it definitely doesn’t work for Ric Flair’s entrance.
-Windham shoulderblocks and hiptosses Flair right off the bat. Bodyslam compels Flair to duck outside for a moment. Awesome bit as photographers are at ringside, and Flair, in the midst of shaking off the pain, stops in mid-walk and does a flex pose for one of them, then goes back to shaking off the pain.
-Back in the ring, top wristlock battle goes Windham’s way. Flair backs him into the corner to break the hold. Flair tries a hammerlock, but Windham reverses it. Great series of counters by both guys until Windham winds up with the hammerlock again. Flair tries every escape route he can think of, but he’s stumped, Armbar by Barry and suddenly the back of Barry’s arm is bleeding. I repeat, Barry is applying the armbar, and the back of Barry’s arm just started bleeding. And now I’m POSITIVE Flair is going to bleed later. Gordon & Mike discuss the hazards of rope burn to explain the sudden wound.
-Windham tries a side headlock; weird spot where Flair slumps over during an attempted clothesline and damn near gives himself whiplash from hitting the top rope. Flair actually seems a little shook up by it and Windham backs off for a moment to give him a breather.
-Sunset flip by Windham gets two, and Flair gets into a shoving match with Bill Alfonzo. Windham applies headscissors while Gordon plugs the CWF TV tapings and invites us to attend one, “Wednesday mornings at 10:00 a.m.” Are you shitting me?!
-Right hands by Windham have Flair backing off in the corner. Barry applies a Boston crab but Flair makes the ropes. Suplex by Windham gets two. Abdominal stretch by Windham. Flair hiptosses out and goes for a slam, but Barry shifts his weight and hands on top for two. Flair tosses Barry out to the floor and chops away. Windham goes into the barricade and he’s wearing the crimson mask.
-Right hands by Flair, but a knee misses. Flair’s leg is hurting and Barry capitalizes with a figure four. Thought for the night: When applying the figure four, why not just use your free left hand to hold onto your opponent’s bent leg and lean down for extra leverage?
-Flair makes the ropes and he’s begging for his life. Windham is all over the leg with kneedrops. Hiptoss by Windham. He tries to follow with a dropkick but Flair ducks and Windham crashes. Headscissors by Flair and he has it just perfectly applied, with one leg right across the neck and looking more or less like a sleeperhold being done with the legs.
-Chops by Flair, followed by a piledriver for two. Battle for a backslide goes Barry’s way for two. Right hands by Barry; hard Irish whip sends Flair over the top and straight down to the concrete. Barry goes out there and posts him, and Flair is finally bleeding.
-Windham winds up back on the floor. He slingshots himself back in and tries for a sunset flip, but Flair gives him a shot between the eyes to stop it. Sleeper by Flair. Windham gets to the corner and rams Flair into the turnbuckle to break it. Flair recovers first and suplexes Windham. Now we go to school!
-Figure four by Flair. Windham reverses. Flair makes the ropes and goes to the top, but Windham slams him off. Windham follows with a kneedrop, but Flair gets out of the way and Windham’s knee is injured even worse. They slug it out. Barry accidentally whips Flair into the referee and Alfonzo’s out. Flair makes lemons out of lemonade, throwing Barry over the top rope while he has the opening. Barry hits a missile dropkick out of nowhere (well, out of the top rope, I guess) right as Fonzie wakes up for two.
-Sleeper by Barry. Flair lies right down and rolls over, which pretty much undoes the hold, and Windham lets go in frustration. Windham tries a splash, but Flair raises the knees. Flair tries a figure four. Windham turns it into a cradle, but Flair catches the ropes to break it. Suplex by Windham gets two. Elbow by Windham misses. Irish whip. Flair does the run across the apron after the Flair flip and nearly kills a cameraman. Bodypress sends both men tumbling over the top and crashing on the floor. They fight to make it back in the ring first, but the referee counts ten. Yes, we seriously just had three consecutive double count-outs. 4 for 7. Windham looked like a superstar, a scant five months after he was a tag-team midcarder in the WWF. Outstanding lost gem and worth seeking out.
