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The Name on the Marquee: NWA World Championship Wrestling (11.23.1985)

February 12, 2016 | Posted by Adam Nedeff
7.3
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The Name on the Marquee: NWA World Championship Wrestling (11.23.1985)  

-Originally aired November 23, 1985.

-Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & David Crockett.

TERRY TAYLOR (National Heavyweight Champion) vs BLACK CAT
-They trade hiptosses until Taylor gets an armbar clamped onto the Cat. Observation: All of the flags on the set look like they were wadded up into a single ball and stuffed into a drawer for the past week.

-Black Cat fights back with headbutts, but he’s wearing a mask so Taylor doesn’t get the full effect of the blackness and immediately fights back with forearms. Superplex gives Taylor the win.

-Tony and David discuss the actions that have gone down between Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair in the past few months. David Crockett has known Ric Flair for years, and the way he’s conducted himself in the past two months or so has been totally out of character and unlike anything David has ever seen from him. Case in point, Ric Flair TRIPPED PEZ WHATLEY LAST WEEK. The unmitigated gall of it sickens David.

-So we flash back to the incident that took Flair from ‘tweener to HEEL, breaking Dusty Rhodes’ foot in a steel cage, with the help of the Andersons. Watching the fans absolutely swarm the cage is one of those sights that we’re never going to see again. We see Flair and Dusty hollering at each other via satellite during an interview with Bill Apter. Funny ending, as Dusty disappears from the screen before he’s done talking, Flair doesn’t realize it, and the segment ends with Flair yelling at a wall.

-So we go to the Omni on November 3, now, to watch Dusty return from his injury and get the win with a figure four, possibly to send a message to Ric Flair. Yes, possibly. Subtle.

-We get words from Dusty Rhodes on World Wide Wrestling. He will be the champion for the people…the people who love Dusty Rhodes. He warns that there’s a demon in his boot. Odor Eaters will probably clear that right up, Dust.

DON KERNODLE vs DON TURNER
-Kernodle slams Turner and the referee goes to Turner and asks if he wants to submit. Uh, I think he has a little fight left him.

-Powerslam by Kernodle, and the American cannon (clothesline from the top rope) gets the win.

THE BARBARIAN (with Paul Jones) vs STONEY BURKE
-I believe this jobber is actually the Flintstones parody of longtime jobber Tony Burke.

-Barbarian dropkicks Stoney and follows with an elbow. Stoney fights back with the Hands of Stoney, which knocks Barbarian even more conscious, and Barbarian strangles him with a chain before throwing him outside. Paul Jones gouges Stoney for good measure. JYD headbutts by the Barbarian send Stoney out to the floor. Lone fan on the floor tries to motivate Stoney with a chant of “Stanley Burke.”

-Powerslam by Barbarian while David Crockett reads a letter from Bill Watts, asking if Starrcade can be seen in New Orleans. Yes. Diving headbutt wins the match. Uh, for the Barbarian. Just to be clear.

-Ric Flair is here. How dare ANYONE question the conduct of the World’s Heavyweight Champion, especially when he’s wearing blue cashmire! He doesn’t follow anybody’s code of conduct because, woo, everybody plays Flair’s game.

STARRCADE ’85 REPORT
-Starrcade is coming up this Thursday night. Let’s all be there!

SUPERSTAR BILLY GRAHAM vs TONY ZANE
-The aging Graham is wearing long red and yellow tights, giving us a glimpse into the horrifying future of WWE.

-Zane, who is COVERED with bruises, tries to match strength with him, but Graham just tosses him around and hammers down. Bearhug finishes.

CHAMPIONSHIP CHALLENGE SERIES: “Ragin’ Bull” MANNY FERNANDEZ vs “Nature Boy” BUDDY LANDELL (with JJ Dillon)
-Just ONCE, shouldn’t one of these matches involve a championship?

-Buddy Landell turns to the commentators before the bell and says it’s nice that the NWA finally found someone ALMOST worthy of him, but why did it have to be a Mexican? Fernandez elbows him out to the floor. Landell is just magical in the early moments of the match, complaining about Fernandez’s use of “karate” and saying he’s lucky that Landell is in a good mood today. Fernandez chops Landell down, and Landell goes out to the floor for a hug from JJ. It’s funny to see JJ managing the imposter Nature Boy. In the car business, I guess JJ traded up.

-Landell hiptosses Fernandez and then stomps him, but somehow trips himself doing it. Elbow sends Landell back out to the floor. Landell checks to see if he’s bleeding, then tells the referee “Ask him if he’s had enough yet.” Landell knows how easy it is to hear him in a small studio and he’s first wrestler I’ve seen who really takes full advantage of that.

-Landell gets caught in a drop toehold and can’t reach the ropes. JJ reaches in to help him so Manny drags him back to the middle of the ring and reapplies the toehold. Back from commercial, Manny still has a toehold applied. What do you think this is, Manny, Prime Time Wrestling?

-Buddy makes the ropes one more time and goes on the offensive with chops. Manny is actually bleeding hard, due to the sheer amount of blading he had already done by this point in his career. I think it was Jim Cornette who said that you could hit Manny with a newspaper and it could actually make him bleed.

-Buddy applies a chinlock and gets a bunch of Manny’s blood on him, so this decidedly mid-card match suddenly has a much different atmosphere, with both guys covered in blood. Manny breaks the hold with a back suplex. JJ gives Manny right hand from the outside, but it only gets two. Buddy reapplies the chinlock. Manny gets free and connects with a big clothesline.

-Manny tries to finish with a kneedrop but misses. Buddy pounces with a figure four, but Manny reverses. Bell sounds and the 20 minutes has expired. I would never have guessed that. Fast match and, thanks to Buddy, an incredibly fun one.

-Terry Taylor gives Buddy his props for lasting 20 minutes with Manny Fernandez. It just goes to show how important Starrcade is, and what a fight Buddy will put up when Starrcade rolls around.

-Jim Crockett announces that next week’s Championship Challenge Series will be the Road Warriors vs. Thunderfoot & Black Bart, so yeah, that name IS officially a joke now.

-Ric Flair likes it when millions of people know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ric Flair is what’s happening in wrestling, woo.

BLACK BART (with JJ Dillon) vs ROCKY KING
-Dropkick by King. Bart punches back, but King sticks with the dropkicks and Bart doesn’t know how to react. Selling would be a step in the right direction.

-More dropkicks and a bowling shoe-ugly miscommunication as King wants an armdrag and Bart just flops on top of him like a six-foot-tall dead fish. “You stink!” chant some kids in the crowd. You can tell the director is getting bored with this match because we suddenly get a really “artsy” shot from one camera circling the ring from as far away from the action as possible.

-Bart tosses King out to the floor, which outrages the referee. “That’s not wrestling, Bart, that’s dirty fightin’!” He chokes King out and then finishes with a legdrop from the second rope.

-Cowboy Ron Bass wants JJ Dillon and Black Bart, his former friends, this Thursday night! Bass points out that it’s a used cowbell with some noticeable splits in the sides, but that just means they know what to do with it.

-Road Warriors don’t do favors for nobody. Except Dusty Rhodes. They want to set Ric Flair on fire and put it out with an ax, then murder Nikita Koloff.

BILLY JACK HAYNES vs JIM JEFFERS
-Haynes whips Jeffers and gives him some hard chops. There’s a fan that absolutely will not be satisfied until he has seen a DDT, but Haynes wins with a full nelson instead.

-Tony Schiavone talks to Billy Jack Haynes, who loves his dad and the NWA.

-We watch a montage of Nikita Koloff murdering assorted geeks over the past few weeks.

COWBOY RON BASS, PEZ WHATLEY, & ITALIAN STALLION vs CARL STYLES, KENT GLOVER, & LARRY CLARK
-Jobbers get double-teamed and Irish whipped into each other. Stallion works somebody’s arm and press slams him. Tony reminds us to come to the TV tapings every Sunday morning at 11:30 a.m. That had to have been exhausting for the guys who worked the night before. Clothesline by Whatley, which apparently qualifies as a headbutt according to David, gets the win.

-NWA Jr. Heavyweight Champion Denny Brown, who was used as cannon fodder for a squash a few weeks ago, cuts a promo that more than adequately explains why.

SAM HOUSTON vs GOLDEN TERROR
-David Crockett casually mentions that Houston is a protégé of Dusty Rhodes and Magnum TA. Ric Flair comes out and laments that those two guys filled this kid with false hope and empty promises.

-Houston works the arm with a hammerlock. Terror reverses while Flair goes off on a funny tangent about David Crockett, who hasn’t talked since the match started.

-Bulldog by Houston looks to finish, but Terror gets a foot on the ropes. They collide on a shoulderblock and Houston rolls out to the apron. Terror distracts the referee while Ric Flair dashes over and suplexes Houston on the concrete. Crowd is HORRIFIED and David Crockett goes over to check on him. Houston is unconscious and Golden Terror takes the win by count-out. “Where’s Dusty Rhodes NOW?!”

7.3
The final score: review Good
The 411
A wonderful final hard sell for Starrcade, and best of all, nobody got molested to a big crowd pop this time around. Good week!
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