The Name on the Marquee: NWA World Championship Wrestling (12.27.1986)

-Cold open: the Four Horsemen are standing in the ring. Making their way to the ring: The Road Warriors and the Superpowers, and the fans are absolutely mobbing them as they try to get to the ring. It just makes you sad that this kind of fan passion is GONE.

-Originally aired December 27, 1986.

-Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & David Crockett.

-The Superpowers are here, and Dusty’s eyes are on a “little fat girl” who wants Nikita’s sickle. And tonight in Minneapolis, Ric Flair will lose his title. Nikita weirdly refers to himself as “the New Breed,” which certainly would have been an interesting spin on that gimmick.

“Captain Redneck” DICK MURDOCH vs BRODIE CHASE
-Murdoch takes down Chase with a side headlock. Murdoch keeps it on the mat. Chase gets free but runs into a backdrop. Murdoch drops an elbow and goes for the pin, but changes his mind, gets up at two, and drops another elbow, and that one is good enough for him.

-And now, a sad bit of wrestling history, as Jim Crockett and Ron Garvin are here to discuss an NWA bylaw that no one can hold two titles simultaneously, so Garvin has to decide between the Mid-Atlantic Title or the US Tag Team Title. Garvin doesn’t want to disappoint Barry Windham because Barry earned his share of the tag title, so Garvin surrenders the Mid-Atlantic Title to Jim Crockett, who promises to make an announcement soon about what will be done with the Mid-Atlantic Title. That announcement would never come, though, and we’ve just seen the last page in the history of Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling.

-Ivan Koloff promises revenge on Nikita for stabbing his family and his homeland in the back. Vladimir Peitrov, a man that Nikita always struggled against in his earliest competitions in the USSR, is coming into the NWA to cause problems for Nikita again.

US TAG TEAM TITLE: BARRY WINDHAM & RON GARVIN (Champions) vs MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (with Jim Cornette & Big Bubba)
-Quite a match to finish out the year!

-Windham starts with Dennis Condrey, getting him down to the mat with headscissors. Cornette goes over to the commentary table, not taking the champs seriously at all and treating it like a jobber match.

-Express tries to work the arm, but Barry reverses a wringer on Bobby Eaton and tags out. Garvin tries to just finish it instantly with the hands of stone, but Eaton ducks it and throws his own punches that actually make contact, damn! Garvin gets fired up, but Dennis attacks him from behind before he can do any real damage.

-Garvin launches Eaton across the ring with a biel throw. Flying headscissors, which looks completely strange when Ron Garvin is the guy doing the move. Barry tags in and gives Eaton a hard right, and we pause for these messages…

-Barry dropkicks Condrey. Eaton tags in and gets hiptosses, and Cornette is getting irritated. Funny shtick follows as the teams have a pretty even battle momentarily, and Cornette’s mood totally changes with every move. Midnights finally get enough control over Garvin that Cornette goes over to do his trash-talk the jobber bit, but Cornette only does it while standing behind Big Bubba, just in case.

-Front facelock by Eaton, and he pulls the trunks to get Garvin on the mat and prevent the tag. Chinlock by Eaton. Cornette taunts Eaton and Garvin charges at Cornette while still caught in the chinlock. Bubba just gives him a right hand, then looks at Barry Windham and shrugs, which is inexplicably funny to me.

-Another pause and it’s Eaton with the facelock clamped on Windham this time. Barry slugs his way out, but runs into a high knee, and the Express gangs up on him. Suplex by Condrey for two. Eaton tries to do some damage, but puts his head down for a backdrop and Windham is able to kick him away and make the tag.

-Garvin is briefly a house of fire, but Dennis tags in and totally cuts off his momentum. Eaton comes back in and applies an abdominal stretch. Condrey keeps Garvin on the mat as David Crockett just randomly announces out of nowhere that this match only has a 20-minute time limit, so I guess we have our finish. Express keeps working over Garvin to try to finish this and just take the titles before time runs out. Rocket launcher connects but Garvin shockingly kicks out. Eaton corntorts his body every possible way for different pinning combinations to try to just end this while Garvin is still on the mat, but Garvin survives. Suplex by Dennis Condrey, but the bell rings at two, and Cornette’s PISSED. Bubba attacks Barry Windham on the floor as Cornette heads in the ring and just goes nuts on Garvin with the tennis racquet, and the Express leaves in a huff.

-Really good match, although it’s interesting to note that the WWF and the NWA of this era managed to make me hate time-limit draws, but for different reasons. NWA time-limit draws would be wall-to-wall action, but you couldn’t get invested in it because the announcers would mention the time limit every 30 seconds. The WWF announcers generally wouldn’t mention the time limit at all, which theoretically would make it more exciting and surprising when the bell sounded for the draw, but then the guys would fall asleep on each other doing 6-minute headlocks, so you still couldn’t enjoy it.

ROAD WARRIORS (with Paul Ellering) vs MULKEY BROTHERS
-Powerslam off the top rope leaves a puddle of Mulkey all over the ring. Bye-bye.

-Road Warriors ask Dusty and Nikita to come out. They promise that Nikita can be trusted, even though he’s a Russian…and apparently a time traveler, because Nikita is wearing a polo shirt with “WCW” monogrammed on it?!?! Damn, he isn’t kidding about being The New Breed.

-Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express promise to knock Garvin & Windham out of the NWA and take those US Tag Team belts.

RAVISHING & RAGING (World Tag Team Champions, with Paul Jones) vs. PABLO CRENSHAW & DAVE SPENCER
-Manny starts with Pablo, chopping him and applying a wristlock. Fans come up with “Raging Cow” as a taunt for Manny Fernandez. It’s funny, in that Manny has looked exactly the same all this time and has never been really out of shape, but Rude is SO ripped to the gills that Manny really does look like a pale fat guy next to him.

-GREAT mat hold by Manny, applying a hammerlock with one arm and an armbar with the other, and curling a leg around the opponent’s head to trap him. REALLY legit-looking. Rude tags in and drives hard elbows into Crenshaw. Spencer tags in and tries to slug it out with Manny. Manny fights back with an uppercut and slams him down. We pause for a break.

-We come back to the fans fanning the flames of hatred with a “taco breath” chant. Rude tags in and hits the DDT, with Spencer landing right on top of his head, and the champs get the pin.

-The champs issue an open challenge to Dusty and “Na-Cheetah.” Is “Cheetah” really an animal that anybody would take as an insult?

-Windham and Garvin are here. They know Cornette fears Garvin because Garvin beat Big Bubba at Starrcade. No he didn’t.

ROCK & ROLL EXPRESS vs KENT GLOVER & ZANE SMITH
-Express double-teams Glover, with Morton justifying it by strutting around the ring and saying “I still feel bad!” Double dropkick gets the quick pin.

-Bill Apter presents a set of plaques to Ricky & Robert for being voted the 1986 PWI Tag Team of the Year. They give a very humble, modest pair of brief speeches. And then it’s time to announce Wrestler of the Year, and Flair…is also extremely gracious, thanking the #1 magazine in the world and breaking down, point by point, why JCP is the best wrestling promotion in the world. I made this point months ago and it merits saying again…Most of the time in this company, their #1 heel wasn’t REALLY a heel, and that sort of bothers me when I watch these old shows. He should be giving the most ungracious self-fellating tirade ever, and instead he’s singing the praises of everybody, INCLUDING the babyfaces.

TV TITLE: TULLY BLANCHARD (Champion, with JJ Dillon) vs. PAT O’BRIEN
-Doughy old guy jobber has changed his name back to Pat O’Brien for this week, and Tully has already pinned him with the slingshot suplex by the time I finish typing that.

-The Rock & Roll Express is here again to celebrate being named Tag Team of the Year.

SUPERSTAR BILL DUNDEE vs CLEMENT FIELDS
-Fans are chanting either “We want Sam!” or “We want Brad!” Commentators are pretty sure it’s Sam, the Central States Champion.

-Dundee slaps and jabs Fields while the commentators speculate that Dundee might be forming a tag team with the Barbarian. I’m amazed at how many tag team partners Barbarian had to go through before somebody said, “How about a second musclebound hoss?”

OLE & ARN ANDERSON vs RANDY BARBER & BILL TABB
-Arn drives knees into Tabb as the commentators marvel over Arn switching to bright red tights instead of his usual maroon tights. Ole is wearing his old maroon tights, though, which is the most subtle foreshadowing of an upcoming angle I can imagine. Okay, I have to make a note of an unintentionally great line from David Crockett here, pointing out that Ole has stars on his tights and saying that “Ole adds a star every time that he really enjoys wrestling.” Ole has five stars on his tights, so Ole has enjoyed wrestling five times in his entire career. I have to say…I can believe that.

-Barber tags in, and he and Arn have a combover-off, which Arn wins with a knee to the boot and a part in his hair. Ole works Barber’s arm over. Another subtle bit as Ole yells “Gimme the arm!” to Arn for a double-team move, and Arn sticks out a knee instead. The move works anyway, but still, they don’t seem to be on the same page this week. Gourdbuster by Arn finishes.

-Ole cuts a promo, but JJ comes out and actually pushes Ole out of the way to tell Arn that he’s secured a contract for the US Title. Arn has words for Nikita, while Ole is giving both of them a “WTF?” look.

-Dick Murdoch as a series of matches coming up against Tully Blanchard. He hypes a big NWA card coming to Amarillo, Texas, which is an area where “Some other wrestling groups have come in and the whole city’s bored with them.”

BRAD ARMSTRONG vs MIKE JACKSON
-Mat wrestling and some rapid-fire armdrags and kicks thrown by both guys. It’s literally moving faster than I can type anything. Armstrong finally gets Jackson on the mat with an armbar. Jackson starts to wriggle out, but Brad switches it to a hammerlock. Brad…kinda falls in love with that armbar, and this match comes to a grinding halt, which is a shame because the first minute of it was just white-hot.

-Jackson finally gets free…and then Armstrong armdrags him and reapplies the armbar. Criss-cross, and Jackson connects with an elbow for two. Dropkick by Jackson, but he misses a corner charge and as his body recoils from the corner, Armstrong catches him and makes it a Russian legsweep for three. Brad honestly kinda drove me nuts there, because Jackson was totally game here and Brad was like, “Nah, arm.”

-Tully declares himself the greatest TV Champion of all time. JJ commends Brad Armstrong for a hard-fought victory that’s probably going to put him in line for a TV Title shot real soon. I think that compliment would carry more weight if the old guy with a record of 0-3 hadn’t been the #1 contender this week. Tully and JJ promise a big surprise for the NWA, but they won’t say what it is just yet.

-Bill Dundee and Jimmy Garvin are here. Dundee pretty much declares himself the manager of the Barbarian and of Garvin. Dundee’s motivation here is pretty interesting, as he acknowledges that he doesn’t have a hope in hell against Nikita Koloff, so he signed a wrestler who actually IS competitive with Nikita so he can at least get a percentage of the money that comes with the US Title, while remaining an active wrestler himself. That is some rock-solid logic for becoming a wrestler/manager.

GORGEOUS JIMMY GARVIN (with Precious) vs ALAN MARTIN
-Time’s running out for this week’s extravaganza, so Garvin hits the brainbuster right away and ends it.

-Tony Schiavone welcomes Brad Armstrong. Armstrong applies an armbar on the microphone and then just stands there with it until the credits roll.

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

A one-match show, but a darned enjoyable one. It's also refreshing to see actual angles happening on this show now that the Bunkhouse Stampede is winding down and we actually need individual issues to care about again.