wrestling / Video Reviews
The Name on the Marquee: NWA World Championship Wrestling (2.15.1986)
Loading...-Cold open: Dusty taking a piledriver from Tully at Superstars on the Superstation.
-Originally aired February 15, 1986.
-Your host is Tony Schiavone.
“Boogie Woogie Man” JIMMY VALIANT vs RON ROSSI
-Valiant dashes over to Tony to assure us he ain’t lookin’ for trouble, then heads inside and tosses Ron Rossi to the floor. He posts Rossi and brings him back inside for a nerve hold. He rams Rossi into the turnbuckle and rakes away at him. Big elbow finishes. This would be Ron Rossi’s last appearance before starting his long run as announcer for “The Price is Right,” if I’m not mistaken.
-Tony welcomes Tully Blanchard and James J. Dillon, whose autobiography is impressively thick and I’m looking forward to reading it once I’m done with the three manuscripts I’m writing. Tully promises that it’s just a matter of time until the National Title is around his waist. Tully complains that he would have won the title at Superstars on the Superstation if the bout had a 22-minute time limit. It’s gotten him thinking a lot about time limits lately, so he’s imposing one on himself. He gives himself four weeks to become National Champion.
-Tony Schiavone welcomes Jim Cornette, who doesn’t give a damn about the $5,000 fine lobbied against him for his use of the tennis racquet. $5,000 is just pocket change for Mama. SUPER heat for Cornette during this promo, as they open some of “the Rock & Roll Express’ fan mail” and it’s a fat woman. The pretty chicks send fan mail to the Midnight Express. Rock & Roll used to have belts, now all they have are a bunch of ugly women. Also, the Midnights are fighting champions and they’re going to prove it by doing something that the Rock & Roll Express never did: Defend the gold in the TBS studio.
BARON VON RASCHKE (with Paul Jones) vs KENT GLOVER
-Baron beats Glover down and applies a top wristlock. Tony mentions some new talent arriving in the NWA shortly, Teijo Khan and Jimmy Garvin.
-Glover gets some token right hands, but Baron totally shakes it off and clubbers Glover. Backbreaker and an elbow by the Baron, and the famous claw finishes Glover.
-Paul Jones introduces his new charge, big white guy Teijo Khan, “one of the top athletes in Singapore.” Baron Von Raschke promises that Paul Jones will rule the wrestling world in 1986.
THE BARBARIAN (with Paul Jones) vs PAUL GARNER
-Barbarian shoves Garner down, then tosses him across the ring. Garner tries to get something going with a top wristlock, but Barbarian just straightens his arm and shoves the poor guy down. Garner winds up on the floor and Jones goes to town on him with cane shots and fists.
-Elbows and rolling headbutts send Garner all the way out to the floor. Jones pool-cues Garner in the chest with his cane, to a nice round of applause from a group of fans. Back in, Barbarian connects with a huge boot as Paul Jones steps over to the commentary table and says that “This man can beat Ron Bass…I mean Paul Garner, of course.”
-Diving headbutt by Barbarian gets three. Gotta hand it to Barbarian for doing that move all those years and he’s STILL at it on the indy circuit, none the worse for wear, apparently.
-Boogie Woogie Man says he’d taste a glass of Kool-Aid if Dusty Rhodes asked him to, and says that if Tully Blanchard wants to take him on in a game of dominoes, he can win that battle too. He says Paul Jones can try to intimidate people all he wants, but he only manages “three bald-headed geeks.”
TULLY BLANCHARD (with JJ Dillon) vs RAY TRAYLOR
-You wouldn’t think so on the surface, but this would actually prove to be a SIGNIFICANT match in the life of Ray Traylor.
-Tully takes him down to the mat and goes to work on him with knees. There’s a bit of a story here, as Tully is clearly outsized by the jobber, and he’s uncharacteristically doing mat wrestling and sticking with it, because it’s the one area where he’s definitely superior to the big guy.
-So Tully focuses on tying up Traylor in a hundred different ways and gets him down on the mat. Traylor makes it back to his feet and Tully sweeps his leg to take him back down. Slingshot suplex finishes, shocking Tony and everybody in the studio. So before the taping started, the feeling was that Tully would have to do something different for his finisher this week because he obviously wasn’t going to get 400-pound Traylor in the air for a slingshot suplex. Traylor absolutely insisted, “No, I can do that bump,” so Tully reluctantly agrees to give it a shot once they’re in the ring. And the fact that Traylor was actually able to do that move for a guy Tully’s size absolutely dazzled the shit out of Dusty Rhodes. Jim Cornette’s account was that Dusty was in the back watching the taping on a monitor, and as soon as he saw that slingshot suplex, he just immediately blurted out, “I’m gonna find something for this guy to do.” Traylor’s going to be a jobber for a few months, but now the right people had their eyes on him.
-The Crockett Cup is coming soon! A purse of $1 million will be offered for the winning team. Jim reluctantly admits that an arena in Tokyo has made a bid for the tournament, but Jim personally feels that it would be more appropriate to hold it in Charlotte or Atlanta.
RON GARVIN vs ART PRITTS
-Garvin chops Pritts and snapmares him down. Crucifix gets one, but Garvin holds onto the crucifix, rolls over, and makes it a hammerlock. Slick. More chops. Garvin ties up Pritts and works the arm for a spell. Awful-looking open-handed-bottom-of-the-palm-of-stone knocks out Pritts and a few fans audibly boo as Garvin gets the three-count from that.
-Garvin says after the match that he’s on a collision course with Ric Flair, and that rematch is going to happen some day. It’s inevitable.
-Jim Cornette says that Jim Crockett can try all he wants to ban the tennis racquet, but Cornette has the God-given right to bear arms. Mess with the Cornette family and the Crockett Cup is gonna happen in Mama’s living room.
WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE: MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (Champions, with Jim Cornette) vs COWBOY RON BASS & DON KERNODLE
-Nice bit of psyching out. Dennis Condrey turns his back for stall tactics. Bass runs in place and the noise scares Dennis, and Bass shoots him an evil-eyed smile when he turns around.
-Bass hiptosses Condrey and tries to go to the claw right away, but Condrey blocks and goes out to the floor. Cornette mentions that his men are notorious slow-starters in title matches because they like to scout opponents to feel them out.
-Eaton gets double-teamed by his opponents. Kernodle whips him around and atomic drops him. Slick maneuvering by Eaton allows Condrey to tag in and get a cheap shot for control. Kernodle recovers and Cornette becomes so flustered with how the match is progressing that he can’t bring himself to stay on commentary.
-Back from the break, Midnights try to dogpile on top of Ron Bass and he manages to fling both of them off. Bass and Condrey have a test of strength and Bass totally overpowers his opponent on that one. Condrey headbutts the gut to get out and rams Bass into the corner. Eaton snapmares him and goes to the top rope, and the Alabama Jam connects for two. Bass rallies with a suplex and tags Kernodle back in.
-Kernodle rams Condrey from turnbuckle to turnbuckle for two. Abdominal stretch by Kernodle, and he rolls backward to make it a pinning combo. Dennis lazily rolls out and gets a foot on the ropes. Bass & Kernodle do one of my favorite tandem moves, Bass genuflecting and Kernodle bodyslamming Condrey over the knee to make it a backbreaker. That’s a perfectly good finisher.
-Bass tags in and the Midnights basically go into emergency mode, using every under-handed tactic in their arsenal in under a minute to leave Bass reeling. Condrey applies the chinlock while Cornette struts back over to commentary and says his boys are handling it just fine, like he knew they would. Eaton drives knees and boots into Bass and tries a flying elbow, but Bass rolls out of the way and the fresh men tag in.
-Condrey gets a suplex on Kernodle for two. Kernodle tags back out immediately and Bass gets an elbow for two. It’s Katie Bar the Door and Bass applies the claw on Condrey, but Jim Cornette takes a shot with the tennis racquet in plain sight of the referee, getting the DQ but saving the titles. Cornette goes into the ring for some free shots at Kernodle, but the Rock & Roll Express chases them out of the ring. REALLY solid bout, and for a slapped together team, Bass & Kernodle looked good.
-Rock & Roll Express want a piece of the Midnight Express, but they know Cornette’s going to be trouble, so they’ve turned to a friend, Dusty Rhodes in a Skoal jacket. Dusty shows off a contraption that he helped the Rock & Roll Express get their hands on, a shark cage. They want rematches with Jim Cornette locked in the cage, which Dusty has named “Betty Lou.”
-Dusty Rhodes reminds us that it takes more than one piledriver to keep a good man down, and Arn Anderson needs to remember Baby Doll already warned him that he’s next, daddy. He promises that there’s only room for one king in the NWA, and it ain’t Ric Flair.
ROCK & ROLL EXPRESS vs LARRY CLARKE & BOB OWENS
-Rock & Rolls take turns with a side headlock on Bob Owens. For no reason, we cut to a fan at ringside, with a chyron reading “Pretty Lady from Alabama.”
-Morton snapmares Larry Clarke and gives him a neckbreaker. Morton fights both opponents handily, suplexing Clarke all over the ring. Morton tags in and applies a sleeper on Owens. Clarke breaks it, so the Rock & Rolls whip their opponents together, and the Rock & Roll Express finishes with double dropkicks.
-The Koloffs are here to assure us that Khrusher Khrushchev is healing well and he’ll be back in the ring soon. They accuse Magnum TA of ducking Nikita, “the uncrowned champion.” We cut away to reveal Magnum just standing in the ring, listening to this. He announces that this week will be Nikita’s final televised match until he’s granted a title match.
MAGNUM T.A. (United States Champion) vs LEE PEEK
-Bell. Belly-to-belly. Bell.
-Magnum says he’s been fighting the Baron and Uncle Ivan all over the country, so he ain’t ducking anybody. Magnum says he’s ready for a one-on-one match with Nikita any time, and if he wants it to be a tag team match, Dusty Rhodes is just a phone call away.
TELEVISION TITLE: ARN ANDERSON (Champion) vs SAM HOUSTON (Mid-Atlantic Champion)
-Only Arn’s belt is on the line, of course.
-Arn absolutely steamrolls Houston with a shoulderblock and holds the rope open so Houston can duck out if he wants to. Sam decides to stick it out while Tony points out the stupidity of treating Houston like a jobber when Houston is a reigning champion AND won his belt in literally the same ring. Arn has no excuse for not knowing that.
-Houston hiptosses Arn, and Arn goes to the floor for a retreat. Houston gives HIM an opening to leave, which embarrasses Arn. Arn charges at him but Houston just punches him out of the ring. Arn tries a backdrop, but Houston cartwheels completely around him and dropkicks him down. This is not Arn’s night.
Side headlock by Houston as Arn’s life continues to suck. Arn gets a shot to the midsection that knocks the wind out of Houston. Arn gets aggressive, ramming Houston’s taped arm across the exposed part of the top turnbuckle. Tony mentions that MONTHS back, Arn & Ole broke Houston’s wrist during a match, and Arn is now revisiting an old wound. Arn goes to work with a wristlock and Houston is selling it like he’s at death’s door.
-Back from commercial, and the match did not end, therefore we really didn’t need to keep the tape machines rolling. Arn is still working on the arm with a hammerlock. Arn switches to an armbar, and Houston armdrags out of it. Arn rebounds and puts the hammerlock back on. Houston comes back with a backdrop for one. Houston charges, Arn ducks, and Houston hangs himself on the ropes and crashes. Arn pins right away and gets the win, clean as a sheet.
-Arn puts over Sam Houston for having guts, heart, and a lot of fight in him…just not as much as him. The TV Title belongs to Arn Anderson. The Crocketts tried to take it from him and they couldn’t; no wrestler is going to be able to take it either.
-Jim Cornette storms back out to complain about the shark cage. He can’t even pass the racquet through the cage bars, which Tony suggests is probably part of the design. Also, they keep talking about lifting the cage 80 feet in the air, and everyone knows that Cornette is afraid of heights, so it’s not fair. Cornette storms off, demanding a phone call with Mama’s lawyer.
NIKITA KOLOFF (with Uncle Ivan) vs JOSH STROUD
-Again, so we are told, this is Nikita’s last televised match until he gets a title shot from Magnum TA. Nikita clubbers and kicks Stroud, then chokes him out. Stroud throws some punches, but gets booted back down. Koloff very gently picks Stroud back up, and then finishes with the sickle. Nikita keeps up the assault on Stroud after the bell until Magnum comes out and makes the save. Koloffs forget about Stroud and double-team Magnum. Crowd chants “Dusty” rabidly while the Koloffs just beat Magnum into lifeless goo. Dusty comes to the “rescue” a full minute after it would have helped, and it’s funny, the crowd reaction is tepid. Like, “Where were you?”
