The Name on the Marquee: NWA World Championship Wrestling (6.7.1986)

-Cold open: Dusty walks to the ring and stops to make sexy eyes at the camera. He tosses his jobber opponent out of the ring, when Ric Flair shows up…and Flair is dressed to wrestle. Hmm…He hands the World Title belt to Tommy Young and orders Tommy to hold it in the air, because he wants to defend his belt against Dusty right now. How very UN-Flair-like…

-Originally aired June 7, 1986.

-Your hosts are Tony Schiavone and David Crockett. Tony ominously announces that the FOUR Horsemen are back, in full force.

-Ron Garvin is here, and he’s looking forward to the greatest month in wrestling history, the Great American Bash tour. He’s signed for a taped fist match against Tully Blanchard.

ROCK & ROLL EXPRESS vs KENT GLOVER & BOB OWENS
-Ricky Morton is wearing his protective headgear for this one. Robert Gibson hiptosses Owens and Ricky tags in for a snapmare. DDT by Morton, and the double dropkick finish. Front Row Section D fans are at ringside and taunt the Express with a chant of “It takes two!”

-Jim Cornette and Big Bubba are here, and this is firmly a heel crowd, with the fans chanting “Bubba!” in Bubba’s second week ever. Amazing. Cornette talks about what a joke it is that a woman wants to fight him.

-Ric Flair is the World Champion, woo! Today is Dusty Rhodes Day, and in Dusty’s honor, Ric would like to welcome Ole Anderson back to active competition. He promises that we’re about to see Dusty pay a big price, to a nice pop from the fans.

“Ragin’ Bull” MANNY FERNANDEZ vs LARRY CLARKE
-Fernandez works the arm and chops Clarke down. Clarke dares to throw a punch, and Fernandez gives him a hard chop and clamps on the chinlock. Flying burrito finishes quickly. Manny looks like he just wanted to get the hell outta there for some reason.

-Manny Fernandez says Pez Whatley doesn’t need air conditioning or a beauty salon after what Jimmy Valiant is gonna do to him at the Great American Bash. Valiant’s also signed for some glove-on-a-pole matches with Baron Von Raschke, so plan your bathroom breaks accordingly at the stadium. He shows an artist’s rendition of Paul Jones with a bald head and promises it’s coming real soon.

-We go back to where we started. Dusty comes to the ring to wrestle some jobber. He knocks the guy out of the ring and Ric Flair suddenly shows up, hands the belt to Tommy Young, and he’s all like, “Let’s have a title match, Dusty.” And Dusty’s all like “Thibbity bibbity, baby” or whatever, so we have a title match.

SPONTANEOUS NWA WORLD TITLE MATCH: RIC FLAIR (Champion) vs DUSTY RHODES (with Baby Doll)
-They bounce off the ropes until Dusty hiptosses Flair and elbows him. Flair fights back with a series of no-sold chops and Dusty throws punches. Flair makes a move toward Baby Doll and gets knocked off the apron for it, and the commentary on this is weird, as Tony & David are making no secret of the fact that they’re in the TBS studio recording new commentary, and David’s all like “We could have a new NWA Champion!” even though Flair gave away the finish in his promo!

-Dusty press slams Flair, and a clothesline gets two. Flair dashes to the top rope for no adequately explored reason and gets thrown off, and here come Tully and Arn. Dusty beats the shit out of both of them, but Flair is disqualified anyway.

-And here comes Ole! All the Horsemen rally, and JJ Dillon shows up to act as a traffic cop for everyone, which is noteworthy because this is really the first time that JJ has been depicted as the manager for the whole group instead of just manager for Tully. The Rock & Roll Express and Magnum TA come to the rescue and the Horsemen get out while they can.

-Arn holds up the four fingers and declares that the Three Horsemen are FOUR once again. We get words from Ole Anderson in World Wide Wrestling. Dusty has two choices: retire on his own, or let the Horsemen cripple him so badly that even Dusty’s daddy the plumber won’t be able to fit the pipes together again.

-More big news: Magnum TA has been stripped of the United States Title. We’re reminded of the recent incident in which the Russians insulted Magnum’s mother at the press conference and Magnum retaliated. We go to Interviewer Who Isn’t Identified and We’ve Never Ever Seen Him Before, standing with Magnum TA and NWA President Bob Geigel. Geigel reads a prepared statement formally reprimanding Magnum for his unprofessional conduct at the press conference. “Reprimand this!” says Magnum, and he gives Geigel a hard right hand and storms off.

-We go to a later announcement from President Geigel, saying the board of directors had no choice but to strip Magnum TA of his title.

-Tony is now with the Koloffs, and Nikita gladly accepts the vacated title. Jim Crockett Jr. shows up and declares that they aren’t just handing over the belt. The Great American Bash will now include a Best of Seven series between Nikita and Magnum to determine the champion.

TULLY BLANCHARD & ARN ANDERSON (with JJ Dillon) vs GEORGE SOUTH & RANDY MULKEY
-Arn whips South around and hammers away on him. Mulkey tags in and takes a perfect spinebuster from Arn. Gourdbuster finishes, and this crowd is just crazy about the Horsemen today.

GREAT AMERICAN BASH UPDATE
-Tony Schiavone has words with Waylon Jennings…This is worth watching because it highlights a key difference between Vince McMahon and Jim Crockett. Tony interviews Waylon at length about his latest album and the inspiration behind some of his songs, and his role in the movie Stagecoach. Compare this to the WWF, where the celebrity guests gave little more than well-written soundbites riffing on their own body of work and turning it into a promo for a wrestler. “This is Alice Cooper and at Wrestlemania III, Jake the Snake is going to take Honky Tonk Man to school, and Honky’s going to wish school’s out for summer.” That’s not one that they actually did, but you get the idea. Vince would use the celebrities to give his own guys some shine, here we’re being sold on the celebrities themselves.

-In the most amazing coincidence ever, we get an empty-studio promo from Dusty Rhodes on a week that we have a firmly heel crowd in the building. WILD hunch says that this promo was taped after the rest of the show. Dusty tells all the skeptics who watch the Saturday morning comedy wrestling to watch the real wrestling in the NWA and see what he’s gonna do to Ole.

NIKITA KOLOFF (with Ivan Koloff [with Don Johnson white suit]) vs TODD CHAMPION
-They lock up, and Champion shocks Nikita by shoving him into the corner. Clearly he used some special forces to outmuscle the Russian on that one. Nikita wins a test of strength and gets his confidence back from that.

-Back from commercial, Champion connects with a bodypress for two. Nikita looks frustrated as hell and hammers Champion with rapid-fire axehandles before finishing with the sickle. You could tell they saw something in Todd Champion.

-Tully Blanchard Enterprises is here to warn Ron Garvin about what’s going to go through his mind when he leaves that taped fist match on a stretcher. Tully Blanchard is tired of being treated like he had his belt handed to him, and he warns Dusty Rhodes—that’s right, this is a promo about an upcoming match with Ron Garvin and Tully is talking about Dusty Rhodes—that Dusty had better figure out who his true friends are and heep them close.

-Magnum TA is here and he has the US Title belt with him. Extremely audible “Faggot” chant goes up as Dusty apparently figured that only he should be spared from this crowd with an empty studio crowd.

SHASKA WHATLEY & BARBARIAN (with Paul Jones) vs ITALIAN STALLION & JIM DAWSON
-Barbarian slams the Stallion while Paul Jones voices his objections to the offensive photo we saw earlier in the show. Whatley noggin-knocks the jobbers while I’m reminded that I was getting caught up on podcasts recently and listened to Jim Cornette fielding listener questions, and somebody actually asked why Paul Jones stuck around for so many years when he was such a bad manager. It was interesting to hear Cornette’s tone of voice answering because you got the impression that he actually personally liked Jones, but he basically said that Jones was a personal buddy of George and Sandy Scott, which gave him guaranteed employment in Crockett’s company right up until the day that the company was sold. It’s no coincidence, according to Cornette, that Jones pretty much disappeared forever the moment Ted Turner took over the business.

-Running powerslam by Barbarian. Shaska finishes with a superplex, which would be a better finisher if he’d call it a Shaskaplex. Jimmy Valiant, Manny Fernandez, and for some reason Ron Garvin run in to attack Paul Jones’ Army. They actually clear the ring out pretty well, and they hold down Whatley long enough to take off a few locks of hair for revenge.

-We go to World Wide Wrestling, where Jimmy Garvin and Steve Regal double-team Wahoo McDaniel and whip him with a leather strap match, and that means we have some strap matches coming up.

WAHOO MCDANIEL vs LEE PEAK
-Wahoo slams Peak and follows with an atomic drop. Chops from every direction by Wahoo, and a backbreaker finishes. Wahoo goes out to the fans after the match and says something to the ones who have been the most vocal for the entire show, and he says something that causes all of them to bust up.

MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (World Tag Team Champions, with Jim Cornette and Big Bubba Rogers) vs ROBERT BURROUGHS & VERNON DEATON
-Dennis Condrey is wearing leg warmers for some reason. Eaton starts the match with Vernon Deaton while Jim Cornette says that Vernon Deaton has a drug problem…every time he wrestles the Midnights, he gets drug around from this corner of the ring to that corner of the ring.

-Burroughs gets drug across the ropes and choked. Flying elbow by Bobby, and I gotta be honest after months of exposure to these guys, Eaton’s flying elbow actually looks better than Randy Savage’s. Burroughs continues getting tortured for a bit before they finally put him out of his misery with the Rocket Launcher.

-Three big contests are coming up for fans…The Rock & Roll Express Look-Alike Contest, where the winners will get to spend the day at Six Flags Atlanta with Ricky & Robert. The Miss Rock & Roll Express Contest, open to all girls age 14-17 who are encouraged to mail in photos of themselves, and CAN YOU IMAGINE A COMPANY DOING THIS CONTEST TODAY. Finally, the Rock & Roll Dream Date contest, where the winners will get dinner with the boys, followed by a chance to escort them to the ring for their match that night.

RON GARVIN vs BILL TABB
-Garvin wrings the arm, takes down Tabb, and pretzels him. Hands of stone gets an easy win.

-Jimmah Valiant wantza piece a’Pistol Pez Shaskaaaaaa Whatleeeeeeeeey.

-Frank & Jesse James are here, and Frank basically calls the fans in attendance this week idiots and then promise to come down Mama Cornette’s chimney on Christmas morning.

GORGEOUS JIMMY GARVIN & “Mr. Electricity” STEVE REGAL (with Precious) vs ROCKY KING & PAUL GARNER
-Regal fights both jobbers while the cameras reveal that Garvin isn’t even on the apron, he’s on the floor watching the match with Precious. Regal gives Garner a backbreaker, and Garvin finally decides to get involved. Garvin does a little bit of token offense, but quickly tags Regal back in and watches the match from the floor some more.

-Garvin puts the boots to Garner. Regal keeps the ring cut in half staying on Garner with elbows. Garvin tags back in and chops Garner down for two. Suplex by Regal, and the Russian legsweep gets three.

-We get closing words from Jimmy Garvin, who says he’s going to ask Ted Turner to ban that wildebeest Wahoo from appearing on the Superstation.

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

The guys with title belts and the guys challenging them all did their parts this week and delivered a pretty strong show. Thumbs up, gang!