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The Name on the Marquee: WWF Championship Wrestling (2.8.1986)

September 30, 2014 | Posted by Adam Nedeff
7
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The Name on the Marquee: WWF Championship Wrestling (2.8.1986)  

-Originally aired February 8, 1986.

-Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Bruno Sammartino. George “The Animal” Steele walks past them, clutching a bunch of flowers, and they speculate it has something to do with Elizabeth. And then Vince & Bruno take off their deerstalker caps and extinguish their pipes and call it a day.

UNCLE ELMER & HILLBILLY JIM vs. BOB BRADLEY & TERRY GIBBS
Jim slams Gibbs everywhere, while Howard Finkel jumps in to tell us that Worcester has a big wrestling event coming up later in the month. Weird approach to promoting it, with Howard giving a long list of heel wrestlers on the card and absolutely no mention of any of their opponents. Buy your tickets today to see Tony Garea lose nine consecutive matches!

-Elmer fat-guys Gibbs around and then finishes with a big fat-guy for three.

UPDATE
-New theme music! “The Power of Love” introduces us to the power of Lord Alfred Hayes, who says that Wrestlemania 2 will have nuclear intensity as the entire world waits for a WWF-sanctioned earthquake of star-studded wrestling. We get highlights from Wrestlemania I to whet our whistles. And there’s nothing that whets a whistle quite like Liberace at the bell.

-Vote for the Slammys or else the terrorists win.

BING JOHN STUDD & KING KONG BUNDY (with Bobby Heenan) vs. DARRYL BOWLIN & IVAN MCDONALD
-Heenan is wearing a plaid suit straight out of Herb Tarlek’s closet, which I think means officially that Heenan explored EVERY look for a manager. That’s my weird musing for the night. Heenan is pretty much the only manager I can think of who never settled on a look for long-term. Sometimes he wore sweatsuits, sometimes he wore letterman’s jackets with the Walk of Fame stars on them, sometimes suits, sometimes tuxedos, sometimes the western wear and bolo ties…Bobby was the only manager with an unrestricted wardrobe.

-McDonald tries to slam Studd and gets shoved down. Studd sends him into the ropes for a clothesline but for some reason McDonald dives out of the ring and crashes on the floor. Finkel jumps in to tell us more stars coming to Worcester, and this time he only mentions the faces and doesn’t match them up with the heels he mentioned earlier.

-Bundy hammers Bowlin while Vince McMahon announces an edict from Jack Tunney’s office prohibiting wrestlers from wearing casts while they wrestle. If you say you need a cast, you may not wrestle again until you have had it removed. So THAT’s finally done.

-Bundy splashes Bowlin and that’s it.

-“Tonight is the night!” Gene Okerlund talks to Roddy Piper, who is reading the Sports section in the Boston Herald, quoting a sportswriter who says that if Bruno actually shows up tonight for a steel cage match, he’ll get what he deserves from Hot Rod.

TITO SANTANA (Intercontinental Champion) vs. MR. X
-Tito works the arm while Bruno observes that Tito’s muscles are so well-developed that it causes him to look small. He goes onto predict that Tito will continue to be Intercontinental Champion for a long time to come. Let’s see…aired on…February 8…1986…Hey Bruno, wanna put money on this?

-Side headlock by Tito, and then he backs X into the corner and makes a clean break. They trade blows and Tito takes firm control with a backdrop, and the figure four ends it.

-Wrestlemania 2 only happens once a year! That’s true, I remember Wrestlemania 2 1985 and Wrestlemania 2 1998 and they definitely were the only Wrestlemania 2s that happened in those years.

-Bruno Sammartino offers a retort to the pathetic sportswriter in Boston and says that he’s going to shut the writer and Roddy Piper up for good tonight.

BRITISH BULLDOGS (with Captain Lou Albano) vs. A.J. PETRUZZI & THE GLADIATOR
-Davey Boy & AJ go to work while Bruno continues his lifelong mission to never, ever correctly identify this team. The English Bulldogs look to be championship-bound.

-Missile dropkick from Dynamite gets a big pop. Davey Boy does the delayed suplex for two. Davey actually appears to be getting ready to finish with That’s Incredible and the crowd lets out a big “Ooooooooh” in anticipation and instead, Davey Boy just makes it a powerslam off the turnbuckles to finish.

PIPER’S PIT
-Piper complains about how all the dateless whiners in the WWF complained to the referees and caused this new edict from Jack Tunney saying Orton had to get the cast removed before he could wrestle again. Piper says that one complainer in particular said Orton “should wear a boxing glove when he wrestles if he’s going to hit with that thing.” The complaint sparked an idea, and out comes Cowboy Bob Orton with a robe and gloves, ready to box. He gives an open challenge for anybody in the WWF to fight “Mr. Boxing” Bob Orton in a boxing match.

RANDY “Macho Man” SAVAGE (with Elizabeth) vs. PAUL DOSE
-Savage gets distracted with showboating and jawing at the fans when George Steele shows up with the flowers and gives them to Elizabeth. Elizabeth nervously nods and thanks him and Steele leaves ringside. Savage turns around and sees the flowers and goes outside to ask where they came from. Elizabeth won’t tell him, even after Savage grabs her by the jaw and demands it, and when Elizabeth won’t talk, Savage destroys the flowers.

-He’s so pissed that he dives into the ring and posts Dose, and then connects with the flying elbow for three without even taking off his sunglasses.

-The greatest of all time is going to be even greater…Wrestlemania 2.

-Vote for the Slammys. This show will never happen. I’m starting to believe that. My mind is starting to generate false memories of this same segment happening on segments of RAW in 1997.

CORPORAL KIRCHNER & GEORGE “The Animal” STEELE (with Captain Lou Albano vs. NIKOLAI VOLKOFF & IRON SHEIK (with Classy Freddy Blassie)
-Vince & Bruno hype George as a surprise tag team partner, even though they opened the goddamn show by mentioning that George was “in the building for a tag team match.”

-Kirchner handles both opponents in his own pretty well, but Sheik takes control with the sinister boot. He tries a suplex and Kirchner reverses it before making a quick tag. Hot tag cools off quickly as Sheik and Volkoff immediately dump George over the top rope and George gets pissed off and clears the ring with a chair, getting himself DQed. Fucking LAME.

-An incredibly hoarse Gene Okerlund brings in Don Muraco & Mr. Fuji have a drunken chat about Hillbilly Jim and John Studd, a pair of cripples who can’t touch their toes, and Don Johnson, and Wrestlemania 2 will only have crappy cheap seats available for Mr. Fuji to sit. They also mention that Gene is into being tied up. Wow, buy EVERY ticket now.

7.0
The final score: review Good
The 411
Another eventful week with the Federation showing definite signs of life leading up to the 1986 Big Annual Thing. Another recommendation.
legend

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WWE, Adam Nedeff