wrestling / Video Reviews

The Name on the Marquee: WWF Championship Wrestling (6.28.1986)

April 16, 2015 | Posted by Adam Nedeff
6.6
The 411 Rating
Community Grade
12345678910
Your Grade
Loading...
The Name on the Marquee: WWF Championship Wrestling (6.28.1986)  

-Got another Kindle release uploaded, with all of my reviews from 1985. Buy it right here y’all!

-Originally aired June 28, 1986.

-Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Bruno Sammartino.

MIKE ROTUNDO & DANNY SPIVEY vs. THE GLADIATOR & TIGER CHUNG LEE
Rotundo starts with Gladiator. Rotundo atomic drops him into a Spivey clothesline. Chunger comes in and gets dropkicked straight out to the concrete. Rotundo tags in and takes a series of hard chops while the Dream Team and Johnny Valiant step in to say that if Rotundo & Spivey want a title shot, they’ll have to go through the Dream Team, or go over them.

-Jobbers manage to cut the ring in half pretty well until Gladiator stupidly Irish whips Rotundo to his own corner, and Spivey tags right in and bulldogs the Gladiator to wrap things up.

UPDATE
-Gene Okerlund profiles Randy “Macho Man” Savage. Okerlund predicts that Savage will not retain the gold following his impending title defenses against the Junkyard Dog and Paul Orndorff. Gene pontificates what the offspring would look like if George Steele & Elizabeth ever hooked up, which elicits some Keith Olbermann-style off-camera laughter.

MAGNIFICENT MURACO (with Mr. Fuji) vs. BOB BOYER
-Muraco works the arm and chops Boyer down. Muraco tosses Boyer out to the guard rail, and Mr. Fuji takes a free shot with his cane. Vince McMahon offers an update and says that Andre the Giant’s whereabouts may have been located, but it’s not confirmed yet.

-Tombstone by Muraco gets the three, as expected.

-Ken Resnick promotes the upcoming 2nd Annual King of the Ring at Foxboro Stadium. The British Bulldogs will defend the tag team belts against the Dream Team in a cage match. Luscious Johnny Valiant. The Bulldogs have everything to lose. Beefcake taunts the British Bulldogs with a Scottish accent, saying they’ll look like a couple of bonnie lasses when it’s over. And that’s about all they have to say on the matter.

PEDRO MORALES & TITO SANTANA vs. AL NAVARRO & LANE ANDERSON
-Pedro bodyslams Navarro as Vince & Bruno discuss the way that egos can cause tag teams to self-destruct. Often one member of the team breaks out as a bigger star, which causes professional jealousy, or sometimes a member of the team will try to show off and do all the work in an attempt to hog all the glory, and that can cause a tag team to fall apart too. That’s some nice foreshadowing.

-Pedro works Anderson’s arm and takes some shots at his gut, and Tito comes in to finish him off with the flying forearm.

-Ken Resnick talks to the British Bulldogs. They know exactly what they’re getting into. Johnny Valiant can’t get in to interfere, but the Bulldogs will definitely get out.

“Mister Wonderful” PAUL ORNDORFF vs. MAX BLUE
-Orndorff comes to the ring with a very visible chip on his shoulder. The bell rings, but Orndorff refuses to wrestle until he’s done some posing. He looks ready to go after that, but nope…he cups his hands to his ear and spends a LONG time listening to the fans cheer for him. Orndorff throws Blue out to the floor.

-Back in the ring, Blue tries to do a Hennig-style bump from a clothesline, but he lands straight on his head, and that looked UGLY. Orndorff goes straight to the finish after that with a piledriver. After the match, he demands that Howard Finkel call him “The OLD Mister Wonderful.”

FLOWER SHOP
-Adrian Adonis welcomes back Bobby Heenan. Orndorff, a little miffed, walks straight over to the set to confront Heenan. Awesome detail, with Heenan reaching into his pocket and putting on glasses as soon as Orndorff comes toward him. Heenan greets “Hulk Junior” and congratulates him for having such an impressive showing against a total nobody. Heenan offers him a tag team match against Big John Studd & King Kong Bundy, and suggests, almost as a joke, that Orndorff call Hulk Hogan about being his partner. Orndorff says that Hulk Hogan is just a phone call away any time, and he’s going to prove it by calling Hulk right now. He walks off the set and Heenan laughs, saying that Hulk is probably so sick of Paul Orndorff that he won’t even answer the phone.

-Ken Resnick and President Jack Tunney prepare for the King of the Ring II tournament on July 14. It’s a 14-man tournament, which mean two men will receive byes. They have a bingo cage there and randomly select Mike Rotundo  and Hercules Hernandez to go to the second round, and another drawing is held to determine the first match of the tournament, Pedro Morales vs. Cowboy Bob Orton. The second match will be Nikolai Volkoff vs. Danny Spivey. Following that, Junkyard Dog will battle Paul Orndorff. Billy Jack Haynes vs. The Iron Sheik, and then George “The Animal” Steele vs. Harley Race. Finally, Don Muraco wrestles Rowdy Roddy Piper.

BRITISH BULLDOGS (Tag Team Champions) vs. THE MENACE & JACK KRUGER
-Captain Lou is nowhere to be seen after cutting the promo with the Bulldogs earlier in the hour. Orndorff is currently on the phone in the back and we hope to have an update later on.

-Kruger starts hot, with a neckbreaker and an elbow drop on Dynamite, but Dynamite reverses a suplex and Kruger wants OUT. We go backstage to Orndorff on the phone frantically telling somebody to get Hulk. Whoever it is warns Orndorff that Hulk is lifting 605 pounds right now and it’s not going to be easy to get him over to the phone. Orndorff throws a tantrum and walks away in a huff.

-Back to the ring, Davey Boy clamps a chinlock on the Menace. He tries to rip off the mask and the Menace dives out of the ring to avoid that. Back in, Menace tries to work the leg, but Davey Boy squirms out and suplexes him. Dynamite tags back in and plants the Menace on the top rope, back suplexing him from that position, and the Menace lands square on the back of his head. Bulldogs win, and get right out, with the referee and Kruger visibly tending to the Menace and Howard Finkel going back to the locker room instead of staying at ringside.

-Ken Resnick talks to JYD, who’s excited about his big match against Paul Orndorff in Foxboro Stadium. It’s going to be a great tournament. Captain Lou walks in with George Steele, and after pontificating silently about the merits of grappling with Harley Race, George simply says “Slow.”

-Vince excitedly awaits confirmation of the big tag team match and Paul Orndorff says he spent seven minutes on the phone and Hulk wouldn’t answer. He furiously says that there won’t be a tag team match and storms off.

 

 

6.6
The final score: review Average
The 411
Great week, with the WWF doing something rare for the time and having a story carry out over multiple segments, and it's fascinating to see the rage mount so logically. This was a really well-done feud.
legend

article topics :

WWF, Adam Nedeff