wrestling / Video Reviews
Dark Pegasus Video Review: NWA Battle of the Belts
September 8, 2008 | Posted by
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| NWA Battle of the Belts by J.D. Dunn In one of those “Vince made a deal with the devil” twists, this show was taped during a hurricane warning with Florida being pounded by rain and high winds. As a result, attendance suffered (the official attendance is listed at 7,600, but that’s a dubious number, given the number of empty seats). Chavo & Hector were a revolutionary high-flying tag team in their day. They get a brief chance to display that here, but the lights keep flickering. Unfortunately, this follows the usual NWA tag team formula with Hector playing face-in-peril for most of the match. Well, at least he gets to display his selling ability. They work in the teased tag spot with Hector just missing his brother’s fingertips. Chavo gets the hot tag and also plays face-in-peril for a bit. Things get awkward down the stretch as Chavo grabs an abdominal stretch on Oliver, and the Grappler knocks Hector into the ref. The Grappler loads up his boot but takes out Oliver with it. Chavo pulls the Grappler to the floor while Hector crawls back in and gets the pin at 15:40. The heels’ offense was so non-descript that it dragged the match down. Another 3-5 minutes of Guerrero offense at the beginning could have made this match much better. ** Rip is kind of a poor man’s Michael Hayes while Koko is kind of a poor man’s Jimmy Snuka, so it works out for everyone. Rogers tries to control with an armbar, but Koko rolls to his back and kicks Rogers in the face. Koko scoops him up into a Jackknife roll for two. Rogers takes over, and we get the psychology of the match as Rogers grabs a chinlock and keeps slipping it down into a chokehold. Koko comes back with (what else?) headbutts and ties Rogers in the ropes. Rogers unties himself and avoids a charge. He tries to beg off and call a time out, but Koko moves in and dropkicks him. Rogers gets his foot on the ropes. The ending sees Rogers scoop up Koko for a slam only to have Miss Brenda distract the ref. Lady Maxine runs in and yanks Rogers down by the hair to give Samoa the win at 11:00. *3/4 Hart is not a Calgary Hart. Nope, this is just Barry Horowitz. He originally went by “Brett Hart” in Georgia and North Carolina, but for obvious reasons, that didn’t pan out. By the way, through the first three matches, you should be getting a good picture of why Florida was dying by this time. Ripoffs of Jimmy Snuka and Michael Hayes? Pushing Barry Horowitz as a viable heavyweight champion? And to think, only a year or two earlier, they were probably the top territory in wrestling from a moneymaking standpoint. Kendall (brother of Barry) is still scrawny and gangly here. To use a Rossism: He looks like an earthworm with the shit slung out of him! Pringle is Paul Bearer with blond hair. Kind of freaky looking when you’re not used to it. Anyway, this match isn’t particularly good. Kendall does do a good job playing the plucky babyface fighting from underneath, but Hart’s offense is soooooo non-descript. At least he shows good personality, the kind that made him one of the most popular jobbers in WWF history. Hart finally misses a crossbody to let Kendall take over. Kendall looks like he has no idea what to do on offense. Well, it ain’t easy bein’ green. Jack pulls an object out of his tights but misses a swing, and Kendall comes off the opposite ropes with a crossbody for the win at 11:10. Both guys played their roles well but couldn’t push this past average due to their limitations at the time. Barry would go on to work a “losing streak” gimmick that would wind up spanning 10 years and several promotions. ** Thankfully, Percy has double indemnity. Both guys look really weird here because their beards are dark black while their hair is lightened. I don’t remember that being a trend. Maybe it’s a Florida thing. Rude wins it, though, because he has a sort of permullet going. This is a typical Rude match as it occurs to me that, outside of Jake Roberts, he always seemed to be stuck in there with big lugs throughout his career – Hercules, Haynes, the Ultimate Warrior. It wasn’t until he jumped ship that he got to wrestle talented guys like Sting on a consistent basis. He works in the “stagger around off an atomic drop” spot early. Haynes gets the Full Nelson, but Rude is in the ropes. Pringle distracts the ref (Fonzie) while Rude takes Haynes to the floor and whips him into the railing. Rude controls from there, and I’m able to call every single spot at least five seconds before it happens. I don’t know if that’s sad for Rude or sad for me. Hey, I bet the tide turns when Rude misses a fist drop off the top rope. WOW! I’m good. Either that or Rude didn’t change his act in nearly seven years of wrestling. Haynes tries a press slam, but Percy pulls his legs out from under him with his cane. Haynes goes after Pringle, distracting Fonzie long enough for Rude to grab the cane and smash it over Haynes’ back for the win and the title retention at 14:15. If you’ve ever seen these two in the WWF, then you’ve seen this match. **1/2 I don’t think I have to say “wild brawl to start,” but I will anyway. Since there’s no one out in the crowd, Hansen decides to take Hawk out into the stands and toss the empty chairs at his face. Ah, Stan. How I’ve missed you. Animal shoves Hansen’s Lariat arm into the ringpost. It finally settles down into an actual wrestling match with Hansen and Race playing the heels (this was a transplanted AWA match). Hawk botches a press slam and gets the hot tag to Animal. The match spills to the outside where everyone is counted out at 10:46. I could have told you that finish just by looking at the participants. Wild brawl, not much wrestling. ** This was supposed to be Rick Martel against Bockwinkle, but the hurricane prevented him from flying in. For his part, Lane does his best Rick Martel impression, playing the fired up babyface. Most fans probably only know Martel for his heel work, but he was one of the better babyface wrestlers of the mid-1980s. Bockwinkle lets Lane get a few moves in, including a flying crossbody, before dismantling him. Odd finish as Lane goes for another crossbody but just bounces off of Bockwinkle. Nick gets the win, apparently having given Lane’s undercarriage a little “how’s your father” while he was in mid-air (3:48). 1/2* First Fall: This would be the last time Wahoo meant anything in the big picture before falling back down the card and heading to the AWA. Feeling out process to start. Flair gets Wahoo on his back and gets several two counts with his feet on the ropes. That triggers an argument with Fonzie. Flair bails to regroup but charges right back in and gets trapped in a leglock. “AHHHHHHH, GOD!” Gotta love mid-1980s Flair. Flair weasels out of it into a Flair Pin for two. Flair goes back to work on Wahoo’s arm. That goes on for a while until Wahoo whips him into the ropes and hits a chop to the chest. He sends him in again and grabs a sleeper hold to pick up the first fall at 22:31. Second Fall: Flair uses the commercial break to recover, and they start out hot with an exchange of chops. Wahoo wins that one. If there’s one move that Wahoo could do, it was the chop. Wahoo strangles him against the ropes, but Flair falls to the outside, trips him up and rams Wahoo’s leg against the ringpost. Therein lies your second-fall story. Flair goes to work on the leg with a toehold and applies the figure-four leglock. Wahoo makes the ropes, but Flair stays on the leg for a while. He gets tired of the legwork and starts going after pinfalls with a grounded abdominal stretch. Fonzie gets bumped during Wahoo’s comeback. Wahoo gets a backslide, but the ref’s still down, so Ric takes the challenger to the floor and slams his face into the ringpost. Back in, Flair casually gets the pin at 38:27. Third Fall: Wahoo gets some makeshift stitch-work to stop his bleeding during the break. He blocks a suplex and reverses to his own. Flair tosses him to the floor again, but this time Wahoo tosses Flair into the ringpost. Solie gets to work in “crimson mask.” Back in, Wahoo whips Flair to the corner, but Flair flips to the outside. Wahoo pulls him back in and gives him a chop to his open wound. SLEEPER! Flair starts to fade but pushes off the turnbuckle, putting himself on top of Wahoo for the win at 42:35. Wahoo fired off a lot of chops in the match, and that was all Flair needed to put on a great match. **** |
The 411: Florida was rapidly going downhill as it got caught in the middle of a power struggle between the WWF and Jim Crockett Promotions. As a result, they were having a hard time replenishing their roster. Barry Horowitz? Lex Luger would debut soon after this and get snapped up almost immediately by Crockett, forcing the Florida territory to turn to Scott Hall as their lead babyface. Yeah, that's right. It's hard to imagine that only a few years earlier, this promotion was getting guys so over that they had to run split crews because they had so many main-event level matches. Anyhoo, it's almost impossible to track down a decent copy of this show, and even if you did it's not worth it. The Flair/McDaniel match is great, but try to find it on a compilation or something rather than sitting through the undercard of this show.
Easy thumbs down. |
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| Final Score: 4.5 [ Poor ] legend |
