wrestling / Video Reviews
The Name on the Marquee: NWA World Championship Wrestling (1.23.1987)
Image Credit: NWA
Loading...-Cold open: The crazy aftermath of Nikita/Murdoch from last week.
-Originally aired January 23, 1988.
-Your hosts are Tony Schiavone, Jim Ross, and David Crockett. We get our historic third ever mention that the Bunkhouse Stampede will be on pay-per-view, with about 24 hours to go before the event.
-On the road again! We’re in Richmond, VA.
ROCK & ROLL EXPRESS vs TOMMY ANGEL & COUGAR JAY
-Ricky hiptosses Angel. Cougar Jay comes right in and Ricky works the arm as Jim Ross promotes a big match tomorrow night at the Bunkhouse Stampede pitting the Rock & Roll Express against the Sheepherders. Damn, that one has the potential to be a show-stealer! Can’t wait for that hot action! Director manages to locate the five least-interested looking people in the crowd to underscore JR’s point about what great fans we have in attendance this week. Double elbows by the Express. Dropkick by Gibson as the director cuts to another crowd shot. Side headlock by Morton, another crowd shot. Gibson tags in and we cut to the crowd, OH MY GOD, STOP. Double dropkick ends the match and gives us a breather from the crowd shots.
-Michael P.S. Hayes says he and Gorgeous-J are getting tired of talking about winning the World Tag Team Titles and they wanna do something about it. Michael Hayes doesn’t like being deprived of anything and he knows how to get it.
AND NOW IT’S TIME FOR “WHO LEFT THE NWA THIS WEEK?”
-Michael Hayes, who doesn’t like being deprived of anything and knows how to get it, quit before this episode even aired due to a contract dispute with Jim Crockett, accepting a role as booker for WCCW, where he promptly made Michael Hayes the company’s #1 babyface.
THIS HAS BEEN “WHO LEFT THE NWA THIS WEEK?”
STING vs GLADIATOR #1
-Sting wrings the arm and slams Gladiator. Suplex and a big elbow by Sting. Gladiator sends Sting into the ropes for a CROWD SHOT, but Sting fights back with a lethal CROWD SHOT. Irish whip and a backdrop by Sting and Gladiator’s loose-fitting mask is just coming off by itself. Sting actually helps keep it on tight, yelling “He’s too ugly!” Sting rams Gladiator into the turnbuckles and clamps on a chinlock. Gladiator fights back with punches. Clothesline,but Sting doesn’t even budge from it. He dropkicks Gladiator into the corner for a Stinger splash, and the scorpion deathlock gets the submission. JR assesses Sting’s prospects for the future and declares “It only takes three seconds for a man to become world champion.
-Tony Schiavone talks to Sting, who announces he’ll show up on TV every week until Ric Flair gives him a title shot. As this guy talks, you can just feel him zooming right past Lex Luger for “the guy” status.
IVAN KOLOFF & THE WARLORD vs MARK FLEMING & BOB RIDDLE
-Koloff love-taps Fleming repeatedly. Fleming fights back with forearms, but hits the ropes and gets slugged down and booted out to the floor. Warlord press slams him back into the ring. Warlord tags in and slams Fleming down. Bearhug into a belly-to-belly by Warlord. Riddle tags in and Koloff puts the boots to him. Bossman legdrop by Koloff while JR hypes the damn weightlifting competition.. Show me the fan who bought a ticket for that. Show me a fan who was on the fence about going to an NWA event but then heard about this and said, “Weightlifting contest? Cool, I’m in!”
-Koloff chops Riddle down and chokes him out. JR continues to have awful timing for his talking points, mentioning how “pumped up” the crowd is during a moment of total silence. Warlord picks up Riddle in a body vice and Koloff comes off the top rope with a sickle to finish.
SPAM SLAM!
-Bobby Eaton does the Angle slam before it was cool.
-David Crockett talks to JJ Dillon, who is amazed that a rookie like Sting thinks he deserves a title shot. Ric Flair just brushes him off as a punk kid who thinks that because little girls cheer for him, it must make him a main eventer.
SHEEPHERDERS (with Johnny Ace) vs LARRY STEPHENS & TRENT KNIGHT
-Butch boots Stephens in the stomach. Luke tags in and snaps him down. Butch stomps away at Stephens, then forces a tag and Knight comes in to take his beating. Knight actually lucks into a sunset flip on Luke for two. Luke gets fired up and goes nuts on him with punches. Luke whips him back and forth as JR subtly hints that the NWA got the message from the fans, mentioning the feature match coming up later in the show and promising emphatically that the entire match will air. Knight throws left hands at Luke, but Luke shakes them off and just boots Knight down. Battering ram and the double stomachbreaker ends it.
-Road Warriors are ready for the Bunkhouse Stampede. The Road Warriors have kept every promise they’ve ever made, and they promise that Hawk will leave with the NWA World Title and that Animal will leave with $500,000.
STAN LANE & DICK MURDOCH (with Jim Cornette) vs ANDREW BELLAMY & STAN CREWS
-Crews armdrags Lane. Lane fights back with a thrust kick and sends him out to the floor. That’s the way Murdoch likes it and he comes off the apron to attack Crews with all the props he can round up, using the table, the microphone, and a chair to assault him before sending him back in. Murdoch tags in and elbows Bellamy, then clamps on an armbar. Bellamy tags in and gets tripped up, then dumped out to the floor. Murdoch goes crazy with the weapons again as JR begs Cornette for sanity. Back in, the brainbuster finishes.
-David Crockett is here with Dusty Rhodes. Dusty says he backed into the Bunkhouse Stampede finals, but he’s gonna walk out frontward.
-Paul Jones likes his men’s odds for the Bunkhouse Stampede finals. Three men in the ring watching each other’s backs. But more important than the $500,000 steel cage battle royal is the thrilling $50,000 weightlifting contest in Greensboro. David Crockett sums up my feelings nicely by noticeably tuning out until Ivan’s done talking about the weightlifting contest, then waking up and ending the segment with “That’s it?”
ARN ANDERSON vs GEORGE SOUTH
-They go down on the mat to start and South applies headscissors and we take a break right away. We return from commercial with the two men pretty much just starting the match over again. South backs Arn into the corner, but a big left hand drops South. Arn hammerlocks South and slams him down, then goes to the armbar to stay in control. Gourdbuster gets an easy three-count.
-There’s no dissention in the Horsemen. They worked together to get Arn & Tully both into the Bunkhouse Stampede finals and they’ve already decided how to split the money.
RON GARVIN vs GENE LIGON
-Garvin backs Ligon into the corner, then hiptosses him and follows with a dropkick. He snaps Ligon’s leg back and applies a half-crab. Ligon gets free and tries to trade chops, but that backfires like you’d expect. Headbutt by Garvin, and the Garvin stomp finishes.
-Jim Cornette hypes all the action tomorrow night when Sweet Stan goes to the Bunkhouse Stampede and when Dick Murdoch heads to Orlando to face Ron Garvin. THEY RAN A HOUSE SHOW AT THE SAME TIME AS THEIR PAY-PER-VIEW. Cornette does a funny bit of shtick where he rattles off all the expenses that Dick Murdoch has run up while he’s supposed to be trying to injure Dusty Rhodes. He’s not sure his mama’s going to be thrilled when he has to explain why she’s being charged $47 for chewing tobacco and $150 for a bar tab.
-Lex Luger is excited to watch the next match! Okay then, Lex!
WESTERN STATES HERITAGE TITLE: BARRY WINDHAM (Champion) vs TULLY BLANCHARD (with JJ Dillon)
-JR notes that “Barry Windham is the only man ever to have held one of the most prestigious titles in wrestling today.” Sure.
-Atomic drop by Barry sends Tully out to the floor. Back in, Windham Irish whips Tully and he bumps over the top rope and flops onto the concrete. JJ is demanding a DQ for that, but Tommy Young basically tells Tully to suck it up and quit being a baby. Barry backs chases Tully around the floor The chase winds up back into the ring and Windham drills Tully with a forearm for two. Powerslam by Windham gets another two. Back in, Tully throws punches to daze Windham and applies a chinlock. Windham gets to his feet and breaks the hold with a back suplex. The tape machines are rolling!…
-Back from the break, Tully is on the floor. He heads back in and they slug it out. JJ quickly passes his shoe to Windham, but Windham dares him to do it, and Tully loses his nerve and gives the shoe back to JJ without doing anything. Tully tries to retreat in the corner and Windham stomps Tully’s chest repeatedly. Tully finally fights back and tries to finish right away with the slingshot suplex, but Windham reverses it and drops a knee on Tully for good measure. Windham drops a knee on Tully as we go to the entrance area for Lex Luger’s insight. He’s proud of the effort that Windham has put in so far, but you can’t underestimate Tully Blanchard.
-So, the referee got bumped while Lex was talking and we totally missed it. JJ immediately capitalizes with a chairshot to Windham’s knee and he’s writhing on the floor in agony when Tommy Young revives. Tully rips Windham’s kneepad off and attacks the bare knee. Tully is still working the knee as we take another break.
-We return to Windham reaching down for something deep and headbutting Blanchard repeatedly to try to break a hold. Tully keeps working the leg as Tommy offers to stop the match, but Barry Windham won’t hear of such nonsense. We get more insight from Lex, who says Barry Windham has endured pain before.
-Windham miraculously applies a sleeper out of nowhere and Tully looks like he might fade away, but he lifts Windham by one leg and atomic drops him to injure the knee further. Piledriver by Tully gets two. Elbow misses. Windham tries a suplex, but the leg gives out and Tully lands on top for two.
-Back from another break and now things are really bleak as Tully has a figure four clamped on Windham. Windham reverses the figure four, but they’re too close to the ropes and Tully breaks the hold. Windham cradles Tully with five minutes to go in the time limit, but he only gets two. They collide on a double shoulderblock and Tommy Young puts the count on them. Tully revives and goes for a pin, but Windham bridges out and gutwrenches Tully. Tully goes back to the knee, but Windham fights back and plants Tully out, hoping for a superplex. The leg gives out and Barry falls off. Tully tumbles off the top rope and struggles to his feet. Lariat by Windham out of nowhere, but JJ Dillon hits the panic button and rings the bell to trick Tommy Young into thinking the time limit expired.
-Lex Luger won’t tolerate that shit, so he runs to the ring with record speed and tattles on JJ, with Tony and JR helpfully waving him over to the commentary table and cueing up a replay so they can see JJ’s act of sabotage. Tommy Young rules the match must be restarted and Tully just attacks Barry from behind and cradles him right away. Tommy Young starts to count the pin, but Luger runs in and breaks the pin because that would be such a bullshit way for Tully to win, and the crowd loses their shit so hard, they have to borrow more shit from a neighboring town so they can lose that too. JJ knocks Barry Windham out cold with his shoe, then throws Tommmy Young out of the ring. Ric Flair and Arn Anderson come in and now it’s a four-on-ne attack on Lex Luger. Barry starts to come to and Flair offers him a spot with the Horsemen right then and there, telling him to attack Luger, but Windham knows who attacked him with the show, so he starts fighting off the Horsemen. A fan runs in and Arn & JJ make a beeline to kick his ass, and out comes Sting to lend his support while security deals with the fan.
-Lex and Barry briefly touch on their pasts in Florida, bury the hatchet, and agree to look out for each other from now on.
