wrestling / Video Reviews

The Name on the Marquee: NWA World Championship Wrestling (1.30.1988)

May 26, 2018 | Posted by Adam Nedeff
NWA - Ron Fuller, Dory Funk Jr. Image Credit: NWA
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The Name on the Marquee: NWA World Championship Wrestling (1.30.1988)  

-Cold open: Nikita Koloff battles Mike Rotundo, with the TV Title on the line.

-Originally aired January 30, 1988.

-Your hosts are Tony Schiavone, Jim Ross, and David Crockett.

-We’re joined by Ricky Santana, who’s about to make his west coast debut with a house show in Albuquerque.

-Jim Cornette makes fun of “Pepito’s” suit and introduces his team.

MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (US Tag Team Champions, with Jim Cornette & Dick Murdoch) vs DAVE LAPAROUSE & EL NEGRO
-Eaton starts with Dave, slamming and elbowing him. Commentators suspect that if Murdoch is at ringside, Cornette must be plotting something.

-Eaton stomps all over Laparouse and throws him to the concrete, and Cornette’s evil scheme turns out to be Murdoch ramming the jobber’s face into the commentary table. Midnights keep dismantling the jobber and won’t let him tag. Eaton comes off the top with a jawjacker.

-El Negro finally enters this and takes his licks. Rocket launcher finishes the massacre.

-David Crockett announces some big news: Jim Cornette will be wrestling as part of an 8-man tag in the near future. Cornette explains that after all the bullshit he went through with Ron Garvin last year, he made it clear to Jim Crockett that he wouldn’t wrestle again without some very specific criteria being met. So Dick Murdoch, the Midnight Express, and Jim Cornette will be on one side of the ring. On the other will be Dusty Rhodes, Barry Windham, and Nikita Koloff, plus one more partner. Per Cornette’s demands, their partner may not be heavier than 130 pounds and no taller than 5’6”. Cornette’s not concerned. The match will be February 12, by the way.

-Also, Dick Murdoch has words for Nikita Koloff regarding their February 6 barbed wire match in Charlotte. Also, he’ll be in a cage match in Baltimore and he has words about that too. Man, this company just could not grasp the paradigm shift.

-David Crockett welcomes the Varsity Club. Kevin Sullivan is now wearing his weird robe and calling himself the Games Master, and Rick Steiner is wearing the singlet, so it’s complete. We head to NWA Pro for the final three minutes of a TV Title defense for Nikita Koloff, squaring off against Mike Rotundo. Rick Steiner breaks a pin from the outside. Referee deals with Steiner while Nikita lays Rotundo out with the sickle, but the referee isn’t looking. Kevin Sullivan runs in and whacks Nikita in the throat with a foreign object, and Rotundo gets the pin and takes the TV Title.

-Back in the studio, Kevin reiterates that Mike Rotundo is his favorite, which draws protests from Rick Steiner. Sullivan and Rotundo treat him like a child and cheer him up by saying Rotundo is good at sharing, so Rotundo is sharing his Florida championship and says Rick Steiner can have that belt now. Honestly, that’s about what the Florida title is worth at this point. So Rick Steiner is now NWA Florida Champion and he’s not mad at Rotundo for being Kevin’s favorite.

LARRY ZBYZSKO (Western States Heritage Champion, with Baby Doll) vs ALAN MARTIN
-Larry sweeps Martin’s leg and tells him he’s almost as talented as Barry Windham. Waistlock takedown by Larry and he applies an armbar. Martin manages to back him against the ropes and throws forearms. Larry slams him as Baby Doll wanders over to commentary and says she’s about to lay out some terms and conditions for Dusty Rhodes for a US Title match, oh good god, I know what’s coming up…

-Neckbreaker by Larry ends this one. Hey, no stalling! I knew you could do it, buddy. The talk about the Bunkhouse Stampede throughout the show has been pretty funny so far, as they’re kind of treating it like an afterthought. “Oh yeah, Larry won the belt at Bunkhouse Stampede” and then moving on immediately, they just don’t want to talk about the show more than they have to.

-We go back to NWA Pro, where Dusty Rhodes and Jim Ross welcome Jim Crockett & Dusty Rhodes for a special ceremony. Jim presents Dusty with a commemorative giant-ass belt buckle as his reward for being Bull of the Woods for the Bunkhouse Stampede. Dusty just kind of gives a half-assed thank-you, sets it aside, and cuts a promo about anything OTHER than Bunkhouse Stampede, so you can tell that Dusty and Jim both recognized the writing on the wall and realized it was time to refocus their efforts and right the ship for this company. Ha, just kidding, actually, after this taping, they immediately flew off to Dallas to sign the leases on a new set of offices for themselves and JJ Dillon, and this is the point for this company absolutely hemorrhages money, as guys now had to make weekly trips to Dallas with no return on investment AND go to TBS in Atlanta for TV tapings. It actually later came out that Crockett was negotiating with Fritz Von Erich to buy WCCW, in which case a Dallas office makes sense, but leasing the office space first is a classic cart-before-the-horse mistake, except in this case the cart is prohibitively expensive office space in a booming metropolis.

-It was also around this time that Dusty and Crockett got a new toy, a private jet, and began going on even more wasteful outings. Like, say, “We have a house show in Los Angeles, so let’s take the jet to Las Vegas first and spend the day there, then fly into Los Angeles,” or “We have a house show in Albany, let’s hang out in New York City the following afternoon.” This insane spending was also the very reason Crockett wasn’t fighting all the sudden departures from the company the past few months, as guys’ contracts stated that if they left the company before a certain date, they wouldn’t get their infamous balloon payments, and Crockett regarded that as a personal get-out-of-jail-free card.

-Okay, so Dusty’s still talking, by the way. Dusty calls himself the #1 box office attraction in American wrestling and it’s a wonder his nose doesn’t shatter the camera lens from 10 feet away. Baby Doll strolls down to ringside waving a manila envelope and says it’s proof that Dusty isn’t the man the fans think he is. Dusty looks in the envelope, looks moderately concerned, and leaves without saying anything.

JIVE TONES vs KENDALL WINDHAM & ITALIAN STALLION
-Shaska takes down the Stallion with a drop toehold. Stallion counters with a hammerlock. Shaska goes to the eyes and tags in Tiger Conway. Tiger charges but Stallion just ducks and lets him crash. Kendall tags in and works the arm. Bodypress off the ropes gets a two-count. Kendall wrings the arm but Tiger takes him down with a fireman’s carry for one. Samoan drop by Tiger gets two.

-Kendall gets a grip on the arm again and takes him down to the mat. Back from commercial, the Jive Tones attack Kendall while Stallion protests. Double headbutt by the Tones, and Shaska slams Kendall for two. Jive Tones keep Kendall cut off from making the tag. Kendall finally dazes Tiger with a left and makes the hot tag to Italian Stallion, which is crazy to see.

-Stallion noggin-knocks the Tones. Stallion stupidly gets distracted by Shaska, the illegal man, and Tiger Conway sneaks up with a knee to the back for three. Surprise! It was a good match.

-Jive Tones want a piece of the Lightning Express, for reasons.

-David Crockett welcomes the NWA Women’s Champion, Misty Blue. Misty says she’s learned a lot of new wrestling techniques, like hitting the ropes, which oh my god, she apparently didn’t learn how to do before becoming the NWA Women’s Champion. She admits to being impressed by the high-flying stuff Bobby Eaton does in the ring and says she wants a meeting with Jim Cornette about possibly taking him on as a manager.

RON & GORGEOUS JIMMY GARVIN (with Precious) vs CHARLES RYAN & TONY SUBER
-Ron trades arm wringers with Suber. Jimmy tags in and chops Suber down to the mat. Armbar by Jimmy. Ryan tags in and Ron headbutts and backdrops him. Hands of stone finish quickly, disappointing legions of fans who tuned in this week hoping to see the Garvin stomp.

-Lex Luger warns that “the youth of our sport,” like himself and Sting, won’t stand back anymore, and they’re going to take over pro wrestling.

-Jim Cornette agrees to train Misty Blue and promises that he’ll train Misty at the Midnight Express’ private gym. Misty wants to train right now and asks if there’s anything she can learn right this second, as long as she and Jim are both in the studio and the ring is just right over there. Cornette agrees to get in the ring with her.

-So Cornette takes her into the ring and describes how Bobby does one of his aerial moves, and Misty surprises Cornette by just dropkicking him and knocking the wind out of him, and that’s when Dusty and Co. come out to reveal she’s the tag team partner for the 8-man tag match. Rather than having Misty just randomly assault Cornette, wouldn’t it have made more sense for Cornette to be a mansplaining bully about training until Misty got sick of his shit?

-We go to a great angle from NWA Worldwide. Ric Flair has been named Wrestler of the Year by PWI, so the NWA declares tonight to be Ric Flair Night in Raleigh, North Caolina, site of Ric Flair’s first title win (the Mid-Atlantic TV Title). The Horsemen enter the arena in a limo and emerge with a throng of fabulous babes, and they have a big long ceremony while Sting paces back and forth in the ring, waiting for his squash match to start, and Flair’s speech is holding up the whole show.

-So Flair finally wraps it up and Sting squashes his opponent in seconds. Tony talks to Sting afterward and says the whole party is irritating him and says he’s tired of Ric Flair bragging about being champion while he’s refusing to sign a contract with Sting. He demands a title shot right here, right now. Instead, he gets JJ Dillon, who comes with four women in tow, and JJ tells Sting that it’s clearly Ric Flair’s night, the event was advertised as a special program honoring Ric Flair, Ric Flair had no intention of wrestling and no reason to be expected to step into the ring, and demanding a title shot and trying to hog the spotlight when it’s somebody else’s night is a completely classless move by Sting.

-And Sting is speechless, which is hilarious because JJ is 100% in the right here. Seriously, watch this episode and listen to JJ’s response. Every word is the truth, and Sting shouldn’t be getting rewarded with a title shot for being a douchebag. So Sting just STARES at JJ like a scene out of “The Office” and finally whips up something about being distracted by all the beautiful women JJ brought with him. Finally, JJ throws his champagne in Sting’s face so this angle doesn’t completely die on the spot, and Sting loses his temper and attacks JJ, nearly clamping on the Scorpion deathlock until the Horsemen show up to chase him out of the ring.

-In the studio, Arn, Tully, and JJ fume about how their special night was ruined by Sting (“There was a fourth girl in the limo, we won’t even TELL you why she had to stay in there!”). Arn also has words for Lex Luger, daring him to step into a cage in the Omni.

-We hear from Ole Anderson. 1987 was a long year. He spent a year at home, in Minnesota, watching his boy wrestle. He can’t stop thinking about the way the Horsemen insulted his family. He wants Arn & Tully in a cage in the Omni, and his partner will be Lex Luger.

STING & BARRY WINDHAM vs MIKE JACKSON & GARY ROYAL
-Weird to see perennial babyface Jackson as a jobber against this pair. Windham tosses him all over the ring with hiptosses. Sting tags in and Jackson manages to take him to the jobber corner. Sting is able to fight Royal off. Dropkick by Windham, followed by a forearm of the ropes. Powerslam by Windham, and Sting closes this one out with the Stinger splash and the scorpion deathlock.

BARBARIAN & WARLORD (with Paul Jones & Ivan Koloff) vs MAX MCGIVER & ED FRANKS
-Barbarian & Warlord throw McGiver back and forth before just giving him a backbreaker. In comes Ed Franks, and a fist drop by Barbarian gets two. Diving headbutt gets three.
-Tonight is the big night in Greensboro, the weightlifting contest. No one is more excited than me, brimming with giddiness at the prospect of never having to hear about it again.

5.1
The final score: review Not So Good
The 411
Sting being kind of a dick, Jim Cornette being genuinely nice and getting assaulted for it, Baby Doll walking around with the mystery envelope...this was a great week if you're a fan of angles that kind of rub you the wrong way.
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