wrestling / Video Reviews
The Name on the Marquee: NWA World Championship Wrestling (10.15.1988)
Loading...-Cold open: Varsity Club is cutting a promo when Rick Steiner shows up to give him a present: a Michigan t-shirt. Sullivan doesn’t care. Rotunda surprises Sullivan with a Syracuse shirt. Sullivan is so touched that he gets rid of his robe immediately and opts to wear the sweatshirt. Steiner is a sad-faced gremlin.
-Originally aired October 15, 1988.
-We’re on the road this week, coming to you from Fayetteville, NC.
-Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & Jim Ross, with David Crockett wandering around the building somewhere. They vaguely allude to a shocking incident that took place a few days ago involving Sting and the Road Warriors, but we don’t know if we’ll have the tape ready to view during the show.
LARRY ZBYSZKO & AL PEREZ (with Gary Hart) vs. MIKE JUSTICE & DAVID ISLEY
-I hope nobody told Larry he’s opening a two-hour show because this might take a while.
-Larry backs Justice into the corner and rams him. Perez comes in with kicks and forearms. Isley tags in and it sucks to be him for a while. Suplex by Larry. Perez comes in and pops the crowd with an airplane spin, and Larry finishes it with a neckbreaker. JR declares that Perez and Zbyszko are “building momentum,” which is like JR is shrugging his shoulders, but with words.
-Larry declares that he doesn’t really NEED nunchuks to win, but if other teams want to cheat, Larry is ready to cheat back.
-David Crockett welcomes Sir Oliver Humperdink. Gary Hart is threatening to bring in a new awesome large man, but Oliver says bring it on. Weirdness: There’s totally a match going on in the background as Humperdink cuts this promo, but instead let’s watch…
BAM-BAM BIGELOW vs. GEORGE SOUTH
-From NWA Pro. Dropkick and a backdrop by the Bammer. Enziguiri as Bam-Bam is breaking out all his fun stuff for this one. Gourdbuster ends it.
NIKITA KOLOFF vs> RUSSIAN ASSASSIN #2 (with Paul Jones)
-Hot start as Nikita just wants to fight and they trade fists without a ring announcement. Nikita throws him to the concrete and Paul Jones is freaking out. Back in, #2 tries an Irish whip, but Nikita puts on the brakes and lights into #2 some more. JR mentions that #2 has 50 pounds on Nikita and you can hear the “Are you insane?” in Tony’s head as he pauses to think of a response to that. #2 tries to work the arm but Nikita turns it into a half-Nelsenski on the mat. He switches to a hammer-and-sickle lock, but #2 squirms out to the floor to break it…except Nikita doesn’t break it and #2 just walks around ringside stuck in Nikita’s hold, which is a great visual.
-Back in, Nikita still won’t release until #2 rams him into the corner. Nikita gets thrown to the floor. #2 targets the arm with help from the barricade, and Jones takes some free shots with the riding crop. We’ll be right back!
-Nikita is caught on the floor and #2 keeps booting him to keep him from getting back in. Jones takes more shots at him until Nikita finally makes it back in and #2 applies a hammerlock. He switches to an armbar and maaaaaaaaaan, they give JR enough time to run down the house shows, coming-up-laters, and his recipe for JR’s World-Famous Pawhuska Poundcake before Nikita finally slams his way out of it.
-Nikita hiptosses #2 right on top of Teddy Long and sickles #2, but he can’t get the pin. #1 runs in but Nikita just sickles him too. #2 loads the mask and knocks Nikita out with it. Paul Jones runs in to wake Teddy Long up, but before he can, Ivan shows up and strangles Jones with his chain. Teddy Long wakes up and he’s like “I don’t know what’s going on but this is a DQ or something.” He’s got the chain wrapped around Jones so tightly that the Assassins can’t pull their manager away, so the jobber patrol runs in to break it up. Match was mostly fine.
-The Koloff boys are mighty pissed off now.
RON SIMMONS vs. JOHN SAVAGE
-Savage throws punches and elbows and has Simmons reeling for a bit. Savage whiffs on something and Simmons slams him hard and says “My turn now.” Flying tackle ends it in short order.
-Ric Flair just kinda does open-mic night with David Crockett, cutting promos on whoever he can think of until he gets the time’s up signal. Flair apologizes for having a throat infection and admits he can’t wooo this week, but the audience steps up for him.
“Hot Stuff” EDDIE GILBERT vs. TRENT KNIGHT
-Eddie returns after seven months. And they’re hitting the re-launch button with him as JR mentions that he was surprised to learn that Eddie was so distraught about Jimmy Garvin’s knee injury but apparently they’re old buddies. In the ring, Gilbert makes his side of the fence known by hitting a German suplex and shouting that it’s a message for the Varsity Club.
-He throws Knight to the concrete. Back in, Gilbert bungles the hot shot, but he owns it nicely and checks with the crowd, asking if Knight’s neck actually hit the top rope. The crowd tells him no, so he does the move correctly and finishes. That’s a great way to salvage a blown spot and it made the fans feel like a part of the show. Take a note.
-Eddie Gilbert calls out the Varsity Club. He doesn’t need a fancy letter to show he can hang with the best wrestlers in the world.
THE SHEEPHERDERS (with Rip Morgan) vs. CURTIS THOMPSON & TOMMY ANGEL
-Butch puts the boots to Thompson and Luke drives an elbow into him as the commentators explain that we haven’t seen David Crockett yet because the NWA is taking so much extra time reviewing the Sting/Road Warriors footage and he’s trying to round up something for a report later in the show. Also, they still aren’t saying what happened, but they clarify that Dusty Rhodes is extremely angry about it.
-Luke rams Tommy Angel in the stomach and chokes him out. Tommy Young gets distracted as Butch uses a cable at ringside to work Angel over. Thompson comes in and catches Butch with a dropkick, but he can’t capitalize on it and ends up having to tag out. Angel falls victim to the battering ram, and the double stomachbreaker ends it.
-The Sheepherders say they respect their flag and accuse the Fantastics of not respecting their Yankee flag. So I guess we’re building to a flag match for some reason.
-Tony Schiavone welcomes the Varsity Club. We take another look at Jimmy Garvin getting his leg mangled. Rotunda tries to brag about what he did, but Rotunda interrupts to tease him for getting his ass kicked by Sting a while back and leads the fans in a “Sting” chant.
VARSITY CLUB (with Kevin Sullivan) vs. GENE LIGON & JOE CRUZE
-Rotunda takes Ligon down to the mat, then slams him. Steiner tags in and connects with a hard clothesline, and the crowd is starting to bark along with him. Sullivan takes Steiner out to the floor and scolds him before Steiner heads back in and powerslams Joe Cruze. Rotunda tags back in to claim the win for himself, hitting a suplex and getting the pin. Steiner runs over to Cruze and counts his own pin to get the credit he deserves for carrying the match.
KEVIN SULLIVAN (with the Varsity Club) vs. STEVE JOBBINGTON
-They don’t let us know who the jobber is. The story is worth more than the match here, as Rotunda and Steiner are arguing at ringside while Sullivan has his match. The jobber goes to the floor but before Rotunda can take a cheap shot, Steiner grabs the jobber, walks him back into the ring, and props him up. Sullivan is so fed up he gives Steiner a hard slap. Rabid “Steiner” chant goes up as Sullivan keeps beating on the jobber, and a punch off the ropes gets three.
-David Crockett talks to Ron Simmons. Simmons is so sick of Kevin Sullivan name-dropping him and makes it very, very clear that he wants nothing to do with the Varsity Club.
-Tony Schiavone talks to JJ Dillon and there’s NO HORSEMEN GRAPHIC! So here’s your giving-up point. JJ says “no” to Dusty’s challenge for the US Title.
DICK MURDOCH vs. AGENT STEEL
-Murdoch punches Steel down and snapmares him into a chinlock. The schtick with the mask went well last week so he does it again this week with Steel. Brainbuster finishes.
-Murdoch says that the Road Warriors are awesome guys, but when somebody do someone dirty, their friends will come to fight. The Warriors had better look out…for the Texas Outlaws.
MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (World Tag Team Champions, with Jim Cornette) vs. GARY ROYAL & GEORGE SOUTH
-Royal gets double-teamed. South heads in and takes some educated feet and a neck vice from Stan Lane. Royal comes back in and is so thoroughly battered that they only bother with the single-goozle. And the flapjack finishes.
-The Midnight Express is coming for the Road Warriors, and the Warriors are going to feel like they’ve been stung by bees and left wallowing in mud when it’s all over.
-David Crockett says the Road Warriors are refusing to speak to him. They got permission to show a limited portion of videotape, so we close the show with a herd of babyfaces helping to carry Sting out of the arena on a stretcher.
