The Name on the Marquee: NWA World Championship Wrestling (11.21.1987)

-Originally aired November 21, 1987.

-Your host is Tony Schiavone. David Crockett is “on assignment, as you know.” This is the first anybody has made me aware of this situation, Tony.

-Dusty Rhodes says that Lex Luger is destined to be a legend. He warns Lex that he’ll be tearing it up in New York City, and at Starrcade, AND in the Bunkhouse Stampede. I’m looking at a rundown of the card for the New York house show they’ve been pimping all month:

War Games IV with Ron Garvin, Dusty, Barry Windham, and Rock & Rolls vs. Arn, Tully, Big Bubba and the Midnights
Road Warriors vs. Luger & Flair
Nikita vs. Gilbert
Lightning Express vs. Sheepherders
Steve Williams vs. Rick Steiner
Hayes & Garvin vs Jive Tones
Valiant, Bugsy & Wilbur vs Black Bart for some reason, Ivan Koloff, & Warlord
Larry Z vs. Kevin Sullivan
Sting & Ron Simmons vs Terry Taylor & Barbarian

-I gotta be honest, I’d rather see that than the Starrcade card.

NEW BREED vs DAVID ISLEY & TERRY JONES
-Royal with a waistlock takedown on Isley. Shoulderblock and a hiptoss. Dropkick, and damn, by the way, Royal threw beautiful dropkicks. Champion with something like a superkick. More of a better-than-averagekick, and in comes Terry Jones. I’m still not convinced that Jones isn’t related to the Mulkey family.

-Plaster cast comes into play for a clothesline, and then Champion rams Jones into the turnbuckle. There’s something off about the crowd reactions this week. I think they’re using canned applause. Axehandle from the top onto Jones on the floor by Champion. Royal suplexes him back inside and applies the sharpshooter. Terry Jones taps out, but it’s 1987 so fuck him. Le Bombe De New Breed gets the win.

-Sean Royal, man of 1,000 voices, has mastered the New Zealand accent and mocks the Sheepherders. They’ll be facing the Sheepherders in New Orleans on Thanksgiving day, in a cage match, before the closed circuit broadcast of Starrcade. Well, they were supposed to, but Champion no-showed. And why the hell would you even stick those teams in a CAGE when they’ve never crossed paths or had any issues?

-JJ Dillon and Lex Luger are here. JJ throws the gauntlet down, declaring that Wednesday night, New York City will witness the REAL Survivor Series, War Games. And yes, he actually says “Survivor Series.” Lex Luger cuts a promo that reminds us all that no matter who’s wearing it, all you can think when you see a Members Only jacket is “Hey, that’s a Members Only jacket.” I didn’t hear a word the man said.

-The damn Dusty montage. Did the video editor quote them a price and they decided, “Well, we can only afford to do exactly TWO of these”?

MIKE ROTUNDO (Florida Champion) vs TOMMY ANGEL
-Angel applies a side headlock and takes Rotundo down. Rotundo fights back but gets shoulderblocked down. Angel runs the ropes but runs right into a dropkick, and Rotundo locks on his own side headlock. Forearms are traded. Takedown by Rotundo and he starts working the arm. Big hiptoss by Rotundo, and the airplane spin finishes it.

STARRCADE ’87: CHI-TOWN HEAT: GLORY BOUND REPORT
-Tony welcomes Magnum TA. We take a look back at the “I Quit” match before Magnum is asked to make his picks. TV Title unification is no contest because the NWA is the superior promotion. Big Bubba’s probably gonna screw the Express out of a win. He actually calls the World Tag Team Title match for the Horsemen, Dusty to take the US Title, and Ron Garvin to retain.

STING vs COUGAR JAY
-Criss-crossery leads to a dropkick by Sting, and he dumps Cougar Jay to the concrete. Back in, Sting comes off the second rope with a bodypress. He heads back up for a Vader bomb, then rams Cougar face-first into the mat repeatedly. Front facelock by Stinger, and he turns it into a suplex. Stinger splash puts a bow on this one.

-Sting says that Eddie Gilbert, “Hot Puff,” is the lowest of the low, but Sting is willing to go down to his level to get a victory. He warns Gilbert that his friend Dr. Death just returned from Japan and was so excited about a new hold he learned that he taught it to Sting. It’s called “The Scorpion.”

-Barry Windham invites Larry Z to come and get the Western States Heritage Title.

KEVIN SULLIVAN vs ALAN MARTIN
-Sullivan just attacks immediately, ramming Martin into the turnbuckle and clotheslining him down. Martin goes out to the concrete. Back in, Sullivan suplexes him and rakes the back and the chest. Double stomp gets three.

“Dr. Death” STEVE WILLIAMS (UWF Champion) vs THUNDERFOOT #2
-Williams does a clinic with different kinds of takedowns. Arm wringers are exchanged and Thunderfoot does his own takedown to say “Two can play at that game!” So Williams whips out another takedown. Gorilla press. Clothesline by Williams gets two. Football tackle leads to the stampede for three.

-Steve Williams reminds us again that he expects to wrestle Barry Windham at Starrcade, not fight him.

-Ricky Santana is here in a pink suit to predict a win for Dusty Rhodes.

RICK STEINER vs RICKY NELSON
-Waistlocks are traded before Nelson tries a dropkick. German suplex by Steiner, and Nelson looks like it killed him. Snake eyes by Steiner, followed by a big powerslam. The speed Steiner has when he does this stuff is amazing, as it just looks like the tape is on fast-forward any time he does an offensive move.

-Steiner dumps Nelson to the concrete. Nelson slingshots himself back in and tries for a sunset flip, but Steiner headbutts him to break it. Belly-to-belly puts Nelson out of his misery. This was just the most perfect squash match. Steiner didn’t drag it out, but also didn’t half-ass it. Everything looked like it had impact, everything looked legit, and Steiner went for the pin the moment this guy looked beaten.

-Kevin Sullivan does his hype job for Starrcade again.

MIDNIGHT EXPRESS (US Tag Team Champions, with Jim Cornette & Big Bubba Rogers) vs REX KING & MAX MCGIVER
-Cornette is in a purple suit that inspires some California Raisins jokes from Tony. Bobby does a half-assed handshake with King and faceplants him. Stan Lane comes in to work the back. McGiver tags in and Lane greets him with a savate kick and a Russian legsweep. Eaton stomps away at McGiver and throws him to the concrete. Back in, Eaton drops the flying elbow, and the rocket launcher wraps it up.

-Cornette says the Rock & Roll Express only needs to make one mistake at Starrcade for it to be their last mistake.

-Ric Flair shills the Danger Zone VHS cassette, and hey, they leave the actual commercial in there this week! It’s a great promo, but they lose me at “60 minutes of action.” I mean, if you own a VCR, you know how much content a cassette can hold, so it always bugged me when either promotion released a video and I’d go to the video store and see it only had a one-hour runtime.

-Ric Flair is still in the studio out of the promo and compares the fans in the audience: the monkeys who root for Dusty Rhodes and the studs cheering for Ric Flair. He lashes out at Magnum and Ricky Santana for picking Garvin to win. Magnum was particularly insulting to Flair because they once had a match where Flair had him beaten after ten minutes, but Flair deliberately dragged out the match and let Magnum go 60 minutes with him just as a favor.

ROAD WARRIORS (International Tag Team Champions, with Paull Ellering) vs DALE LAPEROUSE & CURTIS THOMPSON
-One jobber goes to the floor, the other gets trapped in the ring. Flying clothesline by Animal, a HELL of a dropkick by Hawk, and a funny spot with Animal clotheslining a jobber, with Hawk running the ropes next to the jobber to make sure he goes straight into Animal’s arm. That’s it for these poor schlubs.

-The Road Warriors say that the World Tag Team Titles are the only thing they’ve never had. Arn & Tully have to enter the four corners of doom in the Road Warriors’ backyard.

-Flair montage.

LARRY ZBYSZKO (with Baby Doll) vs LARRY STEVENS
-Match one of the short-lived “Superstation Championship Larry Series.” Larry Z with a series of takedowns, and then Stephens does something, but we’ll never know what because of the lingering camera shot of Baby Doll. Larry Z with a backbreaker for one. Neckbreaker ends it.

-Larry Zbyszko gives Barry Windham until Starrcade to surrender his Western States Title, or else Larry will just have to take it from him.

JIVE TONES vs B.T. WASHINGTON & EL NEGRO
-Tiger Conway starts with Washington. Conway tries to ram him into the turnbuckle, but Washington resists, followed by a very noticeable edit. Conway tries to lift him off the mat and Washington sandbags him. Double elbow by the Jive Tones, and when Shaska’s in there, Washington sells and cooperates. Conway tags back in and Washington springs right back up and no-sells stuff. Conway tries to whip him into the ropes, but Washington just slumps down to the mat, then tags out.

-El Negro gets double-teamed by the Jive Tones. Washington tags back in and just throws punches at Conway and resists all of his offense. Conway tries ramming him into the turnbuckle but Washington drops to the mat and gets away from him again. Shaska tags back in, and AGAIN, Washington cooperates whenever Shaska’s in there. Double Russian legsweep finishes. Bizarre match, and yes, I already checked, and we never see Washington again.

-Jive Tones make their picks for Starrcade and pick all the heels.

“Hot Stuff” EDDIE GILBERT vs GEORGE FOX
-Gilbert takes Fox down. Fox fights back with right hands, but goes for a corner charge and gets elbowed down. Hot shot by Gilbert ends it.

-Nikita is all like, “Yeah, TV Title match, whatever, BUCKHOUSE STAMPEDE!” and pimps the all the battle royals coming up in December as part of the Bunkhouse Stampede.

UWF TV TITLE: TERRY TAYLOR (Champion, with Eddie Gilbert) vs BOB EMORY
-Taylor snapmares Emory as Gilbert hangs out to do guest commentary. Taylor chokes Emory and follows with a double underhook suplex. Emory tries a dropkick but crashes. Suplex by Taylor, and the figure four gets the submission.

-Terry Taylor likewise focuses on the Bunkhouse Stampede, which is the perfect note for the Starrcade go-home show to end on.

6.3

The final score: review Average

The 411

Good week for promos, although the UWF-related segments and the premature Bunkhouse Stampede hype just smacks of Crockett giving up. Fine show otherwise, and another reminder of how tricky it is to come up with a number rating for a show that isn't intended to be anything more than one-sided jobber murders.