wrestling / Video Reviews
The Name on the Marquee: NWA World Championship Wrestling (8.13.1988)
Image Credit: NWA
Loading...-Cold open: Brad Armstrong is getting the better of Al Perez in a match when Kevin Sullivan shows up.
-Originally aired August 13, 1988.
-Your hosts are Tony Schiavone, Jim Ross, and David Crockett.
-Jim Cornette and his boys step in. Cornette has done some investigating and found out that for some reason, Four Horsemen vitamins are chewable and they’re shaped like Fred & Wilma Flintstone, and says that from looking at Arn & Tully, Horsemen vitamins can do anything except grow hair on your head. Also, Gary Hart needs to quit wrestling and go back to his old job, haunting houses. You know, conventional wisdom seems to be that the Paul E. & New Midnights’ surprise debut in a few months is when Cornette and the Midnights turn face, but watching this now, this isn’t a heel vs. heel feud. Cornette and the Midnights are absolutely babyfaces here.
RICKY MORTON vs. LEE RAMSEY
-The on-screen graphic calls him “Ricky Morton of the Rock & Roll Express” even though they know the act is done by this point. Morton slams Ramsey and punches him. Ramsey tries to hide in the corner, but Ricky London bridges him and works the crotchal region. DDT by Morton, and a bodypress off the top gets three.
-David Crockett meets with Ricky, who introduces us to his new tag team partner, Nikita Koloff. They don’t even bother doing some sort of angle to explain it, it’s just “Attention, please: Ricky Morton and Nikita Koloff are a tag team now.”
VARSITY CLUB vs. GARY PHELPS, RICK ALLEN, & DON VALENTINE
-Kevin teams up with his boys this week. Sullivan starts and sends Valentine out to the floor, and Gary Hart comes to ringside to suddenly lend guidance. There’s something incredibly lame about the Sullivan/Hart union here. Like, why does a manager need a manager?
-Rotunda works Phelps over and Sullivan comes back in to throw some damn good chops. Steiner brushes the teeth and throws Phelps out to the floor, and Sullivan goes nuts on him with a chair. Overhead belly-to-belly by Steiner gets the win.
-David Crockett meets Lex Luger, who’s brainfarting hardcore and says “all-time high” over and over again.
BRAD ARMSTRONG vs. DAVE SPEARMAN
-Tommy Young calls for the bell over and over again and looks really irked with the guy in charge of ringing it, whoever that was in the TBS studio. Backdrop and a dropkick by Armstrong, with Tommy Young scaling the turnbuckles to get out of the way when Spearman falls to the mat. Tommy’s the hidden highlight for this match, if I’m not making that clear. Armstrong armdrags Spearman, and the Russian legsweep finishes it.
-David Crockett welcomes Paul Jones and the Russian Assassin. Jones admits that he’s had the shittiest summer of his life. The Powers of Pain failed to run the Road Warriors out of the NWA, and Ivan Koloff has been a huge disappointment and that he warned Ivan in the locker room that he needs to get his act together.
AL PEREZ (with Gary Hart) vs. MAX MCGIVER
-Perez takes McGiver down with a hammerlock. Airplane spin by Perez, and the spinning toehold finishes. Jim Ross calls Perez “a bigger version of Brad Armstrong,” which I believe was supposed to be a compliment.
-Gary Hart says that there’s no way the reunited Texas Outlaws can beat his men. Wow, so they’re going to keep running with that, huh? Gary Hart talks about Dusty’s sister, a fat, ugly lesbian.
BARRY WINDHAM (US Champion, with JJ Dillon) vs. CURTIS THOMPSON
-Jarring sight here, as we get a WWF-style head-in-a-box promo from Arm & Tully during this match. They run down the Midnight Express, saying Lane focuses too much on women and not enough on winning. Also, they don’t understand why they let someone else do they’re talking when they have to do their fighting.
-Windham applies the claw and puts Curtis out.
-David Crockett warns Barry Windham that “The Sting” is looking for him. Windham isn’t worried because he’s the superior athlete.
-All the Horsemen are here, and Flair declares the unit at its peak. That seems to be the universal consensus about this incarnation of the Horsemen, which, again, is amazing considering how short-lived this group was.
FANTASTICS vs. BRAD & BRETT HOLIDAY
-Fulton dropkicks Brad. Brett comes in and gets powerslammed, and Tommy press-slams Bobby on top of him for three.
