wrestling / Video Reviews

The Name on the Marquee: NWA World Championship Wrestling (8.6.1988)

August 11, 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 (8.6.1988)  

-Cold open: Dusty Rhodes beats up Gary Hart to a muted response from the crowd.

-Originally aired August 6, 1988.

-Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & Jim Ross.

VARSITY CLUB (with Kevin Sullivan) vs. BOB EMORY & BRAD HOLIDAY

-Steiner gets bumped early on and Rotunda shoves him from the apron to taunt him for it. Steiner gets fired up from that and clotheslines Emory with some fire. Holiday tags in and Rotunda suplexes him and dumps him to the floor so Sullivan can have some fun. Jim Ross notices that Sullivan has papers in his hand and speculates that his battle for Precious isn’t over. I agree Jim, it’s not over.

-Powerslam by Steiner, and another one. And another one! Double underhook by Rotunda, and an over-the-head belly to belly by Steiner finishes. Damn, welcome to wrestling, Holiday.

-Tony tries to talk to the group. Rick Steiner is hurt because Tony’s not interested in talking about his Florida Title, even though the belt is obviously bigger. Mike Rotunda addresses a letter he got saying that Steve Williams wants a title match in his hometown of Tulsa, and Kevin has to break up another argument before walking away without explaining what the piece of paper is. There is no magic spell that will cause me to give a fuck what the piece of paper is.

THE SHEEPHERDERS (with Rip Morgan) vs. TONY SUBER & BRET HOLIDAY

-Guys named Holiday continue to have a bad week, as Butch punches every part of his body and brings in Luke, who claws at Holiday’s face and chokes him over the ropes. Suber tags in and surprises Luke by ramming him into the corner. Powerslam by Suber gets two. Suber stays in control with a dropkick, but Luke punches out of a side headlock and the Sheepherders double-team him. Holiday tags back in and gets laid out with the battering ram, and the double stomachbreaker gives the Sheepherders the win.

-Jim Ross talks to the boys after the match, and they’re pissed off that the Midnight Express is leapfrogging right over them and getting #1 contender consideration for the World Tag Team Titles.

BRAD ARMSTRONG vs. JOE CRUZE

-Armstrong works the arm while Schiavone explains that Armstrong’s career is stalled because he doesn’t know how to negotiate contracts, and if he could figure that out, he’d probably get a title shot. Jim Ross says that Armstrong has hired “new people” to oversee his career. People. As in more than one. Let that marinate in your head for a moment. “I’m the guy in charge of signing Brad to wrestle jobbers in the TBS studio. And my partner here is the guy in charge of signing Brad to wrestle at house shows. I don’t tolerate having my guy be a curtain jerker. We don’t settle for anything less than SECOND match on the card.”

-Armstrong works the arm for a bit and gets the win with a Russian legsweep.

KEVIN SULLIVAN (with the Varsity Club) vs. J.C. WILDE

-Sullivan wastes no time, throwing Wilde out to the floor, drilling him in the back with a chair, and ramming him into the post. Sullivan drops the commentary podium on his head. I like untamed wildman, I like the idea of coach of the Varsity Club. I don’t like that he insisted on being both. Sullivan gets the pin with the double stomp.

-Sullivan says he no longer believes in the American dream because all he ever got was the shaft. He tells some story about going to Asia and meeting a lady with a third eye and eating monkey brains with blind people. Sure. He pulls out the mystery paper and says that Patty had better realize that he’s trying to be her friend.

-We go to World Wide, where Jim Ross interviews Lex Luger about his upcoming rematch. It’s almost word-for-word the promo he cut last week about Flair’s requirements for the rematch and how he’s willing to take a cab.

TOMMY ANGEL & BOB RIDDLE vs. MIKE JACKSON & CURTIS THOMPSON

-Wait, what? JR basically says that these four guys have busted their ass on TV for several months now and that the NWA basically decided to give them this match so at least two of them can advance. Riddle works the arm on Mike Jackson and brings in Angel as the commentators give all four guys their props and point out that the guys who lose every week put in the same amount of work as the main eventers and they deserve a shot at glory.

-Thompson tags in and works the arm of Angel as JR pulls back the curtain a little and reveals that although you see these guys wrestle each other at house shows sometimes, you might see them arrive at the building in the same car, but make no mistake, they all want to test their skills and see who’s the better wrestler. Jackson monkeyflips Riddle and snapmares him. Thompson tags back in and powerslams him for the three-count, and Jackson & Thompson have a convincingly fired up reaction to finally getting a win on TV.

SPAM SLAM!
-The Doomsday Device!

-We go to World Wide again from Ric Flair, who warns “the big gold adonis” that he has one last opportunity at glory.

CHRIS CHAMPION vs. DON VALENTINE
-Champion uses “martial arts” and a clothesline on Valentine. Weird moment in this match, in the tiny TBS studio, as Jim Ross is talking about the Luger/Flair rematches and Champion seems to be actively listening to the commentary, and he shoots JR a disheartened look, at which point JR suddenly changes the subject and begins calling the match. Champion wins with a big kick. Champion didn’t give Valentine anything and seemed to be focused on getting back to the level of stardom that he had eight months ago.

-Jim Cornette announces that Stan Lane isn’t in the building this week because he got sick last week and although he’s completely healthy, he met four nurses during the recuperation. Cornette runs down the Horsemen lifestyle, saying that they only travel everywhere in limos because Mama owns the limo company and she gives them a nice discount. Also Arn’s a drunk and Tully can’t get laid without Stan Lane helping him. Bobby almost breaks up as JR talks about JJ Dillon’s celebrated career as a wrestler, “wearing wool tights and taking Frank Gotch to a draw.”

BEAUTIFUL BOBBY EATON (with Jim Cornette) vs. GARY PHELPS

-Eaton biels Phelps and dumps him to the floor as Cornette rants about how ugly televised wrestling has gotten ever since Jim Ross got a job as on-camera talent. Eaton brings Phelps back in, but throws him back out. Back in, a kneedrop from the top by Eaton, and he gets the pin with one boot on the stomach. WWE Network forgets to dub the music during the replay and it reveals that, in fact, they had switched to the knock-off entrance music for the Express by this point and that there was no reason for them to dub it during the entrance.

-JJ Dillon complains about how Mama Cornette made the Horsemen drink champagne through straws out of tiny glasses and Cornette storms out to defend Mama’s honor, nearly causing JJ to break. John McAdam made a point years back that this feud just left JJ dead in the water as a manager because Cornette ran circles around him in these face-to-face promos, and he’s really not wrong.

AL PEREZ (with Gary Hart) vs. RICK ALLEN

-Amateur takedown by Perez, and he goes to work on the arm. Airplane spin by Perez, and the spinning toehold gets the submission.

-Gary Hart officially takes a side, calling Jim Cornette a parasite and pledging allegiance to his friend JJ Dillon. Kevin Sullivan emerges to shake hands with Gary and declare Al Perez is a future NWA Champion, which is the one approach to company-tanking that they didn’t attempt during 1988.

-So for a few weeks, they were hyping a house show in Detroit with Dusty/The Shiek vs. Kevin Sullivan/Dick Murdoch in a cage for the main event. A few people in the comments wondered how that turned out, and here’s your answer. We go to World Wide Wrestling, where Bob Caudle welcomes Dusty Rhodes. Dusty welcomes his “main man” Dick Murdoch and declares their old tag team, the Texas Outlaws, reunited.

DICK MURDOCH (with Dusty Rhodes) vs. ANONYMOUS JOBBER

-Murdoch sends the jobber out to the floor and Dusty rams him into the commentary table and just beats the shit out of him as JR declares that the vicious streak in Dusty has been reignited. Murdoch finishes with a brainbuster, and Dusty murders the jobber a second time.

-Bob Caudle talks to Dick Murdoch after the match, who starts to explain his face turn and the finish of the match in Detroit, but we have two minutes left in the show and we still have another match, so they stop the tape in mid-sentence and we return to the TBS studio.

RIP MORGAN (with the Sheepherders) vs. BIG BEAR COLLIE
-No offense to Mr. Morgan or Mr. Collie, but I think maybe we would have been fine with letting Dick Murdoch’s promo play out. Diving headbutt by Morgan finishes as we wrap things up.

6.0
The final score: review Average
The 411
You take the good (Cornette and JJ hollering at each other), you take the bad (the stupid-ass mystery paper in Kevin Sullivan's pants), you take 'em both and there you have the NWA.
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