Universal Wrestling Federation (12.6.1986) Review

-Originally aired December 6, 1986.

-Your host is Good Young JR.

THE FANTASTICS vs. ART CREWS & GUSTAVO MENDOZA
-Fantastics work Mendoza’s arm. Art Crews tags in. Crews has such a weird look–he’s like a version of Chris Candido that Vince McMahon would have pushed harder.

-Monkeyflip by Bobby Fulton, dropkicks by Tommy Rogers. Fulton gets caught in the wrong corner for just a smidge of heat before Fulton fights back, making a blind tag, and Rogers sneaks in with a surprise bodypress for the three-count. Jack Victory and John Tatum attack after the bell, and there’s no big comeback, and no rescue. Victory and Tatum just leave them laying.

THE MISSING LINK (with Dark Journey) vs. RICK STEINER (with Missy Hyatt & Eddie Gilbert)
-Gilbert remains seated at ringside and wearing sunglasses, claiming to be blind, but JR thinks it’s all a ruse.

-Steiner slams Link down again and again, but Link ducks a clothesline and lights into Steiner with forearms and headbutts. Missy Hyatt picks a fight with Dark Journey at ringside, and Link gets distracted enough for Steiner to throw him to the floor, where Eddie Gilbert gives up the scam and attacks Link with a chair, just hammering and hammering him repeatedly with shots right to the head. It’s not even close to Attitude Era shots to the head, but knowing what we know now it still makes me wince.

TV TITLE: SAVANNAH JACK (Champion) vs. THE ANGEL OF DEATH (with Buddy Roberts)
-Angel is “the hired hitman of the Freebirds,” looking to avenge Buddy’s loss of the TV Title.

-Hipotss by Jack, and Angel is adamant that there were tights being pulled there. Another hiptoss and a dropkick by Jack. Angel drives a knee into the gut to take control. Second rope elbow misses, and Jack connects with the superkick for a surprisingly easy three-count. This was pretty surprising because Angel had looked in line for a big push.

MICHAEL P.S. HAYES (with Sunshine) vs. GARY YOUNG
-Sunshine walks right up to Young and slaps him in the face, and Young is too shocked to notice Hayes coming for him for a surprise attack. Neckbreaker by Hayes, followed by a fist from the second rope, and Young is bleeding! Young tries to mount some offense but gets booted down.

-Hayes opts to punish Young instead of putting him away, and Young blocks a turnbuckle shot and starts hammering away at Hayes to the amazement of the crowd. Young whips Hayes into the corner, but the corner charge backfires with a big boot to the face. Bulldog and a side slam by Hayes gets the pin. Brisk week–we’re 20 minutes into the show.

-We get the UWF Top Ten. I feel like there’s probably at least one hilarious story from these about somebody getting pissy in the locker room because they were ranked #8 or something. Your current #1 contender is Savannah Jack.

BAD LEROY BROWN & WILD BILL IRWIN (Tag Team Champions, with Skandar Akbar) vs. JEFF GAYLORD & KEN MASSEY
-Massey is devastated by the champs, and a great big elbow by Brown gets the three-count for another quick win.

ICEMAN KING PARSONS & CHAVO GUERRERO vs. HOLLYWOOD JOHN TATUM & JACK VICTORY
-JR says this match is going to be critical for determining the tag team rankings that we’ve never mentioned until just now.

-Victory backdrops Chavo. Chavo gets out of there quickly and tags in Parsons. Parsons throws chops and the heels have a disagreement about who should be the legal man right now, with Victory really not wanting anything to do with Parsons. We find out why as Parsons pastes him with a series of punches. Chavo tags in and we get a really weird spot, with Chavo slingshotting Victory into a punch by Parsons, and Victory seems to deadweight him and is actually resisting the spot. I mean, yay realism, but it’s just a super-weird moment.

-Chaos breaks out and with the referee struggling to restore order, Victory throws Chavo over the top rope and onto the concrete. Back in, Victory clamps on a standing front facelock.

-Back from commercial with Tatum beating Chavo and cutting him off from every attempted tag. Chavo manages to get a snap suplex with his last ounce of energy. He finds one MORE ounce of energy and connects with a savate kick, then finally makes the hot tag. Parsons cleans house, but the referee again gets distracted with trying to restore order. Heels try to capitalize, but Tatum accidentally elbows his own partner. Victory recovers surprisingly fast from that and hits a back suplex on Parsons. Parsons gets a foot on the ropes, but the referee misses it and counts three for the TAINTED victory.

6.2

The final score: review Average

The 411

Odd episode with breakneck pacing, and matches that pretty much weren't matches for the most part. It's interesting to see this company cribbing things here and there from the WWF while professing to hate the WWF as company policy. In this case, the BOOM match BOOM short match with an angle afterward BOOM match BOOM match BOOM match structure of the show.