Universal Wrestling Federation (6.13.1987) Review

-Cold open: Eddie Gilbert bungles the outside interference last week, and Sting gets pinned, giving the Tag Team Titles to the Lightning Express.

-Originally aired June 13, 1987.

-Your hosts are Jim Ross & Magnum TA. In an unusual move, John Ayers has signed a match this week between Sting and Terry Taylor, and for some reason, he’s assigned Eddie Gilbert to be the referee.

LIGHTNING EXPRESS (Tag Team Champions) vs. BOB BRADLEY & RON ELLIS
-Tim Horner hiptosses Bradley and dropkicks him. Ellis tags in and gets the arm worked over by the champs. Double elbows for a two-count. Suplex on Ellis, and Brad Armstrong lifts his own partner atomic drop-style and plants him so that he legdrops Ellis, and that’s your three-count. Brad and Tim have pretty good chemistry in there.

-Time out for the “Badstreet USA” music video, to tout that the Freebirds are now back in the UWF!….They, uh…they never left.

CONTENDERS MATCH: STING vs. TERRY TAYLOR
-Taylor is ranked #4, Sting is ranked #6. The winner is the man who will be declared the winner….I’m sorry, a “contenders match” is a bit nebulous.

-Sting wants the microphone before we get started, because he has something to say. He was half of the Tag Team Champions until Eddie screwed things up last week, and since UWF Heavyweight Title contention is too important to him, he refuses to wrestle until another referee is sent in. Of all people, Eddie’s dad Tommy is dispatched to the ring and tells his son to leave. Eddie won’t budge until Carl Fergie gets in there, and Eddie finally gives in and leaves.

-We cut away to Tony Schiavone’s weird interview with Willie Nelson & Dusty Rhodes. I reviewed this a few years ago, and it’s really funny, as it’s Dusty touting that he’s good friends with famous country singer Willie Nelson, but then Willie gives his view of the friendship, and Willie makes it sound a lot closer to “Willie TOLERATES Dusty.”

-And now a favorite chestnut of the NWA in 1987, their Ric Flair video that they showed every week that makes him look 5000% babyface and cooler than any face that they try to push as a top-level opponent for him. I’m sorry but this drove me nuts about the NWA at this point. They didn’t treat their top heel like a heel. The fans loved him, the commentators were always delighted to talk to him, and they kept showing this “We Heart Flair” video montage.

-So with that important business and a commercial for Bikini Bare out of the way (I can remember seeing those ads when I was five years old and not understanding why women would want to remove the hair from their elbows), we FINALLY start this match. Sting gets a near-fall from a kneelift and an elbow mere seconds into the match, and Taylor seems a bit alarmed.

-Sting wrings the arm and has a REALLY tight-looking wristlock applies. Taylor bodyslams his way out of it but gets hiptossed, and Sting goes to an armbar to keep him from slipping away. Baaaaaaaack bodydrop by Sting, and Taylor retreats to the floor. It turns out there’s an opportunity there, because he reaches into the ring and grabs Sting by the ankle, and drags him to ram the knee into the post.

-So Sting has a damaged leg now and Taylor goes for the kill quickly, but Sting throws a boot to prevent the attempted stepover toehold. Irish whip and a clothesline by Sting as we pause for a break…

-We return with Terry trapped in an armbar, as he’s just having the worst week of his life…well, worst week of his life so far…and changes course, headbutting Sting to daze him. Sting tries a suplex, but his knee still hurts from the post shot, so he collapses with Terry landing on top. Sting kicks out of the pin hard enough that Taylor falls to the floor.

-But Sting wants to finish this in the ring, so he drags Terry in there for a sleeper. Taylor gets a foot on the ropes to break. Sting tries a backdrop, but Taylor counters with a neckbreaker for two. Taylor attempts a piledriver, but NOW Sting gets that backdrop he wanted. Press slam by Sting gets two. Referee gets bumped, and Eddie hurries to ringside, offering Taylor a loaded boot while Sting is preoccupied with waking up the referee. With the ref starting to stir, Sting turns around and gets clobbered with the boot, and Taylor gets the three-count. Good drama here.

-Sting revives, realizes what happened, and immediately gets to handing Eddie his own ass on a platter, cementing the face turn. Terry Taylor comes to the rescue for a 2-on-1 attack, but Chris Adams comes to the rescue with a folding chair.

-Adams cuts a heated-up promo is, and you get the sense that somebody thought that they had to do this so Sting could get a babyface star rub from Adams, but…no, we don’t need that. These fans are good, Sting’s a face.

-Dr. Death is at the doctor’s office, asking what he can and cant do while his arm is mending. Williams is going to be able to wrestle, but he has to wear a cast for six weeks, with the understanding that use of the cast is a DQ.

BLACK BART (with Skandar Akbar & Big Bubba Rogers) vs. BOBBY HOWELL
-Akbar has a new guy, I guess, but also…it sorta bothers me that the UWF Heavyweight Champion is still doing the heavy-in-the-corner roll. Why is the champion acting as a bodyguard for a new guy? Texas Compactor (legdrop from the top) gives Bart a quick win.

STEVE COX vs. DICK MURDOCH (with Eddie Gilbert)
-Cox gets some early offense, but Murdoch boots him down. Murdoch goes to town on the arm, and the brainbuster finishes clean as a sheet, and that puts quite a period on Cox’s plucky newcomer push.

-JR is with the Freebirds. They now have a common enemy with Dr. Death, so they offer some words of respect for Doc.

FABULOUS FREEBIRDS vs. ANGEL OF DEATH & MIKE BOYETTE
-So to keep track, we’re back to “Angel of Death” instead of Angel Muhammad, he doesn’t have Akbar in his corner, and his teammate is a jobber. Jim Crockett is definitely establishing priorities and non-priorities this week.

-Angel gets knocked out to the floor and just walks out, leaving Boyette to be powerslammed from the second turnbuckle for an easy three-count.

-Jim Ross welcomes Shaska Whatley to the UWF. He’s proven himself as a wrestler, and now he’s proving himself as a manager with his new team, the Enforcers, masked guys in full bodysuits who just instantly look like cannon fodder and nothing more.

8.0

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

A nice bit of wrestling history, with a good match leading up to it too.