WWF Wrestling Challenge (10.25.1986) Review

-Originally aired October 25, 1986.

-Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan.

MAGNIFICENT MURACO & COWBOY BOB ORTON (with Mr. Fuji & Jimmy Hart) vs. NICK KINISKI & MIKE KELLY
-So now Adonis’ henchmen have decided to stay together as a tag team, although they haven’t worked out which manager gets custody yet. Muraco & Orton also come to the thing to Piper’s music and wearing kilts for heat. They haven’t even blown off Hogan/Orndorff and they already have another feud ripping off the details.

-Everyone jockeys for position while we get a dull promo from Mike Rotundo thanking us for our cards and letters and assuring us that Spivey will be back. Rotundo is so bland and monotone when he cuts promos, I swear, it’s like listening to a tax accountant talking to us.

-Kelly (Shane Douglas) gets kicked around for a bit before Muraco puts him away with a tombstone for three, hopefully settling the decades-long argument about who the superior ECW Champion was.

WRESTLERS’ REBUTTAL
-Bobby Heenan and Harley Race gripe about how nobody knows how to bow and kneel correctly. What’s up with that, they wonder.

HILLBILLY JIM vs. AL NAVARRO
-Bobby Heenan has “exclusive footage” of the Hillbilly Jim Fan Club, and it’s just stock footage of pigs. Ha! Pigs!

-Danny Davis is the referee for this match. Interesting detail that another writer pointed out years back, I wish I could remember who–Danny Davis’ uniform is wrong. He wears blue pants instead of black, so even if you’re not thinking about it, and even if you’re in the cheap seats in the arena, you notice when it’s Danny Davis officiating.

-Hillbilly gets distracted by Danny Davis and Navarro takes advantage, but he crashes on an attempted charge and the bearhug finishes.

-Ken Resnick talks to Jake “The Snake” Roberts. There is a lot of activity going on around wherever they’re taping backstage promos this week, it sounds like someone is building a table while Jake is talking. One good line from Jake here: “If I have to sneeze, I’ll use YOUR hand.” Jake drops the bombshell that he wants to win the Intercontinental Title from Randy Savage, because if you have the Intercontinental Title, you’re eligible for a match with Hulk Hogan any time you want.

“The Natural” BUTCH REED (with Slick) vs. DON DRIGGERS
-Junkyard Dog calls out Butch Reed, which is surprising because Butch Reed caused JYD to mentally break down and leave a promotion two years earlier, to my understanding.

-Driggers with a side headlock as Gorilla does a very WWF thing. He mentions that “We know what kind of credentials Reed came into the WWF with” but then doesn’t say anything further. It’s not that the WWF didn’t acknowledge wrestling outside their bubble, it’s that they would acknowledge it in this weird half-assed way where it didn’t make sense unless you specifically recognized the guy they were talking about.

-Driggers hangs in there for a bit, but Reed stunguns him and heads to the top rope, then changes his mind and switches to the second rope for a clothesline for three. Gorilla notes that Reed is too heavy to do top rope moves.

-Ken Resnick chats with Honky Tonk Man, who says he hasn’t slept in 48 hours because he’s been rocking and rolling all night. Yeah, I hear that was actually a big problem in the WWF in the 1980s.

-The Machines buy a new car at a dealership, and it’s embarrassing how badly they lost the thread here. They began as Andre the Giant’s cunning scheme to screw with Bobby Heenan, and in the span of two months, it’s become two non-Andre guys doing “mooshy-mooshy” Engrish jokes at a car dealership.

DINO BRAVO (with Johnny V) vs. SIVI AFI
-Bravo hiptosses Afi as we get pre-taped words from the new improved Dino Bravo, who promises that Johnny V will take him right to the top.

-Big clothesline by Dino, but you can tell Gorilla’s not impressed because he just calls it a clothesline instead of Clothesline City Indeed. Legdrop and a knee by Dino get a series of two-counts. Afi gets his mandated offense in, with a bodypress for two, but he misses a corner charge and Dino almost kills him with a back suplex to get the three-count.

THE SNAKE PIT
-Heel Jake welcomes Babyface Honky Tonk Man, and Jake just buries the character so hard and Honky doesn’t really have anything to say back to him. Like, if you’re called out for cosplaying as Elvis while pretending that Elvis never existed, what do you even say as a babyface to shut Jake down after that? This segment just lays there and dies, which makes it all the more shocking that they got a white hot C-show main event out of the next time that Honky showed up in the Snake Pit.

KILLER BEES vs. MOONDOG SPOT & JIMMY JACK FUNK
-Bees are already masked for their intros, then unmask before the bell.

-Spot hammerlocks B. Brian Blair. Blair escapes and drags Spot to the corner, where they work the legs. We get a promo from referee Dave Hebner, who admits that being a referee is a difficult job, and nobody’s perfect…but he thinks that Danny Davis needs to be brought in for a performance review.

-“Boooooooorrrrrring” chant goes up in the building as the Bees work Funk’s arm. Blair wakes them up with some rapid fire offense. Jobbers take over as the commentators continue debating Danny Davis. I wish so badly he had done more once they got him in the ring because this was one of the most effective builds for a new heel in the entire history of the company.

-All four men end up in the ring, and an atomic drop/dropkick combo by the Bees gets the pin.

-Ricky Steamboat encourages us not to do drugs.

-We flash back to TNT in 1984, when Kamala “eats” a live chicken.

KAMALA (with The Wizard and Kimchee) vs. TONY NARDO
-Kamala fat-guys Nardo around and splashes him for an easy three-count.

-Ken Resnick talks with Ricky Steamboat. He agrees with Hulk Hogan that saying prayers, taking vitamins, and training are keys to victory. He declares that his issue with Jake Roberts is finished and that he’s ready to move on to Intercontinental Title contention.

5.1

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

Easy to watch, but nothing really happening, as this show is starting to settle comfortably into "we're the B-show!" mindset.