wrestling / TV Reports
WWF Wrestling Challenge (12.20.1986) Review
Image Credit: WWE, Peacock
Loading...-Originally aired December 20, 1986.
-Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon & Bobby Heenan.
-The funky painted screencaps are gone and the card is announced with just normal photos.
HONKY TONK MAN (with Jimmy Hart) vs. LEAPING LANNY POFFO
-Honky’s first match with Jimmy in his corner. Poffo reads his poem, then charges straight into the corner and slings Honky all over the ring, an unusually aggressive approach for Lanny. Lanny tries a backdrop, but Honky boots him down to take over as we get pre-taped words. Honky emphasizes once again that he will not shake greasy hands or kiss puke-faced babies.
-Knees by Honky as Bobby suddenly declares that he likes Honky a lot more than he used to. Shake, rattle, and roll neckbreaker makes its debut as Honky gets the win. Honky gets pelted with garbage post-match but braves the onslaught to give us the first ever “Thank you very much, you’re a beautiful audience.” Heel version of the character is fully formed right out of the chute.
WRESTLER’S REBUTTAL
-Paul Orndorff and Bobby Heenan complain that Orndorff isn’t on the cover of WWF Magazine. God, make it stop.
-Gene Okerlund chats with Dr. Ponovich and Dr. Jarrett, who explain the risks involved with wrestling while battling a throat injury. Both of them have advised Steamboat to retire. And that’s how we ended up with the legendary Randy Savage/Blackjack Mulligan match at Wrestlemania III.
ROUGEAU BROTHERS vs. MIKE LUCA & DENNIS STAMP
-Yes, yes, he got booked. Jacques dropkicks Stamp into Raymond, who slams him while Jacques runs the ropes and splashes Stamp. Good sequence. Luca tags in and tries a backdrop, but Jacques just rolls over him and dropkicks him down. Crescent kick by Raymond, and then Raymond gets on all fours and Jacques uses him as a launching pad for a bodypress. Double dropkick by the Rougeaus, and Raymond somersaults onto Luca for a three-count, while Jacques uses a missile dropkick to stop Stamp from breaking the pin. Rougeaus were breaking out all kinds of neat sequences through the whole match and looked like a million bucks.
-Ken Resnick thanks Hillbilly Jim for the delicious Thanksgiving dinner at Granny’s house. Hillbilly invites Ken over for his traditional pickled catfish dinner at Christmas. Sounds better than fruitcake, at least.
-Blackjack Mulligan threatens to brand King Kong Bundy.
HERCULES (with Bobby Heenan) vs. DAVID GOLD
-We have some tinkering underway, as he’s ditched “Hernandez” and added a chain. And the chain actually comes with a purpose in the early going, as Herc starts the match by throwing one end of the chain to Gold and demanding a tug of war. Herc wins with only one hand and uses the momentum to whip Gold across the ring.
-Herc drops a series of elbows while Gorilla announces that a major announcement is coming soon about the launch of an Official WWF Fan Club, one of those relics that makes you smile and say “Yeah, I remember that!” when you hear it. Torture rack gets the win.
-Ken Resnick talks to Tito Santana, and Tito cuts the usual “got nothin’ going on promo about taking on top competition and getting back to the top and being on top, and his favorite cartoon character is Top Cat and if he could be any article clothing, he’d be a hat so that way he’d be on top.
-Jesse Ventura meets up with Andre the Giant and recaps the oddity about Andre’s reinstatement hearing. Yes, Andre no-showed the meeting. Yes, he’s heard that Bobby Heenan showed up. So how did Andre get reinstated? “None of your business,” Andre answers.
HILLBILLY JIM, BILLY JACK HAYNES, & PEDRO MORALES vs. TIM PATTERSON, KEVIN COLLINS, & BUDDY RYDER
-Danny Davis is officiating, and for some reason, Bobby Heenan is sitting this one out and Johnny V is here to let us know that he’s heard Ricky Steamboat is going to follow doctor’s orders and retire.
-Jobbers just bounce of Hillbilly while the commentary is totally edited out of the show for a solid 30 seconds for some reason. Pedro comes in and gives Ryder a backbreaker. Patterson heads in and takes a bunch of left hands, and Danny Davis is all over him for it.
-Backdrop by Pedro. Billy Jack comes in with a dropkick and a legdrop, and the full nelson finishes things.
THE SNAKE PIT
-Jake welcomes Bobby Heenan & King Harley Race. Race just stands there silently and basks while Heenan reminds us that Harley is the true king, and again this segment just goes in one ear and out there.
-We get a music video set to “Bad Boy” by Miami Sound Machine but set to whatever track they randomly landed on when dubbing this episode for Classics on Demand 10 years ago. This is a pretty lame music video, as it’s really just a sequence of clips assembled with no rhyme or reason or apparent theming. It’s not even, like, a montage of just heel wrestlers, which would be a cute way of using the song. It’s just a bunch of clips. And two years earlier, Joel Watts was tinkering with wipes, color effects, and B-roll for his videos, this has NONE of that, it’s just clips. Again, the WWF always had that reputation for being “the showbiz promotion” but there were a LOT of ways that they were behind the curve, and this pointless video highlights that.
-Junkyard Dog meets Matilda and talks to her about the best place to bury a bone. Huh huh.
JUNKYARD DOG & BRITISH BULLDOGS vs. MOONDOG SPOT & DREAM TEAM (with Johnny V)
-Touted in the show’s opening as a special “Doggone Good Match.”
-Valentine gets double-teamed by the Bulldogs, so that settles the one thing about this match that made me curious going into it, yes, Dynamite does tag in. Snap suplex by Dynamite, and JYD comes in with rolling headbutts.
-Dynamite comes in to play face-in-peril and bump for everyone. Backbreaker by Spot, but Dynamite is able to escape and make the hot tag, and JYD thumps the Moondog for the win. It could have been more with more time. I hate these six-man tag matches that they keep trying to cram into 2 and a half minutes.
-Ken Resnick brings in Lanny Poffo, who gives us a special George “The Animal” Steele poem to introduce the man himself. George appears to be ribbing somebody as he tells us that Jimmy Hart gave him a Christmas present, but then he doesn’t follow up on that thought.
