wrestling / Video Reviews
WWF Wrestling Challenge (12.27.1986) Review
Image Credit: WWE/Peacock
Loading...-Originally aired December 27, 1986.
-Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan.
-New “on the card” graphics this week, with really awful handwritten cursive captions for each wrestler’s picture. If it was each guy’s autograph, that would be kind of a neat touch, but it’s obviously the same handwriting for each one and it just looks CHEAP.
KOKO B. WARE vs. FRENCHY MARTIN
-Frenchy Martin rudely interrupts the pre-match dance with punching and stomps. Gutwrench gets two. Gorilla declares Frenchy a “wily ring veteran” just to let us know that he’s going to lose eventually. Chops by Frenchy, who’s just dominating this until Koko ducks a clothesline and finally gets a bodypress. Frenchy just looks HUGE, too, which was completely disguised by that giant coat that he started wearing as a manager.
-Backdrop by Koko. Missile dropkick follows, and the ghostbuster gets the win.
WRESTLER’S REBUTTAL
-Roddy Piper is happy because he’s on the cover of WWF Magazine. Oh, good, we’re mixing up the formula for this segment a little bit.
-Wrestling Superstars action figures and thumb wrestlers, on sale everywhere! Well, not EVERYWHERE. Jewelry stores will probably just laugh at you if you ask for one.
-Blackjack Mulligan shows off his prize cattle’s snot.
SPECIAL DELIVERY JONES & U.S. EXPRESS vs. ADORABLKE ADRIAN ADONIS & HART FOUNDATION (with Jimmy Hart)
-“One of these things is not like the others…”
-Pier sixer starts right away, but funnily, SD Jones just stays on the apron and lets the Express beat up all three opponents without him. I mean, given the track record, that’s probably wise. Express works the arm while Gorilla reminds us that Bret(t) has excellence of execution.
-Heels get the edge on Rotundo. Powerslam by Adonis, but an elbow misses and Adrian hastily tags out. Foundation gangs up on Rotundo, but Rotundo catches Bret(t) with a running forearm. We have another brawl, this time with all six men. SD applies an abdominal stretch on Adrian, but Hit Man breaks the hold with an axehandle, and SD gets caught in Good Night Irene, and it’s a win for Jimmy Hart’s men. Decent match that had a little time to work with.
-Ken Resnick talks with the Rougeaus. They agree that the WWF is the best thing that ever happened to wrestling, because all of the top wrestlers in the world are now in one company and it allows them to only have top-quality matches. Or Moondog Spot & Steve Lombardi every week.
KAMALA (with The Wizard and Friday) vs. BILL ANDERSON
-Jack Tunney drops in to tell us that he is considering barring the top rope splash simply because Kamala’s is so dangerous. Bobby Heenan offers a level-headed retort to this, saying that you can’t reasonably bar an entire move or hold from wrestling just because ONE guy doing it happens to be more dangerous than any other guy doing the same move. And sure enough the top rope splash finishes. Well, Bill Anderson certainly doesn’t appear to be in a “Happy State of Mind” this week, does he?
-Ken Resnick talks to Jake Roberts. Jake doesn’t respect Randy Savage, or any other man he wrestles, because how could you ever beat a man that you respect?
-Kamala is on his way back to the locker room when King Kong Bundy starts to make his way down the aisle. Bundy suddenly starts spoiling for a fight, but Bobby intervenes, begging his man not to get into a fight with Kamala, and Bundy simply keeps walking toward the ring without incident.
KING KONG BUNDY (with Bobby Heenan) vs. PEDRO GONZALEZ
-Gonzalez is another jobber who looks like a high school principal who got in the ring on a dare. Kicks and a clothesline by Bundy. Avalanche gets the big five.
THE SNAKE PIT
-Jake welcomes Andre the Giant, and Jake is going to be the guy who tries to get top the bottom of this mystery. So again, Bobby Heenan pushed for the suspension earlier in 1986 and got it. Bobby Heenan showed up at the hearing about Andre’s reinstatement, Andre no-showed. So Jake asks Andre, “How did you get reinstated?” And Andre just smiles and says it’s a mystery.
DINO BRAVO (with Johnny V) vs. ALEX KNIGHT
-Did ONE jobber under 45 show up for this taping?
-Elbow and a front facelock while Gorilla again demands to know what the hell happened at the hearing, and Bobby Heenan still won’t talk. Gutwrench and a legdrop by Dino while Gorilla switches subjects and asks about the staredown between Bundy and Kamala, and Bobby very confidently declares, “KAMALA got out of the way.”
-Dino beats on the jobber some more as the commentators want to talk about anything other than Dino Bravo’s wrestling match. Dave Hebner actually drops in and cuts a promo, stating that he thinks Danny Davis isn’t fit to continue being a referee. Back suplex by Dino finishes.
-Bobby Heenan talks to Randy Savage and asks if he feels sorry for Ricky Steamboat. Savage says he’ll feel sorry for Steamboat if Steamboat ever steps in the ring with him again.
JOSE LUIS RIVERA & ISLANDERS vs. “The Natural” BUTCH REED, NIKOLAI VOLKOFF, & IRON SHEIK (with Slick)
-Yes, you’re right. AND the referee is Danny Davis, so the faces are double-boned.
-Rivera sunset flips the Sheik for a brief exciting moment. Sheik boots him down and backdrops him. Reed tags in and press slams him for three.
-Ken Resnick talks to Jimmy Hart, who looked into the Vote of Confidence. They got the count totally wrong and in fact, Honky only had THREE votes against him, so he’s actually quite popular. Honky Tonk Man steps in and says that he now understands that the fans were behind him 100% all along…but he’s still not going to kiss ugly women or shake hands anymore. Also, one of the three “no” votes came from Hulk Hogan, and Honky is furious because he thought Hulk was his friend. Man, you’re new around here, aren’t you, Honky?
