The SmarK 24/7 Rant for World Class Championship Wrestling – January 11 1985

Reviews, Shows, TV Shows

 

– Man, whatever happened to showing these WCCW shows regularly? It’s been months, and this one is only here because of the Flair theme. I miss Michael and Kevin!

Kelly Kiniski v. Buck Zumhoff

Buck gets a backdrop into an armdrag to start, and he works on the arm. And that goes on for a while, until Kelly finally forces him into the corner and throws forearms. Buck goes right back to the arm, but they criss-cross and Kelly boots him down. Ugly clothesline and elbow gets two. And we hit the chinlock, which Kelly drags for a while before releasing to hammer away in the corner. He charges and runs into Buck’s knee, however, and Buck makes the comeback until Kelly pounds him down again. Buck keeps fighting with a skullcracker and grabs his boombox because he’s all fired up, and apparently the music gets him going. Not enough however, as he walks into a backbreaker and gets pinned at 8:14. DAMN YOU, BOOMBOX! This was fine. **

Rip Oliver v. Pvt. Terry Daniels

The ring announcer notes that Oliver has a “very sinister record” so you know this is gonna be good. Oliver grabs a headlock to start, but gets hiptossed and dropkicked by Daniels. Daniels goes to his own headlock, but gets tossed by Oliver to escape. Back in, Oliver hits him with a butterfly suplex and pounds away on the ropes. Daniels fires back with a boot and hiptosses him out of the corner, but whiffs on a dropkick, and Oliver goes up with a flying axehandle. Shoulderbreaker finishes at 3:35. Good storyline here with Oliver hurting the shoulder and then just pounding it until he got the pin. **1/4

Meanwhile, Billy Jack Haynes and Sunshine sit down for an interview with Bill Mercer.

Billy Jack Haynes v. Sean Michaels

Ha, I knew they would work this one into 24/7 somewhere. This was already featured on the latest Shawn DVD, of course. Haynes grabs a headlock to start, but Sean goes to the eyes and pounds away in the corner. He flips out of the corner to be cute, but gets caught in the full nelson at 1:40. I think he’ll recover from that job.

NWA World title: Ric Flair v. Terry Gordy

Billy Jack comes out to challenge the winner before this starts, and although Terry accepts, Flair is having none of it. Instead, he declares that he wants Sunshine to kiss him and forego all over men. She does, and then slaps him. What a tease! Gordy immediately backdrops Flair out of the corner and press slams him, nearly tossing him across the ring. Gordy rams him into the corner for a Flair Flop, and that gets two. He fires away with elbows in the corner and we get the Flair Flip, setting up a sleeper. Flair quickly goes to the eyes to break and sends him into the turnbuckle, then dumps him. Back in, the kneedrop gets two. Gordy tries to fight back, but Flair grabs an armbar and yanks him down by the hair. Gordy fights up, however, and the heat is unreal. They slug it out and Flair loses, and Gordy drops the elbow for two. Flair is up, but Gordy clotheslines him down and goes for the spike, which Flair dodges. Flair chops him into the corner, but Gordy comes back with a small package out of nowhere for two. Backslide gets two. Flair goes low and tries a piledriver, but Gordy reverses out of it and tries his own, forcing Flair to get to the ropes. Flair hits him with shoulderblocks there and goes up with an elbow, then takes Gordy down with a facelock. After choking him out behind the ref’s back and using the ropes for leverage, he releases and follows with a piledriver for two. He goes for the figure-four, but Gordy cradles for two. Flair chops him down again and drops the knee, but misses and gets figure-foured by Gordy. He escapes, but Gordy gets the delayed suplex for two. Flair goes to the midsection, but walks into another press slam, and it’s the ORIENTAL SPIKE OF DOOM. Flair makes the ropes, so Gordy just hammers on him by the ropes and then backdrops him out of the corner. Flair comes back with a backdrop suplex and both shoulders appear to be down at 13:28. However, the ref was counting Gordy down (and Flair had his feet on the ropes anyway) so Flair retains the belt. Replay shows that Flair had his shoulder up, so he won fair and square. Matches like this make me so sad for what Gordy threw away to get high all the time. ****

Good stuff all around, no bullshit, gotta love World Class.