The SmarK Rant for World Class Championship Wrestling – 01.12.83

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The SmarK Rant for World Class Championship Wrestling – 01.12.83

Slogging through those USWA shows on the Network, I was like “Man, I miss it when it was World Class” and then I remembered that there’s still a shitload of World Class I haven’t reviewed yet and I can just go watch it!

God I love the WWE Network.  They are seriously shortchanging themselves at $9.99 a month.

Taped from Dallas, TX

Your host is Bill Mercer

American Heavyweight title:  Kevin Von Erich v. King Kong Bundy

This is another match from the Star Wars show that was headlined by Kerry v. Flair.  Kevin actually takes him down with a headlock to start and holds off Bundy with a dropkick.  Bundy tosses him to take over (“That’s a tough bump to take!” notes Mercer) but Kevin comes back in with a sunset flip for two.  Kevin tries the claw, but Bundy fights him off and pounds away on him.  Kevin comes back with the claw, but Bundy’s big fat head is too bulbous and Kevin can’t quite get it locked.  Plus he’s in the ropes.  But I’d like to think the giant head was the determining factor.  Kevin goes up and accidentally wipes out the ref, and Bundy tosses Kevin over the top rope.  Back in for the Avalanche, but the ref had already recovered in time to see the top rope DQ at 9:00.  Not often you see that finish, actually.  Match was OK.  **

Meanwhile, Kerry sits down with Bill Mercer to discuss how he got screwed out of the World title.  He was under 24 hour observation in the hospital from the cage door to the head, and he looks like they pumped him full of painkillers while he was there. Terry Gordy cost him, the US and the WORLD the chance to see him get the World title!  Kerry is so fucking loaded here that I’m shocked he’s sitting upright.  The man had mad charisma when he wasn’t wasted, but this is not one of those times.  Sweet fur coat, though.  He reminds me of Dirk Diggler trying to sell his record to the producer while fighting off the coke haze in Boogie Nights here.  “The Freebirds might have the tapes, but we have the music and you can’t take that!”

Brian Adias v. Terry Gordy

Back to the Sportatorium TV tapings now and Gordy is mightily disliked by this crowd.  Kerry Von Erich is lurking at ringside to make sure Adias doesn’t get screwed over as well.  Gordy stalls to start because he knows he’s getting the beats if he ends up on Kerry’s side of the ring.  Brian gets some advice from Kerry before jumping in, and that advice?  “If you break your foot in a motorcycle accident, don’t try to walk on it and get a cheeseburger from across the room.”  Good advice in any situation, I guess.  Gordy works a headlock to start, but Gordy gets distracted by Kerry and Adias takes him down with an armbar.  Gordy takes over with a cheapshot out of the corner and a neckbreaker, but he keeps getting distracted by Kerry and won’t follow up.  Adias fights back, but Gordy takes him down with a kneedrop for two.  Gordy goes back to the headlock as Michael Hayes sneaks down to ringside.  Adias comes back again and gets a sleeper this time, but now Kerry chases Hayes around the ring, leaving Brian alone.  And at that point Gordy boots him and finishes with a piledriver at 12:10.  The whole match was based around Gordy waiting patiently for Kerry to get distracted enough that he could finish the overmatched Adias, but the actual in-ring work wasn’t anything special.  **

Meanwhile, David Manning talks about his role as referee in the Kerry-Flair match and how Michael Hayes broke the sacred referee code by lying to him during the match.

King Kong Bundy v. The Samoan

The Samoan is clearly Samu at this point, as it was tough to tell before his hair had grown out a bit.  Bundy, now wearing his trademark trunks instead of the long tights he was wearing earlier in the show, calmly squashes Samu and finishes him with the Avalanche at 3:53.  Afterwards, Bundy promises that his new group, Devastation Inc, is about to run roughshod and that “The Man” is coming to help.  I thought he was talking about eventual manager Skandor Akbar, but he actually clarifies that it’s the Great Kabuki in the show-closing interview.

The Pulse

You can just feel the Freebird-Von Erich war heating up here, and the mass influx of talent is about to start soon as well.  Good times in WCCW!