The SmarK 24/7 Rant for World Championship Wrestling – June 15 1985
Oh, baby! With the state of wrestling such as it is these days, I finally bit the bullet and subscribed to WWE 24/7, because I figured that at least I wouldn’t have to watch The Great Khali there. Little did I know that they’d be tossing entire episodes of World Championship Wrestling my way, along with entire RAWs, Nitros, ECW TV shows, Boston Garden house shows, and pretty much anything else you could stand to watch within a month. I’m HOME!
So this of course the original Muthaship, which aired on TBS in the timeslot that eventually became WCW Saturday Night, and generally featured all the big angles and such. The studio is tiny, but the crowd is very vocal, which I think was an inspiration for the original run of Monday Night RAW.
– Hosted by Tony Schiavone, as David Crockett is out because of an injury angle with Nikita Koloff.
– US champion Magnum TA joins us to start, letting us know that he really is on Ric Flair’s level and he’ll prove it.
– “Mad Dog†Buzz Sawyer & Dick Slater v. Mark Hill & Ron Rossi. Slater & Sawyer are pretty upset at the Andersons over an attack on Brett Wayne Sawyer, and they decide to take out their frustrations on these poor jobbers. Sawyer pacing around the apron like Warrior on a caffeine binge shows a weird kind of charisma that he had, although his untimely death in 1992 obviously cut that short. This is mainly Sawyer pounding away on the jobbers and Slater working the arm, until Slater DDTs Hill and finishes with a figure-four.
– Manny Fernandez joins us with words for the Koloffs, just before turning heel actually. A pop-up trivia balloon informs us that he held the NWA World tag titles with Dusty Rhodes in 1984 and then with Rick Rude in 1986. Cool.
– Manny Fernandez v. Randy Barber. Ironically, Barber is bald, and that’s about all you need to know here, as Manny finishes fast with a flying forearm.
– Dusty Rhodes, fresh off another eye injury, lets us know that indeed he’s still the biggest star in the business, without equal, but Tully Blanchard gave him a boo-boo and now it’s time for some pain blues and agony. Yes, he really did used to cut promos where he called himself the biggest star in the business while booking the shows.
– Boogie Woogie Man Jimmy Valiant v. Larry Clark. Usual squash for Jimmy, as he chokes the jobber out and then finishes with the back elbow/elbowdrop combo.
– Ric Flair, in his Sunday best, lets Nikita know that he now has Flair’s full attention after attacking David Crockett, and then runs down the list of challengers he’s going to beat, finishing up with a run about how snazzy his suit is. Flair was so cool, kids; you can’t even know from the joke he’s turned into.
– Kamala v. Alan Martin. Pop-up trivia: Kamala started as “Sugarbear†Harris in the 70s. Total destruction here, ending with the flying splash.
– Magnum TA v. Carl Styles. Magnum, in no mood to dick around after Flair ran him down in the previous interview, finishes under 20 seconds with the belly-to-belly.
– Slater & Sawyer have more words for the Andersons and Flair to set something up later tonight.
– National tag team titles: Ole & Arn Anderson v. Joe Lightfoot & The Italian Stallion. Stallion was one of those jobbers that they were always trying to find excuses to push, but just never found the way to do it. Stallion grabs a headlock on Arn to start, and tries to work Ole’s arm. Lightfoot continues that thread, but the Andersons return the favor on Stallion. Classic Andersons ensues, as they trap Stallion in the corner and work the body part, showing textbook examples of everything that commentators always stress when there’s a tag match going on. Lightfoot comes back in and gets double-teamed, and they destroy the arm while distracting the ref and cutting off the ring and all the other stuff right out of tag team 101. Arn with the gourdbuster to set up Ole coming off the top onto the poor guy’s shoulder, and the ref stops the match. Textbook.
– Tully Blanchard joins us to express his deepest sympathies for Dusty, and tells him to back off or suffer another eye injury.
– Nikita Koloff threatens Ric Flair from backstage at the Omni a few weeks before this show. Man, I’m glad he at least got the Russian accent down later on.
– The Barbarian v. Jason Walker. Very early in Barbie’s career here, as he dispatches Walker with a press slam, big boot and falling headbutt.
– Tully Blanchard v. Gerald Findley. Findley actually gets Tully on the run with an attack from behind and a dropkick, but Tully finishes him quickly with the slingshot suplex, still one of my favorite old-school finishers.
– Ric Flair joins us for more rhetoric about how no one is on his level, so Magnum interrupts and tells him to put up or shut up: $1000 cash if Flair can beat him within the 10 minutes left in the show. And we’re on.
– Ric Flair v. Magnum TA. Flair throws a chop, but gets slugged down and dropkicked. Flair slugs away again, but gets backdropped. He tries tossing Magnum and following with a suplex, but it’s reversed for two. Flair drops a knee to finally take over, while the Andersons join us for commentary and reveal that Flair is their “cousinâ€Â, thus sowing the seeds of you-know-what. Flair takes over with an abdominal stretch, but TA cradles for two. They slug it out and it’s a Flair flip to put him on the floor, but he goes up and gets a flying axehandle for two. They fight outside and Flair sends him into the post to isolate the arm. Back in, he goes to work on it, but TA sends him into the turnbuckle. Flair backs off and gets backdropped again for two. Big splash misses for Magnum, but the backslide gets two. Press slam gets two. They slug it out, but TA whiffs on a dropkick and Flair gets two. Flair goes up and gets slammed in the days before that was cliched, and Magnum gets the figure-four and holds on until time expires at 10:00. Solid TV main event. *** The Andersons attack to make a point about protecting their own, but Slater & Sawyer make the save, and we’re out of time!
The Bottom Line:
Ah, the old days, when they’re get people over by giving them promo time and build feuds by logical actions.
