The Smark 24/7 Rant for Championship Wrestling From Florida – 6/29/85
– Well, nice to see that they’ve got the Florida shows aligned with the World Championship Wrestling shows now, timeline-wise.
– Taped from Florida (duh).
– Your hosts are Gordon Solie and Buddy Colt.
– Tiger Conway & Scott McGhee v. Coco Samoa & The Saint. We’re joined in progress with Tiger evading Samoa, who then tags out to The Saint. The Saint is masked and hairy, which would seem to indicate that he’s doing the job. McGhee comes in with a backbreaker on Saint and we take an ad break, returning with Samoa coming back in against McGhee. Criss-cross and McGhee takes him down, but a slugfest with Tiger Conway turns the tide. Saint comes back in and immediately screws up, as Conway monkey-flips him and gets a slam for two. Backdrop suplex gets two. McGhee finishes the Saint with a suplex. Pretty generic stuff. Scott McGhee was one of those guys who was destined to make it big, having been trained by Ric Flair, but he suffered a stroke in 1988 and got forced into retirement.
– We take a look back at a recent match between Wahoo McDaniel and Ric Flair, as Ric does his usual around-the-country match with the local draw and barely escapes with the title by the skin of his teeth. In this case, the ref and cameraman get taken out, allowing Flair to toss Wahoo over the top and then suplex him back in for the pin.
– Billy Jack Haynes v. Mike Golden. The graphic on screen says “Ray Harris”, but Solie says Golden, so we’ll go with him. Haynes was eternally feuding with Hercules, which carried over into the WWF when they both jumped there. Haynes overpowers Golden and grabs a facelock, then takes him down with a chinlock. Golden looks like a guy who might have been pushed elsewhere in the future, but a quick check reveals that he never really did anything of note. Haynes just cranks on the facelock, as Golden comes close to passing out a couple of times. Golden mounts a brief comeback, but Haynes tosses him around and finishes with the full nelson.
– Dale Veasey v. Tommy Wright. Not much in the way of star power here. They trade headlock reversals and Veasey hiptosses Wright to gain the upper hand, but Wright gets a cheapshot and pounds away on him. He drops an elbow for two. Veasey blocks a cross body attempt with a slam and comes back, and a dropkick gets two. Snap suplex gets two. Blind charge misses and Wright uses the ropes to finish in the corner. Veasey, who is apparently a former powerlifter, moves like one. His muscles looked very stiff, like HHH when he first came back in 2002. However, a quick trip to Wikipedia reveals that Veasey would later be recreated as Lt. James Earl Wright of the State Patrol in WCW. Huh. He looks nothing like that here.
– Percy Pringle brings out Rick Rude & Jesse Barr (Jimmy Jack Funk) and lets us know that they won’t be here this week because there’s no competition.
– Bugsy McGraw v. Eric Von Stroheim & Tony Damata. Bugsy pounds on both jobbers in turn and finishes one with a big splash.
– Hercules Hernandez v. Hector Guerrero. Herc is the Southern champion and Hector is the Florida champion, but no titles are on the line. Herc cuts one of those annoying promos where he yells and points at the camera before the match. I HATE it when guys do that. It’s like when hockey players talk about taking it one game at a time and giving it 110%. Hector evades him with speed and takes him down with an armdrag, then keeps him on the mat with a leglock while Hercules complains about hairpulling. Herc grabs a headlock and they work off that, but we’re outta time, fans! Hercules of course you know, and Hector went onto minor fame as Lazor-Tron, then the Gobbledygooker, and finally as the guy who got a (fake) early win over Bill Goldberg in a (fake) dark match.
Until next time…
