The SmarK 24/7 Rant for World Class Championship Wrestling – November 16 1982
– I guess we’re skipping a week. Or did they just do bi-weekly shows?
– Hosted in the present by Michael Hayes & Kevin Von Erich, who start having a really interesting conversation about the effects of vignettes on the sport in general, which is sadly cut short by the show starting.
– Taped from the Sportatorium in Dallas, TX.
– Bugsy McGraw & Al Madril v. Checkmate & Wild Bill Irwin. Apparently in the week we missed, The Freebirds have defeated Irwin & Bundy to win the American tag titles, and Checkmate is now replacing Bundy in the heel stable. Bugsy does some prancing and mincing to annoy Irwin, and then grabs a headlock once he’s sufficiently messed up. Criss-cross and Bugsy trips him up, so Irwin tries his own headlock. That goes nowhere, and Bugsy wants Checkmate, so Irwin softens him up with rabbit punches and brings him in. Bugsy immediately mocks him with the turtle position and lets Madril have a go. Checkmate tries to turtle, but Madril takes him down with a backbreaker for two. Checkmate takes him down for two and then grabs a headlock on the mat, and brings him into the corner for some cheating. Irwin slugs away, and then smartly cuts off a potential tag and brings Checkmate back in again. He promptly misses a blind charge, but recovers and gives Madril a kind of Garvin stomp in the corner. Irwin tosses him, but Madril fights back and makes the hot tag to Bugsy. It’s breaking loose in Tulsa! The heels collide and Madril gives Irwin a series of quick punches to drop him, which gives Bugsy a near-fall. Madril slugs Irwin down again for two, with some nice selling by Irwin here, but they collide and Irwin tries to finish him off with a kneedrop. That misses and Madril gets a figure-four, but Checkmate stomps on his throat to break, and that’s enough for Irwin to get the pin at 11:56. However, Bronco Lubich comes in and points out the shenanigans, which results in a reversed decision. Bah, that’s a pretty weak DQ reason, he just came in behind the ref’s back and stomped the guy. I really liked that they had a cameraman positioned RIGHT there for the spot, so you could see how nasty the shot to the throat was. **1/2
– David Von Erich v. Destroyer #2. David was the biggest star of the family and the heir apparent to the NWA World title at one point, but also ended up dying before he could break into the national scene like he was supposed to. David grabs a headlock and controls with that, then switches to an armbar. He pounds away and adds a high knee, then uses a pump splash out of the corner for the pin at 4:05. David definitely showed a lot of charisma here, more than Kevin or Kerry generally had on display. Total squash, of course. 1/2*
– Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy v. The Dragon & The Great Kabuki. A guy in a gorilla suit hits the ring and has words for Kabuki before we start, in one of those angles you don’t see every day. Who the beast is, I do not know, but he’s in the Freebird corner so there’s a good chance he’s at least all liquored up. Gordy dodges the deadly feet of the Dragon and Hayes comes in and attempts to hammerlock him, but it’s not happening. The Birds trade off on a headlock, but Dragon slips free and tries to superkick Hayes. Michael is too smart for him, however. Over to Kabuki, but Gordy stomps the crap out of him and throws a big boot, so Kabuki uses his kung fu and the heels take over. Dragon throws chops and the ref gets bumped as Hayes tags in and takes more of the same punishment. Over to the heel corner for more chops, but Hayes comes off the middle rope out of nowhere and gets the tag back to Gordy again. Terry gets an FU for two, believe it or not. He was trying for a fireman’s carry, but that’s what it turned into. He grabs a headlock, but Kabuki distracts him with an iron claw to the stomach and allows Dragon to come in off the top behind Gordy’s back and level him with an axehandle. That gets two. Dragon goes to the Vulcan nerve pinch, and Kabuki comes off the top with a chop to set up his own nerve hold. The nerve of these guys. Gordy fights back on Dragon and tries a piledriver, but gets pounded in the corner. Gordy comes back with a dropkick out of the corner to stun Dragon, and drops a quick elbow for the pin at 9:17. See, always go for the pin, you never know. Decent stuff. **
– And now, King Kong Bundy is working the docks while on strike, and he reveals that he ratted out Ric Flair and Gary Hart to Fritz Von Erich, as they paid him $12,500 for a bounty on Kerry Von Erich and then he turned around and took another $5000 from Fritz to change sides. He made out pretty good there, I’d say. That’s actually an angle we haven’t seen since then, with a mercenary heel getting paid off by the babyface side and double-crossing his original employer. So the upshot of all this is that Flair now has to grant Kerry a rematch.
– Kerry Von Erich v. Killer Tim Brooks. It’s a donnybrook from the get go, and Kerry hiptosses him into a flying headscissors, back when he still had two feet and could do that sort of thing. Brooks rolls him over for two and goes to the headlock, but Kerry powers out and forces Brooks to use the hair. Kerry tries the discus punch to counter, but Brooks ducks it and takes him down again. He tries a splash, however, and Kerry blocks with the knees and rolls him up for the pin at 3:57. Kind of a nothing match. *
Next week: David Von Erich v. The Great Kabuki! Assuming they don’t skip that week.
