The SmarK 24/7 Rant for World Championship Wrestling – May 10 1986

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The SmarK 24/7 Rant for World Championship Wrestling – May 10 1986

– Your hosts are Tony & no one. Sadly, David isn’t here this week.

– Robert Gibson is first up with a promo, and it sounds like "wuzza wuzza wuzza rock n roll is here to stay."

– Ron Garvin v. Maurice Cooper. Garvin headbutts Cooper into the corner to start and takes him down into a facelock, then wrestles him on the mat for one. Ron takes him down with an armbar and tortures him a little bit. Giant Swing and an elbow finish at 3:40.

– Manny Fernandez promises that Paul Jones WILL be bald and he’ll always be on Boogie’s side. Always. OK, this is getting a bit obvious now.

– Chief Wahoo joins us to declare that he’d really like to be World TV champion, and we get footage of Arn and Jimmy Garvin attacking Wahoo to transition the feud to AA.

– Robert Gibson v. David Dellinger. Solo Robert? Lucky us. Robert works a headlock to start and gets a rollup as I wonder if our jobber is related to Doug Dellinger. Robert works on the leg and gets a sunset flip for the pin in ugly fashion at 2:00.

– America’s Team have more words for Jim Cornette, as apparently their good friends, the masked and mysterious James Boys, have also decided to extract some vigilante justice on the Midnight Express. "Whoever they are", says Magnum. Indeed. Of note here is Dusty hugging Magnum and calling him the prettiest wrestler on the show. Uhhhhh…

– Nikita Koloff v. Tony Zane. Zane can’t even get an irish whip on Nikita, as he overpowers Zane and elbows him down. He pounds away in the corner, elbows him down again, then wallops him with another clubbing forearm and tosses him. Zane comes back with a sunset flip, but Nikita is having none of that shit and rips his head off with the Sickle to finish at 3:20.

– Jim Crockett Jr. and Sandy Scott, the superpowers of entertainment, hype the Great American Bash.

– Tully Blanchard v. Rocky King. Tully reverses a headlock into a rollup for two, but Rocky keeps holding on. Tully elbows out of it and elbows the crap out of him in the corner, but King fires back, so Tully gets a gutwrench and drops a pair of elbows for two. Slingshot suplex finishes at 3:51.

– Cornette is pretty upset, and he throws to video of the mysterious and masked James Boys attacking the Midnight Express and then LYNCHING Jim Cornette. Classic stuff, as they hogtie him and then haul him out to their pickup truck in the parking lot and drive off with Jim attached to it. Really, given his politically incorrect viewpoints, you can’t be surprised that SOMEONE would do that to Jim.

– The Midnight Express v. The Mulkeys. I think, odd as it sounds, that this is the first teaming of the Mulkey brothers on this show. Dennis pounds Randy down to start and Bobby tosses him for a horrific looking bump on the floor, then follows with a suplex out there. I hope that floor is really soft. Back in, we change Mulkeys and Dennis chokes out Bill while Cornette lays the badmouth, then decides to dump him as well. And it’s over to the announce table for our visit with Tony, and back in for a backdrop suplex off the top. Dennis chokes him out on the ropes again and they just abuse the hell out of the poor guy in the corner, and over to Bobby for a butterfly suplex that gets two. Bobby keeps pulling him up and Cornette protests "What can we do, he keeps kicking out!" Back to Randy, and Dennis knees him down right away and hits a snap suplex, then grinds a knee into the injured back. Back to Bobby for the flying elbow, and Dennis finishes with the Stroke at 5:19. EPIC squash, as the Express were in a supremely bad mood and Cornette was ranting like a madman on commentary.

– Afterwards, Jim Cornette brings out Jim Crockett to demand that the James Boys be suspended and the result of their previous victory over the Express be reversed, but Crockett notes that he can’t do anything unless Cornette can prove that they’re really America’s Team in disguise. And that would actually set up ANOTHER classic angle when it pays off. God this is some great stuff now.

– Ric Flair & Arn Anderson v. Carl Styles & Bob Owens. The Horsemen double-team Styles and Arn elbows him down, then Flair adds a chop and drops the knee. Kneedrop gets two. Back to Arn, but Styles manages to get a tag, and Arn immediately takes him down and starts working the leg. Arn and Flair double-team him in the corner and Flair slugs away, and we take a break. Back with the Horsemen trading off on the knee, and Flair takes him to school to finish at 4:49.

– Flair stops by after the match and brags about his $40,000 belt. And just to show how tough he really is compared to Ricky Morton, he’s gonna beat up one of the Road Warriors. Not now, of course.

– Boogie & Bull have more threats for Paul Jones, and specifically Shaska Whatley: He will be bald.

– Boogie & Bull v. Larry Clarke & Paul Garner. They quickly elbow Clarke down and Fernandez chops him down, then adds a back elbow. Flying Burrito ends it at 0:54.

– More history, as Magnum TA finally signs the contract to face Nikita Koloff for the US title on TV. Jim Crockett is getting all kinds of face time on this show. The announcement comes next week, and this sets up all kinds of stuff.

– The Paul Jones army of evil bald foreigners rebuts to Jimmy Valiant: It is HE who shall be bald, not Shaska. Sucka.

– Art Pritts, Kent Glover & Butch Brannigan v. Shaska Whatley, Baron Von Raschke & Barbarian. Oh come on, we were Barbarian-free for like a month now. Butch Brannigan is a pretty damn good name for a wrestler. And Glover gets laid out by the heels right away and Barbarian presses him and stomps him down. Big foot and he throws him into the corner to bring in Pritts, and it’s over to Shaska, who pounds him down. Butch makes his debut and eats headbutts for Shaska and then Barbarian to finish at 2:53. Well, he’s still got that badass name at least.

– The Russians have words for Magnum TA.

– Jimmy Garvin v. Jim Dawson. Backdrop and brainbuster finish before I can even start the watch.

– Garvin finishes the show with an ultimatum for Dusty: No more hugging guys on the Superstation! Amen.

– Super fast-paced show, which I enjoy greatly. Weird deal though, as I think it was a standard two-hour show, but there appeared to be a huge chunk of the show cut out near the midway point, because it was only 62 minutes this week, which translates to 90 minutes with commercials. What gives? Well, here’s a bonus match from the Shorties to make up for the short show, just for Joe Petrow.

– NWA World title: Ric Flair v. Ron Garvin. From September 25 1987. This is a cage match in Detroit, joined in progress with the Garvin Stomp. Flair goes up to escape, but Ron slams him off while selling a knee injury, and follows with a suplex for two. Elbowdrop gets two. Nice bit of business there as Flair tried to roll away, but Garvin just followed him. Flair comes back with the chops in the corner, but Garvin fires back and backdrops him out of the corner. Flair goes up again, but Garvin brings him down on the nuts and sunset flips him to finish and improbably win the World title. We cut to Garvin with his new belt on World Championship Wrestling the week after, as he’ll give Flair a return match…on his own time. You can say that again. Over to Flair, who warns him that he knows more about the title than anyone else, because he’s had it four times and number five is on the way. And then he goes onto a Crazy Ric Flair Rant about how Garvin will now have two hours of sleep a night instead of eight because he’ll be kept up wondering what horrible things he’ll have to endure as the champion. Awesome. Sadly, only two minutes of the actual match, which I recall being shown in entirety on Worldwide Wrestling back in 1987, so the tape is out there and they own it.