The SmarK 24/7 Rant for World Class Championship Wrestling – April 30 1983
– Yay! Michael Hayes and Kevin Von Erich return.
– Taped from Dallas, TX.
– Your host is Bill Mercer.
– So David Von Erich and Iceman Parsons give Mercer a few words to start, as David has won the Texas title back from Jimmy Garvin and tonight they’re going against the Freebirds. Well of course.
Chris Adams v. The Mongol
I don’t recognize the Mongol, but the helpful pop-up reveals that he would move to the WWF and become Cousin Luke! Huh. Adams slugs Mongol down with forearms to start, but gets them right back and Mongol hits the chinlock. They continue slugging it out until Mongol chokes him out on the ropes to take over. Slam gets two. Adams fights back with the superkick to put Mongol down, and an impressive powerslam only gets one. Mongol fights back, but Adams gives him another superkick, then hits one in the corner. He charges and Mongol dumps him over the top for the DQ at 3:56. The fight continues as Adams comes back in with a missile dropkick and they slug it out until the refs break them up. No real flashes of stardom for Adams yet, but it would come. *1/2
Chavo Guerrero v. Jimmy Garvin
Garvin’s endless pre-match banter with Sunshine is pretty funny stuff. Garvin takes him down with an armdrag to start, but Chavo gets a hiptoss and a pair of dropkicks in return, and a flying headscissors to put Garvin on the floor. Back in, Chavo takes him down with another headscissors and really cranks on it, as Bill Mercer worries about Garvin’s hair. Garvin reverses out to a toehold, but gets flustered by the crowd and bails to tend to his hair. He yells about getting grease in his hair because of Chavo, and then they head back in for another headscissor takedown right away. Garvin uses a cheapshot to escape and drops a knee to take over, for two. He pounds away in the corner, but Chavo backflips out of there in a nice spot and then rolls Garvin into a surfboard submission hold. Man, Chavo could GO. He unsuccessfully tries to transition into the bow-and-arrow, but they can’t make it work and Chavo just dropkicks him down instead for two. Garvin takes another breather and Chavo threatens a dive, but they head back in and slug it out until Garvin goes down for two. TV time expires at 8:06 with Chavo putting him in the Hangman’s neckbreaker. Entertaining little TV match! **1/2
Kamala v. Tom Renesto Jr. & Bill Radke
Kamala is already gaining weight from his initial vignettes. Gotta say, although the gimmick is pretty humdrum now, he would have been quite the scary mofo back in the day. And really the character came fully formed right out of the gate, one of the few instances where Vince didn’t even tinker with it after signing him. The jobbers attack and Mercer has one of the best metaphors I’ve ever heard for it, as he describes it as effective as “two raindrops sprinkling on grass”. C’mon, how can you not love that? Kamala casually pounds the “bothersome creatures” down as Mercer really has a poetic flair here. Big splash finishes Radke at 2:25. The other guy gets more of the same for fun. Same basic Kamala match we’d get for the next, oh, 20 years or so.
David Von Erich & Iceman Parsons v. Michael Hayes & Buddy Roberts
Jimmy Garvin is at ringside scouting David and taking pictures with a movie camera that looks like it’s from 1950, which I’m sure will figure in somewhere here. Buddy takes Parsons down to start, but walks into a backdrop and backs off to regroup. Buddy takes him down again and goes for the leg, but Parsons kicks him off. The Freebirds discuss strategy and Buddy tries it out, but this time gets monkey-flipped and dropkicked by Parsons, and is forced to run away again. The crowd starts chanting “We want Hayes” so that he can get beat up by David. That’s quite the crowd. Parsons takes Buddy down with a headscissors and holds that in his corner while Buddy struggles to find the counter. Finally he drops a knee on Iceman’s head to break and the crowd gets Hayes. He drops a fist on Iceman’s head, but hurts himself. Parsons immediately pops up and headbutts him down, and David comes in to the delight of the crowd. They slug it out and the faces trade off abusing Hayes, who finally crawls back to Buddy again to save him. Michael gives Parsons a cheapshot from the apron and the Freebirds take over now, working him over in the corner. Parsons quickly tags David back in, however, and it’s the Iron Claw. The mane of hair saves Hayes, however, giving Buddy time to run in and make the save. The Freebirds meet in the middle and David gets knocked out of the ring in the melee, and wouldn’t you know Garvin nails him with the camera, proving that a picture is indeed worth a thousand words. Hayes pins him at 9:25 to the horror of the crowd. Usual fun Freebirds v. Von Erichs match. ***
– Back in the present, Michael and Kevin talk about the many successes of Kamala to wrap things up.
