by Liam Byrne
CWA Championship Wrestling 7.7.84
We join Lance Russell and Dave Brown at the commentary table as they run down what they promise to be a big show. Tony Torres will take on Mr Ito, Phil Hickerson and the Spoiler will be in action and Dutch Mantell is going to team with the newly turned Porkchop Cash. Alongside this, we have the New Generation, Poffomania (Randy Savage and Lanny Poffo) and a six man tag match that will see Jerry Lawler teaming with Steve Keirn and Stan Lane. As usual, the card does look stacked on paper.
The Torres versus Ito match is up first, with Jimmy Hart wielding a Japanese flag in Ito’s corner. Torres gets attacked from behind before the bell rings, which allows Ito to pummel away on him with no real trouble. A slam, jumping splash and his jumping kick to the throat have Ito in complete command of the match but he continues to attack rather than look for the finish. It takes a second splash – Hart dubs it ‘Bombs over Tokyo’ - before Ito decides that enough is enough and he picks up the win in just over a minute. A big squash, though Ito doesn’t really have the offense to make a squash anything particularly special.
Phil Hickerson and the Spoiler are up next as they take on Jim Jameson and Big Lou Winston, who is a substitution for someone else as it almost catches Brown out on his announcing. Hickerson joins Russell as the Spoiler batters Jameson with a chop, back elbow off the ropes and front facelock, before an awkward back body drop sends Jameson to the canvas. Spoiler’s moves are punctuated with derisory slaps to the face and a clothesline sees him pull up Jameson at two rather than pick up the win.
As Hickerson laughs on commentary at what the Spoiler is doing to Jameson, his partner also verbally berates his outmatched opponent. A chop and a big boot lead to another two count that has Spoiler pull up Jameson, but a back suplex finally sees Hickerson shout out that enough was enough and the tag team champions win without breaking a sweat. Winston and Hickerson never even entered the ring in a fun squash, primarily due to Hickerson’s antics on commentary.
Pat Hutchinson and Jesse Owen are the team that are up against the interesting team of Dutch Mantell and Porkchop Cash. Prior to his face turn, the two had been feuding in the territory, but Cash’s change of heart is seemingly enough to see them as partners. Cash and Hutchinson are in the ring first and Cash takes Hutchinson to the mat with various arm and head takedowns. Mantell continues the offense, though Mantell grabs a handful of hair to assist him in his takedown much to the chagrin of the referee. A Cash chinlock wears down Hutchinson, with a snapmare and another chinlock following some strikes. Hutchinson does offer some token strikes in the corner, only to eat a big elbow for his troubles.
Owen is brought in to the match and has little success either, getting taken down with a snapmare and caught with a kneedrop to the top of the head. Owen wants nothing to do with Cash and tags back out, barely spending more than twenty seconds in the ring. Again, Hutchinson tries his best to fight back with an eye rake to Mantell, but he is fighting a losing battle. A butt bump by Cash sets him up for a Mantell clothesline which gives them the victory, especially as Owen shies off from trying to break the pin. Nothing spectacular and not helped by a particularly weak showing by the heel team.
In the first promo of the night according to the footage I have, Jerry Lawler comes out to reintroduce someone to the fans who he thinks the younger members of the audience might not know. Lawler regales us with a story about one of his first ever matches with Tojo Yamamoto, with the idea being that a newcomer would be put into the ring with Yamamoto to see whether they’d still be looking for matches after they’d had the crap beat out of them.
Yamamoto comes out to a mixed reaction, but he talks about how the past is the past. He tells Russell that he has been doing some wrestling and some training since he has been away. Yamamoto talks about training Jerry Jarrett and Tommy Rich and making them better than they ever have been. Apparently, the New Generation have contacted Yamamoto to ask for his help, especially after losing a match to Randy Savage and Lanny Poffo. To assist them, Yamamoto makes it clear that he will be in their corner for the match today. This at least seems to be some direction for a team that the promotion were high on, but have done nothing with.
On paper a ‘big’ match, the New Generation are taking on The Hollywood Blonds. Ken Timbs and Mark Batten start the contest for their teams, but a very early blind tag allows Johnny Wilhoit to hit a dropkick to a bunch of screams from an appreciative studio audience. Dusty Wolfe gets similar treatment when he gets tagged in as Wilhoit blasts him with a second dropkick. Batten distracts the referee by mistake, allowing Timbs to hit Wilhoit with a foreign object from the apron, whilst he also uses a piece of rope to choke Wilhoit. Initially, the referee doesn’t see it, but as he realises what is happening, he disqualifies the Blonds. A poor match in the end, which all just sets up for Yamamoto coming into the ring and taking out both Timbs and Wolfe when Batten had failed to. Not exactly how you get your face or heel teams over.
After a break, we see the aftermath of what appears to be a Ric (rarely do I see graphics on the Memphis shows, but this is apparently the way Ric’s name is at this time) Rude versus Jerry Lawler contest, with the match ending after Jim Neidhart and the Animal got involved alongside Angel to cause a disqualification. This has led to the booking of a match which will see Jerry Lawler team with Stan Lane and Steve Keirn to take on Rude, Neidhart, the Animal, Angel and Jimmy Hart in a handicap match. According to Lawler, he made a promise to Lane and Keirn that they could ‘pin’ Angel in the end, a statement made by Lane that almost embarrasses Keirn as he questions being able to say that type of thing on television.
In retaliation, we get the First Family out next as seemingly all is forgotten between Hart and Neidhart. Hart talks about the damage that all of his guys are going to do at the Coliseum, with Neidhart and the Animal dealing with Keirn and Lane whilst Rude takes out Lawler. With Lawler down and out, Hart promises that Angel is going to come into the match and hit Lawler with her stiletto heel to put him out for good. Rude adds to the threats by calling Lawler ‘marshmallow head’ before some more hysterical ranting by Hart sees the Family leave.
Randy Savage and Lanny Poffo are taking on Ken Raper and John King in the next match, with Lanny addressed as ‘Sir’ due to him wearing a knight’s helmet. Savage takes down Raper a couple of times before the two men tag out to allow Poffo and King to face off. Poffo uses an impressive backwards roll into a headscissors as Savage takes on the Hickerson roll of occasionally jawing with Russell and Brown. King shows off his own athleticism by avoiding a Poffo charge in the corner, using a backwards roll of his own and hitting a dropkick. An odd spot follows where King crumples on a bodyslam attempt, with Russell mentioning that it seems Lanny went for the throat, though it looked as if he just fell over.
Typical Angelo Poffo involvement allows Savage to hit a double axehandle from the top to the floor, with Raper’s brief fire upon being tagged in sees him run straight into a Savage knee. Poffo comes in and lands his flipping moonsault, yet gets up at one to tag in his brother. As Poffo cartwheels in the ring, Savage sets up a superplex and lands it for a win. Good to see Savage use a move that doesn’t require complete suspension of belief in a promotion with a no top rope moves rule. A fun match.
We head straight into footage of Poffomania versus the Rock and Roll Express in the Mid-South Coliseum with Savage and Poffo working over Ricky Morton. We get the same double axehandle to the floor spot by Savage, though Poffo follows it up inexplicably with a top rope rolling senton. It would have got them disqualified, but Morton moves out of the way and tags Gibson. It is a truly hot tag as Gibson takes it to both members of the heel team as the fans get behind the Express, though it is short lived as Angelo Poffo pulls down the top rope to low bridge Gibson and cause the disqualification. Savage grabs Morton, heads to ringside and piledrives him through the announce table. That escalated quickly.
Back in the studio, Savage talks about how Poffomania is going to take on all comers in the world of wr
estling, but Russell reminds them that the Rock and Roll Express are by no means done. Some pre-taped interview footage has the Express talking about how they left Mid-South to get a ranking as one of the best tag teams in the world, which they’ve managed to do as they apparently sit within the top five of the tag teams across the world. Morton promises chairs, chains and baseball bats, whilst he mentions that his pride was hurt a lot worse than his neck. When we head back to the studio, Lanny goes on a rather eloquent but slightly boring rant about him studying the words of the Express from behind the scenes and how Rock and Roll is corrupting young people, livened up somewhat by Savage smashing himself over the head with a chair several times. Savage cuts off the promo by telling both Lanny and Angelo not to talk to Russell anymore; Russell gives as good as he gets as he tells them he doesn’t want to speak to them anyway. The shifts in tone between Savage and Lanny are jarring, but this is a fun tag team to watch heeling it up in Memphis.
The expiration of time contest is Jerry Lawler teaming with Stan Lane and Steve Keirn against The Nightmares and Keith Robertson. Nightmare #1 and Lawler begin the contest and there are barely minutes to go in this show. Nightmare #1 eats a punch from Lawler after a lock-up, before an errant retaliatory punch hits Robertson off of the apron rather than connecting with Lawler. It is Nightmare #2 that gets stuck in the face corner with Lane and Keirn utilising quick tags to both get some quick ring time, Keirn in particular getting a quick schoolboy for two. Robertson finally gets into the match, but he ends up getting dropped by Lane with a slam and a gutwrench suplex. A Keirn bodyslam leads to a second rope firstdrop by Lawler for the victory. A simple match to get Lane and Keirn back out wrestling on Memphis television.
This felt like a decent, if unspectacular, episode of CWA Championship Wrestling. As is often the case, the machinations in the studio, such as the re-emergence of Rude and Neidhart in the Hart Family and the Poffomania/Rock and Roll Express feud was better than the in-ring action. What happened between the ropes was either perfunctory or just poor. There’s been better episodes, that’s for sure.
Championship Wrestling from Florida 7.7.84
Gordon Solie is at the announce desk as he introduces the highlight footage of the ‘Lords of the Ring’ match between Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair. We see Rhodes wearing his best ‘Leather Daddy’ apparel as he heads down to the ring with the focus being on the reaction Rhodes received from the crowd. Solie lets the television audience know that Rhodes came out victorious as we head to further footage from the contest. Flair grabs a two count off of a crossbody but an attempt to hook on the figure four is reversed into a small package for the win. This felt as much about Rhodes being put over in a way that didn’t mean Flair had to lose the belt.
Scott McGhee and Jerry Gray are up first and McGhee was always someone I liked when I saw him in his WWF run next year through 87. He offers a handshake to Gray, who refuses it, whilst the commentary team talk about how technically proficient McGhee is. A cartwheel allows him to avoid an attempted double leg flip from Gray, whilst a wrist lock and fireman’s carry looks like McGhee is in control. A slam by Gray breaks the armlock, but a back suplex halts Gray’s momentum and allows McGhee to return to an armbar. Gray has two other bursts of offense with punches and a hiptoss, only for a running forearm to stop him the first time and a modified abdominal stretch the second time giving McGhee the victory by submission as Gray really sells the pain well. McGhee hasn’t got the offense to make a short squash match that exciting, if I’m honest.
After some standard shilling by Hector and Chavo Guerrero of their upcoming match with Mike Davis and Mike Rotunda, we join McGhee once more as he has talks to Coach Heath at ringside. McGhee is no more exciting on the microphone, talking about how he wasted three hours looking through the dictionary to try and find the words to describe his feelings toward the fans. Otherwise, it is your basic face ‘coming home’ promo as McGhee talks about making the decision to return to Florida.
Someone who can never be judged as having little personality is up next as Superstar Billy Graham, the Florida Heavyweight Champion, heads down to the ring with Oliver Humperdink. He is due to take on Tony D’Amata. Rather than wearing the gi as he has been up until now, he is wearing a camouflage jacket and trousers instead. A throw drops D’amata as the match begins and after some strikes, he smothers D’amata with a turnbuckle pad that just so happens to have fallen off. The crowd go crazy as Billy Jack heads down to ringside, grabs the microphone and challenges Graham to a weightlifting challenge.
Somewhat ridiculous that Jack doesn’t want a shot at the title, but Graham accepts the challenge. Jack gets into the ring and throws D’amata out, turning his back long enough for Graham to jump him. A ducked clothesline then sees Jack land a running tackle into a pin (a charitable description of a sloppy move) and Bill Alfonso counts the pin for some reason, Graham kicking out at two. Graham hightails it out of there with Solie on commentary suggesting that we might see the weightlifting next week. It continues an interesting feud, albeit in a ridiculous way that promotes muscle porn style contests above the actual title itself.
Having mentioned the debut of a new team called the Breakdancers earlier in the show, Solie announces that actually only one of them will be competing tonight. The Breakdancers are Brickhouse Brown and a wrestler called Breakdancer Slick who I can literally find no information about. They do some dancing at ringside before Brown gets into the ring to take on Shotgun Willie. At this point, he is just referred to as ‘Breakdancer’, with Solie and Heath talking about how athletic he is after several hiptosses. Willie attempts to match strikes with Breakdancer, but comes up on the short end of it. A second rope fistdrop gains Breakdancer a two count, with a three count following soon after with three dropkicks. Willie kicked out as the referee hit the mat for the third time, which was something that always annoyed me. A post-match interview with Solie has the Breakdancer reveal himself to be Brickhouse Brown, with Solie promising that we’ll see and hear a lot more from them. A by the numbers squash; nothing more, nothing less.
After a commercial break, we join Blackjack Mulligan and Chief Joe Lightfoot as Mulligan is wielding a huge club with the phrase ‘walking tall’ on the shaft. It is typical face stuff until Mulligan throws to footage from another match on the Lord of the Rings card, a dog collar contest between himself and Kevin Sullivan. With Sullivan on the apron and eating several kicks by Mulligan, Angelo Mosca Sr. heads to the ring and attacks Mulligan with a chain for the no contest. Sullivan would also spit ‘a demon’ into Mulligan’s face apparently, or at least that is what Blackjack believes some mist to the face might be. We finally get some words from Lightfoot as he talks about the attacks by Black Bart, Dick Slater and Mosca which saw feathers to honour Mulligan ripped up. Lightfoot will get his revenge, even if it takes him a whole year.
After some local promotion that talks about various combinations of Lightfoot, Mulligan, Billy Jack and Barry Windham taking on One Man Gang, Sullivan, Mosca and Bass, including an interesting promo with Mulligan wearing the broken feathers, we head to Oliver Humperdink in the studio. He talks about how there are rumours that things aren’t right in the House of Humperdink, but he assures us that everyone is happy and everyone is making a lot of money. Gang is due to face Dusty Rhodes at a show tonight, but Humperdink also has words for Mulligan, talking about the lines in the sand that are being drawn between the two camps, as well as making it clear that they will deal with the Blackjack sometime down the line.
A big match on paper follows as Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda take on Hector and Chavo Guerrero. Interestingly, the tag champions of Windham and Rotunda get the jobber entrance as they are waiting in the ring as the sound of the mariachi band signals the arrival of the Guerreros. Windham begins for the champions and works over both Hector and Chavo in the early moments before tagging in Rotunda. Solie and Heath are busy debating the reason why it is dubbed an ‘Australian Rules Tag Team Match’ (according to Solie, due to its popularity in
Australia) as a Rotunda sunset flip attempt is stopped by a Chavo punch to the face.
A Chavo suplex gets no count whatsoever as Rotunda kicks out, but the Guerreros need to break up two Rotunda pin attempts as the champions apply some pressure. For a heat sequence, Rotunda is blocking a lot of offense, and eventually tags out after blocking a charge in the corner with a kick. A double dropkick by Rotunda and Windham lands, but after a suplex Windham misses a legdrop, allowing the Guerreros a way back in seemingly. However, a double clothesline by Windham drops both Guerreros and initially gets Windham out of trouble.
The ref loses control as all four men end up in the ring after a missed tag, allowing the Guerreros to throw Windham over the top rope. To further compound his misery, Dick Slater hits ringside to land a big swinging neckbreaker on the concrete. Instead of using this as a way to give the Guerreros a victory in what I can only assume is a non-title match as it is never made clear either way, the referee just calls the match off after some of the faces come down to check on Windham. A decent match marred by too little offense for the Guerreros and an abject finish.
A Southern Title Match is next up as Angelo Mosca takes on Denny Brown. Solie is instantly besmirching the quality of Mosca’s chosen opponents whilst still suggesting that Brown isn’t a slouch. Mosca’s arrogance sees him eat a Brown dropkick as the match begins and be downed for a one count after Brown flips his way out of a hammerlock. The flash pinfalls become a key feature of the early going as Brown grabs another two, though each time it is only for a one count. A slam by Mosca is turned into a small package by Brown for a two count as he is getting closer and he even manages to avoid a Mosca charge into the corner, with the champion colliding with the ringpost instead.
