Tracking the Territories 1984- Volume Three

by Liam Byrne

  A huge slap from Mosca only seems to fire up Brown, who works over Mosca in the corner until an eye rake halts his momentum. Mosca lands a running powerslam, but pulls Brown up due to his annoyance over the way the match has played out so far. An Irish whip and a big elbow to the face is enough for Mosca as he then decides to take the victory. A fun little match, especially due to how Mosca’s lack of respect for Brown played into it.

  The last few minutes of the show are given over to Ron Bass and Black Bart talking to Solie as they demand that the footage of the tag match against Mike Davis and Mike Rotunda from the last week is shown. We see the last moments where the back body drop into a Bart piledriver puts Davis down for the three count. Bass and Bart laugh over the fate of Davis, before urging Rotunda and Windham to come on down. The final words belong to Dick Slater as he tells Mulligan (who he calls Windham) that he will force him into retirement.

  A decent enough episode of Championship Wrestling from Florida, though the biggest match on the card (Windham/Rotunda vs The Guerreros) under delivered. The surprise match of the night was Mosca vs Brown, which played nicely into the arrogance of Mosca and how it could have cost him the match several times.

  World Class Championship Wrestling 7.7.84

  Bill Mercer runs down the card for us as usual, with the main event introduced first as we will see Kerry Von Erich team with Chris Adams to take on the Missing Link and Jimmy Garvin. Additionally, Gino Hernandez, Kelly Kiniski, Killer Khan and Buck Zumhofe will all be in action.

  As is the way of the company at the moment, we begin with an ‘encore match’ which shows us Buddy Roberts and Terry Gordy against Mike and Kevin Von Erich. Here is the coverage from when I reviewed the show in the second volume:

  Hayes is sent to ringside by David Manning, with Kerry also following him to the floor. Kevin hits an early dropkick on Roberts as Mercer talks about Ric Flair returning to the area but refusing to fight Kerry. Kevin and Mike target Roberts’ arm with some double teaming, with Mike then aiming some punches before using a leg-assisted arm takedown, just as Kevin had done moments ago. A crossbody had Mike pick up a two count, whilst the arrival into the match of Gordy doesn’t change the dominant start for the Von Erichs. A sleeper and body vice keeps Gordy grounded, with Kevin using his legs to turn it into a pinning predicament for a two count.

  As Gordy and Kevin are intertwined in the ring, Kerry and Hayes are arguing at ringside. An eye rake breaks the hold, but Kevin tags quickly out to Mike who comes in with some fire. He goes too early for a back body drop though, allowing Gordy to hit a kick and the Freebirds to briefly take over. Briefly is the word as Roberts soon misses an elbowdrop, leading to a Mike hammerlock. An elbow unceremoniously breaks the hold, but Roberts once again plays the fool for Mike as he isn’t able to keep the younger Von Erich under control at all, having a turnbuckle smash blocked and his own head ending up ramming the pad.

  Roberts does finally manage to halt Mike with a punch to the stomach, with Gordy then almost taking Von Erich’s head off with a big clothesline. Gordy aims several punches to the face and follows it up with a kneedrop to the forehead. It is Roberts who misses a running kick into the corner that allows Mike to tag out to Kevin, who explodes on both Freebirds. Hayes interferes as Kevin attempts a flying headscissors out of the corner, punching him square in the face. This sparks the obvious six man brawl that causes the obvious disqualification. This time, there is Killer Khan to contend with as the Mongolian hits the ring, but Khan collides with Gordy as the Von Erichs end up standing tall. Obviously.

  The first actual match from the show itself is George Weingroff versus Gino Hernandez. Mercer mentions Weingroff’s legal blindness as he often does when the jobber is in the ring, though he has enough about himself to take Hernandez three times over with side headlocks. Any success is short lived as Hernandez catches him with a reverse kick before sending him through the middle ropes. A back elbow gets a two count with Hernandez heading straight for a reverse chinlock as his opponent kicks out.

  Hernandez grabs a handful of hair to stop Weingroff from fighting his way out of the hold. Weingroff uses several elbows to break the chinlock and hits Hernandez with some strikes as he begins to fire up. Gino is backing off, only to get thrown across the ring and hit with a dropkick. An atomic drop and back body drop has Hernandez in some real trouble, but a missed dropkick by Weingroff halts all of his momentum. A suplex and the diving back elbowdrop off the top are enough to give Hernandez the three count in a fair enough contest without being particularly noteworthy. Post-match, Hernandez calls out all the Von Erichs, including Fritz, to the camera.

  With the Super Destroyer mask being taken off several weeks back, we now get Wild Bill Irwin tagging with Kelly Kiniski against Chief Jules Strongbow and Buck Zum Hofe (WCCW spelling). This change means that Irwin is brandishing a whip that he cracks in the direction of the face team several times whilst Zum Hofe holds his boombox as a shield. Irwin drops the whip eventually in order to jump Strongbow but gets a tomahawk chop for his troubles. The face team initially manage to isolate Irwin with Strongbow in particular utilising a side headlock and throat thrusts, with Kiniski getting similar treatment after a blind tag should have allowed him some success. Zum Hofe enters the ring to continue the high pressure offense, but Kiniski turns a side headlock takedown into a headscissors to slow things down.

  The headscissors is used once again after Zum Hofe lands a dropkick, with Kiniski realising that his best chances lay with keeping the match on the mat. However, Irwin’s reintroduction sees him taken down by a leaping side headlock, a move Zum Hofe returns to after a hiptoss and a side headlock. It is Strongbow who loses control of the contest for his team, catching a punch to the stomach from Irwin that allows the heel team to isolate the Chief in their corner. Irwin gets a two count with a second rope elbowdrop, but a reverse of an Irish whip into the corner allows Strongbow to tag out. All four men are in the ring and Irwin manages to whack his own partner coming off the top rope, which is enough for Zum Hofe and Strongbow to win. A decent enough match, though the heels looked weak for the majority of the contest with a finish that also didn’t exactly cover them in glory.

  Chic Donovan has his hands full in the next match as he meets Killer Khan, but he does his best to initially avoid Khan and tries to work the arm. An attempt at a dropkick is shrugged off by Khan, as are some chops later on in the match, yet a rake of the ears by Donovan seems to have some effect on the Mongolian. It is all for nothing though, as Khan begins to target the knee with a kneedrop off the top onto Donovan’s leg whilst it is perched on the bottom rope. David Manning rings the bells to award the match to Khan due to the punishment Donovan has suffered and the referee deeming him unable to continue. Khan continues the assault, only to be run off by both Kevin Von Erich and Chris Adams as they land a double dropkick to send him to ringside. A dominant performance from Khan that continues to get him over as a real monster.

  Having come out to help Donovan, Chris Adams is back out for the main event as he teams with Kerry Von Erich to take on Jimmy Garvin and the Missing Link. The crowd are chanting for Stella Mae in order to wind Garvin up, with one of the older members of the audience also brandishing a model of a truck with a makeshift sign. Garvin spends more time at the start doing double bicep poses than engaging with Kerry, though when he does, he gets thrown with a press slam that has Kerry flexing his muscles afterwards in a mocking fashion. Adams continues to work on Garvin, but the Gorgeous one tags out to the Link who uses his head to target the lower back of the Brit.

  After a brief passage of control, the Link is caught with a superkick after Adams ducks a clothesline. A couple of quick tags has Adams back in the ring for the finish, as Precious trips him on an attempted suplex that attempts to bring Garvin in from the apron. Precious holds Adams’ feet down long enough for Garvin to pick up the three count and the heels get what feels like a rare victory. However, this mainly seems to be about Stella Mae French’s arrival, as she hits the rin
g post-match and slaps Garvin around the face. To top it off, Kerry Von Erich will fight The Missing Link in the main event next week, which also looks like it is a quick turnaround for Von Erich to get the win back. At just over five minutes, this match never really got going before it was over.

  A weak episode to be honest, as the best match at achieving what it set out to do is Killer Khan versus Chic Donovan. The Zum Hofe/Strongbow versus Irwin/Kiniski match is hurt by how weak the heels looked, whilst when the heels do go over in the main event, the focus is on Stella Mae French more than anything else.

  WWF Championship Wrestling 7.7.84

  Vince McMahon and Gene Okerlund are on hand as usual to run down the card and they start by introducing a match between Tito Santana and Tiger Chung Lee. Also on the card is Bob Orton Jr. versus Salvatore Bellomo and Paul Orndorff taking on B. Brian Blair. Some reasonable action on the docket this week, if nothing mind-blowing.

  The first match in the ring is Tiger Chung Lee taking on the Intercontinental Champion, Tito Santana, in a non-title match. Lee attacks Santana before the bell rings, but a reversed Irish whip instantly has the champion in control with an armdrag and an armbar to follow. A Santana shoulderblock, leapfrog and dropkick see Santana raise the pace, only to drop Lee back to the canvas with an armdrag to head back to the armbar. Santana really loves that armbar as a sunset flip for two then sees him head straight back to the hold.

  A kick to the stomach in the corner finally halts the Santana onslaught, though Lee then struggles to dump Santana midsection first on the top rope. Japanese heel 101 moves such as chops and a nerve hold follow, which are all there to allow Santana to fire up and land his flying forearm. However, the first attempt sees a miscommunication with both men going for a move and neither really connecting – the second attempts doesn’t go much better, although it just look as if Santana burst through a clothesline attempt with the power of his forearm. A sloppy match with an overreliance by Santana on the arm work.

  Bob Orton Jr. is up against Salvatore Bellomo in the second match of the evening and the commentary, alongside Okerlund earlier, are high on Orton’s work. That doesn’t stop Bellomo from initially outsmarting him and managing to avoid some of Orton’s early technical work. Bellomo nips out of a wrist lock and applies one himself, as well as sliding his way out of a takedown and turning it into a hammerlock. Two spinning takedowns continues to see Bellomo outwrestle Orton and a Bellomo cartwheel to avoid a monkey flip attempt leads to Orton rolling out of the ring to regroup. The simple plan he comes up with is to punch Bellomo in the face. Repeatedly.

  An Orton back body drop is followed by a knee to the back and chinlock. Bellomo manages to fight his way out of the chinlock with punches of his own, yet this time Orton uses an eye rake to halt his opponent. In showing the back body drop spot again, the camera almost miss an Orton dropkick that nearly sends Bellomo through the ropes. Bellomo tries one more time to fight back, but Orton manages to telegraph a back body drop and hit Bellomo in the throat. A slam and a second rope splash (akin to a Vader splash) is enough for the win. A squash that works due to its competitive nature – as contradictory as that might sound – and it is cool to see a wrestler not reliant on one finisher as Orton shows he has more than just the superplex to keep an eye on.

  The next match is oddly joined in progress as it is Paul Orndorff against B. Brian Blair. All we seem to have missed is both men standing at ringside as the fans chant ‘Paula’ at Orndorff, nothing much else. When both men end up back in the ring, Orndorff attacks Blair with a renewed vigour, before both men end up missing moves; Blair runs into Orndorff’s knee in the corner, Orndorff finds no-one on an elbowdrop. Blair lands a sunset flip from the apron into the ring for a two count before an armdrag takedown allows him to slap on an armbar. The ‘Paula’ chants continue to ring out as Blair turns a side headlock attempt by Orndorff into a hammerlock with additional knees to the joint.

  It takes a back elbow to the face to break the hammerlock and it threatens to lead to the first concerted offense from the heel. However, a leapfrog and dropkick put Blair back in control and an atomic drop sends Orndorff crashing into the turnbuckle. With Orndorff heading to ringside, a brawl ensues and Blair gets dumped throat first onto the guard rail. This looks to be the significant turning point as a back suplex earns Orndorff a two count, but yet again Blair comes back by using the turnbuckle to kick his way out of a back to back lifting choke that Orndorff is using and lands a suplex. An elbow off of the second rope to the top of the head has Blair pick up a two count, as does a kneelift. As it looks like Blair is picking up momentum, a charge sees Orndorff lift him up and drop him onto the top ropes. Three seconds later, Orndorff has squeaked a victory. A really fun match, with Orndorff’s increasing difficulties to beat his opponents leading to a sequence of really enjoyable action.

  This week’s WWF Update is focusing on the master of the figure four leglock, Greg Valentine. We see footage of Valentine defeating Jose Luis Rivera with the submission, whilst McMahon reads words from the Hammer that suggest that he can either break someone’s leg or sit back and enjoy hearing someone scream.

  We get some further promotion of the Cyndi Lauper and Captain Lou Albano feud as Roddy Piper throws over to Albano and The Fabulous Moolah in a gym. Neither of the two seems to realise that it works better if you let the other one finish off what they are saying before speaking, yet the jist of Albano’s rambling is that Moolah is on a special diet and training regime to take out Wendi Richter, Lauper’s pick as surrogate. Humorously, all this takes place over footage of Moolah’s training, which includes her eating a sub and slapping Albano after he chucked a bucket of water over her.

  Samoan #3 may be one of the least inspiring names given to a wrestler in all history, but this isn’t his most immediate worry for this evening as his opponent is Andre the Giant. A lock-up sees the Giant just shove #3 into the corner, whilst a second attempt then sees him with a standing armlock that forces the Samoan into the ropes. A butt bump to avoid a waistlock sends the Samoan across the ring and a headbutt then sends him through the ropes to ringside. Some chops and a choke are tokenistic from the Samoan, especially as Andre just retaliates with a choke of his own.

  More butt based offense takes place in the corner before a huge Irish whip into the opposite corner leaves the Samoan slumped over. Andre grabs him by the trunks and uses them as leverage to pull the Samoan back to his feet after two headbutts. To give the Samoan credit, he lands a headbutt to knock Andre off of his feet, only to eat a boot on a diving headbutt off the top rope which looked like a really painful bump. That is enough for the victory as Andre doesn’t even hit a move following it before picking up the three count. More difficulty than might have been expected, but the Giant maintains his ‘undefeated streak’. It was fun if nothing else.

  A very good episode of the show as it had very little filler. For a television show during this time period, that is the best you can ask for. Orndorff versus Blair in particular was a really good television match that showcased what Orndorff was capable of when given opponents who were allowed to match him offensively.

  Georgia Championship Wrestling 8.7.84 (30.6.84 + 8.7.84)

  This is the last Georgia episode I have available before the infamous Black Sunday escapade that I will cover later in the book. It is mislabelled as one show yet further investigation makes it clear that it includes both the 30th June show and the 8th of July one as well, though I shall cover them as one. Gordon Solie and Ole Anderson start off the show by announcing that there are new National Tag Team Champions as Jerry Oates and Ronnie Garvin have defeated the Road Warriors for the belts, something that Anderson enjoys in particular as it puts one over on Paul Ellering.

  Ted Dibiase is first up in the ring on today’s show as he takes on Bob Brown. The initial focus of the match is on Scrappy Macgowan, who is the official, and the fact that it was his birthday earlier in the week, with Solie joking he is now nineteen. Dibiase is quickly on top of Brown with
a slam and an armlock as Anderson talks about how he may not agree with Dibiase, but has to respect his wrestling ability. Dibiase continues to punish Brown, throwing him out of the ring and following him with a kick to the back of the head. Brown has had no offense whatsoever and needs to kick out of a backslide to keep the match going. Just as Anderson talks about Brown’s struggles, he manages to keep Dibiase in the corner with some shoulders to the stomach. This is shortlived as he then charges into Dibiase’s knee in the opposite corner. A picture perfect powerslam is the set-up for the figure four leglock and Brown has no choice but to submit. By the numbers squash for Dibiase.

  Ellering is out with Solie next as he is asked about his thoughts about the title loss. Rather than complain, Ellering seems more content to talk about taking the Road Warriors around the country to showcase themselves as the premier team in wrestling. Solie then talks about the Assassin – a storyline I’m not yet aware of – and we get footage of the Assassins wrestling in Mid-Atlantic. A top rope splash off the top rope from Assassin #2 after a powerslam finishes the jobbers, which is weird as I’m under the assumption that it is Assassin #1 that is being referred to. Still, we get no further information as Solie throws to the ring.

  Nikolai Volkoff is against Randy Barber and begins with his usual rugged offense, even shrugging off a Barber dropkick to lock on a grounded waistlock. A chinlock follows as a relatively weak ‘USA’ chant can be heard from the small crowd. There are few people who apply their finisher less effectively than Volkoff, but he manages to drop Barber from a press slam into a backbreaker for the victory. The footage cuts to both Dibiase and Volkoff standing with Solie, where Dibiase speaks about his desire to regain the National Heavyweight Title – even with the Spoiler being another new champion - before leaving Volkoff to talk once again about the Olympic boycotts as a reason for him coming to Georgia.