by Liam Byrne
After some more local promotions that also showcase that the Renegade doesn’t exactly sparkle on the microphone (someone who does is Valiant, as he also takes a pop at the announcer’s moustache before giving him a kiss), Brian Adias is with Crockett to further the feud that has begun with Buzz Sawyer. According to Adias, Sawyer separated his shoulder during some amateur wrestling training, but this is now the professionals and he will get his revenge. Adias is another guy who really shouldn’t be let near the microphone.
The final match of the night has the aforementioned Sawyer against Sam Houston, with Sawyer showcasing some of that collegiate amateur skill to grapple Houston to the mat before mixing in some of his more unorthodox offense with a face grind into the mat. Sawyer slams Houston’s face into the mat, but misses an elbowdrop. Houston gets some success with working the arm, an arm that he holds onto to block an Irish whip and to roll through a slam. Just like Sword in the previous match, Sawyer charges into the corner and hits the ringpost hard, allowing Houston to try and take advantage by hitting the right arm with several punches.
Sawyer bites Houston to escape an armlock; Houston fights fire with fire by biting his way back into control with a spot that the crowd love. A huge forearm drops the fan favourite though and Sawyer heads up onto the second rope with Houston. It looks like he is about to hit a fallaway slam, but somewhat rotates in mid-air – whatever it is, it looks like a mess and ends the match.
To finish, we get practically the same ending to the last show as Jimmy Valiant, Rufus R. Jones, Adrian Street and Angelo Mosca Jr. having basically the same words they had before. The only real change is that they squeeze Street in before Mosca Jr., but that does mean you end the show with some bland words about how Sawyer doesn’t care about the rules and how much effort Mosca Jr. took to win the Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship.
This wasn’t a bad show per se, but it was a show that felt like it took an age to watch and review. Nothing grabbed me whatsoever outside of a rare Flair appearance, with the squashes by Valiant and the Renegade particularly damaging to the quality of the show. The Sawyer/Houston match was fun as it saw someone get a little bit of offense on the Mad Dog, but that finish was awful.
NWA Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling 28.7.84
A rare show here as we get footage from Mid-Atlantic/JCP that is not from our usual World Wide Wrestling show. This is a collection of matches and some interesting story development stuff that hasn’t necessarily been shown on the shows I have access to.
We head to the ring mid-match as the team of Brian Adias and Pez Whatley meet Bobby Bass and Doug Vines, with Adias using his standard headlock/top wristlock work on Vines before Whatley and Bass get tagged into the ring to basically reset. Whatley isn’t in for long as he tags out after a waistlock takedown, with Adias grabbing a two count after a back elbow. The face team begin to use quick tags to control Vines, with Whatley using a side headlock takedown to try and keep Vines down on the mat.
Vines does fight back with a couple of punches in the corner, but they have little to no effect on Whatley, and neither do punches from Bass. Adias hits a ropey dropkick on Bass, but two much better versions on Vines, setting him up for a flying headbutt/tackle by Whatley which is enough for the three count. Better by the standards of recent Adias squashes, but nothing spectacular.
Bob Caudle has been the man on commentary so far and it is he who addresses Wahoo McDaniel about how the NWA United States Championship will be held up. This is where we see the footage as to why McDaniel no longer has the gold, with a repeat showing of Blanchard’s involvement in the McDaniel versus Ricky Steamboat match.
McDaniel, quite rightly, feels hard done by as Blanchard initially targeted him, yet we then get repeat footage of the McDaniel versus Ric Flair match where Blanchard got involved once more. The Chief is unhappy that the United States Title has been held up when the NWA World Heavyweight Title is still around the waist of Flair after an equally controversial finish. No matter what the NWA says, McDaniel believes he is still the US Champion and is definitely the number one contender for world gold. I’ve enjoyed this turn for McDaniel as he is a legitimate badass and righteous indignation suits him.
Jimmy Valiant is up next so the fans are out of their seats and dancing along as he heads his way to the ring to take on Beach Boy Harper, one of the odder named jobbers from this time period. Valiant does his usual dancing straight into the attack, before pitching Harper to ringside and running him into the ring post. A knee to the stomach when the match returns to the ring leads to a nerve hold and a choke with a knee as Valiant doesn’t care whether he is face or heel when it comes to the moves he uses. The sleeperhold that follows is enough to take Barber out and it is par for the course when it comes to Valiant squashes.
After we get a brief video with Dusty Rhodes talking about his T.C.B. tour (Taking Care of Business), Wahoo McDaniel is now in the ring to meet Sam Houston in one of his first matches since the official heel turn that we’ve seen. Tully Blanchard is on commentary as the two men trade pretty much clean breaks on the ropes, with a patronising double tap by first McDaniel, then Houston. This riles McDaniel, who sends Houston to ringside and keeps him there with some strikes from inside the ring. A slam bring Houston back in and sends him straight into a reverse chinlock.
McDaniel’s strikes have a whole lot of venom on them as he leathers Houston several times before heading back to a reverse chinlock. Blanchard is talking about how McDaniel hasn’t changed outside of getting a bit more aggressive, but it is Houston who begins to take the match to his opponent, only to get stopped with an eye rake. A sweet touch by McDaniel sees him hit a chop first, but finish the match with a slingshot suplex, the usual finish move of Blanchard. A fun squash that showcased a curmudgeonly McDaniel perfectly.
The local promotions focus on the heels in matches that will see Don Kernodle and Ivan Koloff meet The Youngbloods in a two out of three falls match, the Assassin meet Dusty Rhodes and Tully Blanchard team with Wahoo McDaniel against Jimmy Valiant and Ricky Steamboat.
The rematch between Buzz Sawyer and Keith Larsen that follows the shills is a shorter affair than the one that we saw on World Wide Wrestling, with the focus primarily about how many ways Sawyer can find to execute his finisher. After sending Larsen to the outside and rubbing his face into the canvas, an attempted second rope crossbody by Larsen is turned into a powerslam for the quick three count. No messing around, no wasted motion.
Don Kernodle and Ivan Koloff are out with Caudle this time, with both Kernodle and Ivan saying that, alongside Nikita, they have the right to claim being the World Six Man Tag Team Champions. Ivan also makes it clear that, if necessary, he would die for Nikita. After an advert, Paul Jones and the Assassin are out to talk about Jimmy Valiant as per usual, though this time we see footage of Valiant removing the mask of Assassin #2 (Hercules Hernandez). The Assassin believes that Valiant has had his day in the sun and challenges him to a match that the Assassin has a lot of experience at – a taped fist match.
Fresh from their claims about being the World Six Man Tag Team Champions, we see the Koloffs and Don Kernodle in action against an interesting team: Rufus R. Jones, Angelo Mosca Jr. and Tom Shaft – I know who I think will probably eat the pinfall for the face team. Mosca Jr. does initially match Kernodle in the ring with some early grappling, as well as controlling Ivan with a side headlock, a dropkick and a takedown. A flying crossbody gets Mosca Jr. a two count, before he tags out to Shaft who continues to use a side headlock to work over Ivan, as well as hitting a kick on a telegraphed back body drop.
Kernodle is back in but has little success, especially as Shaft tags to Jones, though some strikes that have the crowd fired up are quickly pushed to the wayside for a side headlock takedown to slow the match down once more. Jones’ stint is short as he tags out Mosca, whose side headlock this time is a catalyst for a Kernodle back suplex. This leads to the first involvement for Nikita in the match as he lands a back elbow and a slam, but is
understandably quick to head back to the apron with a tag to Ivan. Kernodle misses a flying tackle of some sort shortly afterwards which leads to him getting hit with the Freight Train shoulderblocks as Mosca makes the hot tag. Luckily for the heels, Kernodle also manages to get out of the ring, but it means Ivan gets a flying hip attack/butt butt from Shaft for his sins.
Ivan turns the tide with some strikes to the chest and an awkward snapmare, with Kernodle putting the exclamation point on their control with a clothesline out of the corner. Ivan hits his always ropey looking cattle branding knee off the top rope for the three count, with neither Mosca Jr. nor Jones moving quickly enough to get anywhere near breaking the pinfall. A decent match all because the heel team is brilliant, whilst Shaft was always going to be the sacrificial lamb in this one.
An odd addendum to this story – Wikipedia has this match as the one that effectively restored the NWA Six Man Tag Team Championships after a four year absence.
After the local promotions see the face retorts to the previous interviews – The Youngbloods, Dusty Rhodes and the team of Ricky Steamboat and Jimmy Valiant – you can’t get much more difference between the promo stylings of Steamboat and Valiant even with what is supposed to be Steamboat feeling injustice – it is a rare occurrence as Tully Blanchard defends the NWA World Television Title against Brett Hart. Playing off of what we saw earlier, Wahoo McDaniel is on commentary as Blanchard struggles in the opening exchanges and needs to use the rope to break a top wristlock before blaming it on a non-existent hair pull. As Caudle questions why McDaniel used the slingshot suplex (he gives some spiel about Houston being too tall and ending up colliding with the ropes by mistake, which is great glossing over the issue), Blanchard has to head to the apron as Hart once again gets the better of the champion with some grappling on the mat.
Blanchard takes his time to engage before slapping Hart in the face, a move that sees Blanchard fleeing to ringside to escape the onrushing challenger. A picture perfect drop toehold has Blanchard in control, whilst some slaps to the back of the head are there just to wind Hart up some more. However, Hart throws Blanchard off which ends up with the champion at ringside once again, a move that continues to wind up the fans in attendance. Blanchard eventually takes advantage of his tentative approach, suckering Blanchard in and catching him with some strikes before slapping on a reverse chinlock.
A sly handful of trunks keeps Hart down, but he fights his way out and grabs a one count off of a dropkick. The challenger then picks up two off of a back body drop and a legdrop, but a handful of tights helps Blanchard send Hart hard into the turnbuckle. Sensing his opportunity, Blanchard hits a guillotine into the bottom rope and his slingshot suplex for the win. This was a decent enough match as Blanchard milked the World Television Title rules to take his time, but it does mean it holds up worse as an actual wrestling match – it never really got going until a minute before the end, though I do like Blanchard’s killer instinct to finish it quickly once he had his chance.
To finish, we get a conveyor belt of face interviews that rapidly go downhill. Jimmy Valiant is out again to talk about accepting the Taped Fist Match challenge from the Assassin, with additional footage of his beard getting shaved that sparked a lot of this continued animosity. That was fine, but to have Rufus R. Jones come out just to say he backs Valiant, Angelo Mosca Jr. stumble his way through a random promo about Buzz Sawyer, whilst not giving Adrian Street enough time to really talk about Assassin #3, it is just a rushed mess.
This was actually a pretty enjoyable show, primarily due to it showing some footage that gave a more rounded picture of some of the ongoing storylines. With a heel McDaniel squash, a decent six man tag and a good enough Television Title match, it was well worth the watch.
World Class Championship Wrestling 28.7.84
Bill Mercer is with us this week to run down some pretty big matches, as the main event will see the ‘former World Champion’ Kerry Von Erich meet the double champion, Gino Hernandez. Alongside this, we get Bill Irwin taking on Iceman King Parsons and footage from the World Six Man Tag Team Title match between the Von Erichs and the Freebirds from down in Fort Worth to look forward to.
It is Fort Worth where we head first as the titles are due to be decided after being held up after problems with the legality of the pinning situation that last time these two teams met. This is fought under Badstreet Rules so all men are allowed in the ring at once and there are no disqualifications. The fight has already begun as the ring announcer still tries his best to run down the names in the contest. This is all out warfare from the first exchanges, with both teams utilising belts to wail on their opponents whilst Kevin utilises his boot to take the fight to all of the Freebirds. There is no real rhyme or reason to what is happening as everyone is just swinging for the fences. A triple dropkick by the Von Erichs on Gordy is one brief moment of clarity, as is a double back body drop as Gordy rushes back into the ring a bit quicker than he probably should have.
With Gordy and Kerry attacking each other with boots in the corner, Kevin has the Iron Claw on Hayes. The hold is broken as Gordy turns the boots on Kevin instead, though Hayes is completely busted open. Kevin is also gushing with blood seconds later and briefly ends up triple teamed in the middle of the ring, only for Hayes to miss a boot shot and hit Roberts. All six men are back in the ring and the crowd go crazy as Kerry has the Iron Claw on Hayes, only for Killer Khan to hit the ring and blast him with an Asiatic Spike. This is enough for Hayes to get the pin and the Freebirds to win back the World Six Man Tag Team Titles…or so it seems. A wild brawl that was a little on the short side but had plenty of fire and blood.
Khan’s interference is enough to lead to the titles being held up once more, even though it was a no disqualification contest. Kerry Von Erich is working out in his gym whilst also speaking to Mark Lowrance about the match. He is hot due to him losing the contest for his brothers, but he also mentions that the title is still in a state of flux. Lowrance also asks about his feelings about Gino Hernandez, with Von Erich mentioning how Hernandez may be enjoying all the women and the partying, but he is in the gym getting better and better. Von Erich jumps between things quite a bit, suddenly talking once more about how the Von Erichs will end the Freebirds the next time they step into the ring together.
Our first match from the Reunion Arena this week is The Missing Link against Rick McCord. As McCord is little more than a jobber, the Link can demonstrate his unorthodox headbutt-based offense with no worries about losing or having to have Skandor Akbar save him with a cheap disqualification. That is not to say that McCord doesn’t try his best to fight off the Link, but a huge powerslam really kills any momentum McCord had. A second rope headbutt leads to two jumping headbutts to follow up as the Link wins with ease. The Link basically only has two types of match, and this was his dominant squash.
‘Wild’ Bill Irwin, accompanied by Akbar and Scott Irwin, is up next against Iceman King Parsons, with Buck Zum Hofe going some way to try and alleviate the number differential. The two men tie-up to begin but it isn’t long before they are trading fists, an exchange that Parsons handily wins. Irwin goes the cheaper option of using a handful of hair to bring Parsons to the canvas in a top wristlock, yet Parsons kicks his way out. Iceman finds himself instantly in a side headlock, but sends Irwin into the ropes for a bodyslam before slapping a headlock of his own on. We get a repeat of the previous spot but done by Irwin, only for Parsons to hold onto the arm on the slam and roll Irwin through into a grounded side headlock.
Parsons no-sells an atomic drop, but only slightly clips Irwin with a dropkick that causes more problems for the Iceman than his opponent. Irwin isn’t able to take the advantage offered as he misses a second rope elbowdrop and lands himself straight back into the grounded headlock. It takes Irwin catching a Parsons crossbody and dropping the Iceman throat-first across the top rope to turn the tide. As Zum Hofe and Scott are posturing on the outside, the crowd get behind Parsons as he is dropped with a knee to the fac
e. A rear chinlock has Parsons in trouble, especially as Irwin returns to it after a brief comeback flurry. Parsons works his way out again, but eats a big knee to the breadbasket and a slam for his troubles.
A running knee into the corner by Irwin misses and that is all Parsons needs to take the fight to his opponent, using a headbutt, several punches and a dropkick to take Irwin down. Irwin isn’t done yet though, telegraphing a back body drop attempt with a big boot. As he attempts to press the advantage, Irwin misses Parsons with a move coming back off of the ropes, getting laid out with a butt bump instead for the three count. The heels are unhappy with how things have panned out, knocking Parsons out of the ring and blasting Zum Hofe with several whip shots. Iceman eventually manages to clear the ring for his partner but the damage has been done. Repetitive in places, but they did a lot with a little, keeping the fans hot for the action the whole way through the contest. It was also nice to see a clear win for Parsons. Throughout the match, Mercer spoke about Akbar having an announcement that will shake wrestling, so we wait to hear what that could be over the next week or two.
The main event is an interesting one as Kerry Von Erich going up against Gino Hernandez screams of a schmozz finish to protect both men, though it should be good action irrelevant. The men spend time posing to show off their muscles, which leads to the biggest pop ever for a throw as Kerry goes straight into a double bicep and the fans absolutely lose their minds. Both men are so wound up that they flub an attempted reversal of a hiptoss, but a shoulderblock and a dropkick has Hernandez rolling to ringside to take a break from the onslaught from his opponent. When Hernandez returns to the ring, Von Erich punches him several times in the head, leaving the Handsome Half Breed sliding back to the concrete. Hernandez does get some offense with a toss across the ring, but an authoritative kickout is followed by a dropkick that has Hernandez begging off once more.
