Tracking the Territories 1984- Volume Three

by Liam Byrne

  As we return, Bass and Mosca Jr. are both on the canvas after a back suplex (according to Weaver), which finally allows Bass a chance to take control, hitting a back breaker and an atomic drop. An abdominal stretch by Bass also sees him pull on the ropes for additional leverage, whilst a modified bear hug that sees Bass place his head on Mosca’s lower back continues to target the same area. The strikes are all working the back, before a suplex earns the challenger another two count, as does a swinging neckbreaker. Mosca Jr. tries to rally his way out of a chinlock, only to get a knee to the gut for his trouble, before another brief spurt of offense is cut by a charge straight into a big Bass boot. Now it is Bass’ turn to squeeze his opponent’s head, putting a front facelock to good use and adding to that by slamming Mosca Jr.’s face into the canvas.

  Bass begins to squeeze the trapezius muscle as he shouts at Dillon to start to shine up the belt, though Mosca Jr. fires up and uses some strikes to break the hold. Mosca Jr. is going for a pin every time he hits a move, desperate to put away his opponent. A flying forearm allows Mosca Jr. to scale the turnbuckle and hit the top rope crossbody, only for Dillon to pull the champion out of the pin at two! Mosca Jr.’s focus is on retaliating, leaving him open to a Bass blindside attack, leading to a running powerslam and a new Mid Atlantic Heavyweight Champion. This was a long match that felt 70% headlock, though the fans did really get behind Mosca Jr.’s fiery comeback. It didn’t really touch the heights of Mosca Jr.’s matches with Ivan Koloff that still stand up as the rookie’s best.

  After one last shill that sees Mike Rotunda and Barry Windham offer up fairly generic retorts to Ron Bass and Tully Blanchard respectively, and a brief promo with Blanchard and Wahoo McDaniel in which Blanchard implies Ric Flair is a coward, we have our final match of the show between the Assassin and Ron Rossi. As the Blanchard interview was cut off by Crockett throwing to the match in the ring, Blanchard talks over the top of the Assassin dragging Rossi down to the canvas and laying his weight on top of him. Both Blanchard and McDaniel talk the United States Heavyweight Title Tournament as the Assassin aims a kneedrop at Rossi’s head, hits a kneelift and a punch to the face, which is enough to secure the victory. Pure filler; nothing to see here.

  The match is so short that Blanchard and McDaniel just continue their interview, though Crockett then throws over to Weaver in the locker room of the new champion, Ron Bass, as he celebrates with Black Bart and JJ Dillon, as well as several bottles of champagne.

  The first couple of squash matches were perfectly fine, but the show went downhill from there as Mosca Jr. versus Bass just wasn’t that entertaining, whilst the Zambuie Express and the Assassin’s contests were just filler. There has been a pretty significant shift in terms of personnel in the promotion, but that hasn’t necessarily led to a better programme…yet. Eternally hopeful.

  World Class Championship Wrestling 8.9.84

  With the Freebirds gone for the time being, the focus on Killer Khan as the main heel continues as the main event for this week sees the Mongolian take on Kerry Von Erich. Chief Jules Strongbow, Buck Zumhofe and Iceman King Parsons are also all in action, though we start with an encore match – Kevin Von Erich versus Gino Hernandez.

  Here is the action from where we join it this week:

  A dropkick after Hernandez berates Von Erich in the midst of an arm wringer also has Hernandez at ringside, though we finally get some concerted action in the ring with a Von Erich chinlock and body vice. A bell clap adds to the suffering, whilst Von Erich rolls it over into a two count before rolling back into the vice.

  Hernandez takes the easy way out in the end by biting on the toes of Kevin, yet as the match returns to standing, he is dropped with an axehandle off of the second rope. Gino begs off, but gets no respite. However, a Von Erich splash finds nothing but knees, only for Hernandez to get caught on the top rope and chucked off. Luckily for him, Hernandez is close to the ropes as Von Erich applies the claw, forcing a break. The claw is reapplied moments later, but an eye rake by Hernandez is what stops it this time. Von Erich is sent to ringside to allow Hernandez to recover, only to eat a kick to the face the moment Von Erich returns to the ring. A third claw attempt again sees them in the rope, but as Von Erich is forced to break, Hernandez pops him with an illegal object and gets the three count!

  Hernandez may have won the contest, but Stella Mae hits the ring to attack Hernandez. Unsurprisingly, the illegal object is found in the resulting melee, as Hernandez can’t just get the win by illegal means as it is against a Von Erich. The result is reverses and Hernandez is disqualified. Hernandez is such a good heel that the match is pretty good, yet Kevin’s monopoly on offense was just too much this time. It was as if he took all the match because he knew he was going to be pinned, even if that wasn’t the official decision.

  Iceman King Parsons is first up, facing off against Kelly Kiniski, a wrestler who we’ve seen less of in recent weeks. The two men trade punches out of a potential clean break, before Parsons grabs a one count after a waistlock ends up in a roll-up. Neither man is able to gain control on the canvas, with the two men ending back on their feet and battling over a top wristlock. The battle is won by Kiniski with a handful of hair, though Parsons rolls out of an arm wringer and kicks Kiniski in the face. As the match goes back to the canvas, Kiniski maintains control of a headscissors with another handful of hair, before the two men end up trading once more on their feet. Parson continues to go back to a side headlock whenever he is in control, but as he builds up momentum, Kiniski sends him out of the ring through the middle of the ropes.

  A kneedrop only gets Kiniski a one count and the Iceman telegraphs a back body drop moments later to regain control with a big knee lift. A clothesline and back body drop have Parsons working over Kiniski, yet a splash is met with two knees. Just as it looks like Kiniski has found a way back into the contest, Parsons rolls him up in a small package for a three count. I like Kiniski more than most probably do, so I thought this was a pretty decent and competitive contest.

  After a commercial break, we are with Bill Mercer in the ring as he is joined by Chris Adams and Gary Hart. Adams tells the fans that he has signed on the dotted line for Hart to become his advisor, before talking about how he trusts Hart, even though many wouldn’t. Hart’s delivery just sounds heelish whether he means it to or not, with him giving a list of some of the wrestlers he has helped go to the top. Next week, Chris Adams and ‘Wild’ Bill Irwin will face off as Hart wonders whether Skandor Akbar’s mouth is as bad as his breath.

  From this, Mercer throws over to video montage of the Pretty Young Things in action, with a focus on their team work, their high flying and their flagrant rulebreaking. Their opponents are Buck Zumhofe and Chief Jules Strongbow, an improvement over Zumhofe’s last partner when facing the PYT, Mike Reed. It is Austin and Strongbow who begin the contest, with Strongbow firing out jabs that Austin avoids by sticking his head out of the ring. Austin tries to slap on a side headlock, but Strongbow escapes easily, whilst Austin doesn’t have the same luck when the roles are reversed. Zumhofe continues the hold, before landing on his feet following a back body drop and nailing Austin with a dropkick for two. Zumhofe works his side headlock in rhythm with the audience’s cheers, whilst Strongbow hits his first big chop moments later after Austin missed an elbowdrop attempt following some strikes that aimed to change the momentum.

  Austin manages to tag to Ware, who absolutely flies into the ring to take down Zumhofe with a back elbow and a slam. Ware is quick to leave, allowing Austin to synch in a rear chinlock to wear their opponent down. Quick tags become the order of the day, with Ware also using a chinlock to halt Zumhofe’s attempts to fire up. Zumhofe can’t fight his way out of the corner, but does roll under an attack to allow him to tag out to Strongbow. However, Strongbow is cut down quickly, with another chinlock to control him on the canvas. With the crowd behind him, Strongbow begins to fire up, but it looks as if it all for naught as Ware catches him with a high knee. However, the PYT member lo
ses concentration, allowing Strongbow to roll to his corner and make the hot tag to Zumhofe.

  Zumhofe takes the fight to both men, with all four competitors in the ring seconds later. It looks as if the heels will be sent into each other with stereo Irish whips, but the PYT reverses the moves, leading to Zumhofe crashing to ringside. The PYT hit their finisher, the Hart Attack variant off of the second turnbuckle, but the referee refuses to count. Ware turns around into a crossbody from Zumhofe, which the referee does count all the way to three. Considering the music video build up, this is a weak booking decision for me, especially coming at the end of a competitive and engaging contest.

  The main event is up next as Kerry Von Erich meets Killer Khan. Mercer’s interest in the looks and body of Kerry border on the homoerotic, but you can’t doubt the response of the fans who absolutely adore him. Von Erich tries to take the match to the floor with a drop toehold, but Khan just muscles him back up and onto the turnbuckle, a move that earns him a punch to the face. Kerry makes the mistake of going for a powerslam, but transitions to a modified armdrag and armbar. Khan powers his way out of it, only to get cut off with a dropkick and several punches, including a discus version. Khan keeps coming though, hitting a boot to the stomach and several overhand strikes. A side kick has Kerry on the canvas, with a snapmare then leading to a struggle over the Asiatic spike on the mat. To fight it off, Kerry applies the Iron claw on the stomach, though gets a punch to the face for his trouble.

  Khan misses a charge, before getting a back elbow and some more punches to the face. Unfortunately for Kerry, Khan’s punches are more dangerous, turning the tide until Khan misses a second rope kneedrop. In a completely unsurprising ending, The Missing Link wanders into the ring the moment Kerry applies the claw, leading to a two on one beatdown that is halted by… a referee, rather than one of other of the Von Erich brothers. Nothing special, whilst the finish was about as obvious as you can get.

  With two decent bouts leading to an acceptable main event that had an ending that could be seen a mile away, this wasn’t a bad show. However, I leave World Class as I often do: wondering about how much better it would be if the heels were allowed a chance to go over every once in a while.

  WWF Championship Wrestling 8.9.84

  Vince McMahon is on his lonesome this week as he tells us that the Fabulous Freebirds will be here in a special six-man tag team contest. Ken Patera, Chief Jay Strongbow against Kamala, and B. Brian Blair versus Iron Mike Sharpe (joined in progress from Madison Square Garden) will be the rest of the in-ring action, whilst Roddy Piper apparently has his favourite ever guest on Piper’s Pit. We’ll see who that is in time.

  It is the match between Iron Mike Sharpe and B. Brian Blair from the Garden that we see first. According to McMahon, they have been fighting for a while, though we join them at a point where Sharpe is spending a long time trying to convince Blair to shake his hand. This takes a long time to resolve itself, with Blair being the one who double crosses his opponent in a neat turnaround. Blair follows with a toe hold, but Sharpe rakes the eyes to stop it. Two backbreakers follow a Sharpe Irish whip with some time spent holding the move, yet turnabout is fair play as an eye rake breaks this submission. An attempt to slam Sharpe sees Blair almost get pinned as he falls, whilst Sharpe then sends him to ringside, boots him whilst standing on the apron and throws him into the guard rail.

  Sharpe still isn’t letting Blair back in, but by going under the ring, Blair jumps the heel from behind, much to the delight of the fans in the Garden. A second rope elbow now sends Sharpe to ringside, with Blair following up with an elbow off of the apron. That leads to a brief brawl, but Sharpe stops Blair getting back into the ring, causing a double countout. It was a pretty simple story, but I quite enjoyed the tit for tat nature of what was shown.

  A Boston Garden show is on tonight, including a huge sounding contest between Andre the Giant and Roddy Piper. However, it is the Fabulous Freebirds who join Gene Okerlund for the shill as they will take on the Moondogs. Hayes not only talks about bringing Fantasia to ‘Beantown’, but also runs down Piper as well. Gordy’s promo is more heelish in nature as he talks about the fans not liking them, but how that doesn’t bother him, whilst then describing a time when a dog on the farm bit him and got a kicking in revenge. Roberts has some brief words himself, talking about how if they kick the ‘Dogs hard enough, they’ll end up on the moon.

  The footage of the next match is from the Spectrum apparently, with The Fabulous Freebirds entering the arena being driven in a limousine by Dave Wolff and Cyndi Lauper. Their opponents are Rene Goulet, Ron Shaw and Charlie Fulton. In shades of what we’d get used to with wrestlers like Goldberg and the NWO in the future, we get the full journey through the arena before the Freebirds end up receiving a raucous reception upon entering the ringside area. Hayes avoids a Shaw punch on a break and blasts him with one of his own, before Roberts and Hayes use a double back elbow to take him down. Goulet takes a ride on a back body drop as Roberts has Shaw in a side headlock. Gordy has his time in the sun moments later with a slam to Shaw, though the video then cuts to Shaw trying to work over Hayes, but failing as he gets sent into the Freebirds corner.

  Fulton has more luck at controlling Hayes, which leads to a heat segment of the heels keeping him isolated from his tag partners. Eventually, Hayes punches his way out of the corner and a tag to Gordy sparks all six men getting into the ring. To finish, we get a double back body drop into a sloppy Gordy powerbomb for the win. In an effort to really put the Freebirds over the top, Lauper gets in the ring to celebrate. This was actually a really scrappy match, with a worrying lack of interest from the crowd between the bells.

  After another shill with Sergeant Slaughter explaining why he accepted the Wild Samoans request for a partner to take on Adrian Adonis, Dick Murdoch and Captain Lou Albano, including Slaughter suggesting they might spank Albano’s rear end, we return to the Garden as Chief Jay Strongbow meets Kamala. Freddie Blassie and Friday have to halt Kamala’s attempts to use a spear on Strongbow, with the whole pre-match ritual taking an absolute age. Strongbow does his best to hit the ropes and keep away from Kamala, even sliding through his legs and avoiding a splash in the corner. A sleeper only leads to Kamala backing Strongbow into the turnbuckles, with a chop to the head then sending Strongbow out over the top rope. With the Chief back in the ring, Kamala chops and eye rakes, though a brief rally from Strongbow almost knocks him over. However, a kick and a big splash wipes Strongbow out. It is a Kamala squash, but having a game Strongbow in there at least made it more watchable than it might otherwise be.

  Following Iron Mike Sharpe spending a long time looking at the wrong camera as he talks to Gene Okerlund, we get a video about the only lady in Sergeant Slaughter’s life – Lady Liberty. It appears to be an attempt to get people to send money to charity, though it isn’t one hundred percent clear.

  The WWF update this week focuses on Tito Santana, with McMahon talking about how Santana had helped a woman before she went in for heart surgery. This is followed by the finish to a Santana versus Rene Goulet match to showcase that Santana is getting it done both in and out of the ring.

  Piper’s Pit is next, with Piper giving his favourite wrestler an incredibly favourable introduction, only to reveal that it is, of course, himself. He runs down the issues between Captain Lou Albano and Cyndi Lauper, with a very favourable interpretation for Albano. That is basically it; mainly serving as a way to remind people of what has been happening after a lull in that particular storyline.

  The final match of the show is Ken Patera, pre-prison, going up against Steve Lombardi. The bell rings, but Patera waves off Lombardi before removing his jacket and giving people a gun show. He then casually removes his trousers, with no rush to engage with Lombardi. Lombardi does start with a side headlock, yet Patera just scoops him up and places him on the top rope. Patera then powers out of a full nelson, before applying an arm wringer with a handful of hair to take it to the canvas. There is no clean break in the
ropes, Patera using several forearms instead to set up for a snapmare and chinlock. A choke with the ropes and a clothesline across the top rope leads to a clothesline and an arrogant clothesline that only gets him two.

  Lombardi catches Patera off guard with some punches to the stomach, but Patera reverses an Irish whip into the corner and catches his opponent with a back elbow. There is no arrogance about the multiple stomps that follow which serve to highlight Patera’s frustrations, with a back body drop and legdrop enough for the win. Patera is so good as a heel during this window of time; a real cut above a lot of the other ‘strongman’ gimmick wrestlers.

  The finish of the show has Okerlund with Roddy Piper an in an effort to grab a few words, though Piper goes off on one about his match against Andre the Giant. It is pure, bug-eyed Piper in his pomp, making it actually very difficult to follow what he is even on about if I’m being honest. He seems to reference his dealing with Jimmy Snuka, so that Andre should be worried, but it is, as always, about the delivery as much as the content with Piper. He is clearly worried, yet trying to present himself differently.

  This is a fairly average show, with Blair/Sharpe and Patera/Lombardi decent enough, whilst the Freebirds match was interesting more from a historical perspective than an in-ring one.

  Mid-South Wrestling 13.9.84

  Bill Watts is joined by Boyd Pierce after a two week break following the death of his mother, with Watts stating that as Christian people, they know she is in a better place now. Pierce thanks the Mid-South family in a nice touch as well. It is Watts who is due to run down the card, but he speaks initially out of embarrassment for what the Midnight Express did to the Fantastics the previous week. We see the footage of the attack following the signing of the contract for a Mid-South Tag Team Title match, whilst Watts follows with a reading of the rules about using illegal objects in Mid-South. This means the Midnights will at least get a $10,000 fine, but the rest of their potential punishment is tied up in legalities at the moment.