Old-school ranting
The SmarK 24/7 Rant for World Championship Wrestling - June 15 1985
Oh, baby! With the state of wrestling such as it is these days, I finally bit the bullet and subscribed to WWE 24/7, because I figured that at least I wouldn’t have to watch The Great Khali there. Little did I know that they’d be tossing entire episodes of World Championship Wrestling my way, along with entire RAWs, Nitros, ECW TV shows, Boston Garden house shows, and pretty much anything else you could stand to watch within a month. I’m HOME!
So this of course the original Muthaship, which aired on TBS in the timeslot that eventually became WCW Saturday Night, and generally featured all the big angles and such. The studio is tiny, but the crowd is very vocal, which I think was an inspiration for the original run of Monday Night RAW.
- Hosted by Tony Schiavone, as David Crockett is out because of an injury angle with Nikita Koloff.
- US champion Magnum TA joins us to start, letting us know that he really is on Ric Flair’s level and he’ll prove it.
- “Mad Dog” Buzz Sawyer & Dick Slater v. Mark Hill & Ron Rossi. Slater & Sawyer are pretty upset at the Andersons over an attack on Brett Wayne Sawyer, and they decide to take out their frustrations on these poor jobbers. Sawyer pacing around the apron like Warrior on a caffeine binge shows a weird kind of charisma that he had, although his untimely death in 1992 obviously cut that short. This is mainly Sawyer pounding away on the jobbers and Slater working the arm, until Slater DDTs Hill and finishes with a figure-four.
- Manny Fernandez joins us with words for the Koloffs, just before turning heel actually. A pop-up trivia balloon informs us that he held the NWA World tag titles with Dusty Rhodes in 1984 and then with Rick Rude in 1986. Cool.
- Manny Fernandez v. Randy Barber. Ironically, Barber is bald, and that’s about all you need to know here, as Manny finishes fast with a flying forearm.
- Dusty Rhodes, fresh off another eye injury, lets us know that indeed he’s still the biggest star in the business, without equal, but Tully Blanchard gave him a boo-boo and now it’s time for some pain blues and agony. Yes, he really did used to cut promos where he called himself the biggest star in the business while booking the shows.
- Boogie Woogie Man Jimmy Valiant v. Larry Clark. Usual squash for Jimmy, as he chokes the jobber out and then finishes with the back elbow/elbowdrop combo.
- Ric Flair, in his Sunday best, lets Nikita know that he now has Flair’s full attention after attacking David Crockett, and then runs down the list of challengers he’s going to beat, finishing up with a run about how snazzy his suit is. Flair was so cool, kids; you can’t even know from the joke he’s turned into.
- Kamala v. Alan Martin. Pop-up trivia: Kamala started as “Sugarbear” Harris in the 70s. Total destruction here, ending with the flying splash.
- Magnum TA v. Carl Styles. Magnum, in no mood to dick around after Flair ran him down in the previous interview, finishes under 20 seconds with the belly-to-belly.
- Slater & Sawyer have more words for the Andersons and Flair to set something up later tonight.
- National tag team titles: Ole & Arn Anderson v. Joe Lightfoot & The Italian Stallion. Stallion was one of those jobbers that they were always trying to find excuses to push, but just never found the way to do it. Stallion grabs a headlock on Arn to start, and tries to work Ole’s arm. Lightfoot continues that thread, but the Andersons return the favor on Stallion. Classic Andersons ensues, as they trap Stallion in the corner and work the body part, showing textbook examples of everything that commentators always stress when there’s a tag match going on. Lightfoot comes back in and gets double-teamed, and they destroy the arm while distracting the ref and cutting off the ring and all the other stuff right out of tag team 101. Arn with the gourdbuster to set up Ole coming off the top onto the poor guy’s shoulder, and the ref stops the match. Textbook.
- Tully Blanchard joins us to express his deepest sympathies for Dusty, and tells him to back off or suffer another eye injury.
- Nikita Koloff threatens Ric Flair from backstage at the Omni a few weeks before this show. Man, I’m glad he at least got the Russian accent down later on.
- The Barbarian v. Jason Walker. Very early in Barbie’s career here, as he dispatches Walker with a press slam, big boot and falling headbutt.
- Tully Blanchard v. Gerald Findley. Findley actually gets Tully on the run with an attack from behind and a dropkick, but Tully finishes him quickly with the slingshot suplex, still one of my favorite old-school finishers.
- Ric Flair joins us for more rhetoric about how no one is on his level, so Magnum interrupts and tells him to put up or shut up: $1000 cash if Flair can beat him within the 10 minutes left in the show. And we’re on.
- Ric Flair v. Magnum TA. Flair throws a chop, but gets slugged down and dropkicked. Flair slugs away again, but gets backdropped. He tries tossing Magnum and following with a suplex, but it’s reversed for two. Flair drops a knee to finally take over, while the Andersons join us for commentary and reveal that Flair is their “cousin”, thus sowing the seeds of you-know-what. Flair takes over with an abdominal stretch, but TA cradles for two. They slug it out and it’s a Flair flip to put him on the floor, but he goes up and gets a flying axehandle for two. They fight outside and Flair sends him into the post to isolate the arm. Back in, he goes to work on it, but TA sends him into the turnbuckle. Flair backs off and gets backdropped again for two. Big splash misses for Magnum, but the backslide gets two. Press slam gets two. They slug it out, but TA whiffs on a dropkick and Flair gets two. Flair goes up and gets slammed in the days before that was cliched, and Magnum gets the figure-four and holds on until time expires at 10:00. Solid TV main event. *** The Andersons attack to make a point about protecting their own, but Slater & Sawyer make the save, and we’re out of time!
The Bottom Line:
Ah, the old days, when they’re get people over by giving them promo time and build feuds by logical actions.
I love watching the old World Championship Wrestling shows from that era! OnDemand had an $8.99 sticker on this show for some odd reason. My cable company couldn’t remove it so I had to take a pass. Thanks for the recap!
I loved old school WCW/NWA. Back then, even squash matches had a purpose for the most part. Not just a part of the show thrown in there as a half-assed way to get someone over. Like the Slater/Sawyer thing. They were pissed and taking it out on jobbers. It was neat little mini-stories like that that made those shows great.
24/7 is great. They do those old Crocket shows in order. I have only had it about a month but they had at least the last 3 episodes. I guess we will soon be seeing the Horseman form (or I hope). I could watch those old Flair promo’s. BTW, the show before (maybe 2 before) is when Flair gives Magnum a suit and he rips it apart. Flair was head and shoulders better than anyone in the 80’s
You will love this stuff. They have been going in order of that show, probably this is the third of fourth I have watched since signing up a month ago. But keep in mind, the stuff seems to change at odd times not neccessarily monthly. But Flair in the 80’s was so much better than anyone. This show is on the heels of Flair giving Magnum a suit and Magnum ripping it up (I think the week before this show). It kinda surprises me WWE promotes this. Watching these Classics makes Raw look even worse. If all you watch is WWE over the last few years it is easy to forget how entertaining it can and used to be. Often I sit down and try to watch Raw or Smackdown but end up watching 24/7 instead.
Glad to get a review of one of these shows worth reading. Looks like a great show to watch, wish I had 24/7.
I just may have to subscribe to this WWE 24/7 service you speak of.
That was a nice walk down pre-memory lane. My first NWA memories occured shortly after this, with Manny & Rude as tag team champions. Or was it US tag? Anyway, Rude & Manny were a great team. Another one of my favorites from this era was Windham & Ronnie Garvin. Kind of makes ya long for the days when a promotion’s teams were so plentiful that they could get away with two tag champions without it being ackward. I think Smackdown could be almost as good if the Hardyz, MNM, & Cade & Murdoch were moved over.
By the way, did anybody catch Smackdown this week? London & Kendrick had an AWESOME match, with tons of great mat wrestling.
I don’t want to go off-topic, but fuck WWECW. I’d rather they show something like a WCW episode from 1985 in that timeslot than this abortion whose ratings decline each week. I’m done.
I’ve had some problems with the family, so I haven’t really had time to watch 24/7 lately. I did record the MSG show and the awful Battlebowl show to watch later. I loved 24-7 and when I get a chance, I do click on the old NWA shows from 1985 and just shake my head in disbelief. Since I was the big WWF fan, and my dad was more of the NWA fan at first — I never really paid attention to how good these shows were. And 1985-87 WWF TV is leaps and bounds the crap that Vince gives us today.
And speaking of Raw — as much as I had a sick pleasure in enjoying the “Rosie” vs. “Donald” match — what the flying f**k was Vince thinking when he booked that one? I come back after 17 weeks of football and this is the show you guys can book? You book Khali and the Big Russian as maybe the two dudes that will take Cena on at Wrestlemania or something; and you book a FAKE ROSIE O’FATA$$ to “wrestle” a FAKE DONALD!?!?!?!?!? Its bad enough who remove Khali from ECW to fill in the Triple H gap — BUT the NFL NETWORK needs to create NFL 24/7 and show old football games from various dates in full because it would have to beat this drek on Monday Nights. WWE might have just lost me again until Wrestlemania on PPV buys.
As for 24/7 — the boys at the E and Vince should sit down and watch THE DAMN channel and take notes. Hell, Vince in 1985 booked better than 2007 Vince does. Mix some old school NWA with some WWF and have at it. Stop trying to do something that might have worked in 1998 if Steve Austin had come out and killed Rosie and Donald dead — but instead THEY ACTUALLY WORKED AN ENTIRE MATCH!!!!
Damn Vince, please make up with Hogan and pay him mucho jack if you want to see “shitty wrestling” and three shovedowns in a match. I mean it was beyond stupid seeing DONALD “hulk up” because his hair is made out of kypronyte or some hard substance.
All hail 24/7 and enjoy GOOD ENTERTAINMENT!
Thanks for the recap I’m going to be watching this one sometimes soon it looks like a good watch. Keep up the 24/7 reviews, it will help me know what to =)
Let me tell you something, guys.
A few months back on WWE 24/7, they had Starrcade 1985: The Gathering on and the did some overdubs; but there was one thing intact. FAR FROM OVER BY FRANK STALLONE!!!!!! The theme song of Starrcade from 1983-86. I didn’t even realized it was an actual song until Steve Czaben played it on his show a few months back. Still one of the coolest songs used for a Wrestling show ever. I was in awe when I heard that song on a WWE 4/27 broadcast; and yet “Obsession” gets overdubbed. This means one or two things . . .
1. Since WWE has been kind to Sly in the past; they’re paying Frankie as a favor.
2. The 24/7 team never heard of “Far From Over” and didn’t realize it was an actual song.
Probably its #2; but damn it would be cool if the Wrestlemania 24 theme song was “Far From Over” and they went all Retro.