Taped from Dallas, TX
Airdate: November 22, 1986 (taped ??)
Attendance: unknown
Hosted by Bill Mercer
What happens when you put Brody, Abdullah, Crusher, and Simpson all in one ring? How will Mike fare against Black Bart? Will Casey teach Adias a lesson? Warrior’s here, plus Kerry returns.
Opening montage.
Match 1: Dingo Warrior versus the Grappler
Highlights:
- Warrior fed Grappler a pair of backbreakers while Buzz Sawyer cut an insane inset promo on him. Perhaps Sawyer taught Warrior how to cut promos.
- When the Dallas faithful LOUDLY chanted “Din-go,” their hero reversed an Irish whip and trapped Grappler in a bear hug.
- Grappler escaped, but Warrior dealt him a standing choke.
- As he gave Warrior a cross corner whip, Grappler ate boot on his follow-through.
- Warrior landed an elbow drop, but Grappler wrapped him in the ropes.
- After Warrior military-press-slammed him, he gave Grappler a cross corner whip followed by a corner clothesline.
- He gave Grappler another cross corner whip followed by another corner clothesline to the delight of the youthful members of the Dallas faithful.
- While he wiped out Grappler with a sledgehammer (clothesline), Warrior pinned him at 5:35.
Rating: *
Summary: Showcase match for Warrior. Don’t worry, folks, HHH will always be the originator and master of the sledgehammer.
Match 2: Brian Adias versus Scott Casey
Highlights:
- Casey countered a head scissors with a rollup for 1.
- As he rolled up Adias again, Casey earned another 1-count.
- Adias missed a back elbow due to Casey’s evading him.
- When Casey countered a side headlock with a backbreaker, he got 2.
- Adias rebounded with a knee drop and got 1.
- After Casey attempted a piledriver, Adias countered with a back drop for another 1.
- Adias countered a second attempt, backdropped Casey, but got caught with an inverted bear hug.
- While Casey fed Adias a gutwrench suplex, he got 2.
- Adias missed an elbow drop, but Casey missed one too.
- Dealing Adias a back elbow, Casey only got 1.
- Casey hooked a sunset flip, but Adias escaped, rolled up Casey, and hooked the trunks.
- 1-2-3.
- Adias won at 8:26.
Rating: **
Summary: Due to being a fresh heel, Adias was still working the kinks out; however, his clever chicanery enabled him to defeat Casey.
Match 3: Master Gee (w Percy Pringle) versus Bart Batten
Highlights:
- Gee hip-tossed Bart, military-pressed him, and followed with a backbreaker.
- When Gee fed him a knee lift, Bart reversed a cross corner whip and monkey-flipped him.
- Bart charged but came up empty enabling Gee to deal him another knee lift.
- As Gee applied a stepover toe hold, Bart used momentum to monkey-flip him again.
- Gee hip-tossed and caught Bart with a flying headscissors.
- After Pringle distracted referee Rick Hazzard, Gee tossed Bart over the top rope.
- Bart skinned the cat back into the ring and somehow avoided getting blasted with a cane shot by Pringle.
- Instead, Gee collided with Pringle who crashed down to the blue floor.
- Gee ducked a clothesline and delivered a flying shoulder block.
- While he trapped Bart in a cradle, Gee pinned him at 3:16.
Rating: *
Summary: I see what they were trying to do, but it wasn’t executed either flawlessly or precisely. Nevertheless, a showcase for Gee.
From Fort Worth, Adias aligns himself with Al Madril while an injured Kerry Von Erich questions why Adias is avoiding him. Adias brushes him off, so Madril announces his return as well as his not-so-subtle intentions. When Madril brings up the fact that he never faced a Von Erich, Kerry grabs him. An altercation occurs, and Madril attacks Kerry’s injured leg.
He smashes the crutch into Kerry’s leg until Kevin arrives to rescue his brother. Upon dispatching Madril from the ring, Kevin interrogates Adias. Madril blasts Kevin from behind and holds him. With Madril’s encouragement, Adias nails Kevin to sever a lifelong friendship. Mike jumps into the ring and confronts Adias, but the heels scamper away having left both Kerry and Kevin laying.
Kevin grabs the microphone and cuts a promo on Madril. When Madril returns, Kevin beats him within an inch of his life. The locker room empties to break up the brawl, but Madril explodes to destroy Kevin. I smell an upcoming grudge match at the Thanksgiving spectacular.
POINT OF ORDER: While I understand getting Kerry some much-needed camera time to offer the WCCW fans some hope, he’s nowhere near ready for competition. Perhaps using the injury to escalate Adias as a top heel was the plan, but this wasn’t a high ankle sprain Kerry suffered.
Match 4: Mike Von Erich versus Black Bart
Highlights:
- Mike ducked a clothesline and connected with a cross body block for 2.
- As the Dallas faithful LOUDLY chanted “go, Mike, go,” their hero spilled down to the blue floor. Let’s hope Mike doesn’t transform into a Smurf.
- Black Bart suplexed Mike back into the ring and got 2.
- When Mike hooked a sunset flip, he got 2.
- Black Bart attempted a slam, but Mike countered with an inside cradle for another 2.
- After he suplexed Black Bart, Mike landed an elbow drop but couldn’t get 3.
- Bart sent Mike flying back down to the blue floor, joined, and rammed him into Marc Lowrance’s table.
- While the bell rang, both wrestlers were counted out at 4:06.
Rating: **
Summary: In any other territory, a former champion would have won; however, Mike was too well-protected.
After the match, Mike wallops Black Bart with a chair and chases him away.
Match 5: Bruiser Brody & Steve Simpson versus Abdullah the Butcher & Crusher Yurkov (w/ Gary Hart & “Pretty Boy” Larry Sharpe)
Highlights:
- At the bell, Simpson returned to the locker room. Huh?
- Abdullah and Crusher attempted to double-team him, but Brody brandished a chair for his own safety.
- When Simpson returned, he wasn’t alone.
- He brought TONY ATLAS with him.
- As Sharpe protested, referee Rick Hazzard didn’t give a shit.
- Simpson tagged in and hammered Crusher with a pair of elbow smashes.
- After Crusher cartwheeled over him, he bowled over Simpson. Is this wrestling or Wide World of Sports?
- Following an arm drag, Simpson held an armbar.
- That was until Abdullah interjected himself and bashed Simpson in the head.
- While the Dallas faithful LOUDLY chanted “go, Steve, go,” Crusher headbutted and slammed their hero.
- Crusher sent Simpson between the ropes, so Abdullah made him HIT THE POLE.
- With all four wrestlers scrapping on the blue floor, Brody introduced a camera cable to the melee. No close-ups on Abdullah, please.
- Crusher made Brody HIT THE POLE twice, and Simpson’s hog-tied his long mane to the protective rope at ringside.
- Back in the ring, Abdullah trapped Simpson with a Python Sleeper until Brody dropkicked him.
- Hart grabbed Brody by the hair, and he and Abdullah choked Brody on the top rope. Heinous!
- Since Hazzard was down on the mat, Atlas headbutted Sharpe while jumping into the ring.
- Atlas headbutted Hart too as chaos filled the ring.
- Recovering to his feet, Hazzard called for the bell to throw the match out at 8:05.
Rating: *
Summary: More of a bar room brawl than a wrestling match.
Afterward, Atlas annihilates Sharpe and headbutts Hart again. Simpson grabs a chair and decimates Crusher in the back with it. As order gets restored, Sharpe calls Simpson “a little shit.”
Conclusion: Nothing like a wild melee to end a solid episode. Without question, the highlight of the episode was the return, albeit brief, of Kerry. Since he and Adias were life-long friends, he’d do anything to help him get over.
Once that was shown, the rest of the show was rather superfluous. On the other hand, Adias won through heel chicanery while Warrior and Master Gee won enhancement matches.
Next week, Kevin, Lance, & Mike Von Erich defend the World six-man titles against Adias, Black Bart, and Crusher.
TV Rating: NONE
Stay tuned for WCCW 11-29-86!
Comments? Suggestions? Send them to me at rsg@rockstargary.com and follow me on Twitter (@rockstargary202).