Category: Sports (TV & Videos)

SUMMARY:         APPROX. RUNNING TIME: 9:34 Min.

Taped in either January or early February of 1987, this title rematch from the Los Angeles Forum subsequently aired on February 7, 1987, for WTBS’ World Championship Wrestling TV series.  In a battle of perennial rivals, an extra stipulation is a supposed $10,000.00 cash prize offered by James J. Dillon of The Four Horsemen.  Also making appearances are Barry Windham and The Horsemen’s Arn Anderson.  

Providing the match’s commentary are Tony Schiavone and promoter David Crockett.

REVIEW:

Given it is a standard TV-caliber match, Rhodes and Blanchard at least supply some worthwhile viewing.  One amusing sequence stands out: Rhodes and Dillon first yank a ‘semi-conscious’ Blanchard in a tug-of-war; and then Rhodes ‘double-teams’ the World TV Champion and Dillon with a flurry of his patented “Bionic Elbows.”  Otherwise, one can expect the usual shenanigans (i.e., Anderson & Blanchard draw blood on Rhodes), plus an invariably cheap finish. 

Considering the players involved, this NWA World TV title defense serves a nostalgic treat for mid-80’s NWA fans.

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING:                        5½ Stars

IMAGE NOT AVAILABLE

SUMMARY:          APPROX. RUNNING TIME: 32:33 Min.

Taped in either January or early February 1987, this no-disqualification title rematch from Starrcade ’86 pitting the NWA’s two top singles champions against one another takes place at the Coliseum in Charlotte, NC.  The bout subsequently aired on February 7, 1987, for WTBS’ World Championship Wrestling TV series. 

Late in the game, backing Flair is his nefarious Four Horsemen crony, Tully Blanchard.  Koloff’s ‘Superpowers’ tag team partner, “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, also makes an appearance to even the odds.   

REVIEW:

It is easy to recall Sting and Lex Luger as the greatest power wrestlers challenging Ric Flair’s NWA World Championship reign in the Late ‘80s.  Yet, Nikita Koloff, in his prime, was no slouch, either. 

Considering Koloff’s remarkable in-ring chemistry with Flair, one wonders why “The Russian Nightmare” did not serve a brief run as the NWA’s World Champion.  His powerhouse gimmick, suffice to say, was ideal for the old school NWA mindset that preferred wrestlers over live-action cartoons. 

Despite a predictably inconclusive finish, Koloff demonstrates that he could readily keep up with Flair’s renowned stamina for more than a half-hour.  Make no mistake: Flair and Koloff’s athletic choreography ages far better than sitting through one of Hulk Hogan’s sluggish WWF World Title defenses against Nikolai Volkoff.  Wrestling nostalgia buffs, if anything, should consider revisiting the mid-80’s Koloff-Flair feud as some of the best low-key NWA World Title clashes of that era. 

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING:                       7 Stars

IMAGE NOT AVAILABLE

SUMMARY:                 RUNNING TIME: Approx. 26:12 Min.

At the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, TN, this street fight battle royal served as the main event for WTBS’ WCW Thunder TV episode on May 3, 2000.  Reminiscent of the NWA’s anything-goes Bunkhouse Stampedes of the late ‘80’s, participants wear ‘street clothes’ and the New Blood faction brings blunt weapons of choice.  Baited by “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, the New Blood’s Eric Bischoff agrees that the last-standing participant scores a WCW World Heavyweight Championship title shot at the Great American Bash Pay-Per-View the following month. 

The vastly outnumbered Millionaires’ Club is led by Flair.  Joining him are “Diamond” Dallas Page; Sting; Hulk Hogan; “The Total Package” Lex Luger; Curt Hennig; Horace Hogan; “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan; Chris Kanyon; Hugh Morrus; and KroniK (Brian Adams & Bryan Clark).

With 20-25 guys, Bischoff and Vince Russo’s New Blood army consists of: Jeff Jarrett; Billy Kidman; Harlem Heat’s quartet (including Booker T, Stevie Ray, & Tony Norris – the WWE’s ex-“Ahmed Johnson”); Tank Abbott; Mike Awesome; Van Hammer; Ernest “The Cat” Miller; Chris Candido; Shawn Stasiak; Marcus Bagwell; Vampiro; Scott Steiner; Konnan; Johnny the Bull; Disco Inferno; The Wall; Bam Bam Bigelow; The Harris Brothers; and Norman Smiley. 

Additional guest stars includes: Bret “Hitman” Hart; Madusa; Mona; Asya; Tammy Lynn Sytch; and, in his final WCW appearance, “Macho Man” Randy Savage (who had abruptly exited WCW soon after Road Wild ’99).  Ominously mentioned as ‘locked away’ by Russo, Miss Elizabeth does not appear.   

The match’s commentary team consists of Tony Schiavone, Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, & “Iron” Mike Tenay.

Notes: As a parental advisory, this free-for-all includes man vs. woman violence.  RE: stars not included: for The Millionaires’ Club, among them are Kevin Nash, Sid Vicious, Rick Steiner, & Barry Windham; for the New Blood, one could mention, for instance, Chuck Palumbo, Mark Jindrak, and Sean O’Haire. Goldberg’s absence, at the time, was due to an extended injury leave.

REVIEW:

Let’s review the backstory first.  By mid-2000 (WCW’s last full year of operation), World Championship Wrestling was in freefall, both creatively and financially.  Out of desperation, a hapless WCW rehired ex-boss Eric Bischoff and one of his failed successors, Vince Russo, to co-manage the promotion; this uneasy partnership, suffice to say, lasted a few months.   

Their short-lived ‘big idea’ was to vacate all championships and forcibly reboot the company in a variation of its profitable 1996-99 WCW vs. New World Order (NWO) mega-feud.  Including several of its biggest-name NWO alumni, the company’s aging main eventers (aka ‘The Millionaires’ Club’) were pitched as lumbering yet sympathetic babyfaces. 

The snarky villains would be WCW’s suppressed young talent, with veterans Jeff Jarrett and Shane Douglas cast as its in-ring leadership.  Predictably, Russo and Bischoff doubled as the New Blood’s gloating on-screen masterminds.

As with Bischoff’s NWO, such a concept had been lifted from Japan, so there was a successful precedent.  Further, pitting two wrestling generations’ legitimate resentment/animosity against one other seemingly made good sense on paper, at least from WCW’s perspective.    

Here’s the rub: Ted Turner’s WCW too often didn’t grasp long-term planning, let alone foresee fallout from ultra-stupid booking (i.e., 1990’s Capitol Combat: The Return of Robocop).  Once Bischoff and Hulk Hogan transformed WCW into their hugely expensive playground, such bone-headed decision-making gradually shifted to the rule vs. being forgiven as misguided exceptions. 

Case in point: subsequently ceding creative authority to an ultra-selfish Hogan and Kevin Nash, among others, a series of ludicrous programming blunders became the obvious culprit for WCW’s eroding fanbase. Still, if all went well, this overbooked Bunkhouse Stampede featuring nearly the entire roster would then justify how Russo & Bischoff programmed WCW’s upcoming summer Pay-Per-Views.    

Spelling out WCW’s dumpster fire mentality, unfortunately, this grungy, all-star gang warfare is best skipped.  Veterans, such as Page, Jarrett, and even a fifty-year-old Flair (in a dress shirt and slacks, no less), muster decent fight choreography for TV.  It isn’t nearly enough to overcome Russo & Bischoff’s blatant disrespect for pro wrestling fans’ intelligence.  Whatever their motives were, this smug duo appears on-screen practically gleeful peddling trash to disinterested WCW audiences.      

For instance, despite the varying camera angles, it is impossible to tell which unaffiliated ‘mercenary’ is on which side – invariably, some even switch sides. More so, the match’s chaotic nature doesn’t show when or how several participants (especially late-comers) enter and/or leave the ring. Perhaps these confusing match elements were meant as bits of shades-of-gray realism, but they certainly fall short of watchability.

One element, however, is inevitable: WCW’s tone-deaf squandering of mega-star talent on its payroll, especially as outside inference.  For instance: off WCW television since Fall 1999, a jacked-up, 47-year-old Savage’s unexpected return initially pays off.  Yet, Savage’s half-hearted series of running double-ax handles on the opposition implies how far his renowned mobility had diminished.  Teasing that the “Macho Man” had resumed active duty, his one-shot presence leads to nothing – aside from a brief reunion of the Mega-Powers.

Another unnecessary eyesore is Bret Hart’s own brief contribution.  To epitomize his disappointing WCW tenure, Hart’s chair-swinging actions, let alone his murky allegiance, make no sense to the supposed plot.  Lastly, the company’s worst sleaze is the New Blood’s gang-style violence perpetrated against female wrestlers (and vice-versa).   Faked or not, such visuals come off as an utterly putrid display packaged as so-called “entertainment.”

If anything, this ugly battle royal is a master class in wasting the still-considerable talent pool that WCW had under contract – both its past-their-prime legends and the supposedly rising New Blood horde. 

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING:                  1½ Stars

IMAGE NOT AVAILABLE

SUMMARY:             APPROX. RUNNING TIME: 9:00 Min.

Taped in either January or early February 1987, this scaffold rematch from Starrcade ’86 (with all the same players) occurs at the Los Angeles Forum.  The bout subsequently aired on February 7, 1987, for WTBS’ World Championship Wrestling TV series.  Per the match’s stipulations, both tag team partners must fall from the scaffold devised above the ring for the other team to prevail. 

From Jim Cornette’s purported description of the Starrcade ’86 bout, the NWA’s scaffold set-up was an estimated twenty-five feet off the arena floor, as compared to about twenty feet above the ring’s mat.  Provided a six-foot wrestler is precariously hanging beneath the scaffold at his full outstretched height, one is still looking, at best, at a fourteen-foot drop.  

REVIEW:

As Cornette had gruesomely blown out his knee in a botched scaffold stunt a few months earlier at Starrcade ’86, it’s no surprise that his contributions are restricted to taunting.  Later rebranded as the WWF’s Big Boss Man, Big Bubba’s menacing presence amounts to nothing this time.  The same applies to Hawk & Animal’s manager, Paul Ellering. 

If anything, Condrey and Eaton’s initially on-screen leeriness is justifiable – as if anybody really wants to plunge the equivalent off the roof of a house, with little to no padding waiting below.  Given such enormous risk, stunt work in scaffold matches conveys 250+-pound guys straddling a tightrope, and this ultra-predictable bout is no exception. 

The good news is that the losers had prior experience taking such perilous falls and managed to evade injury – lucky them.  Conversely, despite its star power, this “Night of the Skywalkers” rematch struggles to be watchable. 

BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING:                       4 Stars

IMAGE NOT AVAILABLE