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Nelson Royal & Tim Horner vs. Don Kernodle & Rocky Kernodle
The night starts off hot. Alright, let’s goooooo. Don Kernodle was a fairly big name in the Carolinas 3 years or so before this and now he’s in the opening spot which wasn’t a prominent spot in the day. Solid professionals to warm up the crowd but not set them alight, as is the norm today. Nelson Royal is a cool, crafty old veteran. I’m not sure how good he is but he had some neat tricks that I was entertained by. The Kernodles were a decent duo. Don being the big powerhouse and Rocky being his smaller sidekick. Tim Horner is obviously the prospect of the match given that he got the win, pinning Rocky after reversing an O’Connor Roll. The crowd boos the victory and the match moves on to the next thing. This was decent. Probably the equivalent of a pre-show match today. Not great, just solid without going anywhere but that’s the point. **
Brad Armstrong vs. Jimmy Garvin
15 Minute broadway. A higher level version of the match before it, but for the Omni crowd. Garvin isn’t my favourite midcard territory act but he can produce good things as can Armstrong. The match follows a pattern early on, quick pace of action, grab a hold, work it for a little, escape and repeat. Not a bad formula. Actually, it’s an interesting exercise. The match progressed a little more with some more pinfall combinations with Armstrong trying to stay alive with Garvin being constantly on top of him but it was a clear play for time, and one that wasn’t as interesting as the hold portion. The crowd seemed to like it but this wasn’t that good to me. The afters produced a bigger spark than the match did. Jimmy Garvin wants to get back in the ring after Armstrong thwarted a planned attack by him and Babydoll but she won’t let him, concluding the segment. **1/2
Baron von Raschke & Hector Guerrero vs. Shaska Whatley & The Barbarian
This is such an odd match. I have to think that this was to get these four on the show but it was announced as a grudge match. Raschke is a legend though, so the crowd seem positive to the match during introductions. Barbarian and Whately attack at the bell but the tables get turned quickly and are thrown into each other. Hector spices up the match with some cool sequences but the match gets taken over by the heels. Whatley and the Barbarian are fine. Perfunctory in the role but their heel spots aren’t appealing. Thankfully the hot tag to Raschke comes quickly. Raschkle isn’t great but his movements produce an energy to the crowd. Plus it signals the end as he beats Whatley who ran himself into the ropes and ate an elbow drop. The heels attack Raschke after the match, hitting a flying headbutt until Hector Guerrero makes the save. From the looks of it, Hector Guerrero would’ve been best served elsewhere. And Baron von Raschke got a nice showcase match. **
NWA United States Tag Team Title No Disqualification Match: The Russians (Ivan Koloff & Krusher Kruschev) (c) vs. The Kansas Jayhawks (Bobby Jaggers & Dutch Mantel)
Bobby Jaggers is such a Dusty Rhodes wannabe (more his look than personality). It’s embarrassing. The match, at least, bucks the typical tag team structure, which is nice every now again. There was emphasis on solid, stiff action with quick tags. The Russians led the match with the wise Ivan Koloff at the helm but Dutch Mantell is capable of dealing with the Russians, and Jaggers gets in his fair share of wrestling. The Russians retain using the chain to beat the Jayhawks behind the refs back. That does bring to question what No DQ means but I can accept it being too much for the era. Good match. Best match up to this point of the show. ***
Indian Strap Match: Wahoo McDaniel vs. Rick Rude
A no-so (let’s say dark) green Rick Rude is literally tied to Wahoo McDaniel, who is tasked to carry him to a good match. Unfortunately, Wahoo wasn’t up to it. Outside of a few spots, this seemed to be free for all. Just a back and forth with no real structure. It wasn’t terribly exciting though. It was sluggish and slow moving. The crowd occasionally popped for a punch or a chop and the finish. And that’s all I was interested in as well. This was dull. Plain dull. Rude attacks Wahoo, after Wahoo wins after a failed interference spot by Paul Jones, and Raschke and Hector Guerrero make the save. Let’s move on. *
NWA Central States Heavyweight Title Match: Sam Houston (c) vs. Bill Dundee
Sam Houston is just very bland and like Wahoo tried to do with Rude, Dundee is tasked to make this kid be more than what he is. Instead this is a Bill Dundee showcase where he dominates the match, giving Houston a chance to be sympathetic, though only singular people seem to be catching on to the desired degree. Dundee runs through heel 101 offence but he’s charismatic and its enjoyable watching him do it. Plus he throws sweet punches. Houston’s leg is hurt in the process and Dundee takes the chance to work it, taking his boot off and that led to the finish where he hits Houston with the boot. The ref is seemingly down and out but he sees it and calls for a DQ. Houston retains by being saved. Not exactly a strong win for the lad. One man show does what it says on the tin. **1/2
Hair Vs. Hair Match: Jimmy Valiant (w/Big Mama) vs. Paul Jones (w/Manny Fernandez)
Boogie Woogie Man vs Paul Jones - a legend of the Carolina territories. Probably worth a skip for the casual viewer but this seems like a big one for the fans of the product. And I’m admittedly excited to see it. Manny Fernadez is ejected from ringside and forced into a cage, thanks to the babyfaces. Jimmy Valiant runs riot on Jones, throwing him around the ring and forcing him into a corner. The ref intervenes due to the rope break and that allows Jones to get a foreign object from his tights and nail Valiant. Blood pours and Paul Jones uses his closed fist to produce more blood. Jones uses it again when Valiant begins a comeback but he can’t thwart a second attempt. Valiant caught a sleeper hold and Jones reached for the object. Only it's turned against him and Valiant wins after a punch to a pop from the crowd. Cue we are the champions for the boogie woogie man! Shave that head! That was a fun ass match. Manny Fernadez escapes from the cage and attacks Valiant, Rude joins him and leaves him laying. ***
A fucking long Jim Crockettt Sr Memorial Cup VT. And now the show can start.
Louisville Street Fight: Big Bubba Rogers (w/Jim Cornette) vs. Ronnie Garvin
This sounds terrific. Rogers is apparently a prodigy and Garvin is awesome. The match quickly establishes Garvin is a tough puncher, who can rock a man even the size of Rogers, who takes a tumble to the outside. Rogers is strong and Garvin has to be weary, even if that means using a drink to distract him. Once the drink is thrown, punches are thrown and Rogers has to bail to the outside to regroup. Garvin is back on him when he gets back into the ring. The match is just a brawl and a fight and that’s all I wanted to see. Rogers has his shirt ripped open (some things don’t change) and Garvin is cut open. Both are worn down by the match’s content. The big spot of the match is Garvin escaping Rogers’ bearhug with a headbutt and follows up with more punches. Garvin is able to slam Rogers off the top rope to a huge pop and hits a piledriver to knock Rogers out. However, Cornette wacks Garvin down with his racket. There must be a winner, so the winner is the first one who gets to their feet. Cornette is irate but the ref pushes him back to the floor and continues the count. Cornette interferes once more by hitting Ronnie Garvin in the knee behind the refs back and that allows Rogers to make it to his feet and the ref awards him the match. Good brawl from these two. Just a scrap. A good one. ***1/4
NWA World Television Title First Blood Match: Dusty Rhodes (c) vs. Tully Blanchard (w/JJ Dillon)
This feels big. This could’ve easily been the main event over Flair vs Nikita. Is that a controversial opinion? The match doesn’t even start before the blood poured from someone involved. Dusty hits an elbow of JJ Dillon, who is bloody and knocked loopy. Tully is cagey in the opening moments. He engages and backs off at the first sign of an elbow by Dusty. Dusty totally plays it up, strutting and dancing to the crowd’s screams. This is first blood so strikes to the head are vital and anyone could ideally do it, especially the bionic elbow which split Dillon open. Tully is such a coward and is on the backfoot the entire time and eventually even his attempts at using a shoe are foiled and used against him when Dusty hits him with it and punches him to draw blood. Tully cleans some of his blood and blindsides Dusty with coins. Dusty is bleeding and the ref happens to see him first. Tully retains the TV title. A bit of a convenient finish that I don’t really like but it works for this type of wrestling. And concludes a good match where Tully showed his ass and Dusty looked like a swaggering badass. ***1/2
Scaffold Tag Team Match: The Road Warriors (Road Warrior Animal & Road Warrior Hawk) (w/Paul Ellering) vs. The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton & Dennis Condrey) (w/Big Bubba Rogers & Jim Cornette)
This match is more famous for Cornette falling from the scaffold and tearing something in his knee. Clearly they trusted The MX to do these matches as they do it next year as well. This is a scaffold match so it’s all about carefully navigating yourself to the otherside. The Midnight Express use powder which gives them an advantage and get close to pushing the Warriors off but can’t finish the job. The Road Warriors take over and bust them open and turn the tables. Eaton shows his agility almost falling off and saving himself with one hand and jumping far enough to the rungs to climb back up. All I know watching this match is that I would panic as soon as I begin to make a move on the scaffold and be unable to move. Even a move to descend. It’s a credit to these men. The ending comes when both teams go towards the middle of the underside of the scaffold where they try to kick each other down. The Road Warriors win unsurprisingly and chase after Jim Cornette and look back to the first sentence of this match review. Poor Bubba though. He was meant to catch him. I bet he got a mouthful from Cornette. This was limited as far as its scope but it made good on what could be done. ***1/4
NWA World Tag Team Title Steel Cage Match: The Rock 'n' Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) (c) vs. The Minnesota Wrecking Crew (Arn Anderson & Ole Anderson)
After a brief hot start by the Rock n Roll, the Andersons found a weakness in the leg and worked on it in true Anderson fashion. And surprisingly, I thought Ole was the better at it. In fact, I thought Ole Anderson was awesome in the match. He just does everything well. I love that his cut off spot is a kick to the gut. And it looks like it hurts as well. Like one kick from him can knock the wind out of your sails. Morton came in and that exact thing happened. Hot tag, screams, but nope! And then things get worse when Morton’s face is cut open by the cage. The Andersons refocus their efforts on the upper body and the face of Ricky Morton, who is in his element in this role. Morton catches Ole coming off the middle ropes but could make the tag quick enough and the Andersons retain advantage while Morton sells both the arm and the general damage from the match thus far. The crowd gets behind the RnR but the match still teases the hot tag which leads to a brief chance at Morton getting some offence only for Arn to hit a beautiful spinning spinebuster. There is a great punch exchange between Arn and Morton where Morton rocks Arn enough for Arn to swing and miss, giving another chance for the tag but in comes Ole once more for the perfect tease. Soon Gibson had enough and came in anyway to attack Arn and in the chaos Ricky Morton pins Ole with a crossbody (with dropkick assist) for the shocking (in the moment) win, crowning new champions. The Andersons are livid in the cage at the end of it but what is done is done. Terrific match. ****1/4
NWA World Heavyweight Title Match: Ric Flair (c) vs. Nikita Koloff
Nikita is a clear replacement for Magnum TA. So much that a tribute video played rather than Nikita’s entrance, unless the Network edited out. But guess who was booed. That’s right! The communist. Nevertheless, Flair was entrenched in a heelish gimmick which means cowering at Nikita’s strength and toughness before regrouping outside and in the crowd. After a good few minutes of this, Flair gets the better of him and delivers a suplex. Flair celebrates but turns around to see Nikita already up. It was a funny spot. The way Flair was proud of himself was a terrific touch to a standard no-sell spot. Flair works the leg to set up the Figure Four as that’s all that’s left to do and it seems to work. Nikita gets caught in a figure four but reverses it but he sells it, at least. The match is more interesting when Flair is in control because the powerhouse offence gets tiresome after a while for me. It’s effective at points but there needs to be progression at some point. Flair uses the already built scaffolding to his advantage, smacking Nikita’s skull off it but the match resumes to the tired old trope of putting over the strong man. The ref gets bumped and the match starts to come to an end and unfortunately it’s a DQ loss for Nikita. Nikita gets a visible pin on Flair but no ref and Nikita loses it after that. The match turns into a brawl and Nikita attacks the ref and everyone else. The bell is rung and the locker room empties to contain this brawl. Flair is even willing to get into a scrap with Nikita, opposed to cowering behind the Horsemen, who aren't there. It’s a big angle to do but this is supposed to be a show of blow offs. I don’t think a DQ finish works here. It works at the Bash but either Flair needs to win properly or Nikita does. This was a fine main event involving someone who is limited. I expected a bit more, however. Flair was good but he had one role and it was to bump for Nikita’s offence. ***
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