WWF Championship Wrestling February 1st, 1986

February 1, 1986

Your hosts are Bruno Sammartino and Vince McMahon

Tonight, The Dream Team will face the British Bulldogs in a non-title match. Also in action are Hercules and Adrian Adonis (who along with Jimmy Hart, interrupted Bruno and Vince as they gave us a preview of the show).

Moondog Spot & Rusty Brooks vs. King Tonga & Ricky Steamboat

Steamboat works over Spot to start the match. Brooks tags and Steamboat takes him down with an amrdrag. Tonga tags and dropkicks Brooks. Spot tags and works over Tonga. He slams him down then they double-team Tonga for a little bit until he fights back and tags Steamboat. They hit Brooks with a double chop then the match breaks down. The faces use the double noggin-knocker then Tonga hits Brooks with a thrust kick then puts him away with a diving headbutt (3:31).

Thoughts: The crowd is into Steamboat but Tonga is not really getting over too much himself. He was miscast as this type of babyface. He didnt show any fire in his comebacks and had the demeanor of an opening match guy.

WWF Update with Lord Alfred Hayes. This week, Hayes lets us know that Mr. T is in peak condition and ready to step back into the wrestling ring in time for WrestleMania. They show a clip of Mr. T and Hogan training for Mania last year. With this segment, they lets us officially know that Mr. T would be at WrestleMania.

Jeff Crippley vs. “Adorable”Adrian Adonis

Adonis yells at the crowd, who are chanting “faggot” at him while Hart brushes his hair after he put his bow on the post. Adonis taunts Crippley to start the match. He then beats on him before putting the bow back in his hair and hitting the DDT for the win (1:22).

Thoughts: Adonis really played up his gimmick this week and the crowd was giving him all sorts of shit. His weight was out of control though and was getting to the point that he could barely move.

Gene Okerlund is with Bob Orton, who will be facing Paul Orndorff in Wyoming. Orton calls out Orndorff for wearing the cast, even though his arm is not really broken. He then briefly mentions to Okerlund how Judy Martin was going to be on the show in what had to be some sort of inside joke, then shits on the state and people of Wyoming. He then promises Orndorff that he will teach him how to lose.

Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff w/ Freddie Blassie vs. Jim Powers & S.D. Jones

Sheik starts off with Powers and yells at the crowd, who respond by throwing trash. Corporal Kirchner then makes his way down the aisle and walks around holding the American flag as the heels are angry. The crowd starts a “USA” chant. S.D punches Sheik then tags Powers, who gets kicked down. Sheik hits a back suplex then tags Volkoff, who hits a backbreaker. Sheik tags back in and hits a belly-to-belly before putting him away with the Camel Clutch (2:44). After the match, Kirchner runs into the ring and clears the ring of the heels then starts acting like a mental patient, jumping around and screaming. Well, he was legitimately crazy according to many in the business.

Thoughts: This was all just to continue the feud between Kirchner and Sheik & Volkoff. Kirchner did not have any partner though and at this point, they did not appear to want to give him one, either.

Okerlund is with Paul Orndorff, who talks up Wyoming. The audio guy kept on fucking up and played the cut away music about three times during the middle of the promo. Orndorff also tells Mean Gene that he will show him how to hunt.

Paul Dose vs. Hercules Hernandez 

Blassie did not accompany Hercules to the ring. Herc starts the match by pounding away on Dose, stopping to flex his muscles on occasion. Blassie then interrupts the announcers and challenges Kirchner to a match against Sheik & Volkoff with any partner that he chooses. Hercules uses his trademark slow and lumbering style as no one cares about this match, except for the few guys chanting “boring.” He eventually puts him away with the Torture Rack (3:16).

Thoughts: God, Hercules was awful when he first came to the WWF. The only thing of note that happened was Kirchner getting to choose a partner to face Sheik & Volkoff.

Piper’s Pit with guest Captain Lou Albano. The heels make fun of Albano until George Steele comes out and keeps on saying that Elizabeth is “nice.” Orton laughs at him and says that Elizabeth stinks, which causes Steele to briefly chase him around. Piper then interviews Steele and tells him that he is dumb and ugly but Steele grabs Piper’s kilt and calls him Elizabeth, making fun of him. Another Piper’s Pit, another skirt joke. This was fine overall though as they are really going full speed ahead with the Steele/Elizabeth story.

Dave Barbie & AJ Petruzzi vs. The Killer Bees

This match is joined-in-progress. The Bees work over Barbie for a while until Petruzzi tags. The Bees beat on him briefly until Blair gets the pin with the powerslam.

Thoughts: The action shown was good and fast-paced. The Bees were a really solid team.

Another plug for the “Slammy Awards”

A brief commercial hyping up WrestleMania 2 airs, only stating that it will happen on April 7th.

The Dream Team w/ “Luscious” Johnny Valiant vs. The British Bulldogs w/ Capt. Lou Albano

This is a non-title match. The crowd is pretty jacked for this contest. Dynamite hits Valentine with an atomic drop before sending him to the floor with a shoulder block. Valentine goes back in and outsmarts Dynamite. He slams him then tags Brutus, who beats on him for a bit. He gets a nearfall with a leg drop but Dynamite makes the tag to Davey, who overpowers Brutus. The fans are going nuts for this. Davey gets double-teamed in the corner then Valentine applies the figure-four but Dynamite breaks that up. He hits Valentine with a backbreaker then uses a snap suplex on Brutus. Davey tags and hits Brutus with a running powerslam. Valentine runs in for the save but Davey catches him and puts him in a fireman’s carry and backs into the corner. He then tags Dynamite, who goes up top then jumps off of Valentine’s back and connects with the flying headbutt and covers for the win (4:18) **1/4. The crowd erupts and gives the Bulldogs a standing ovation.

Thoughts: Only a little over four minutes long but it was all action and very good too. The Bulldogs win got one of the loudest pops I have heard from these shows.

Mean Gene is with Jimmy Hart. Okerlund makes fun of his suit. Hart then brings out Adrian Adonis and Terry Funk, who starts sniffing. Funk asks what smells and then turns to Adonis and wonders if it is the “jackass” known as the Junkyard Dog that he smells. Adonis, referring to Funk as “Torrance,” says that he does think that “black lassie” was here earlier. When Funk asks Adonis why he refers to him as that, Adonis says it was because his mother was a sewer rat and his father a German Shepard. Funk then talks about how T. Boone Pickens came into his living room and Funk told him of his problem, which was the WWF and Vince McMahon Jr. After that, they kept talking but the music played and we could not hear them. A bizarre promo with a touch of racism that the 80’s WWF featured.

Corporal Kirchner comes out but does not tell Vince and Bruno who he is picking as a partner for next week.

In action next week are Ivan Putski, Randy Savage, and Tito Santana & Pedro Morales.

Final Thoughts: Good show this week. They had a major announcement with Mr. T appearing at WretleMania 2. They also had an awesome tag match that will lead to a feud and possible title bout down the line. Just about everything was enjoyable this episode.