The SmarK Rant for World Championship Wrestling–11.15.86

The SmarK Rant for World Championship Wrestling – 11.15.86

I’m getting kind of confused on the dating here, as I thought I had already done the Starrcade go-home show, but then THIS one popped up, dated a day before. Whatever, it’s only 30 minutes as well. Was this one of their weird Saturday / Sunday split show broadcasts, I wonder?

Your hosts are Tony & David

The Midnight Express & Big Bubba Rogers v. Lee Peek, Allan West & Vern Deaton

A clip to start the show sees the Express laying out Ron Garvin in advance of Starrcade, and later tonight the Express will do a workout with Jim Cornette on the scaffold to practice. Bubba just mauls the poor jobber, wrestling super-sloppy with a samoan drop where he somehow overshoots and nearly goes flying backwards. Bobby finishes the goof with a flying elbow and one-finger pin.

Ravishing Rick Rude feels like “Squaw-hoo” McDaniel is due to lose his first strap match. I suppose statistically he might have been.

STARRCADE! CONTROL! CENTER! With Tony. We head to a pre-taped workout with Jim Cornette and the Express, where the camera crew “accidentally” reveals Cornette griping at the Express for being cowards after his mama generously bought the scaffold for them. So he sends them up there, belittling them the whole time, while poor Bobby is terrified of heights (“Look at me, do I look scared? Bubba, get up there and show ‘em”) and finally Jim decides to climb up for himself…then freezes up after one rung. Pretty funny stuff.

Bill Dundee is pretty sure he’s winning the Central States title tomorrow night in the tournament. God, what a dire territory that one was. Not sure why Crockett bothered buying it. When the biggest star is Sam Houston, you might as well just mothball it.

Tim Horner & Ricky Lee Jones v. The Mulkey Brothers

I assume that Horner and Jones are supposed to be the “stars” here? I have literally never heard of Jones before. A quick check of cagematch.net reveals that in fact he’s Robert Gibson’s even more boring brother Ricky Gibson. The white bread babyfaces do some super-generic double-team stuff and Jones finishes with a spinning toehold into a bridge for the pin. Jerking the curtain in an armory near YOU. Apparently his career ended in 1987 after the Crockett Cup, and he died in 2006. So there you go.

Ric Flair is here to show off his $2200 suit and $45000 Rolex, because he’s better than us. You tell us, Ric! He’s gonna beat Nikita the AMERICAN WAY.

Tully Blanchard v. Keith Patterson

Tully finishes quickly with the slingshot suplex, and then heads over for the pre-Starrcade promo.

Brad Armstrong v. Tony Zane

Brad controls the arm with a hammerlock on the mat and cuts off the jobber comeback to finish with the legsweep.

Nikita Koloff counters Flair’s Rolex by flexing his muscles in a menacing fashion. Why did Vince not just drive a dump truck full of money up to his house and leave it parked in the driveway?

Jim Cornette clarifies that the terror shown in the previous workout video was merely mindgames on their part.

Ravishing Rick Rude v. Paul Garner

Rude actually throws a nice dropkick and finishes with the Rude Awakening, which at that point was a DDT.

Jim Cornette returns for ANOTHER promo to wrap up the show while poor Bubba stands there looking mean and trying not to crack.

The Pulse

Another breezy 30 minutes with not much going on leading up to Starrcade.