NWA World Championship Wrestling, November 9, 1985

Starrcade ’85 approaches. We start with a short video clip of Superstar Billy Graham calling out Paul Jones and the Barbarian. Jones comes running toward the ring, but stops. They cut to the show open, which for some reason includes a quick shot of Paul Orndorff’s face. He’s been in the WWF for two years at this point. Way past time to update that one. I think there might be a quick shot of Roddy Piper in there too, but it’s hard to tell. The Orndorff one is pretty obvious.

Tony Schiavone and David Crockett are our hosts. They let us know the Russians and Dusty Rhodes are among those appearing on this week’s program. The Superstation Challenge Series continues with Billy Jack Haynes vs. Thunderfoot. Hopefully they’ll avoid calling that one a main event in any arena in the world. Also, a Starrcade ’85 update upcoming.

Arn Anderson comes to the podium with the NWA World TV Title. They let us know the title, which was held by Dusty Rhodes, has been held up due to his leg injury and there will be a tournament to declare a new champ. Arn says the title is his and there’s no need for a tourney. Ole Anderson challenges Jim Crockett & Dusty to come and take it from Arn.

First match: Manny Fernandez vs. Vernon Deaton. It’s interesting that we’re seeing Deaton here, because he was also one of the Thunderfoots with his brother Joel. I’m wondering if he’s doing double-duty tonight. Manny works the arm and lays in a few chops to Deaton’s chest. The Ragin’ Bull nails him with the Flying Burrito, then finishes him with a kneedrop off the second rope. The Burrito is his usual finisher. *

National Heavyweight Champ Terry Taylor is at the podium with Tony. Taylor is a face at this point. He lets us know he’ll be putting the title on the line at Starrcade, but won’t reveal who quite yet.

In the ring, it’s National Tag Team Champs Ole & Arn Anderson vs. Keith Freeze and Jimmy Blackland. At least, according to the graphics. Last week the graphic called him “Jimmy Black”, while the announcers correctly called him Jimmy Backlund. As a commenter pointed out in my debut column, Backlund went on to a decent career, mainly as “Gigolo” Jimmy Del Ray, one-half of the Heavenly Bodies. But he’s just a poor jobber here who is getting pummeled by the Andersons. Freeze comes in and fares no better. They work the arm, in typical Minnesota Wrecking Crew fashion. Arn puts Freeze away with the Gourdbuster, a move that should we rarely see today, for some reason. *1/2

After a break, U.S. Champ Tully Blanchard and Baby Doll are with Schiavone. They show us a video clip from a syndicated show, which we also saw last week, where Magnum T.A. forces a kiss on Baby Doll. David Crockett is going nuts yelling, “She likes it! She likes it!”. Tully attacks and they scrap, with Magnum getting the better of it. Back to the studio, Tully complains about being forced into the I Quit Cage Match at Starrcade with Magnum. Blanchard promises Magnum is going to get hurt and it will be a battle to remember. He’s correct on both counts.

To the ring, the World Six-Man Tag Team Champs, Ivan Koloff, Nikita Koloff & Khrusher Khruschchev vs. Jimmy Langston, Kent Glover and Larry Clark. Ivan & Nikita are also NWA world Tag Team Champs. Criminy. Are there enough belts in this company? The Russians dominate. Quick tags and power moves. Nikita finishes with a vicious Russian Sickle. Total squash. *

Next match, the Russians’ Starrcade opponents, the Rock & Roll Express facing Jim & Mac Jeffers. The Jeffers would have some success later as The Mod Squad. They’re just jobbers here. R & R work them over with quick tags, dropkicks, and one of their patented moves: Ricky holds the armbar while Robert slingshots himself over the ropes into a kneedrop on the arm. They work the arm for several minutes. Finally, the double-dropkick finishes it off. *1/2

Schiavone gives us the Starrcade ’85 rundown, with Jim Crockett coming out to announce some new additions to the card. That includes Buddy Landell being the National Title challenger Terry Taylor alluded to earlier. We’ll also get the Midnight Express w/Jim Cornette vs. Jimmy Valiant and Miss Atlanta Lively, with Big Mama in the corner. They show video of the Midnights attacking Valiant after a match, with Lively coming in and knocking out Bobby Eaton with one punch. And back to last week when Miss Lively plants a kiss on Valiant, who then apparently spooged in his pants because he seemed to enjoy it an awful lot. Miss Lively then knocks out Valiant’s opponent with one punch.

There will also be Superstar Graham vs. The Barbarian. We go to the clip they showed at the top of the show of Graham calling out Jones & Barbarian. Jones acts like he’s going to get in the ring with Graham. Barbarian attacks but Graham fights it off. Then he puts Jones in an over-the-shoulder backbreaker. That allows Barbarian to get the upper hand and they double-team Graham. Jones hits him with his cane and Graham clearly blades in full view of everyone. Barbarian follows with a headbutt off the ropes.

We go to video from the Omni in Atlanta, November 3. It’s a clip of Dusty Rhodes vs. Tommy Lane. He makes Lane submit to the figure-four. Magnum & Ragin’ Bull Fernandez come in to congratulate Dusty. They then announce it will be Dusty vs. Ric Flair at Starrcade. We get more video clips, with an apparent six-man tag between Dusty, Fernandez and Billy Jack Haynes vs. Flair & the Andersons. Dusty pins Ole to give his team the win. This was done to prove Dusty could wrestle despite the injury to his leg at the hands of Flair & the Andersons on September 29.

Back to the studio, it’s the Superstation Championship Challenge Series (SCCS) match between Billy Jack Haynes and Thunderfoot w/J.J. Dillon. Along with Thunderfoot, Dillon’s clientele at this point included other megastars like Black Bart and Buddy Landell. He would upgrade significantly in the coming months. Haynes press slams Thunderfoot and the masked man bails. Another exchange concludes with a Haynes dropkick and Thunderfoot bails again. Just so that he can be in sync with every other match on the show, Haynes works the arm. A lengthy armbar follows a lengthy hammerlock. Joy. And, we’re going to commercial break. I hope it ends during the break and the cameras aren’t rolling.

We’re back, and no such luck. Haynes has Thunderfoot in…you guessed it…an armbar. Manny Fernandez comes out to the podium to root on his pal Billy Jack. Thunderfoot distracts the ref and Dillon chokes Haynes on the bottom rope. Thunderfoot controls with a front facelock. Dillon pulls on Thunderfoot’s leg, and I guess that’s supposed to add pressure to this devastating front facelock? I don’t know. It’s illegal and heelish and that’s what matters. The crowd rallies behind Haynes. He throws some karate chops at Thunderfoot. Clearly, he’s been training with karate master Superstar Graham to prepare for this huge SCCS match. Dillon gets on the apron to distract the ref and Thunderfoot pounds his boot into the mat, to load it up. Manny warns the ref, Thunderfoot gets distracted and Haynes rolls him up from behind for the pin. That was atrocious. -*

We get an interview with Manny Fernandez and Haynes. They’re talking about forming a tag team to take on the Andersons. That wouldn’t last.

After a break, Jim Crockett informs us the SCCS next week will feature Ric Flair and the Andersons vs. Pistol Pez Whatley, Terry Taylor and Ron Garvin. Something tells me that match has the potential to be a little better than this week’s SCCS. Tony hypes up Dusty Rhodes remarkable recovery from the broken ankle, and Big Dust is here. He’s talking about hard times. This isn’t THE famous “Hard Times” promo from Dusty, but has some of the same elements. That one took place around the same time on one of the syndicated shows.

Back to the ring, it’s (thankfully not in drag) Ron Garvin vs. Paul Garner. Garvin ties up Garner, smacks him around, ties him up some more, and beats on him some more. Garvin had some very unique offense that I think is underappreciated. He had all kinds of holds that few people used, he rarely rested, and his open hand chops lit people up. Many of Garvin’s holds were never given names. It’s like he made them up as he went along. Garvin nails a knockout punch and gets the pin. That punch looks familiar… **

The Russians are at the podium with a picture of them holding the Six-Man World Title trophy. Not the trophy itself, but a picture. Nikita says the fans don’t deserve to see the cup/trophy in person anymore. Ivan talks about Dusty’s hard times promos: “Who cares about the hard times of the American people? I hope your other leg gets broken.” Awesome.

Back from break, we’re going to an interview from a syndicated show of Jimmy Valiant w/ Big Mama. Ugh. Valiant thanks Mama for finding the “street lady” Miss Atlanta Lively. They’re talking about the upcoming Street Fight at Starrcade vs. the Midnight Express. Valiant promises to strip the Midnights of all their clothes and bust them open with a chain. Then he brings out Miss Atlanta Lively. It closes with Big Mama and Miss Lively joining Valiant in a group kiss. I just threw up in my mouth.

Thankfully, that’s over and we go back to the ring for The Barbarian w/Paul Jones vs. Gerald Finley. Then again, this isn’t that much of an improvement. The Barbarian is wrestling with a cast on his right arm, but still dominating Finley with power moves. Barbarian wins with the flying headbutt. *

Arn Anderson is back at the podium with Tony. He mentions the Four Horsemen of professional wrestling, motioning to Tully Blanchard in the ring. Ole Anderson comes over and says they will put Dusty Rhodes out of wrestling and have the back of their “cousin” Ric Flair. These are the very early days of the Horsemen, the greatest faction in wrestling history.

To the ring, it’s Blanchard w/ Baby Doll vs. Joe Malcolm. Baby Doll gets a shot in on Malcolm just for the hell of it. Tully dominates and wins with the Slingshot Suplex. *

Paul Jones comes to the podium. He’s complaining about Superstar Graham. They go back to the video we saw earlier, this time with Jones moderating. That leads to this gem: “He’s calling me every book in the name.” Geez. Maybe David Crockett ain’t so bad. Nevermind. He is. Anyway, Jones & The Barbarian beat down Graham, as we saw earlier. Jones complains that there’s $10,000 on the line in an arm wrestling contest at Starrcade, along with the match of Graham vs. Barbarian. Jones is close to having a conniption.

To the ring, Terry Taylor vs. Amos Moses. Taylor exchanges in some mat wrestling with Moses. For something exciting and new, he works on the arm. Taylor finishes Moses with the superplex off the second rope. *

The Rock & Roll Express are at the podium with Schiavone. They say they’re bringing home the NWA Tag Titles in the cage match at Starrcade. It will be two-on-two, with the third Russian unable to interfere. Schiavone tells us “the country is behind these two men”.

And that’s it for this week. Not a great program. The build to Starrcade continued and that was important. The wrestling was almost entirely squashes, and the one that wasn’t was abysmal. Still, the hype to Starrcade ’85 was at the forefront and that was important for this show. They’ve got two more shows to go before the big card.