World Championship Wrestling – Jul. 23, 1988

In last week’s episode, Jim Cornette threw out an offhand remark about the world tag team champions, Tully and Arn. This week, they respond.

Hosts are Tony Schiavone, Jim Ross and David Crockett. This follows a bizarre cold open with the setup of the Tower of Doom cage from the Bash to promote another version of the match on the tour, as if one wasn’t enough.

Russian Assassin vs. Trent Knight

I believe it’s Dave Sheldon underneath the mask for this match. Russian villain gimmicks were so dated by this point. He actually bucks the trend by lifting up Knight in the bodybreaker, but drops him rather than gets the submission. Russian Guillotine (Cobra Clutch) finishes after several minutes of ponderous action. Couldn’t they just have booked him as the Angel of Death, who was still limited but at least had a bit of goofy charm? 0/1.

David speaks to the Assassin alongside manager Paul Jones and trainer Ivan Koloff. Assassin in his attempt at some Russian sounds more like Edge and Christian as the Conquistadors. Jones lays down the law to Koloff about not screwing up against the Road Warriors in some foreshadowing of their split and Ivan’s terrible face turn.

The Fantastics vs. Chris Champion and Tommy Royal

Bobby and Tommy come out to their custom entrance with introduction by (I believe) Marc Lowrance. Chris Champion is long removed from the New Breed by this point but at least has some presence despite his goofy flattop mullet. He keeps it even with the faces, but tags in tubby jobber Royal, who immediately fucks up and gets elbowed down and hit with a senton roll by Bobby. Impressive suplex by Tommy getting Royal up, which is like getting a load of bricks in the air. Champion tags back in and gets a dropkick on Bobby, which Bobby quickly returns. The Tommy boys both return, and Rogers gets a roll-up out of nowhere on Royal to finish. Even JR and Tony sounded surprised by that one. 1/2, although that finish almost lost it the point.

Ron Garvin vs. Tommy Angel

Ron throws the towel to Gary Hart now. He gets a quick single-leg Boston crab, then lets Angel up and unleashes some punches, chops and headbutts. He almost rips off Angel’s trunks pulling him back up to his feet. Front facelock while pinching the sides. Angel eventually starts fighting back to Ron’s amusement, so he puts him in an abdominal stretch while pinching and slapping him again. Knockout punch finishes, then the Garvin stomp comes after the bell. 2/3, mainly for Garvin using it as a chance to amuse himself.

Interview with Gary Hart, Al Perez and Garvin. Nice jab from Gary at Steve Williams: “Dr. Death? Who did you ever kill, sucka? Probably only Oklahoma football.” And Dusty’s dad died aged 42, drunk in a ditch – getting personal!

Interview with Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express, who clarify that they definitely want a shot at Tully and Arn. Corny is incredibly skinny here and narrow and lets out the secret that Bobby Eaton and Arn Anderson are best friends to add some intrigue.

Al Perez vs. David Isley

The announcers keep on pushing an exclusive interview with Big Dust later in the show, just in case it was in any doubt as to who the priority was. Perez had a great look but was desperately in need of some sort of gimmick because just being a wrestler was boring. Allycopter is used to set up knees to the back… Surely you’d use that as a finisher? Spinning toehold finishes. Boring. 2/4.

And here’s that recorded interview with the Dream, who was looking so old by this point when Sting and Lex were on the rise. Revenge is promised for Ron Garvin and Gary Hart. Fiery promo as always from Dusty, but the sands were running down.

The Rock & Roll Express vs. Agent Steele and George South

Comeback number three or four of a thousand for Ricky and Robert. George and his big hair bumps and all over the shop for Ricky. If they gave that man a piledriver they’d be doing him a favour. Steele comes in and takes a dropkick and almost gets pinned off a backslide. Robert comes in to take a leg and an unflattering closeup shows his back hair lifted up half an inch. Rolling double leg snap brings Steele back to his feet so that they can double dropkick him while he’s standing. 3/5.

Interview with the Rock & Roll Express who talk about being back and after the tag titles for the fifth time. They weren’t round long enough to get in the picture, though.

The Road Warriors vs. JC Wylde and Ric Allen

Early ambush by the Roadies, with Hawk hitting the neckbreaker on Allen. Animal slams into the corner so that Wylde can tag in. Hawk suplexes Animal’s waiting arms on the second rope so he can powerslam him from there. 4/6.

Interview with Animal and Hawk, with Animal disputing Jim Cornette’s claim that beating everyone should guarantee them a title shot because they’ve never beaten the Road Warriors. Fair point. Hawk’s just thankful he’s a neo-mazi zoom dweebie because everyone else is a slug and a clamhead. You could always thank him for something random.

Mike Rotunda vs. Gary Phelps

The overdubbed fight song music for the Varsity Club is thoroughly obnoxious. Rotunda takes Phelps to the mat and gives Rick Steiner a high-five, prompting Rick to think he’s tagging in for a goofy bit. Then again, with Steiner properly tagging in for a Steiner-line and no DQ forthcoming from Teddy Long. Butterfly suplex finishes Phelps off. 5/7.

Interview with the Varsity Club, with Steiner acting goofy and Rotunda getting a knock in on him. Sullivan then pushes his match with Murdoch against Dusty and the Sheik, citing eating monkey brains as part of his training. I think Hawk used to do similar.

Tully Blanchard vs. Ryan Wagner

Wagner looks like a cross between Billy Joe Travis and Roger Smith/Dirty Rhodes. Jim sews in a story point about how the Midnights and the Horsemen all generally get along, except for with Tully. Some work on the leg until the slingshot suplex out of nowhere. Not much to this. 5/8.

Interview with JJ Dillon and Tully and Arn. JJ thinks Jim Cornette is just playing a joke by challenging them and waves it off. Arn talks about his friendship with Bobby Eaton, but he should just be happy with two US tag team titles, no need for the world tag team gold. Tully won’t confirm that the payday for the world tag team champions is three times the amount the US tag champs get, but they’re not staying at six dollar hotels either. Nice!

Barry Windham vs. Dale Lapeyrouse

The black glove was a good addition, but Barry’s Widow Maker gear was a major upgrade from the still-babyface look he had. Grow a beard, BW, you’ve got it in you! No messing about, Lapeyrouse is superplexed quickly, then stood back up for the lariat before finishing with the claw for the pinfall. 6/9.

Interview with Barry and JJ, putting over his victory over Dusty and the power of the claw. JJ then interjects that they didn’t really need Ronnie Garvin to help beat him, which makes me wonder whether they were planning some angle with Ron as a tweener or a feud between the Horsemen and Gary Hart’s guys.

Lex Luger vs. Keith Steinborn

Lex’s entrance music (not sure whether it’s overdubbed) is like some Art of Noise monstrosity. Package adjusts his package nonstop between moves. He must be feeling frisky because he even busts out his rare dropkick. Powerslam sets up the torture rack for the submission. Should’ve been world champion at this point, although a few people in the audience boo him. 7/10.

Interview with Lex after the match, barely overcoming those boos. Who did he piss off, except everybody?

Sting, Steve Williams and Nikita Koloff vs. Green Hornet, Larry Stephens and Cruel Connection 2

Conspicuous by his absence is Cruel Connection 1. The jobbers are a nightmare in green, although Stephens wears pink and lavender – could nobody have given him some lime wrist tape or something? Sting gets a reverse waistlock bearhug on CC 2 and looks like he’s giving him a kiss on the back before walking him over to tag in Stephens. Doc meets him with a short clothesline. The Hornet comes in, but unfortunately Paul Diamond isn’t in town to help him out. CC 2 comes back in and the camera catches that Sting’s dropkick doesn’t touch him, leading JR to have to make excuses for him. That should’ve been a sign to take it home, but they keep on dragging it out. Three years later, Williams finishes it with a Stampede. Even the Stinger’s goofy charm couldn’t help this. 7/11.

Hormel’s Spam Slam of the week shows us the devastating Doomsday Device from the week before. Other grocery products are available.

Ric Flair vs. Curtis Thompson

No entrance for the Naitch, who despite his propensity for going lemon and lime when wearing his green trunks and robe is wearing the rarer and far better bottle green boots. Thompson’s relative lack of success in wrestling always surprised given his chemically-enhanced physique and actually not being a total embarrassment as a wrestler. Just never found the right gimmick, I guess. Side headlock gives the champ a chance to talk to everyone in the crowd then he boasts about how good his kneedrop is to JR, who isn’t listening. Rare slam sets up an elbowdrop, followed by the delayed suplex and now we go to school. Figure four finishes it in classic style. 8/12. Ric’s great, just don’t try wrestling again in your seventies.

To close, David Crockett speaks to JJ and Flair, who consider that Ted Turner must be a happy man to have all of the Horsemen including the world heavyweight champion on his show today. Does Lex Luger deserve a rematch? Depends who’s going to fulfill the Nature Boy’s expensive rider and demands. Flair then answers the old question “Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” with the obvious answer of himself as some girls in the audience crack up. His pronunciation of nucleus, a word said by some others on these shows, highlights to me that Americans pronounce it “nuculus”. Flair finishes by saying that Lex will have to kiss him where the sun don’t shine.

The Meltdown: More about the matches than angle development this week, with two thirds being alright, which is good enough for a show of this era.