UWF – December 20th, 1986

Apparently a holiday special this week, which to me were always only special in name only.

Cold open recap of the closing moments of the Savannah Jack/Buddy Roberts rematch from last week, with Michael Hayes lurking with his tub of cream.

Hosted by Jim Ross from the studio, with the first and last Christmas special for the UWF.

Focus on Terry Gordy, including when he broke Steve Williams’ arm with help from Michael Hayes’ crotch and used that advantage to take the UWF championship, then when his own arm got broken and he had was stripped of the belt and it was given to the One Man Gang. Terry wasn’t exactly an eloquent promo but he had that ugly, expressive face and real edge.

Bill Watts weighs in from his suburban office on the Gordy issue, which is a total dodge and allows him to go on about some promotions booking matches between people who have never even met in towns they’ve never been to and having phantom title changes, including one he knows everyone knows about so he won’t go into it. No idea what that is about, don’t think Dusty was booking himself at this time to take titles from people who had left town quickly.

Back to Jim, who basically says a lot of people have complained about the non-match title change, but that’s life, basically.

Jim Duggan promo, sweating like a maniac, talking about getting a lot of injuries but committing himself to the UWF. By April, he’s in the WWF for the biggest run of his career.

The Fantastics and their forehead plasters wish everyone Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad.

Now, a different promo without their gig marks and in their civvies rather than their wrestling gear, singling out Jack Victory and Mike George.

The Fantastics vs. Jack Victory and Mike George

From Power Pro, with Art Crews hanging around with the heels, which shows how low things were falling. Criss cross to start, with Jack catching Bobby with a knee from the outside and George getting a nice dodge of a cross body and a good suplex. He doesn’t look like much but is pretty solid. Chavo Guerrero comes out to negate Crews. Crews pulls Bobby’s leg on a comeback, leading him and Chavo into the ring for a seeming double disqualification. Tommy Gilbert can’t even be bothered to bump or sell for a shove down, then counts a pin on Crews. Pretty embarrassing.

Merry Christmas from Joel Watts, with best wishes to his real dad, I believe, as Cowboy was his stepdad.

Focus on the Jim Duggan/One Man Gang feud, which really hasn’t had much play after the aborted cage match. They get into a brawl on Power Pro, with Buddy Roberts running interference for both sides and getting slugged by both. This leads to a pull apart.

Promo from Santa Hacksaw, who’s going home to see his family soon.

One Man Gang vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan

So, here’s the logical follow-up, but cold as ice. Jim is doing later commentary but playing it like he was there, one of his worst tropes. Jim and Gang do some of their 1989 WWF stuff like at Summerslam. Gang takes a daft bump to the outside, landing on the table, then getting rammed into it again and again by Jim. Back in, Gang gets a cheap shot and takes over. Double punch from one to the other takes them both down, Gang on delayed reaction. Gang goes for a piledriver of all things, but Duggan backdrops him over the top behind the ref’s back. Clothesline seems to finish, but Akbar comes in with a shot from the riding crop and Bill Irwin runs in to help out too for the DQ. Jobbers comes out to split it up.

Promo from Duggan again promising to take the belt eventually. Spoiler: he didn’t.

Promo from Chavo Guerrero, with very flared nostrils and red eyes. He wishes John Tatum a speedy recovery so he can beat him up again, then to “Jack Tatum”, with some rambling about the Alamo and bellies. Good worker, terrible promo.

Promo from Hyatt and Hot Stuff International. Missy has shockingly little makeup on here compared to normal.

Jim closes the “fun hour” with the excitement of a man who’s just been told he’s got syphilis. Talk of a “world tour” and the bunkhouse brawls, which wouldn’t quite happen as planned. Then a montage video to a blues version of Winter Wonderland. You know it’s bad when Jeff Raitz gets included.

Melting it down: It was fun, but I’m done. You really get a feeling of it being a World Class show on Bill Watts’ dime, which is what it was as Ken Mantell was wiping Watts clean of dollars while Cowboy was distracted with his marriage disintegrating. A shame this show didn’t take advantage of the stuff like the Russians burying Watts under the flag and other hot angles like that rather than just focusing on the shrinking roster.