The Fan-Cam Files: 1986 Grab-Bag Edition

WWF Fan-Cam Files: 1986 Grab Bag Edition

It’s been a while, but welcome to another chapter in the Fan-Cam Files. We typically look at full cards, most of them from eras where large events were scarce for television audiences, and were windows into how the product was for a given period (at least for the WWF. WCW’s house show stuff has always been very meh because they were so poorly booked and advertised that you’re lucky to get TV storylines featured in high profile matches). Lately, I’ve watched and recapped a ton of cards from 1986 featured on the typical regional sports networks, and came across several incomplete fan-cam shows from late in the year. Since I wouldn’t dedicate a full column to one of these shows with only 2-3 matches featured, we’re getting our first Grab Bag Edition. It could be the first of one, it could be the first of many. Only time will tell.

Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens – October 26th, 1986

Lumberjack Match: “Rowdy” Roddy Piper vs. “Ace Cowboy” Bob Orton (w/ Jimmy Hart):
I’m not going to bore everyone with a long-winded story, but to keep it short, the heated rivalry with Piper and Adrian Adonis shifted to Piper fighting Orton and Don Muraco around the horn due to Adonis’ release from the company sometime in September. The popular story going around is that the shows were drawing poorly, so Vince relented and brought Adonis back by mid-November. The October 26th card at the Gardens was particularly weak underneath too, with stuff like the babyface Honkytonk Man vs Iron Mike Sharpe, Hercules vs THE REBEL Dick Slater, and Hillbilly Jim vs Jimmy Jack Funk.

They don’t waste time slugging it out, with Piper getting the upper hand and throwing Muraco over the top rope. A group of lumberjacks send him back in the ring, with Piper taking him to the canvas with a snap mare and putting the boots to the back of the head. Orton tries to powder, but he’s denied by a group led by Hillbilly Jim. Whip to the corner and an atomic drop sends Orton shoulder-first into the post. Orton with a handful of tights, throwing Piper to the floor into unfriendly territory. Back inside, Orton shows off his punching prowess and knocks him over the top rope. Piper pops up and tackles Orton to the canvas, but Orton wins the exchange. Piper is showing color and Orton is going right after the cut. Piper survives a sleeper hold and uses his momentum to throw Orton and himself out of the ring. Piper unloads with rights, knocking Orton over the guardrail. These lumberjacks are doing NOTHING to get them back in the ring! Orton takes advantage of being the first man back inside. He connects with a back breaker, but a splash from the middle rope meets the knees. Now it’s Piper showing his skills with his fists. Hart hooks the ankle to create a distraction and feeds the megaphone to Orton, but we get heel miscommunication and Piper rolls Orton up at 7:37 (shown). I don’t think much of it was trimmed out, but what was here would have been a very satisfying experience, with two guys (mostly) trying to beat the crap out of each other. ***

Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat vs. “King” Harley Race:
I can’t say I’ve seen a one-on-one match between these two in the WWF, so this is a nice treat for something different. Two days after this show, they would tape Steamboat’s injury angle for Superstars of Wrestling, but don’t worry, he would continue working house shows for a couple of weeks before it made it to broadcast. Race has steadily moved up the card after working prelims and winning the KOTR Tournament in the Summer, and would start working with the Junkyard Dog.

Steamboat comes out to Alan Parsons Project’s “Sirius”, immediately putting me in a great mood. Lockup, Steamboat grabs a side headlock and comes off the ropes with a cross body press for a two-count. Flying chop to the top of the head gets two as well before we slow it down with an arm bar. Race with the escape, but Steamboat plants him with a slam and goes back to the arm. Race escapes, dumping Steamboat to the outside. He teases a piledriver, but Steamboat counters. The referee allows for extended time outside the ring, like they should have been counted out several times. Back inside, Race has Steamboat in trouble, working the back of the neck. Steamboat blocks a suplex, but Race remains in control. There’s an edit in the action, with Steamboat dumping Race into the ring from the ramp. Race takes a big face-first bump from the apron to the arena floor. I’m starting to think those kinds of bumps aren’t ideal.

Race takes his goofy backwards bump into the ring and Steamboat drives a series of knees into the neck. Race survives the attempted murder and drives a shoulder questionably low on Steamboat’s person. Another cut and Race falls face-first out of the corner into an uncomfortable area of his opponent. Steamboat counters a side headlock with a back suplex for a two-count. Race gets to the ropes to force a break of the sleeper, but the referee kicks his hand off. THAT’S NOT YOUR JOB! We cut ahead again, with Race going shoulder-first to the post. Looks like the Rangers and Maple Leafs are tied 3-3 as we take a peek at the scoreboard. Steamboat with an inverted atomic drop and a pair of chops for two. Race ducks under another chop and bounces back with a running high knee. Steamboat goes for a slam, but buckles, allowing Race to fall on top for a two-count. Race with a belly-to-belly suplex for two. We cut to Steamboat working over the leg and applying the Figure-Four as we get the 5-minute countdown. Steamboat splashes the knee over and over until Race finally pulls the knee up for a harsh landing spot. Steamboat dives off the ropes with a big chop, but a splash from the top meets knees. Race sets up for a suplex and this time it’s Steamboat falling on top for a near-fall. 1-minute left! Steamboat punishes the leg with kicks until Race knocks him back with a headbutt… and we cut to the announcement of a curfew time limit draw at 19:15 (shown). Hard to rate. You can tell they were working hard, but the edits made it difficult to know how much action was cut at a given moment. It could have been anywhere in the 3-4 star range, but I’m not comfortable giving a definitive rating.

Copps Coliseum – Hamilton, Ontario, Canada – December 13th, 1986

George “The Animal” Steele vs. King Kong Bundy:
We can only hope this one is short. The WWF ran the Spectrum in Philadelphia the same day with Hulk Hogan defending the WWF Title against Paul Orndorff inside a Steel Cage. The Hamilton crowd got the lesser card, but we do have the Intercontinental and Tag Team Champions to look forward to, so it wasn’t a complete wash. Anyway… it seemed like they were teasing a Bundy and Studd split for the longest time, but Studd left suddenly in November, and Bundy is just kinda floating around now, and that’s mostly his story for the rest of his WWF run. Steele spent a good chunk of 1986 as Randy Savage’s house show partner, and I swear, I’ve watched them wrestle at least a dozen times, and it’s always the same match.

I’m honestly surprised Steele was humanized with a legit hometown like Detroit, MI. Steele charges into the ring, and both Bundy and the referee take a powder to get away from his shenanigans. Steele swats at Bundy on the apron, and the match has yet to (officially) start. We’ve had a legit 3-minutes of Bundy just standing outside the ring. I think the crowd is chanting “Porky” at Bundy. The bell FINALLY rings and Steele is still doing his wild man schtick. Bundy clubs him from behind and works him over in the corner. Whip to the ropes and Steele counters a clothesline by biting the arm. Bundy misses a sneak attack in the corner, but recovers and dumps Steele over the top rope. Steele picks the ankle and drags Bundy out, only to be introduced face-first to the timekeeper’s table. Steele chucks several chairs in the ring. He bops Bundy and the referee with one, and that’s enough for the Disqualification at 1:58. Crowd booed that result. It was 2-minutes, so not much to say. It wasn’t the worst 2-minutes, but the finish was super-weak.

WWF Tag Team Championship Match:
The British Bulldogs (c) vs. Bob Orton & The Magnificent Muraco (w/ Mr. Fuji):
WELL, THIS IS CERTAINLY AN INTERESTING MATCH THAT HAPPENED TO BE TAPED FROM THE AUDIENCE. Davey and Muraco start. Lockup to the ropes and we get a clean break. Muraco controls with a side headlock, grabbing the hair to maintain control. Davey escapes and plants both men with slams. Dynamite in with a side headlock and shoulder block. The Bulldogs rock Muraco back-and-forth with headbutts, then send him to the floor with a double shoulder block. Orton tries his luck, and it’s not much better. We get heel miscommunication and Dynamite slows it down with a side headlock. The Bulldogs use Muraco’s buffoonery to make an illegal switch. The referee then misses a tag, and the crowd is going bonkers for the referee telling Muraco he needs to get out of the ring. The challengers try trapping Dynamite, but he fights out of the corner and unloads on Muraco with chops and forearms.

The Bulldogs take turns working the arm of Orton. Dynamite is sent to the ropes and takes a knee to the back, awkwardly crumpling to the canvas. Muraco and Fuji get some shots in from the outside while the referee is trying to get things under control. Dynamite limply pulls himself to his corner and tags in Davey, who runs wild on Orton with a clothesline and slam for a near-fall. Orton hangs Davey out to dry and Muraco takes some shots at him from the apron. Dynamite is still down, and hasn’t moved from the spot where he made the tag. Muraco puts the match on pause with a chin-lock as Orton wanders over to Dynamite, peppering him a few times, probably trying to get something out of him as far as his physical well-being goes. Davey escapes and slaps on a sleeper, but Muraco saves. Fuji tosses in the cane, Muraco accidentally whacks Orton, and Davey covers to retain at 13:42. After the match, Orton and Muraco heel on Dynamite before being sent away. Match was going along perfectly fine until Dynamite’s body gave out on him. He would spend the next few weeks in the hospital and somehow got to Tampa, FL for a TV taping to drop the belts to the Hart Foundation. He would miss the next 8 weeks or so and returned shortly before WrestleMania III, often in short appearances. No rating, but for historical purposes, it’s a match that is the timestamp for the beginning of the end of a career.

WWF Intercontinental Championship Match:
“Macho Man” Randy Savage (c) (w/ Elizabeth) vs. “Rowdy” Roddy Piper:
We didn’t get a whole lot of matches between Savage and Piper (the only one-on-one in the WWF I recall is a Coliseum Video exclusive taped the week of the 1990 Royal Rumble), so I’m going to sit back and enjoy this one. This feels like a weird detour, as the WWF brought Adrian Adonis back by now to work with Piper on houses, but Savage needed opponents with Steamboat selling the injury from Superstars, so I’m sure he got a nice variety of opponents for a few weeks.

Savage with some taunting before the match, which Piper doesn’t take too kindly to. He sends Savage to the canvas, holds the ropes open for Elizabeth to exit the ring, and lays into the Macho Man with a flurry of rights and lefts that has the Champion begging off in the corner. Piper runs out of the corner with a bulldog, and poor Savage still has his entrance gear on! Savage digs into his tights and rakes Piper across the eyes with the invisible gimmick. Piper gets sent to the arena floor and Savage follows with the axe-handle from the top rope. Piper fights his way back in the ring, but Savage cuts him off and drops the axe-handle again for a near-fall. Piper with a surprise small package for a two-count. Whip and Piper (with a handful of tights) takes Savage over with a sunset flip for two. Piper unleashes a knee lift that sends Savage halfway across the ring and into the ropes. The action spills to the outside, with Piper chasing Savage down and slamming him face-first onto the timekeeper’s table. Piper is in complete control, but Savage lucks into being near the ropes to prevent a pin attempt. Delayed vertical from Piper in the middle of the ring gets a 2.9 count. Savage tries dumping him out, but Piper pops back in the ring and dumps Savage over the top rope in retaliation. Piper fireman carries Savage to the apron and dumps him back in the ring… and the referee has counted Piper out at around 8:00 (I didn’t hear a bell). Post-match, Piper decks the referee and fights off a sneak attack from Savage to send the crowd home happy. That was a ridiculously dumb finish to an otherwise excellent match. ***¾

Buffalo Auditorium – Buffalo, NY – December 27th, 1986

Bunkhouse Battle Royal:
(Participants: Jimmy Jack Funk, Pedro Morales, S.D. Jones, Hillbilly Jim, Bob Orton, Salvatore Bellomo, Dino Bravo, Sika, Tiger Chung Lee, Leaping Lanny Poffo, Tony Garea, Pat Patterson, Mr. Fuji, Blackjack Mulligan, Moondog Spot, Nikolai Volkoff, The Iron Sheik, Jose Luis Rivera, Corporal Kirchner, King Kong Bundy)

If you’re not familiar with the Bunkhouse Battle Royal, it’s a standard Battle Royal, but a “come as you are” dress code, so you’ll expect to see some people in ridiculous outfits for the sake of being in ridiculous outfits. In this case, most people are in normal attire with a few guys in street clothes (Bellomo being one of them), except Fuji is working in his tuxedo, Patterson (subbing for Chief Jay Strongbow of all people) in gear like his famous MSG Street Fight, and Lanny Poffo is wearing a SUIT OF ARMOR. It’s nearly impossible to tell people apart at the start, it’s just a bunch of bodies blurring together. Poffo and his silly outfit are the first to go at 1:30 at the hands of Bundy. Nikolai Volkoff sends Fuji to the showers at 2:28. I’m tempted to mute the match, because someone is making a ridiculous attempt at play-by-play. Bundy crushes Bellomo with an Avalanche and Splash. The ring has thinned out a bit, but hell if I could tell who is doing what. We’ve lost like 5-6 people and I swear I was trying to pay attention and I don’t know what happened to them, with Iron Sheik being one of the more notable names to make an exit. Bundy dumps PAT PATTERSON at 6:50. Hillbilly Jim throws out Sika at 7:13. Volkoff dumps Hillbilly, then Bravo, Jimmy Jack, AND SD Jones are dumped all together by Blackjack Mulligan. Bundy back-drops Kirchner out and Mulligan tosses Volkoff. Mulligan takes off his boot, whacks Bundy with it, and throws him out to win the damn thing at 8:40. After the match, Bundy crushes Mulligan in the corner with an avalanche and bonks him with a wooden chair. There’s no chance I’m rating this, but it was a WWF Battle Royal from the mid 80’s. I don’t think there’s much to say other than you know what you’re getting here, and at least it was reasonably short.

Corporal Kirchner vs. King Kong Bundy (w/ Bobby Heenan):
People who recorded these shows loved capturing Bundy matches. We’re at the end of 1986, which means whatever push Kirchner received is long gone by now (feuding with Nikolai Volkoff and by extension the Iron Sheik, I guess), so this shouldn’t be much more than an extended squash for Bundy. They really sent Heenan on the road for THIS show? OK, with a weak under-card, I guess you need to give the fans as much value as possible. Bundy and Kirchner exchange words, prompting Kirchner to threaten Bundy with a chair. That seems very much like a babyface move. I guess when you’re a bottom-feeder, you need any advantages you can find. The crowd chants U-S-A to support Kirchner and disturb that dirty American Bundy. Lockup and Kirchner wastes ZERO time going for a slam. That doesn’t work for me, brother. Bundy is unphased by a pair of shoulder blocks, but a dropkick takes the big man off his feet. OK, we got one bump from Bundy, time to take it home. He lays into Kirchner with the usual clubbing strikes but misses an elbow drop. TWO BUMPS FROM BUNDY. Bundy quickly cuts the Corporal off and slows it down with a chin-lock. Kirchner avoids a big splash and unloads with right hands. Bundy hits Kirchner with so much height on his Avalanche, they tumble over the top rope! Back inside, Bundy drops a knee for three at 5:25. Standard Bundy affair. It was short, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything special. I was going to get really cute and start saying Kirchner went on to a successful career as a floorwalker at Grace Brothers, giving himself a false promotion in rank along the way, but I’m not taking bets on people sharing the same love for “Are You Being Served?” that I have. *½

“Rowdy” Roddy Piper vs. “Adorable” Adrian Adonis (w/ Jimmy Hart):
I didn’t expect this whole thing to turn into a showcase for Roddy Piper, featured on each show with a different opponent. We’ve talked about this feud a little across the other shows, but to give a deep dive into this one, Piper took time off from the WWF following WrestleMania 2, and in place of Piper’s Pit was Adonis’ talk show segment “The Flower Shop.” By the time Piper returned, Adonis had usurped Bob Orton’s services as an enforcer (gifting him a pink cowboy hat along the way), positioning Piper as a babyface. Piper and Adonis’ talk show duel ended with Piper getting laid out and his knee destroyed, so Piper came back a week later and destroyed the set of the Flower Shop. Piper’s physical retaliation of Adonis (I believe on Saturday Night’s Main Event?) wrote Adonis off TV, giving us those Muraco and Orton matches around the country that drew disappointing numbers, and now we’re all caught up. I guess I made that long-winded introduction I promised to avoid at the top of the show from the Maple Leaf Gardens.

Adonis jumps on Piper as he enters the ring, but Piper fights out of the ambush and lashes Adonis with his belt. As usual, the crowd is insanely hot for Piper. Whip across the ring and Adonis flips up the turnbuckle for a crash landing on the back of his head. We cut ahead with Adonis trying to hide in the corner, but Piper shows him no mercy. Whip across the ring, this time Piper holds onto the arm for Adonis to take a face-first bump, and starts going to work on the left arm. Piper exits the ring to go after Hart, pulling him from under the ring, but Adonis has recovered and knocks him over the guardrail. Back inside, Adonis strips off a turnbuckle pad and rams Piper face-first into the exposed steel. Piper is selling like death as Adonis comes off the ropes and drops a forearm across the throat. Piper blocks the steel on the second try and pokes Adonis in the eyes. Adonis shrugs off the Stooge offense and pummels him in the corner with left hands and an elbow. Piper tastes the steel again and Adonis plants him with a running bulldog. Piper fights out of a full nelson (I don’t think Adonis has the fingers locked!), backpedaling into the turnbuckle to break the hold. Piper reverses a whip, sending Adonis into the exposed steel. He tackles Adonis charging out of the corner and repeatedly slams the back of Adrian’s head into the canvas. Adonis gets dumped over the top rope and we get a DOUBLE NOGGIN KNOCKER! Piper goes to the top, but Adonis cuts him off. Adonis with a slam, but Piper rolls through and cradles Adonis for three at 7:45. Wow, they packed a lot into such a short match. Babyface Piper keeping it in the 10-minutes and under territory was always a great move. Not a lost classic, but this felt like a Main Event that gave you the value for the price of admission. ***½

Final Thoughts: This window into the final quarter of 1986 turned into a Roddy Piper Appreciation Collection, with solid to spectacular matches with Bob Orton, Adrian Adonis and Randy Savage across all the shows featured here today. I know we’re in the Golden Era of Hulk Hogan, but the popularity of Roddy Piper was not to be taken lightly, and crowds would erupt for everything he did, no matter who was sharing the ring with him. Other than Piper, we’ve got a goofy Battle Royal and Lanny Poffo’s silly suit of armor, and the infamous match where Dynamite Kid’s career basically came to an end (yes, he continued to work, but was a shell of his former self, and it was a minor miracle he was able to get back in the ring after this). I was never too high on the WWF around this time, but if you dig deep enough, there’s some gems to be found (especially if you check out some of the full cards from Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens. I don’t know why, but that felt like an area where the wrestlers seemed extra motivated to perform).