The SmarK Rant for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling – 04.19.86

The SmarK Rant for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling – 04.19.86

I think there’s something like 4 or 5 episodes of this left on the Network and then it becomes NWA Pro and disappears. So as noted, once we get there I’ll go back to the start of 1983 again and continue on from there.

Taped from Spartanburg, SC

Your hosts are Bob Caudle & Johnny Weaver

Ricky Morton joins us, and he can’t do much about Ric Flair jumping on him, but he can sure get him off. PHRASING.

Wahoo McDaniel v. Vern Deaton

Wahoo takes him down with a headlock and rides him on the mat, and then picks him up and chops him down and out at 1:30.

Dusty Rhodes joins us to let us know he’s officially after one thing only: Ric Flair’s World title. And he’ll be plowing through Arn Anderson in order to get there and winning the TV title within the month. And you can ask all the ladies and they’ll tell you that if you ain’t been kissed by the Dream, you ain’t been kissed.

Ronnie Garvin joins us and he’s got an injured hand now, and the Horsemen are gonna pay for it.

The Road Warriors v. The Golden Terror & unknown partner

As usual the Warriors hit the ring and wreck shit, as Hawk presses the Terror and Animal powerslams him, setting up the bearhug version of the Doomsday Device to finish at 0:45.

Magnum TA lets us know that Nikita Koloff has pushed him past his limits, setting up a replay of last week’s awesome angle with TA choking out Koloff with his own chain. And now that Koloff has pushed him to the point where the chain match was necessary, he’ll find out that Magnum doesn’t soften up too easily and Nikita is having second thoughts. Tremendous promo from TA here, they’re just selling the shit out of that feud and making me want to see the matches again.

NWA World tag team champions The Midnight Express v. Denny Brown & Rocky Kernodle

Brown manages to outsmart Bobby for a bit, but he gets caught in the MX corner and double-teamed. Denny fights back on Dennis, but Rocky comes in and the Express quickly nails him with a flying elbow/backbreaker combo and puts him away at 1:20.

Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin joins us and he’s ashamed of Wahoo’s fans, because the Save The Chief fund is still pretty low on funds, despite Wahoo being seriously sick in the head for wanting to mess with Garvin.

Shaska Whatley v. Ron Rossi

Whatley, who declared himself to be a Zulu prince warrior last week, now dresses in a top hat and tails for his entrance gear, which is a bit of a mixed metaphor. Shaska slams Rossi and beats him down with headbutts, and then hits a running headbutt for the pin at 2:40. Most of the match was Whatley disrobing, for those playing along at home with the match times.

Nighthawk Joe Coltrane is still worried about his former friend Pez Whatley. Man, if Nighthawk Coltrane is worried, we should all be worried! Is this dude ever gonna work a match on this show or just come out and talk about other people? Also, Ronnie Garvin is back and coming after Tully Blanchard. Yeah we know.

The Road Warriors are having visions of hematomas and fluid on the brain once they get to the Crockett Cup. Other people, not themselves.

World TV champion Arn Anderson v. Gene Ligon

Ligon gets a hiptoss and the crowd shrieks like it’s Ricky Morton or something. But then Arn cuts him off and tosses him before choking him out on the ropes on the way back in. Arn drops a knee on him for two and then goes up with a flying knee and finishes with the spinebuster and gourdbuster combo at 3:35.

Paul Jones and his army of geeks join us, and he’s got an important riddle: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

The Russians join us and Krusher Krushchev is back, albeit on crutches with a broken leg, which is why he hasn’t been around since Starrcade. Nikita getting so worked up that he has to rip off his shirt and pose is a great running gag.

Manny Fernandez & Hector Guerrero v. George South & Mark Fleming

The babyfaces double-team South to start and Manny hiptosses him and takes him down with something between a monkey flip and a rana for two. Over to Fleming, but Hector hits him with a backbreaker and a suplex, and Fernandez finishes with the flying forearm at 2:04. I forget if they were in the Crockett Cup as a team but that would be a good combo for the tournament.

Nighthawk and Ronnie Garvin join us AGAIN, and Nighthawk is still very concerned about Whatley. YES WE KNOW. Did they decide to redo the first take or something?

Ric Flair wants to remind us again that he likes BIG GIRLS and Ricky Morton likes SKINNY LITTLE GIRLS and he’s gonna bring his $40,000 belt to the ring and pound Ricky into a state where the fans won’t even recognize him anymore. Speaking of not being recognizable anymore, energy-drink-shilling old man Flair doesn’t even seem like the same person.

Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin v. Sam Houston

I love that Precious makes sure to be color coordinated with Jimmy’s gear. No wonder they’re still married. Garvin quickly lays out Houston with a kneelift while Wahoo joins us on commentary, and Houston gets a sunset flip for two and takes him down with a headlock. Garvin pounds on Houston with an elbow to the neck and chokes him in the corner, but Houston fights back again, so Garvin drops him on the top rope and drops a knee on him. Houston slugs back again, but Garvin catches him with his head down and goes to a chinlock. Houston comes back with a rollup, but he gets distracted by Precious and Garvin stands up for his woman by chucking Houston over the top rope for the DQ at 4:40. But then he goes to further teach Sam a lesson and Wahoo hits the ring to save, at which point Precious sprays him in the eyes and Garvin hits him with a brainbuster. Well good thing they’ve got that Save the Chief fund started, sounds like he’ll need some medical attention now.

The same day that this episode is dated, the Crockett Cup was happening, although I think dates are still messed up on these anyway so they may or may not have results on the next show.

Anyway, if you want a refresher on my rants for the show from 2021, they are available here:

https://www.blogofdoom.com/2021/01/17/the-smark-rant-for-the-crockett-cup-86-04-19-86-part-one/

https://www.blogofdoom.com/2021/01/18/the-smark-rant-for-the-crockett-cup-86-04-19-86-part-two/