The SmarK Rant for Mid-Atlantic Championshp Wrestling – 03.08.86

The SmarK Rant for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling – 03.08.86

It’s been a couple of years since I covered this era and with the 1982 year finally put to bed, I really want to get back and finish off 1986 before the Network implodes or gets sold off to finance Nick Khan’s new Keurig machine or whatever. As a reminder, although this is still branded as “Mid-Atlantic” until May, it’s just a Jim Crockett Promotions TV show.

Taped from Charlotte, NC

Your host is Bob Caudle with a spiffy new backdrop. And Johnny Weaver, drunk as ever.

Ivan and Nikita Koloff join us to start and Ivan is wearing a brand new t-shirt sent to him by the KGB. They’re looking forward to chain matches and cage matches with the Road Warriors, wherein they will take the chain and stuff down into their big American mouths. Also, the TV ratings are dropping due to Nikita refusing to wrestle on TV, so the Kremlin is negotiating with Magnum TA for a US title match so he’ll come back.

Ronnie Garvin & Magnum TA v. The Golden Terror & Thunderfoot

Garvin slugs Thunderfoot down and Magnum comes in and works the arm before switching out with Garvin for some mat wrestling. Over to the TERROR, but Ron hits him with an atomic drop, right into Magnum’s belly to belly to finish at 2:10. Great finish, even if TA had to stand there waiting for the Terror to get into position for like 10 minutes.

Ronnie Garvin joins Bob and he’s got Ric Flair’s number, and we take a look at a match from Worldwide with himself and Dusty against Ric Flair & Arn Anderson. Ron comes in and hits Flair with the Hands of Stone behind the ref’s back, and Dusty pins Flair for the win. Then we get footage from the Omni, as Flair and Garvin do a one hour draw and then Flair calls him back for five minutes more, at which point Garvin knocks him out and pins him. But the title was only on the line for the hour, so he’s not the champion.

Robert Gibson v. Mark Lewin

Ricky is out with a broken hand, so Robert quickly pins Lewin with the Ricky Gibson cradle at 0:20. That would be the move currently used by Darby Allin as the Last Supper, by the way.

Dusty Rhodes is here to talk about his continuing issues with the Four Horsemen, as they have attacked his knee again, locking him in a cage and destroying him. This continues the weird “Three Horsemen” period, with Ole Anderson apparently not around. I guess he was in Japan for a long term tour that year, and didn’t actually return until June.

The Road Warriors v. Mike Simiani & David Dillinger

Before I can even finish typing the jobber names, they finish Dillinger with the proto-Doomsday Device at 0:10.

Paul Jones is a man of class and he’s sick of crowds calling him a weasel, because people want to hear about Barbarian and Teijho Khan and Baron Von Raschke! And he still hasn’t forgotten about Jimmy Valiant, OH NO, and he’s coming after Jimmy again in 1986.

Arn Anderson joins us as Bob announces the date and site of the Jim Crockett Senior Memorial Cup. Arn’s only regret about beating on Dusty in the cage is that all of Dusty’s friends scurried down the aisle and saved him, so they couldn’t finish the job.

Tully Blanchard v. Rocky Kernodle

Rocky is of course the guy from our 82 shows that was formerly known as Keith Larson, before it came out that he was Don Kernodle’s brother. Tully hits Rocky with a cheapshot and quickly exits the ring, but then runs behind Rocky and hits him with a cheapshot. So Rocky slams him for one and works him over in the corner, but Tully gets another cheapshot and takes him down for a chinlock. Rocky tries a rollup, but Tully grabs the ropes to block, and finishes with the slingshot suplex at 3:30.

The Midnight Express join us, and Cornette celebrates Ricky Morton suffering a broken hand, but Bob informs them that Morton will be allowed to wrestle with a cast on his hand and carry on. Cornette of course has a very reasonable and normal reaction to this news.

Black Bart v. George South

Bart quickly hits him with a lariat and suplex, but South makes a comeback and slugs away. Bart cuts him off and chokes him out in the corner. Bart hammerlocks him and runs him into the corner before beating on the shoulder with headbutts while Caudle talks up the debuting Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin. Bart with an armbar, but South makes another comeback before missing a dropkick. Top rope legdrop finishes at 4:00.

Tully Blanchard joins us and he’s got one week left to live up to his promise to win the National title from Dusty Rhodes in “four weeks”. JJ admits that it’s a calculated risk, but Tully is gonna look like a hero if he succeeds.

World TV title: Arn Anderson v. Jim Jeffers

Apparently this match is proof that Arn is a fighting champion. Jeffers was already off working Memphis as half of the Mod Squad by this time this aired, so I don’t give him much of a chance here. Otherwise, he might have a 0.1 or even 0.2 percent chance! Arn with a hammerlock slam and he works on the arm as Bob announces that the Crockett Cup will happen in the 75,000 seat Superdome in New Orleans. Why would want to remind people of how many seats are gonna be empty in that thing? Jeffers gets a slam for two, but he misses a splash and Arn finishes him off with the gourdbuster at 3:34.

Black Bart makes threats to fellow cowboy Sam Houston, who is holding onto the Mid-Atlantic title that he wants.

The Road Warriors are here to challenge the Russians to Double Chain Matches, because they’re sick of the Russians, along with everyone else.

The Midnight Express v. The Italian Stallion & Tony Zane

The Express have “broken more bones than a bar of soap in the bathtub” according to Jim Cornette. Huge if true. Eaton gets slammed by the Stallion to start and the jobbers try to double-team him, with Zane getting his own slam for one. But then Bobby quickly cuts him off with a neckbreaker and Dennis comes in and chokes him out on the ropes. The crowd’s incessant chanting for the Rock N Roll Express is really ruining my enjoyment of the match here. Bobby drops the flying elbow on Zane and Cornette offers to break HIS hand as well if the crowd won’t shut up about the Rock N Roll. Condrey drops a knee on Zane and adds a suplex, and Eaton goes up with the flying kneedrop and that shuts up the crowd for the moment. Condrey slams Eaton onto Zane with a legdrop for good measure, and that finishes at 3:40.

Magnum TA is here to talk about negotiations for the US title, and he’s ready to settle things with Nikita on TV regardless of negotiations with the Kremlin. And the belt says UNITED STATES on it, not FOREIGN COUNTRY, and we’re outta time for this week!

Yeah, you tell ‘em Magnum! Now we getting into some good stuff coming up.