The SmarK Rant for NWA Worldwide – 02.08.86
By Scott Keith on 14 February 2026
The SmarK Rant for NWA Worldwide – 02.08.86
Originally written 02.13.26
Taped from Spartanburg, SC on 02.04.86
Your hosts are Tony Schaivone & David Crockett
The Rock N Roll Express v. George South & Ron Rossi
BREAKING NEWS! The Midnight Express has STOLEN the World tag team titles from the Rock N Rolls! That happened on the Superstars on the Superstation show the night before, which was an early version of Clash of the Champions and kind of a banger show. The jobbers actually trap Ricky in the corner and get some double-teams on him, but Ricky is FIRED UP over losing his tag team titles and he slugs South down before bringing Robert in to work the arm. Over to Rossi, and they give him a double slam before Robert wraps him up in the Ricky Gibson Cradle for the pin at 4:20.
THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS, now the NWA World tag team champions, join David and Jim Cornette is rather excited about it and gloating. Bobby looks so gosh darn happy and proud! I hope they never lose them.
Baby Doll joins David, very offended at the Russians daring to touch her last week, and Dusty isn’t gonna stand for it.
Manny Fernandez v. Gene Ligon
Apparently Cody Rhodes told a story about Manny and Arn Anderson getting into a fight in the hospital on the day he was born, and I would tend to believe it even though Cody was only less than an hour old at the time it allegedly happened. The Bull chops Ligon down, but Gene grabs a headlock, so Manny dropkicks him to escape. Ligon keeps going back to that headlock, so Manny takes him to the corner and chops him down, and then drops a knee on him before going to a chinlock. Why is Raging Bull going 50/50 with GENE LIGON here? Ligon slugs out and goes back to the headlock. Bull puts him down, but Ligon slugs away and goes to the headlock for a 15th time, and then finally Bull puts him away with the Flying Burrito at 5:00. These are some weirdly long squashes this week.
The Rock N Roll Express join David, determined to regain the tag team titles, and they really want to stress that ROCK N ROLL IS HERE TO STAY. What about grunge, though? It managed to kill off a big part of rock n roll, so maybe that’s not an entirely accurate prediction made by Ricky and Robert.
The Barbarian v. Mack Jeffers
Barbarian sends him into the corner off the lockup, but Jeffers tries to headlock him and gets overpowered. Jeffers with a sunset flip, but Barbarian punches him in the face to break it up and hits him with a press slam. Barbarian presses him onto the top rope and Jeffers bumps to the floor for some abuse from Jones. And then Barbarian drops him on the railing for good measure. No wonder he soon became an abusive corrupt cop. Back in the ring, Barbarian powerslams him and goes to the top for a diving headbutt ¾ of the way across the ring to finish at 5:00. Seriously, why the elongated matches this week? Usually they’re a minute to two minutes on this show, MAX.
Arn Anderson joins David and he’s sick of coming SASKATCHEWAN and getting insulted by fry cooks at Denny’s. Did we even have a Dennys here in 1986? But Baby Doll interrupts and tosses a leg cast at Arn, and Arn freaks out about “painted ladies and old broads” making threats to him about how he’s next to have his bone broken.
Sam Houston & Nelson Royal v. Ben Alexander & Mike Simani
Well this one sure isn’t wrapping up in a minute. Houston backslides Alexander for two, and it’s over to Simani. Royal comes in with a chinlock, and Houston gets a back elbow for two. Royal runs wild on the jobbers and Houston dropkicks Alexander, but he gets cut off by Alexander and worked over with a back elbow. Alexander drops a knee on him for two as they jobbers are getting heat on Sam Houston and this is such a bizarre show. Sam fights off the awesome twosome of balding dad bod jobbers and brings in Royal for some more offense, and then comes back in and finishes Alexander with the bulldog at 5:00. That was a TERRIBLE bulldog as well, more like a facebuster.
LAST WEEK, two Russians and a German attack Magnum TA and lay him out with a chain, and then take out Dusty when he tries to make the save, so Baby Doll tries to save herself and Nikita is about to haul off and Sickle her. So Dusty spears her out of the way to take the bullet himself.
Black Bart v. Rocky King
Rocky gets a quick bodypress for two, but Bart punches him a bunch to cut off the offense and chokes him out on the mat. Bart slams him and goes up with the legdrop to finish at 2:10. See this was the first actual squash match of the show!
The Midnight Express v. Jim Jeffers & Tony Zane
Bobby is GLOWING with excitement at wearing those belts. When have you ever seen Bobby Eaton do anything but scowl any day in his life? It’s kind of weird and offputting if I’m being honest. MX double-teams Jeffers with elbows and Condrey gets a butterfly suplex for two. Jeffers comes back on Bobby, but puts his head down and gets caught. So it’s over to Zane and he gets clobbered right away, and Bobby goes up with a flying kneedrop. Condrey with the brainbuster and that’s all at 3:14. And BOBBY IS STILL SMILING.
And we finish with the Rock N Roll Express again this week, and you gotta take the salt with the sugar, apparently. I’ve literally never heard that. Keeping those two things together is a really bad idea because they look nearly alike and it would very easy to confuse them.
A weird show with some weird idioms this week. However I would strongly recommend checking out Superstars on the Superstation, which WWE Vault posted a couple of days ago.