The SmarK Rant for NWA Worldwide – 04.26.86

The SmarK Rant for NWA Worldwide – 04.26.86

Originally written 05.30.26

Taped from Greenville, SC on 04.21.86

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & David Crockett

BREAKING NEWS: The Road Warriors have won the Crockett Cup!

Tully Blanchard joins us, as they brag about breaking bones of Dusty Rhodes and Ron Garvin, and burning the pretty face of Ricky Morton.

Hector Guerrero v. George South

Hector is using a pretty low key Willie Nelson song for his entrance, which doesn’t exactly electrify TV viewers. Hector SWEEPS THE LEG and takes South down with a chinlock before going to a cravat and dodging a dropkick attempt from South. He takes South down with snapmares and slams him to set up a legdrop for two and backdrops him out of the corner before hitting him with a delayed suplex for two. South actually gets a comeback and takes Hector down with a snapmare for two, but Hector hits him with a headscissors and springboards off the ropes with a bodypress for the pin at 4:50. Took him quite a while to put South away here.

Dusty Rhodes joins us with some very 80s shades that I think he stole from Eddie Gilbert, and promises to strip Jim Cornette’s pants off and see what color his underwear is.

Ivan Koloff v. Todd Bradford

Todd would soon change his name to Todd Champion and get a bit more of a push. Ivan takes him down to start, but Todd whips Ivan into the corner for two. They do a test of strength and Todd powers him onto the top rope and slams him off for two. Ivan fights back with clubbing forearms and puts the boots to Todd, but a cradle gets two. Ivan goes to a chinlock, but Todd powers out and beats on him with forearms, but misses an elbowdrop and falls victim to a Sickle at 4:40. Ivan was obviously trying to give the kid as much as he could since he was trained by Dusty Rhodes and it was his first ever match, but Todd was obviously super green here and didn’t really know what to do with it. I’d say he got a lot better, but I’d be lying, because Todd always kind of sucked and got by on his body and connections.

Arn Anderson joins us and clarifies that he likes great big grown women with big hooters, unlike Ricky Morton, who likes underaged girls with training bras. So he feels no sympathy for Ricky getting his face all burned up.

Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin v. Rocky Kernodle

Rocky actually takes Jimmy down with armdrags, but Garvin backdrops him and finishes with a brainbuster at 1:20. Precious was absent here for whatever reason this week.

Ron Garvin joins us with his broken hand, as we get footage of an elimination tag match from the Omni where it came down to Ricky Morton v. Ric Flair. And Morton quickly upsets him with a small package to win the match, but the Horsemen break into the babyface dressing room and Flair does the legendary spot where he rubs Ricky’s nose into the concrete floor to put him out of action.

Ric Flair joins us and invites Ricky Morton to bring his frail body and ugly face to anywhere Flair is wrestling, and he’ll sign a contract to defend the title against him.

Meanwhile, at the Crockett Cup, we get a bunch of still frames of the action, leading up to the Road Warriors beating Magnum & Garvin in the finals to win.

Ron Garvin v. The Golden Terror

Ron hiptosses the Terror out of the corner and goes to a full nelson before taking him to the mat and tying him up. Terror fights up, so Garvin hits him with HANDS OF STONE and pins him at 1:44, although he’s shaking off some pain in the process.

The Rock & Roll Express join us and Ricky’s face is all bandaged up from the concrete. But tag and singles matches have been signed! Robert as usual has nothing to add, but it’s just as well. Poor Ricky Morton got his face all smashed up by the Horsemen and he’s still gotta do all the talking.

Wahoo McDaniel joins us and he can empathize with Ricky Morton’s troubles with Ric Flair, but even though he’s a little scared right now, he’s gonna have his die.

Robert Gibson v. Ron Rossi

Ricky is of course injured, so we get solo Robert this week. And Robert quickly hits Rossi with a neckbreaker and pins him at 0:20. No Ricky Gibson cradle finish? Disappointing.

This week’s event center features Tony hyping up a card at the Dorton arena in Raleigh on April 30 and it sounds like kind of a banger! Check this out:

JCP @ Raleigh, NC – Dorton Arena – April 30, 1986
Manny Fernandez vs. Ivan Koloff did not take place as advertised
Baron Von Raschke defeated Sam Houston
NWA TV Champion Arn Anderson defeated Ron Garvin
Robert Gibson defeated NWA Tag Team Champion Bobby Eaton; stipulations stated Gibson would get 5 minutes in the ring with Jim Cornette if he won
Robert Gibson fought Jim Cornette to a 5-minute time-limit draw
Jimmy Valiant defeated Shaska Whatley
Nikita Koloff defeated Magnum TA in a Russian chain match
Dusty Rhodes & Manny Fernandez (sub. for Wahoo McDaniel) defeated NWA National Heavyweight Champion Tully Blanchard & Jimmy Garvin
NWA World Champion Ric Flair defeated Ricky Morton

I would have paid good money to see that one.

The Midnight Express v. ???

Don’t even know who the jobbers were, but the MX clears the ring immediately and takes out the ref at the same time, and Cornette does a promo calling out Dusty Rhodes. So Dusty answers and we get an immediate brawl, with Baby Doll taking an elbow from Bobby, followed by a racket shot from Cornette RIGHT IN THE BABYMAKER. The crowd is just shrieking in horror, and Cornette heads right over to the desk and does a promo about how women don’t have any place in wrestling, to really crank up the heat, while Dusty carries Baby Doll back to the dressing room. So obviously we’re taking a side trip to Midnight Express v. America’s Team for a while now.

Well after last week’s Dusty-less episode, we’re back with a heavy heat angle to say the least!