The SmarK Rant for NWA Worldwide – 05.03.86

The SmarK Rant for NWA Worldwide – 05.03.26

Originally written 06.07.26

Taped from Roanoke, VA on 05.02.86

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & David Crockett

So this one is all about a National title match between Tully Blanchard and Ron Garvin, with a one hour time limit with taped fists banned, and then standby matches if needed.

Meanwhile, Ric Flair has flown here, in his own plane, to see his close friend defending his title here on Worldwide Wrestling after already becoming the greatest National heavyweight champion of all time. Also Ricky Morton is a punk kid who had to learn a lesson about wrestling being a MAN’S sport.

Dusty Rhodes joins us at ringside and he’s going to be a guest commentator, so lucky us. David is nice enough to recount the terrible details of the Midnight Express hitting Baby Doll in the uterus with a tennis racket, making sure to twist the knife on a distraught Dusty. David: “Dusty, I know it’ll be hard for you, but let’s watch it again”. And so we do. And indeed, we all relive the horror of Baby Doll having her reproductive organs damaged by a tennis racket. What if she had been secretly carrying Dusty’s love child? Maybe she was and Dusty wanted them to put a stop to it? Makes you think.

National Heavyweight title: Tully Blanchard v. Ron Garvin

They fight for the lockup in the corner and Garvin climbs on him and tries to choke him out, and then hiptosses him into the other corner. Tully gets his own lockup in the corner, but Garvin reverses him and hiptosses him again. Garvin with a headbutt to put him down and a jackknife cradle gets two. Tully goes to work with forearms in the corner and goes to a chinlock, but Garvin powers up and Tully has to yank him down again by the hair. Garvin powers up again, so Tully grabs his hair and runs him into the turnbuckle this time, and Garvin backslides him for two. Garvin with a facelock and he takes Tully down with that for two. Ronnie slugs back and headbutts him into the corner, which sets up a sleeper, but Tully falls into the ropes. Garvin beats on him with forearms and boots, unable to use the broken hand, and that gets two. Garvin with the double stomp and he drops an elbow for two. Garvin ties him up with submission holds and we take a break.

Back with Tully holding a chinlock on the mat and he hits Garvin with a kneelift that puts him on the floor, which gives him an opportunity to strut around the ring and regroup. Garvin comes back in the ring with a flying bodypress for two and follows with a suplex, but that hurts the hand again and he can’t make a proper cover. Garvin with an abdominal stretch after some boots to the gut (Dusty: “That’s what we call an abdominal suplex, daddy.”) but Tully escapes and they collide for a double down. Tully with a rollup for two, but Garvin headbutts him down again and goes to work on the leg with a bridging deathlock. Tully goes for a takedown, but Garvin single-legs him and puts him in an anklelock and then does a targeted Garvin Stomp on that ankle. Tully tries to escape, so Garvin wraps the ankle around the post and Tully calls for time as we take another break.

Back with Tully in control now, as he drops a knee for two. He goes for a piledriver and Garvin backdrops out and sits on him for two. Garvin tries his own piledriver and Tully blocks it, so Ron cradles for two. Elbowdrop gets two. Tully finally runs him into the post in frustration and then uses JJ’s PENNY LOAFER OF DEATH to take over. So now he starts stomping the broken hand and dropping knees on it as the crowd shrieks in horror. Wrestling is so awesome because you just have to tell people “His hand is broken” and you can literally stomp the mat in the vicinity of it and make thousands of people think the guy is in crippling pain as a result. Garvin fights back with a gut wrench and drops a knee on Tully for two, but Tully goes back to the hand again. Garvin takes him down and puts him in a Boston crab, but Tully makes the ropes with help from JJ. So Ron unleases the full fury of the GARVIN STOMP and Dusty is all about that. Ron winds up for Hands of Stone, but then he changes his mind because he can’t even make a fist with the broken hand. So he thumbs Tully in the throat instead and we take another break.

Back with Tully fighting for a cover, but Garvin puts him down with a suplex and drops a knee on him for two. Tully tries a rollup but they’re too close to the ropes, and Garvin is able to continue pounding on him with everything but his broken hand. Tully beats on him in the corner and they fight for a backslide, but Garvin wins that battle and Tully lands in the ropes on the way down. Garvin rams him into all three turnbuckles in the corner, but Tully takes him down and drops a knee on him, so Garvin goes for the figure-four and Tully has to grab the ropes in desperation. This time Tully takes him into the turnbuckles, but Garvin fights back and the ref is bumped WITH MUSTARD and Garvin is able to knock Tully out with a headbutt. This allows JJ to load up Tully with a roll of quarters, but Dusty wraps up Ron’s hand with tape and Ron KO’s Tully for the pin and the title at 40:25, with quarters flying all over the ring on the bump. This was excellent, especially for a TV match in 1986, and giving it the whole show made it seem really special. Maybe they should do that again later. ****1/4. Also the finish was bonkers, with the two gunslingers loading up their one big shot after 40 minutes of war.

BUT WAIT! Tommy Young sees the tape on Ron’s hand and reverses the decision, because taped fists were illegal in this match. David: “HE HAD THE QUARTERS IN HIS HAND! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” Sadly this does not sway the referee, who was given orders by the NWA before the match.

Meanwhile, Tully and JJ celebrate in the dressing room after a successful title defense, which ended up setting up a bunch of matches between them on the Great American Bash tour and they were pretty great too.

I think this is a pretty legendary episode of the show, and for good reason.