The SmarK Rant for NWA Worldwide – 07.26.86

The SmarK Rant for NWA Worldwide – 07.26.86

Taped from (I think) Greenwood SC

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & Jim Cornette. Bubba has now grown in the full beard, giving him the classic look after a few weeks of a goatee.

Meanwhile, we get a clip of Dusty and his friends singing on stage with a country music purveyor at the Great American Bash tour.

BREAKING NEWS: Tony has breaking news that he will announce later, but not now. Later.

Arn & Ole Anderson v. Gene Ligon & Mark Fleming

Arn beats Ligon down in the corner and Ole comes in to work the arm. He tries riding Ligon on the mat, but Gene escapes that, so Ole takes him down again by the arm and the Andersons go back to work on that. Over to Fleming, but Arn tosses him while Cornette points out that teams will sometimes train the left arm before facing the Andersons in hopes of neutralizing them, but it never works. Ole comes in with a slam on Fleming and pounds him down, and Arn wraps the arm around the post and back in for the hammerlock slam. Arn continues torturing the arm and Ole comes in with the flying knee onto the shoulder, and the standing armbar finishes at 4:05. I do think it’s funny that there’s legitimately so many people who came from Minnesota in wrestling at that time, but the “Minnesota Wrecking Crew” is comprised of one guy from Minnesota and one from Georgia.

Meanwhile, we take a look at a cage match from the Bash tour, featuring Big Bubba Rogers taking the measure of Dusty Rhodes yet again.

GREAT AMERICAN BASH UPDATE! WITH TONY SCHIAVONE!

Great things have been happening on the Bash tour, but Tony has major news as promised at the start of the show: We take a look at a National title match between Tully Blanchard and Ronnie Garvin, joined in progress with Tully beating Garvin down in the corner and putting the boots to him. Garvin fights back and slugs Tully down, putting him down with a headbutt and the knockout punch, but Tully pops up, still swinging wildly. So Garvin holds him up against the ropes and just keeps punching him in the face until he goes down. But he keeps popping up and retreating to the corner, allowing JJ to give Tully a foreign object, which Garvin steals and knocks out Tully to win the title! So Ron Garvin is absolutely 100% the new National heavyweight champion, but then JJ sneaks the object into Garvin’s trunks and the ref finds it, reversing his previous decision.

So that wasn’t exactly earth-shattering breaking news, gotta say. I feel like Tony may have oversold that one.

Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin v. Rocky Kernodle

Garvin keeps the sparkly pants on again this week, hitting Rocky with knees and finishing with the brainbuster at 0:32.

Magnum TA v. The Golden Terror

TA with a dropkick and belly to belly to finish at 0:25. And then they literally replay the entire match in slow motion as the replay.

Magnum TA joins us, and the oddsmakers have him facing an insurmountable deficit of 3-0 to Nikita, a deficit from which no athlete in any sport has ever surmounted. But he’s gonna surmount it! So he promises not to lose his temper next time, because that’s the only way that Russian can triumph over America.

The Midnight Express v. George South & Vern Deaton

South actually runs wild on Condrey to start with a dropkick, but Dennis slugs him down and suplexes him. Over to Bobby, but South hits him with a flying headscissors before getting cut off again. Bobby runs him into the corner multiple times and then hits his own dropkick, and Condrey comes in with a running powerslam before Bobby adds a back elbow. Over to Deaton, but Condrey immediately chinlocks him and adds a standing powerslam. And Bobby goes up for the Rocket Launcher to finish at 2:45. Funny bit at the end as Tommy Young was waiting to see if Bobby was gonna torture the guy some more and Bobby was like “No, get over here and count!”

Tully Blanchard joins us, and JJ is appalled that Ronnie Garvin would get to waste time on this TV show whining about getting screwed out of the National title a couple of times. Clearly Garvin was the one who brought that weapon into the ring and was using it illegally. So now if Garvin wants more title shots or taped fist matches, he’s gonna have to put his career on the line.

Hector Guerrero joins us to deliver some remarks in Spanish.

Mid-Atlantic title: Black Bart v. The Italian Stallion

Stallion slugs him down while the announcers talk about the importance of the Mid-Atlantic title, which is currently held by Black Bart after he won it from skinny jobber Sam Houston. Yeah I’m gonna say no to that one. Bart pounds on Stallion with forearms, but Stallion hits him with dropkicks and goes to work on the arm. They do the test of strength and Stallion takes him down with a monkey flip and cradles for two. Back to the arm and we actually take a break from this hot action and return with Bart in control. Bart with a clothesline and he chokes him out for two. Bart drops a fist for two and goes back to the choking and a chinlock. Stallion comes back with a slam, but he goes to the middle rope and misses a splash, allowing Bart to legdrop him for two. Bart slugs him down and finishes with the middle rope legdrop at 7:00. Maybe they should have teamed these two up as Spaghetti Western.

Nikita Koloff & Krusher Krushchev v. Ron Rossi & Mike Simiani

Comrade Smash finishes with a bearhug before I can even finish typing out the names. And the Russians talk with Jim Cornette and threaten Magnum TA and the Road Warriors to end the show.

Not exactly much happening on this one with the Bash winding down. Of course there WAS one pretty notable title change happening while this show was airing, which we will no doubt get to next week.