The SmarK Rant for World Championship Wrestling – 12.21.85

The SmarK Rant for World Championship Wrestling – 12.21.85

Ironically, in my original rants on WWE 24/7, the 12/14 show was skipped over for some reason. And this time around, the Vault aired it on the same night as Wrestlemania, so I didn’t bother reviewing it. Life is funny that way. So here’s 12/21.

Your hosts are Tony & David.

Ole Anderson v. Bob Wayne

Teddy Long has graduated from ringboy to ref now. Ole takes Wayne down and goes right to work on the arm, grinding in the armbar. Wayne makes the ropes, so Ole knees him down and locks in a Fujiwara armbar on the mat. He keeps pounding the arm in various ways and finishes with the flying knee to the shoulder and standing armbar at 4:28. Typical Anderson stuff.

The Barbarian and Paul Jones are out to talk (well, mainly Paul talks) about how everyone in the NWA fears Barbarian and he would dominate the upcoming TV title tournament and such.

Nikita Koloff v. Tony Zane

Koloff quickly pounds Zane and drops an elbow, then tosses the poor victim and pounds him on the way back in. Slam and Koloff wants the Road Warriors. He no-sells Zane’s rather pathetic punches and knees him out of the ring again. Back in, the Sickle is the end at 2:59. Koloff definitely knew how to squash guys.

Dusty Rhodes and Magnum TA have nothing in particular to say this week.

The Barbarian v. Richard Dunn

Dunn tries grabbing a headlock, but gets powered down. Dunn gets dumped and Paul Jones gets his shots in. Back in, Barbarian gets the big boot and a delayed suplex. He chokes Dunn out on the ropes and headbutts the back as this squash drags on way too long. Powerslam and diving headbutt finish and Dick is finally Dunn at 5:02.

Tully Blanchard promises to bounce back and win the TV title tournament after losing the US title to Magnum. Baby Doll tells him that he’d better win, or else. Hey, foreshadowing!

Khrusher Khruschev v. Bill Mulkey

Khrusher pounds Mulkey in the corner and hiptosses him out, then follows with a hammerlock slam. A shoulderblock puts Mulkey on the floor, and back in for the Sickle to finish at 1:53.

JJ Dillon is upset because all the talk is about the TV title tournament and not new National champion Buddy Landel. Oh people will be talking about new National champion Buddy Landel by the end of the week, don’t worry.

Tully Blanchard v. Vern Deaton

Tully works a hammerlock to start and gives Deaton a cheapshot on the ropes. He drops the elbows and hits the chinlock. More elbows, like 10 of them in a cool sequence, and he sends Deaton to the floor. Slingshot suplex finishes at 4:26.

Arn Anderson throws his hat in the TV title ring.

Sam Houston v. Kent Glover

They slug it out to start and Houston takes him down with a headscissors, but Glover makes the ropes. Houston takes him down with an armbar, but Glover makes the ropes again. He actually reverses to a headscissors of his own, but Houston escapes and goes back to the armbar. Glover keeps trying for his own, but Houston dropkicks him down and finishes with the bulldog at 6:17.

The Nature Boy laments having to fulfil the dreams and desires of women in addition to his duties as World champion. That’s rough. Dusty Rhodes has a shot at the title on Christmas, but he has no chance. He gives Tony $300 for dinner with his wife, and $500 for Dusty to take a first class flight anywhere but Atlanta. Great stuff from Flair.

Superstation Championship Challenge Series: Ron Garvin & Manny Fernandez v. Black Bart & Thunderfoot

Interestingly, this was announced as Garvin/Manny/Bass v. Bart/Thunderfoot/Landel at the beginning of the show, and then changed with nothing mentioned about it. So I guess Landel was fired during the course of the show. Garvin works on Bart’s leg to start and Manny tries to work on Thunderfoot’s loaded foot, but he flees. Back in, Fernandez takes him down and works on the leg. Over to Bart, who gets slugged down by Manny. Garvin comes in with a crucifix submission into a headscissors, then starts stomping the arm in vicious fashion. Bart gets into a slugfest and loses that, but brings in Thunderfoot, who manages to drop an elbow for two. TF hits the chinlock and we take a break. Back with Bart choking like crazy. More choking in the heel corner, but Thunderfoot misses a diving axehandle and it’s hot tag Manny. He drops an elbow off the middle rope, but Bart drops him on the top rope. Suplex and kneedrop and we get more choking. TF with a backbreaker for two and he goes to a facelock. Bart comes back in and chops Manny, but misses his flying legdrop. Thunderfoot loads up the boot, but Manny basically no-sells it and tags Garvin, who comes in with a sunset flip for the pin at 14:35. This didn’t go anywhere, and Thunderfoot was terrible. **1/4

NEXT WEEK: The Series wraps up with Magnum TA v. Ole Anderson. Ric Flair takes the opportunity to suck up to Jim Crockett and complains about not having any opponents during the Series. Ron Garvin waits patiently for Flair to finish and offers him a match RIGHT NOW. He amends that to next week and Flair offers to buy the whole hour and use it to beat on Garvin.

The Rock N Roll Express v. Randy Mulkey & Larry Clarke.

Ricky takes Clarke down with a butterfly suplex and works on the arm, switching off with Robert. They do the same with Mulkey, and Clarke gets upset and starts swinging wild, which allows Ricky to evade him and they go back to work on his arm. They keep trading off on the armbar, acting all heelish for some reason. Ricky gets a backdrop suplex and finishes with a sunset flip at 6:57. Felt like an hour.

Magnum TA v. George South

This is a marathon for TA, as he takes nearly a minute to dispatch South instead of his usual 10 seconds.

Arn Anderson v. Josh Stroud

Stroud works a headlock to start, but Arn takes him down and hammerlocks him. Hammerlock slam and he drops a knee on the shoulder and goes back to it. He wraps the arm around the post, but Stroud keeps fighting back, so Arn hammerlocks him on the mat again and finishes with a gourdbuster for Dusty Rhodes at 4:12. Nice of him to dedicate it like that.

More Dusty. The Andersons are bad, bad people, apparently.

Ivan Koloff v. Dan Turner

Ivan gets a rollup for two to start and takes Turner down with a hammerlock, then slugs him down. Ivan tosses Turner and then follows right into a kneedrop from the apron in a nice spot, and chokes him out on the apron. A badly botched neckbreaker and legdrop follow and he goes into the facelock, but Turner actually ducks the Sickle and gets a bodypress for two. Turner slugs away, but Ivan hits the Sickle to finish at 4:21. Well, the kid tried.

Yet another dose of Flair, as he has promised 8000 of the 16000 women who wrote him that he’ll be the gift in their stockings for Christmas. He’s going to beat Garvin so bad that they’ll compare him to Dusty Rhodes. Ouch. It’s almost Christmas, why you gotta say something so awful?

Pretty dull offering this week, but it’s a week before Christmas so you can’t expect much motivation.