Tracking the Territories 1984- Volume Three

by Liam Byrne

  With a mention earlier in the show from the Fabulous Ones and the airing of a squash match against Dale Veasey and Sam Houston, it is clear that the Road Warriors are due to come into the territory soon. The match is a standard Warriors squash, with an array of slams and strikes leading to the win from an Animal clothesline on Houston. Following the footage, Resnick introduces Gagne and Brunzell to talk initially about the Road Warriors, before Gagne steers the conversation to Brody. Gagne believes he will be out until early September, whilst Brunzell is almost back to match fitness. Brunzell finishes the interview by questioning why the top AWA stars don’t get more opportunities to take on the NWA champions, with his cousins apparently asking him when he might get a shot at Kerry Von Erich or Ric Flair.

  A strange one to judge due to its brevity, but with the bulk of the show an oddly worked tag match involving the Fabulous Ones that really didn’t showcase them at their best, it isn’t really the best of what the AWA can offer.

  CWA Championship Wrestling 14.7.84

  Another shorter episode than usual (37 minutes), we go straight into an interview with the Rock and Roll Express, a team who have been wrestling a lot in the Mid-South Coliseum but haven’t been on television until now. Ricky Morton gives a standard face promo in which he promises to take out Randy Savage and Lanny Poffo, but as the Express head into the ring, Savage and Poffo come out, mockingly asking for an autograph whilst Savage also references laying on his back, naked in the middle of the night. As Savage stalks the ringside area, Poffo explains that he can’t be as bad as the Express says he is as otherwise he would have skewered them with his sword. The match itself isn’t available, but as always with Savage in Memphis, it’s a great promo as he just comes across like a madman.

  Speaking of men who have wrestled in the Coliseum but not been seen on television, King Kong Bundy is then introduced by Jimmy Hart. Bundy has a wad of cash in his hand as he talks about the fact that he could be wrestling anywhere, but he has a score to settle with Jerry Lawler. Bundy states that he was close to earning a World title shot, only for Lawler to defeat him and set him back. According to Bundy, Lawler has then been running scared from a rematch, with Hart telling Bundy that money is the way to get Lawler back in the ring. Bundy and Hart offer Lawler $1000 for every minute he survives in the ring with Bundy up until ten minutes, with a promise that he won’t even last thirty seconds.

  Lawler is out next, with him talking about how his focus has been on getting back at Ric Rude, with Rude refusing to have another match for the Southern Heavyweight Title, meaning he hasn’t had time to worry about Bundy. However, with the money now on offer, Lawler says he will happily take the money off of Bundy’s hands.

  Porkchop Cash is out next, with Lance Russell asking Cash about how his changing nature has paid dividends, especially as Cash and Dutch Mantell challenging for the titles against Phil Hickerson and the Spoiler has led to the tag titles being held up once more. Cash needs to be reminded mid-promo that Hickerson and Spoiler are no longer the champions, but otherwise this is another bland babyface promo about winning the belts.

  Ron Mikolajczyk is with Russell next as they spend time talking about Mikolajczyk’s singles and tag match from the Coliseum, as well as Mikolajczyk’s thoughts on college football. That is all. However, this is mainly there as a point of focus for Jim Neidhart’s following promo, as he calls Mikolajczyk a has-been who played for a rubbish team. Neidhart mentions how he’d love to have a contest with Mikolajczyk, suggesting that he would be willing to step into the ring with him instead of his planned opponent, Porkchop Cash. Mikolajczyk comes out and challenges Neidhart to step into the ring with him, but Neidhart suddenly backs off, deciding that the match with Cash is more important.

  Neidhart steps into the ring with his Oakland Raiders helmet on as it looks like the two former footballers are going to have a scrimmage, with Cash leaving the ring. Both men get into position and Mikolajczyk absolutely blasts through Neidhart two times in a row. After the first one, Hart calls for offside, whilst after the second one, Neidhart jumps Mikolajczyk with the football helmet. All hell breaks loose suddenly as Lawler comes out to save Mikolajczyk, only to get jumped by Rude. Hart even comes off of the top rope with a helmet shot to Lawler, with the arrival of the New Generation eventually driving away the heel trio. A fun angle coming out of what was a pretty dull interview.

  Hickerson and the Spoiler are out next, with Russell reminding Hickerson that the tag titles aren’t around their waist anymore after some general arrogance from the former champions. Hickerson’s comments are all a little on the racist side, especially as he promises to give Cash ‘two black eyes and a fat lip’, a phrase repeated three times. Memphis in the 80s.

  Just as it looks like we are heading to a break, Lawler, Mikolajczyk and Eddie Marlin come out to announce another match at the Coliseum – Lawler and Mikolajczyk versus Rude and Neidhart.

  Speaking of the Coliseum, we head to footage of Mr Ito versus Tommy Rich for the International Heavyweight Title. Ito misses an elbowdrop off of the second rope, with Rich then coming off of the same spot with an elbow to Ito’s head. A Thesz Press by Rich looks like it should be enough, but with Hart and Tojo Yamamoto on the apron and then in the ring, the distraction allows Hart to waffle Rich with the flag. Rich kicks out at two however, but the continued shenanigans at ringside allow Hart to get in once again with salt to the face. Rich kicks out once more, but as the two managers continue to mess around on the apron, Yamamoto gives Rich salt which ends up thrown at Ito. A cross body later, we have a new International Heavyweight Champion in Rich. Though we only saw a brief snippet of the match, the amount of outside interference was ridiculous, although it plays up the importance of Yamamoto that he was the man who made the difference.

  The New Generation are due to face Mr Ito and the Animal, but Hart firstly has complaints about the fact that Marlin won’t reverse the decision as Rich clearly cheated to win. Yamamoto is in the corner of the New Generation, with Hart aiming a lot of his vitriol at getting revenge. Hart gives the New Generation a chance to join the First Family, which the Generation refuse. The interview ends with Hart firing up his charges by hitting Ito with chops and whipping the Animal with the chain around his neck.

  The tactic seems to pay off as Ito takes the match to Wilhoit from the opening bell, with the heels tagging in and out quickly, battering Wilhoit with strikes and chokes. An Ito eye rake has Wilhoit staggering back into the corner, whilst the forehead is the target for one of the Animal’s bites. Wilhoit has had no offense so far as Ito uses a chop and some stomps to keep him grounded. This also allows Hart to get involved as he chokes Wilhoit from ringside. Rather than get a hope spot, Wilhoit just ends up falling into his own corner and making a tag, but Batten is wiped out quickly and the pattern of strikes, chops and tags continues.

  Ito uses the choke that he utilised in Mid-South, which leads to the referee getting distracted by Yamamoto and Hart at ringside. As he tries to split up the two managers, Ito hits a second rope chop and returns to the choke. The referee manages to break the hold, yet the Animal ends up throwing Wilhoit over the top rope for a disqualification. The New Generation win, but do nothing to really earn it. Yamamoto enters the ring and manages to run off both Ito and the Animal. To have the focus of this match end up being a 57 year old man – a very popular one, admittedly – just seems to miss the point of building new stars. The New Generation in particular have done nothing of note since they debuted.

  It is always hard to judge a truncated episode, but the Neidhart Mikolajczyk involvement was definitely the highlight as Lawler and Rude got involved. With the only match on show a pretty abject one, it isn’t exactly the best that Memphis has had to offer this year.

  Championship Wrestling from Florida 14.7.84

  We join Gordon Solie, Barbara Clary and Buddy Colt for this week’s Championship Wrestling from Florida as we are going to hear from the One Man Gang, whilst Blackjack Mulligan, Barry Windham and Chief Joe Ligh
tfoot will take on Angelo Mosca, Black Bart and Ron Bass. Apropos of nothing, Colt drops in that Mike Davis has gone missing, with Solie asking for anyone who knows about his whereabouts to let them know. Solie finishes the run down by saying we will also see The Guerreros and the Breakdancers in action.

  Billy Jack joins Solie as he wants the Florida Heavyweight Title back around his waist. This is typical mumbling and muttering from Jack in which he praises the fans whilst also talking up Solie and Colt before leaving.

  The introduction footage this week showed a match between Mike Rotunda and the One Man Gang, and we join it in progress as our first in-ring action of the show. Rotunda has a grapevine leglock on the Gang, who is in a lot of pain but manages to fight his way out of the hold. Gang is limping around the ring, yet he briefly has the momentum as he runs Rotunda’s head into the turnbuckle twice. However, Rotunda fires up and almost sends Gang out of the ring with a dropkick that has the big man sitting in the ropes.

  The match then cuts to Gang sitting in a chinlock as Solie mentions it is twenty four minutes into the contest. Rotunda impressively manages to lift Gang up in an airplane spin which brings Sir Oliver Humperdink into the ring for a disqualification. Rotunda eats a splash from the Gang as the footage fades out with the face motionless on the canvas. What was shown was fun, but it was cut incredibly weirdly for no conceivable reason.

  We are shown footage from four months ago next as One Man Gang suffers a leg injury at the hands of Dusty Rhodes. Here is what I wrote at the time:

  Considering how things were when I ceased to get any CWF earlier in the year, it is interesting that the main event is One Man Gang and Dusty Rhodes as they ended a show brawling back in January. Gang is out of the traps quickly with punches that send Rhodes into the corner and then to ringside. Rhodes fights back with several big punches, but is then cut off by some more Gang blows. A missed splash by Gang sees Rhodes lock on the ‘Graham Figure Four’ according to Solie and the One Man Gang submits. Rhodes refuses to break the hold and when he does, he drops an elbow on the knee as well. Strange use of a monster heel, with odd behaviour by Rhodes after the match that doesn’t really work in his role as a face.

  This is all to build to an interview between the One Man Gang and Barbara Clary, with her introducing footage from a return match between the Gang and Rhodes from the Lakeland Civic Center. Humperdink attempts to get involved and in a spot that was awfully executed, ends up taking a splash from the Gang as Rhodes moves out of the way. The match continues as the two just stand in the middle of the ring and slug away at each other before an Irish whip sees both men collide and Rhodes fly to the outside.

  Superstar Billy Graham and Ron Bass are at ringside to look after Humperdink and they take the opportunity to jump Gang from behind. The big man takes a boot shot to the head from Bass and several belt shots, only to be saved by Rhodes of all people. For some reason, the referee awards the match to Rhodes even though there was no actual finish. We then see footage of Graham, Humperdink and Bass chucking Gang’s stuff out of the locker room, with the Gang gathering his stuff and attempting to batter the door to his own dressing room down. Gang’s promises to take out Graham, Bass and Humperdink becomes somewhat rambling in nature, though he does also suggest that a darker force might be at play in this situation, implying Kevin Sullivan’s involvement.

  Some pre-taped words from Rhodes follow, with Rhodes agreeing to be Gang’s partner as long as he ‘comes right’. As long as that is the case, Rhodes tells Gang that he won’t just have a tag team partner, he’ll have a family. Gang feels like a natural heel, so it does feel a little odd that they’ve decided to turn him face, especially in the middle of the ongoing Mulligan versus Sullivan et al that has been boiling for weeks. We’ll see where this goes in due time.

  The Breakdancers are up next against the Masked Infernos and it is Slick who begins things with two quick armdrags as Solie and Colt marvel at their movement and speed. Brown uses a back body drop and bodyslam to work over the other Inferno before rocking him with two dropkicks and that is enough for the victory. I guess since they are trying to promote this team as dynamic, having them win in such quick order is a good thing, but it felt really anticlimactic.

  A notable upcoming attraction in one of the local events is the aforementioned team of Rhodes and Gang taking on Bass and Graham. What is odd about the booking of this match is that it will be Rhodes who gets five minutes with Humperdink, not Gang, though this is then contradicted by Gang stating that he gets that time. We also get Mulligan and Lightfoot talking about a bunkhouse match with Mosca and Bart, with the CWF production team deciding to dub Mulligan ‘Broken Feathers’ as he begins his interview. It is one of those angles that feels a little near to the knuckle as Mulligan invokes the spirits almost as if he is speaking in tongues. It is a strange sight to see.

  After a commercial break, Solie and Colt talk about the dark power surrounding Kevin Sullivan, highlighted by his arrival into the ring at a recent event. Humperdink is alongside Sullivan, as are two hooded men and a woman wearing chains and little else. The group carry three snakes with them, snakes that are placed on top of Sullivan as he lays in the ring. He then roughs up the woman for good measure. An amazing sight to be seen for this time period and it is easy to understand why Sullivan was so big in the Florida region with this character.

  Sullivan is up next in a match against Golden Boy Grey, but it is massacre as Sullivan jumps him before the bell rings and never lets up. Sullivan send Grey to ringside and throws him at the wooden barricade before bringing him back into the ring. A Samoan drop gives Sullivan the easy victory and he is joined at ringside by Solie, who begins the interview by suggesting Sullivan is slipping further over the edge. Sullivan denies this, yet then spends time talking about feasting with Abudadein after a Hangman’s Noose match with Mulligan and chewing on the beetle nut to gain clarity. Sullivan ends the promo by saying that Abudadein gave him the lock, not the key, to defeating Mulligan, a line that leaves Solie with a confused look on his face as we head to commercials.

  The big main event match is next as Barry Windham, Blackjack Mulligan and Chief Joe Lightfoot going up against Angelo Mosca, Black Bart and Ron Bass. The match begins with all six men brawling in the ring and the heels colliding in the middle after three simultaneous Irish whips. Windham and Mosca officially begin the contest and Windham lands a crossbody which Mosca instantly kicks out of. A sunset flip on Bass shortly afterwards forces Bart to come in and break the pin at two, whilst a Mulligan back elbow has Bass down once more. Lightfoot’s first introduction into the mat sees him try and take on all three men with chops, yet he gets caught in the corner and the momentum has swung in the favour of the heels.

  Humperdink and Graham are down at ringside watching the action and as soon as Lightfoot is thrown out of the ring, Graham attacks him with a chop to the throat. Graham gets into the ring to help team up against Mulligan and Windham, but this has all primarily been a means to get Gang as a face over as he comes down for the save, pretty much taking out all four of the heels single handedly. It was a shame that the match was so short as it looked good on paper, though it isn’t surprising that it was more angle than an actual contest.

  To finish off this week, The Guerreros take on Scott McGhee and Denny Brown, with McGhee and Chavo beginning the contest with some grappling down on the canvas. McGhee throws Chavo out of a top wristlock and is quick to move away when Chavo tries to get a blind tag to Hector. McGhee then manages to fall on an Irish whip into the corner, losing his footing completely and landing on the mat rather than colliding with the turnbuckle. This doesn’t stop him for long as he locks a full nelson on Hector, back body dropping an incoming Chavo whilst still in the hold and then using a slingshot to send the Guerreros into each other.

  Brown is finally into the contest and continues to work over on Chavo, but Bill Alfonso gets distracted by trying to send McGhee back to the corner which allows Hector to come off the top in assisting a back suplex
to give the Guerreros the victory. A spirited little match which would have been better if given more time. Mike Rotunda has been on commentary and as the Guerreros continue to beat on Brown, he hits the ring to fight them off. We get stereo sunset flips into the ring by Rotunda and McGhee, which doesn’t exactly seem the most practical way of getting rid of someone, though it does lead to the Guerreros scurrying away from ringside.

  The last words of the show are given over to Humperdink and Graham, with Humperdink making it very clear (as if it wasn’t already obvious) that the One Man Gang is no longer a member of his stable. Graham tells Gang that if he gets in his way, he’ll end up getting chopped down like a redwood tree.

  A good show and one that was weirdly One Man Gang-centric. I’m intrigued as to where they will go with this storyline, as am I when it comes to what Sullivan might be up to next. Wanting to see the next episode to find out what happens – that has to mean I’m enjoying what I’m seeing.

  World Class Championship Wrestling 14.7.84

  The opening introduction to this week’s episode of World Class has Bill Mercer in the hospital with Chic Donovan and Kevin Von Erich as Mercer tells us we will get an update on Donovan’s condition after the attack by Killer Khan last week. The only match initially mentioned for the card is Kerry Von Erich versus the Missing Link as Kerry seeks revenge following his tag team loss on the last show, but after the opening graphics run, we find out the Buck Zum Hofe will face Kelly Kiniski and Iceman King Parsons is due to go up against Gino Hernandez.