-Originally aired June 1, 1986.
-Your host is Jim Ross.
-We kick things off with a Ted DiBiase/Steve Williams music video set to “Born in the USA.” Imagine spending this much time assembling clips and piecing them together in a cogent way on ’80s linear video editing equipment and STILL not being able to figure out that this song isn’t what you think it is.
KOKO B. WARE vs. GUSTAVO MENDOZA
-Mendoza backs Koko into a corner while JR recaps Koko’s high school football career. Koko avoids a corner charge and hits the missile dropkick out of nowhere, knocking Mendoza cold and pinning him. Looks great on the slo-mo replay too. Koko gets absolutely swarmed by kids as he heads back to the locker room and you can easily see why he got Vince’s attention.
BRAD ARMSTRONG vs. ONE MAN GANG (with Skandar Akbar)
-From Houston, which awwwww, crap, means we have to listen to Paul Boesch on commentary.
-Armstrong dodges Gang’s early attempts at offense, then stings him with a right hand, and Gang looks stunned that he’s getting off to such a bad start with the little guy. Gang manages to back Brad into the ropes and club him down. Brad targets the arm to stop Gang’s offense, wringing the arm and holding onto it for dear life. Boesch notes that the referee is asking Gang if he wants to capitulate in the hold, so I guess Bob Backlund is in his headset for this match.
-Gang clotheslines Armstrong down, then hoists him up by the neck and drops him. Gang drops to the mat with an armbar, and I’ve never seen him do a submission hold like this. Funny moment as the referee uses Gang’s head to maintain his own balance and Gang asks him what the hell he’s doing.
-Armstrong manages to get to his feet while Gang is still applying the hold, so Armstrong just leans forward, which makes it a pinning combo and he gets a one-count on Gang. Gang get him back down on the mat and works the arm some more, and this is a very different match for One Man Gang.
-Gang tries for an avalanche but meets an empty corner and Brad just lights into him with everything he has. Armstrong actually manages to execute an atomic drop, but he absolutely wrecks his own back and knee doing it, which gives Gang time to recover, and Gang hits a gourdbuster to finish. That turned out to be a pretty good bit of business.
-We revisit the Russians’ assault on Bill Watts.
NWA WORLD TITLE: RIC FLAIR (Champion) vs. JAKE “The Snake” ROBERTS
-Jake’s been in the WWF for two months, so I’ll leave it up to you to guess who wins this match and why they’re airing it.
-Before the bell, Flair mocks Jake for wearing a t-shirt and pajama pants and gets in his face about wearing such a crappy outfit, but he gets too close to Jake and Jake just DDTs him, and Flair is out cold!
-Jake BEGS the referee to ring the bell and start the match, but the referee refuses to start the match with one man flat on his back and motionless, and will not start the match until Flair is back on his feet. And Flair just lies there like a mackerel and shows no sign of waking up any time soon, so we go to a commercial while we wait.
-Back from commercial, we fast-forward to about five minutes into the match, according to Joel Watts, and Flair has a sleeper applied on Jake. Jake runs to the corner and rams Ric into the turnbuckle to break it. Jake applies a figure four, which Joel deems a weird choice because Jake isn’t known for leg power and Flair is an expert in that hold.
-So Flair successfully reaches the ropes and forces the break. Jake unleashes a series of punches, but Flair fights back with chops. Jake hulks up and applies his own sleeper, but Flair fights out with a back suplex. Flair heads to the top rope, but comes down the usual way. Jake goes for a kneelift, but Flair sweeps the leg and Jake lands on his head. Jake tries to make the best out of being on the mat and grabs onto Flair for an inside cradle, and they roll back and forth, trading reversals until Flair finally ends up on top and cinches on for dear life to get the three-count, so it’s a clean win but Flair looks like he got incredibly lucky. Flair was Flair and Jake made the best of his main event shot. Great match.
