-Surprise!
-The card that they’ve been promoting on the last few WTBS shows was actually taped for Japanese television. This isn’t the full card; Japan pretty clearly limited this to the guys that Japanese viewers would care about, but it leaves us with a solid hour and 20 minutes.
-A word of explanation: this is a weird concept for a card, because it’s based on something happening in another territory. Up in Mid-Atlantic, the tag team titles had to be vacated, and because somebody was feeling really cute, we didn’t settle it with a one-night house show card or a series of matches on TV. We spent FIVE MONTHS filling the vacant titles in a convoluted concept where a bunch of territories would have smaller tournaments to crown regional winners, and then divisional winners, and then the Eastern tag team winners would face the Western tag team winners to crown the new champions. So nobody is actually winning a Tag Team Title tonight.
TAG TEAM TITLE TOURNAMENT: MISTER TENRYU & JUMBO TSURUTA vs. RICK HARRIS & THE STOMPER
-Harris backs Tenryu into the ropes, but Tenryu takes him down into a side headlock and makes the tag. Jumbo gets caught in a wristlock by Harris. Omni looks pretty full but they’re in a tight spot because it’s heels vs. guys that the crowd isn’t familiar with, so they’re pretty quiet.
-Stomper tags in and stomps. Sooooooo predictable. He works the arm over, and then Harris tags in and works the arm over and everyone seems to be in agreement that working the arm over is the direction this match should proceed with. Running knee by Jumbo turns the tide, and he follows with a series of uppercuts to get the crowd’s attention. Double chops by the Japanese contingent.
-Stomper tags in and goes nuts on Tenryu with forearm blows, taking it to the floor. Back in, Stomper stomps, which his opponents really generally should have strategized for a bit more. It’s not like it’s a surprise. Harris tags in and continues unleashing striking blows on Tenryu, then rams him into the turnbuckle. Double boots by the heels, but then Jumbo tags in and unloads on Harris. Jumbo applies an abdominal stretch, and we do NOT need Gorilla Monsoon to tell us he’s applying it wrong. The kneeling position is the first clue.
-Stomper slams Jumbo and Harris strikes a few more times, but Jumbo chops him down and brings Tenryu back in. Enziguiri by Tenryu, and he goes for another weird version of the abdominal stretch, but Stomper breaks it with a surprise attack. Jumbo tags in and hits a belly-to-back suplex. 0 for 1. They kept it moving but it was a video game match. Do a move, do a move, do a move, do a move, pin.
TAG TEAM TITLE TOURNAMENT MATCH: MISTER TENRYU & JUMBO TSURUTA vs. BAD, BAD LEROY BROWN & RON FULLER
-Jumbo and Leroy have a test of strength. Jumbo turns it into a waistlock, but Leroy butt-butts his way out of that. Tenryu tags in and Leroy traps him in an armbar. Tenryu breaks free with a kneelift and a series of chops, but it turns out Leroy is up for that battle and fires away with his own chops. This is some pretty adept crowd working by Tenryu. The Japanese team were the defacto faces in the last match, but now Tenryu is acting incredibly pissy about Leroy being willing to match him chop-for-chop and turns himself heel by doing so. He goes for a flying headscissors, but Leroy is so big that he can’t be flipped, and the crowd laughs at Tenryu for the attempt.
-Jumbo tags in and rams a knee into Leroy, but Leroy goes back to the chops because they were working. Fuller enters the ring and drops a series of rapid-fire elbows, and it’s pretty ridiculous how fast Fuller moves for a guy that tall. Japanese team decides to work the leg, and the crowd sounds super-worried after only about 30 seconds of that. We get a classic spot, the hot tag that the referee doesn’t see, and the camera cuts to the perfect fan in that moment, a woman who just hits the roof about the fact that the referee is disallowing the tag.
-Jumbo applies a half-crab, and then drops rapid elbows exactly the way that Fuller had done earlier, targeting the leg…and the bell suddenly sounds. The referee is calling the match for injury and awarding the win to Jumbo and Tenryu! Fuller protests the decision but can’t even stand up without assistance, proving the referee’s point. Pretty good bit of business, complete with a story. 1 for 2.
TAG TEAM TITLE TOURNAMENT MATCH: MISTER TENRYU & JUMBO TSURUTA vs. OLE ANDERSON & STAN HANSEN
-Ole and Stan are heels but the fans are so damn mad about the last match that they aren’t forgiving Tenryu & Tsuruta, so right away, this match has big Norm MacDonald “Everybody involved should die” energy.
-Ole and Stan gang up on Tenryu right away, and Hansen applies a chinlock, wringing it hard and shaking Tenryu’s head with it. I appreciate little touches like that so it doesn’t just look like the guys are leaning on each other and taking a coffee break.
-Ole tries a neck vice, but Tenryu rakes the eyes to get out. Jumbo tags in and takes on both opponents. Hansen shakes off the cobwebs and backdrops him. Ole tags in and gets into a slugfest, which Jumbo wins. Hansen isn’t letting him get away with that shit and just tags in and lariats Jumbo into a quivering pile of goo and pins up. Short match, but great pace and fun to watch. 2 for 3.
TAG TEAM TITLE TOURNAMENT FINALS: OLE ANDERSON & STAN HANSEN vs. BRISCO BROTHERS
-Ole and Jerry start off. Briscos take turns working over Ole with a side headlock. Ole drives knees into Jerry. Hansen tags in and drives knees into the stomach that look like he’s not holding back at ALL. If they don’t hurt, then Stan is an absolute artist. He applies a stomach claw, and Jerry fights out immediately with rapid left hands. Ole tags in to block Jerry from getting to his brother. Jerry makes it anyway, but Ole is ready for him, hoisting Jack off the mat and applying a bearhug.
-Jack punches out, but the heels have a target now and go after the lower back with everything they have. We get ANOTHER hot tag that the referee misses, and you gotta be careful with that crap on a card like this. Jerry finally makes the hot tag but gets overwhelmed by the Get Off My Lawn Connection in short order.
-Ole applies a standing armbar, but Jerry fires kick after kick at the legs until Ole gives out and collapses. Hansen gouges Jerry’s eyes from the outside to stop him from getting any kind of edge from that, then tags in and applies a wristlock. Jerry won’t say die and keeps striking the knee until he finally makes it to Jack for the hot tag. Jack takes on both opponents, and Ole looks ripe for the pickings, but we get all four men in the ring. Referee struggles to restore order and Hansen hits a lariat behind his back, allowing Ole to get the pin, and Ole & Stan win the tournament and $25,000. 3 for 4. These guys were FEELING it.
PWF HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: GIANT BABA (Champion) vs. TERRY GORDY
-Jumbo Tsuruta & Mister Tenryu come to ringside to huddle with Baba and chat with him about something. The match is preceded by the reading of a written proclamation declaring that NWA President Jim Crockett has given his approval for this match to happen. Whew. Good.
-Both guys size each other up and take turns taking shots at each other. Baba manages to get Gordy in a side headlock, and we get comfy with that. Gordy shifts his weight in that position until he gets free and fires punches, but he misses a charge into the ropes, and Baba chops him down for two. Gordy is FLYING for all of these bumps, pretty clearly trying to compensate for…well….More chops from Baba. Gordy seemingly attempts to ram Baba into the turnbuckle, but somehow rams Baba’s head into the rope, and the “action” goes to the floor.
-Baba rams Gordy into the post, then brings him back in for an attempted neckbreaker, but Gordy blocks. Russian legsweep by Baba gets two. Gordy throws punches, and he’s doing the “minute 53” selling less than ten minutes into the match. Elbow off the second rope by Gordy gets two. Half-nelson is countered by a hammerlock from Baba. THey slug it out some more, and Terry goes for a piledriver, but Baba backdrops out. Boot by Baba, but Gordy catches him coming off the ropes with an abdominal stretch, which Baba hiptosses out of. Baba applies his own, but Gordy escapes from that. But he can’t escape a big boot to the face, and Baba gets the pin to retain. 3 for 5. The “he needs 15 minutes to warm up” line about Greg Valentine actually seems to apply to Baba, because he was a bloody awful wrestler for the first seven minutes and it’s like a light switch got flipped for the last four. Still, it wasn’t great, and Gordy was pretty clearly trying to make up for something he knew this was lacking.
NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: RIC FLAIR (Champion) vs. HARLEY RACE
-Harley comes out swinging and Flair fights back with a knee as they completely skipped the feeling-out process and skipped straight to the good part for this match. Piledriver by Harley ninety seconds into the match, and it gets a two-count. He snapmares Flair into a chinlock. Flair fights out and snapmares Harley himself. He drops a knee, but Harley rolls out of the way and applies an Indian deathlock. Flair slips out and lights into Harley with punches.
-Harley gives Flair a right hand and Flair tumbles right over the top and onto the concrete. Harley follows him out there and goes for a falling headbutt, but Flair rolls and Harley hits concrete. Flair rams him into the barricade. Harley tries to re-enter the ring, but Flair catches him on the apron and rams him into the post. Harley collapses down to the concrete, and his arm is bleeding. I appreciate that. There are multiple areas of the body that bleed, actually, and it’s not like the arm is less interesting than the forehead. Spread the damage around more of your body.
-Back in, Flair drops an elbow for two. Harley comes back with a suplex and a diving headbutt, but hurts himself with it. Flair blades and Harley headbutts him and headbutts him and headbutts him, targeting the wound. Flair fights back with right hands, but one errantly thrown punch takes out referee Nick Patrick. Harley dumps Flair to the floor and they brawl out there. Patrick regains his bearings and tries to break up the fracas, but Harley gets sick of him too and rams him into the post. Scrappy McGowan comes to ringside, but Harley kicks his ass too, and Nick Patrick regains consciousness just long enough to ring the bell before Harley beats the hell out of him some more. 4 for 6. Not their best work, but there was no way this was going to be a bad match.
