-7/6/85
-From Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, NC
-Hosted by Gordon Solie & Bill Apter
-Calling the matches is Tony Schiavone
-Match 1: Buddy Landell (w/JJ Dillon) VS Ron Bass
-Match is cut to Landell and Dillon taking turns working over Bass on the outside. Referee Sonny Fargo is wearing bell-bottoms. Bass finally fights back. Back to the outside, Bass makes the mistake of going after Dillon, but Landell can't really take advantage, then the bell rings, I'm assuming for a time limit draw. Bass manages to get the claw on Dillon before Landell can pull him away.
-Match 2: National Tag Team Championship: The Minnesota Wrecking Crew [c] VS Buzz Sawyer & Dick Slater
-Challengers jump on the champions before the bell rings. Match looks to be severely clipped. Sawyer has Arn pinned, but Ole comes in with an elbow drop, and gets a really weak pin to retain the titles.
-Match 3: Manny Fernandez, Sam Houston, & Buzz Tyler VS Billy Graham, Abdullah the Butcher, & The Barbarian
-Barbarian takes some punishment from Tyler & Fernandez. Match is cut to Houston getting beat on by all three heels, and this appears to go on for quite a long time. Barbarian gets a big chop to Houston's throat, and Graham trips over the ropes trying to get in to make the pin. Pier six brawl leads to Houston pinning Graham with a small package for the huge upset.
-Match 4: Dog Collar Chain Match: Paul Jones (w/Abdullah the Butcher) VS Jimmy Valiant (w/Buzz Tyler)
-As Tyler gets the chain on Jones, Valiant is jumped by Abby. Jones opens up Valiant for the first color of the night. Cut to Jones blading off some really fake-looking punches from Valiant. Jones runs into Abby, and Valiant gets the pin off an elbow drop. Abby attacks Valiant after the bell.
-Solie talks about the NWA VS AWA Tag Team Champions match being the closest thing to World War 3.
-Match 5: NWA Tag Team Championship: Ivan Koloff & Krusher Kruschev [c] VS AWA Tag Team Champions The Road Warriors
-Match is clipped to show Hawk dominating Ivan. It takes me until Kruschev is really shown for more than a couple seconds to realize that Kruschev is Barry Darsow. Road Warriors are thwarted in their attempt to finish Koloff with a super powerslam by Animal, and Hawk grabs a chair from Kruschev and goes to town, drawing the DQ. The Russians are also DQ'd for some reason, making this officially a draw.
-Match 6: NWA United States Championship: Magnum TA [c] VS Kamala (w/Skandar Akbar)
-Kamala lands some hard chops early. Magnum turns the tide, and seeing Kamala run from him is pretty funny. Match is clipped to Kamala busting Magnum open, and punishing him. Magnum kicks out of the big splash to a big pop. Magnum finally gets his big comeback, dropping Kamala after three dropkicks, and Akbar runs in for the DQ. Magnum gets the belly-to-belly on Kamala to thwart a post-match attack.
-Solie & Apter talk about “The Red Menace” of Communist Russia wanting to dominate athletics, including pro wrestling. Orders from the Kremlin state that Nikita has been chosen to be World Champion, and that his road to Moscow must be paved with gold. Really good pre-match video package for this one.
-Match 7: NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Ric Flair [c] VS Nikita Koloff (w/Ivan Koloff) Special Guest Referee: David Crockett
-This is the show where Flair makes his entrance via helicopter, which gets more awesome every time I see it. Crockett calls the match down the middle, despite being attacked by Nikita previously, which is shown in the pre-match video. Flair does a really obvious blade job after getting sent into the ring post on the outside, making it four straight matches with blood (Kruschev bladed during the post-match brawl after the tag title match). Match gets wild as Nikita shoves Crockett down, Ivan tries to interfere but hits Crockett, then a fan jumps into the ring and tries to tackle Nikita. No disqualification for any of this, BTW. Finish is the same as Michaels/Santana from WrestleMania VIII, as Nikita tries to slam Flair, who grabs the top rope, and falls on top of Nikita for the pin to retain. The Koloffs attack Flair as an announcement is made to keep the fans from rushing the ring. The Koloffs hit the Russian Sickle on Flair and fight off a couple of attempts from babyfaces to save Flair.
-Match 8: NWA Television Championship Cage Match: Tully Blanchard [c] (w/Baby Doll) VS Dusty Rhodes
-Tully is the longest reigning TV champion at this point. This was set up by Blanchard throwing fire in Dusty's face. Tully has also but up the services of Baby Doll for 30 days. Dusty blades after getting rammed into the cage, meaning the last five matches all had blood in them. Tully returns the favor. Baby Doll hands Tully a loaded elbow pad, but before he can use it, Dusty hits an awkward piledriver for the pin, the title, and Baby Doll.
-Hard to really say anything about this show, since what I have is a home video release that was cut down to one hour. Looked like it was decent enough from what I saw.
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