-11/28/85
-From Greensboro, NC & Atlanta, GA
-Hosts are Bob Caudle & Tony Schiavone
-I have to note that one the refs has a uniform that look like yellow radiation suits...with bell-bottoms.
-Match 1: NWA Mid-Atlantic Championship: Sam Houston [c] VS Krusher Kruschev
-Crowd is hot early on, exploding on Houston's punches. Match is clipped to Kruschev giving Houston a backdrop, which Houston takes by landing on his face. Match is clipped again to Houston hitting a bulldog and scoring the pin, but Kruschev's foot is in the bottom rope. Houston celebrates, allowing Kruschev to hit the Sickle, and score the pin and the title, even though Houston's foot was on the rope when he was pinned. Big heat for the finish, but it was clipped too much to get a grip on how good the match was.
-Match 2: Mexican Death Match: Manny Fernandez VS Abdullah the Butcher (w/Paul Jones)
-The ref is on the outside, only way to win is to climb a pole and grab Manny's sombrero. Match is clipped to Abby cutting Manny up with his fork. Manny fights back with a monkey flip (?!), and busting Abby open by taking off his own boot and hitting Abby in the head with it. Match is cut again to Abby almost getting the sombrero, but Manny scores with an uppercut to Abby's nuts to stop it. Manny works over Abby with his belt, and both men bleed heavily. Manny gets a suplex and tries for the sombrero, but Abby stabs Manny IN THE NUTS with his fork. As bad as that is, it won't even take grossest spot of the night here. Manny wrestles a lot of the match without his boots on. Abby misses a charge in the corner, allowing Manny to climb up and grab his sombrero for the win. What I saw was pretty good, and a lot more heated than what “____ on a pole” matches have become over the years.
-Match 3: Texas Bull Rope Match: Ron Bass VS Black Bart (w/JJ Dillon)
-Bass gets JJ for five minutes if he beats Bart. This is pin or submission, as opposed to touching the corners. Double juice again in this match, making it two out of three so far. Bass dominates whatever percentage of the match is shown, and pins Bart after coming off the top rope and hitting him in the forehead with the bell. JJ jumps in immediately to kick off the next match.
-Match 4: Texas Bull Rope Match for a Max of 5 Minutes: Ron Bass VS JJ Dillon
-Even this match is clipped, and yes, JJ blades. Awkward swing from Bass drops the ref, allowing Bart to sneak in, piledrive Bass, and put JJ on top for the pin. Not much here to comment on, except the ref bump was incredibly fake.
-Match 5: $10,000 Arm Wrestling Challenge: Billy Graham VS The Barbarian (w/Paul Jones)
-Graham comes close to winning, only for Jones to nail Graham with his cane to kick off an actual match.
-Match 6: Billy Graham VS The Barbarian (w/Paul Jones)
-Barbarian controls the early going after the attack from Jones. Match is clipped to Graham bleeding heavily (*sigh*), but managing to slap a bear hug on Barbarian until Jones hits Graham again with his cane for the DQ. Graham manages to get a shot in on Jones before being laid out again. Not much here, but why end an arm-wrestling contest and an actual match the exact same way?
-Match 7: NWA National Championship: Terry Taylor [c] VS Buddy Landell (w/JJ Dillon)
-Landell gets a mixed reaction for his fake Flair act. Dillon is not at ringside to start with. Taylor tries to finish with a superplex, but JJ reaches in and trips up Taylor, allowing Landell to fall on top for the pin and the title. Didn't Landell spend a short time in the WWF after Flair left, doing the same gimmick?
-Match 8: NWA National Tag Team Championship: The Minnesota Wrecking Crew [c] VS United States Tag Team Champions Billy Jack Haynes & Wahoo McDaniel
-What's the difference between National Champions and United States Champions? Things do not go well for the Andersons early on. They manage to turn it around, and Wahoo becomes the face-in-peril. Great stuff as Wahoo will fight back with chops, but the Anderson that's in the ring will fall, but hook Wahoo's ankle so he can't make a tag, but they can. Wahoo finally makes the hot tag to Billy Jack, who makes the mistake of immediately tagging out at the first sign of trouble. Ole ends up tripping Wahoo from the outside, and holding his leg, allowing Arn to get on top for the pin to retain.
-Match 9: NWA United States Championship “I Quit” Cage Match: Tully Blanchard (w/Baby Doll) VS Magnum TA
-You might have heard of this match. Good idea to stop the blood for the two matches in Atlanta before this one. One of the Hebners is the ref, and he has more traditional referee's attire. They both BRING THE HATE, and the crowd is just nuts for it. Magnum bleeds everywhere, including all over Tully. As opposed to the other matches that had blood, it actually adds to this match, as Magnum will just not give in to Tully no matter what happens. Both men repeatedly rake the eyes of the other. Baby Doll tosses Tully a wooden chair, which Tully breaks apart to make a spike to drive into Magnum's head. If you know anything about this match, you know how that works out for him. There's a reason this match is so beloved, and if you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to do so. Fortunately, the match appears to be unedited here, and IIRC, it's available unedited on the WWE Bloodbath: Best of the Cage Matches set, if you can find it.
-Match 10: Atlanta Street Fight: The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette) VS Jimmy Valiant & Ms. Atlanta Lively (w/Big Mama)
-The Midnights are in tuxedos, and Ms. Lively is Ron Garvin in drag. Pretty chaotic brawl, as the announcers play it like they believe Ms. Lively is actually a woman, which helps Tony on his quest to become the most gullible announcer ever. The Midnights gets Lively alone for a few minutes, but cannot expose “her”. Lively catches Eaton flying off the top with an uppercut for the pin. Pretty fun brawl, from what I saw. Poor Cornette gets undressed after the pin, exposing his heart covered boxer shorts.
-Match 11: NWA World Tag Team Championship Cage Match: The Koloffs [c] (w/Krusher Kruschev) VS The Rock 'N' Roll Express (w/Don Kernodle)
-Match is contested like a regular tag match, just inside a cage. Challengers work over Ivan early, making quick tags to keep a fresh man in. That breaks down when Ivan manages to drive Gibson head-first into the cage, and Gibson becomes the FIP. Koloffs continually change without tagging, as Morton stupidly keeps distracting the ref. Both teams miss a chance for a pin after Hebner is bumped. Morton finally makes a blind tag, and manages to roll up Ivan for the pin and the titles. The Koloffs kick Morton out of the cage after the pin, and demolish Gibson inside the cage. Match was tag formula without the big finishing sequence, but it was heated and very effective.
-Match 12: NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Ric Flair [c] VS Dusty Rhodes
-Hopefully this works out better than last year. Flair is full-on heel by now, apparently, drawing huge boos for his introduction. Dusty wins an early strike exchange and struts around the ring, causing Flair to step over the barrier and take a walk around ringside. Match slows to a crawl as Flair finally wins an exchange. A Flair kick to Dusty's leg sends Dusty running to the outside, as The Minnesota Wrecking Crew had injured Dusty's foot before this. A REALLY annoying fan keeps “woo” ing (but not like Flair), and yelling for Dusty. He is getting picked up by the mic every time he does it. Flair tries to suplex Dusty, but Dusty is too fat, so Flair can't lift him up. Dusty tries working on Flair's leg, but Flair turns it around on him. Dusty sends Flair into the post on the outside, and Flair blades. Tommy Young is struck on accident, so he misses Flair throwing Dusty over the top (which would have been a DQ), and is late when Dusty catches Flair with the Fat Man's Flying Cross Body, so Dusty does not get the pin. Dusty gets Flair in deep shit, but misses a punt in the corner, and ends up kicking the bottom turnbuckle.
-Flair locks Dusty in the Figure 4, but Dusty just won't quit. Dusty manages to roll the hold over, causing Flair to grab the ropes. Dusty makes a comeback, and Young ends up getting bumped. Dusty gets Flair in the Figure 4, but the Minnesota Wrecking Crew run in to make the save. Dusty ends up getting a small package for the pin and the title, with a second ref counting. Pretty good main event, much better than the previous year's. It would all be for naught, however, as the decision was changed to a DQ as a result of the Andersons' interference, and the title returned to Flair.
-The babyfaces celebrate with Dusty in the locker room.
-Really good show overall from what I saw. Still too much blood on these shows, but at least this time the show had more babyface victories, especially the last four matches, even with the title change being nullified later. Can't say I'd be too interested in seeing an unedited version of this show, as it appears the main matches are largely left alone, with only the undercard getting really snipped.
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