May 1986

This is a 5 v. 5 gauntlet challenge, following the spectacular 5 v. 5 elimination tag the previous month. Truly a classic match, with only a couple of down spots keeping it from reaching the heights of the 1984 gauntlet. The match starts out with Takada and Yamada and I enjoyed this juniors shootstyle more then I can ever remember enjoying the more heralded Takada v. Yamazaki match up. Yamada is super fast on the mat and worked around Takada well. We then get three really fun Sakaguchi matches with him chucking around Takada and Yamazaki and getting caught by Kido. Kido showed some great fire in his Sakaguchi match landing a nasty kick to the face, the other two matches l…

Ric Flair defends the NWA World Heavyweight Title HANDHELD FOOTAGE

NWA National Heavyweight Champion Tully Blanchard vs Ronnie Garvin - Worldwide 5/3/86 The whole Crockett absorbs Georgia, Florida and Central States and when they end as separate entities is still a little murky to me. The National Heavyweight Championship was the top Georgia title and it seemed to be active in Georgia through 1984, but was brought into Crockett in 1985. Blanchard has a history of bouncing from title to title. He won the Television Title pretty immediately in arriving in Crockett in 1984 and held it for a long, long time. He dropped it to Dusty at Great American Bash 1985 and then only a couple weeks later turned around and defeated Magnum for the US Cha…

Randy Savage & Bob Orton vs Tito Santana & Paul Orndorff - Championship Wrestling 5/3/86 The finish is very surprising here so I wont spoil it. Savage is great on the apron, stalling and waiting for Orton to get Santana in a comprising position. Santana is great a the fire. Wonderful & Orton are just two pros. The finish will have you going wild!

Hoss (Dory Jr.) Funk looks like he's had enough, and at one point he completely no-sells a JYD headbutt. It's insane to think he still wrestles the occasional match nowadays, even more so when you considered how washed-up and miserable he looked to be wrestling in 1986. Terry Funk is the MVP for his great brawling and bumping. He takes multiple bumps on the concrete surrounding the ringside area. The teaming of Hogan and JYD don't mesh well together. JYD does most the work, with Hogan only having a brief stint as the legal man and he gets involved with the brawling at ringside. The main reason to watch this is Bobby Heenen's brilliant commentary, completely ragging on the…

This is a match that was set up because Rick is Buzz Sawyer's protege. So Buzz wants Rick to cause some damage to Chavo because they meet in the 1st round of the UWF tournament later in the month. Rick Steiner is green here. Though he seems to be developing a character. People remember as this great tag worker . He 1st broke out because of his character work in Crockett with his imaginary friend Alex. The match was ok. Though the post match was where the story was. They end up laying out Chavo. Rick even holds him down and eats the pin.

I am not 100% certain of the date. This aired on World Pro Wrestling in Japan on 9/29/86, WPW Disc 26. If anyone has this episode and can confirm that it is from Charlotte, then it has to be 5/10/86. Let me know. Ugh...it could also be Greenwood SC 5/27/86

Brooks is a 21 year old who has only been in the business a couple of years at this point. A side headlock and arm lever from him as he has some early dominance. Full nelson which Grey breaks and releases himself from and Brooks is back to working the side headlock which Grey handstands and flips his way out of. He tries to throw Brooks, but the youngster cartwheels through it. An arm lever which Brooks nicely escapes from before a back hammer and wristlock by Grey to close out the round. Round two and a quick schoolboy attempt from Grey. A cravat and headmare before a full nelson. Grey whips Brooks into the ropes, he ducks looking for the back body drop but Brooks…

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Kengo Kimura - NJPW 5/16/86 I was immediately happy I watched this match. Remember how I complained in the Inoki/Fujiwara match that they didnt really let Fujiwara be Fujiwara. Well in this match they let Fujiwara be Fujiwara and it fucking ruled so hard. Fujiwara bumrushes Kimura as he is entering the ring. He summarily throws him out of the ring. Then just slams his head into as many hard metal objects as he can. Kimura is gushing blood and Fujiwara is just headbutting him at will. This is glorious! Fujiwara armbar takedown, but Kimura makes the ropes. Kimura is able to mount Fujiwara and hold him by the throat as he punches him. Now this is ha…

The British Bulldogs defend the WWF World Tag Team Titles against Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart. Originally aired on All Star Wrestling 5/17/86. Available on the Network, Vault, Prime Time Wrestling, 1986, June 2nd. Starts at 48:30

Brief but very good match that brought lots of quality matwork. Young Keichii Yamada was really good at shootstyle matwork, no question about it. Yamazaki is a UWF guy himself but Yamada was just overwhelming him here with constant wrestling and staying on him like a terrier until Yamazaki is able to dish out some kicks and catch Yamada in a fast scramble with a suplex. Some cool holds and the constant pressure from Yamada made this really entertaining.

Bless the 1986 handheld video camera gods! Panasonic, we salute you! This wasn't available during the 80s project (I assume?); if it was I'd probably have had it top 30. I cannot tell you how much I loved it, although I will attempt to with many words. I loved it in all of the ways I expected to love it, but also in a bunch of ways I didn't expect. Every matchup rocked. They shake hands early but Fujiwara has no time for Ueda, waving him away because a deviant like that is neither to be trusted nor acknowledged. Then those two started with some rock solid grappling that I honestly did not expect Ueda to have in his locker at this stage of the game. Fujiwara slaps him off …

Arn Anderson defends the NWA World Television Title, aired on NWA Worldwide Wrestling 5/24/86

Available on the Network, Vault, Prime Time Wrestling, 1986, June 16th Starts at 2:00

This is a semi final match. We get an angle right off the bat. Akbar offers Dibiase 25 grand to come back to the fold of Devestation Inc. With the history of Duggan in the ring added a lot to the angle. Dibiase counters 50 Grand and it appears he has signed. Then bam Duggan and Kamala are having a super stiff brawl. Inside and outside the ring they are brawling all over the ring. We go to the finish and Dibiase ko's Kamala. It's a swerve and the crowd goes wild. Great story telling. 3*

They uploaded 3 matches from the UWF tournament in 86. This is the quarterfinal match in the tournament. Jim Ross said in a blog recently that this tournament was great episodic that was perfect for tv. This opens up hot with Dibiase claiming PS stands for Prissy Sissy. Hayes sells this big time and we're off. They open up with a real fun spot, and we get a good shine from Ted. He gets cut off, and Gordy is after the neck. He uses clotheslines, knee drops, snaps the neck on the rope. Gordy even delivers a beautiful looking German Suplex. Then Gordy goes for the Oriental Spike. The drama is great here. Dibiase brawls his way back in and hits an amazing looking power …

This is one of my favorite matchups in the UWF. Here they don't get a lot of time, but both bring hard hitting intensity. Hopefully we get the whole tournament. It doesn't seem fair to judge these matches seperately.

AWA World Heavyweight Champion Stan Hansen vs Curt Hennig - AWA TV 5/31/86 They run a hot angle with Hansen/Blackwell to set up that money feud. Blackwell says he is still injured and Hansen calls him a coward then attacks him with the belt. Hennig saves with red hot energy, great punches and an awesome dropkick. Hansen bumps to the outside. Hennig keeps up pressure, but Hansen sends him into post. Hansen takes this opportunity to attack Blackwell's injured ankle with a chair. Hansen throws Hennig in the ring. They have a badass sprint where they just go balls to wall with each other. Hennig looks great fighting fire with fire with Hansen. The transitions are a bit ha…