July 1986

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Hawk - Great American Bash 1986 I feel like I have seen this before, but maybe not. This is in Philadelphia and the first stop on the Great American Bash Tour 1986. The hook of the tour was that Flair was going to defend his title 14 times in 30 days. The lead up promos from Flair were perfect...he was an exemplary braggadocios sportsman. Flair was mostly focused on Ricky Morton who he had disfigured and was feuding over his status as a teenie bopper idol and of course Big Dust, but in addition he was throwing some jabs at Hawk. Saying he was going to stretch his neck out and he would be called Big Bird, I think he should h…

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Ricky Morton - GAB 7/5/86 I watched the build for this match and WOW! Does it take this to the next level! Ric Flair came off as the most psychotic bully of all time. Having to wrestle bigger men for most of his career, Flair got a few chance to push someone else around and my God did he milk this chance for everything it is worth. Seeing Flair in this role is something you actually want to see more because it is when he is at his most heelish. There is nothing likeable about a man who goes out of his way to disfigure a man just because he can. It reminds me of Beiber first came out and there was just this violent re…

America’s Team & Baby Doll vs Midnight Express & Jim Cornette - Great American Bash 1986 Steel Cage This is a feud I gotta go back and watch all the promos for. They must be epic. This speaks to the Eaton/Condrey version of the MX being a main event act feuding with the no. 1 babyface Dusty credibly as opposed to Eaton/Lane which were treated more as a work rate midcard act. This had serious hidden gem vibes at the beginning channeling the awesome MX vs Watts/JYD match from Mid-South but the abrupt finish leaves the viewer wanting more. I think they could have done a lot more with Cornette and Baby Doll. Their final showdown was not as dra…

Road Warriors vs Ivan & Nikita Koloff - Great American Bash 1986 Russian Chain Didn’t see the build for this. I feel like Uncle Ivan would have some good promos. This seems like a pretty natural pairing. Hawk/Nikita are a pretty boring duo and just do a bunch of aimless brawling. Ivan makes Animal interesting better selling and actually runs high spots. Ivan bleeds and sells well. Lots of whipping, choking and fists with chain. Ivan low blows Animal. Russians gets a bit of offense. Warriors come back. Finish is ref is bumped...Nikita takes off band and Sickles Animal! No ref! Uncle Ivan goes up top but Ellering shoves him off and crotches him. 1-2-3. This wa…

Tully Blanchard vs Ronnie Garvin - Great American Bash 1986 Taped Fist i don’t think this is for the National Heavyweight Championship as Garvin wins the match but there is no title change. I watched the build for this which occurs after the famous 5/3/86 Worldwide match that some consider the best match in JCP history but I think was a little too long in the tooth and all over the place. Blanchard knocked out Garvin using a Taped Fist (but I think he may had a foreign object too) when Garvin was wrestling Leo Burke. Tully really gloated about this saying Garvin said “No Mas” a popular reference at the time and that fans should be chanting “I Quit” at Garvin not him.…

The footage is labelled incorrectly as 1981. They reference Ric Flair vs Cousin Junior, taking place next week, this took place on 7/17/86

A fight ensues and it's 3 on 3. It settles down into a match. Gordy bumping big early. Hayes and Taylor are at it. Gordy in to inflict some pain. Roberts is continuing the beatdown. Hayes is in and the crowd is rallying behind Taylor. He's been a solid FIP. Hayes eats a boot and we get a hot tag the ref doesn't see. So it breaks down into a free for all. Watts hits Taylor by mistake. Gordy and Hayes try to injure Watts, and they misfire. Match is thrown out as Watts is dropping people with brass knucks. A super heated affair. Gordy is all bloody post match. 3 1/2*

I Loved Littlebrook panomining to the fat person. Littlebrook using his knee as a big weapon. Lang wrapping Littlebrook in the ropes was fun. Match feels more formula.

86 was the year Watts was starting to begin to think Sting had potential. He held the tag belts, he wrestled Watts in a singles, worked a 15 minute match with Taylor, did a lot of 20 plus minute matches vs the Fantastics, and now he has 26 minutes with another young wrestler. Sting here is a lot like Batista. It took both guys time in the ring to develop. For Sting it was Eddie Gilbert, Watts, and Flair to believe in him. For Batista it HHH and Vince. Most importantly both guys were protected in tags surrounded by good workers, and given time to grow. 21 minutes sounds scary as hell here. Gilbert getting heat right off the bat. It's funny watchling this knowing 5 year…

These guys have a history of good matches. Roberts eats a punch and immediately takes a powder. Some back and forth. Roberts ties Taylor in the ropes and is beating on him. A kick by Taylor causes some seperation. In a nice revenge spot Taylor does the same to Roberts. I thought he could have milked the revenge for a bit longer. As the ref unties Roberts, Taylor goes for a cross body. He misses Roberts and hits the rope. This sets up Robert's heat. He's taking his time, measuring his shots. Crowd tries to rally Taylor. Roberts goes to the top without causing enough damage. Taylor catches him, and makes a comeback. He has a decent one for a bit, Roberts cuts him off only f…

This is from Roanoke VA and aired exclusively in Japan on World Pro Wrestling. The video is labeled wrong. It's definitely Roanoke, not Charlotte

Randy Savage & Adrian Adonis vs Tito Santana & Bruno Sammartino - WWF, MSG 7/12/86 Steel Cage Match As we saw in the excellent April No DQ match, that Savage was able to turn that to his favor by nailing the ref to avoid being pinned. It is not that we needed No DQ per se, what was really needed was a troubleshooting ref. Now who in the WWF could walk tall against the Macho Menace. Enter The Living Legend Bruno Sammartino. In May, Tito had a rematch with Savage for the IC Title with Bruno as special guest ref, but Adrian Adonis ran in and helped his newfound friend. This was at the height of Adonis' role in WWF stirring shit with Hogan/Orndorff and right befor…

I'm not sure if this has been available before, it's not on the DVDVR set. Brad Rheingans is the special referee. Buddy Rose & Doug Somers defend the AWA World Tag Team titles. Now available on the 2018 WWE DVD "Shawn Michaels The Showstopper Unleashed" disc one. Talk about it here

Jerry Lawler vs Bill Dundee - Memphis 7/14/86 Loser Leaves Town I don't know the buildup to this one other than it is the rubber match of Loser Leaves Town matches. It is No DQ and not for the Southern Championship. It is the two best gunslingers in Memphis wrestling history have one last shootout at the Mid-South Coliseum. I love how this one starts out brimming with energy and so scrappy. They claim this in its entirety, but it is also clipped missing about 8 minutes. That's what makes all these Loser Leaves Town matches hard to rank. Dundee gains control by hitting Lawler in the Royal Family Jewels with his fist. This match really strikes a chord early how much…

NJPW handheld flood gives us Liger's first shot at the IWGP Jr. Title. Altough this is very different from the matches that would come in the future. Essentially young Yamada is a huge underdog against shootstylist Takada. During the early matwork portion Yamada is super cautious to avoid all of Takada's UWF submissions. Eventually Takada gets sick of this and blasts him with kicks. Takada goes for the Tombstone but Yamada desperately avoids that move aswell. Soon Yamada is selling big and the crowd is going bananas for every offensive move and counter he is able to land. Basic match executed extremely well and really fun to check out a way different Liger.

Ole/Arn Anderson vs Rock 'N' Roll Express (NWA World Championship Wrestling 07/19/1986) Unsure on the exact date as that was the date on the disc. Could have been on Worldwide though. I'm going through Will's tremendous 4 Horsemen set and got to the disc that this match was on. Talk about a hidden gem!! First of all the crowd are as loud and rabid as hell and the Express are over like rover. It's a long TV match too and it doesn't drag. The Anderson's are just great at stooging for the Express but are equally as good at getting all the heat from the crowd when they're in control. It's an excellent heel/babyface tag team match with the Express playing great faces and th…

Hulk Hogan & Paul Orndorff vs Heenan Family (Big John Studd & King Kong Bundy) - WWF 7/19/86 The build to this is tremendous and mostly takes place on the Flower Shop. Adrian Adonis & The Flower Shop were great in 1986. Adonis was the straw that stirred the WWF drink. He was best friends with the Macho Man in their feud with Tito. Of course, the Piper return is iconic. In addition, he was the catalyst for turning Orndorff on Hogan taking innocuous occurrences and playing on Mr. Wonderful's insecurities. The infamous missed phone call and I cant still see Orndorff steaming mad in my head. He looked like one of those cartoon characters all he was missing wa…

AWA World Heavyweight Champion Stan Hansen vs NWA United National Heavyweight Champion Genichiro Tenryu - AJPW 7/26/86 An under-recognized aspect of Stan Hansen's AWA World Title Reign is that it served as a major marketing ploy for the All Japan office after losing dates on Ric Flair & NWA Championship in '86. By having Stan as the World Champion, they were able to consistently book the World Championship Defenses on their tours throughout 1986. Baba must have known slightly ahead of time what Crockett/Flair were doing. I wonder if thats why he negotiated with Verne to do this deal and Verne probably needed the money. By using Hansen instead of Jumbo or Tenryu, …

Ric Flair defends the NWA World Heavyweight title against Dusty Rhodes in a steel cage match. Available on the Great American Bash 86 VHS tape, and the WWE DVD "American Dream: The Dusty Rhodes Story". Talk about it here

Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson face Ole & Arn Anderson in a #1 Contender's match. Previously available in edited form (13:00 shown), on the Great American Bash 86 VHS tape. Complete match available on the WWE DVD "United We Slam: Best of the Great American Bash". Talk about it here

NWA National Heavyweight Champion Tully Blanchard vs Ronnie Garvin - Great American Bash 7/26/86 Taped Fist Match Some people really like their Worldwide contest earlier in the year for the National Title (a Georgia title inherited when Crockett absorbed Georgia). I found to be way too long and all over the place. The narrative was really hard to follow. This was a pretty basic and fun match. It is round-based, three minute rounds. It is treated more like a boxing match. Tully & JJ are the kings of these gimmick gaga matches. They have so many tricks up their sleeves. Tully looks to charge before the bell and is backdropped still in his robe and with the belt aro…

NWA US Champion Magnum TA vs Nikita Koloff - JCP Great American Bash Match #4 Best of 7 Series I thought this was the most acclaimed match of the Best of 7 series, but perhaps it is just the most widely available as this happened on the last show of the Great American Bash Tour 1986. Chad/Soup says Match #6 is the way to go and it looks like the grand finale is also available. This being pro wrestling of course the Russian Heel is up 3-Zip going into Match #4. I thought this was very ok. I cant say I am huge on either of these guys. I like Koloff's look and generally enjoy Soviet/Russians in wrestling, but usually he leaves me wanting more. Since this match is …

Road Warriors & Baby Doll vs Midnight Express & Jim Cornette - Great American Bash 7/26/86 Steel Cage I didn’t know this match existed and I don’t know if there was any build to this besides the Baby Doll vs Corny build at the time. Dusty was squaring off with Flair on this night and Mags was paired with Nikita. I really wanted the Dusty version of this match to be test but I was disappointed. Surprisingly I thought this match was better but still didn’t quite scratch that itch. Cornette cutting a promo at the beginning saying he wants Baby Doll one on one helped get the match off to a better start. I can’t tell if Baby Doll whiffed by accident or o…

WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs Adrian Adonis - WWF, Philly 7/26/86 I don't think you can make an argument that Adonis was the number one heel of 1986 for WWF (Orndorff's monster late 86 puts him over the top), but I think he would be my choice for most important heel. In the summer of 1986, he was Randy Savage's tag partner against Tito Santana & Bruno. Simultaneously, his Flower Shop took over as the premiere WWF talk show and thus he became the lead shit-stirrer. He was the instigator of the dissension between Hogan and Mr. Wonderful. Shortly after this big summer, the Flower Shop vs Piper's Pit feud erupted. I watched pretty much that whole thing …

I just watched the complete version of this match, not the same as Best of Coliseum Volume NIne.. It goes 19:06, which is probably their longest match available. Savage got posted halfway thru and bled a lot!! I'm not good at long reviews, but I would give this around 4**** 1/2 or better.