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April 19th, 1985 Centre Paul-Sauvé, Montréal -NWA World Tag Team Champion Jacques Rougeau beat Baron Von Raschke in 14:38 -Richard "Le Magnifique" Charland (w/Frenchy Martin) upsets NWA International Tag Team Champion Rick Martel in 16:26 -The Great Kabuki (w/Eddy "The Brain" Creatchman) beat Afa in 2:54 after interference from Nord the Barbarian -The Sensationals (Billy Robinson & Terry Taylor) vs The Missing Link & The Spoiler is a no-contest after The Sensationals beat down the Link before the Spoiler even made it to the ring. In fact, The Spoiler was nowhere to be seen during the beatdown... NWA International Heavyweight Championship: Terry Funk beat Bob Backlund in 12:57 to retain NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Ric Flair beat Dory Funk Jr in 13:20 to retain NWA International TV Championship: NWA International Tag Team Champion Gino Brito beat Super Strong Machine #1 in 16:25 to retain

A great week of debuts indeed! Looks like 2 Cold Scorpio is gaining some momentum following the Young Lions Cup!

Great to see SMW back as usual! Gonna be fun to work all together in the NWA!

I think it's only the 3rd time. Big Show as involved in all 3 times the ring collapsed.

*Member of WWE Creative team reads hammerva's post* "Hold my beer..."

Good to go!

Indeed! (And hellooooooo, Nanny!!! )

Solid card. Really loved Tenryu vs Fujinami!

To my knowledge, because the Rock N' Roll Express never really wrestled in Canada (at least, not to my knowledge), I don't think that they were a huge draw like Ric Flair was because he was a traveling champion. So, in that aspect, I didn't think that it was a big deal for me to have them work singles, considering that Morton worked his fair shares of singles matches in 1986 as I remember. As for Bock vs Robinson, strictly was to pump up the crowd from the start

The Bulldogs & the Hart Foundation with the early advantage in the Tag Festival!

April 14th, 1985 Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, ON -Nick Bockwinkel beat Billy Robinson (w/Sherri Martel) in 11:56 -Larry Zbyszko beat Rip Oliver (w/Sherri Martel) in 12:58 -Terry Taylor (w/Sherri Martel) beat The Missing Link in 7:38 -Dory Funk Jr beat Butch Miller in 11:01 -Ricky Morton beat Sheik Ali (w/Eddy "The Brain" Creatchman) in 10:08 -Samu (w/Eddy "The Brain" Creatchman) beat Robert Gibson in 13:07 NWA World Tag Team Championship: The Rougeau Brothers beat Frenchy's Legion (w/Frenchy Martin) in 19:31 to retain 10-Men Elimination Tag Team Match: The Bolshevik Revolution, Steve Strong & NWA International Heavyweight Champion Terry Funk beat Bob Backlund, The Wild Samoans & The Hart Brothers (Owen & Keith) in 83:39 with Terry Funk being the sole survivor for his team. Order of Elimination -Steve Strong -Keith Hart -Boris Zhukov -Afa -Owen Hart -Baron Von Raschke -Alexis Smirnoff -Sika -Bob Backlund

Little tweak of the rules on my part, as I extend to 90 minutes (although the 88-minute will probably be the closest I'll ever be to that time limit). I'm pretty sure that back in the day, when they did Martel vs Flair in Quebec City for the AWA & NWA unification title match, it was a 60-minute time limit but I'd have to check the history books about that.

Kevin Nash defended JBL in a tweet today. Basically, saying that he came from an old school era and he fought his way through it and not everyone will like you....You know the schtick. Not surprising that everyone that has defended JBL basically are guys who came up around the same time he did.

NWA Lutte Internationale TV Taped at CHLT-TV Studios, Sherbrooke, QC Broadcasted April 13th, 1985 (After the opening credits, we join Guy Hauray & Édouard Carpentier at the broadcast booth to start the show) Guy Hauray: Good morning, wrestling fans, and welcome to NWA Lutte Internationale TV. As we’re coming closer to the start of the Johnny Rougeau Memorial Cup Tournament, everyone is playing mind games with each other to get the psychological advantage. And in some cases, this will be sorely needed to advance. Édouard Carpentier: Think about this, Guy; in the first round, we get Stan Hansen vs Bruiser Brody and most importantly, Rick Martel vs Andre the Giant. It’s practically impossible, in my view, for Rick to repeat last year’s performance and reach the finals of the tournament. Especially since Andre will be highly motivated to win this. Guy Hauray: Of course, and everyone is ready for this tournament and we had the opportunity to showcase our roster to our United States fans last week. And we’ll show you 2 exclusive matches from this tour; 2 from our final event in Brattleboro, VT. First, later in the show, we’ll see Jacques Rougeau wrestle Mad Dog Lefebvre and to close our episode, we’ll show you highlights of the Gauntlet Match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship featuring Ric Flair, NWA International Heavyweight Champion Terry Funk & Japanese star Super Strong Machine. Édouard Carpentier: This will be a great treat for you, fans at home. This was a spectacular match to close our 3-day tour! Guy Hauray: And speaking of spectacular, we’ll kick off right away with a grudge match set last week with Bob Sweetan meeting Bob Backlund! Match #1 Bob Sweetan (w/Sherri Martel) vs Bob Backlund The broadcast team recap during the early moments of the match the events of the past 2 weeks between the Sensationals and Bob Backlund. An aggressive Backlund takes advantage early and let his pent up frustrations out on the Sensational. Backlund puts on a wrestling clinic in there but Sweetan absorbs everything Backlund can dish out, showing his incredible toughness. Eventually, a miscalculation on a simple kneedrop turns the tide and Sweetan gets the advantage, with the unsolicited but not unwanted help from Sherri Martel. Bob Backlund regains the momentum after Sweetan misses an elbow drop on his own and Backlund with the irresistible comeback. Backlund is able to hit a Sunset Flip on Sweetan but Sweetan maintains his balance – with the help of Sherri Martel – and drops on Backlund, securing the victory when Martel grabs Sweetan’s hands to maintain his leverage! An uncharacteristically angry Backlund doesn’t waste any time to grab Bob Sweetan’s leg and pulls him in the middle of the ring! Backlund is now mounted on Sweetan and pummels him with right hands. Sherri is hysterical, pleading for Backlund to stop and finally, referee Luigi Macera is able to pull off Backlund from Sweetan. Sherri also helps Sweetan out of the ring, and she celebrates with her Sensational, pulling out a questionable but huge win this week. Winner: Bob Sweetan ******COMMERCIAL BREAK******** Guy Hauray: Welcome back to NWA Lutte Internationale TV. We promised you a few matches from our Brattleboro, VT show from last Sunday and it’s time to show you the first of our 2 matches. In this one, NWA World Tag Team Champion Jacques Rougeau took on former International TV Champion Mad Dog Lefebvre in singles action. Knowing the history between both men, it was sure to be a barnburner. Let’s get to the highlights! ****EXCLUSIVE FOOTAGE**** FROM BRATTLEBORO, VT SHOW NWA World Tag Team Champion Jacques Rougeau vs Mad Dog Lefebvre (w/Frenchy Martin) This match features voice-over commentary from Guy Hauray & Édouard Carpentier. Of course, as expected, Mad Dog Lefebvre wasted no time and jumped right away on Jacques Rougeau. Mad Dog worked on Jacques’ lower back, trying to weaken his base and avoid his opponent’s high risk maneuvers. Mad Dog went for a piledriver but things went awry as Rougeau found a way to muster some strength in his lower back and back body dropped Mad Dog. Afterwards, even an interference attempt from Frenchy Martin didn’t help Mad Dog as Jacques neutralized Frenchy on the apron and proceeded to secure a victory following a nice crossbody block. Winner: NWA World Tag Team Champion Jacques Rougeau (5:48) ********COMMERCIAL BREAK******** Match #2 NWA World Tag Team Champion Raymond Rougeau vs Luke Williams The broadcast team mentions the high intensity between both individuals – and teams – in their recent encounters against one another. They make the claim that the Sheepherders might be the greatest threat to the Rougeaus’ reign as NWA World Tag Team Champions. Nevertheless, both Raymond & Williams didn’t hold back as they’ve beaten the living tar out of each other in this match. Williams pushed the limits of the regular match as much as he could in this one and Raymond answered by doing the same, making this a very intense & captivating match for the audience watching in the studios. Raymond thought he had the match won with his Savate Kick on Williams but the Sheepherder kicked out at 2! An incredulous Raymond continued his offense but one quick mistake and Williams hit the Gutbuster on Raymond! Williams also covered Raymond and the roles were now reversed as Raymond kicked out at 2! After a few moments of exchanging momentum, it will take an undetected low blow from Luke Williams followed by a 2nd gutbuster and this time will do the trick for Luke Williams. The broadcast team questions now if it won’t take a stipulation between the Rougeaus and The Sheepherders to have a decisive and definite winner! Winner: Luke Williams ******COMMERCIAL BREAK******** Guy Hauray: Before we conclude this week’s episode, we’d like to show you highlights of the match closing our US tour last week in Brattleboro, VT for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. A 5-men Gauntlet Match for the most prestigious championship in professional wrestling. Édouard Carpentier: And indeed, it was a classic, featuring arguably the two greatest champions in the industry right now in Ric Flair and Terry Funk, as well as Japanese star Super Strong Machine. Who knew if he wouldn’t try some switching shenanigans with his fellow Strong Machines. Guy Hauray: So, before we say goodbye, let’s watch the highlights of this incredible match! ***EXCLUSIVE FOOTAGE *** FROM BRATTLEBORO, VT NWA WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP GAUNTLET MATCH Ric Flair © vs NWA International Heavyweight Champion Terry Funk vs Super Strong Machine vs Rip Oliver vs Sika Obviously, because of the length of the match, it has been clipped and only the key moments of the match are shown, starting with the first moments of the match between Sika and Rip Oliver. The broadcast team doing the voiceovers and they mention that managers were banned from ringside in this one. We jump at the 10-minute mark when Rip Oliver was able to pin Sika following a piledriver. We then see NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair make his way to the ring as the next entrant. Fast forward to the 30-minute mark when Rip Oliver attempts a kneebreaker on Flair but Flair blocks it and somehow trips Oliver. Flair locked in the Figure Four Leglock and Rip Oliver immediately taps out, eliminating him. NWA International Heavyweight Champion Terry Funk is the next man to enter the Gauntlet. People get excited to see the confrontation between the two. Both men will spend the longest amount of time together in the match. The broadcast team puts over the amazing cardio of the Nature Boy as the next clip sends us to the 65-minute mark as Flair has finally locked in the Figure Four on Terry Funk. Funk drags himself near a corner and is able to grab his branding iron. Funk immediately nails Flair with the branding iron, causing his disqualification! Funk doesn’t hesitate and continue his assault on the champion! As the referee pulls away Funk from the Nature Boy, we can see that Flair has been busted open! This opens the door for the final entrant in the Gauntlet, Super Strong Machine #1 to pick up the scraps and pull off the huge win! But as much as the Machine wears down the Nature Boy, the champion shows why he’s just that; the champion. The Nature Boy pulls another rabbit out of his hat as after ducking the Machine Lariat from Super Strong Machine #1, Flair grabs the Japanese in a school boy and gets the victory at the 88th minute! This week’s show ends with Ric Flair celebrating, while shaking hands with the Rising Sun superstar. Winner and still champion: Ric Flair (88:16) À LA SEMAINE PROCHAINE SI DIEU LE VEUT!

Great start to the Tag Festival! Will (probably wrongfully) predict a Machines vs Bulldogs finals!

You almost caught me with Mick Foley joining the Varsity Club. Just the visual of it in my mind was hilarious. Great job!

Holy crap, now that I re-read the show, it does remind me a bit of SuperClash 3!

Man, am I looking forward to see the Rougeaus defend vs Orton & Stevens!

Great cards. Crowd must've popped big time when Magnum hit the belly-to-belly on Kokina!

April 12th, 1985 St. Catharines, ON Mini-event -Gilles "The Fish" Poisson beat Richard "Le Magnifique" Charland (w/Frenchy Martin) in 17:43 -Dory Funk Jr beat Butch Miller in 12:31

Many people from Lutte on the trading block: Wild Samoans, Carlos Colon, Chicky Starr & Hercules Ayala. The Zambuie Express also available. Listening to every offer!

Always been a fan of the "Get Well Wishes" stuff we'd see back then. This is no different here!

Never count out Bock. I'm sure he'll bounce back really soon.

Great main event in Portland. Crowd must've gone nuts for Buddy Rose's victory!

April 11th, 1985 Centre Paul-Sauvé, Montréal -Rip Oliver (w/Sherri Martel) beat Thunderbolt Patterson in 6:34 -Nord the Barbarian (w/Eddy "The Brain" Creatchman) beat Steve Strong in 2:45 -Nikolai Volkoff beat Gilles "The Fish" Poisson in 15:12 -The Spoiler upsets Nick Bockwinkel in 9:55 -The Bolshevik Revolution (Boris Zhukov & Baron Von Raschke) beat The Wild Samoans in 14:05 -The Sheepherders beat The Sensationals (Billy Robinson & Terry Taylor, w/Sherri Martel) in 13:28 Special Attraction: The Rock N' Roll Express beat The Zambuie Express (w/Eddy "The Brain" Creatchman) in 13:05 NWA World Tag Team Championship: The Rougeau Brothers beat The Hart Brothers (Owen & Keith Hart) in 30:44 to retain