Posted December 10, 201311 yr comment_5575673 Tyree Pride vs. Cuban Assassin (9/1/86) This is JIP and we don't get a finish. US Tag Titles: The Fabulous Ones (Steve Keirn & Stan Lane) © vs. The Sheepherders (Butch Miller & Luke Williams) (9/1/86) God I love the Fabs coming out to What You Need by INXS. The Fabs do a really good job of working over Luke's left leg early on using double teams and cool submissions. Stan would get too confident and tried to catch Luke in the corner but ran shoulder first into the turnbuckle allowing Luke to tag in Butch where the roughhousing of Lane would begin. Lane would get a tag to Keirn but Bill Alfonso didn't see it and as he was breaking up Keirn & Luke it allowed Butch to use the flagpole. Keirn though would switch with Lane and he would lock in an inside cradle to get the win. Fun little match but I was expecting way better. US Jr. Heavyweight Title: "White Lightning" Tim Horner © vs. The Ninja (Keiji Muto) (9/1/86) Muto has now become a Kendo Nagasaki disciple and is in the early stages of his definitive look. Horner was solid working over Muto's left arm early in the match using his quickness to keep Muto on the mat. Muto would fire back using thrusts to the throat as well as nerve holds as he was mixing in the Nagasaki influence with his New Japan influence. Horner would fight back but Nagasaki would jab him in the ribs on the floor and Muto would capitalize using a backbreaker/moonsault combo to win the title. Decent for what it was. AWA World Heavyweight Title: Nick Bockwinkel © vs. Kendo Nagasaki (9/1/86) Sad that Bock got saddled with Kendo here but at this stage of his run in the AWA he had to work with quite a few loads. Kendo dominated early before Bock made a spirited comeback showing some good babyface fire and as he tried to slam Kendo, Sir Oliver Humperdink tripped him up causing the referee to call for the DQ. Bad finish and a crappy match. The Road Warriors (Animal & Hawk) vs. The Shock Troops (Ed "The Bull" Gantner & Mr. Kareem Muhammad) (9/1/86) The fans went apeshit over the Roadies here. Gantner was a former football player who CWF hoped was going to become the next Luger but he just wasn't any good. Animal was worked over early by the heels as we didn't get the average Roadies domination to start but Animal would slam big Kareem easily before being pulled off the top to the floor. Hawk would eventually get the hot tag and he ran wild on Kareem before the 4-way brawl would begin with Bill Alfonso losing control and calling for more referees and the match was called a DDQ. Another bad match. Bahamas Heavyweight Title: Chris Champion © vs. Kendall Windham (9/1/86) Champion is starting to make the rise up the ladder while Kendall has pretty much already hit his peak and is sliding down. Good pace to start here as both men were quick with Windham throwing some bombs but looking awkward in spots while Champion was good at taking punishment. Kendall would go for the bulldog but Champion would throw him into the referee which knocked him down and as Kendall would finally hit the move he called for the bell DQing Champion. Yet another shitty finish on this show. 2 out of 3 falls match with each fall having a 20:00 time limit for the NWA World Heavyweight Title: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair vs. "The Total Package" Lex Luger (9/1/86) Luger coming out to Back in Black by AC/DC is fantastic. Flair comes out to some theme I have no idea what it is. Luger uses his power advantage to keep Flair on his toes early on and eventually Flair would drop to the floor walking halfway up the aisle to play mindgames with Luger. Luger though kept his advantage and had Flair reeling until he missed a running knee into the corner. Flair then relentlessly worked over the left knee before getting the figure-four leglock with Luger passing out to get pinned giving Flair the 1st fall. Flair started the 2nd fall strong by working over the weakened Luger but Lex came back and got a pin on Flair with his powerslam to even the falls. Luger was still selling his knee but got Flair in a big bearhug where he almost pinned him twice. Flair was now in his comfort zone of selling and bumping down the stretch for a bigger opponent really making the still a little green Luger look like he was on his level. Luger was now getting nearfalls on Flair before Flair locked on a sleeper hold which got the fans going for Lex. Luger would counter with a sleeper of his own and now this has turned into a war of attrition with both men going hard trying to get the win. Luger would post Flair with a few minutes left in the match and Flair finally juiced which brought out more intensity from Luger. Flair though to his credit picked Luger's knee and went back to the figure-four but this time Luger would reverse until it was broken. Luger goes for the bearhug with seconds left in the match but Flair hangs on and the fall ends in a draw. This was easily the best match of Luger's career up to date and Flair was awesome here as usual. Easy nomination to me. Florida Heavyweight Title: Outlaw Ron Bass © vs. Barry Windham (9/1/86) Bass tried to jump Windham at the bell but Barry caught him and made him pay for it by pounding on him inside and outside the ring. Bass though would start working over Windham as TV time ran out which sucked.
