Tully vs Dusty

 

Tully is just feeding Dusty early. Dusty being Dusty. He works Tully's leg. Flair on commentary. Tully is selling the ankle big as we go to commercial. Dusty just working over the leg. Tully is great at putting over the leg work. The heels finally turn the tide and attack Dusty's ankle. The psychology is really great here. The crowd is totally into this. This was great and an easy nomination.

WWW 3/15-3/22/1986

National Heavyweight Title: "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes © vs. Tully Blanchard (3/4/86)

Ric Flair is on commentary here which is a nice touch and he isn't full on heel as yeah he favors Tully but he is an analyst too. Dusty is dominant early and Tully does a great job of selling and bumping for him with the crowd going nuts for everything. Dillon is great trying to help Tully at ringside by massaging his leg and whatnot. Tully would take advantage of a mistake by Dusty and immediately started working over Dusty's bad ankle which was sound psychology. Tully got the Figure-Four on Dusty and the crowd was apeshit for Dusty here as he reversed it and got out but was still limping bad although he was firing away with some offense. Dusty tried to slam Tully but his leg gave way so Tully was able to go back on offense even hitting the Slingshot Suplex but Dusty kicked out. Dusty made yet another comeback locking on the Sleeper Hold on Tully then Dillon who pulled something out of his pocket and dropped it in the ring. Tully picked it up and tried to hit Dusty but he was backdropped over the top rope to the floor. Flair then got up and put the object on Tully's hand who would hit Dusty with it as he was being brought back into the ring with Tully winning the title. This was eerily similar to Savage hitting Santana with the knux a couple of weeks earlier for the IC Title. Baby Doll then got attacked after the match by the Horsemen until the babyfaces cleared the ring. A helluva match and a wild angle afterwards also with a Tully gloating promo makes this whole thing a very easy nomination.