Mike Davis vs. Denny Brown - Really vanilla match only notable for the finish. Mike Davis does a really nice pinning belly to back but Brown lifts his shoulder at three.

 

Mr. Ito vs. Brian Adidis - Nothing horrible but nothing worth getting excited over. Adidis wins with an airplane spin in short order.

 

Jesse Barr vs. Mike Graham - This has nothing on the Chavo-Barr match from Houston. Graham applies a really horrible Indian Deathlock. There were tons of restholds in this match but neither guy really worked the holds. I don't mind headlocks but work the motherfucker. Hot ending with Barr using the ropes for a pin. No vote on my end.

 

Zambuie Express vs. Assassin 1 & Buzz Tyler (Tag Team Elimination Match) - Bad Match with count out eliminations giving Assassin & Tyler the win.

 

Dusty Rhodes Interview

 

Black Bart vs. Ragin' Bull Manny Fernandez (Anything Goes Brass Knux Title Match) - Slow to get started with both guys acting tentative in the early going. The crowd is going nuts and the only thing these guys are doing is punching the shit out of each other. Bart gets his ass beat until he gives a blatant low-blow in front of the ref to reinforce the idea that there are no rules. A shitty ending but the match was fun just watching them punch each other. I'll nominate it and see where it goes.

 

Ricky Steamboat Interview

Tully Blanchard Interview

 

Jimmy Valiant vs. Paul Jones (Tuxedo Street Fight) - I don't think I'll nominate this match but I might make the entire Valiant-Jones feud a big extra.

 

Ric Flair Interview

 

Dick Slater vs. Ron Bass - Not as good as the Slater Tag from Starrcade 1983 or the awesome Slater matches from Mid South. No vote from me.

 

Ivan and Nikita Koloff vs. Ole Anderson & Keith Larsen - at the time, Nikita was a monster so the early portion has Larsen and Ole working Ivan over & preventing him from tagging Nikita. The entire match consists of working over Ivan's arm and constantly tagging in and out. When Nikita finally tags in, he puts Ole in the bearhug and a nice spot sees Ivan coming off the top rope while Ole is in the bearhug to try and edn the match but Ole plays face in peril which is the wierdest thing I have ever typed. I have mixed feelings on this match. None of the offense was particluarly interesting but the story was. I'll nominate for discussion but I won't go to the wall for it.

 

Tully Blanchard vs. Ricky Steamboat - This will end up in the Top end of my ballot regardless if we split up the NWA section or not. I loved Steamer's leg chop to the head from the corner and the slingshot suplex. I thought the backdrop suplex w/ foreign object would have been the ending but they kept going for another 5 minutes. Just a great match, one of Tully's best. Easy nomination.

 

Superstar Billy Graham vs. Wahoo McDaniel - Wahoo makes short work of Superstar and it is tragic to see how quick the former champions fall.

 

Interview w/ Japanese Guy, Joe Frasier & Kyle Petty

 

Ric Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes - Decent match between the two but the ending is absolute shit that has been talked about for years. I won't nominate this.

Mike Davis vs. Denny Brown

 

Really wish Les Thorton had still been holding the Junior belt, as that would be better then this, still this was fine undercard scientific wrestling

 

Mr. Ito vs. Brian Adidis

 

It was Lee's birthday, I wasn't subject him to that

 

Jesse Barr vs. Mike Graham

 

This was fine, I really liked Barr stepping on the bottom rope to get leverage, still Graham sucks, and this isn't going to make a set or anything

 

Zambuie Express vs. Assassin 1 & Buzz Tyler (Tag Team Elimination Match)

 

Why was the Assassin a face? I mean what the fuck. I remember Kareem Muhammed had a nice punch, and Lee got nostalgic watching Buzz Tyler, but not a vote or anything

 

Black Bart vs. Ragin' Bull Manny Fernandez (Anything Goes Brass Knux Title Match)

 

This was fine, and it did have good punches, but nothing about it really struck me as special, and I can't imagine that there aren't dozens of better Manny matches. No vote for me

 

Jimmy Valiant vs. Paul Jones (Tuxedo Street Fight)

 

I love Jimmy Valiant, but I don't want to watch him wrestle or anything

 

Dick Slater vs. Ron Bass

 

This was fine, Slater's Funk shtick is weird as a face, did they say that Jackie Fargo was reffing this? Still nothing worth a second look

 

Ivan and Nikita Koloff vs. Ole Anderson & Keith Larsen

 

I really dug this match. Ole doing all of his work the arm shitck as a face was great, and Larson as generic jobber who is fighting above his head for his family ruled. Kept Ivan and Ole in the match for the most part, and Ole was a great face in peril, I especially loved his awesome chinbreaker break of the bearhug. The finish was awesome with Nikita absolutely nuking Kernodle on the outside, destracting the ref so Ivan could use the chain. Don wasting the Russians with the crutch was great too. YES YES YES

 

Tully Blanchard vs. Ricky Steamboat

 

Man was Tully fucking him up with forign object shots. Steamboat is really great at selling a floating rib injury, and I thought all of Tully's in ring cat and mouse stuff was great too. Great match, absouletly makes a disc, but I may have actually liked the previous tag more.

 

Superstar Billy Graham vs. Wahoo McDaniel

 

Wahoo had some nice chops, but this was a total waste of him

 

Ric Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes

 

Dusty coming into Purple Rain was fucking spectacular, I was enjoying this match, especially the great punches by Flair, but the ending hurts it. I don't mind a blood stoppage finish, but Frazier really should have stopped it after the first posting or Dusty should have bladed more, it just felt weird that he stopped it when he did. Finish is also really hurt by them not getting to run the planned Frazier v. Dusty match which I am sure would have been awesome

Sonny Fargo was the ref

The Night of Way Too Many Championship Belts. But this was a nice way to finish up my birthday, so thanks Phil!

 

Mike Davis vs. Denny Brown

 

Mike Davis slipped in a few dick-ish moves that made this match kind of fun.

 

Mr. Ito vs. Brian Adidis

 

Even watching this in fast-forward, it looked like Mr. Ito was standing still waiting for Brian to execute his moves. Getting to skip this was better than an ice cream cake, though.

 

Jesse Barr vs. Mike Graham

 

Jesse Barr did have some nice moves. I was kind of interested to see Mike Graham after the youtube clip of the Freebirds beating him up after his dad's suicide. I think the Freebirds were right.

 

Zambuie Express vs. Assassin 1 & Buzz Tyler (Tag Team Elimination Match)

 

This was a pleasant surprise. I have fond memories of Buzz Tyler from growing up watching Central States wrestling, so I was happy, even if I didn't recall Tyler channelling the Boogie Woogie Man quite so much. The Assasin as a face was odd. The three-way elimination was a super-crappy and confusing ending.

 

Black Bart vs. Ragin' Bull Manny Fernandez (Anything Goes Brass Knux Title Match)

 

I think Manny furrowed his brow in concentration for a moment as the match began and started bleeding a gusher. Nothing special here otherwise.

 

Jimmy Valiant vs. Paul Jones (Tuxedo Street Fight)

 

Paul Jones's Dracula cape was very nice.

 

Dick Slater vs. Ron Bass

 

The referee made the most compelling move in this match when he stopped Slater from stomping Bass on the ropes. Slater was fun to watch in the opening minutes, but this match didn't do much for me either.

 

Ivan and Nikita Koloff vs. Ole Anderson & Keith Larsen

 

This was a great and fun match on many levels. The extended heel-in-peril segment with Ivan was done well, with lots of quick tags from the Norweigan-Americans. Face Ole worked his usual heel offense with all the arm-wrenching on Ivan. Then there was an extended face-in-peril segment with Ole rather then Keith. It was so kind of the folks calling this match to leave the heavy lifting to the actual good wrestlers. The Russian sickle to Kernodle came out of nowhere and was so nice. I forgave the crippled Kernodle's quick recovery after enjoying Kernodle's fury in beating the Russians with his broken crutch. This is definitely worthy of nomination when the time comes.

 

Tully Blanchard vs. Ricky Steamboat

 

This was a fine match, even though I liked the previous one better. Tully's antics were great as usual. I especially liked the foreign object being blocked and then used soon after while Tully was up in the suplex. And then not getting the pin right then. So a fine match, perhaps could have been longer. I was getting tired too and was fading in and out on Phil's comfy sofa, so that might have tempered my enthusiasm.

 

Superstar Billy Graham vs. Wahoo McDaniel

 

I'm not sorry I missed this one.

 

Ric Flair vs. Dusty Rhodes

 

Ditto, I imagine.

NWA World Jr. Heavyweight Title: Mike Davis © vs. Denny Brown

 

This starts out with some scientific type action and they do the troupe where Davis holds the ropes open for Brown after he crashes to the floor so you expect something is coming soon. Brown throws some good forearms here and Davis is fine dictating the action but there isn't anything special going on. Davis would hit a backdrop suplex hold on Brown for the pin but his shoulders were down and Brown was awarded the title even though ring announcer Tom Miller announced Davis the winner. The fans were confused as well and finishes like this would do that. Davis did congratulate Brown on his win afterwards though. Serviceable match.

 

Tony Schiavone is in Ric Flair's dressing room just like the previous year and he lets us know that.

 

Brian Adias vs. Masao Ito

 

This match has been sent from Championship Wrestling from Georgia and Adias gets a good pop with Solie saying this should be a classic confrontation. Very short match with Adias winning with an airplane spin and Adias had that lowgrade Mike Rotundo vibe going on for years so that finish made sense.

 

Florida Heavyweight Title: Jesse Barr © vs. Mike Graham

 

This match has been sent from Championship Wrestling from Florida and Graham also gets a good pop from the JCP crowd. These two started working holds immediately as you would expect from them as they were noted amateurs but it felt like they were doing shit just for the sake of doing it. Graham tried to do some stuff working the leg but they quickly transitioned back to Barr being in control twice. Barr loved working the side headlock and it just wasn't doing anything for me although the crowd was behind Mike though. Graham would finally lock on the figure-four leglock but Barr would get to the ropes quickly to break free. Barr would throw Graham right into Earl Hebner where he missed an inside cradle by Graham but Hebner would get up with both men now trading cradles until Barr took out Graham's legs and put his feet on the ropes to pin Mike. This was decent and easily the best match so far but that isn't saying much.

 

Elimination Match: The Assassin & "Avalanche" Buzz Tyler vs. The Zambuie Express (Mr. Elijah Akeem & Mr. Kareem Muhammad)

 

Assassin as a babyface was always a hoot and he actually did pretty good in the role. Tyler getting over shaking his legs was hilarious to me and I never got how folks got into him just for doing that. Nothing pretty here as these guys were just mauling each other with Tyler & Akeem getting counted out and then Assassin pinning Kareem to win the match. Caudle & Solie had no idea what was going on here as they thought Muhammad was the only one eliminated before finally figuring it out. What a clusterfuck this was.

 

Schiavone is in Dusty's dressing room now and Dusty cuts a fun ass promo.

 

No Rules No Time Limit Match for the Brass Knuckles Title: Black Bart © vs. Manny Fernandez

 

A match like this you don't want a match like Barr vs. Graham, you want a fucking fight and it took these guys a little bit to get warmed up but hot damn these guys started teeing off like crazy. Bull juices first and he is leaking like crazy which again is what you want here as Bart is biting his head like a vampire. Bull though would send Bart to the floor where he got busted open and the blood is flowing like wine now from both men which is great. Bart just nailed Manny in the balls which allowed him to get the advantage back and by now the white tape on these dudes hands was covered in crimson red. Bart would shove referee Roughhouse Fargo and then when Dillon tried to help Bart it backfired and Manny got Bart in an O'Connor Roll to win. This was violent with some awesome punches but that finish was too anti-climatic for me especially in a match like this. I'll pass this on as a low-end nomination but the finish was totally unsatisfying.

 

Next we get Schiavone with Steamer who talks about his battles with Tully Blanchard and how he has $10,000 on the line that he plans to take home with him before Schiavone goes to Tully's dressing room with Dillon there as well and they talk about their issues with Steamer.

 

Loser Leaves Town Tuxedo Street Fight: "Boogie Woogie Man" Jimmy Valiant vs. "Number One" Paul Jones

 

Assassin being in Valiant's corner wearing a tuxedo himself was a nice touch to offset Mr. Elijah Akeem. Paul's Ode to Dracula cape was AMAZING and who Valiant's idea of a tuxedo was a suit with a t-shirt underneath. Jones gets stripped and he juices on Valiant's white shirt but in all of this we had ref bump with Roughhouse Fargo and Assassin/Akeem got involved. Dillon ran in and clocked Valiant with something before putting Jones on top to get the win. This was by no means good but it was pretty fun to watch.

 

Schiavone now interviews Flair in the locker room about his match with Dusty and he is pretty cool and calm about everything.

 

Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Title: "Outlaw" Ron Bass © vs. "Mr. Unpredictable" Dick Slater

 

Slater chases Dillon around early and often focusing on him more than Bass. Slater dominates early with a side headlock until Roughhouse Fargo accidentally got his leg allowing Bass to get a cheapshot and now we get Slater doing his Terry Funk tribute act selling and bumping. Dillon would get involved as well before Slater made his comeback which included him throwing down Roughhouse Fargo leading to Dillon coming in the ring to get bodyslammed by Slater. Slater drops a leg on Bass and covers him but Fargo comes in the ring and raises Bass' hand calling for a DQ because Slater threw him down. Slater did get to take out both Bass & Dillon after the match as the fans went nuts. This was building to something good but it was too rushed and the finish absolutely stunk.

 

Next we get the playing of the National Anthem by trumpet.

 

Ivan & Nikita Koloff vs. Ole Anderson & Keith Larsen

 

Don Kernodle walks down the aisle with the babyfaces with the American flag in one hand and walking with a crutch with the other. The Koloffs come out to the Russian National Anthem which was a nice touch and the fans were hot for all of this already. Keith getting introduced after Ole was great. The faces were on fire to start as they took the battle to the Russians early and often with Keith being extra fired up. Ole comes in and immediately goes after Ivan's left arm in the Anderson way with Larsen following suit and Ivan being very good at selling everything. Larsen's portrayal here was really nice because he had been a job guy with standing for years but now that his brother was hurt, he got the credibility to basically dominate a guy like Ivan Koloff for about 5 minutes and the crowd ate it up. Ivan would finally get the tag to Nikita and we got Ole playing FIP which again was a nice touch to the match as Larsen you would think be the obvious choice. Nikita is still green as grass and is very clunky but he is effective in his role and Ole did a very good job of making everything look like it was painful. Larsen getting the hot tag was a blast as he took it to the Russians the best he could before missing a dropkick landing hard on the mat and gave the Koloffs the chance they needed to work him over. The match turns into a 4-way brawl and has Nikita going to the floor to hit Kernodle with the Russian Sickle which got the crowd in a frenzy. As this is going on, Ivan hit Larsen with the chain and the Russians pick up the win. Kernodle then used his crutch after the match and destroyed it on the Russians as the crowd went nuts. Will is right, in-ring wise this was fine but it was everything else involved in the match that puts this over the top as a low-end nomination.

 

$20,000 Winner Takes All No Countouts, No DQ Match for the NWA World TV Title: Tully Blanchard © vs. Ricky Steamboat

 

Steamer starts off strong but he would hurt his ribs while on offense and slowed down enough so Tully could catch him and go to work on the injured ribs. Steamer fights back though and uses his karate thrusts to get Tully down but everything he does, he still winces in pain so again it doesn't take long before Tully goes back on offense. Tully is ruthless working over Steamer when he gets on offense but Steamer is a warrior and has these spurts where he looks like a whirlbeater fighting through the pain to make Tully's life miserable. Steamer gets blood to pour from Tully's head and he is totally in the zone even using Tully's slingshot suplex for a nearfall which was awesome. Tommy Young would get distracted by Steamboat allowing Tully to go to his tights and he used a foreign object on Steamer on a backdrop suplex attempt then hit a cross body block for a nearfall. Tully then clocked Steamer again and went for a superplex which Steamer blocked and followed up with a diving body press for a nearfall. Steamer went for a sunset flip but got nailed by Tully with his foreign object and fell on top to win the match. This was a helluva damn match and a solid nomination.

 

US Heavyweight Title: Wahoo McDaniel © vs. Superstar Billy Graham

 

This match confused the shit out of me as Wahoo was the lead heel in JCP and they bring Graham in who was a babyface in Florida but was coming in here as a heel.....Wahoo should've been working Flair in the main event and Dusty should've worked SBG or something. The match itself was not good as SBG looked terrible even against Wahoo.

 

Next we get Tony Schiavone interviewing the legendary Duke Keomuka & Kyle Petty who are the ringside judges and "Smokin" Joe Frazier who is the special referee and these men would make the decision if needed in the main event. Funny how Kyle Petty cut the best promo of this segment.

 

$1,000,000 Match for the NWA World Heavyweight Title: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair © vs. "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes

 

HOLY SHIT the song the WWE used to cover for "Purple Rain" for Dusty's ring entrance is PHENOMENAL!!!!!!! Flair's robe here is one of my all-time favorites because it is gawdy as fuck. Since both men are technically babyfaces there isn't the normal hatred you would have in this series so it's a different dynamic with the fans cheering for both men. Dusty would go for the figure-four leglock early on and he has Flair in deep trouble before he gets to the ropes to break the hold. Dusty is really looking strong to start and Flair can't get anything going and then you throw in Joe Frazier working as the referee and he isn't where he needs to be at times and then makes very slow counts. Flair would eventually send Dusty to the floor where he would post him and that would bring out the juice which changes the tone of the match. The psychology here is that Dusty bladed over the eye which is the common cut in boxing to get a match stopped so Frazier thinking about how boxing is he was worried about the cut so he took extra measures to stop the match because of it. Total bullshit finish of course and a terrible way to end this show and it's amazing how Greensboro wasn't seriously damaged because of this.