NWA (JCP) Superstars on the Superstation (February 1986)

 

Original Airdate: February 7, 1986 (taped February 2)

From Atlanta, Georgia; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone and David Crockett

Opening NWA World Tag Team Title Match: The Rock 'n' Roll Express v The Midnight Express: The ring design looks like absolute shit here. Also, you know it's 1986 (perhaps the bloodiest year ever) because we haven't even started the show yet, and the mat is already stained with blood! The Midnight's attack during the introductions, quickly dumping Robert Gibson to the outside, so they can beat on Ricky Morton for a while. They then dump Ricky and bring Robert in to beat on for a while, but Morton sends them both over the top to stop that, and the champs beat them around ringside. Back in, the champs send them into the same corner, and then use atomic drops from opposing corners to knock the Midnight's to the outside. The dust settles on Gibson and Bobby Eaton, and Bobby tries to power him into the corner, but Robert swats him away. Eaton tries a hiptoss instead, but Gibson reverses, and follows with a headscissors takedown before passing back to Morton. It spills to the outside, where Morton executes a backdrop on the floor, but gets caught with a boot on the way back in, and Dennis Condrey tags in. Unfortunately for him, the champs quickly take him down, and they take turns working the leg. Morton fails to properly cut the ring in half, however, allowing a tag back to Eaton. Bobby tries pounding him into the corner, but Morton fights back with a suplex, and it's over to Robert to cover for two. Dropkick, but Eaton catches him in a catapult - right into a fist from a ready Condrey on the apron. The Midnight's go to work on Gibson, with cheap shot after cheap shot, but the Rocket Launcher misses, and Morton gets the hot tag - Roseanne Barr the door! Bodypress on Eaton looks to finish, but the referee is too busy restoring order to count, and he ends up getting bumped in the chaos. That draws Jim Cornette in with the tennis racket, and Morton gets knocked out for Eaton to pin - crowning new champions at 17:33. This was super energetic, but felt like it was missing something. Not to worry though, they'd have about 10,000 additional matches to work the kinks out. ** ½

Magnum TA and Lindy Curry have a contest to see whose hair can out 80s the others

The Road Warriors v Ivan Koloff and Nikita Koloff: Animal and Nikita start, and Nikita immediately railroads him into a corner for some abuse, but a 2^nd rope axehandle backfires when Animal catches him in a bearhug. Nikita quickly goes to the eyes to escape, and he hits a bodyslam, but the elbowdrop follow-up misses. That allows Animal a bodyslam, but his legdrop follow-up misses, and it's over to Hawk. He and Nikita measure each other to a stalemate, so Ivan tags in to dive with a flying axehandle. Cross corner whip follows, and Ivan tries another flying axe, but Hawk dodges that one. Hawk adds a shoulderbreaker and a big boot before tagging Animal in to hit a press-slam. Back to Hawk with a fistdrop for two, and the Warriors casually destroy poor Ivan. Hawk gets overzealous with a charge, however, and ends up colliding with Nikita on the apron, which the Russians quickly capitalize on. They cut the ring in half on Hawk, but come on, like Ivan fucking Koloff can hold his end of that bargain up? Hawk fights Ivan off, so Nikita brings it with a cheap shot, and Baron von Raschke runs in to attack as well for the DQ at 6:55. Another one with plenty of energy, but it never really went anywhere, and the finish sucked. * ½

Magnum TA interviews NASCAR driver Benny Parsons, since you can say what you will about the booking or the financial decisions Crockett made, but he knew his demo in the fucking 80s. Still though, the quality of the celebrities JCP was pulling in compared to the WWF is night and day

And speaking of which, here's Willie Nelson hanging out at a pool with Dusty Rhodes. Watching poor Willie try to make sense of Dusty's rambling stories is pretty awesome here, I'll admit. The things artists go through to shill their work, I'll tell ya. I'm guessing they shot this on location to spare Willie the so-called 'weed tax'

NWA National Title Match: Dusty Rhodes v Tully Blanchard: Dusty's got one of his 70s outfits tonight, which is... something. The 1970s weren't exactly known for great fashion choices to begin with, but even at the time, that must have been really gaudy. Rhodes works the leg in the early going, and he tries to put it away early with a figure four, but Blanchard makes the ropes. The challenger bails to regroup on the outside, and it's not only the mat, even the FLOORS are stained in blood here. Seriously, they were nuts with the blades during this period. Every JCP show I've seen from then is just juice up and down. Back in, Dusty keeps working the leg, and you can just tell this is going to a draw because it's much more mat-based than it would be otherwise. Dusty goes upstairs for a flying elbowsmash, but hurts his own ankle on the landing, and Tully takes over. Blanchard works the leg now, as this thing continues to just drag along at the ten minutes mark with little more than leglocks and stuff. Blanchard tries a figure four, but Rhodes reverses, so Tully gets into the ropes to force a break. He tries a 2^nd rope bodypress, but Rhodes catches him in a backbreaker to block, and he adds a belly-to-belly suplex. Cover, but the referee is being distracted by JJ Dillon, and Blanchard is able to knock Rhodes to the outside with a high knee. You'd think Dusty would know better by now. Tully pounds him in the corner, but Rhodes gets fired up, and wins a slugfest. Vertical suplex gets two when Dillon puts Blanchard's foot on the ropes to break the count, so Dusty goes after him on the outside, allowing Tully another sneak attack. Back in, Tully tries a neckbreaker, but Dusty counters to a backslide - count broken because Blanchard is in the ropes. Rhodes stays on him with an atomic drop, and he clips the knee with a 3-point stance. Big chop gets two, and Blanchard is on dream street. Rhodes doesn't back off, unloading on his challenger in the corner, until JJ helps him out with a cheap shot, and Blanchard cradles for two. Dusty chases Dillon again, but this time manages to see the sneak attack coming, and he unloads on Blanchard some more. Boston crab looks to put it away, but the twenty minute time limit expires at 16:40. The first ten minutes were really boring, but not horrible overall. *

Jim Crockett Jr is here to hype up the upcoming Crockett Cup. It's kind of astounding that the Crockett family had been promoting wrestling for over fifty years at this point, yet would pretty much be out of the business entirely by the end of the decade


Retired baseball player Gaylord Perry is also here, although his barber clearly isn't

Main Event: NWA World Title Match: Ric Flair v Ron Garvin: Garvin comes at him hot, so Flair tries to take it right into the corner for chops, but Garvin is too quick for him. Criss cross ends in Garvin chopping the champ down, so Flair bails to the outside to kill the momentum. Back in, Garvin grabs a headlock, but Flair powers into the corner, then doesn't offer a clean break. Ric unloads with chops, but Garvin fires back with rights, and a headbutt flops Flair. Series of jabs get two, so Flair hides out in the ropes to break the momentum again. Garvin dominates a knucklelock, so Flair grabs him by the throat to force it into the corner, but Garvin fights off the chops. Flair hides in the ropes again, but Garvin attacks with chops, and manages a cross corner whip to set up a backdrop. Flair tries more chops, but that ends badly, when the champ ends up getting knocked out of the ring for his trouble. Back inside, Garvin unloads with chops, and a cross corner whip rattles the Nature Boy. Ron takes him down with a spinning wristlock, so Flair grabs a handful of hair to help himself to an escape, and he dumps the challenger to the outside. Garvin rushes right back in, so Flair greets him with chops in the corner, but Ron turns the tables, and Ric takes a bump over the top off of an uppercut. Flair beats the count, so Garvin slaps on a sleeper to try and put it away, but Flair manages a side suplex to escape. Ric adds a double stomp and a vertical suplex for two, followed by a kneedrop for two. Garvin fires back with mounted punches after Flair makes one taunt too many, and it turns into a slugfest as they get to a vertical base, won by Garvin for two. Garvin with a series of headbutts in the corner, and a cross corner whip flips Flair into a heap on the inside. Vertical suplex gets two, and Garvin is ready to go in for the kill, so Flair tries to take it to the mat with a headlock. That leads to a reversal sequence that ends in Ron hooking a backslide for two, and he throws a bodypress for two. Cross corner whip flips Flair to the apron, so Ric tries a dive off the top, but Ron nails him on the way down. Ron with a small package for two, so Flair throws a chop for two. Garvin with a rollup, but the referee gets bumped in the process, and there's no count. Ron status on him with a forearm smash, but the referee is still down, so Garvin goes to revive him. That allows Flair to sneak up with a high knee from behind for the pin at 14:26 - with, like, a minute of air time left. Ric landed right on the poor referee's knee with that one too, ouch. The usual good Flair match, with Garvin nicely plugging into the formula. ***

BUExperience: An entertaining and eventful special, especially for this era when seeing star/star matches on TV was not a commonplace occurrence at all. This show was something of a prototype for the Clash of the Champions two years later, and if this were the first Clash, I’m certain it would be well remembered. It is worth noting that the visual presentation was really horrible compared to a WWF special from this era though, and made the promotion look like it was in a lesser class.