WWF Prime Time Wrestling (June 30, 1986)

Original Airdate: June 30, 1986

Your Hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan from the studio

Pedro Morales v Bob Orton: From New York on March 16 1986. Some posturing to start, and Morales delivers a bodyslam, so Orton bails for a bit. Back in, Pedro grabs a wristlock, but Bob gets into the ropes, and they’re using the original commentary from March, so Gorilla and Jesse Ventura are hyping WrestleMania 2. That kind of thing doesn’t bother me (in fact, I prefer the original commentary than when they shoehorn in new stuff), but I’m surprised they put it out there that way, Morales with an atomic drop, so Orton bails again to break the momentum, and he manages to nail Pedro on the way back in. Orton with a flying kneedrop for two, and he grounds Morales in a chinlock. A standard kneedrop connects, and Bob unloads a series of jabs to knock Morales to the outside. Bob follows to send him into the post out there, and he delivers a bodyslam on the floor, but Pedro beats the count. And, in fact, he comes in with a fury, unloading on Cowboy. Pedro with his own series of punches to knock Orton out of the ring, and Morales chases to smash his face into the announce table a few times. Orton beats the count to the apron, so Morales gives him a turnbuckle smash, and a snapmare back inside, but Bob bails back to the apron. Pedro keeps unloading on him, so Bob tries a suplex out of the ring, but Morales keeps blocking, so Bob crotches him across the top rope for a DQ at 9:19. This was super basic, but well structured, and competently executed. * ¾ 

Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff v Dan Spivey and Corporal Kirchner: From NYC on February 17 1986. Lord Alfred Hayes goes on a rant about people throwing things at the ring, and while he's absolutely right, I can only imagine his reaction to 1996 WCW. And those idiots were encouraging it! Sheik and Kirchner start, and measure each other. Kirchner gets control, so Nikolai tries a cheap shot, but Kirchner fights it off, and fights off the sneak attack from Sheik. Kirchner with a headbutt drop to the groin, but Kirchner fails to cut the ring in half, and Volkoff tags in. Kirchner wins a slugfest with him, and a cross corner whip follows, but Volkoff fights off a wristlock. Tag back to Sheik for a clothesline, as the heels take control, going to work on Kirchner. Kirchner slips away long enough for the tag to Dan, and he runs wild for a bit, before the referee restores order. The dust settles on Spivey holding Nikolai in a wristlock, but Volkoff gets into the ropes to force a break, and puts Dan in a full nelson. Dan reverses, so Volkoff gets into the ropes again, and grabs a standing headlock, before taking a cheap shot with the aid of Sheik. Tag to Sheik for a clothesline, and he locks on an abdominal stretch, but Spivey hiptosses out. Elbowdrop, but Sheik dodges, and gutwrench suplexes him. I have to keep reminding myself that that’s Dan Spivey and not Barry Windham in there. Camel clutch looks to finish, but Kirchner saves. That allows Dan to reverses a vertical suplex, and both men make tags - Roseanne Barr the door! Dan gets dumped over the top, leaving the Corporal to fight a two front battle, but he gets overwhelmed, and eats a loaded boot from Sheik at 10:20. This was much better than I was expecting it to be. * ¾ 

Ken Resnick catches up with Iron Sheik, and wants to talk about Sheik’s amatuer  background, but Sheik wants to rant and rave about how the WWF screwed him by bringing in Hulk Hogan when ‘Howdy Doody’ was injured, and then never gave him a title rematch. I mean, maybe, but that was literally years ago at this point. Move on, dude

On Tuesday Night Titans, it’s the standup comedy stylings of Don Muraco and Mr. Fuji. How was this show an actual thing? Every time I see clips of it, it looks like one giant rib that someone was filming, and somehow sold to a network. This clip is pretty hilarious, too. Not because of the actual comedy, but because of how poorly Muraco and Fuji deliver the jokes, and for how Gene Okerlund and Lord Alfred Hayes react. Good stuff

Hercules Hernandez v George Wells: From New York on March 16 1986. Hercules gets in his face to start, but Wells wins the resulting slugfest, and Hercules takes a step back. Hercules manages to get a wristlock on, but George fights him off, so Hercules decides to boot him down instead. Hercules with a series of knees on the ropes, but George wins another slugfest, and Hercules ends up on the outside. Wells chases him back in for a hiptoss, and a snapmare gets him two. Hercules fights back with an inverted atomic drop, and he works Wells over with strikes. Elbowdrop gets Hercules a two count, and a bodyslam follows. Good one, too. Hercules goes upstairs with a flying bodypress, but George catches him in a backbreaker, only to miss a corner splash. That allows Hercules to hook the leg, and Wells is pinned at 5:19. This was perfectly decent, and didn’t overstay its welcome. *

Bret Hart v Jim Brunzell: From NYC on December 30 1985. Bret gives the poor ring attendant hell about his shades, like a proto-Razor Ramon. Brunzell with a hiptoss early on, so Bret hides in the ropes, as Gorilla tries to figure out why Hart’s hair is so greasy. One of life’s greatest mysteries there, bud. Brunzell tries a wristlock, but Hart counters to a headlock, and sinks his teeth in with it. Brunzell fights free, and armdrags Hart into a wristlock, as the announcers talk about Stu Hart’s cooking prowess. Pretty sure they just confirmed that old rumor about him scooping cat poop with the same spatula he cooked with. Hart catches him with a knee, and delivers an elbowdrop. Hart goes to work with headbutts to the lower back, and a backelbow leaps to another elbowdrop for two. Bret works a chinlock from there, but a ropechoke backfires when Jim pops up with a dropkick to send Hart to the outside. Bret hustles back in to trap Brunzell in a front-facelock before Jim can recover, however, and he gives him a bite to the nose when Brunzell tries to escape, as Gorilla and Alfred discuss Japanese wrestling. Apparently, they’re becoming quite a force. Brunzell manages a sunset flip for two, but Hart cuts off the comeback with a stomp to the groin. He ties Jim in the ropes, but a bodypress misses, and Hart wipes out in the ropes. Nice bump there. That allows Brunzell to make the comeback, and an atomic drop gets him two. Dropkick is worth two, but a criss cross allows Bret a clothesline. Hart adds a pair of legdrops, and a backbreaker gets him two. Hart argues the count, allowing Brunzell a rollup for two, so Bret drills him with an uppercut. Another one, but Jim counters with a backslide at 14:22. This was pretty dull, but got good in the final minutes. * ¼ 

Resnick catches up with Adrian Adonis and Jimmy Hart, and Adonis doesn’t really have much to say, but he says it well. He also seems legitimately confused as to how his own name is spelled

King Kong Bundy v Hillbilly Jim: From NYC, March 16 1986. Joined in progress here, looks early on. They measure each other, and Jim delivers an elbowdrop for two. Cross corner whip follows, but the charge in gets blocked, and Bundy puts the boots to him. Bundy cracks him with chops in the corner, but the avalanche hits a boot, and Jim makes a comeback. Bundy’s gear is really terrible here, way oversized, and falling off of him. Was he trying to get in better shape ahead of the WrestleMania push? Because that’s the opposite of what he should have been doing in this particular promotion. Bundy fights off the Hillbilly comeback, and connects with the avalanche to set up a splash at 3:58 shown of 6:03. I think we can pretty safely log this as a DUD

Sivi Afi v Ron Shaw: From New York City on January 27 1986. This was Afi’s WWF debut (when it took place, not when it aired), and they’re trying to get ‘Superfly’ over as his nickname at this point. Also joined in progress, with them trading headlocks. Afi controls, until Ron catches him with a knee, and he delivers a hiptoss. Snapmare sets up a kneedrop for two, so Shaw works a chinlock, but Afi escapes, and makes a comeback. Afi with a dropkick for two, and a flying bodypress finishes at 5:27 shown of 6:27. This was not quite the ‘tremendous debut’ Gorilla was putting this over as. Another one you can safely call a DUD

Big John Studd v Paul Orndorff: From New York City on January 27 1986. Paul tries chasing after Bobby Heenan, which gets him clobbered. Studd goes to work, but Paul fights him off in the corner, and wow, the crowd is into Orndorff big time. No wonder he didn’t want to take time off to heal his injury when he leveraged it into the program with Hulk Hogan. Health should always come first, but I can imagine how big the paydays were, and it’s hard to turn that sort of thing down. Paul tries a bodypress, but Studd shrugs it off, and runs him into the turnbuckles. Studd puts the boots to the lower back, but a dive off the top gets blocked. That wasn’t a typo, Studd actually came off the top rope! Studd with a backbreaker, and he dumps Paul to the outside to send into the post. Inside, John keeps walloping him with forearms, then chucks Paul back over the top, but Orndorff skins the cat. He makes a comeback, but gets dumped back to the outside, and Studd dives off the apron at him. Paul manages to power John back in (in an impressive bit of strength), and Paul comes off the top with an axehandle. Bodyslam, but Heenan saves (to avoid paying the bounty on anyone that can slam Big John), and that’s a DQ at 5:33. This was fun for what it was. ¾*

BUExperience: The quality of the wrestling kind of fell off after the Hart/Brunzell match, but this was a pretty fun episode overall.