NWA (JCP) World Championship Wrestling (December 6, 1986)

 

Original Airdate: December 6, 1986 (taped November 30)

From Atlanta, Georgia; Your Host is Tony Schiavone and David Crockett

NWA United States Tag Team Champions Ivan Koloff and Krusher Khruschev are out, promising to break Nikita Koloff for his traitorous behavior 

NWA Television Title Match: Tully Blanchard v Mike Jackson: Thankfully, this was taped after Starrcade, so we don’t have to pretend the pay per view didn’t happen again this week. Blanchard with a slingshot suplex at 5:09. ¼*

NWA World Tag Team Champions The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express are out, celebrating that they managed to keep the title at Starrcade

The Midnight Express are out, and Baby Doll is part of the act now, taking over for the injured Jim Cornette

Brad Armstrong v Vernon Deaton: Armstrong with a Russian legsweep at 1:33. DUD

Manny Fernandez and Rick Rude are out, and they’re promising to take the tag title from the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express

The Road Warriors are out, happy that they injured Jim Cornette at Starrcade. But they’re not done with the Midnights. Not by a damn sight

Arn Anderson v Allen Martin: Anderson puts this jobber away with a gourdbuster at 2:09. That’s making pretty short work of him for this show. DUD

NWA United States Champion Nikita Koloff and NWA Six-Man Tag Team Champion Dusty Rhodes are out, and Dusty is full on dressed like a pimp here. Koloff promises to get Ric Flair on the next try

Paul Jones is out, and he clarifies that Fernandez and Rude don’t just want a shot at the tag title, they want one tonight

The Midnight Express v Art Pritts and Dave Spearman: The Express with the rocket launcher at 2:36. DUD

NWA World Champion Ric Flair is out, and he’s not going to defend the title in any bullshit gimmick matches

Barry Windham v Randy Barber: Windham is back with a vengeance here, and puts Barber away with a bulldog in a brisk 0:41. DUD

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express are back out, and they’re on board to put the belts up

Windham is back out, and very excited to be back here in JCP

Ivan Koloff and Krusher Khruschev v Randy Mulkey and Bill Mulkey: The NWA United States Tag Team title is not at stake here. Ivan with the clothesline at 4:13. DUD

Jim Crockett is out, and notes that the tag title match is coming up now, but since this wasn’t scheduled in advance, it will be with television time remaining as a time limit

NWA World Tag Team Title Match: The Rock 'n' Roll Express v Manny Fernandez and Rick Rude: Ricky Morton starts with Manny, and the champion dominates. That draws Rude in, but Robert Gibson is there to back Ricky up, and the champions stand tall. The dust settles on Gibson and Rude, and again we see the champ dominate. That draws Manny in, but Gibson cleans house. The Express settle into working Manny with armbars, switching off all the time to keep a fresh man in. Things turn around when the challengers manage to target Gibson’s leg, and they go to work on it. The crowd is relentless in their chants to support the champions during this heat segment, damn. And speaking of ‘relentless,’ the heels working Gibson’s leg is the same. Morton gets the hot tag after Rude misses an attack, and he runs wild… but it’s Ricky Morton, so he gets into trouble. I mean, you wouldn’t expect him not to get caught in a heat segment, would you? The heels work Morton’s arm, and Rude delivers a flying fistdrop, but it only gets two. Back to the arm, as they continue to mercilessly cut the ring in half. Ricky keeps fighting, but the arm is badly damaged now, and he’s falling apart, with less fire in each of his comeback attempts. He finally manages to get away long enough for the hot tag to Gibson, and Roseanne Barr the door, we’ve got a kettle on! Rude saves Manny from a sleeper, but Gibson hooks Manny in a rollup. Rude forces a reversal, and Morton is too battered to save in time - new champions crowned at 35:58. Very competent, and not poorly worked by any stretch… but also kind of dull, mostly due to being extremely long. Afterwards, the new champions swing by the desk, to have a proper celebration. * ¼ 

BUExperience: Two good things this week: we’re not pretending Starrcade hasn’t happened yet, and we have a major title change.