NWA Weekly Programming Thread

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

David Crockett throwing down his microphone rather than talk to Jim Cornette is great stuff as well.

 

This is a tremendous show for angles. With the Crockett Cup done, the NWA set up their big feuds for the Great American Bash tour.

[Darth Pipes 0]

This week's show has footage of the infamous Flair/Morton beatdown.

 

Jimmy Garvin keeps calling out Wahoo McDaniel. All he's asking for is a match or showdown and while he's a jerk about it, Wahoo never answers. It makes Wahoo look bad after weeks of it.

 

What I find funny is that Garvin's interview is immediately after Wahoo's match. Wahoo could have confronted him but didn't. It's kind of like Dusty and Magnum saying they want the Midnight Express but apparently don't stick around for the Express match later in the card. I love the NWA shows but this is one area where the logic is faulty.

 

This was a great episode for angles. The Flair beatdown of Morton was awesome and the Baby Doll angle was shocking, even for today. Cornette was awesome on the mic with his heel interviews and constantly referring to Baby Doll as a "heffer." David Crockett was an annoying announcer but he's one of the few who actually reacted to situations realistically. When Tully Blanchard slapped Baby Doll, he actually got right up in Tully's face and grabbed him by the collar.

 

[cabbageboy 0]

It's funny but I listened to the PWInsider audio this week and they rail against WWE for having segments like HHH and Orton talking and debating rather than beating each other up. Yet check out these NWA shows...they are full of this sort of thing! I watched this and thought the Baby Doll angle was great, then was bewildered as to how Dusty and Magnum simply let Cornette run his mouth like a punk (they had given an interview shortly before Cornette). I was thinking "Shouldn't Dusty and Magnum hit the ring and beat the hell out of the Midnights?" Or ditto the Wahoo/Garvin feud, why doesn't Wahoo just beat the crap out of him after weeks of Garvin badmouthing him?

 

I think stuff like that is why I enjoyed Memphis' studio TV show more. Every week you'd see someone get the shit beat out of them to set up a match, or something weird would occur.

[Darth Pipes 0]

The promos and angles are fantastic on the NWA show but like I said, the logic is lacking. No matter how how the feud is, there are very few run-ins.

[10 Pounds 0]

This was one hell of a show :

 

- How awesome is Cornette ? One of the all-time greats on the mic and he puts nuclear heat on the Midnight Express. I haven't seen much of the Condrey/Eaton version in the past so I don't know all the angles they did with them. I just love the intros Cornette does for them every week at the end of his promos like "....and now I present to you the tag-team that puts more fear in the hearts of men than Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, Loverboy Dennis and Beautiful Bobby : The Midnight Express !". That's a shame there's no more managers nowadays.

 

- Has AA ever used the spinebuster in previous shows ?

 

- Who knew that the second "J" in J.J Dillon stood for Julius ?

[Brett Wolverton 0]

When I started managing wrestlers in the Carolinas, I studied Cornette & the Midnight Express. I learned a lot on promo work and cheating watching Jimmy.

 

Last weekend I came full circle (sort of) by managing Bobby Eaton & his son Dylan in two matches against The Rock n Roll Express (one in Liberty, South Carolina and the next night in Anderson, South Carolina). It was an amazing experience and I learned a lot from Bobby.

[Diamonddust 0]

It's good to see that Big Bubba will be appearing soon...

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

The "1935 - 1985 / 50th Anniversary" on the Crockett Cup had me intrigued, so I did some research on wikipedia.

 

In 1931, Jim Crockett, Sr. began promoting wrestling from his homebase of Charlotte, North Carolina (though his first shows were in eastern Tennessee). It must be noted that the often-quoted "1935" date as the debut for Jim Crockett Promotions was created so that the company could celebrate its "50th Anniversary" (which apparently had a better ring to it than the true 54th anniversary for some reason) in 1985 after JCP garnered a national cable TV deal on Ted Turner's cable network SuperStation TBS.

 

 

[Diamonddust 0]

The Crockett Cup montage was nice as we got to see clips of Jim Ross, Dr. Death, and some other UWF guys that would eventually find their way over to Crockett.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Paul Jones looks like a zookeeper.

[Darth Pipes 0]

Paul Jones looks like a zookeeper.

 

Yeah, he does. As a manager, he was second-rate. Just rambled like a buffoon.

 

I mean, he assembles a stable that consists of a hasbeen (Von Rascke), a gloriffied job (Whatley), a guy who was never any good (The Barbarian) and some guy I never heard of all to destroy a glorified mid-card wrestler.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

It's funny to think he was a tag champion with Ricky Steamboat.

[10 Pounds 0]

Paul Jones looks like a zookeeper.

all to destroy a glorified mid-card wrestler.

 

 

I remember a few months back Tully and J.J doing promos about having a master plan to get to Dusty Rhodes by taking down his entourage like Magnum and Wahoo. For their strategy to work, it was imperative that Boogie Woogie would be the first one to go down. It was forgotten shortly after but I never understood how Valiant would be so important that he must be the first one to be eliminated. I don't understand why the audience in the studio would cheer Valiant. He acts like a fun guy during his entrance but he totally wrestles like a heel. Most if not all of his matches begins by him racking his opponent's eyes, he racks the back, throw the opponent on the outside and doesn't give him a chance at all during the match. That guy is Waylon Mercy before Waylon Mercy existed.

 

 

Another point I don't understand is the appeal of Dusty Rhodes. I know the guy is a legend in the industry but all I see of him on the NWA shows is doing promos and getting his ass kicked by the Horsemen. Despite of that, people consider him the big savior and he's still getting all the title shots at the big events. (spoilers, but everyone who knows their history already know this)

Even when he had his big win over Flair at the Great American Bash, it only lasted two weeks.

. The heels on the show are so dominant over the faces, it's hard to take all of them seriously. The only main faces who didn't get beat up decisively by heels yet are the Road Warriors and Magnum T.A. The segments with the RnR Express, Ron Garvin and Dusty are good, but most of the time, they're getting beat up or outsmarted by the Horsemen or the Midnight Express instead of having the upper hand.

 

I guess to each Federation its own style. NWA had stronger main-events over the Hogan domination but the WWF had a better mid-card with the IC and tag division.

[Darth Pipes 0]

Good points you bring up. I think the NWA during this time was awesome but I sometimes wonder if they could have lasted longer had they given the popular faces more of a run with the World title.

 

I think I've seen Dusty wrestle once on the show. Flair at least has wrestled about 6 times.

[Timmy8271 0]

Another point I don't understand is the appeal of Dusty Rhodes. I know the guy is a legend in the industry but all I see of him on the NWA shows is doing promos and getting his ass kicked by the Horsemen. Despite of that, people consider him the big savior and he's still getting all the title shots at the big events. (spoilers, but everyone who knows their history already know this) Even when he had his big win over Flair at the Great American Bash, it only lasted two weeks.. The heels on the show are so dominant over the faces, it's hard to take all of them seriously. The only main faces who didn't get beat up decisively by heels yet are the Road Warriors and Magnum T.A. The segments with the RnR Express, Ron Garvin and Dusty are good, but most of the time, they're getting beat up or outsmarted by the Horsemen or the Midnight Express instead of having the upper hand.

 

Well he was booker at the time and he pretty much killed the NWA because of the reasons you mentioned. But Dusty in Florida is a whole different beast. He was so awesome there.

[cabbageboy 0]

I'll probably check out this show today, it sounds pretty good from what I've read so far. Here's something that has always puzzled me about the NWA vs. WWF comparisons. People have always said that the NWA was the serious wrestling and the WWF was cartoon crap in the 80s, but why? The NWA's weekly show was a series of squash matches for the most part, with maybe 1 TV main event. Interviews are excellent, sometimes angles are excellent. The WWF did the squash match thing with Superstars, ran the major angles there and on NBC, and there was Prime Time Wrestling for the longer matches that went 20 mins. or so (some of which are good stuff).

 

I've mentioned it in the past but I don't think the NWA ever wanted to be so heel centered, it's just the way it worked out. Magnum TA was supposed to be the top face champ for them, but his career ending car wreck really wrecked their booking. Their business started declining during that 1987-88 period when there was no strong face to challenge Flair and guys like Luger and Sting weren't really ready yet. Since they weren't ready but needed to be kept strong, the booking devolved into goofy crap to keep the belt on Flair and screw the faces at every turn.

 

At least with stuff like that there was a reason. I have NO idea why they did a Dusty Finish to keep the tag belts on the Horsemen at Starrcade 87 vs. the Road Warriors in Chicago.

[Diamonddust 0]

Jim Cornette explained Dusty's reasoning for all the heels in one of his shoot interviews:

 

The basic principle is that Dusty was the top face and Magnum was right behind him while the second level of faces (With the exception of the Rock and Roll Express) were far away from ever being a threat. Having all those strong heels at the time thus gave Dusty and Magnum that much more heat as faces. It's also why they kept Magnum involved in short TV matches so that he could be built as a monster to stop the likes of the Horsemen, Midnight Express, and the Russians. Magnum was destined for the World Title before the crash, and he probably would have had a decent reign... until one of the heels screwed him out of the belt and they built up a "Magnum trying to reclaim his title" angle... which would have been gold as well.

 

To take it a step further, it's been said many times, but Dusty Rhodes was a character the "common person" could relate to. He looked, talked, and acted like the core fan-base of the NWA at the time. Regardless what he did, the fans were going to get behind him. They were going to get behind him even more if he kept getting his ass kicked by a group like the Horsemen, who were complete opposites of Rhodes in every way, and they would pay good money for a chance to possibly see Dusty get his revenge.

 

 

[cabbageboy 0]

So I guess we agree then that Magnum's car wreck basically wrecked the long term plans of the NWA?

 

Oh and after watching this particular show I have to side with Cornette in that whole deal. Okay, so he hit Baby Doll with his tennis racket. That's dirtbag thing to do, but does it really call for him to be practically lynched and tied to the back of a truck with the idea of dragging him to death?

[Diamonddust 0]

So I guess we agree then that Magnum's car wreck basically wrecked the long term plans of the NWA?

 

Oh and after watching this particular show I have to side with Cornette in that whole deal. Okay, so he hit Baby Doll with his tennis racket. That's dirtbag thing to do, but does it really call for him to be practically lynched and tied to the back of a truck with the idea of dragging him to death?

 

Magnum's wreck definitely screwed up the long term plans for the NWA. Magnum was supposed to face Flair at Starrcade '86, and Magnum would have probably walked out of that event the NWA World Champion. Instead, they had to turn Nikita Koloff, one of their monster heels, face with the whole "I cry for Magnum TA" reasoning, and Koloff wrestled Flair to a double DQ. The lack of faces really came back to bite the NWA the next year when they wanted a face to take the belt off of Flair, and they were left with Ronnie Garvin, who the fans did not buy as World Champion.

 

The same situation came up in 1990 when Sting got injured. They had to quickly turn Lex Luger face, even though he was doing a great job in that particular heel run, and use him as a place-holder challenger until Sting recovered. As a result, things in WCW at the time got very stagnant as everyone knew Luger wasn't going to win the title.

[cabbageboy 0]

What's funny is that the stale Flair/Luger feud from 1990 actually won PWI's Feud of the Year. The sad thing is I tried to think of something that should have won instead and couldn't.

 

In 1987 why not just give Windham some sort of title run? He had some great matches with Flair back then. I guess maybe he didn't want to be a lame duck since Flair was just getting the belt back at Starrcade.

[Darth Pipes 0]

So I guess we agree then that Magnum's car wreck basically wrecked the long term plans of the NWA?

 

Oh and after watching this particular show I have to side with Cornette in that whole deal. Okay, so he hit Baby Doll with his tennis racket. That's dirtbag thing to do, but does it really call for him to be practically lynched and tied to the back of a truck with the idea of dragging him to death?

 

That's what I thought. They could have killed him there. Great angle, though.

 

From what I understand, Flair wanted to lose the belt in 1987 so he could regain it at Starrcade. No one wanted to be a lame duck champion except Ron Garvin. Garvin won the belt but any chance he had to get any credibility went out the door when it was announced that he was taking off until Starrcade so he could train. I think he wrestled some house shows but he was for the most part invisible during his reign as champion.

 

I think Windham would have been a much better choice to be champion.

[Darth Pipes 0]

The latest NWA show is again a shortened one due to Atlanta Braves baseball. Really not much happened on this show...even Flair's promo was kinda short. The Cornette/James Gang saga continues and we get another Midnight Express squash. Arn states that the Fourth Horseman, Ole, will be returning soon. Watching these episodes, I never realized that Ole was "out of commission" for so long at the start of the Horseman and it was only another couple of months until he was officially booted from the team.

[Diamonddust 0]

Another funny bit about the newest episode is when the James Gang is doing an interview, someone in the crowd yells loudly "Take the masks off you criminals!".

[cabbageboy 0]

You know, some people find angles like the James Gang stupid, but I always enjoy a silly angle with guys who are barely disguising themselves. The Midnight Rider, James Gang, etc.

[Darth Pipes 0]

I don't know what the point of the masks were but it was an entertaining feud. Due mostly to Cornette, who was absolutely gold on the microphone. Calling Baby Doll a fat heefer and all.

[Diamonddust 0]

I don't know what the point of the masks were but it was an entertaining feud. Due mostly to Cornette, who was absolutely gold on the microphone. Calling Baby Doll a fat heefer and all.

 

He had some great one liners during this feud. My favorite being "Baby Doll shops in the Jr. Moose department."

[Darth Pipes 0]

Watched the newest episode last night and really enjoyed it. We start off with footage of Dusty and the Road Warriors winning the Six-Man Tag Team Championship. Flair and Arn wrestle a tag team match and call out the Rock N Roll Express. Morton and Gibson oblige but stupidly they cut to commercial and when we get back, they are carrying Robert Gibson to the back. They say they're going to show what happened but Paul Jones and his gang of jobbers come out. Paul Jones is a clown who assembled an "army" of nobodies to destroy a glorified mid-card wrestler. Apparently Pez "Shakasta" Whatley's idea of being a heel is screaming like an absolute jackass the entire time. Anyway, that nonsense aside, it was a pretty good show.

[flairfan 0]

Man, the angle where Magnum punches the head of the NWA of coming soon and they take the title from him because of it.

 

This started the Classic best of 7 series with Magnum and Nikita..

 

I remember back then, this was the greatest fued going in the NWA!

[cabbageboy 0]

I actually kinda like the Valiant/Jones feud, but it could have gotten over big if Paul Jones didn't suck horribly as a manager. He is bad in a way that makes you want to change the channel, not boo a guy. You have Valiant fighting an army of monster heel jobbers, going against tremendous odds, his friends stab him in the back....some of this is good stuff. If you had a good manager like Heenan, Hart, etc. instead of Jones it would have worked better.

[Darth Pipes 0]

Yeah, Jones was a fourth-rate Bobby Heenan. I've seen some footage of him from his heel wrestler days in the Mid-Atlantic and he was quite good. But he was never able to translate that into being a manager. I don't get what was with the Hitler costume either.

 

So that's why Magnum got stripped, because he punched the head of the NWA? Cool. I hope that's going to be on World Championship Wrestling. I recall Dusty later getting stripped of the U.S. title for accidentally hitting Crockett with a baseball bat.

 

One thing I forgot to mention is that I love when Flair keeps saying that Hawk is going to need a respirator to go thirty minutes for him. Flair trashing the Roadies on the mic is always gold.