From the Back of My Closet: Turnbuckle Memories Volume 9
Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 11.27.2007
Blackjack Mulligan walks tall and carries a big stick, Lex Luger rips up Wahoo McDaniels’ headdress, Kevin Sulivan runs amok and Dusty Wolfe wins a match
Dusty Rhodes standing in the control center introduces the disc. He says he gets a lot of letters from hookers. That actually doesn’t surprise me.
Championship Wrestling From Florida
Hosted by Gordon Solie and Buddy Colt
Referees are Bubba Douglas and Bruce Thorp
From the first week of January of 1986
Hector Guerrero and Tyree Pride vs. Jack Hart and the Red Menace
The match is in progress as the show starts. Guerrero is Eddie’s brother and played Lazer Tron in the NWA and the Gobbeldy Gooker in WWE. Seriously, what did he ever do to anybody? Jack Hart is WWE jobber legend Barry Horowitz. Pride looks like a short Norman Smiley. He holds the NWA Bahamas Title. It came with a drink in a coconut with a mini umbrella. Red Menace is just some jobber in a mask to fill the evil foreigner quotient for the show. I think it might be Jack Victory.
The match is so thrilling that they show two seconds of it and then cut to Solie talking with Blackjack Mulligan. He has a bandage under his eye and is carrying his ‘walking tall stick.’ That’s not a euphemism, it’s just a big, gnarled tree branch. He promises the devil that is Kevin Sullivan will go down in 1986. We cut back to the ring, but Solie and Colt talk about an upcoming major announcement from the NWA and how the US tag titles have been vacated by Wahoo McDaniel and Billy Jack Hayens. Hart telegraphs a backdrop and Pride gets an Oklahoma roll for two. Hart drives Pride into his corner and tags the Menace. You would think he’s a Russian heel, but the writing on the back of his shirt is in Spanish. He gets a body slam and a knee drop. Tag to Hart. The Menace holds onto a backbreaker and Hart comes off the second turnbuckle with a boot to the chest. Side slam to the knee gets two. Pride tags Hector. He gets a backdrop and the Guerrero splash as we go to break.
Back from break the faces are in control. They hit a double team dropkick on the Menace. Pride misses a second rope splash. Tag to Hart. He tries to use his wrist tape to choke Pride out, but he opens up a dropkick clinic. Guerrero comes in with a back suplex. Menace tries to break up the cover, but Hector moves and he stomps Hart. Guerrero works a full nelson before tagging Pride. Hart makes the comeback. A butterfly suplex gets two and Hart goes into a camel clutch. Buddy Colt has no idea what to call anything. Pride sucks on Hart’s thumb to make him break. That would make me get away from a guy. Pride scores a back elbow off the ropes. Tags all around. Menace throws Hector to the floor and it’s a four way brawl on the floor leading to a double disqualification from referee Bubba Douglas, who looks like a guy named Bubba Douglas. That finish seemed mighty arbitrary. Lord knows you had to keep those four guys strong. What was actually shown was standard curtain jerker filler. ½ *
A bit of a pre-taped match with The Road Warriors vs. Kevin Sullivan and Maya Sighn is shown. Sighn is Bob Roop. The Purple Haze attacks Paul Ellering on the outside leading to a major brawl to start. The Warriors steal Sullivan’s golden spike and use it to clean house.
Jesse Barr vs. Koko Samoa
Jesse is the brother of Art Barr. He wrestled as Jimmy Jack Funk in WWE. He was returning to the territory here as pointed out by Solie. Barr gets a waistlock take down for a cover. Samoa counters with a double leg takedown into a jackknife pin. Barr grabs an overhand wristlock, but Samoa uses referee Bruce Thorp for a brace and backflips out of it. He goes to a knee bar. Solie talks more about Thorp going to law school than the actual match. Barr wins a test of strength. Koko fights back and gets a monkey flip out of it. Barr cuts him off with a knee lift and goes to work. Snap mare into an elbow drop gets two. Barr works a bear hug. Belly to belly suplex out of that gets two. Samoa blocks a suplex into a small package for two. Samoa takes over, but runs into a scoop and eats a running shoulderbreaker for the loss. This was an extended squash. ¾ *
Barr goes to the commentary desk and refutes that McDaniel and Haynes ran him out of the state. He also promised to get the Florida Heavyweight Title back from Kendall Windham
Lex Luger vs. Del Apollo
Luger looks like a roided up Chuck Norris here, complete with headband. He was the Southern Heavyweight Champion. At one time the NWA had a title belt for every twenty foot square piece of land. Apollo looks like a midget next to Luger. This is a standard Luger match for the time; overpower a guy and then flex. Luger gets an armbar takedown and then has to figure out how to apply the armbar on the mat. They work off that with Apollo trying to struggle up and Luger slamming him down. They do a hammerlock reversal sequence. Luger with a headlock takedown and they work off that. Apollo elbows out of a chinlock, but hits a brick wall on some shoulderblock tries. Luger gets two of the lightest backbreakers you will ever see for the win. There were four different rest holds in a two minute match. DUD.
Luger visits the commentary table and they replay footage of him tearing up Wahoo McDaniel’s headdress. Drinking game for this DVD. Take a drink every time someone mentions Wahoo McDaniels.
Back in the control center Dusty Rhodes tells stories about the Missouri Mauler. His boots were made out of cardboard and you didn’t bad mouth Jesse James in his presence. I often wonder what color the sky is in Dusty Rhodes’ world.
Dusty Rhodes and Swede Hansen vs. Pak Song and the Missouri Mauler
This is old 16 mm footage without commentary. Mauler is Larry Hamilton, brother of Jody Hamilton who was one half of the Assassins (thanks to Frank for that info). The crowd is hot. We are JIP to Mauler eating a fist on a charge by Hansen. He tags to Rhodes for the flip, flop and fly. Song comes in and Dusty nails a dropkick. Song uses his towering size to hold Rhodes off and tag the Mauler. He beats Dusty on the mat. Some guy with a mask tags in, but there’s no mention of who he is or that this is a handicap match. They trade punches. The masked man rakes the eyes, but Rhodes falls into this corner. Tags all around. The Mauler upends Hansen, but can’t turn him over. Hansen kicks him off. Mauler tries for what looks like a Boston crab again, but Hansen sort of bridges out of it. Mauler throws Swede into his corner and tags Song. The heels work a beat down and Rhodes runs in to throw himself on top of Hansen for the save. Nobody does that anymore. The masked man comes off the second rope with a knee drop to Rhodes. They go off and fight on the floor. Song covers Hansen for two, but somebody I can’t make out with a chair runs in for the save to draw the DQ. This cannot fairly be graded, but what we saw was a bad brawling match even for that period.
Maya Sighn vs. Dusty Wolfe
We’re back to the CWF show. Wolfe is one of my all time favorite jobbers, not because he’s good or anything though. Even after the gimmick change Solie always called Sighn Bob Roop. At ringside is Kevin Sullivan and Angel Vachon, later Luna Vachon. Sighn delivers a red ass beat down. He tosses Wolfe to the floor where he and Sullivan work him over. That’s a DQ. DUSTY WOLFE WINS!!!
Bruce Thorp lays down the law after the match. Sullivan tells him to take a long walk off a short pier. Sullivan isn’t scared of the one year suspension that the NWA is threatening against him. He thinks Solie squealed on him and accidents will happen. He’s not saying, he’s just saying. Sullivan’s eye is patched and as soon as Solie mentions that he and his army take off. Solie threatens to call his lawyer. You do not step to Gordon Solie.
Buddy Colt is with McDaniel and Mulligan. They talk about the titles being stripped from McDaniel and Haynes because they couldn’t defend them within thirty days. Haynes actually went off to WWE. McDaniel claims he will find a new partner and win them back. Mulligan accuses Sullivan of wrecking cars and beating up girls. He declares 1986 as the year of the stick. Colt then asks McDaniel about the new rules crackdown by the NWA. He supports it. Mulligan doesn’t give a damn. Colt suggests that Mulligan gets a lights out match with Sullivan so the NWA will look the other way. I think that might be counteractive to the new policies.
Kendall and Barry Windham vs. Prince Iaukea and the Cuban Assassin
The Windhams are the kids of Blackjack Mulligan. They are lucky here if they collectively weight 300 pounds. Prince Iaukea is not the same guy that wrestled in WCW, but the son of King Curtis Iaukea. Kendall and the Prince start out. Kendall gets a dropkick off of a crisscross sequence. He works a headlock and tags Barry. Barry comes off the ropes for a shoulder block. Barry works the headlock on the mat. Iaukea powers up and tags the Assassin. Barry slugs away. A body slam leads to an elbow drop for two. Kendall comes in for a double dropkick and covers for two. He works the headlock. Kendall almost flies over the Assassin on a crossbody. He tags the Prince. They slug it out. Kendall hits a flying elbow off the ropes for two. Tag to Barry. He hits a dropkick. A cross corner whip sets up a running bulldog by Kendall for the victory. I expected much more from the Windhams, but this was boring and sloppy. ½ *.
Kendall and Barry talk with Solie and Colt. They’re glad to have their dad back. Kendall tells Jess Barr that if he wants some to come get some.
Dusty Rhodes hypes the next installment with appearances by Ric Flair and Harley Race and the feud between Manny Fernandez and Don Muraco.
The 411: This was nothing but squash matches and filler. Major angles and characters were put over pretty good and the new crackdown on the rules by the NWA was the overriding storyline of the show. Basically, this was an extended commercial for the house shows, which is where they made their money and did the big angle developments.
