Interesting to see how World Championship Wrestling and WorldWide are different as both aired pretty much the same day and both were syndicated shows. From what I can tell, they always featured different matches and promos. Here we go!
With Tony Schiavone and David Crockett in front of the World Championship Wrestling backdrop.
They’re hyping Arn Anderson vs. Manny Fernandez so hopefully it is not the same one I just saw on WorldWide.
THE RUSSIANS (NIKITA & IVAN KOLOFF) VS. GEORGE SOUTH & GREG STONE
Completely different ring that is much smaller than the one they are using on the WorldWide tapings but we still got Tommy Young.
It appears this is the Studio wrestling show where WorldWide is in front of crowds taped at live shows.
This is the same George South that was recently saw as part of NWA Circle Squared.
All Russians as usual with their tag team television matches.
For a studio show, the lighting is not as good as their WorldWide tapings.
George South is pinned after the clothesline by Nikita.
With Tony and David at the backdrop with Nature Boy Ric Flair in full robe with Ten Pounds of Gold.
Flair apologizes to Atlanta for not being there as often as Atlanta deserves.
He puts over the championship and lets us know about Being the Man.
Tony is going over the future events but as a voice over with graphics unlike the backdrop promos on WorldWide. No wrestler promos with these bits.
JIMMY VALIANT VS. MARK YUELL
Jimmy gets his usual music entrance even in the studio.
Valiant seems completely different when he doesn’t have the huge crowd to work off of.
Jimmy is doing his trash talk to Paul Jones even though he is not in the studio at the time.
Jimmy Valiant picked Yuell up after a two count to stop the count. How is he a face and doing that?
He picks him up a second time. No warning from Tommy Young like I have seen him do in the past and even DQ a heel for doing it.
Valiant finally gets the pinfall victory.
TULLY BLANCHARD W/ BABY DOLL VS. SAM HOUSTON
Dusty Rhodes has joined the commentary for this match to further his feud with Tully and Baby Doll.
Tully does the handshake before the match again which I find is interesting to see a full Heel doing before a match.
How have they not mentioned that Tully defended the TV Championship every week but Dusty has yet to defend it on Television since defending it?
Sam Houston as got a little bit of offence in including a nice spot holding Tully in a leg scissor.
Tully looked at Dusty before hitting his finisher and getting the pinfall victory.
Tony is now interviewing Dusty Rhodes at the backdrop. The more I hear Dusty call himself the Dealer I am thinking that Nick Aldis adapted it against Cody as a dig towards that history.
BILLY GRAHAM W/ PAUL JONES VS. ROCKY KING
Superstar Billy Graham is telling the cameras to get closeups of his muscles.
Paul Jones has his arm in the sling to further the arm breaking story with Jimmy Valiant.
All Superstar to start.
Superstar Billy Graham gets the squash win with his Full Nelson to knockout King.
Back to Tony and David at the Backdrop. They’re building up Magnum TA before throwing to a video package with Born To Be Wild playing.
Back to Tony interviewing Michael Hayes at the backdrop. So glad WWE refers to him as Michael Hayes and not Dok Hendrix. Worst name ever. He’s cutting a promo while Ric Flair watches him from the ring.
RIC FLAIR VS. GENE LIGON
Glad to see we may get rematches that at least are just not rehashed footage from other syndicated shows.
Flair unable to get the advantage on Ligon as they go back and forth with mat wrestling.
Good feeling out process so as not to squash Ligon without hurting the Champ.
Starts breaking down with both exchanging blows with Ligon actually getting the better of the exchange.
Flair with a vicious chop to regain the advantage.
Flair starts to play to the crowd before going for the figure four. Ligon submits to the Figure Four to give Flair the submission victory.
Tony brings in Jimmy Valiant to cut a promo at the Backdrop. How many different drugs was Valiant on when cutting these promos?
Valiant cutting a very similar promo to what he cut at the backdrop on WorldWide.
After commercial we have Tony and David talking about a confrontation between Ole Anderson and Thunderbolt Patterson which they then throw to.
The idea of the feud is that they’re partners but Ole is moving over to Arn since Arn has shown up recently.
Ole was such a great promo. Ole says he has been carrying everyone and is tired of it. Ole said he is not going to do anything this time but next time Thunderbolt faces him, it won’t be a nice ending.
ARN ANDERSON VS. MANNY FERNANDEZ
Arn is wearing his awesome hat in the ring.
David and Tony are hyping this as one of the hottest feuds in wrestling and are going over their history so far.
Ole Anderson has joined David and Tony on Commentary so he can watch Arn wrestle.
Ole is backing up Arn saying that Manny had no reason coming to the ring when Arn broke the wrestlers arm as Manny is not a doctor.
Apparently some forearms were not legal in NWA at the time?
It is terrible nowadays when opponents have identical gear but back when we didn’t have high definition it was even worse for trying to realize who was who.
Manny is working the leg of Arn Anderson trying to get him to submit.
Cut to commercial for the hour break.
Manny had the leg submission on for the entire commercial break.
Arn regains advantage after pushing Manny into the ringpost sending him to the outside.
Ole has started yelling instructions to Arn and has led to Arn gaining a huge advantage in the match. Going fully after the arm.
It actually sounded like some of the fans were cheering for Arn.
Definitely seems this is the start of putting Ole and Arn together as a team.
Ole has got right to the ring and was able to point out Arn’s foot was under the rope. It all breaks down when Manny goes to the outside into Ole. Either it was a DQ or was thrown out. Thunderbolt Patterson arrived to try and talk sense to Ole but Arn attacks him while Ole watches on. Ole saves Arn when Thunderbolt gets the advantage on Arn. Great angle to get the Anderson’s over as heels. It took Buzz Tyler and Magnum TA to get the Anderson’s to run off.
Interview with The Russians with Ivan talking about how it was nice to see Ole coming around. They are putting over how great the division is while also putting themselves over since they are the champions.
Does anyone know what would happen today if someone pretended to be Russian and just mumbled instead of actually speaking Russian?
Back after commercial to Tony interviewing Flair in street clothes with three women in evening wear around him. This is such a different promo from earlier in the episode where he is being the ladies man Ric Flair instead of the humble champion promo. Kind of like how Nick Aldis kept switching styles for a bit before going back to full Heel.
Flair didn’t really talk about anyone other than himself in the promo.
MAGNUM TA VS. PAUL BARNETT
Paul Barnett literally looks like he is wearing long underwear he was already wearing when getting picked out of the audience to wrestle a match. Marko Stunt looks more like a wrestler than Paul Barnett did here.
Barnett, with a few punches, got more offense in he deserved.
Shortly after that Magnum hits the Belly to Belly and gets the Pinfall victory.
After commercial we have Tony and David talking about Tully and Baby Doll. Now we are going to a video package about how Tully found his ten. Seems to be a repackaging of the videos that aired on WorldWide leading up to her debut.
THE BARBARIAN W/ PAUL JONES VS. JOSH STRAUD
All Barbarian like with most of his matches.
Lots of outside work. Strange to see someone take a drop on the floor when the pads aren’t there until I remember that Powerrr doesn’t have them either.
Barbarian eventually hits the Flying Headbutt for the pinfall victory.
Tony interviewing Dusty again at the backdrop. Dusty talks about the kind of women he likes compared to Flair. Dusty cutting a promo on heels as well as Ric Flair here. Pretty much seems like he is promoting a feud with Ole Anderson but wasn’t sure as he was all of the place.
Back from the commercial break Tony is now interviewing Tully Blanchard with Baby Doll at his side.
How does Tully seem to have longer hair than Baby Doll? Man the 80s, am I right?
Good that Tully is putting over the Television Championship and the money that comes with it is what he wants. He wants a rematch with Dusty to get his title back.
BUDDY LANDELL W/ J.J. DILLION VS. DAVID DILLENGER
They are obviously doing everything they can to make Buddy Landell a deliberate ripe off of Nature Boy. Literally doing everything Flair would do right down to mannerisms.
Buddy complains during the match that he needs real competition.
Landell yells out during the match that Flair is trying to imitate him and not the other way around.
Definitely seems they are building a feud between the two.
This match has gone a lot longer than I had expected but finally goes for the figure four leg lock and gets the submission win.
Tony is now back with J.J. Dillion to talk about his latest scouting. Apparently just got back from the Middle East and he just got off the play yesterday. He is putting over his stable.
BLACK BART W/ J.J. DILLION VS. RON ROSSI
Bart apparently was part of a successful tour in the Middle East with J.J. Seems he is just trying to impress J.J. during the match after talking to him a couple times.
J.J. telling Bart to hit Rossi hard enough for Ron Bass to hear in Japan.
Tony said it right when said Rossi is just a punching bag. Bart is just punishing him with Rossi having no action. Match has gone on a lot longer than I’d expect even for what they are trying to accomplish.
Bart finally gets the pinfall win after the middle turnbuckle broke.
Ole and Arn Anderson are in their gear at the backdrop with Tony letting everyone know they are know a team and it is the rekindling of a dynasty.
They talk about how Thunderbolt and Ole are national tag team champions and Ole just said he was the champion and he was carrying Thunderbolt.
Off to a package focusing on Jimmy Valiant that promotes him the same way the Magnum TA package pushed him.
And now back to Tony and David at the backdrop. They’re recapping the show and everyone that appeared on the show. They then end with highlights of Dusty celebrating his TV Championship victory.
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