APRIL 6, 1985
We are starting with a Dusty Rhodes entrance where he looks like he is getting attacked more by the fans then I have seen him wrestle on the show.
PEZ WHATLEY & BUZZ TYLER VS. JOHN TATUM & JOEL DEATON
They really put Buzz Tyler with anyone and everyone. Seeing Buzz Tyler with his newly won Mid Atlantic Heavyweight Championship.
We have Earl Hebner back as referee. Haven’t seen him in a while now.
Buzz Tyler and Pistol Pez are really good at working the crowd.
Actually heard Tony Schiavone call the NWA World Heavyweight Championship as the Ten Pounds of Gold during this match.
Imitation Zicky Dice, AKA John Tatum, is not getting in his usual heel crowd work in this match.
Lots of quick tags between Whatley and Tyler.
Tatum and Deaton finally get an advantage after some double teaming behind Earl’s back.
Tatum is getting a chance to do some crowd work now that they have the advantage.
Buzz Tyler gets the pinfall victory on Deaton after his avalanche slam.
Over to Tony with the Russians at the backdrop showing off the Tag Team Gold.
They are pushing the feud with Kernodle but also pushing what happened with Don’s Brother who had a pin Earl was distracted and didn’t see the pin or Ivan hitting Kernodle’s brother with his boot and getting the pin.
They’re also pushing possible matches with Dusty and Manny as well as a few others.
State Nikita is missing as he is training to take on Ric Flair so they can have all the gold.
THE BARBARIAN W/ PAUL JONES VS. MARK FLEMING
Jones is sporting the cast on his arm selling the angle with Jimmy Valiant.
Barbarian has the advantage from the word go with Earl not stopping him from his a foreign object.
Paul Jones with the cane to Fleming on the outside while Earl is distracted.
They keep showing Jones watching the entrance way thinking Jimmy Valiant is going to run out to attack him.
The Crowd was reacting to something and I thought it was Jimmy Valiant coming down but that didn’t happen.
Barbarian hits the flying headbutt for the Squash win in a match that went on a lot longer than it needed to be.
Now with Tony behind a fence in front of the Orange and Red background to push some future events.
The Fence is to promote Dusty vs. Tully in a Steel Cage.
Arn Anderson comes out to push his future match with Manny Fernandez.
Tully Blanchard with Baby Doll out now to push the match against Dusty for the TV Title in a steel cage with no time limit and no DQ. Baby Doll enjoys hearing Tully talk about what he is going to do to Dusty.
Back from commercial with Buddy Landell at the backdrop with Tony to talk about how he gets attacked on the way to ring because he is as handsome. He throws to the footage of what he said to Magnum TA after winning the United States Championship.
Buddy runs to the ring from the backdrop to take out Rossi in the ring scheduled to face Magnum TA. He tells Magnum to get in the ring and Buddy attacks him right away and starts strapping Magnum with the United States Championship.
Magnum fights off the figure four attempt and gains the advantage on Buddy. Not sure if this is an offical match as Earl is in the ring.
Buddy Landell leaves the ring and walks away just as Magnum was going to hit with the Belly to Belly.
Now Tony at the blue wall with Pez Whatley to push some future events.
Manny Fernandez out next to push his feud with Arn Anderson. Some days Fernandez sounds like he is doing a John Travolta impersonation and other times it is like he is doing an impersonation of Cheech.
Back to the backdrop for an interview by Tony with Paul Jones and Barbarian. Jones is fired up but seems to run out of gas real quick when he forgets his lines. Fans are chanting Weasel at him. Just pushing his feud with Jimmy Valiant. States Superstar Billy Graham is outside of the country.
Seeing a confrontation with Manny Fernandez and Arn Anderson after Arn kept a hold on Rocky King after a match. Takes the locker room to pull them apart.
MANNY FERNANDEZ VS. DAVID DILLENGER
Manny takes it right to Dillenger to start the match. Shows his feud with Arn is firing him up and it is a good thing because this is actually making me care about the Ragin Bull for the first time.
Manny with the pinfall win after a double thrust.
Back to Tony at the red and orange wall to push the future events.
Krusher of the Russians came out with his Tag Championships. He starts by pushing Nikita vs. Ric Flair in the future. He says they will take on any team and win.
Arn is back out again to push the event without pushing an actual match.
Now Tony is at the backdrop to interview Jimmy Valiant with his old lady, AKA the bat.
Valiant is just going over the finer details of his bat. No mention of Kabuki in his promo.
ARN ANDERSON & BUDDY LANDELL VS. DENNY BROWN & SAM HOUSTON
Interesting to see Arn team with the Nature Boy.
Sam Houston is able to get an early advantage after avoiding a move by Arn Anderson. Fans really got behind Houston but that may be more on Arn’s heat at the moment.
Apparently, according to Tony, Sam Houston was recently busted open requiring stitches and they will go into that later in the program.
Arn seems to be taking more of the hits than Buddy Landell at this point.
The match has actually been booked relatively even.
Props to Denny Brown for actually using the Tag Rope in this match.
Buddy is finally able to get the advantage back for their team.
After a double team on Brown behind the back of Earl lead to the pinfall victory by Arn Anderson.
Post match beatdown is stopped by a run in from Magnum TA and Manny Fernandez.
This week’s station of the week was WCCB Charlotte.
Back with Tony and the Fence in front of the Blue wall to push the upcoming events.
Manny Fernandez now to talk about a tag match against Arn and Ole with Thunderbolt Patterson. Dusty out now to give his thoughts on his Steel Cage match against Tully and responding to Tully’s comments on his appearance.
Over now to Sam Houston and Dusty being interviewed at Mid Atlantic Wrestling. They’re going over how Sam Houston got busted open.
It apparently happened from Tully when Sam Houston came to save Dusty.
Dusty now is answering Tully’s challenge for a Barbed Wire Bunkhouse Brawl match.
Dusty says he wants Sam Houston in his corner to counter Baby Doll. I wonder if Sam Houston and Baby Doll are married IRL at this point?
DUSTY RHODES VS. DOUG VINES – NWA TELEVISION CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
Now time for a Dusty match to kick off the show. One of the first matches I will have seen him wrestle on WorldWide.
Great to see Dusty Rhodes defending the championship.
Baby Doll is with Tony for commentary saying that her and Tully (or TB as she called him) got a lawyer to make sure he goes to Jail if he lays a hand on her again.
Baby Doll left commentary to go to ringside to distract and possibly bait Dusty Rhodes.
Dusty gets the easy pinfall win before Baby Doll got in the ring. Blanchard runs in to attack Dusty but Sam Houston comes out for the quick save.
Tully and Baby Doll now join Tony at the backdrop to push his feud leading to Houston and Dusty confronting them. Sam Houston took Baby Doll and Tully and Dusty brawl in the ring as they go off air.
APRIL 13, 1985
We start off this week with a huge brawl in the ring. Looks like it is the locker room holding back Arn Anderson and Manny Fernandez.
JIMMY VALIANT & PEZ WHATLEY VS. DOUG VINES & DAVID DILLENGER
Jimmy and Pistel Pez with Jimmy’s lady chase the heel jobbers out of the ring to start the match and get the fans going.
Jimmy sends Dillenger into Pez but it looked almost like a hug with how slow Dillenger went into Pez.
Much better work when Jimmy sent Vines into Pez’s foot.
Jimmy able to get the pinfall victory on Dillenger after an elbow drop.
Over to David Crockett at the backdrop struggling through throwing to the video I already saw on World Championship Wrestling of Ole Anderson and Thunderbolt where Ole told Thunderbolt they are not partners anymore.
Ole is such a great talker.
THe worst part of this segment is Ole doing such a great promo but Thunderbolt’s responses take you out of it because he is not even close to as good of a talker.
BLACK BART W/ J.J. DILLION VS. GENE LIGON
Why does David Crockett always sound like he is a stoner trying to remember his point?
I wonder how many times on commentary we are going to hear them mention Thunderbolt and Ole are still National Tag Team Champions.
I really like that a manager doesn’t attack a wrestler on the outside every chance they get but still move like they are going to if they think they can. It makes it more impactful when it actually happens and prevents telegraphing matches as easy. Dillion is really good at that.
Match has been pretty much all Black Bart but Gene keeps trying to get offense in but is stopped each time.
Gene Ligon got a couple punches in this time but Black Bart just stopped him flat.
Black Bart picked up Ligon after a 1 count after finally doing a pin attempt.
This time Black Bart picks Ligon up after a 2 count.
Gene is finally getting some offense in while he and Bart are on their knees but Bart just rakes the eyes to get the advantage right back.
Bart finally gets the pinfall victory after a leg drop from the second rope.
This week’s station of the week was WTVR in Richmond, VA.
Over to Tony at the Red and Orange wall to push the upcoming events.
Krusher is in first with Nikita Koloff to push his match against Pez saying he is proud of his English skills and that is his reason for wanting to take on Pez.
Arn is out next to push his tag match with Ole against Thunderbolt and Manny Fernandez. He says he thinks the match is really two single matches since his real issue is only Manny Fernandez.
Back at the backdrop with David Crockett interviewing J.J. Dillion with Buddy Landell.
This is to go over footage of Buddy Landell and Magnum TA fighting with Earl Hebner looking on.
Funny moment when Buddy Landell can’t remember what territory/show he is on and just decides not to say a name.
MANNY FERNANDEZ VS. JOEL DEATON
A bit of back and forth but mostly just Manny going fast and hard.
Manny is taking out his frustration with Arn out on Joel Deaton. He keeps yelling for Anderson who is not around.
Back to fast paced action after a rest hold that leads to the thrust by Manny to get the pinfall victory.
Over to the blue wall for Tony to push the upcoming events.
Manny Fernandez is first out to push his match against Arn.
Back to the backdrop with David Crockett interviewing Arn Anderson.
Arn explains why he won’t be shouting and yelling and just talking about what he is going to do. Says he is not living on someone else’s name and making his own name.
Like that Arn pointed out how biased David Crockett is.
BUDDY LANDELL W/ J.J. DILLION VS. LEE RAMSEY
Great point by Tony Schiavone about how J.J. Dillion manages wrestlers of all different styles and does so well.
Still pushing Ole and Arn Anderson on commentary even during this match.
Buddy Landell is controlling the entire match and stopping all the offence from Ramsey.
Landell puts on the Figure Four and gets the submission victory. J.J. Dillion has to come in to help try to remove the hold. Hold is on until Tommy Young is forced to break the hold.
Over to the Backdrop with David Crockett interviewing Nikita Koloff and Krusher with the tag championships.
They go over the match last week while Nikita was not there. Showing Ivan winning with using the boot.
Nikita warns Ric Flair and Road Warriors to push future matches as well.
Now to Tony at the Red and Orange wall for more interviews to push the future shows. Arn is first to push his feud once again with Manny.
NIKITA KOLOFF W/ KRUSHER KHRUSHCHEV VS. ROCKY KING
Krusher is just clapping and laughing at ringside as Nikita shows his power.
Rocky King got a small fury but was quickly stopped.
Nikita hits the Sickle clothesline and puts on the Cobra to get the knockout win.
Tommy Young does the five count to get Nikita to let go of the hold at the four count.
Tony is at the Blue Wall behind a Fence to push future events this time.
Manny is back again but with Thunderbolt Patterson to push their tag match against Ole and Arn Anderson.
Dusty Rhodes out not to push the cage match against Tully Blanchard for the Television Championship.
David Crockett is at the backdrop to throw to the footage from the Studio match with Ole and Arn officially becoming a team taking on Manny and then Thunderbolt Patterson.
Seeing it again, they did a great job where Ole only technically responded to being hit. Ole looked like he was simply going to throw Manny back in the ring when Manny hit him.
ARN ANDERSON VS. RON ROSSI
Arn is on Rossi immediately to tear him down. Really like matches like this and Manny’s earlier where to feuding guys send messages to the other by dismantling others.
Arm eventually gets the submission win after working on the arm but won’t let the hold go and even pushed Tommy Young away.
He finally lets the hold go but Manny Fernandez runs down to attack Anderson when Arn wouldn’t let up on beating down Rossi.
The two start brawling and when Arn takes down Manny he goes back to the Arm of Rossi.
Tommy Young eventually is able to pull away Rossi as Jimmy Valiant and Pez Whatley finally come down after Manny is seen busted open.
Over to David Crockett to interview Paul Jones with The Barbarian at the backdrop to declare war on Jimmy Valiant.
APRIL 20, 1985
We are opening with showing the footage of Dusty and Tully brawling from two weeks ago.
JIMMY VALIANT, MAGNUM TA & BUZZ TYLER VS. JOHN TATUM, DOUG VINES & JOEL DEATON
This is obviously happening before the footage they showed on World Championship Wrestling on the same day of Valiant being taken out by Jones, Barbarian and Graham.
Buzz Tyler has his Mid Atlantic Heavyweight Championship and Magnum TA has his NWA United States Championship.
Magnum was in the ring but the match hasn’t ended like his usual fast matches. Likely because they want to get all three faces time in the ring to get them over with the crowd.
Lots of tags getting everyone in the ring including all the heels but once Vines finally got in, Magnum comes in to hit the Belly to Belly to get the pinfall win for his team.
Over to David Crockett at the backdrop with Paul Jones who wants to show us again his scares from the repair job from Jimmy Valiant’s attack.
Jones is out to warn Jimmy Valiant saying he doesn’t care where he is even though we just saw him in the ring. Bad segment placement.
Over to Jim Crockett at Mid Atlantic to see the presentation of the new Television Championship to Dusty that was previously shown on World Championship Wrestling.
Back to David at the WorldWide backdrop who just throws to commercial.
NIKITA KOLOFF W/ IVAN KOLOFF VS. MARK FLEMING
A lot of putting over Nikita as both in a tag team and as a singles wrestler.
Nikita is just showing off his sklills in the ring in between rest holds. Commentators are saying Nikita enjoys just breaking down his opponent instead of pinning to shows Russian strength.
Fleming gets a little bit of offense in so when Nikita gets the advantage back he hits the sickle and then does an easy pinfall for the victory.
This week’s station of the week is WTOC in Savannah, GA!
At the Red and Orange wall with Tony behind the fence to push the future events including a cage match. Likely the cage match between Dusty and Tully called Rage in the Cage.
Arn Anderson is out first to push the tag team match against Thunderbolt and Manny Fernandez. Arn thinks a tag team should go to the toilet at the same time?
DENNY BROWN VS. THE GOLDEN TERROR
Wow is that NWA Junior Heavyweight Championship is ugly at the time.
Nice to see Denny Brown in a match where he is not the obvious jobber in the match.
Fast paced as one would expect but the fans are really into the spots.
Tommy Young pushed Denny Brown and Golden Terror while locked up to roll them for some reason that even David and Tony couldn’t come up with an actual excuse for it.
Denny Brown gets the win with a rollup coming off the ropes. They didn’t say it but this may have been for the Junior Heavyweight Championship as he is holding the belt after the match and normally he doesn’t even bring the belt with him.
Back to Tony and the Fence at the Red and Orange Wall for more future event promotion.
Arn is once again the one cutting a promo but just on manny this time.
Over to Sam Houston and Dusty Rhodes being interviewed at the backdrop with David Crockett.
Sam Houston explains why he is going to take on Tully today.
Dusty needed to carry the segment as Houston is still developing his mic skills at this time. Dusty said he will be in the corner of Sam Houston to keep Baby Doll in check.
BILLY GRAHAM & THE BARBARIAN W/ PAUL JONES VS. LEE RAMSEY & DAVID DILLENGER
Graham and Barbarian controlling the match completely with ease to start the match.
Graham just puts the Full Nelson on and gets the knockout win but Graham won’t break the hold.
Barbarian takes care of DIllenger when he comes in.
He comes Valiant so it looks like this is where the attack on Valiant happens.
The faces come to the rescue after the damage is already done.
Finally over to Tony at the Blue Wall in still behind the fence to promote the Rage in the Cage between Dusty and Tully.
Thunderbolt and Manny Fernandez are out to promote the match against the Andersons. Thunderbolt his has National Tag Team Title Belt.
Back with David Crockett and Don Kernodle at the Backdrop to put over what just happened to Jimmy Valiant.
Looks like this is setting up a possible feud between Kernodle and Paul Jones.
BUDDY LANDELL W/ J.J. DILLION VS. GENE LIGON
David Crockett is apparently by himself on Commentary as Tony checks in the back on Jimmy Valiant’s condition.
Gene has actually got some offense in but Buddy is telling the ref that Ligon used the trunks.
J.J. attacks Ligon but Ligon ends up chasing Dillion around until Buddy takes on Ligon.
Gene is getting a lot of offense in here on Buddy.
Buddy has had enough and locks on the Figure Four to get the submission win.
Usual post match where they try their best to wait taking the hold off as long as they can.
One more time with Tony at the Blue wall behind the Fence to get the push in for the future card and mainly the Rage in the Cage event.
Dusty is in with the World Television Championship to push the match with Tully. Usual bits about Baby Dolly being a zero.
Dusty says he would never and has never hit a lady, completely ignoring the fact he had already slapped Baby Doll.
Back to David Crockett with J.J. Dillion at the backdrop talking about a possible merger with him and Paul Jones. Says Jimmy Valiant deserved what he got for sticking his nose in his business.
Dillion also pushed matches for Bass and Buddy Landell in the future.
SAM HOUSTON W/ DUSTY RHODES VS. TULLY BLANCHARD W/ BABY DOLL
First time I recall them showing a fan sign at ringside. Pointing out one saying Baby Doll loves Dusty.
Sam Houston takes it to Tully right away and almost gets a quick rollup pinfall.
Sam has a counter for everything that Tully tries and it is building a lot of confidence in him.
Crowd is loving the young lion so far.
Dusty keeps threatening to enter the ring every time Tully throws Houston out but Tommy Young stops him.
It led to Tully getting Tommy distracted by Baby Doll and Dusty and Tully attacking Houston on the outside.
Tully got DQ’d on purposed by Piledriving Sam Houston to send a message to Dusty.
Back to the backdrop with Tony and David Crockett at the backdrop to go over the condition of Jimmy Valiant and put over the angle.
APRIL 27, 1985
We are opening this week with showing the footage from last week of Tully piledriving Sam Houston.
MANNY FERNANDEZ VS. MIKE DAVIS
Mike Davis is also LP of the RPMs. He is scared in to the corner the minute Manny attempts a move.
Commentators are talking about the incident with Tully and the piledriver and how the NWA are going to try and get more strict with the rules.
All Manny Fernandez at this point as the commentators shift talk to the Jimmy Valiant assault that happened also last week.
Now they are going over the feud between Arn Anderson and Manny Fernandez as well as including Ole and Thunderbolt while Manny continues the rest holds on LP.
Diving knee to LP from Manny gets the pinfall victory.
Over to the Worldwide backdrop for a David Crockett interview with Tully Blanchard and Baby Doll.
Tully talks about how the victory Sam got by DQ was a gift Tully gave to him, which he did. Talks about what Sam Houston said in the interview and rebutts it by talking about what Tully did to him.
He is putting over the Piledriver being used now.
Back from Commercial with David Crockett to go to footage from Mid Atlantic with Jimmy Valiant and Dusty Rhodes. They are saying Jimmy Valiant’s lady is now banned and he has been fined along with Paul Jones and his crew.
Valiant is selling the attack by using a chalkboard to get his point across.
They now show the footage from last week of the attack again.
Back to the Mid Atlantic backdrop for Dusty to call the promo for Jimmy who is selling it with his facial expressions.
Dusty says he will stand with Jimmy any time in his war against Paul Jones.
Over to Tony behind the fence at the Red and Orange wall to push the upcoming events. Still pushing the Philly show with the Rage in the Cage between Dusty and Tully.
Old and Arn are first in to cut a promo about their match against Thunderbolt and Manny Fernandez. Looks like the National Tag Team Titles are on the line with the winning team getting both belts.
Next is Baby Doll and Tully to push the cage match for the television championship against Dusty.
THE BARBARIAN & BILLY GRAHAM W/ PAUL JONES VS. ROCKY KING & GENE LIGON
Barbarian starts by smashing Ligon right into the ringpost outside while commentators go over the possible punishments coming to Paul Jones and crew.
King and Ligon have yet to get any offense in. Barbarian doing his usual biting of the face until the ref gets to four.
THey start showing how Barbarian and Graham are learning from each other and starting to become a better more polished team.
Flying heabutt from Barbarian for the pinfall win and immediately they go after both members of the other team.
Valiant comes out to attack Paul Jones but thrown in the ring by Graham and Barbarian.
Paul Jones and crew get the advantage and they attack the throat of Valiant until the faces come out for the save.
Back to Tony at the same Red and Orange wall but not fence this time as he is pushing events in May after the Philly show.
The Russians are out next to push a match against Buzz Sawyer with Khrusher Khrushchev.
Arn Anderson is next to push a match against Manny Fernandez. Talks about how he doesn’t wear chaps like Manny or come out to music like Manny.
Back with David Crockett at the WorldWide backdrop with Dusty Rhodes and his NWA World Television Championship.
Dusty cuts his promo on Tully in response to the early Tully promo. Usual bits about Baby Doll being a zero.
Back from Commercial with David again but this time he is interviewing Ivan Koloff.
Apparently Ivan is waiting to hear news from the Kremlin that will be a huge surprise that he can’t reveal yet.
NIKITA KOLOFF W/ KHRUSHER KHRUSHCHEV & IVAN KOLOFF VS. LEE RAMSEY
I assume this will last as long as Ivan wants the match to last.
Huge USA chants from the crowd as the fans love them who ever is against the Russians.
Lee Ramsey is wearing gear with the confederate flag on his trunks.
Match was very quick after Nikita hits the Sickle and gets the pinfall victory.
Back to Tony but at the Blue wall this time to push the May events.
Manny Fernandez to push his No DQ match against Arn Anderson. Apparently Manny doesn’t care as he repeats it over and over.
Back to David Crockett to interview Tully and Baby Doll again to respond to Dusty’s promo earlier.
Don’t drink during this show every time the world Dealer is said.
ARN ANDERSON VS. MARK FLEMING
Arn continues his usual breaking down the arm immediately at the start of the match.
Great spot where Fleming is able to get a chance to reverse Arn into the corner but Arn comes right out of the corner and elbows the back of Fleming to keep hold of the advantage.
Anderson still yelling for Fernandez.
Arn pulls Fleming to the corner and smashes the arm against the ring post and finally puts the submission on the arm and gets the Submission Victory.
This week’s station of the week is WOPC in Altoona, PA.
Back to Tony behind the Fence at the Blue Wall to push the future events with one last push for the Rage in the Cage in Philly.
Manny Fernandez is out there to push his match with Thunderbolt against the Anderson’s at the Philly show.
Back from Commercial with David Crockett interviewing Buddy Landell at the WorldWide backdrop. He is cutting a promo saying he wants the United States Championship as Ric Flair is ducking him and won’t be able to if he gets that belt from Magnum.
BLACK BART W/ J.J. DILLION VS. MAGNUM TA
Bart attacks a distracted Magnum to start the match which gives him the advantage for a short period to start the match out.
Great crossbody coming off the ropes by Magnum TA.
J.J. has to pull Black Bart out of the ring to stop the momentum of Magnum TA.
Bart is able to gain the advantage enough to actually get a pinfall attempt on Magnum.
Buddy Landell attacks Magnum TA from behind to lead to the DQ win for Magnum TA as this appears to be leading to Buddy vs. Magnum.
Now over to the backdrop one more time with David Crockett interviewing Paul Jones, Barbarian and Billy Graham letting Valiant know it is going to keep getting worse for Valiant.
#NWA #WorldWide #WCW #Wrestling #Retro
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