Autistic Dragon

Looks like Jerry is gonna take the titles off Dutch & Idol but some quick thinking by the Heartthrob keeps the belts with the champs. Jeff exposed la switcheroo leading to a victory for Douglas over the Christian Devil. A spanking leads to a rare intergender tag match at the Coliseum. Mando arrives with some big backup. Big card on the 24th.

Hyped for Suzuki's UWF arrival.

With the ladies banned, Baxter proves he's the better man. Michaels steps up to take the fight to the assassin. Whatever Fargo's up to, Tyler doesn't approve. After taking a step back lately, the Plowboy returns to with a bone to pick with DJ and the Terrors feel his wrath.

Have a good time on vacation. Title Night is loaded up. I'm especially looking forward to seeing "Luscious" Lanny challenge Nikita.

Slickster drops a couple of bombs, not only do his Towers get The Rockers in a cage but Hercules gets the first crack at Savage! Konnan, Benoit, Anderson and Ware make a solid semifinal lineup. Spivey is on the hunt for Flair. Gary Hart seems to be losing patience with Crush. Maybe he should give The Barbarian a look? Roberts and Rotundo should make for a solid mid-card feud. Sherri may be ready to unleash the Beast but I can't escape the question..... does WCW have Six Man Champions or not?

LA. Touching tribute to Adonis. Bruiser Bedlam makes an impression. The Can-Am Express get some serious attention with a win over Footloose. Rhodes defeats Starr on his way back to the Playboy. Brian Pillman vs Owen Hart? Here's my money. LA night 2. Stormfront continues to roll. Tenryu is on a warpath. The Force and the DC get outta control. The Brigade partially turn the tide on the NoE. Windham shows the in PCW, he's Simply the best. Santa Barbara. Christopher and Candido go the distance with their mentors watching. Hashimoto strikes a blow against the Blood Syndicate. Hennig with a Perfect victory. Scotty takes advantage of a cat fight to steal a win. Severn maintains his grip on the Submission Title. The Midnights might've knocked even more of Barr's screws loose.

NWA drops Don Bass & Lanny Kean. NWA signs Rod Price & Tommy Cairo.

LoL, the show's just started and Brenda is already stealing the spotlight. Synergy gets us off to a hot start. Oliver shocks everyone by bringing in Jumbo. Oliver puts up a good fight but the Japanese star is just too much. I do believe The Gunslingers just ran those Outlaws clear outta town. Poor Chicky. No title, no Loni, no nothing. Poffo certainly came prepared. You know it's an AWA supershow when Gagne goes out on a stretcher. Warrior conquers the man-mountain. Badd Company take the National tag titles with a little help from the Bees. A suitably violent end to the Caribbean Death Match. Tony Atlas is the toughest man in the AWA and Norvell Austin is taking notice. To the surprise of no one, Zbyszko is willing to take the cowards way out. Nikita survives the Ghetto Blaster to become the new World Heavyweight Champion! What a way to close the show.

Jarrett with a solid win over the journeymen Smith. Love the visual of Keirn kicking Kendo so hard he sprays Pogo. The Outlaws beat the Russians but get beat down by the Nation! Leduc and Slater blow past the Devil's Duo. The Assassin's with a round one upset over the Lightning Express. The Outlaws have a meltdown in the Lock room handing the win to The Fabulous Superstars. The Assassin's are becoming the Cinderella story of the tag title tournament. Thanks to Slater, Gordy captures the Southern Heavyweight Title. WOW! The Assassin's defy all the odds to walk away with the gold. They then unmask to reveal Mantel and Idol! The Heartthrob has come home!

UWF Reborn has just started but big things are already under way.

"Forearm Fest 88" lol good one. Tiger Mask 2 survives an international who's who to come out on top. From Soldiers field to Wrigley's field, WCW is certainly going big time. Savage overcomes the big man but Spivey is the sorest loser you can imagine. Muta makes history as WCW's first International champion. I'll be honest, the six man finals left me more confused then anything. Roberts just decides he doesn't want to be on a team in the middle of a championship match. Bigelow skipping most of the match, then he & Sherry ditch The Nasties. I'm not sure what to make of this. The Rockers show The Towers they aren't afraid to play dirty. Savage is the new WCW World Heavyweight Champion but the headlines tomorrow will be all about the Nature Boy and The Enforcer.

Jugan & Weiss put on a real exhibition in the dark match. Jamie and Bruno with a classy act letting DJ out of their contract. Tim tries to play peacemaker between his brother and Riggins. Ash & Knighton square up to Fargo just as he's about to make a big announcement. Thankfully Michaels & The American were there. The tag champs get to show off to close the show.

NWA sends Arn Anderson, Ric Flair, Terry Taylor and two picks from a previous draft to WCW for Bob Orton, Harley Race, Kamala, Michael Hayes and the Road Warriors. NWA sends The Rock n Roll Express and The Nightmares to Mid-South for Alofa, John Nord, JYD, Manny Fernandez & Pez Whatley. Let me know if I missed anyone. Also Kev, what does this bring my roster total too?

Taped at the Dorton Arena before Main Event. Originally airing on 7/9/88 on the USA Network. On Commentary: Bob Caudle David Crockett. "Chief" Joe Lightfoot defeats Stoney Burke with the "Indian Death Lock" The debuting Aces High (Johnny & Mark Ace) defeat The Carolina Reapers with a Rocket Launcher on Reaper #2 The returning "Black Bullet" Shaska Whatley defeats White Angel (Curtis Thompson under a mask) with the "Flying Willie" Main event. "Rugged" Ron Garvin defeats Big Daddy Cyrus with the "Hands of Stone" punch. Notably, Ron Fuller was nowhere to be seen. In other news.... We see highlights of the beginning of Bruiser Brody's tour of Puerto Rico. It's explained the tour was booked before Brody's match with Blanchard at the Great American Bash.

From the Dorton Arena in Raleigh NC. Previously recorded & airing on 7/8/88 on the USA Network. On Commentary: Gordon Solie Ring Announcer/Interviews Sean Moony Match #1 "The Haitian Sensation Tyree Pride vs Brad Anderson w/Ole Anderson & JJ Dillon Notable by his absence, Arn Anderson was nowhere to bee seen as his cousin entered the ring. A exciting contrast in style came to an end when Brad rolled through a crossbody attempt and applied the Fujiwara armbar for the submission victory. *JJ Dillon joins Moony after the match. Mooney brings up the chair shot to a prone Flair by Terry Taylor and reveals that Flair suffered damage to his neck and a third degree concussion. He also says that Taylor was suspended indefinitely, Dillon interrupts and says that was the plan but Taylor refused to be treated in such a disrespectful fashion and quit on principle. Mooney is understandably shocked but manages to inquire where Arn is. Ole cuts in and says Arn was so shaken by what happened at the Great American Bash, he decided to take some personal time with Ole's support. Mooney points out that there was a scheduled rematch for the main event. Ole says there will be a tag title match tonight with the Express defending against The Four Horsemen as agreed upon. Mooney tries to clarify but the trio walk away* Match #2 Brett "Hack" Sawyer defeats Firecracker with a German suplex. *Junkyard Dog joins Moony and the fans are hyped to see him back. He says the last time he was in the region he was in a bad place and was listening to the wrong people. He promises that Big Daddy Ritter is gone for good and the Junkyard Dog is here to stay. Says Col Debeers has insulted the Dog's country and the Dog's people one time to many and he won't stop until he's got the United States Title back around the waist of a real American* Match #3 Junkyard Dog defeats Oleg Orlov with the "Thump" Match #4 The South Pacific Connection (Siva Afi Cocoa & Samoa) vs The Sheepherders (Butch Miller & Luke Williams) If anyone excepted the loss of their manager to mellow The Sheepherders out, they were sadly mistaken. The rugged kiwi's were completely unleashed and the SPC had to dig deep to keep from being overwhelmed. Eventually things got so out of control the ref had no choice but to throw the match out. Match #5 "The Ugandan Giant" Kamala w/"Number One" Paul Jones & Friday defeat Gold, Silver and Bronze Knights by piling them up and hitting "Air Africa" *Michael Hayes, Jimmy Garvin, Precious & Tom Prichard join Mooney and Hayes says it's good to get the band back together baby! Says The Freebirds are representing everywhere from Memphis Tennessee to Dallas Texas and know the three of them are bringing the party to the NWA. Mooney asks Jimmy about Ron and Garvin replies that he & Ron had a long overdue heart to heart and whatever comes next he can honestly say their issues have been laid to rest and now he can focus on being there for his brothers* Match #6 Michael "PS" Hayes defeats Kent Brockman with a DDT. Main Event. NWA World Tag Team Titles. The Rock n Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson)(c) vs The Four Horsemen (Ole Anderson & ?) w/JJ Dillon Dillon has a grin the Cheshire cat would admire as he takes the mic and introduces the latest addition to the Four Horsemen, the man who's going to help Ole bring the World Tag Team Titles back where they belong... the seven time NWA World Heavyweight Champion *a gasp fills the arena* the one...the only...Harley Race! The fans are stunned as the legendary champion makes his way into the ring. He & Ole give the champs a lesson in the old-school style and their combined experience keep their opponents on edge throughout. Eventually the champions manage to quicken the pace and it looks like they may have tired the challengers out. Sensing the titles slipping away again, Dillon gets on the apron as Gibson has Race pinned with a sunsetflip. With all the attention on Dillon, there's an initial burst of confusion when Morton is yanked off the apron and rammed into the post. It's only when the man gets in the ring and nails Gibson from behind with a Lariat that the camera is able to get a good look at.....BOB ORTON! The Cowboy slips out of the ring as Race shakes the cobwebs loose to tag in Anderson. One Spike Piledriver later, we have new World Tag Team Champions!

Just finished watching the latest episode of Powerrr and I have a few thoughts about how the NWA is being handled. The first match was a non title bout between The Brothers of Funstruction (Yabo and Ruffo the Clowns) taking on NWA World Tag Team Champions La Rebellion (Bestia 666 & Mechawolf) w/Vampiro now replacing Damian 666. Towards the end, Vampiro lunged in the ring and broke up a pin in plain view of the referee.... and that didn't trigger a disqualification. Tim Storm on commentary can only offer "well he's a legend though" as a defense. Then a couple minutes later he gets in the ring again and lays hands on Yabo -again directly in front of the ref- and the match still continues. How much leeway does being a legend get you? The second match has Ricky Morton who's a heel now apparently? Because he & his son Kerry lost in the Crockett Cup I guess? He doesn't really wrestle like a heel though aside from trying to hit on his opponent's valet. Also as far as I know, Ricky's only heel run of note was during the York Foundation which almost nobody remembers. On the subject of the Morton's, what's the deal with the Southern "Six"? First of all, there's only four of them Alex Taylor, Kenzie Paige (who's also the leader of Pretty Empowered), Kerry Morton & Silas Mason. Ricky doesn't appear to be a member despite A/ having turned heel and B/ still teaming with Kerry. Now they seem to be making a running gag out of people pointing out there aren't actually six of them but that will only go so far. I don't get what the point of this group is. The main event of the episode is EC3 defending the NWA National title against Mason. First problem with this is that both men are heels. Second they used basically the exact same finish from the Crockett Cup where EC3 tried to bring the title in the ring and Pollo Del Mar trying to stop him. They did alter it but in a way that frankly doesn't make sense. Instead of trying to pull the belt from EC3's hands, Pollo gets in the ring, shenanigans ensue allowing him to actually hit Mason with the belt. But what really bugs me is what happens after the bell, EC3 drops the title which Joe Daly on commentary says means he's relinquishing it to challenge Tyrus (who I still can't believe they put the top title on) at the anniversary show. When did they make that rule? I know if you can defend the TV title 7 times you get a world title shot but I don't remember it ever being said you could exchange the National title for one. I have other thoughts but these are the ones on my mind now.

Anjo & Nakano provide a stellar example of what the new UWF is all about. Takada with a commanding victory. Fujiwara is the only man on this card I've seen wrestle, albiet as an old man. Nice to see him off to a strong start. Maeda must've felt good getting his first win over Sayama's student.

Oakland. The Can-Am reunion is off to a good start. Brookside's championship frustrations cost him in the Tournament of Lions. Dean's legwork takes him to the semi's. MegaMan is back in the Brigade and the NoE had better watch out. Steamboat and Guerrero fill out the second semi. San Francisco. Payne's dry streak finally ends. The Hitman takes down Miller. Christopher gas got to have a title shot coming up. Looks like Paul Bearer has found someone else to handle his Haynes problem. Severn and Windham close out the night with a pair of successful defenses. Fresno. Lynn gets a point in his rivalry with Candido. Neidhart's Fresno streak is alive and well. Stormfront get their biggest win yet. Mr Backlund shows his boys how it's done. Tenryu topples the General. Cheetah Kid isn't letting the title slip away again without a fight.

Ric Flair walks in WCW and immediately enters the world title picture. Naturally. I wasn't as disappointed as some others about Sherry signing the Nasty Boys but I have to admit, signing Bigelow would be the real game changer. Looks like the Lucha experiment has just about petered out. Guess the WCW just wasn't ready.

I think DJ may be more appreciative of Jamie and Bruno in the future. The Renesto Brothers are ready for their turn at some gold but Riggins may not be ready to give up. Knighton gave the champ a hand on the 4th and Rose makes him pay for it on his way out the door.

Airing live on Pay Per View from the District of Columbia Stadium in Washington DC on 7/4/88, The National Wrestling Alliance proudly presents..... *The show begins a moment of silence for Jr Foley who passed away on the 24th of last month* "World's Strongest Man Bill Kazmaier & Buffalo Soldiers (Ranger Ross & Brickhouse Brown vs The Stud Stable (Jimmy Golden, Don Bass & Big Daddy Cyrus) w/"The Mastermind" Ron Fuller. This six man tag was announced on the latest addition of Worldwide and mainly serves as a companion to the Heritage Title match later in the card. Kazmaier's freakish strength was a repeated highlight and played into the finish, seeing him scoop up Cyrus before ramming him into a cornered Bass then slamming him down for the win. After the match Ron Fuller & Jimmy Golden looked at the fallen Tough Guy Inc before leaving without them. As they did so, the camera picked up Fuller saying "I told you they weren't no Studs!" Winners: Bill Kazmaier and Buffalo Soldiers! NWA United States Tag Team Titles. The New Breed (Chris Champion & Sean Royal)(c) vs The Patriots (Firebreaker Chip & Todd Champion) Both teams had a similar dynamic with a bigger stronger man teaming with a shorter scrappy partner. Both big men took turns hossing their smaller opponent around. Eventually the two big men paired off which got a warm reception from the crowd. The champs had Chip in position for the "Wave of the Future" but (Todd) Champion shoved (Chris) Champion off the top rope and he collided with Royal. Chip used the money momentum from that to plant Royal with a DDT for the surprise three count! Winners and NEW NWA United States Tag Team Champions: The Patriots! Indian Strap Match. "Chief" Wahoo McDaniel vs "Chief" Joe Lightfoot The Battle to determine the one true "Chief" of the NWA is up next. McDaniel enters to a huge ovation while Lightfoot comes down to a torrent of boos. The two combatants beat the tar out of each other with McDaniel being busted open about halfway through. The end sees Wahoo use the strap to bound Lightfoot and drag him along as Wahoo touches the first three corners with Lightfoot touching as he's being dragged behind him. As they approach the final turnbuckle, Lightfoot initiates a struggle which allows him to flip over in front of Wahoo. They start trading blows until Wahoo delivers a jawbreaker which causes Lightfoot to stagger backwards into the final turnbuckle. The ref calls for the bell to McDaniel's initial confusion and the fans anger. Winner: Joe Lightfoot NWA World Six Man Tag Team Titles. The Celestial Trinity (Zodiac, Jason the Terrible & Angel of Death)(c) vs The Lawmen (Wendell Cooley, Billy Joe Travis & Doug Gilbert) The Trinity seem to have a deathgrip on the six man titles but The Lawmen seem to have their number over the past couple of weeks. The champs used every trick they had and seemed to have it locked when AoD had Cooley lined up for the "Death Sentence" but Cooley ducked and the mountain of a man crashed to the mat. The "Wildcat" immediately pounced with a running Bulldog and for the second match in a row we had new champions. Winners and NEW NWA Six Man Tag Team Champions: The Lawmen! NWA Heritage Title. "Tennessee Stud Robert Fuller)(c) w/"The Mastermind" Ron Fuller vs "Pitbull" Kerry Brown This is just a fun match with two big beefy boys slapping beef. Ron gets caught trying to interfere and ejected. Robert still gives a good account of himself but commits a fatal mistake when he goes for a running boot to a cornered Brown only for Kerry to move causing Fuller to get tangled up on the top rope. Brown comes up behind and manages to bring the champ down in a Powerbomb for the third title change of the night. Winner and NEW NWA Heritage Champion: Kerry Brown No Holds Barred "The Doctor of Desire" Tom Prichard vs "The Monster" Rip Morgan Morgan actually gets a smattering of cheers, presumably out of sympathy for losing his manager but he pointedly does not care. As for the match itself, they brawl in the ring, they brawl around the ring, they brawl in the aisle and they brawl in the crowd. Give Morgan credit he took everything Prichard dished out and came back for more with the Doctor having to deliver a Superkick with a chain wrapped around his foot to keep the Monster down. Winner: Tom Prichard Special Guest Referee: Michael "PS" Hayes "Rugged" Ron Garvin vs "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin w/Precious Without a doubt, everyone was holding their breath, looking for the first sign of duplicity from Hayes. But as the match went on, he seemed content to call the match right down the middle. The moment of truth came when Jimmy got frustrated and had Precious slide him a chair. He goes to pick it up but Hayes stands on the chair preventing him! Jimmy asks what the hell Hayes thinks he's thinking but Hayes just slides the chair back out and says "You don't need this Jimmy Jam". A heated Jimmy turns around into a "Hands of Stone" punch and Hayes doesn't making the three count. Winner: Ron Garvin *After Jimmy gets up, he gets in Hayes face asking what happened. Hayes gives a speech saying Jimmy may be his family but Ron is Jimmy's family, his blood, what is Jimmy trying to prove. Says Jimmy lost because he let himself get distracted not because of anything Ron or himself did. He tells Jimmy to be a man and shake Ron's hand. Jimmy hesitates and Hayes gets a "shake his hand" chant going which causes Ron to cautiously hold his hand out (while keeping the other in a closed fist). Jimmy is surprised and looks to Hayes one last time. Hayes says "be the man i know you can be Jimmy Jam!" which causes Jimmy to take Ron's hand to a huge pop! Hayes proudly hugs Jimmy and they leave together so Ron can have his moment* Open challenge for the NWA United States Title. Col Debeers(c) vs ? No sympathy cheers here as Debeers stoically marches to the ring with the title over his shoulder. He hands it to the ref and patiently waits for his challenger insulting the audience the whole time until his vitriol is cut off by some very familiar music.... "Ooh, let's go.... Steve walks warily down the street...With the brim pulled way down low... Ain't no sound but the sound of his feet... Machine gun ready to go" The surge that's going through the arena goes into overdrive with the official introduction of the challenger.. the Junkyard Dog! The Dog wastes no time and goes right after the imperious South African. What follows isn't pretty but it gets the crowd into it as the two men batter each other. They get so heated the fight spills to the floor and neither man even seems to notice them being counted out. No Winner. NWA World Tag Team Titles The Rock n Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson)(c) vs The Minnesota Wrecking Crew (Arn & Ole Anderson) w/JJ Dillon A climatic seesaw battle that pitted the hard-nosed grit of the Andersons against the never say die determination of the Express. The Andersons seem to be on the verge of retaining the gold when a rare misque sees Arn hitting Ole with an ax handle from the second rope. The shock of his mistake lead to Double A eating a double dropkick from the champs to retain. Winners and STILL NWA World Tag Team Champions: The Rock n Roll Express. "Nature Boy" Ric Flair vs "Terrific" Terry Taylor w/JJ Dillon To the surprise of literally nobody, this is by far the best match on the card in terms of pure technical ability. Flair and Taylor put on a absolute wrestling clinic while still showing plenty of spite to each other. Early in the match Taylor uncovers one of the turnbuckles but it doesn't get used immediately and one could be forgiven for forgetting about it. Flair may well have done just that when he tried to lock in the Figure Four only for Taylor to kick him off into the exposed steel! Flair barely staggers up only to immediately be put back down with the "Five-arm" for the 1...2...3. Winner: Terry Taylor Taylor isn't done yet and positions a barely conscious Flair's head against the ring post before retrieving a chair. He winds up and crashes the chair into the side of Flair's head with a sickening crack. Security grab Taylor and immediately escort him from the building as Flair is put on a stretcher. NWA World Heavyweight Title Tully Blanchard(c) w/JJ Dillon vs Bruiser Brody Blanchard showed visible trepidation at the thought of locking up with the towering madman and engaged in stalling tactics that riled up the fans nearly as much as they did Brody. Eventually the challenger got tired of playing around and chased the champ back into the ring. From there, Tully used his superior wrestling skill to try and halt the relentless giant but Brody made him fight for every the advantage every minute of it. Finally Brody was able to incapacitate Blanchard long enough for the "King Kong" Knee Drop. The ref starts the count but Dillon flies into the ring and breaks up the pin at the last possible second! When the result is announced, Brody is infuriated and nearly boots Dillion's head clean off! Winner: Bruiser Brody. Still Champion: Tully Blanchard Let the WARGAMES.... Begin! Super Strong Machine & The Super Destroyer start us off with the two masked men spending the next five minutes beating each other black and blue until Nightmare #1 enters the cage. SSM shows plenty of fighting spirit and manages to hold out just long enough for Mark Youngblood to come in to even the odds. They square off in a de facto tornado tag until Nightmare #2 comes in and the two Nightmares teamwork decidedly turns the tide in the Army's favor and when Hiroshi Hase enters, his teammates are really in no place to help at first. Just as their able to regroup, the cage opens and Mat Borne enters. The self proclaimed Maniac seems right at home ramming each of his foes headfirst into the steel. Mark Youngblood is the next vict..er... entrant and the teamwork between he and his brother is able to give the fan favorites some breathing room but that comes to an end with the entry of Kamala. The Ugandan Giant goes berserk on his opponents, flooring them with chops, headbutts and slams. Just before the final stage begins, Kamala splashes all the fallen members of the opposing team one after another. Finally the buzzer sounds and Keiichi Yamada enters to a huge pop. His speed & agility allow him to evade the initial 5-1 bumrush until his comrades can recover. Eventually all 10 men are up and beating the shit out of each other. Kamala stands out in the chaos as he constantly is able to get the best of any 1-1 situation he finds himself in. Regrettably for the Paul Jones Army, it seems Hase picks up on this an instead focuses his efforts on one of the Nightmares, eventually locking in the "Scorpion Death Lock" for the submission victory. Winners: Super Strong Machine, The Zero Fighters &: The Renegade Warriors!

You always do a great job building to these big shows and WrestleRock 88 is no different. The 15th is going to burning hot!

I'm not familiar enough with Japanese wrestling/mma of this era to comment on the matches but the rules are definitely interesting.

A draw between the ladies gets the crowd going. Humperdinck is gonna be crowing about beating Baxter twice in the same night. Looks like DJ's staying put. Michaels still has Knighton's number. The American & The Cuban Assassin get wild. Papa-san and The Headhunter finally claim the tag titles. Ash escapes with his title. Where does Rose go from here?

Welcome to the game!