[1987-05-16-NWA Pro] Tully Blanchard vs Robert Gibson

[Superstar Sleeze]

NWA World TV Champion Tully Blanchard vs Robert Gibson - NWA Pro 5/16/87

This match was hyped up on Chad's excellent Carolina Dreamin' podcast so lets check it out, in order to save time, stream of consciousness style, jack:

Bob Caudle on the call always warms my heart. The crowd loves them some Rock N Roll of course. TV Championship and Tully's $10,000 challenge. 

Tully wants Gibson to shake his hand. Gibson has seen this movie before and ducks the cheapshot. Atomic Drop and hiptoss. Blanchard powders. We are off to a red hot start. Knucklelock? Collar elbow tie up. Gibson evades the punch in the corner. Blanchard wrist control nope Gibson reverses takes him down with an arm bar. Crowd is wild for the Rock N Rolls. Gibson is one step ahead of Blanchard. You got to get up pretty early in the morning to get one over on Gibson. Nice Hammerlock takedown by Gibson accentuated by the great sell of Tully as he was being taken down. Hammerlock/Half Nelson pin attempts. JJ messes with Gibson. Gibson gives chase. As Gibson chases JJ into the ring, Blanchard attacks in the ropes. Just a tease! Gibson dropkick! Tully powders again. We go to a break as the rout is on! It looks like we are going to have a new TV Champion and Tully is going to be $10k lighter, baby.

Short knee by Tully. Kneelift again. Hiptoss by Gibson, dropkick. Tully needs to stop setting his opponent into motion when he starts to get an advantage. He should just be conservtative and take them down. It is his major flaw.

Arm stretcher by Gibson, Tully rolls up on it, but Gibson reverses into a headscissors. Gibson working a clinic. Tully throws a knee again. Swinging neckbreaker not my favorite move but this could be the transition. THESZ PRESS! ROCK N ROLL! ROCK N ROLL! ROCK N ROLL! Sorry Jim Ross not on the call. Schoolboy but ref was messing with Morton. Come on Ricky stop beign a glory hog! Tully clobbers Robert with a punch. Knee/Shin across the nose. He hurls Gibson on the floor. Snake eyes on railing. Morton cant help himself and this affords JJ the opportunity to rake the eyes of Gibson. I would have liked a more emphatic transition to heat. Tully uses the tights to try to pin Gibson. Tully goes up top and somebody has been hanging out with Flair way too much at the Marriott as he gets press slammed off the top. Backslide...1-2-No! Wild swing and Back Suplex by Gibson but Gibson is selling the impact too as we go to commercial.

ENZIGUIRI! IN 1986! Gibson is cooking. Tully Flair Flops. Tully gets the foot on the ropes. Gibson sleeper! They end up in the ropes. Small package by Gibson. Tully is looking Slingshot Suplex, but Gibson reverses it on Tully. Ref bump as Gibson biels Tully into him. Tully uses the tights to launch Gibson into the middle turnbuckle. Sunset Flip! Morton counts 1-2-3! Morton punches JJ and Gibson sends Tully over the top rope. I think that will be a DQ win for Tully. Flair is attacking Morton. I would love more matches between those two! The Horsemen double team, Top Rope Kneedrop by Flair and Figure-4 by Flair. Gibson saves with chair. I dont think this went anywhere as the Road Warriors, Garvins and Superpowers were their main adversaries. 

I dont think I was quite as high on this as Chad. I thought this was very entertaining but it did not stand out too strongly in the pack of action-oriented Crockett matches. I really liked all the gaga and the antics at the outset of the match. At the end of day, it was a heavy babyface match. Gibson looked great, I will give him that. This was a very Flair match but Tully doesnt quite have all the tools that Flair has. Plenty of great action from Gibson down the stretch and great feeding/bumping/stooging from Tully. ***3/4