CWA TV 6/14/1986

Written by: Bob Colling

CWA TV
Date: 6/14/1986
From: Memphis, TN

Lance Russell and Dave Brown promote what we will see on the program. They actually mention JD Costello’s Dynasty stable and they have new members in Fire & Flame, whom we will see later on.

Memphis Vice come out prior to their match and insult their opponents the Beach Boys. This match was kind of teased last week.

Opening Contest: The Beach Boys (Johnnie Stuart & Van Van Horne) vs. Memphis Vice (Jerry Bryant & Lou Winston): The crowd doesn’t seem to be as hyped up for the Beach Boy compared to last week. Bryant and Horne kick off the match, but Winston tags in quickly missing a double clothesline and they are met with a double dropkick. Horne backdrops Winston causing Winston to bail to the floor to regroup. Horne remains in the ring while Bryant gets tagged into the match and Bryant tries a running strike but hits Winston on accident. Horne dropkicks Bryant to the floor, as well. Bryant takes Horne down with an odd looking spine buster and follows up with a clothesline. Winston comes back in and continues to work over Horne with strikes. Bryant plants Horne with a powerslam as Horne was coming off the ropes. Bryant takes Horne over with a vertical suplex before tagging in Winston again. Winston delivers a big boot and a few more strikes. Winston comes off the ropes with a leg drop. Horne dropkicks Bryant and tags in Stuart for the first time. Stuart cleans house with strikes. Stuart almost pins Bryant following a backdrop. All four men are in the ring brawling at this point. Bryant decks the referee on accident and they are all brawling still. The referee calls for the bell giving the victory to the Beach Boys. (*. The action was okay, but it seemed like the crowd was positively responding to the Vice more so than the Beach Boys. I enjoy the Memphis Vice far more, so it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. I can’t see the Beach Boys sticking around very long. They aren’t very smooth in the ring.)

Paul Diamond comes out and is interviewed by Lance Russell. He has a bandaged on his forehead and is sporting short hair. He wasn’t shaved bald by Joe LeDuc, it’s literally just a shorter haircut. Diamond isn’t afraid of LeDuc and he’s going to stay on LeDuc with every opportunity he gets.

Lance Russell promotes the Evansville show. There will be a Mid-American Championship match where champion Rip Rogers will defend against Dutch Mantell in a match where Dutch is putting his hair on the line. Rogers believes he’ll win and shave Dutch’s hair off. JD Costello and the Mod Squad enter the scene and says that he’ll be leading his team to victory with his mouth. There will also be a coward waves the flag match between Bill Dundee and Buddy Landell. Dundee knows that Rip Rogers isn’t going to wave the flag while Dutch will wave the flag for Buddy. Dundee is mad about the AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship being held up and feels like it shouldn’t have ever happened.

Second Contest: The Giant Hillbilly & Dan Styles vs. Abdul Gaddafi & Keith Eric: I’m still confused about why Gaddafi is being put in enhancement tag team matches when he’s in the top heel stable. This is Dan Styles first appearance in CWA and he’s a trucker. Gaddafi and Styles start the match with Styles shoving Gaddafi across the ring followed by a scoop slam. Styles takes Gaddafi over with a hip toss and a scoop slam for a two count. Styles slams Gaddafi again for a two count but Eric breaks up the cover attempt. Gaddafi gets control with a few shoulder rams in the corner. Gaddafi elbow strikes Styles but misses a sit down splash attempt. Eric tags in but he gets slammed to the mat easily by Styles. Hillbilly enters the match and delivers a leg drop for the win. (1/4*. Looks like they are aware to keep Hillbilly’s offense limited to the leg drop and that’s all. The action wasn’t bad as Styles was in there trying to keep it entertaining.) After the match, Joe LeDuc comes out and is confronting Hillbilly from the outside.

Joe LeDuc goes over to Lance Russell and says that Hillbilly needs to go back to the barn. Russell almost called him Uncle Elmer before covering his tracks. The crowd is chanting “We Want Paul”, whom they saw earlier. LeDuc says he cut Diamond’s hair to make him look halfway decent. LeDuc says that Diamond is no exception as he went down too. LeDuc accepts the lumberjack strap match offer. LeDuc asks Russell if he thinks he’s crazy. LeDuc says he isn’t crazy but he is insane. LeDuc is going to finish the job in the lumberjack strap match.

Third Contest: Joe LeDuc vs. Jim Jamison & Mike Murphy in a handicap match: The match was supposed to be one at a time, but LeDuc wanted both of them at the same time. Of course, LeDuc destroys both men with strikes because he’s insane. LeDuc nails them both with clotheslines before winning the match. (1/2* That was probably exactly what it needed to be.) After the match, Paul Diamond whacks LeDuc with a trash can before being attacked by the Mod Squad. LeDuc comes off the middle rope to deliver a clothesline. Jeff Jarrett, Tracy Smothers, Tojo Yamamoto and Mark Haskins make the save. LeDuc goes over to Russell and says that he isn’t done with Diamond yet.

Lance Russell promotes a local card in Evansville. Bam-Bam Bigelow will be in action against Tracy Smothers. Rip Rogers defends the Mid-American Championship against Dutch Mantell. Mod Squad defend the tag titles against Jerry Lawler and Giant Hillbilly, which will have Costello in a straight jacket. Plus, the coward waves the flag match between Bill Dundee and Buddy Landell.

Fourth Contest: AWA Mid-American Champion Rip Rogers & Bill Dundee vs. Tracy Smothers & David Haskins: Rogers and Smothers kickoff the tag match with Smothers taking Rogers over with an arm drag. Haskins gets tagged in and works over Rogers but is quickly taken down to the mat. Dundee tags in and delivers a back elbow strike to get control of the bout. Dundee gets a spinning toe hold on Haskins before tagging in Rogers. Rogers delivers a few strikes and drops Haskins to the mat. Dundee drops Smothers with a clothesline before tagging in Rogers. Rogers drives Smothers down to the mat with a vertical suplex. Dundee keeps Smothers on the mat with a headbutt strike to the midsection. Haskins gets the hot tag and hammers away on the heels. Haskins comes off the ropes and is met with a double clothesline. Smothers gets escorted out of the ring while Haskins gets driven down with a spike piledriver to give Rogers and Dundee the victory. (1/2*. I enjoyed the action, though I’m not sure why anyone would align themselves with Dundee at this point. I’m looking forward to Smothers getting a push at some point.) After the match, Smothers is attacked. That is until Dutch and Buddy enter the ring to make the save. It’s also kind of weird to see Dutch and Buddy acting like buddies.

Dutch Mantell and Buddy Landell are interviewed by Lance Russell. Buddy talks about having Dundee in the figure four and thinks he should be called the champion. Landell says the referee gave him the championship. Landell talks about Dundee having several tricks up his sleeve. The belt is held up and they’ll have a coward waves the flag match for the first time ever in a championship match. Buddy does note that he and Dutch aren’t exactly best friends, but they both dislike Dundee. Buddy asks Dutch to not wave the flag no matter what. Dutch says he will not wave the flag if Landell doesn’t want him to. Dutch assures the fans and Buddy that he will not do it. Dutch believes that Buddy is going to beat Dundee up like he stole something. Dutch is going to kick Rig Rogers brains out, too. Landell says you can either call him champ now or later it doesn’t matter.

Lance Russell brings out the Nightmares for an interview. They are making their return after a long absence. They are back to make some noise. They are here to take everyone down a couple of steps. They believe they are the best tag team going today. I feel like I’ve heard that several times for various teams.

Fifth Contest: The Nightmares (Danny Davis & Ken Wayne) vs. Benny Trailer & Jerry Garmen: Davis works over Garmen with a backbreaker early on followed by a scoop slam. Wayne slingshots into the ring to deliver a stomp and hits a snap suplex. These guys have face paint and multi-colored hair to look kind of bizarre. Garmen tags out to Trailer, but he doesn’t get any substantial offense. This is turning into an extended squash match. Trailer tries to fight back but isn’t very successful. Davis drives Trailer down with a vertical suplex. At this point, I have no idea why this is still going on. Davis plants Garmen with a tombstone piledriver and Wayne hits a top rope leg drop for the win. (1/4*. The match didn’t need to go nearly seven minutes. As a fan, I don’t think I’d buy into the Nightmares after taking so long to beat two guys who aren’t presented strongly on television.)

Lance Russell promotes the Evansville show. Mid-American Champion Rip Rogers will defend against Dutch Mantell, who is putting his hair on the line. Dutch promises to shave his head if he loses, but he doesn’t plan on doing that. He’s going to walk out as the champion. Jerry Lawler and the Giant Hillbilly cut a promo on the Mod Squad and JD Costello. Lawler thanks the promotion for putting Costello in a straightjacket. Lawler believes that the Mod Squad has Costello because they know they are inferior wrestlers. Hillbilly promises that they’ll come after Costello next.

Main Event: AWA Southern Tag Team Champions The Mod Squad, Fire & Flame vs. Jeff Jarrett, Tojo Yamamoto, Pat Tanaka & Tracy Smothers: Smothers is pulling doubly duty for whatever reason. Fire and Flame are masked wrestlers, making their debuts. Jarrett dropkicks both of them early on and they bail to the floor. Smothers tags in and comes off the middle rope to axe handle Basher. Smothers hip tosses Basher and continues with an arm drag. Tanaka comes into the ring but is shoulder blocked by Basher. Tanaka delivers a backdrop and a running forearm. Tojo enters and continue beating on Spike with strikes. Smothers enters to beat on Spike with strikes until Fire gets tagged in. Fire sends Tanaka into Flame prior to Basher entering to keep control of the match. Spike tags in drops Tanaka with a strike. Tanaka comes off the ropes and is backdropped. Tanaka is being worked over often as the heels are making quick tags. Basher comes off the middle rope with an elbow drop. Basher slams Tanaka followed by a leg drop. Tanaka chops Fire a few times and tags in Smothers. Everyone gets in the ring and it leads to a brawl amongst all the men. Smothers gets a fireball tossed into his face and then rolls around in the fire for a moment. It looks like the heels have won the match despite that. (*. The action was decent, but another use of the fireball seems to be something they love to do in Memphis. I suppose it will be okay if it is part of the new teams character to use it all the time or something. I just hope it’s not overly done and diminishes the impact.) After the match, Smothers is helped backstage.

Lance Russell and Dave Brown talk about how the fireball has no place in wrestling before running down what we had seen on the program.

Final Thoughts:
I enjoyed the episode as the segments all mostly served a purpose. I don’t think the Nightmares will be a team that I’ll care about in the long-run. Buddy Landell seems like he is primed for a run with the AWA Southern Heavyweight Championship and I’m onboard with that idea. I’m also interested to see how Bam-Bam Bigelow fits in the company since he hasn’t been on TV yet, but is being promoted on the live events.

Thanks for reading.