NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair makes his way to World Class Championship Wrestling to show the people of Texas what he can do in the ring. Plus, Kevin Von Erich goes one-on-one with Carlos Zapata in the main event, Al Madril and Tom ‘Boogaloo’ Shaft face The Great Kabuki and King Kong Bundy in a tag match, and more!
WCCW TV
Date: 03/13/1982
From: Dallas, Texas
MATCHES
1. Captain Frank Dusek vs. Jesse Relampago Leon
2. Ric Flair vs. Richard Blood
3. Al Madril & Tom “Boogaloo” Shaft vs. The Great Kabuki & King Kong Bundy
4. Kevin Von Erich vs. Carlos Zapata
BREAKDOWN & REVIEW
- Marc Lowrance was again standing in for Gene Goodson and Kevin Von Erich joined him to welcome us to the show. Kevin started by saying tonight they had a card that couldn’t be beat. Marc ran down the card and they exchanged a few words about the NWA Heavyweight Champion. Kevin gave a few predictions and we were set for action.
- Captain Frank Dusek vs. Jesse Relampago Leon: They guys were set for a ten minute singles match to open the show tonight. Kevin directly admitted to not being able to pronounce Relampago Leon’s name, which I got a kick out of. Leon stayed ahead with his quickness for a bit, keeping one step ahead. Dusek worked over the arm of Relampago Leon for a solid while, wearing the faster man down. The quicker man started to rally until the Captain caught him with a double underhook suplex and a suplex off the top rope for a three count. That was pretty solid for these two, with the action only dragging in the holds. Star and a half worthy, I’d say!
- Marc Lowrance was standing by with Ric Flair, who made it clear that the only true World Heavyweight Championship was the same one he holds in his hand, the ten pounds of gold. Flair listed off several places around the world, but said that he continues to hear the name of one guy; Kerry Von Erich. Flair said that despite him paying the price to be the Champion night in and night out, the NWA has decided that it was time for Kerry to get his shot at the top. He promises to make an example out of Kerry, because diamonds are forever and so is Ric Flair! Well, no surprise here, with Flair outshining anybody we’ve seen on WCCW TV in the microphone department!
- Ric Flair vs. Richard Blood: The NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair was set to take on Richard Blood here in a singles match with a ten minute time limit. Kerry came down to the ring and got on the housemic to ruse Flair, again claiming to be the uncrowned champion. Flair fired back with his thoughts and the two argued a bit. The altercation escalated, and Flair ended up getting a few punches for his trouble. The crowd of course exploded for Kerry who headed to the back after a self-counted pin over Flair. Flair was super heated and went right to work on Blood as the bell rang. Both Kevin and Marc agreed that Blood had no business being in there with the champ, calling this one a mismatch due to inexperience. Flair continued the onslaught with a nice knee drop and some work on the knee of Richard Blood. Flair locked on the Figure Four leglock and it took a minute for the ref to call for the bell. Flair left the hold on after bell and strutted after getting his hand raised. A big Kerry Von Erich chant broke out and Flair got on the house mic promising to deliver Kerry to them in about ten different pieces! Just a squash match here for Ric Flair, but getting to see him was a treat. I’ll give this one a star for that reason alone!
- Marc was standing by with Kerry Von Erich and his father, Fritz. Kerry said he looks forward to getting his hands on Ric Flair, because despite Flair defending the championship all over the United States and the world, he’s not going to walk out of their match the champion. Fritz jumped in and said that there was no doubt Ric Flair was great, but before him, Kerry beat Harley Race. Fritz says his any one of his boys, Kerry especially, would be able to beat Flair. Kerry finished the promo by saying that once his adrenaline starts pumping and that rock and roll music kicks in, he is going to fists a firing, and he will be Ric Flair in ten minutes or less. Kerry did much better here than he has as of late. It seemed this promo was taken a little bit more seriously in tone and quality, which definitely helped. Fritz being there to pepper in some additives was a plus.
- Al Madril & Tom “Boogaloo” Shaft vs. The Great Kabuki & King Kong Bundy: These two teams were ready to lock up in this fifteen minute tag team match. Gary Hart’s monsters have been pushed pretty hard as of late, so I didn’t expect this one to go very long. Kabuki played it safe to start things off with Shaft as announced was a replay of another replay match of Kerry versus Kabuki. I’m hoping it’s not the same one we’ve seen twice already… Bundy was in and really taking it to Boogaloo. Bundy missed a splash in the corner and Shaft was able to get Madril in who took it to Bundy with some punches. Kabuki would be sent back in and took similar punishment and the crowd was really getting behind Madril. Madril scored a near fall on Kabuki before eating a thrust kick and meeting Bundy in a bearhug once he got tagged back in. Kevin left commentary, as he was off to prepare for his match. The heels tagged in and out to work over Boogaloo Shaft for several minutes in tandem. Al Madril was able to get the hot tag and worked over Kabuki pretty well and tagged back out to Shaft for him to close it out, but behind the ref’s back, Shaft would be double-teamed and Kabuki would get a pin over Shaft and Madril after a thrust kick to the jaw. This was solid, fun little tag team match! I’ll give it a star and a half, as these teams actually ended up working pretty well against one another.
- Kevin Von Erich vs. Carlos Zapata: These two were set to meet each other in this ten minute singles match that would be our main event of the evening. It’s been a minute since we seen Zapata and he’s one of my guilty pleasure guys here in WCCW. Mike Von Erich was ringside for Kevin here tonight. Marc again plugged the taped replay of the Kerry versus Kabuki coming up next week. A lot of feeling out started us in this one. Kevin would focus on a mat-based attach for this one early on. Kevin kept Zapata on his heels with some dropkicks that sent him to the floor to regroup. These guys were taking it really slow here. The finish kind of came out of nowhere, when Kevin latched onto Zapata with a standing side body scissors submission hold. He held himself in place as his hand was raised, keeping the hold on just a little bit longer. Mike came in to congratulate his older brother. Slow, slow, slow. Very little action and a pretty lame finish… A dud of a main event.
- Marc Lowrance again plugged the tape replay we’ll see next week. He ran down our match results of the night. Marc promised us great card next week!
FINAL THOUGHTS
A dud of a main event didn’t take away from what was an otherwise action-packed week of wrestling television. Seeing and hearing from Ric Flair was of course a treat. I look forward to him and Kerry going at it for all the marbles. I am bummed we are forced to skip yet another week of television due to lost footage for last week’s episode. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed this episode and found myself watching more than reviewing (which is always a good thing). Hopefully, that trend continues with the next week of WCCW TV!
See you all then!