Tonight’s episode of World Class Championship Wrestling is headlined with tag team action when Al Madril & Bugsy McGraw take on Devastation Inc.’s King Kong Bundy and The Great Kabuki! Plus, José Lothario gets his hands on Michael Hayes in a singles bout, the debut of Arman Hussein’s next super weapon, and much more!
WCCW TV
Date: 01/29/1983
From: Dallas, Texas
MATCHES
1. The Great Yatsu vs. The Samoan
2. José Lothario vs. Michael Hayes
3.King Kong Bundy & The Great Kabuki vs. Al Madril & Bugsy McGraw
BREAKDOWN & REVIEW
- Bill Mercer ran down our card and some of our featurettes for the night, including hearing from David Von Erich, what we may have in store for us next week, and “Nature Boy” Ric Flair being on his way back to Dallas soon!
- Arman Hussein and The Great Yatsu were standing by at ringside for a pre-match interview. Arman said he spent every dime he had and had to beg, borrow, and steal to get The Great Tora Yatsu into the United States. He says he is the Oriental Assassin and the greatest wrestler to ever come out of Japan!
- Ummm, I thought that was Kabuki? Also, why has H&H Limited broken up? Should we just assume Gary Hart never existed? So, so bizzare. I assume this is Arman’s attempt at reforming something as his own stable of guys? Not too sure and we have basically been given no explanation. Of course, in hindsight, we know that Hart left World Class the night after Christmas Star Wars due to pay disputes… but still! Give me a little story continuity.
- The Great Yatsu vs. The Samoan: This opening contest was set for one fall with a ten minute time limit. On commentary, Bill Mercer said that The Great Yatsu is with Arman due to Kabuki ‘defecting’ to Bundy’s shadowy Devastation Inc. Well, that’s something! Meanwhile, in the ring, Yatsu was simply out-wrestling The Samoan. Some nice chopping strikes were landed and a high-angle powerslam really had The Samoan in trouble. Suddenly, the finish came when some sort of neck clutch submission was applied by Yatsu that allowed the referee to count The Samoan’s shoulders down for a three. Apparently, he calls this finish the Cobra Hold. After the match, Yatsu continued the assault with chops and a nice savate kick.
- I thought this was a solid debut squash for The Great Yatsu. His stuff no doubt looks believable and his work seems pretty consistent right off the bat here. A replacement for Kabuki? Not quite, as the mystique is not nearly there. As a matter of fact, Yatsu seemed to just be smiling the whole time. We need to work on his heel presence, for sure.
- Back from commercial, Bill Mercer introduced our featurette with David Von Erich coming up. He was on a brief excursion from World Class the last couple of weeks, but he was back! We threw to a ringside interview with Bill and David Von Erich. He mentioned that winning the Six-Man Tag Team Championship with The Freebirds has his guts burning bad. After what they did to Kerry, Terry Gordy and Michael Hayes made a big mistake. He figured like he would expect with his brothers, he gave up his portion of the championship for Buddy Roberts, but now he knows exactly what type of so-called family The Freebirds are. They may have used a cage door on Kerry, but David is no stranger to using chairs or whatever else he can get his hands on to take of business… especially with The Freebirds! Bill Mercer asked about David’s thoughts on Devastation Inc. and David said that they were proven commodities here in World Class, but King Kong Bundy can’t get nothing done without talking to this ‘boss’ he keeps mentioning. David says that his boss and trainer is his dad, so he has no doubts on taking on Bundy and The Great Kabuki. David closed the interview by saying that next week, he has The Checkmate and he is looking forward to proving he is all set and ready to go!
- Again, I’ve said it a million times, but David is by far and away the best talker out of all the Von Erichs. His confidence seems to grow by the week and he always sounds like he believes what he is saying. Can’t really fault much of anything here, it’ll be nice to have Dave back in the mix for this Freebirds situation that is really starting to bubble!
- José Lothario vs. Michael Hayes: This one was set for fifteen minutes, one fall to a finish. Lothario was getting manny fans at ringside prior to the bell, the crowd was very excited to see him! Apparently, José was nursing a hand injury, so his fist was taped, but Hayes wasn’t buying it. He demanded the referee take care of the taped fist before he got back into the ring. Finally, José removed the tape and Hayes jumped up to the apron. Hayes really stalled before the lockup, playing up his cowardice. Lothario had him screaming early with an arm wringer. It was announced that Terry Gordy would be getting at shot at Kevin Von Erich’s American Heavyweight Championship next week! At this point, Hayes bailed out of the ring for a powder, more stalling. Back in, José worked over a toe hold and continued to put pressure on Hayes’ legs and knees. Hayes bit his way out of a chinlock and got the better of Lothario for a few moments. The momentum would swing back to José as he really worked on Hayes’ leg. “Go home, Freebirds!” chants rang out in the Sportatorium, the first time we’ve heard that on World Class TV, I believe! With three minutes remaining announced, I was almost sure we were getting a time limit draw here. Hayes cranked up the heat and bounced Lothario from corner to corner. A spinning neckbreaker and suplex only got him a set of two-counts. A scoop slam and elbow to the head couldn’t keep José down, either. With seconds left, José started a punching flurry on Hayes until the bell rang due to time expiring and Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts ran down to deter José from continuing the onslaught!
- I must say, I really wasn’t feeling that match until about the last five minutes. The stalling and leg work wasn’t really holding my interest. I’m all for a slow burner, this one was just slow. José Lothario looked more out of shape than usual and I think being in there with the younger, more charismatic Hayes did him no favors tonight… too stark a contrast, in my opinion. Star and a half for me, just slightly better than the squash to open the show.
- After the match, Bill Mercer caught up with The Freebirds at ringside for an interview. Terry Gordy said he was really to slap a few of these Texas fans. He loves to beat up a Von Erich and are ready for them to sign the papers for a match, baby! Hayes says that next time he gets his hands on José Lothario, he is going to hurt him very seriously. Same goes for anybody that gets in there way, because they aren’t going anywhere!
- I felt bad for Buddy Roberts who looked like he was ready to talk next before both Gordy and Hayes walked off. Nonetheless, the crowd was eating out of the palms of these guys’ hands. They hate The Freebirds like crazy ALREADY. They only became heels like a month ago! Tensions are heating up in Dallas!
- Back from commercial, our next featurette was with Bill Mercer sitting down to speak with King Kong Bundy. Bundy called himself the founder of Devastation Incorporated. He’s a man who rolls with the punches. His prior organization is defunct and Devastation Incorporate is the wrestling group of the 1980’s. His boss has talent from all over the world interested in coming in. Bill Mercer asked Bundy to call his boss, which Bundy agreed to. Mercer asked his name, Bundy said it was on a need-to-know basis. He is big into the oil and gas industries and he plans to make Devastation Inc. the most dominant force in wrestling. Money is no object to the boss. Bill asked to speak with the boss, but Bundy promptly hung up the phone and said that when the boss was ready to speak with Bill Mercer and World Class Championship Wrestling, he’d be in touch.
- Okay, so obviously, Bundy wasn’t talking to anybody over the phone… which is hilarious. His answers were very quick as he barely held the phone up to his ear. I’m glad we were given more context to H&H Limited now being defunct, with King Kong basically getting the ball rolling with this new faction on his own, after the fact. I look forward to seeing who this boss guy is and who else they bring aboard to round out the group.
- King Kong Bundy & The Great Kabuki vs. Al Madril & Bugsy McGraw: This tag team main event was set for one fall, with a thirty minute time limit. Odd to have Kabuki here with no manager… feels like an incomplete package. It was Kabuki and Bugsy McGraw to start things off, as Bugsy spit soda on his hands to mock Kabuki’s mist taunt. Bugsy and Kabuki slugged it out before Bugsy tagged in Al Madril for him to work in his own set of rabid punches. Madril was backed into the corner and Bundy went to work cooling Al off. A spinning back elbow set Madril to the mat. Madril and Bundy went toe-to-toe until Kabuki was able to tag Al with a kick from the apron to stop his momentum. Kabuki was in and he and Madril worked at at lightning pace! Irish whips, ducks, and a sequence that finished with a crossbody for a near fall gave Al an advantage. Bundy tagged in and attempted a running splash on a downed Madril, but Al was able to move and make the hot tag to Bugsy. Bugsy and Kabuki than began a brief exchange, but Bundy was back in putting elbows and punches on Bugsy bigtime. The heels got into a groove for a few minutes at this point. Bugsy missed his headbutt off the top and Kabuki followed up with a kick to the throat. Bundy tagged in quick and hit his running splash to pick up the win tonight!
- So, I really enjoyed this tag team match. The pacing, momentum shifts, and pair offs were done nicely. The sluggishness of the prior bout was erased from memory thanks to this dynamic tag team main event match! Both teams worked well and the right team got the victory without any trickery taking place. Super solid bout, with some stringed together offense spots kind of surprising me with their quickness when it came to Kabuki and Madril. This one was two and a half stars all day long, that might even be underrating it.
- Bill Mercer was joined at the commentary booth by Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts to talk about Terry Gordy’s shot at Kevin Von Erich next week. Buddy Roberts said that that American Heavyweight Championship was going to look real nice next to all the other trophies The Freebirds had in their trophy case back home when Terry Gordy wins it next week. Gordy agreed and said that unlike that stupid Kerry Von Erich, he wasn’t going to let a championship opportunity just slide by. He was looking forward to putting Kevin away next week to win the championship, just like Buddy Roberts said!
- Terry Gordy might be underrated when it comes to being considered a complete package. I think he’s able to hold his own on the mic more than maybe he’s credited for. I like the idea of a monster like Gordy coming after Kevin for the WCCW American Heavyweight Championship, as I feel that belt could use a couple solid bout behind it, as it has been barely recognized on television thus far.
- With seconds of time remaining for television, Bill Mercer thanked the viewers for tuning in this week and wished everyone a good night.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Wow. A lot of stuff to unpack this week. Firstly, they are really pushing this Devastation Incorporated thing as being a top discussion for the promotion. They got plenty of television time this week and I look forward to seeing how that whole thing progresses. Also, The Freebirds have officially taken over as the promotion’s top heels, by a landslide. It is crazy to me, as so much lifting was done for guys like The Great Kabuki in that spot for all of 1982, but now without Gary Hart and H&H Limited, Kabuki seems to have been left in the cold essentially. I only say that because it’s obvious to me that Devastation Inc. is something to help further Bundy’s push, not necessarily Kabuki’s… and where will The Checkmate fit in? Magic Dragon? Will we ever see The Superfly again? So many questions. So many reasons to tune into next week’s show. So, that’s exactly what I’ll plan to do!
See you all then!