Tonight, the WCCW American Heavyweight Championship is up for grabs when Terry “Bam Bam” Gordy challenges the champion, Kevin Von Erich, in our main event of the evening! Plus, David Von Erich returns to World Class television in singles action, Brian Adidas takes on The Great Yatsu, and much more!
WCCW TV
Date: 02/05/1983
From: Dallas, Texas
MATCHES
1. David Von Erich vs. The Checkmate
2. The Great Yatsu vs. Brian Adidas
3. Kevin Von Erich vs. Terry Gordy
BREAKDOWN & REVIEW
- Bill Mercer opened up the show from the commentary booth and spoke about the main event having a sort of revenge factor to it. He then threw it to our opening bout.
- David Von Erich vs. The Checkmate: The opening contest was set for one fall to a finish with fifteen minutes to a limit. Checkmate wasn’t wearing his Tiger Mask mask for the first time in a long time, so that was nice. David rushed Checkmate at the be;; and got things started with a set of armdrags, sending Checkmate to the floor for a powder. Checkmate was back in with a deep headlock that turned into a hammerlock, but the exchange ended in a stalemate. Checkmate spun his way out of a back body drop, but was dropkicked for his troubles. A toehold kept David on his back for few minutes, but he went to work on Checkmate’s mask after he refused to release the hold once Dave found the bottom rope. David fought his way out of another toehold submission as the crowd erupted. The flurry wouldn’t last, as Checkmate would end up bailing to the floor again and wrapping Dave’s knee around the ringpost. Checkmate was able to duck a Claw attempt, but found himself deep in a Sleeper Hold which costed him the match. David Von Erich was declared the winner, due to The Checkmate being incapacitated.
- Well, that ended up being way, way better than I thought! Checkmate pulled ZERO bullcrap working with David here. There was no silliness, rolling up into a ball, etc. I feel like these two guys went out there to prove what they could do together and it seem to have really worked. Two stars from me, easily.
- After commercial, Bill Mercer was “invited” to having lunch with The Freebirds in tonight’s featurette. Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy, and Buddy Roberts were all inside a van looking to be enjoying some roadside meals, while Bill was regulated to the outside helping pass the food into the van. Mercer beat around the bush to try to help break the ice and finally Gordy just asked why he always felt the need to follow The Freebirds around. Mercer expressed that he had been invited and Michael said he was more of a pest than an invited guest. Gordy said that after he beats Kevin Von Erich, he will be the next Heavyweight Champion. They’re already the Six Man World Tag Team Champions. Michael Hayes says that they’re running the Von Erichs out of Texas. The Freebirds became fed up with Mercer’s questions, handed them their takeout tray, and drove out of the restaurant parking lot. The waitress came up to take the tray back and confirmed that The Freebirds never paid, either, leaving Bill with the… BILL.
- This was a nice little segment here, with each Freebird getting their chance to speak. Of course, Michael ran the circus, but Gordy came off just as convincing as always. Thankfully, no blasting backing track was played over this interview with The Freebirds, so we could actually hear what they were talking about, unlike in featurettes with them before.
- The Great Yatsu vs. Brian Adidas: This match was set for one fall with a ten minute time limit. Bill Mercer said that Yatsu was one of the only men to ever beat The Great Kabuki in martial arts practice. Not sure if that was a snub to Kabuki or what. This was also the second time Adidas was announced as Brian “Adias”, not sure if they’re trying to move away from using Adidas… just seems like a weird, unnecessary change. Things started off quickly here, with both men getting some licks in early on. Yatsu wasn’t selling much for Adidas here, hitting his own thrust kicks, chops, and elbows instead. Ric Flair was announced to be defending his championship in Dallas next week! Yatsu threw Brian through the middle ropes by his hair, allowing Arman Hussein to distract him at ringside for a bit. More chops from Yatsu came in, he just comes off as thinking he’s bigger than a match with Adidas in the middle of the card. Adidas was able to hit a spinning neckbreaker for a two-count. A Cobra Hold submission kept Brian Adidas’ shoulders down for a three-count to finish this one.
- I kind of find The Great Yatsu a little full of himself and not in a heel way, in a personality way. He’s no Kabuki, I promise you that! He has some impressive strength and legit-looking strikes, but that’s about it. They guys seemed to be working a little quicker than they should have been to start things off, but quickly corrected their pacing and cleaned up their work. I still don’t get the name change thing with Adidas… not really sure what to call him now. Nothing overly special here, one start from me.
- Back from commercial, Kevin Von Erich was at ringside with Bill Mercer for a pre-taped interview. Kevin said the foremost thing in his mind, was getting a bit of revenge for Kerry tonight. He isn’t worrying about his title, he worried that there won’t be enough room to get an ambulance in here tonight to carry out Terry Gordy. Kevin is the big brother, Gordy is the big brother, he says they fight it out and see what happens. Dave’s going to be at his side tonight, and what he’s shooting for long-term is a chance for he and his brothers to to take on the three Freebirds in six-man action. That might not be what he has in store tonight, but it wouldn’t matter if Terry Gordy is 150-foot-tall, he is going to put a whooping on him!
- The title is on the line and MAN is Kevin fired up! You can tell this an angle all three of the brothers are really sinking their teeth into. This promo here made me much more excited for tonight’s main event, job well done by Kevin!
- Kevin Von Erich vs. Terry Gordy: This match was set for one fall to a finish for the WCCW American Heavyweight Championship, thirty minute time limit. Terry Gory kept Kevin at bay by bailing out and pulling the referee in front of him in the corner to starting things off with frustrating the champ. Kevin really got going, hitting a dropkick and a headscissors take over to send Gordy to the floor to regroup. A standing side headlock was waiting for Gordy once he came back in, but a single-handed scoopslam put Kevin down on the mat hard. Flair was mentioned to be in town again next week as a “Go home, Freebirds!” chant broke out in the arena. Gordy used Kevin’s trunks to break a pin. A supine side headlock turned into a standing side headlock until Kevin exploded and sent Gordy into the corner so hard he went up and over and down to the floor! The crowd cheered Kevin on as he kept Gordy locked in another side headlock. Gordy rebounded when Kevin was dropped over the top rope throat first twice and planted with a stalled suplex for a near fall. Gordy had Kevin down on the mat for a bit with a chinlock of his own. Suddenly, Buddy Roberts came down to ringside. Michael Hayes was out next to be ringside with Buddy. Back in the ring, Kevin was firing away on Gordy and latched on an Iron Claw! Roberts jumped to the apron and Kevin threw Gordy into him. Stunned, Kevin got Gordy up in a bodyslam position, but his feet were pulled out from underneath him by Michael Hayes, allowing Gordy to come crashing down onto Kevin and pick up the win to become the new WCCW American Heavyweight Champion!
- I’d say this one had a lot of rest holds that held it back from really taking off, but the action in between did a lot to help break things up and keep the match interesting! Interest peaked. when other members of both sides began to get a little antsy. You can just feel the heat being between all six men at once, even as a viewer of a tape all these years later. There are boatloads and boatloads of money to be made with these two teams.
- Back at the commentary booth, Bill Mercer was joined by The Freebirds, with Terry Gordy holding his freshly-won WCCW American Heavyweight Championship and Michael and Buddy holding the Georgia flag up behind him. Terry said that he’s never said it before, and he’ll probably never say it again, but it was great to be alive and to be in Texas! They have all the gold and they’re not going to stop here! They’re going to win it all and drape it over the great flag of Georgia!
- You know, I never really knew Gordy had the charisma he does on the microphone until I started reviewing World Class. Without much knowledge of his stuff first-hand. I would’ve just guessed that it was all pretty much Michael Hayes and Gordy was just the big guy of the group. He is presented and proved to be much, much more than that so far. If anything, he’s almost being presented as the lead for the group, something I really have been surprised to see! Just more classic Freebirds stuff here.
- Bill Mercer closed us out while The Freebirds held their championships up proudly.
FINAL THOUGHTS
One of the better nights of in-ring action top-to-bottom tonight. David starting things off nicely with The Checkmate, and our main event closed us out on a high note, further building anticipation for that inevitable clash between The Freebirds and the Von Erichs. A nice featurette and closing promo from The Freebirds this week… as a matter of fact, if you don’t like The Freebirds, you should probably skip this episode because they left their mark ALL OVER this episode. I look forward to seeing what Ric Flair could possibly be doing in Texas next week, plus how will all this continue between the Georgia and Texas boys!? We’ll have to wait and see!
See you all then!