Monday 28 April 2014

WWE All Star Search #16 - Championship Wrestling (Jan 1986)

WWE All Star Search #16 - Championship Wrestling (Jan 1986)

Hello Turnbucklers! It's our first weekly TV edition and we're looking at Championship Wrestling in January 1986 as we creep closer to Wrestlemania 2...will we get our first mention? Expect to see a lot of JYD, Ricky Steamboat, King Tonga and Terry Funk. We also get a complete image haul for one superstar...how will the crowd react? Let's get into it shall we!


Get 40 Year Mortgage Rate, Hurry Before Rates Rise. Get Free Quotes From Up To 5 Lenders Now!

The Card:

Moondog Spot/John Rizzo vs Junkyard Dog/George Steele

Mike Sexton vs Terry Funk

Tito Santana (IC Champ)/Pedro Morales vs Al Navarro/Steve Lombardi

King Kong Bundy vs Jeff Cripley/Paul Dose

Joe Williams vs Don Muraco

Ron Shaw/AJ Petruzzi vs Ricky Steamboat/King Tonga

Barry O/Joe Mirto/Mr X vs King Tonga/Ricky Steamboat/Junkyard Dog

Ted Arcidi vs Joe Williams

Jim Powers vs Adrian Adonis

Bret Hart vs Don Driggers

Ricky Hunter/Ron Shaw vs Corporal Kirchner/Danny Spivey

Mr X/Joe Mirto vs Junkyard Dog/Paul Orndorff

Terry Funk vs Sal Gee

Paul Dose vs Don Muraco

Gina Carabello/Terry Gibbs vs The British Bulldogs

Steve Lombardi/Tiger Chung Lee/Dr Midnight vs Hillbilly Jim/Cousin Luke/Uncle Elmer


Enjoy Summer FREE Shipping on All Tickets purchase at TicketSolutions.com by using Coupon Code: TSIFS2014. This coupon ends on August 31st.

The Show:

So let's kick off with the January 11th edition first! Our commentary team are Vince McMahon and Bruno Sammartino and they start us off by running down tonights card.

Moondog Spot/John Rizzo vs Junkyard Dog/George Steele

Big pop for the faces who come out to Grab Them Cakes! Captain Lou is with them and the action starts straight away with all four men brawling. Spot and Steele have altercations on the outside while JYD and Rizzo start inside. The heels double team JYD in their corner but Steele comes in to make the save. It all happens again as the heels double team JYD right in front of the ref. Spot nails a top rope knee drop and all four men are still in the ring. Steele holds Spot who an eternity before JYD notices and nails some punches. He nails a headbutt and tags in Steele. Steele bites Spot before Rizzo randomly appears and swaps with Spot...no tag. JYD in and he locks on a chinlock before JYD escapes, nails a headbutt and gets the 3 count. After the match, Spot and Steele brawl on the outside with chairs before the faces dance in the ring. Well Steele tries to dance. Fire that referee, seriously, he may as well have not been there, lord knows JYD can count his own pin and it'll still count! Squash Rating: *

It Update time with Lord Alfred Hayes. This week he's looking at Ricky Steamboat and we see some clips of Dragon gaining some wins with his high flying moves. We ends by hyping up Dragons feud with Muraco.

Mike Sexton vs Terry Funk

Its hard to take Terry Funk as a serious threat after his amount of losses and the way he was fed to Hogan. The fans start a asshole chant and McMahon plays dumb to it all. They lock up in the ring until Funk throws Sexton outside. Hart takes a cheap shot but gets chased round the ring for his troubles. Sexton gets blindsided while distracted by Hart and eats some nasty boots to the head and some nasty chops. Back in the ring, Funk continues his offense and the crowd chant asshole again! Funk threatens to go into the crowd to teach them a lesson but gets held back. Scoop slam by Funk followed by some JYD style headbutts. Slaps by Funk before he locks in a sleeper hold and that gets the win! I hate sleeper holds being used to WIN a match. After the match Sexton gets a branding. All good stuff and good to see Funk get a win and look so mental in doing so. Squash Rating: ***

Mean Gene is in the back and he's joined by Tito Santana. He hypes up his upcoming house show match with Randy Savage. He says the belt is shining and he's ready for a good fight. He would be letting everyone down if he lost the belt to a bloke like Savage. He says he doesn't care about Liz, realises that sounds awful, says he does care about her...just not during his match. Bottom line, he's focussed and he's winning! Ariba!

We are told we can vote for the best personality in the Land of 1000 Dances video. I'd vote for...Greg Valentine, just for his ickle face!

Tito Santana (IC Champ)/Pedro Morales vs Al Navarro/Steve Lombardi

Very much the past meets the present for latino fans! Quick start with Santana and Lombardi using leapfrogs and armdrags. Scoop slam by Santana before he tags in Morales. Morales works over Lombardi's arm and nails a back body drop and a scoop slam of his own. In comes Navarro but Morales work over his arm too. The heels get some offense in with Lombardi locking on a headlock but gets backdropped. Santana gets the warm tag and nails a series of scoop slams and another back drop. He locks in the figure 4 on Navarro and gets the win. Santana looked really good in this one. Squash Rating: ***

Mean Gene is in the back and this time he's joined by Bruno Sammartino. He hypes up his upcoming match and talks about why he is the living legend. In comes Paul Orndorff screaming (and scares the living shit out of everyone) about how he has Bruno's back. He has his own cast on his arm to counter Bob Orton and we finish while Orndorff is still mouthing off to the camera!

King Kong Bundy vs Jeff Cripley/Paul Dose

Get Concert Tickets Online and Save Money on Great Seats!
Bundy is accompanied by Big John Studd and Bobby Heenan and of course they get booed while we see some typical 80's signs in the crowd. Have you ever noticed how much Bundy looks like a swollen thumb? Bundy destroys both men using his size and power before hitting the avalanche and getting the 5 count! Yes 5, because that's his gimmick! Squash Rating: ***

Piper's Pit now with Piper of course, flanked by Bob Orton. Jimmy Hart runs on excitedly and says he has a big suprise! About to step out is the 'new' Adrian Adonis and they try and hype up the crowd. Adonis appears to laughter as he's dyed his hair blonde and its covered in bows and flowers. It looks like he's also wearing make up. Adonis says he's been tough before and now he can be tough while being himself. He says that he jumped out the closet and there were no brooms behind him. He is retiring his leather jacket and he let's Piper have it. He does some shangrilah kicks so finish the segment. I can see why that could be controversial in 1986! Brave and very interesting!

Joe Williams vs Don Muraco

Not much to say again about this one. Nice suplex by Muraco but the rest is elbows, headbutts and general strikes. Muraco hits an interesting top rope move whereby he uses his weight to come down on Williams head. Muraco gets the win not long after that with a tombstone piledriver. Squash Rating: ***

Another chance for us to vote for best vocal performance on the Wrestling Album! Did anyone buy that??

Ron Shaw/AJ Petruzzi vs Ricky Steamboat/King Tonga

A blog debut for King Tonga who also goes by many other names in his career. He comes out wearing assumedly traditional Tongan threads. This name has to be his shittest right? Big reaction for Steamboat and he hams it up with the ringside fans. Tonga no sells to start before nailing a chop and doing a JYD style jig. More strikes by Tonga followed by some stalling. Steamboat tags in to a big reaction and he comes off the top onto the arm of Petruzzi. Petruzzi hits a scoop slam but eats one chop after another as Tonga comes in. He works over Petruzzi's arm before hitting a nice back suplex for 2. In comes Shaw but he fairs no better as he takes a double chop from the faces. Petruzzi back in and he eats a chop before Tonga comes in and nails a clothesline. Steamboat tags in, heads up top, hits the flying bodypress and that gets the 3. Squash Rating: **

Into the back with Mean Gene who's with Orton and Piper. They talk smack to Orndorff and Sammartino all to hype up their house show match. That's all see get for this episode...so onto the next...


This is the January 18th episode of Championship Wrestling. Once again our commentators are Vince McMahon and Bruno Sammartino. They talk about George Steele's crush on Liz and the Peace Match from a few weeks ago with Kirchner and Volkoff.

Your Trip, Your Way at Expedia.ca
Barry O/Joe Mirto/Mr X vs King Tonga/Ricky Steamboat/Junkyard Dog

The faces (or people you've heard of) come out to Grab Them Cakes and good lord what is King Tonga wearing this time. He looks like a cheap garden feature. How many Mr X's has there been in wrestling, it can't surely be the same guy all the time. Steamboat plays the face in peril so its already not a complete squash. Steamboat and JYD collide by accident and the heels take advantage continuing their destruction of Dragon. JYD tags in, nails a headbutt and gets the 3 count. JYD brings some kids in the ring to dance afterwards. Squash Rating: **

Its this week's update with Lord Al and its focussing on George 'the Animal' Steele. We see a clip of him dealing with his confused emotions over Elizabeth from the previous Saturday Nights Main Event. 

Ted Arcidi vs Joe Williams

Before the match starts we see a clip of Arcidi breaking some bench press record and a lot of people seem to care. This guy is huge to be fair and in comparison, Williams looks like a matchstick. I seriously think Williams walked into the wrong building and no one told him until the bell rung. Not much in this except a really nice clothesline from Arcidi (very Bret Hart like). A powerslam gets the win for Arcidi who came off quite well in this one. Squash Rating: ****

Into the back with Mean Gene who's joined by Roddy Piper! He's got an upcoming steel cage match coming with Bruno Sammartino in Boston. He says that Bruno is a good name for a dog in a cage. The people in Boston would love to see Piper get ripped apart apparently! Typically good hyper Piper promo who really put over Bruno as a legend with nothing to lose. I'm annoyed I couldn't find a good source for the Boston show for that match alone!

We see the entirety of the Peace Match from Saturday Nights Main Event. If you want to know how spectacular it was, go read the last edition!

Into the back with Mean Gene who's with Randy Savage. He has a big green sack apparently full of money. He says that's the kind of money that comes with belts and he's going to beat Tito Santana. Liz says Macho Man is definitely going to win. Mean Gene questions the influence of Macho over her but Macho cuts in and rants. Another classic! Loved it!

We see another clip of the Land of 1000 Dances video and again they want us to vote for the best personality within...

Jim Powers vs Adrian Adonis

Adonis as of last week is 'adorable' and the crowd appreciate that by chanting 'faggot' at him while McMahon giggles obliviously. This is a really quick squash though and Adonis wins with a DDT which Sammartino emphasises as a piledriver. Think about that, at this point a DDT was so unknown to a legend like Bruno Sammartino. Squash Rating: *

Piper's Pit now with Hercules! He demands some competition and wants some Tito Santanas and some Hulk Hogans. He yells and poses and its all boring until Freddie Blassie puts him over to save it. They all laugh at Tito before more yelling and the throwing of stools...actual stools.

Bret Hart vs Don Driggers

A Bret Hart singles match! He sells the arm for Don Driggers before gaining offense of his own. He hits a nice legdrop before throwing Driggers out the ring and hitting a scoop slam and throwing him into the guardrail. Back in the ring he hits a headbutt followed by an elbow drop. The commentators talk about Stu Hart and its cool to hear Bruno put him over. Bret hits a crisp backbreaker before going to the second rope for an elbow drop to win it. He lays in some boots afterwards and Bret looked awesome throughout. Squash Rating: ****

We get another look at the nominees for best performance on the Wrestling Album. I'm starting to swing for Nikolai Volkoff's track!

Ricky Hunter/Ron Shaw vs Corporal Kirchner/Danny Spivey

Danny Spivey is a new face for the blog and he's a big lad, looks a lot like Barry Windham. Spivey botches a dropkick before tagging in Kirchner who comes off the top rope. Apparently Kirchners hobby is skydiving and I dislike him more for that. Kirchner hits an awful looking clothesline and the campest tag to Spivey. He hits a bulldog and that gets the 3. That was really bad but Kirchner was dreadful. Squash Rating: DUD

Into the back with Mean Gene who's with Bruno Sammartino! They put over the upcoming cage match with Piper before Bruno tells us he demanded the match. He botches awkwardly before telling us how much of a coward Piper is for having Orton around. Bad promo but Bruno has this earthly realism about him it seems forgivable...if that makes sense. Him and Vince run down the show to end it.


The final episode of January 1986 and its the 25th. Our commentators are once again Vince McMahon and Bruno Sammartino who run down the card.

Mr X/Joe Mirto vs Junkyard Dog/Paul Orndorff

Big reaction for the faces in this one and weirdly enough, big boos for Mr X. Orndorff still has a cast on his arm. Big cheers for Orndorff as he comes off the top with an elbow and between the faces they work over the arm of Mr X. Orndorff hits a dropkick at one point although it didn't look too crisp and the same with a following clothesline. He signals and then hits a good piledriver and that gets the win and the faces celebrate with a jumping high-five. Orndorff was super over in this one and JYD was thankfully kept to the minimal. Squash Rating: **

Update with Lord Al this week is about Andre the Giant. We see clips of the Heenan family destroying him a few months back, injuring Andre. Apparently Andre is now healed and is on his way back.

Another chance to vote for best personality in the Land of 1000 Dances video.

Terry Funk vs Sal Gee

Typical Funk squash match, very similar to the one on the 11th. Crowd are happy when jobber Gee gets some scoop slams in, sending Funk to the outside to regroup. Funk of course regains control but Gee gets some more offense in. Funk manages to lock on the sleeper hold and that gets the win. As is custom, Gee gets a branding after the match. Squash Rating: **

Into the back with Mean Gene who is with Roddy Piper. They hype up the cage match with Bruno in Boston. This week Piper puts over the cage itself and its all good. Hyper Piper returns and puts over Bob Orton being barred from the Boston event!

Paul Dose vs Don Muraco

I should point out, it flashes up Paul Rose instead of Dose...how hard is it to spell Dose? Muraco obviously dominates the whole match and gets the elimentary win with the tombstone. Standard Muraco match, nothing special, as shown by the lack of details. Squash Rating: *

We get our first very brief screenshot of the Wrestlemania 2 logo before joining Mean Gene in the back. Tito Santana is with him and they talk about someone called the Miami Dolphins. Apparently Tito is a lot like them and Tito is not going to let Macho sneak a win. Their upcoming match is their superbowl and Ariba!

Gina Carabello/Terry Gibbs vs The British Bulldogs

The Bulldogs get a massive reaction and they are clearly getting hugely over. Dynamite starts off against Terry Gibbs as the crowd barks. Quick counter wrestling and Dynamite hits a nice snap suplex. Davey comes in and hits an awesome normal suplex followed by a fishermans suplex for 2! Double headbutt by the Bulldogs before they hit a double clothesline. Davey locks in a headlock, tags in Dynamite who hits another headbutt. Davey back in who sets Gino on the top rope. He hits a superplex for a 3 count! Carabello is stretchered out off camera which is weird. I loved it and so did the crowd. The Bulldogs really made themselves look great in that one! Squash Rating: *****

Piper's Pit has the tag champs, Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake on it. They run down the Bulldogs who themselves appear and demand a title shot! Valiant denies them on behalf of the champs while Piper sets up a match next week. Valiant says he'll think it over before a shoving match starts to kick off. Nice to see the Bulldogs get set up in the title picture after the previous match.

We see the whole George Steele/Macho Man match from the previous Saturday Nights Main Event. Point being, don't forget Steele fancies Liz.

We get another brief shot of Wrestlemania 2 followed by a run down for best performance on the Wrestling Album nominees. Roddy Piper sounds wasted in his as does Lou Albano in his. Then again, I'm sure being wasted helped with those ones.

Steve Lombardi/Tiger Chung Lee/Dr Midnight vs Hillbilly Jim/Cousin Luke/Uncle Elmer

First...Dr Midnight?! Really? He looks like Mr X's even eviler cousin. The hillbillies are over with everyone but me it seems as they dance around before the match. I refuse to go into details with this one as it was dire. Hillbilly Jim gets the win with an elbow drop. We get more dancing to send everyone home happy. Squash Rating: *

Into the back with Mean Gene who's with Ricky Steamboat. He cuts a cool promo more to Mr Fuji than Don Muraco and wonders what kind of master he truly is. Bruno Sammartino comes in when Steamboat goes off and he's happy Orton is barred from his upcoming match with Piper. He rants in Italian and all is cool. That's all for this week's and this months Championship Wrestling.


Get Healthy with VitalMaxVitamins!

Wrestler Scores:



  • Moondog Spot +1 (9)
  • John Rizzo +1 (1)
  • Junkyard Dog +9 (41)
  • George Steele +9 (16)
  • Ricky Steamboat +11 (52)
  • Mike Sexton +1 (1)
  • Terry Funk +8 (25)
  • Tito Santana +5 (56)
  • Pedro Morales +3 (5)
  • Al Navarro +1 (2)
  • Steve Lombardi +2 (2)
  • Bruno Sammartino +2 (5)
  • Paul Orndorff +5 (44)
  • King Kong Bundy +5 (25)
  • Paul Dose +2 (3)
  • Jeff Cripley +2 (3)
  • Roddy Piper +3 (58)
  • Adrian Adonis +7 (28)
  • Joe Williams +2 (2)
  • Don Muraco +4 (25)
  • Ron Shaw +2 (5)
  • AJ Petruzzi +1 (1)
  • King Tonga +6 (6)
  • Barry O +1 (5)
  • Joe Mirto +2 (2)
  • Mr X +1 (1)
  • Ted Arcidi +3 (3)
  • Randy Savage +5 (39)
  • Jim Powers +1 (1)
  • Hercules +4 (7)
  • Bret Hart +4 (22)
  • Don Driggers +1 (2)
  • Ricky Hunter +1 (1)
  • Corporal Kirchner +4 (14)
  • Dan Spivey +4 (4)
  • Andre the Giant +1 (26)
  • Sal Gee +1 (1)
  • Gino Carabello +1 (2)
  • Terry Gibbs +1 (5)
  • Dynamite Kid +6 (25)
  • Davey Boy Smith +6 (23)
  • Greg Valentine +1 (45)
  • Brutus Beefcake +1 (22)
  • Tiger Chung Lee +1 (5)
  • Dr Midnight +1 (1)
  • Cousin Luke +2 (7)
  • Uncle Elmer +2 (7)
  • Hillbilly Jim +3 (9)

So not much too mention except really in terms of huge twists and turns. I wish I could get Bruno vs Piper but I can't find it anywhere! Adonis' new look is interesting to say the least and it was certainly unsettling to hear the crowds reaction although different time, different standards etc etc. So obviously next month we're looking at February!

250x93 Logo Blue 300x250 General & Logo

No comments:

Post a Comment