Observations from World Class Championship Wrestling...

[2coldMack is even more baffled]

Would anyone be interested in a thread like this? I've been watching a TON of World Class on the Network lately, and I was thinking of making this thread and just recording observations, starting with the 1983 shows, since that's what I'm on the edge of. Any interest?

[Deleted]

Since I am doing the same (albeit in September 1982 currently), sure.

[mattperiolat]

Dec 7, 2017 17:10:08 GMT -5 2coldMack is even more baffled said:

Would anyone be interested in a thread like this? I've been watching a TON of World Class on the Network lately, and I was thinking of making this thread and just recording observations, starting with the 1983 shows, since that's what I'm on the edge of. Any interest?

Sure! I really love World Class as well as Mid-South. Fire away with encouragement.

[2coldMack is even more baffled]

Nice, as soon as I finish the last 1982 show, I'll start that off.

[2coldMack is even more baffled]

Okay, here we go, first 1983 show...

-First match is Brian Adias/Adidas vs. Buddy Roberts: Buddy Roberts and Hayes get a promo right before the match, and shows why Roberts is usually remembered as "Michael and Terry's tag-along".

-Man, Buddy Roberts is pretty tiny, huh? I guess I never saw much of him, my Freebirds experience is mostly limited to their early-90's WCW stuff.

-Adias had a pretty good dropkick.

-Pretty basic southern psychology all match. Roberts grabs a hold and sticks to it like glue until he gets caught using the ropes.

-Adias gets little flashes of babyface fire as the match winds down, but it's too little, too late as the match ends in a time limit draw. Solid little match that puts Roberts over as a threat to the native roster, without taking the wind out of hot rookie Adias' sails. They brawl a little after the bell, but Buddy heads for the hills as Adias gets his wind back.

-We get an interview with Hayes and the Freebirds summing up their heel turn. You can't really make out what Hayes is saying because of the annoying "Lynyrd Skynyrd" soundalike music laid over the interview. Or maybe that's really "Freebird"....pretty big oversight on the editor's part if it is.

-Up next is Michael "PS" Hayes vs. Al Madril. I like Madril, and Hayes is good, so this should be fun.

-Al gets the crowd revved up to start, and Hayes bails to the outside to stall. Again, classic southern psychology.

-Damn, lot of stalling in this match. They finally hook it up to brawl for a bit, and it looks like Madril almost hit Hayes with Goldust's Shattered Dreams, but he gets stopped by the ref.

-Jesus, this crowd is out for Hayes' blood, huh?

-Ref Bronko Lubich with the most ginger pin counting I've ever seen.

-They go back and forth in a pretty good brawl before Hayes takes the advantage with a Piledriver, but what's that, he pulls off the pin, and out comes Jose Lothario to make the save! And that's a DQ win for Hayes!

-Jose cuts a simple little promo challenging Hayes afterwards.

-Up next, we get a quick set-up for the next match, a $5000 six-man elimination tag team match, and an interview with Andre The Giant, who looks massive!

-"Wild" Bill Irwin vs. Bugsy McGraw vs. King Kong Bundy vs. Terry Gordy vs. Kerry Von Erich vs. Andre The Giant is up next! Turns out it's not a tag team match, it's every man for himself, and Kerry and Gordy jump into it right off the bat!

-Hayes taking potshots at Kerry any chance he can.

-Meanwhile, Andre pretty much owns Bundy. So weird to see him so fluid in his movements.

-Kerry's the first man out, though I missed how....anyways, that leads Andre to choke out Gordy. Man....did they ever hook up in singles? That would have been a hell of a match.

-Jesus, Bundy's huge, but he looks so small next to Andre.

-McGraw goes out next, Bundy tossed him while he was trying to eliminate Irwin.

-So now it's three heels(four if you count Hayes outside) vs. Andre....gee, I wonder how this'll play out?

-Andre fights out with ease, and man, he really is sticking to Gordy like glue.

-We get another dogpile for Andre to fight out of.

-Bundy tries to bodyslam Andre, but no dice!

-Andre tosses Irwin, but he's so worn down, he loses track of himself and gets eliminated when he climbs over the top to chase Hayes after interference! It's down to Bundy vs. Gordy!

-Gordy can't slam Bundy, but in the end, he manages a powerful dropkick to oust Bundy and win the 5000 dollars! Good match, but way too long on the 3-on-1 beat down.

-Afterwards, we close with an interview with Adias and Kerry Von Erich, setting up next week's matches, especially Brian Adias vs. Terry Gordy with Kerry in Adias' corner!

-Overall, not a bad first show for 1983, it follows the red hot Freebirds/Von Erichs storyline, which is only just beginning. Should be fun to watch that play out over the next long while. Solid show, good wrestling, has me optimistic.

[2coldMack is even more baffled]

Okay, let's keep this ball rolling with show two from 1983!

-We open from a match that happened at WCCW Christmas Star Wars featuring Kevin Von Erich vs. King Kong Bundy for the American Heavyweight Championship!

-Kevin in a cape and no boots or kneepads looks....so f***ing strange.

-Unlike last time, where Bundy looked small next to Andre, he looks huge next to Kevin.

-A lot of mat work early on, which I guess is to be expected from Kevin, but it's weird when he's able to control such a huge guy for so long.

-Kevin is tossing those white meat babyface antics all over the place. Of the three Von Erichs so far, I honestly thing I like him best, bare feet and all.

-Man, Kevin's been in control pretty much this entire match. Such weird booking.

-Kevin comes off the top, and Bundy pulls the ref in the way of the blow to get away with tossing Kevin over the top and to the floor! But the ref saw it anyways because this is Dallas and Kevin's a Von Erich, so Kevin wins and retains by disqualification!

-Interview with Kerry reacting to the Freebird turn in his title match at Christmast Star Wars. Kerry stumbles his way through the interview. Not bad.

-Up next is Brian Adias vs. Terry Gordy. Adias is fighting for the honor of his injured buddy Kerry here.

-A lot of heel stalling to start off, which I guess I should have expected, even though Gordy's a monster compared against Adias.

-We finally get things started with Gordy controlling. Man...never has any other individual looked more like Shrek come to life than Terry Gordy.

-Not a lot to say about this match, Gordy's pretty much manhandling Adias.

-Adias gets a couple hope spots, but nothing significant before Michael Hayes comes down and now we've got tension!

-Adias locks in a sleeper as Kerry chases Hayes away from ringside, but oh shit, Gordy SPIKES Adias with a piledriver for the three! Good match but way too long.

-Up next, we get an interview with ref David Manning of him breaking down the big title match from Star Wars. Riveting stuff, let me tell you.

-Up next, we have King King Bundy vs. The Samoan! The Samoan, by the way, is Samu from The Headshrinkers. Bundy cuts a confusing pre-match promo saying that he's now to be known as Devastation Incorporated, and his matches can only be viewed with his permission. He then proceeds to answer King Kong Bundy anyways? I dunno...

-Pretty basic Bundy squash, ending with a pretty impressive big splash. Nothing great, just what it was. After the match, Bundy teases that a mysterious "The Man" is now guiding his career, and has brought Great Kabuki back to be his tag team partner. Interesting, wonder who "the Man" is. Probably Gary Hart.

-Not as good as last week's show, the show was still very watchable, and even the squash match was pretty fun.

[2coldMack is even more baffled]

Okay, took a little break, and now next in line is the January 29, 1983 show. Here we go...

-Our main event tonight is Bugsy McGraw and Al Madril vs. King Kong Bundy and Great Kabuki. Should be a fun match. We also have Jose Lothario vs. Michael Hayes and more!

-Up first is The Great Yatsu vs. The Samoan. Yatsu is a young Yoshiaki Yatsu, being managed by Armand Hussein here.

-Yatsu with a quick kata form to show off, and he takes control very early with some classic amateur wrestling.

-Man, Samu is taking a beating here, including a nasty looking catch powerslam before being finished off with a Cobra Clutch pin! Good showcase squash for the new Japanese mauler in town. So weird to see Samu used as a jobber, though. After the match, Samu eats a superkick and a further beatdown. Hussein gets control of his man, though.

-We get a quick interview with David Von Erich here. He regrets helping the Freebirds win the World Class six man championship. But now it's time for the Von Erich boys to get it back, and David will use any weapon he can get his hands on. Pretty decent promo, better than Kerry's last week, anyways.

-Up next, we have World Class Brass Knuckles Champion(what was that title even about, anyways?) Jose Lothario vs. "The Toast of the Coast" Michael Hayes! This should be....interesting.

-Right off the bat, announcer Bill Mercer calls pudgy, balding Jose a "young man". Carlos Colon in 1993, he ain't.

-As you would come to expect of a Freebirds match here, we get a LOT of stalling to start, as Hayes threatens to leave.

-The crowd is still out for blood on Hayes, and thank god, because his crowd work is keeping this match afloat.

-They threaten to start boxing with one another before Hayes bails to the outside.

-The match finally gets started with both men jockeying for position, with Lothario really working over the legs.

-Lothario is just dominating this match on the mat, man.

-Hayes finally comes around to controlling things as this match just plods along.

-Lothario fights out with an ankle breaker! Man, I miss that move.

-Jose gets a comeback in the waning minutes of the match, peppering Hayes with sharp lefts and rights, but it's all for naught, as the rest of the Freebirds run in for the save and give Jose a DQ win. Holy crap....that was a boring match. Credit where it's due, the crowd stayed with Hayes the whole time, but man, that was dull.

-Afterwards, we get an interview with The Birds threatening the Von Erichs and trash talking the Texas crowd.

-We get a sit-down interview with Bundy hyping up Devastation Incorporated. He notes that the Boss, as well as "many others" are forthcoming. Bundy mentions the boss bringing back a "world class talent" from Africa, so we know who that is. Pretty decent interview, Bundy's an underrated talker.

-And our main event is Bugsy McGraw and Al Madril vs. Devastation Incorporated! Man, Bugsy's such a weirdo, I love it. Budy and Kabuki enter unaccompanied.

-Kabuki looking badass as always, and we start with Madril vs. Kabuki. Kabuki's very taken aback by the strangeness of McGraw.

-Faces control early on Kabuki.

-Bundy comes in on Madril and we are off to the races! Just big man domination. Did he do the Five Count gimmick in World Class, or did that start in Memphis?

-Madril with some offense, but all it really does is piss Bundy off.

-Kabuki back in, takes a near fall off Madril, but soon enough, the heels are back on top with Bundy in.

-Bugsy in finally, but Kabuki keeps him under control before bringing Bundy back in.

-Bundy and Bugsy have a pretty neat little brawl.

-We get a babyface hope spot with McGraw, but he misses a headbutt off the top and eats a superkick before Bundy comes in with the big splash for the 1-2-3! Fun little fast paced tag team match, good showing by the new heel duo.

-We close the show with an interview with Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts about his title match with Kevin Von Erich next week. He promises that he won't choke like Kerry Von Erich, and next week, he's gonna get the title. Short, sweet, exactly what it needed to be.

-Man, two out of three ain't bad, but between a short squash, one boring ass singles match with a non-finish, and a fun tag team main event, I'm not sure if I can really highly recommend this one. Unless you're a huge fan of Kabuki or Bundy, that is.

[2coldMack is even more baffled]

Okay, so after a 12 hour or so power outage, we're BACK! This time, it's the February 5, 1983 episode, so let's jump right in, shall we?

-Bill Mercer runs down our card tonight, and it's Kevin Von Erich vs. Terry Gordy, David Von Erich vs. The Checkmate, and Brian Adias vs. The Great Yatsu!

-Up first, is David Von Erich vs. The Checkmate! Checkmate is accompanied by Arman Hussein. David Von Erich comes out to a hail of female screams.

-The usual heel stalling starts us off.

-Does anybody know who's under the Checkmate mask? I like this weird little barely a character character.

-Lot of really good mat work, catch as catch can stuff here.

-Not a lot to this match, really. Checkmate works the leg of Von Erich on the mat. If you like mat work, this is your match, if not...

-That is a really sick toehold that Checkmate has on David though.

-David gets that babyface fire going, and Checkmate is no match for a jumping knee and a tightly cinched in sleeper! Hussein threatens to interfere, but it's too late, Checkmate's out, and David Von Erich is your winner. Good match, solid psychology, wonky ending, like Hussein missed his cue or something.

-We get an interview with the Freebirds at a drive-through restaurant, as the 'Birds sit in their truck. Funny stuff, actually. They talk about running the Von Erichs out of Texas. They also left Mercer to foot the bill. Hilarious.

-Up next is Brian Adias vs. The Great Tora Yatsu, accompanied by Arman Hussein!

-Adias dodges around Yatsu early to open, but Yatsu's not bothered in the least.

-Adias tries to maintain control, but Yatsu just keeps coming, and transfers a bear hug into a nasty belly-to-belly suplex! This dude is a beast.

-Yatsu with a superkick to a kneeling opponent a good 20 years before that became fashionable. Awesome.

-Adias tries to get a babyface comeback going, but Yatsu just mauls the poor bastard. I love this guy!

-Adias catches his breath on the outside, for all the good it did him, as he gets locked into a front sleeper.

-Adias fights his way out and gets a little comeback, but again, Yatsu's just in the mood to maul the guy, finishing him with that nasty bodyslam into the Cobra Clutch to end it! Less of a squash than last week, but they're still building Yatsu as a monster. Neat to see.

-Up next ,we get a quick interview with Kevin Von Erich. He's not worried about his title, he's out to avenge his brother. He's also shooting for a six man tag of the Von Erich boys vs. The Freebirds. Should be fun.

-Up next, Kevin Von Erich defends the American Heavyweight Championship against Terry Gordy of The Freebirds!

-We jump right into it, with the heel stalling, as Gordy wants David Von Erich removed from ringside.

-Kevin in control early, man, this is a fun match!

-They slow it down a little, but Kevin stays in the driver's seat.

-Next week, Ric Flair's gonna be in the house, but no word on who he's wrestling. Exciting!

-BIG "Go Home Freebirds!" chant. Nice.

-Kevin thrown to the outside, but comes in swinging like a madman! I think I said this before, but of the three, I think I like Kevin best.

-Also Gordy took a hell of a bump to the apron. That would have put Ric Flair to shame.

-Damn, this is a pretty good match.

-BIIIIG suplex by Gordy. God, Gordy was so damn good, huh?

-We get some long rest headlocks here now, before the rest of the Freebirds hit ringside.

-Kevin fights up out of a headlock, and locks in the Claw! Roberts tries for a distraction, but Gordy gets slammed into him, but Hayes interference leads to Terry Gordy landing on top of Kevin, and Gordy wins! A rare televised title change for the time, neat. And a good match. Long periods of nothing, but when they worked, they worked hard.

-Afterwards ,we get a Gordy interview, where he notes they're taking all the gold, and that "It's great to be alive in Texas", in front of an old Georgia flag, which is....cringey.

-Overall fun show. The opening match drags a bit, but the latter two are really fun. Seeing Gordy win the belt was neat.

[2coldMack is even more baffled]

Okay, so the Network skips a couple weeks here, I'm just assuming we have shit tape quality for those, so they were unusable, so get ready for the February 26, 1983 edition of World Class!

-We get the usual intro and match rundown from Bill Mercer, and the main event tonight is Kevin, David, and Kerry Von Erich vs. The Freebirds in a six man tag lumberjack match! Also, we get the debuts of Jimmy Garvin and King Parsons!

-But first, King Kong Bundy vs. The Magic Dragon/w Arman Hussein. Bundy's new manager, Gen. Akbar isn't out with him, because this opponent isn't worth his time.

-Magic Dragon looks different. Is it the same guy playing him at this point? Oh yeah, I recognize Dragon's weird pudgy stomach, it's him.

-We get a test of strength, which is just dumb on Dragon's part, although he does manage to turn it to his advantage!

-"Bundy is a pig" chants from the crowd.

-Dragon fights out of a chinlock, but it's all for naught, as Bundy shrugs him off, and Bundy ends things with a hanging choke, and sets up the big splash to get the win! Way too long for what it was, which was a simple Bundy squash. Bundy should have killed this guy inside of 5 minutes.

-We get an interview with "Iceman" King Parsons, who used to haul ice, man. His hair is ridiculous, by the way. But he knows World Class is the place to be, and because he's a babyface, he's good friends with the Von Erichs.

-After that, we get an interview with "Gorgeous" Jim Garvin and Sunshine, from Florida. World Class hadn't become the greatest until he showed up, and now that he is, it can't get any better. Apparently, nobody's taping him wrestling until he says so, but he's...looking forward to people seeing his work? Confusing. Two so-so interviews, Parson was better.

-Up next, we get "Iceman" King Parson vs. Arman Hussein. Short promo has Hussein claiming he's gonna send Parson back to the graveyard.

-Arman stalls with his "camel walk" deal, which is ridiculous, but gets nuclear heat.

-Parson interrupts the walk with a BIIIIIG back body drop, and that is that! Obviously barely a match, but a damn good intro for Parsons, ruining a hated heel's bit.

-Up next is "Gorgeous" Jim Garvin and Sunshine vs. Al Madril. Jim's looking snazzy as hell in that ring coat.

-Garvin stops the match dead, because nobody films his matches, and so Garvin is out of here. What a strange gimmick, but it's getting heat.

-Up next, we get a press conference wth Skandor Akbar, aka "The General". He's out to manage an elite group of superheavyweights. Kabukii's return will be measured on the Richter Scale, but he promises us that in the near future, we'll hear about Kamala! I can't wait. The Von Erich's shall pay dearly for their transgressions against Bundy. Solid interview, and we have our hot new heels.

-And now we go to the Six man lumberjack match! The Von Erich boys vs. The Freebirds!

-Around the ring are Bundy, Al Madril, King Parsons, Jim Garvin, Arman Hussein and Great Yatsu, so a pretty anemic line-up of lumberjacks.

-"Go Home Freebirds" as Kerry and Gordy start us off, but Hayes is in before too long and Kerry's cleaning house on all three!

-David in with Gordy, and they're beating the crap out of each other.

-Roberts in to break it up, and now he's taking Kevin to school.

-All hell breaks loose again, but it's still Kevin and Buddy in the ring.

-Kevin's ass comes most of the way out of his trunks, which I can imagine made the puberty of several girls in the audience that night.

-And Kevin Von Erich is playing Ricky Morton tonight, as he brings in Kerry for a massive pop to just tear down Gordy!

-This match is just too fast to follow, man, they're giving the crowd their money's worth, I have to give them credit.

-Not much for the lumberjacks to do so far, though.

-Match ends with everyone but Hayes, Gordy and David in the ring, and Hayes breaks up a Claw on Gordy, but Kevin breaks up a piledriver on David to give the wins to the Von Erichs to a frightening pop! Really fun, fast paced match that just devolved into chaos too much to call it consistently.

-We get an interview with the Von Erichs promising to go after both Gordy's American title and the Six Man Tag Team championships. They give the win up to all of Texas. Good, quick interview.

-Fun show, actually. The opening match is too long, and there's only one really short squash match, but DAMN, that main event is fun as hell. Great stuff, would watch again. Next week, we get David Von Erich vs. Buddy Roberts, Al Madril vs. Great Yatsu, and an interview with Gen. Akbar. Sounds like fun on a bun.

[2coldMack is even more baffled]

Okay, been a few days, and now I NEEDS my old school wrestling fix, so let's go ahead and get on with the March 5th, 1983 show from World Class Championship Wrestling!

-Bill Mercer gives us the run-down, including the main event of David Von Erich vs. Buddy Roberts! Also on the card is Jim Garvin, King Parsons, and The Great Yatsu! But up next, we meet Gen. Akbar!

-We get an interview with Akbar putting over his new Devastation Incorporated stable, including the imminent return of The Great Kabuki, who we get a quick promo video for. Pretty slick little video package, here, for 1983. We also get a little tease for Kamala, putting him over strong, with a much different look than most are used to seeing Kamala with.

-First match up is King Parsons vs. The Magic Dragon w/Arman Hussein!

-What do you call the hairstyle that Parsons is rocking here?

-The crowd took to Parsons pretty quickly, gotta give him credit.

-Test of strength to start, with Dragon getting the advantage, but Parsons powers him down. At this point, the video quality's dropping pretty bad.

-Does Parsons have a Star of David tattooed on his chest? Weird...

-They trade offense back and forth for a bit until Parsons nails a Rear View for the 1-2-3! Pretty dull match, honestly. After the match, Hussein bumps for Parsons' ass as well. Credit where it's due, Iceman's over, but not a great match.

-We get an Akbar/Bundy interview, and Akbar's after Hussein and Great Yatsu. And from there, we move on to Great Yatsu vs. Al Madril!

-Bundy and Akbar are finally forced to leave. We get a brief kata from Yatsu, and now we're off.

-Madril gets tossed to the outside, and Yatsu is just in firm control of this match.

_Madril botches a springboard out of the corner, looked awkward.

-Yatsu just dissects Madril, finishing him with a nasty gut claw. Yatsu just outclasses Magic Dragon in every way. Everything he does looks nasty. Short match, not great, but exactly what it needed to be, especially if Yatsu's gonna be believable as a threat against Bundy.

-After the match, Hussein cuts a promo promising vengeance on Akbar and company for poaching Kabuki away from him.

-We get an interview with Jimmy Garvin and Sunshine by the hot tub, and he still refuses to be filmed wrestling. He came to World Class to tackle those "young punks" the Von Erichs. He's also not a fan of the Freebirds(Irony, thy name is Garvin), and that he and Sunshine are bringing class and beauty to pro wrestling.

-And now it's time for our MAIN EVENT! David Von Erich vs. Buddy Roberts. Every Freebird, every Von Erich and, for some reason, Jim Garvin, are all at ringside. Everybody but Garvin, David, and Buddy are forced to leave.

-We start with the expected wild brawl, with Sunshine filming from ringside.

-David in solid control for most of the match, while Mercer informs us that next week we get Michael Hayes vs. Kerry Von Erich, which should be fun.

-Finish hits pretty out of nowhere, as David locks on the Claw after a lot of mat work, but Roberts is hung up on the ropes, and now we get a massive brawl to end things! The Von Erichs clear the ring, and David wins by DQ! Nothing great, but not terrible, either.

-After the match, we get a short interview with David, saying that now the door must be open for him to receive a title shot.

-Overall, not a great show, just three short-ish matches, none of which were really impressive. Great Yatsu was probably my MVP of the show, just for being brutal.