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WWF Superstars of Wrestling December 6th, 1986

December 6, 1986

From the Joyce Athletic and Convocation Center in South Bend, IN

Your hosts are Bruno Sammartino, Jesse "The Body" Ventura, and Vince McMahon

In action tonight are Randy Savage, Koko B. Ware, Adrian Adonis, and the featured match of the Rougeau Brothers & Billy Jack Haynes vs. The Dream Team & Dino Bravo. Plus, an update on the condition of Ricky Steamboat and much more.




The Honkytonk Man is shown as he talks about how he is no longer kissing ugly babies or fat women in the crowd then brings out the surprise he promised us and that turns out to be Jimmy Hart. Honky says that Hart appreciates good talent as Hart tells Honky that the fans are jealous of him. And for those wondering that was how Hart was introduced as Honky's manager.


S.D. Jones vs. Randy "Macho Man" Savage w/ Elizabeth

Savage cuts a promo before the match about how Steamboat is gone forever. Bruno talks about how disgusted he is with Savage as he hides behind Elizabeth. They trade slams to start the match then Savage slides outside. In the ring, S.D. connects with a few punches but runs into a clothesline then shortly after that Savage hits the flying elbow smash for the win (2:12).

Thoughts: The fans hated Savage but more importantly was Bruno on commentary continuing to show his disgust for Savage as that would lead to future matches at house shows.


WWF Update with Gene Okerlund. This week's subject is King Harley Race. Heenan is shown telling the fans that they need to show respect to the King. Race then says there is no one else on the planet who is worthy of wearing his crown then says he will be the king forever. Not even this could get the King character over.


We get another vignette from Blackjack Mulligan as he has his "honey wagon" as he talks about spreading fertilizer while issuing a challenge to King Kong Bundy. Mulligan was really washed up at this point and did not fit in with the company plans.


Bobby Colt vs. Koko B. Ware

Koko beats on Colt then gets two with a suplex. The fans are really into Koko right now as he slams Colt then puts him away with the ghostbuster (2:05).

Thoughts: The crowd absolutely loved Koko here and he excited them with his moveset. He needs a feud at this point.


Ken Resnick is with the Wizard, Kamala, and Kimchee to plug the title match at the Boston Garden show. This featured both Kamala and the Wizard screaming over each other. Good lord this was awful.


Highlights from Adrian Adonis making his return last week by attacking Roddy Piper on "Piper's Pit" is shown.


Paul Roma vs. "Adorable" Adrian Adonis w/ Jimmy Hart

Adonis comes to the ring breathing into an oxygen mask that apparently contains a fragrance that according to Vince, stinks. This is his first TV match in two months and he has gained even more weight. Roma ducks an elbow smash and comes back with a dropkick. He then takes Adonis down with a monkey flip but misses on a dropkick as Adonis is now in control then quickly puts him away with the sleeper (1:41). After the match, Adonis takes two flowers and shoves them in Roma's mouth.

Thoughts: Adonis still had his heel heat when he returned to the ring. The WWF was smart in that they kept this feud strong when Adonis was away with Muraco and Orton filling the void.


Resnick is with Johnny V. He asks him about the matches his guys have in Boston as Johnny V rambles on until Dino Bravo comes out and tells his opponent, Corporal Kirchner, that he is going to destroy him. Bravo was never known for his promo skills.


An Outback Jack vignette is shown as he tells us that he is 6'6 and weighs 303 lbs. Captivating stuff.


Jose Luis Rivera vs. Hercules

We get a promo from Hercules and Heenan before the match as Heenan tells us how he would make the deal for him again. Vince hypes up Hercules by saying how he is in the "Top 10" rankings as the match begins with Hercules shoving Rivera before flexing. Rivera hits a dropkick but Hercules blocks a hiptoss and takes him down. Hercules hits a suplex then puts him up in the backbreaker as he gets the win by submission (1:02).

Thoughts: Vince was putting over Hercules strong and Hercules completely dominated the match.


Piper's Pit with guests George "The Animal" Steele and the Junkyard Dog. Steele was supposed to be the guest last week. Piper gives Steele a gift then JYD comes out and tells Piper that they are "salt and pepper" as they work out an elaborate handshake then get Steele to join. This was designed to make Steele & JYD friends of Piper' so he could have someone watch his back.


Okerlund is with Ricky Steamboat's wife as she expresses her hatred of Randy Savage through her terrible acting.


Salvatore Bellomo vs. Kamala

Kamala goes right after Bellomo to start. He slams him down and hits a splash then goes up top for another splash to get the win (0:44).

Thoughts: Kamala destroyed the pathetic Bellomo to remain strong for his series of matches against Hogan.


Jesse Ventura is with WWF President Jack Tunney as he asks him about reinstating Andre the Giant and why this is the case. Tunney said that he presided over a hearing and the outcome was "bizarre" but he did not want to go into the specifics other than Andre was not at the hearing but Bobby Heenan was. Ventura tries to pry information out of Tunney but failed then promised that he will get to the bottom of the story. A lot of foreshadowing in this segment. I wonder how many fans caught on that before Andre turned? I mean Tunney kept on mentioning how it was a "bizarre" meeting and that Heenan was there.


Dino Bravo & Dream Team w/ Johnny V vs. Billy Jack Haynes & Rougeau Brothers

Danny Davis is the referee for this match. The heels work over Jacques to start the match. They are slamming him all over the place as Vince goes off on Davis on commentary. Jacques reverses a move and puts Beefcake in an abdominal stretch but Bravo runs in and breaks it up then the match breaks down as everyone is brawling in the ring then Davis rings the bell as the match is ruled a double disqualification when the heels are at the disadvantage (2:12). Well, that was the story told on commentary anyway.

Thoughts: Nothing more than a backdrop for the Danny Davis angle, which has been going strong for three months.


Resnick is with JYD and asks him about facing Paul Orndorff in Boston. JYD says that Orndorff thrives on money and is jealous of Hogan and will not be able to walk past him. JYD then tells Hogan to be careful of Kamala as Hogan himself comes out and says he has been training with JYD to prepare for Kamala as he is the baddest man he knows then closes by saying "boom shaka laka laka."


Next week in action will be Adrian Adonis, Kamala, and the Can-Am Connection. Plus, an update on Ricky Steamboat and a music video highlight package set to the song "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" by Wang Chung.


Final Thoughts: A really good show. Most of the segments had a lot of importance as Hart was introduced as Honky's manager and we learned that Heenan was part of the meetings to reinstate Andre the Giant. Plus, they continue to hype hot feuds like Steamboat/Savage and Adonis/Piper and build up the new challenger to Hogan in Kamala. Also, midcard guys like Koko and Hercules got their pushes too and we saw another mysterious Outback Jack vignette.


Comments

  1. Was Koko B. Ware underutilized? If he'd been booked as more than just a glorified jobber, could he have been a credible "workrate" guy, like Steamboat, Savage, or Santana? He did a lot of cool moves and worked a fairly innovative style at the time. The gimmick was a little corner, but the fans loved him. I'm going to go out on a limb a say he was a bit wasted.

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  2. Ware was an excellent worker in Memphis, and an underrated interview when allowed to actually cut loose. So you could say he was, though his height was always going to work against him in a time when being a freak was more important than being able to wrestle.

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  3. Adam "Colorado" CurryNovember 10, 2014 at 12:58 AM

    "From the Joyce Athletic and Convocation Center in South Bend, IN"


    Fuck Notre Dame.

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  4. Online jobs guys121

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  5. To me, ECW is to wrestling as grunge was to music. It has it's detractors, although it was considered cool and different at the time, and although some of it doesn't hold up today, it brought a lot of change to the industry it affected. For music, grunge killed hair metal; for wrestling, ECW helped kill the Rock and Wrestling era.

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  6. I definitely appreciate the old "indie" vibe of ECW- it just felt so DIFFERENT at the time. Of course, it turns out that Paul was a giant fraud taking corporate money the whole time, but for the moment, it felt like a great indie recoil against the homogenized mainstream stuff.

    As a teen, I actually disliked the concept of ECW, as it felt a little bit like Image Comics at the time- kind of an overwrought "Violence & Tits = Quality, right?" low-rent mentality, but parts of it were great. Just riotous mayhem is all you need sometimes.

    Too much Shane Douglas in the early days, though. He just fucking sucks in all eras.

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  7. Yeah, that's a good comparison- both have their dark sides, and were often just druggies being weird, but it changed everything forever, and arguably for the better. It allowed the corporate industries to change and adapt the freakish grungy-stuff into a more palatable form, without as much of the overly-glitzy pomp it'd had before.

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  8. I remember reading an Apter Mag interview with TPE before I saw them wrestle. They sounded like the most amazing tag team duo in wrestling history and I was SALIVATING at the idea of seeing them. They were all "I was wrestling in a tiny gym and a guy was outside the ring, but it was such a small building that he was right against a wall. I moonsaulted him anyways". I was ENAMORED.

    The Apter Mags were HUGE shills for ECW at the time, which was funny because they also seemed to poke fun at their "wrestling/fighting" style.

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  9. Young Lady Chatterly FTW!

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  10. Well said! That really captures what makes it special.

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  11. Oh look. Even when being helpful Adam the troll curry has issues

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  12. I first saw ECW wrestler during the 97 WWF invasion, because you could only tapes here in germany. Before that I only read in magazines about them, but they were still fascinating, just because of the wrestler names: Tommy Dreamer, Raven, Sandman, Taz, Rob Van Dam... when I first saw Raven in WCW I was shocked because "What? Raven is Johnny Polo??? WTF?!"

    What I can't understand is why the wrestling quality is so important, because real good wrestling is also a little bit boring. Would you rather see a 20 minute Cena vs Orton "good wrestling" snoozefest or a Tommy Dreamer vs Raven brawl?! I also like Bret vs Austins WM13 brawl much more than their "better" Survivor Series match, because it was so much more exciting and much more intense. And ECW was much more intense than anything else. And that made it much more realistic compared to the big two, because in a real fight you don't hold back. You don't care how the match looks. You don't care about PG language.

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  13. His early Stone Cold promos were almost exactly like his ECW stuff. Railing against people for holding him down and trying to break into the main event scene. Once he moved past the Bret Hart feud, the character went in a different direction and morphed into the Rattlesnake we all know and love but his earlier promos had the same vibe as his ECW work.

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  14. I went to one in my hometown in I think 1999 or 2000. Even though it was in the dying years and the Justin Credible era, it was still so much fun. Always wished I could have gone to one of the mid-90's ECW arena shows

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  15. I still remember when I was 6 or 7 and snuck down stairs at like 2 a.m. to watch tv (I don't remember why) and I just happened upon ECW tv. I couldn't believe what I was seeing as my whole wrestling upbringing was strictly WWF, WCW, and the occasional Memphis wrestling that aired Saturday mornings.

    I was blown away. Then I started seeing it in the pro wrestling mags, then I discovered RF video, and the rest is history

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  16. And ECW stole most of their concepts from Memphis, and added a 90s twist to it.

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  17. Agree with everything you've said, but I wouldn't call the music videos revolutionary, Memphis was already doing those 15 years earlier.

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  18. I went to an ECW house show once and some kid tried to walk off with the ECW title. That was a wild show.

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  19. And plus, in 1994/95, it was perfectly reasonable to have Hogan, Savage, etc main eventing over guys like Austin. The same cannot be said for 1999 and guys like Benoit and others, but at that point in WCW history, Hogan should have been on top.

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  20. If I recall correctly, a few years ago, Heyman wanted to come into TNA in the Dana White role: Basically the company president, in charge of everything, but TNA said no. I really wish they would have let him, because Heyman in charge of a company that has someone financially backing it would have been fun, if nothing else.

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  21. The worst part about ECW (and sometimes the best) was the freak show mutant fans. What a bunch of creeps.

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  22. While the Mutants From Philly (TM Scott Keith) had their issues, I have to say the worst thing about ECW in my opinion is the obsessiveness over the last 10 years of "reviving" it -- first by CZW (which was mostly the worst aspects of ECW), WWE (successfully with the first two One Night Stand PPVs, then in the toilet afterward), then by TNA (with it's low-rent One Night Stand ripoff), then by Shane Douglas' various shitty promotions.

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  23. How has CZW managed to stick around as long as they have? Do they still wrestle in parking lots, jumping off of trailers onto beds of light tubes? Or did they scale that back? I've never really watched them, I'm just aware of their affinity for pointless garbage wrestling violence.

    Also, if you want to see the worst aspects of ECW imitated even MORE blatantly, check out an XPW show. Thank God those fuckers didn't last.

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  24. I went to an ECW House show and the Sandman pulled some random chic from the crown and got her to flash everyone. New Jack pulled a young kid (no older than 7) from the crowd and stood in the ring with him and the the X thing with their arms...that was pretty cool. I was in the front row near one of the corners and Sandman got beer on me when he did the thing where he spit it up in the air. A guy next to me was trying to get him to do the thing where he poured beer on him while he drank it and Sandman wouldn't do it b/c the guy was wearing a Raven shirt. And Sal E. Graziani is the largest human being I have ever seen. So yeah, it was a blast.

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  25. There are other kinds of "horror movies" besides slasher films, at least.

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  26. important to note that the "corporate money" was a tiny, tiny amount of money compared to total revenue, especially in 98 and 99. Now in 2000 they did take a bigger loan (between 500k and 600k) but before that financial. records show Heyman taking about 50k a year from WWE and WCW aside from the Al Snow deal (which WWE paid his entire salary and expenses while he reworked a gimmick). Consider at least 20 guys were making more than 50k a year in 96, it really was a drop in the bucket. Was there hypocrisy taking any while making the big two the main villian of the promotion? Absolutely. But it's not like the money was propping them up until the very end in 2000.

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  27. I forgot to mention XPW. Probably on purpose because when you think about XPW, you lose brain cells.

    I think CZW survives by just feeding off the dwindling number of upper northeast ECW fans.

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  28. They were revolutionary in terms of music choices and in comparison to what the Big Two were doing. Memphis did a LOT of stuff before ECW did.

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  29. I don't follow CZW, like, at all. But last I heard they had toned down a lot of the ultra-garbagey Ian-Axl Rotten bullshit. I think they're a run-of-the-mill indy with maybe a little higher-than-normal violence index and occasional gimmick match.

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  30. When I went into '95 I was really prepared to view Douglas with a fair, open mind. But yeah. His promos just go on and on and on and on, and he's such an awkward, loose wrestler at that point it's hard not to notice. He was perfectly fine in WCW so I guess injuries piled up or something.

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  31. True, but the ECW Videos were way cooler and with slicker production values.

    For example, compare these 2 videos from the early/mid 90s....
    Memphis (Eddie Gilbert)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj6lyontXlQ

    Not bad....actually pretty good, but then compare to any of the ECW Pulp Fiction promos like this one
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiAI6vVlFbU

    Or the annual "November to Remember" videos. No question which one was more relevant in the 90s

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  32. Heatwave 98 was pretty freakin awesome. Only Paul Heyman can have a guy literally make up his own world title, and have that main event a PPV

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  33. VERY true (well....Memphis and Mid-South)

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  34. Maybe Alabama, but send me a link of the Memphis lesbian angle I've heard so much about.

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  35. I imagine they would have to since the industry is generally moving away from that and there are probably fewer "wrestlers" these days who are willing to get hit with light tubes for a crowd of 73 people.

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  36. I don't think there was one....Key word: MOST (not all). Believe me, I bet Lawler would have probably done that too if he could have

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  37. Actually, I thought Shane Douglas was pretty decent at one point in time, but as bad as it was early on (30 minutes of whining about Ric Flair on a TV show? Seriously??????) the Shane Douglas worship got to overwhelmingly RIDICULOUS levels towards the end - like him holding the world title for over a year - while on the shelf with an elbow injury, or building up the PPV in his hometown as if it were Starrcade '83, and of course, who can forget the epic ** classic with Al Snow, where they threw the Japanese streamers and put both guys on their shoulders (when CLEARLY the wrong guy went over) and then Douglas is a hero for overcoming all the injuries and winning like Rocky Balboa

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  38. It would have to be underage girls obvs.

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  39. Wasn't sure if I missed something funny happening to dreamer. Ecw still holds up if you enjoy that type of wrestling.

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  40. That was the same night that Punk debuted in-ring, wasn't it?

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  41. He also let himself be completely humiliated at ONS 2006, when Bischoff slapped him around and threw beer at him. That was pretty damn funny.

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  42. Here is an offshoot of this question: we all like to poke fun at TNA using ex-WWE guys, some you can make an argument for being underused. That and the shots they took at WWE on their programming. ECW did this all the time and was praised for it. Would you say ECW doing the same doesn't hold up now? Also, when does bashing the competition work, and how?

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  43. TNA's revivals were the worst. Not only were they way past the point of ECW's relevance, but it was a promotion they had absolutely nothing to do with. They just ended up looking like leeches.

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  44. I remember the first time I saw ECW I was 8 years old, watching it on TNN in 2000...when RVD did the Van Terminator, my entire brain was disintegrated. That shit was so cool back then.

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  45. What's funny is that TNA's Hardcore Justice 2010 had as much, if not more, ECW original talent on the card than WWE's two ECW One Night Stands (2005 and 2006)... and felt absolutely nothing like ECW.

    You'd think TNA would've at least tried to hold the show in ECW territory and not in the Impact Zone.

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  46. ECW tried to be the edgy outsiders who really felt different than WCW or WWF. TNA is a blatant second-rate organization without any edge or anything to really make it different from WWE.

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  47. "It was the only promotion in the U.S. that was drawing a true, visceral emotional reaction from its fans."

    I think that hits the nail on the head of why ECW was relevant when it was relevant and why it stopped being relevant after that point. And why TNA has never been relevant.

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  48. They did have Scherer so yeah, creep really fits.

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  49. CruelConnectionNumber2November 10, 2014 at 11:04 PM

    CZW was running at the same time as the original ECW and all the ECW fans started going to CZW because it was bloodier and had cooler gimmicks and ECW was getting stale in 2000. CZW was not an ECW revival.

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  50. CruelConnectionNumber2November 10, 2014 at 11:10 PM

    Money left on the table by not doing Hogan vs BIG BULLY BUSICK. You poppin' the kids' balloons with your cigar, brother???

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  51. I meant that it aped ECW's already tired style. I know CZW had a different roster and started before ECW closed, but it followed ECW's model and in some ways still is following that model.

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  52. That's completely fair, but I think the whole "We shouldn't discuss business stuff, we're fans" talking point to be silly.


    Your contentment or enjoyment of a product should not be related to the financial success it offered, but neither should we as fans ignore monetary concerns in our discussion of the product.

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