Welcome, welcome, thanks for reading. We are closing out on 1982 on the WWE Network. We just got done watching episode 43 of WCCW television, the next episode available at the moment is episode 46. Let’s take a look at where American society was at in November of 1982.
Reagan was still president as he will be throughout much of the 80’s.В Cold Sunday В hit the United States on January 17th. In AprilВ An embargo was placed on Libyan Oil В because of the supposed support of terrorist groups. Mother Nature was relentlessВ As the Great Blizzard of ’82 В dumped 1-2 feet of snow in the northeastern United States. June sawВ an anti-nuke rally in Central Park В featuring Bruce Springsteen and James Taylor, among others. July brings inВ Lawn Chair Larry who flies В 16,000 feet above L.A. with balloons tied to his chair. Tragic flightВ Pan Am 759 crashes. В TheВ Tylenol Murders happen in Chicago. В The EPCOT center has itsВ grand opening . The DeLoran company ceases operations becauseВ John DeLoran was caught selling cocaine to an undercover FBI agent. В The unemployment rate was at 10%.
In pop culture-
Highest Grossing Movies-
- E.T. The Extra Terrestrial – $359,197,037
- Tootsie В – $177,200,000
- В An Officer And A Gentlemen В – $129,795,554
- Rocky III В – with Hulk Hogan
Top Songs-
- Eye Of The Tiger-В Survivor
- Down Under-В Men At Work
- I Love Rock And Roll –В Joan Jett and The Blackhearts
Sports-
- Super Bowl XVI – San Francisco 49ers won 26-21 over the Cincinnati Bengals.
- World Series – St. Louis Cardinals won 4 games to 3 over the Milwaukee Brewers to claim their first World Championship since 1967.
- NBA Finals – Los Angeles Lakers won 4 games to 2 over the Philadelphia 76ers
- Stanley Cup – New York Islanders win 4-0 over the Vancouver Canucks
Television-В
Video Games-
Now moving on the the silver shack known as the Sportatorium in Dallas.
Once again Bill Mercer and Jay Saldi welcome us to the program. I have grown to like this commentary team, WCCW is presented as the sport of wrestling. Bill
being a former sportscaster
, brings a sort of sporty feel in his cadence and word choice. Jay is a former football player and you can tell loves pro wrestling and tries to make everything make sense.В Quick words on Bill Mercer. He was a Dallas area radio host when JFK was assassinated. From 1966 to 1971 he was the voice of the Dallas Cowboys. In ’71 and ’72 he was the announcer for the Texas Rangers and Chicago Black Sox respectively. He got into announcing wrestling accidentally by signed up to announce anything sports related and wrestling happened to fall under that category.
The Great Kabuki vs. Raul Castro and The SamoanВ
В
The Samoan-В We have discussed whoВ The Samoan В is last week.
Raul Castro- Information on him was hard to find. I got this from another article on Wikipedia that mentions Raul.
В Over the years the Cuban Assassin became a bit of a tag team specialist, winning the North American Tag Team titles with Goldie Rogers in 1976, then again with Bobby Bass in 1980. Later on Dupree decided to bill Acevedo as “Angel Castro”, teaming him up with a wrestler billed as Raoul Castro to win the North American Tag Team titles.[4]
He shares the same name as theВ Leader of Cuba , so Google is littered with stories on that В Castro.
The Great Kabuki- This is the second original version. As stated last week the Great Kabuki gimmick was shared between this man, and Magic Dragon. The story goes The Great Kabuki, birth name Akihisa Mera, started wrestling when he was 16 in the 60’s. He came to the United States in the 70’s and worked many territories in 1981 he adopted the Great Kabuki gimmick. It was created by the genius that isВ Gary Hart . He innovated a dark Asian ninja gimmick called The GreatВ Kabooki . Kabooki looked like this
В В Kabuki looked like this
В So THIS version of The Great Kabuki debuts in WCCW. The character draws money, promoters want them in their territory so Gary Hart devises a plan. They will send the Magic Dragon version of the Great Kabuki to places likeВ
Georgia to feud with Piper.
В That way they can make double the money on the same gimmick. Usually Gary would not accompany MDragon Kabuki to the ring. The story says when Kabuki was a child his face was scarred by hot coals and that’s why he wears a mask and paints his face. He has such an incredible
presence.
Before matches he would do a nunchuck routine and spit most on his hands.В He was the first oneВ
to use the Asian Mist.
Green Mist – The most common mist, which obscures the opponent’s vision.
Red Mist – This mist is purported to burn rather than blind.
Black Mist – An even more powerful mist which is purported to severely blind an opponent for a prolonged period of time.
Blue Mist – This mist is used to send an opponent to sleep.
Yellow Mist – This mist is purported to paralyze the opponent..
In the late 1980’s Jim Crockett promotions would use The Great Kabuki’s gimmick as a way to transitionВ The Great Muta В into the story lines.
В
The Match-
Kabuki is undefeated in handicap matches says Jay. It’s also pointed out that Kabuki has been the one collecting bounties, Roddy Piper and Kerry Von Erich both have been injured by Kabuki. It’s really a one sided affair with Kabuki hitting martial art kicks, judo chops, and gets the Samoan with a titty twister.
В He puts the Dropping Leg Scissors on Raul Castro.
В That eliminates Castro from the match. I guess that’s his finish because Mercer keeps talking about how it was the move that took out Kerry. The Samoan gets an advantage but tries to jump off the top rope atВ
Brock Lesnar Wrestlemania 19 distances
.
В Obviously he misses, and Kabuki puts him in the Dropping Knee Scissors for the win.
В
And I’m Like… All about Kabuki! I hope he is on a ton of episodes. This dude is so enthralling. Having him just trounce dudes his very fun to watch.В
We come back from commercial and Wild Bill Irwin and King Kong Bundy are brawling with The Freebirds. It’s supposed to be The Destroyer 1 and Grand Marquis (Markus) II vs. The Freebirds but the brawl halts that for a moment.
В В
At first Destroyer and Marquis sit back and watch, then they either try and break it up or beat on dudes. This lasts a long time. It goes out of the ring, back in the ring, the locker room comes out to break it apart,В
just like Brock Lesnar and Undertaker.
В В
Bugsy McGraw of all people comes in and just starts chucking everyone over the top rope, good or bad guy. The referee grabs the mic once things separate for a moment and says anyone caught brawling from here on out tonight gets fined $500, that stops everyone in there tracks. Bill Mercer says we need to cage these four. He says Bundy and Irwins American Tag Team Titles should be on th line.
В Things start settling down, Irwin and Bundy leave, The Destroyer and Grand Marquis are with Armand Hussein on the outside ready for the match.
В
The Destroyer 1 and Grand Marquis II vs. The Fabolous Freebirds
The Destroyer 1- It’s hard to know who the Destroyer really is, there were many Destroyers from the 60’s-80’s, the one I think this is is Scott Irwin fromВ Duluth, Minnesota . His brother is Wild Bill Irwin, between ’81 and ’84 he was known as Super Destroyer #1. During that time he was wrestling inВ Mid-South Championship Wrestling , andВ Georgia Championship Wrestling , which by the looks of it had quite the talent exchange with WCCW.
Scott Irwin started training in 1975 under the tutelage of Verne Gagne. In 1976 he had his debut match againstВ Dick Blood , wrestling to a draw. From ’76 to ’78 he mainly wrestled for Jim Crockett in the Mid-Atlantic and in Georgia. In March of ’78 he became Lumberjack Eric in the WWWF. His partner Lumberjack Pierre and him won the tag titles in June of ’78 as TheВ Yukon Lumberjacks . They lost to Tony Garea and Larry Zbyszko later that year and broke up. By 1979 Irwin made his way to Florida as Thor the Viking. By October he left for one month and returned as the Super Destroyer. That’s where it gets muddy cause the Super Destroyer was all over the South. So I guess that’s what brings him to the Sportatrium tonight.
The Grand Marquis II- Has been lost to history.
The Fabulous Freebirds-В
- Micheal Hayes-В Wrote about him last week, along with Grand Marquis II, Checkmate, and Magic Dragon , he started coming out to Joan Jett and Heartbreakers “I Love Rock And Roll” beginning an entrance music phenomenon.
- Terry Gordy- He started wrestling at age 14, which is believe able because at 21 he was 6 ft 6 in and 300 lbs. TheВ IWA trained and paid him to wrestle В until closing their doors in 1978. He and best friend Michael Hayes В were in Georgia in 1979 and formed the Fabolous Freebirds. By 1982 they were making their way to WCCW and creating magic.
The match-В
В The Freebirds are heated from the earlier events. Gordy is bleeding from his nose because of the brawl, that’s not good for the other team. Terry is doing one handed body slams and just dominates. They end up hitting the Spike Piledriver for the win.
Hayes grabs the mic and spits rhymes.
В “We were born out mamas sun, we hit the dirt and we run, we’ve been runnin over everyone all our lives”
And I’m Like… The Freebirds got the crowd goin crazy. Freebird Fantasia is running wild Jay Saldi would say. This is a fun build to the heel turn.В
Kerry Von Erich interview-
- Kerry says his knee is rehabbed and he is ready to fight Ric Flair
-
They show Kerry what Flair said last week.В В
- Kerry is horrible, here is his final quote “the game is over, sure it was a while lotta fun Ric Flair, we had a great time, you know the game is over now. It is serious. The game was over 5 weeks ago. I don’t just want the belt, I want Flair, I’m the best in the world and he should face me that’s the incentive.”
Al Madril and Bugsy McGraw vs. Checkmate and Magic Dragon
Al Madril-В Here is Al vs. Ric Flair В from earlier in the year. Since I wrote about 75% of the guys in the match last week I figured I’d link some matches.
Checkmate-В Vs. Billy Robinson
Magic Dragon-В Teaming with Kabuki against the Von Erichs
Bugsy McGraw- In 1967 he debuted as The Big O under a mask in the Detroit area. He then went to Florida and was managed by and feuded withВ The Great Malenko В or Dean Malenkos dad. He had a cup of coffee in WWWF in 1979, but made a name for himself in Florida feuding with Dusty Rhodes, The Funks, and Barry Windham. He went to Texas in ’81. He feuded with The Great Kabuki and won the NWA American Heavyweight Championship. He then turned heel and feuded with Brusier Brody, some Von Erichs and Andre the Giant. In August of ’82 he became a good guy again by beating Armand Hussein and Gary Hart in a handicap match.
The match-
В В
Bugsy is nuts. He does a Three StoogesВ Curly routine . He starts getting out wrestled by Checkmate. Bugsy keeps working himself up into a Stooge like frenzy and Checkmate armadillos him. Checkmate fires back with Eurocuts, the crowd is cheering Bugsy on and once he gets advantage Checkmate armadillos once again. Bugsy gets so flustered he just armadillos with him.
В Checkmate starts somersaulting and rolls out of the ring. This is amazing. Once Madril tags in he quickly gets taken advantage of, McGraw helps Madril by blocking an Irish whip into the turnbuckle.
The bad guys try to throw the good guys into each other but the faces dosey doe, the heels try to do the same but get punched in the face. Madril gets the upper hand and wins with a flying cross body.
В
And I’m Like… I really like watching Checkmate wrestle. Bugsy McGraw was entertaining as hell too, that was my first time seeing him. Magic Dragon didn’t do much but lose. The armadillo portion was totally the best part. I would like to see that in modern wrestling, maybe Chad Gable could do it.В
Wild Bill Irwin vs. Kevin Von ErichВ
Kevin Von Erich- Kevin was trained by his father and debuted in 1976 against Playboy Buddy Rose, he quickly rose to the top tier of the territory. Bill Mercer would often call him the “Barefoot Boy” his finish was the same asВ Jimmy Snuka. В In ’78 he won tag titles with brother David and won the NWA American Title from Bruiser Brody.
Wild Bill Irwin- Debuting in 1979 he wrestled for a few years mainly in Georgia, not winning many matches. In 1981 he was in WCCW as Super Destroyer #2, being managed by Skandor Akbar. He is another Minnesota boy too! Not making much of a mark in the promotion, he seemed mainly to be a rough and rowdy fighter, holding the heel spot until the Freebirds.
The match-В
В Kevin is very urgent in all of his movements. The fans have not shut up since the bell rang. “We want the claw” which is one of the Von Erich family finishers. Most of this match is Kevin applying leg scissors and variety of leg scissors.
В В
Wild Bill stays strong and kicks out, Kevin tries to apply an abdominal stretch and turn that into a pin attempt.
This knocks the ref out cause Bill grabbed the referee for leverage. Kevin wins by DQ.
And I’m Like… Thinkin that was the least fun match I’ve seen on WCCW. This write up took longer than expected so I’m calling it an article.В
Have a good one see you next week.В
-Jake
