NWA Super Towns on the Superstation
February 7, 1987

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & David Crockett.

This was a precursor to the Clash of the Champions shows except they still didn’t get it right here and wouldn’t until next year. Here they show off all the towns Jim Crockett Promotions visits and while the card features all the top stars and top matches of the day, it’s just not the same as one card in front of a hot crowd in one city.

Tonight, Magnum TA returns for the first time since his accident in October 1986!

Your hosts are Tony Schiavone & David Crockett.

• Barry Windham vs. Arn Anderson – (Philadelphia, PA 1/10/87)

AA tries to gain an advantage with a low knee and Windham sends him to the floor with a dropkick. Back in, Windham controls with an armbar and then a hammerlock. Commercials! When we come back, Windham fights out of a chinlock and backs Arn into the corner. Windham misses an elbow drop and then Anderson elbows Windham to the floor as he does a complete flip over the top rope. Just a crazy bump, but completely realistic. Arn brings him back inside with a suplex and hits the SPINEBUSTER! Cover, 1-2-NO! Windham counters the GOURDBUSTER with a suplex. He grabs a sleeper, but Arn flips him off through the ropes. Windham comes back in with a sunset flip and gets the 1-2-3! (10:25 shown) Dang, when was the last time you saw someone win with a sunset flip? Decent enough. Afterwards, Arn doesn’t like losing and gives Windham the GOURDBUSTER he wanted. **½

• Brad Armstrong vs. Jimmy Garvin (w/Precious) – (Washington DC, 1/24/87)

This is about a month before Cornette threw the fireball in Ronnie Garvin’s face for Jimmy to confess that he is his brother and turns babyface. If you watch this show, you can see the scaffold above the ring in almost every city for the Road Warriors and the Midnight Express as a main attraction since Starrcade. Feeling out process to start. They both trade leg locks as we go to commercial. We come back to see Garvin clamping on a headscissors. The man is messing with his hair while he’s doing it! Armstrong escapes, but Garvin runs him off into the turnbuckle. Armstrong gets out of the chinlock as well, but then Garvin dumps him on the floor near Precious. Back inside, Garvin misses a corner charge and gets caught up in the tree of woe! Armstrong beats him down and continues to beat him with the ten-count corner punch, but then Garvin dumps him off over the top rope for the DQ. (8:19 shown) Never really got going until Garvin had enough. ½*

• NWA Central States Tag Team Champions The MOD Squad vs. Brad & Bart Batten – (St. Louis, MO 1/30/87)

Obviously this is around the time Jim Crockett Promotions were absorbing all the old NWA territories that wanted to join him – particularly Georgia, Florida, and now Central States. Somehow Tony knows this one is Brad. He takes care of Spike to start with a headlock. Basher runs in and wants to break it up, but Brad dropkicks him back and then takes him over with a headscissors, which brings Spike over with him. Now both the Batten twins are in and they clean house with dropkicks! JUMPING HIGH FIVES! The ’80s didn’t know how innocent they were. Back inside, Basher tags in and takes a double backdrop. Bart controls with an armbar and then Brad tags in for a double back elbow! These guys are rolling. The MOD Squad regroups on the floor while we take a break. You’d think Basher would be the bigger one and Spike the smaller guy, but nope. We return to see one of the Batten twins stuck in the wrong side of town. The MOD Squad play all the tag team games by drawing the other Batten twin in the ring for double-teams. He continues to fight out of chinlocks, but he keeps going for quick rollups instead of trying to make the tag. Silly babyface. Double KO ensues and there’s the HOT TAG TO THE OTHER BATTEN TWIN! The MOD Squad get whipped into each other and Spike gets rolled up for two. While the ref is trying to get one of the twins out of the ring, Spike trips up a suplex and Basher falls on top eventually for the 1-2-3. (10:06 shown) I dug it more than most, but the finish was a little rough. *½

The NWA world tag champs Ragin N Rude with Paul Jones run down all the top tag teams as they prepare for the Crockett Cup.

• The Rock N Roll Express vs. Ivan Koloff & Vladimir Petrov – (Hollywood, FL 1/16/87)

Alright! Petrov was brought in by Ivan to make Nikita pay for his ultimate sin of betrayal against his family and country by becoming Americanized. And he’s even BIGGER than Nikita. Gibson and Petrov start the match. There’s not much Gibson can do but get pushed around. He tries a test of strength and while he’s losing, Morton runs over and pops Petrov in the gut. Doesn’t really matter though because now Gibson goes into a bearhug. Koloff comes in so we can actually see some wrestling from the RNR Express. They keep Koloff grounded and on their side of the ring. Koloff pushes Gibson back while he’s stuck in a front headlock and tags Petrov. Bad news for Gibson. Petrov gives him a backbreaker and tags in Koloff again for more of the same. False tag spot ensues and Gibson gets pushed back into the Russian corner. They control Gibson until Koloff misses the Bossman straddle and makes the HOT TAG TO MORTON! It seems so backwards. While Morton has a sleeper on Koloff, Petrov breaks it up by smashing Morton in the back with the chain for the DQ. (8:57) The beatdown on Morton continues until Gibson takes the chain away and scares off the Russians. **

• NWA World Television Champion Tully Blanchard (w/JJ Dillon) vs. Dusty Rhodes – (Los Angeles, CA 1/28/87)

JJ Dillon flashes the $10000 that Tully has put up for grabs for anybody who can beat him for the TV title. Dusty hits Blanchard with the elbow and wiggles around the ring to start. Dusty grabs a headlock and we go to commercial. AND WE’RE BACK! JJ tries to pull Tully out of the ring, but winds up getting pulled into the ring thanks to Dusty. Bionic elbows everywhere. Now Blanchard begs off and yanks Dusty into the corner. As the ref pulls Tully off Dusty, JJ comes over and gets his hands around Dusty’s throat. Elbow drops won’t finish off Dusty. He flips Tully over to get out of a chinlock, but runs into a boot in the corner. Tully comes off the second rope and gets caught. Dusty hiptosses Tully into the ref by accident and then gives Blanchard his own SLINGSHOT SUPLEX, but there’s no ref. DUH! JJ tries to attack Dusty, but gets nailed. In comes Arn Anderson to hit Dusty from behind. He puts Tully on top and throws the ref back in the ring for 1-2-NO! Barry Windham runs down and stops the count! Between Windham and Anderson, the ref falls back out to the floor. Geez! Dusty rolls up Blanchard and Barry counts the 1-2-3. Hey you’re not a ref. The bell rings and Dusty wins by DQ. (6:41) Most of these matches just never seem to get out of first gear. Then again, I never liked Rhodes-Blanchard matches anyway. After the match, Windham gets tossed and Blanchard beats Dusty with JJ’s shoe. ¾*

Tony Schiavone sits down with Magnum TA for his first on-screen interview since the crash. Magnum says he’s a miracle and he’s going to fight back to recover so he can come back to wrestling. Of course sadly that never happened, but I think he’s doing alright nowadays at least from a financial standpoint. Great interview.

• NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs. NWA U.S. Heavyweight Champion Nikita Koloff – No-DQ Match (Charlotte, NC 1/11/87)

Flair beat Nikita by DQ at Starrcade and now there must be a winner by pinfall or submission. Flair plays the mind games, but then Nikita threatens the SICKLE and that’s just as dangerous. The chop doesn’t phase Nikita just yet and Flair takes a powder. Flair comes back in and can’t hiptoss Nikita. A one-armed slam sends Flair out again. Back inside, Nikita grabs a headlock. He slams Flair a couple times, but misses an elbow drop. Since it’s no DQ, Flair hits a PILEDRIVER, but Nikita NO-SELLS and threatens the SICKLE again. AWESOME. Flair gets out of the ring again to rethink his game plan because it is SHOT right now. Let’s go to commercial. We return and Flair misses the Rolling Knee Drop. Nikita grabs the figure-four, but Flair reaches the ropes. Nikita counters a suplex for one of his own for two. As Koloff rips at Flair’s face, he rakes Nikita across the eyes to stop all that. They go to the floor where Nikita blocks a ringpost smash and sends Flair into the ringpost instead. That busts Flair open. Back in, Koloff delivers the ten-count corner punch and Flair Flops. As Flair goes to the apron for the Flair Flip, he tries a sunset flip and Nikita punches out. The chops won’t work and because Flair hits the canvas, Nikita winds up giving Tommy Young the SICKLE! Flair dumps Koloff out, but he comes off the second rope for the SUPER RUSSIAN SICKLE! Oops, still no ref. Out of nowhere, Tully Blanchard runs down and lowers the boom on Nikita. He tosses the ref back inside for 1-2-NO! Next, Koloff misses a SICKLE and Flair takes Nikita out over the top rope with a crossbody. Even though there’s no DQ, Blanchard and Flair beat on Koloff until they are counted out? (14:31 shown) Dusty Rhodes comes out and the Super Powers clean house while Nikita holds up the world title belt. Flair made Nikita look like a million bucks in there like he usually does. Not on par with the Starrcade match though. ***¼

• The Road Warriors (w/Paul Ellering) vs. The Midnight Express (w/Jim Cornette & Big Bubba Rogers) – Scaffold Match (Los Angeles, CA 1/29/87)

If you’ve never seen a scaffold match, two teams climb a 20 foot tall painters scaffold and the object is to knock the other team off the scaffold down into the ring to win the match. They started this whole trend at Starrcade and took the match everywhere they went through the end of January. I don’t believe the Midnight Express ever won any of these matches. Eaton splits off with Animal while Condrey goes after Hawk. Both of the Road Warriors get powder thrown in their eyes. Eaton is busted open REAL bad somehow. The Midnights have the tennis racket, but it’s only a matter of time before the Road Warriors get a hold of it. As Eaton hangs from the scaffold, Animal stomps his hands to send him crashing down to the mat. Hawk and Condrey head underneath the scaffold until Condrey loses his grip and falls to the mat to end the match. (7:34) Not a match, more of an attraction.

Final Thoughts: Nothing must-see here, but I’m a completist so I had to eventually review this show.