WCCW TV
November 13, 1982
Dallas, TX
Sportatorium
(taped on 10/26/82)

The NWA & WCCW champions were as follows:
NWA World Heavyweight Champion: Ric Flair (9/17/1981)
NWA American Heavyweight Champion: Kevin Von Erich (9/5/1982)
NWA American Tag Team Champions: King Kong Bundy & “Wild” Bill Irwin (9/12/1982)
NWA Texas Heavyweight Champion: David Von Erich (9/19/1982)

My FIRST recap from the WWE Network! Hope it’s working for everybody. At the start of day two, I can watch everything fine in my browser, the live stream works flawlessly on Roku, but still not able to log in on Xbox360. We’ve got to give WWE another day or two to figure out the bugs. Aside from those minor temporary issues, it looks to be an awesome service.

Your hosts are Bill Mercer and Jay Saldi. My buddy SLACKAMANIA tells me that Saldi was the tight end for the 1978 Super Bowl champion Dallas Cowboys. He sounds like Buckles from Seinfeld. “I wonder how Ike Turner would react in traffic…”

• Handicap Match: The Great Kabuki (w/Arman Hussein) vs. The Samoan & Raul Castro
  

Unlike in most handicap matches you’ll see, both the Samoan and Castro are in the ring at the same time. Not sure who Castro is under the mask, but the Samoan is definitely the future Headshrinker Samu. Arman Hussein is one half of the leadership of H and H Limited along with Gary Hart. They tend to handle most of the heels around here. Mercer discusses the bounty Ric Flair put out on Kerry Von Erich and how Kabuki has collected on that bounty after injuring Kerry’s leg. Castro builds some momentum against Kabuki, but eventually gets a dropkick pushed away. Samoan runs straight into a savate kick, leaving Castro to take the leg-breaking move that was done to Kerry Von Erich until he ultimately gives up at 1:31. Samoan gets in a few shots and a headbutt on Kabuki. He tries for the Samoan Splash WAY too far away from Kabuki and misses. Kabuki gives Samoan the same leg scissors drop as Samoan gives up. (3:08) Already off to a great start here showcasing Kabuki. ½*

We come back from commercial and the American Tag Team Champs King Kong Bundy and “Wild” Bill Irwin” have attacked the Freebirds. This leads to an AWESOME brawl. Mercer says that last week, Bundy and Irwin said they would have something in store for the Freebirds, and here it is. Ref David Manning, the Destroyer, Gran Marcus, Al Madril, Jose Lothario, and Bugsy McGraw all help get Bundy and Irwin out of the ring. Now that they’re gone, Manning screams at Bundy and Irwin telling them to return to the locker room or they’ll be fined and suspended.

To explain what’s going on, King Kong Bundy went on strike as part of H and H Limited and made himself a free agent hoping to cut a better deal within WCCW. Being that this is all happening in Dallas Cowboys country, this was supposed to mirror what was going on in the NFL at the time as the 1982 season had been cut down from a 16-game schedule to a 9-game schedule due to a players strike. Anyways, Bundy lost the American heavyweight title to Kevin Von Erich, but became the American tag champions with “Wild” Bill Irwin a week later. Since he’s on strike, Bundy has made it increasingly difficult to defend those titles, and it looks like the Freebirds are just the team to piss off Bundy enough to put the belts on the line. During the fight, Mercer mentioned a CAGE match might be the only way to settle this between these two teams. OH, and in case you have forgotten, the Freebirds are babyfaces right now. That won’t change until the big Christmas show at Reunion Arena.

• The Fabulous Freebirds vs. The Destroyer #1 & Gran Marcus II (w/Arman Hussein)
  

Normally in other promotions, this next match wouldn’t happen because of the previous fight, but not in World Class, SON. Right after Mercer wonders if the Freebirds have anything left, Gordy drops Destroyer with a one-armed slam. Gran Marcus is looking like Mr. Wrestling #2. Tag to Hayes, he gets backed into the heel corner to get worked over. That’s over in a hurry though as he drops Destroyer with a back suplex. Gordy gets the hot tag, dumps out Destroyer, and the Freebirds put away Marcus with the Spike Piledriver for the win. (3:20) Crowd wants Bundy. Hayes calls Irwin “Wyatt Earp” and Bundy a “washing machine smoking a cigar”. Anyways, the Freebirds want them BAD. ¾*

We now go to a nice interview set complete with chairs, ferns, and some nice 1980s decor as Bill Mercer gets an update from Kerry Von Erich on his condition. He’s now mentally ready to go after Ric Flair and the NWA world title. Flair says there was no bounty placed on his head, but Von Erich knows otherwise, and will use that proof against him if and when the time comes. They show an interview clip of Ric Flair telling Kerry that he’s not even anywhere near being in his league. If Kerry wants him in the ring though, Flair is going to need some incentive to wrestle him. Back to Kerry, he says this stopped being fun five weeks ago when Great Kabuki collected on the bounty. Kerry thinks Flair should defend his NWA world title against him simply because Kerry feels that he’s the best in the world. As for what Flair had to say about Texas, don’t mess with Texas, champ.

• Bugsy McGraw & Al Madril vs. The Magic Dragon & Checkmate (w/Arman Hussein)
  

Two more masked villains under the tutelage of Arman Hussein. Magic Dragon is Kazuharu Sonoda possibly best known for helping train the great Kenta Kobashi. He’s a tragic story as he died in a plane crash with his wife on their honeymoon. If that doesn’t make you sad, I don’t know what will. As for Checkmate, he’s a British wrestler with a similar style to Lord Steven Regal. He’s not so much a rulebreaking heel, as he just has a rough style. Some OLD old-school fans may know him as Tony Charles who wrestled all over the southeast in the 1970s. You probably know Bugsy McGraw best from Florida and Jim Crockett Promotions, and Al Madril is a staple of Texas wrestling in the 1970s and 80s.

Any time Checkmate gets into trouble, he goes into a REALLY tight fetal position that Bugsy can’t seem to do anything about. All Bugsy can do is go into his Curly Howard routine. Bugsy throws away a front headlock, sending Checkmate out to talk with Hussein. Back inside, Madril gets a tag. They do the spot where Bugsy cushions a corner whip for Madril. When Dragon tries to do the same for Checkmate, Madril makes a U-turn and pulls Checkmate back into the opposite corner. Tag to Dragon, Saldi mentions how there’s no love lost between these two. He chops Madril and clamps on a chinlock. Checkmate tags in and buries some brutal knees into the lower back. He catapults Madril into Dragon for an elbow once, but Madril counters the second time. Madril doesn’t go for the tag and suffers more punishment for it. Dragon tags in and reapplies the chinlock. Blind tag to Checkmate, he knocks Madril away with a European uppercut. Madril reverses out of a Boston crab and makes the HOT TAG TO BUGSY! He punches away on Dragon and puts him down with an atomic drop. Tag to Madril, and the match breaks down. The heels try to whip McGraw and Madril into one another, but that backfires as they dosey-do back into the heels. Then Checkmate and Dragon try to do the same, but McGraw and Madril see it coming and lay them out with forearm shots. Dragon tries something from the top rope on Madril only to come down into a shot from Bugsy. Madril comes off the top with a flying bodypress for the 1-2-3! (12:26) Saldi mentions that this is the first loss for Checkmate and the Magic Dragon. Well, that was fun. Great to see four different styles from four different wrestlers. Those were the DAYS. **½

• NWA American Heavyweight Champion Kevin Von Erich vs. Wild Bill Irwin
  

Mercer mentions that one of King Kong Bundy’s complaints is that when a video tape aired in Japan of him wrestling, he didn’t see a dime from it. We’re in the first two minutes of this match and the crowd already wants the Claw. Kevin controls to start with his acrobatic headscissors, dropkicks, and headlocks. He corners Irwin and hits a series of Stinger Splashes and goes back to the mat with a body scissors. Kevin rolls Irwin all around the ring while still in the body scissors dizzying him up and getting a nearfall. Over in the corner again, Irwin shoves off another old school headscissors and dumps Kevin on the top rope. Irwin capitalizes with slams, but slow to move because of Kevin’s work. Kevin surprises Irwin with an abdominal stretch. When it looks like curtains for Irwin, he pulls the referee towards them to make everybody fall over for the REALLY cheap DQ. (7:30) Irwin throws Kevin over the top rope, but Von Erich gets the last word chasing Irwin away. No surprise that Kevin was booked VERY strongly against Bill Irwin despite being one-half of the tag champs. I am surprised that there’s no King Kong Bundy around. *½

When we come back, Mercer and Saldi wrap things up for us. Until next time, so long for now.