WCCW TV
January 15, 1983
Dallas, TX
Sportatorium
(taped on 1/7/83)

The NWA & WCCW champions were as follows:
NWA World Heavyweight Champion: Ric Flair (9/17/1981)
NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Champions: The Fabulous Freebirds (12/25/1982)
NWA American Heavyweight Champion: Kevin Von Erich (9/5/1982)
NWA American Tag Team Champions: The Fabulous Freebirds (11/26/1982)
NWA Texas Heavyweight Champion: David Von Erich (9/19/1982)

Your host is Bill Mercer.

We get the first interview on World Class TV with Michael Hayes and Buddy Roberts as heels. Roberts can’t wait to give this “boy” in the ring a wrestling lesson. Hayes says the Freebirds didn’t get to where they are today and won’t get to where they want to go by caring about a bunch of clapping fans. If the Freebirds have to run over the Von Erichs here in World Class, they will do it with pleasure.

• Buddy Roberts vs. Brian Adias
  

Adias is kind of ruining Buddy’s chance of showing him a wrestling lesson. Ungrateful wretch. Whenever he slaps on a headlock or a hammerlock, Adias has the NERVE to dropkick him away. Roberts changes tactics and starts pounding Adias. He is the territory’s punching bag anyways. Buddy pulls Adias down by his tights and then by his hair to better apply an armbar. Eventually, Adias gets mad enough to punch his way out. Over in the corner, Buddy misses a corner charge and receives a Jack Brisco rollup as Adias scores a nearfall. He misses another sprint into the corner. Now here comes Adias. He hammers away on Roberts from one side of the ring to the other. Roberts begs off in the corner and gets pulled out by legs. Adias telegraphs a backdrop and then takes a swinging neckbreaker. Buddy lowers the boom on Adias, but can’t get the three-count. Adias surprises Roberts with a sunset flip, but can’t score the pinfall either. The bell rings signaling that we have a ten-minute time limit draw. They keep fighting, but Buddy gets the final blow in and heads for the locker room. (10:00) This was actually a pretty fun match. I love matches where guys really want to let loose and beat the crap out of each other, but know they have to wrestle instead. ***

Recently, Bill Mercer visited the house of the Fabulous Freebirds. While you would expect the place to look more like the Workaholics house, they actually have quite a large book collection and a very nice pool table. After Michael gets done spouting off what sounds like Lynyrd Skynyrd lyrics, Mercer wants to know about the Von Erich Incident on Christmas night. Hayes ducks the question because it’s his turn to shoot pool. Buddy Roberts distracts Mercer from the question and talks about how he doesn’t have to wrestle very often because he has some great investments. Right now, it’s necessary for him to join his “brothers”. Mercer still wants to know about what the deal is between the Freebirds and Von Erichs. Hayes changes the subject again. Giving up on Michael, Mercer speaks with Terry Gordy about the Von Erich Incident. Gordy tries to be nice. He tells Mercer that he was the “gatekeeper” and kept Kerry Von Erich from trying to escape. Mercer tells them that isn’t what happened, but they don’t want to hear it. Hayes calls Kerry “too stupid” to take the NWA world title when it was given to him. With that said, Hayes tells Mercer to leave because he’s ruining their game of pool.

Back to the Dallas Sportatorium, Mercer says he’s not too surprised that we didn’t get any real answers from the Freebirds.

• Michael Hayes vs. Al Madril
  

Madril warms up the crowd and then Hayes heads out to get them even more excited. Back in, Madril grabs a headlock and threatens the punches that everybody loves a couple times, but Hayes throws him down by his hair. On the third try, Madril finally gets the punches Hayes deserves. Michael is stuck in a very bad position in the corner and has to claw Madril’s face to escape. Hayes grabs a chinlock and cheats a little bit pulling him down by his hair. Eventually, Madril runs Hayes face-first into the corner to break the hold. Madril punches Hayes in the face some more and drills him with a jumping shoulder tackle for 1-2-NO! Madril comes off the ropes again, but Hayes sidesteps and throws Madril into the ropes. PILEDRIVER to Madril! Instead of covering him knowing he’s got Madril beat, he puts the boots to him and chokes on Madril for a bit. Apparently, Jose Lothario has had enough and comes out to save his amigo even though it gets Madril DQ’ed. (7:48) The Super Sock manages to clean house on Hayes and send him rushing off to the locker room. **

Bill Mercer meets with Jose Lothario who challenges Michael Hayes anywhere at any time. Lothario doesn’t care for people who don’t pin guys who are clearly beaten.

After the break, ref David Manning explains the rules of the main event to all the plebeians out there. He thinks this is going to be a real barnburner because we get to see Kerry Von Erich in a match with one of the Freebirds for the first time since the cage match on Christmas night. Next up, Andre stops by to talk to us. It’s quite a sight to see him next to tiny Bill Mercer.

• $5,000 Six-Man Elimination Match: Andre the Giant vs. Kerry Von Erich vs. Bugsy McGraw vs. King Kong Bundy vs. “Wild” Bill Irwin vs. Terry Gordy (w/Michael Hayes)
  

Rules are simple: pinfall, submission, and over the top rope are the only ways to eliminate your opponent. Von Erich and Gordy can’t keep their hands off each other, and I don’t mean that in a sexual way. With Hayes outside the ring representing the Freebirds, he helps Gordy get rid of Kerry pretty quickly. Von Erich doesn’t want to leave though and hops back into the ring to get at Gordy. Both refs Manning and Lubich have to get Kerry out of the ring. It’s so bad, the POLICE have to escort Von Erich to the dressing room. Andre decides to make Gordy public enemy number one as he concentrates almost EXCLUSIVELY on getting him eliminated. Bundy tries to help out, but can’t even stop Andre. While Bugsy nearly tosses out Irwin, Bundy heads over and dumps out McGraw. That leaves Andre alone with four heels. With one hand on Gordy and the other on Bundy *and* Irwin, he tries his best to stay vertical. This continues for quite some time. Eventually, the heels manage to triple-team Andre. He manages to fight off Irwin and swing Bundy and Gordy together. While they’re staggering around, Andre atomic drops Irwin to the point he flies over the top rope to be eliminated. Hayes helps prevent Gordy from being thrown out. That pisses off Andre so much that he steps over the top rope and chases after Hayes to eliminate himself. You dumb idiot. That leaves Bundy and Gordy. Bundy tries for the Avalanche, but Gordy moves and dropkicks Bundy out to win the $5000. (13:03) Pretty awesome main event considering the who’s who hodge-podge of talent here. Got a little slow and redundant with Andre though. **½

Three matches for the Fabulous Freebirds. Roberts went to a time-limit draw, Hayes wins via DQ, and Gordy wins $5000. All in all, not a bad day for the ‘Birds.

NEXT WEEK: Brian Adias meets Terry Gordy! Kerry Von Erich vows to be in Brian’s corner during that match and hopes Michael Hayes sticks around for that encounter. Plus, we’ll also see the NWA American Heavyweight Champion Kevin Von Erich battle King Kong Bundy from the Christmas Star Wars show!