NWA: Big Time Wrestling
Summer/Fall 1979
Detroit, MI

Your host is Terry Sullivan.

• John Bonello vs. Bobby Colt
  

With the reaction he received, it would seem that a bunch of John Bonello’s family is here to see him wrestle. Bonello wants to wrestle down Colt with holds and whatnot, but Colt wants to choke and put the boots to him. Bonello comes back with a monkey flip. He wins a test of strength and dropkicks Colt down. From far away, Bonello has a Mr. Kotter look going on. Hey, it’s 1979! I’m sure that was hip. He breaks free of a full nelson, but Colt puts him on the mat with a short arm scissors. Colt cheats a little placing his shin on Bonello’s wind pipe. A slam and a knee drop connects, but Colt gets a little too high risk and misses a flying knee drop. Bonello wants a figure-four (logical!), but can’t lock it in. Colt looks for more slams, but Bonello counters one with an inside cradle for the three-count at 7:03. *

• The Mighty Igor (w/Ivan Kalmikoff) vs. John Davidson (w/Rick Davidson)
  

Sullivan tells us Mighty Igor has a real beef with the Davidson family. Igor muscles out of every legal hold Davidson tries. He lets Igor apply a full nelson and when Davidson tries to run Igor off into the corner, Igor lets go of the hold and Davidson goes flying into the corner. Since none of that worked, Davidson kicks low on Igor and grabs a nerve hold. That seems to work, but Igor still powers Davidson away. Davidson applies a headlock and runs Igor in the corner to no avail. He goes to the eyes and grabs the nerve hold again, but Igor lifts him up on his back and drops him down. The other Davidson even distracts Igor while the one in the ring knocks Igor to the floor. Nothing changes. Igor pounds away on Davidson in the corner and gets tripped up by the other Davidson. Rick holds onto the foot in plain sight of the referee while John stomps the crap out of Igor and gets DQ’ed because YA CAN’T DO THAT. (8:00) The Davidson boys get out of Dodge before Igor gets his hands on them. *½

Terry Sullivan talks with NWA rep Tom Renesto. You may recognize the name since he’s the other half of the original Assassins tag team that ruled the south in the 1960s. Anyways, here he is UNMASKED and puts over the Detroit talent. He tells the promotion they need to get more strict with the rules around here because of what Don Kent has done to Chief Jay Strongbow. Apparently, Kent broke a trophy that Strongbow received from a bunch of kids. Sullivan puts the mic in Strongbow’s face and he vents about how bad he feels about the whole thing. A real subdued interview to put over the seriousness of the situation. Good stuff. Renesto makes a point about how great the fans are in West Virginia. Sullivan remarks how he’s had a bunch of great times down in West Virginia. Okay then. Back to Strongbow, he tells Sullivan that he’s going to be INSIDE Don Kent. Well, that’s weird. This segment ends like the tear drop running down the Indian’s face like in that old 1960s commercial about cleaning up the environment.

• Bulldog Don Kent vs. Randy Scott
  

Some headlocks and headscissors holds are traded to start. Eventually, Scott monkey flips him over the referee. Ha. Kent escapes another headscissors hold and jabs Scott a few times with his dog collar wrapped around his wrist. Scott gets out of a nerve hold and comes back on Kent with a backdrop and a slam for two. Since Kent is in trouble, he uses the dog collar again. While Kent has the nerve hold reapplied, he lets up on the hold when the audience starts barking at him. Scott punches him back and monkey flips him again. Just like before, Kent gets in trouble and picks up the dog collar again. Scott gets punched to the floor and Kent follows him out to continue punching until they are both counted out. (11:28) Scott may or may not be busted open by all that. Anyways, way too much of the same routine. ¾*

• The Sheik & Abdullah the Butcher vs. Dory & Terry Funk
  

Tom Renesto joins Terry Sullivan to make some comments here to help their audience understand the impact of the Sheik in Japan. This match is dated at July 15 1979 and held at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel Gold Hall. It’s also a 2/3 falls match, but that’s hardly relevant here with so little footage. Dory has his forehead bandaged. They show Sheik and Abby looking strong stabbing the Funks with their weapons. Sullivan says they will show more of the match next week.

And there ya have it.

Next time will be our final look at Detroit wrestling and we will be heading to London, Ontario, Canada for some ‘rasslin in 1975. A Sikh and a Muslim will do battle as the Sheik takes on Tiger Jeet Singh in a (not a shark) cage match, Angelo and Lanny Poffo will be in action, and of course STAN STASIAK. I can’t do too many 1970s recaps without him, it seems.

Until next time, so long for now.