NAWF TV 1-26-85 Road to the Gold tourney begins!
Jan 25, 2019 17:27:54 GMT
Post by Chitohausen on Jan 25, 2019 17:27:54 GMT
The North American Wrestling Federation Presents . . .
“ALL-STAR CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING”
Broadcast on Saturday, January 26, 1985 at 6pm on the following stations:
WPGH channel 53 in the Pittsburgh market, WKBD channel 50 in the Detroit market, WUAB channel 43 in the Cleveland-Akron-Canton market, WUTV channel 29 in the Buffalo market, WTOL channel 11 in the Toledo market, and WUHF channel 31 in the Rochester market
The show also airs on January 26 on the following CBS affiliates:
KTSP channel 10 in the Phoenix market, KGGM channel 13 in the Albuquerque-Santa Fe market, KOLD channel 13 in the Tucson market, KDBC channel 4 in the El Paso-Las Cruces market, KFDA channel 10 in the Amarillo market
Taped on Saturday, January 19, 1985 at the Sports Arena in Toledo, Ohio
Announcers: Jack Reynolds and Tito Montez
Spanish Commentator: Rapido Rodriguez
Ring Announcer: Larry Nelson
Referees: Tommy Young, Jack Lotz and “Dangerous” Danny Davis
JACK REYNOLDS and TITO MONTEZ are standing at the announce podium, the NAWF logo behind them.
Reynolds and Montez welcome us to this week’s edition of NAWF “All-Star Championship Wrestling”!
Reynolds says that if the fans are wondering about Dick the Bruiser, he has stepped down, in order to spend more time at home with his family. Reynolds says that he’ll miss having the Bruiser here with him each week, and he wishes him all the best in whatever the future holds for him.
Montez says he only got to work with the Bruiser for a couple of weeks, but he has nothing but great things to say about him, and wishes him all the best.
Reynolds runs down what we’ll see this week, including the start of the “Road to the Gold” tournament, as Rocky Johnson faces former 7-time World heavyweight champion Harley Race, and Abdullah the Butcher meets young Koko Ware! The other two quarter-final matches will take place next week, with Paul Orndorff taking on Tony Parisi, and Jay Youngblood squaring off with Bruno Sammartino Jr!
Reynolds and Montez then talk about last week’s TV main event, between Tony Parisi and Bruno Sammartino Jr.
VTR: Parisi vs Sammartino, 1-19-85, JIP:
Things start out pretty even, both men get some offence in, but neither can really gain a clear advantage.
As the match progresses, the veteran Parisi takes control, until Sammartino slides out of the ring . . . and just walks back to the locker room!!
Sammartino is shaking his head in disgust, and yelling to the fans, something about Parisi cheating, and he disappears through the curtain, leaving Parisi standing in the ring, where he’s declared the winner by count-out.
END VTR
Reynolds says that we’ll hear from Sammartino later in the show, and see if he can explain why he just walked out on the match, a match that was his idea in the first place!
THE MASKED SUPERSTAR & “MR. WONDERFUL” PAUL ORNDORFF (w/ Bobby Heenan) beat TOM ZENK & BRAD ARMSTRONG. On commentary, Reynolds and Montez put Brad over as the son of the legendary “Bullet” Bob Armstrong, and one of the fastest-rising young stars in the sport today. Armstrong is impressive here, but it makes no difference, as the Superstar and Mr. Wonderful end up getting their hands raised when Orndorff pins Zenk after a Piledriver.
KOKO WARE beats THE MASKED DEMON. Koko dominates the match, hitting several high-impact moves, including a diving clothesline and a picture-perfect standing dropkick as the masked Demon shot off the ropes. In the end, Koko drops the masked man with a devastating Brainbuster for the pinfall victory.
Reynolds talks about an incident that took place on last week’s show, where the British Bruisers got involved after their match.
VTR: Last Week on All-Star Championship Wrestling:
As the Youngbloods are getting their hands raised, they’re jumped from behind by the British Bruisers! Rocco and DK hit dropkicks to the back of Mark and Jay, knocking Jay to the mat, and send Mark into the ropes. As Mark falls into the ropes, his arms become caught in the ropes, leaving him helpless as the Brits put the boots to Jay.
Referees rush out and try to free Mark from the ropes, but while that’s going on, Mark Rocco spots Jay’s ceremonial headdress that he wears to the ring.
A smile spreads across Rocco’s face. He grabs the headdress, brings it into the ring, where he and DK proceed to tear it apart!!!
Mark, still stuck in the ropes, is beside himself, as DK and Rollerball then take the feathers from the destroyed headdress, and start shoving them into Jay’s mouth!!!!
The referees are finally able to get Mark free, and he charges at the Brits, but they wisely bail out of the ring and gloat as they head to the back.
Mark checks on his brother, as Jay pulls feathers out of his mouth.
END VTR
Jay is very emotional as he talks about the Bruisers destroying his headdress, he says that was a gift from the elders of their Navajo tribe when he entered the sport, and he promised that he would wear it with pride, and never let anything happen to it. He says that watching that video, makes him incredibly sad, because he couldn’t keep his promise. It also makes his blood boil, and he says that he is going to make the Bruisers pay for not only disrespecting him, but his entire tribe.
Mark says that the Bruisers crossed a line last week, and the next time he and Jay get their hands on DK and Rocco, they’re going to teach them a lesson!
NON-TITLE MATCH:
THE FABULOUS FREEBIRDS: MICHAEL HAYES & TERRY GORDY beat NICK DECARLO & BOB MARCUS. The ‘Birds get a quick win, when Gordy drives Marcus into the mat with a Powerbomb for the 1, 2, 3.
“THE UNIVERSAL HEARTHROB” AUSTIN IDOL beats JOEL DEATON. Deaton gives Idol some trouble early on, but the Hearthrob eventually takes over, and after softening up Deaton’s knee, Idol locks on the Las Vegas Leglock for the submission.
Reynolds talks about the injury, possibly career-ending injury, to Dino Bravo at the hands of Orndorff and Superstar.
Heenan doesn’t seem concerned about it, that wrestling is the toughest sport in the world, Bravo knew there were risks going in. He says that Bravo brought it on himself, he stuck his nose in the Heenan Family’s business, and he paid the price, simple as that.
Reynolds then says that we heard from Bravo’s friends Rocky Johnson and Austin Idol, and they’ve both vowed to run Heenan and his men right out of the NAWF.
Heenan laughs, and says that those two humanoids think they stand a chance against these men? He says that they should take what happened to Dino Bravo as a warning, because the same thing could just as easily happen to them!
Masked Superstar says that the Heenan Family is interested in one thing, and one thing only, and that’s the complete domination of the NAWF. Dino Bravo stood in their way, and he suffered the consequences, it isn’t personal, it’s just business.
Reynolds asks how he can say that, they might have ended the man’s career, taken away his means to support his family.
Superstar says that Bravo’s family, or any other wrestler’s family, isn’t their concern, they’ll do whatever they need to do in order to achieve their goals. And speaking of goals, one of his top priorities is to become heavyweight champion of the world. He says that right now Mil Mascaras is the World champion, the man of a thousand masks. He says that maybe he’ll set his sights on Mascaras and take not only his mask, but the IWA World title as well!
Orndorff talks about Austin Idol, he says that Idol’s jealousy got the better of him a couple of weeks ago, and he put his hands on Mr. Wonderful. Orndorff says that Idol can’t stand the fact that he’ll never be seen as anything more than the poor man’s Paul Orndorff! He says that he wants Idol in the ring, so he can teach him a lesson . . . that NOBODY puts their hands on Mr. Wonderful!
Reynolds turns his attention to Abdullah, to ask him a question, but thinks better of it when sees the wild-eyed look on Abby’s face!
Reynolds asks what happened last week, Sammartino was so confident that he would be victorious, but when the going got tough, he just walked out of the match!
Junior says that Parisi constantly cheated, throughout the entire match, and finally he’d had enough of it! He says that he went into the match expecting a good, clean scientific match, but Parisi couldn’t even give him that! Parisi knew he couldn’t beat him any other way, so he resorted to cheating.
Reynolds says that he was calling the match, and didn’t see any cheating going on.
Sammartino says that Reynolds is an old man, he should be wearing glasses, especially if he couldn’t see the blatant cheating from Parisi! He says Tony would grab his hair, he was using closed fists, every time he went for a pinfall, he would grab a handful of Junior’s trunks! He says that Parisi must’ve broke every rule in the book in the course of just a few minutes!
Reynolds says that the NAWF is working to get rematches signed between them, and Parisi has asked for a Lumberjack match, to make sure Sammartino can’t leave the ring.
Sammartino says that when they meet again, the outcome will be different. Now he’ll be ready for Parisi’s cheating, and he’ll be ready to fight fire with fire!
ROAD TO THE GOLD TOURNAMENT
QUARTER-FINAL MATCH:
ABDULLAH THE BUTCHER (w/ Bobby Heenan) beats KOKO WARE. On commentary, Reynolds and Montez put Koko over as an extremely talented wrestler and one of the most underrated wrestlers in the world today. Koko gives it his all here, and gets some offence in, but Abby is just a beast, and gives Ware a savage beating. Abby repeatedly jabs a taped thumb into the throat of Koko, whenever he can get away with it without the ref seeing, and when the battle eventually moves to the floor, Abby even uses his trusty fork to open up a cut on Koko’s head. It’s not long before Koko is wearing the crimson mask, as Abby keeps punching and gouging at the cut, even going so far as to BITE Koko’s head at one point!
On commentary, Reynolds says there may not be a more fitting nickname in all of wrestling, than Abdullah “the Butcher”!
Despite the blood loss, and the beating he’s taken at the hands of the Butcher, Koko keeps trying to fight back! However, Abby eventually gets the win, again jabbing the taped thumb into Koko’s throat, then stomping him on the mat, and hitting the Butcher’s Axe elbowdrop for the pinfall victory.
Afterwards, Abby shoves the referee aside as he’s trying to raise the Butcher’s hand, and hits a second Butcher’s Axe, for good measure. Koko has to be helped from the ring.
ROAD TO THE GOLD TOURNAMENT
QUARTER-FINAL MATCH:
“SOULMAN” ROCKY JOHNSON beats HARLEY RACE. Harley may no longer be in the prime of his career, but he’s still as tough as they come, and he shows that here, as he takes the fight to Rocky, and gives him a beating. Rocky finds himself on the defensive for most of the early going, as Race is all over him, not giving Rocky a chance to get anything going. However, as the match progresses, Rocky makes a comeback, and stuns Harley with a flurry of rights and lefts, before giving us a quick “Ali Shuffle” and then hitting a big right hand that puts Harley flat on his back on the mat! Rocky covers him, but Race kicks out at the last second. Rocky pulls him up, whips Race into the ropes, and catches him with a picture-perfect standing dropkick! Again Rocky goes for the cover, but again Race kicks out at the last possible second!
Rocky has to be wondering what he needs to do to put Race away, then heads to the top rope! As Race slowly gets back to his feet, Johnson leaps off . . . and catches Harley with a sunset flip! The referee is in position, and this time, Harley can’t kick out!
Johnson gets the 1, 2, 3 to win the match and move on to the semi-finals, and a showdown with his rival, Abdullah the Butcher!
Reynolds and Montez wrap things up. Reynolds hypes next week’s show, which will feature the other two tournament quarter-final matches, as Paul Orndorff squares off with Tony Parisi, and Jay Youngblood faces Bruno Sammartino Jr!
Credits Roll
© 1985, North American Wrestling Federation
Working on it now.