CWA at the Mid-South Coliseum 6/23/85: DUTCH VS DYNAMITE!!!!

[thecommish]

Continental Wrestling Association
Monday, June 23, 1985
Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, TN

1) Billy Joe Travis wrestled The Assassin to a 10:00 time limit draw.

2) Ted Dibiase defeated Phil Hickerson at 10:45 when he forced Hickerson to submit to the Figure Four Leg-Lock. Dibiase shook hands with the fans around ringside before and after the match.

3) Sweet Sensation: Stan Lane & Shawn Michaels defeated The Wolverines: Dave Finlay & Mark Rocco at 15:08 when Stan Lane used a brain-buster on a steel chair to pin Mark Rocco. This was a brutal match where all four men bled as they fought all over the ringside area. After the match, Dave Finlay waffled Shawn Michaels with a steel chair, but Stan Lane dropkicked Finlay out to the floor and helped his partner back up to his feet.

4) Killer Khan and Scandor Akbar defeated ”Leaping” Lanny Poffo (w/ Miss Elizabeth) at 8:03 when Poffo submitted to Khan’s brutal nervehold. CWA co-matchmaker Tom Renesto and a group of security guards were at ringside. Lanny put up a fight, but just could not stop the onslaught of Khan.

*Scandor Akbar demanded that Killer Khan keep the nervehold on Poffo after the match. Suddenly there was a commotion and out of the crowd came “Macho Man” Randy Savage again. However, Renesto’s security force got to Savage before he could hit the ring and managed to handcuff the "Macho Man". Renesto ordered a raging “Macho Man” to be ejected as Poffo continue to be assaulted into the ring. Miss Elizabeth begged Tom Renesto to break up Khan’s attack on Poffo and he ignored her for what seemed like 2-3 minutes, before finally ordering prelim wrestlers and officials into the ring to break it up. Lanny Poffo had to be stretchered out of the Mid South Coliseum as Tom Renesto got on the microphone to tell the people that he didn’t want any of this to happen – the blame for what happened tonight goes squarely on “Macho Man” Randy Savage’s shoulders!

INTERMISSION

5) Tommy Rich and Jimmy Valiant (w/ Terry Taylor) defeated Southern Team Champions The PYT Express: Koko B. Ware & Norvell Austin (w/ Jimmy Hart & Big Bubba Rogers) at 13:26 when Rich connected with a Lou Thesz Press on Norvell Austin to score the pin. Terry Taylor and Big Bubba brawled to the dressing room earlier in the night. Rich and Valiant celebrated their title win by going into the audience to celebrate with the fans. Jimmy Hart got on the microphone and shouted that Rich and Valiant had their last title match and got lucky – but the PYT Express have a guaranteed rematch that they will use to overturn this tragedy!

6) CWA Heavyweight Champion Jerry “The King” Lawler pinned The Masked Superstar at 19:14 when he came off the top rope with a flying fist drop to score a win over a top NWA World Title contender in a hotly contested bout that could have gone either way.

*”Superstar” Bill Dundee got into the ring after the match and got right in the face of The King. Lawler listened as Dundee ran him down, before finally pie-facing Bill and slipping out of the ring. A furious Dundee kicked the ropes as The King made his way to the dressing room with the title slung over his shoulder.

7) Southern Heavyweight Champion Dutch Mantell pinned NWA British Empire Champion The Dynamite Kid at 24:45 after coming off the second rope with a flying knee drop across the Kid’s throat. This was a wild match where the Kid bumped like a maniac, but also showed his aerial innovations. The finish saw Dynamite go for his flying head-butt, but Mantell managed to move out of the way at the last second. The Dutchman climbed to the second rope and connected with the flying knee drop to pick up a major victory over another top international challenger.

[mustarunallday]

Really stellar stuff here man. Between the awesome "Dutch Vs. The World" angle, the Savage stuff slowly revealing Renesto's true colors, the slow burn on DiBiase and the King/Dundee stuff you really can't go wrong. And we had a title change to boot. Monday in Memphis continues to be can't miss.

[doctorfate]

The levels of the Savage program is phenomenal. Setting Mantell up for Flair by beating International stars is awesome. The pace of Lawler/Dundee confrontations fits. It seems strange to say any win by Valiant and Rich was an upset but beating Hart's guys was. Good show.

[jp1985]

Mantell and Dynamite would have been an interesting meshing in real life. As mentioned by the others, it does what it had to do as prep work for Flair and a World Title match. With all due respect to Mantell, you just throw him against Flair business as usual and while there is always that chance, as a fan I would not really be buying the possibility of him as World champion. This type of stuff however going over names like this really builds on that chance and should have fans eating out of their hands about 10-15 minutes in.

The Khan and Poffo stuff however was easily the highlight here for me. A great angle that really furthers so many agendas at once. Makes Khan look like a killer, just builds Savage's frustrations that much more, and Renesto allowing it all to go down. Looking forward to the follow up to this.