Fantastics

World Class Wrestling Association
World Class Championship Wrestling
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The Sportatorium, Dallas, Texas, United States
6th March 1987
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Lead announcers: Bill Mercer

Line-up:
Al Madril vs Scott Casey
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Bob Bradley & Jack Victory vs The Fantastics
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Kevin von Erich vs Matt Borne
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Dusty Wolfe & Steve Doll vs The Rock ‘n’ Roll RPMs
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2-Minute Challenge
Jeep Swenson vs Red River Jack

Al Madril vs Scott Casey

Back to the Sportatorium in Dallas for World Class. It’s easy to see why Bill Mercer is so fondly remembered, he’s seems the kind of guy to go drinking and sing karaoke with until dawn.

First up is wiley vet Al Madril against the autograph-inundated cowboy Scott Casey. Madril sporting a lovely rat-tail and being easily put off by the partisan crowd “Go Scott, go!” Madril again taking hip tosses like he is being thrown from a moving car! His hips must have been hurting. Madril tries to con the ref into thinking Casey pulled his trendy hair. He of course follows up by gaining the advantage by pulling Casey’s hair! Devious! A little kiss (or maybe a bite to the lip) by Madril before throwing him to the floor. These refs in WCCW are more lax than ECW’s.

Casey using his fists and knees, but is cut off by cheap tactics. A huge shoulder tackle in the corner avoided by Casey, who takes control. A toe punt is reversed into a back body drop, and Madril appears to have been disqualified for putting the man over the top rope. ■ This dumb rule applies here in World Class? I hate this rule so much.

Black Bart arrives? Bart and Pringle challenge Casey to a “drug store cowboy match”, which sounds awesome if you ask me. Sadly, it just means the loser gets ridden with a saddle. Threats are made to Casey’s family and he just accepts it while the ref barely holds Casey back. Way to make Casey look like a chump.

Bob Bradley & Jack Victory vs The Fantastics (Bobby Fulton & Tommy Rogers)

Potentially a good match here with the tag champs involved. Bradley looks different than a few weeks ago but still billed as ‘The Cat’. Lovely tag leapfrogs as per the Fantastics’ norm. Tommy Rogers has a great dropkick, huge height! Bradley goes for the eyes in response. The Fantastics bounce back as commentary compare Bradley & Victory’s stylish looks to jaguars and civets (not joking). Fulton scores a nice headscissors setting off a tag move cascade and a double Fargo strut! I am curious who trained both these guys, their moves are lucha-esque. A nice parallel armbar by Rogers to Victory, while taunting Bradley into a trap! Cameras miss it, but Bradley goes to the top rope and it appears Fulton shakes the ropes from the other side resulting in Bradley’s beans getting smashed on the top turnbuckle! Ouch. Rogers trying his best to make the inexperienced Victory look good out there, huge leaping ability from Rogers. Fulton teases bashing Victory’s beans with his boot, but he escapes to get Bradley back in.

Bradley decides a backwards handspring will show the Fantastics. It does not. The girls favour Fulton in the exchange of moves and hip thrusts, but Fulton is blindsided by a knee to the lower lumber when getting a little too close to the fresh man. Again the refs look very silly here for missing everything. Huge hair-slam is also ignored while Rogers goes ballistic, allowing more illegalities to take place behind the ref’s back. Nice flying forearm by Bradley puts down Fulton but he misses a fish-flop headbutt. We have four men in, The Fantastics are able to leapfrog out of each others’ way and send Victory to the floor with a double dropkick! Interesting finish, where Rogers pins Bradley with an assisted sunset flip! ■

The Fantastics hit the floor to celebrate with the fans, they are very popular at the Sportatorium indeed!

Interview segment

Bill Mercer speaks to Gary Hart and Nord the Barbarian

Nord is being hyped as a trainee of Brody and being of the same level of danger, basically being hyped as a future champion of WCCW. He’ll have to beat Kevin von Erich if that’s the case. Lance von Erich shows up for some reason, so Nord batters him after a sucker punch. I guess this was the set-up for the last show we watched. Lance repping a Gold’s Gym tanktop, this is so 80s. Shame he’s not in Zubaz and shades. The security team hold back Lance before he can get his ass kicked any further.

Kevin von Erich vs ‘Maniac’ Matt Borne with Percy Pringle



Hugely interesting match up now, with the future Doink, Matt Borne vs current WCWA World Champion Kevin von Erich! Matt already had a great run in Mid-South at this point and both lads are second-gen pro wrestlers.

Borne has Pringle in his corner and immediately bends the rules. The ref tries to create a rope break, but Kevin decides to fight out and gets cheap-shotted for his trouble. Ref is already losing control here. Barefooted Kevin with a vicious double corner kick, heels first into Borne’s chin followed by a lovely flying dropkick to the face! While Borne kills time, we are shown the WCWA World title belt, so I guess this is for the title? It wasn’t announced as such. Pringle’s facial reactions are fantastic, such a great manager.

Borne takes a shortcut out of a Greco-Roman knucklelock and the ref counts for a rope break…and gets to five. No DQ however! Nice recovery to pull off a rolling flying headscissors on Borne, going for the submission but Borne able to squeeze out. Borne just looks constantly angry. Caught by a flying body scissor, Kevin playing the part of a boa constrictor this match. The mat game countered by heavy strikes. Borne’s forehead gets clamped by the Iron Claw but he manages to push Kevin to the corner for the break. No wait! Pringle jabs his cane full force into Kevin’s lower back and running away like a pig on fire. The distraction helps Borne big time, nailing a suplex and backbreaker. Kevin is thrust into the corner but springs back out like Spider-Man with a spinning cross body block! He got the pin! ■

Bit of an awkward stand-off following the match for unexplained reasons.

Dusty Wolfe & Steve Doll vs The Rock ‘n’ Roll RPMs (Mike Davis & Tommy Lane)

Steve Doll & Dusty Wolfe, wow, what a team! Enhancement Fodder would be a good name.

The RPMs jump these famous jobbers before the bell, Lowrance almost gets caught in the crossfire! I was curious to see if Wolfe or Doll would get any offense here, since I can’t recall either of them ever dealing any damage in WWF or WCW. So far Lane and Davis are dominating. Dusty almost takes out the cameraman when hitting the ropes, but that’s his only offense thus far. Quick tags for the RPMs, keeping it simple with basic strikes. Dusty kicks away a back drop attempt to get Doll the tag! Dropkick by Doll! Dropkick by doll!! A second is blocked! Tommy Lane lifts Doll into a spinebuster position while Mike Davis lands a second-rope clothesline, a bit like the Hart Attack! It’s over. ■ RPMs with an easy win here.

Subdued celebrations from the RPMs, and my hopes to see Dusty Wolfe win a match continue on.

Jeep Swenson vs Red River Jack
2-Minute Challenge

This has been named as a “two minute challenge”. But no real clue as to why this is a two minute challenge. I assume because Swenson can only wrestle for two minutes before passing out. The guy is built like a brick shithouse and literally portrayed Bane in Batman & Robin (1997), delivering the stiffest clothesline and kicks the Sportatorium may have ever seen. Brody still wearing a white Super Médico mask for his Red River gimmick – he is apparently from Arizona. This is a mess. Brody is able to go strike for strike with Swenson until landing a big running boot. Brody grabs a chair, goes to the top and waffles Jeep with the chair off the top! Swenson barely kneels and throws punches and forearms in a rage. Time limit expires! ■

Ref goes flying! It’s chaos! So, despite using a steel chair, Red River Jack wins the challenge I guess? He did last over two minutes with Jeep Swenson and that appears to have been the only goal of match with no other rules stated. A weird one.

Highlights:
Some nice tag work from the Fantastics!
More rare Red River Jack.
Jeep Swenson having a rare match.
DUSTY WOLFE! The search for a win begins here!
Borne and Kevin were an intriguing match up.

Thoughts:
I swear WCCW is supposed to be better than this…isn’t it? Not absolutely awful, but I do expect more from the weekly TV shows.

Verdict: Another skippable show.

Available here on WWE Network.