Sage Cortez
Bunkhouse Stampede…what a disaster this seems to have been. I’m reading the WON that was printed after the show. Lot of stuff here to go over. Apparently, there was a ticket fiasco, in which multiple times were listed as the official start time for the show. The card was advertised as a 7 PM start, many of the tickets had an 8 PM start listed, and the show actually started at 6:35 PM. The show ended at 9 PM, which means anyone who showed up at 8 only got to see a bit of the show. Before this show, a bunch of guys walked out. Terry Taylor left. Big Bubba Rogers wants to go to the WWF, and quit. As we know, he showed up as the BIG BOSS MAN. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express got fired. Their #2 babyface team leaving is not good at all. According to the WON, they were asked to do a job for Warlord and Ivan Koloff. Instead of wrestle a match, Morton laid down for them. They also refused to do an angle where the Sheepherders would cut Morton’s hair. Steve Williams seems to have a contract dispute. Fortunately that did not last long. Eddie Gilbert is also soon to depart. Michael Hayes also got fired, for no-showing a house show. That’s too bad. That’s a very large portion of their roster excised from the promotion. Worst of all, this is a short show, the run time is only an hour and 53 minutes. Let’s get to the action.
– January 24th, 1988, from Nassau Coliseum, in Long Island, New York
Bobby Eaton (US Tag Team Champ, w/Jim Cornette) vs. Nikita Koloff for the NWA Television Championship
Pre-Match Thoughts: They flew straight into this without any introduction from a host. I don’t even know who’s on commentary! Look at all those empty seats. That’s actually very embarrassing. I guess they only bought 2 hours of satellite time or some such nonsense. After Nikita’s introduction, Jim Ross and Bob Caudle present themselves as the host. Ross is particularly great at putting over what the viewers are going to see on this card. Tony Schiavone is the ring announcer. Haha. In theory, this should be a fantastic match. Eaton was one of the best workers in the company at this point or any other for nearly a decade worth of time, and Koloff has had some nice matches of late. 20 minute time limit!
Match Review: After Eaton and Cornette hug each other, the match begins. They go through the early routine of locking up and nothing happening, until Eaton clocks Nikita in the face. Nikita responds with his own, and takes Eaton down with a shoulderblock. Cornette’s ringside trash talk is great! Nikita works on Eaton’s left arm, and Caudle perfectly mentions how strong Nikita is. That’s exactly what an announcer should do when a wrestler puts a power hold on their opponent. Eaton comes back and kicks Nikita out of the ring, and they brawl on the floor. Back inside, Eaton takes Nikita down with a headlock. Eaton is great at calling spots without making it super obvious, if you didn’t know the business at all, you wouldn’t know what he was doing. Eaton gets up, runs the ropes, and Nikita slams him. Eaton goes back to the headlock, and then knocks Nikita out of the ring with a punch. Nikita launches Eaton into the ring post, then hip tosses him on the concrete floor. I would not have taken that bump! They get back in, and Eaton drops an elbow for 2. Eaton has Nikita in a hammerlock, and a loud “Cornette sucks” chant breaks out. Nikita breaks out, and gets hit with a knee to stop his momentum. Eaton climbs to the top, and comes down with a missile dropkick for 2. Back to the arm, as Cornette continues to berate Nikita. 4 minutes left in this 20 minute match, and this is all I have written. Nikita sorta nails Eaton with the sickle, but Eaton comes back with a single-arm DDT. Eaton keeps working the hammerlock, and gives the champion another single-arm DDT. Back to the hammerlock again, and there’s 1 minute left. I am so confused by this match. Nikita finally starts to beat up Eaton, with punches in the corner. He hits Eaton with a hard elbow, and follows that with THE SICKLE. After that, the time limit expires after 20 minutes of non action.
Cornette hops in the ring after the match, and that was a big mistake. Nikita grabs the tennis racket, and Eaton steals it. After a few shots, Stan Lane rushes down to ringside, and the Midnight Express dishes out double team punishment on Nikita. They dump Nikita to the outside, and he leaves.
My Thoughts: This was a very strange match. Nothing really happened, and this thing went on for 20 minutes. I feel bad for the fans who paid to watch that. One good worker (Nikita) and one great one (Eaton) should never put on a match like that. There was also no reason for it to end in a draw. Lastly, for a match like this to be an opener is not fair to the PPV audience. While it wasn’t the first match in the arena, the fans at home need something to happen early on to get them excited. Didn’t happen here. DUD.
Larry Zbyzsko (w/Baby Doll) vs. Barry Windham for the NWA Western States Heritage Championship
Pre-Match Thoughts: I don’t understand the meaning of this title, but it’s a title. I am interested to see how the New York crowd reacts to Zbyzsko. I am also interested to see how Baby Doll factors in. I believe this is the last time I’ll be seeing her in anything. There’s a 30 minute time limit for this contest.
Match Review: Baby Doll gets in Windham’s face at the very beginning of this, like some jilted lover stuff. Ross suggests that Windham should put his finger on her chest. Uh…no comment. The two men lock up, and Zbyzsko gets taken down with an arm drag. Windham follows with some shoulderblocks, and then a hip toss as well. Ross then talks about a great match between Tully Blanchard and Windham that was on TV, but I couldn’t watch it! Zbyzsko misses a dropkick, and gets taken down with a fireman’s carry. Windham hits Zbyzsko with an atomic drop, and Larry Z needs to take a timeout. He comes back in and takes Windham down, and tries to work the knee. Windham gets out of it, and they exchange shoves. Windham takes Zbyzsko down with a drop-toe hold, and Zbyzsko comes back with one of his own. Neat exchange of moves there. He works on Windham’s left knee, and Windham comes back with an enziguri. He follows that with a powerslam for 2, and a bodyslam afterward. Windham then heads up top, and comes down hard with a missed elbow drop. Zbyzsko goes back to the leg, and when they stand up again, he hits Windham with a mule kick. After a backbreaker, Zbyzsko covers for 2. He goes to a chinlock, and Windham gives him a back suplex when they stand up. Zbyzsko goes back to the leg after a drop-toe hold, until Windham lands some dirty kidney shots, forcing him to break his hold. Windham dropkicks Zbyzsko, and suplexes him too. That was really sloppy, but fit into the match as it looked like Windham was selling his leg. After a gutwrench suplex, Windham covers for 2. Windham puts a SLEEPER on the challenger now, but Zbyzsko reaches the ropes and takes a break outside the ring. Windham follows him to the outside, rams him into a table, and gets rammed into the ring post. Shouldn’t have followed Zbyzsko out there. Schiavone announces that 15 minutes have elapsed, as Windham pulls down Zbyzsko. He rams Zbyzsko’s nuts into the post, which should have caused a disqualification. It didn’t. Windham misses a lariat and flies through the ropes, down to the floor. That bump looked like it really hurt. Bad audible spot call there too. Zbyzsko positions Windham on a table, but this isn’t the 90’s and he has no intention of putting him through it. Windham comes back into the ring with a sunset flip, but Zbyzsko blocks it and covers for a quick 2 count. Zbyzsko goes for a neckbreaker, but Windham reverses into a backslide for 2. Zbyzsko goes for a piledriver, but Windham reverses that into a backdrop. So many reversals! Both guys nail each other with a shoulderblock, and Zbyzsko reaches his feet first. Zbyzsko misses a charge to the corner, and Windham follows him in for 10 punches in the corner. The referee gets in the way because he’s an idiot, and Windham whips Zbyzsko into him. The production company does a bad job, and we can’t see Zbyzsko grabbing a foreign object from Baby Doll. However, we do see that he hits Windham with Baby Doll’s shoe, and Zbyzsko covers…for a 3 count and the title at 19:16!
My Thoughts: This was a nice match, with a strong finish. If you want to get a meaningless title off somebody who is too good to have it, that’s how you do it. that being said, nearly every title match in the company has an ending like this. It is what it is. Zbyzsko’s celebration with the title cracked me up. This bout had far more action than the opener, that’s for sure. So much more that it’s impossible to measure exactly how much. ***. Good stuff from two good hands. Two real pros, as one would say.
Road Warrior Hawk (w/Paul Ellering) vs. Ric Flair (w/JJ Dillon) for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship
Pre-Match Thoughts: I had to go “off the Network” to find out what happened between these two matches. They cut it out of their version of the show, but it was merely entrances. I love the idea of these two guys having a lengthy 20+ minute match with each other. Is the idea going to be executed as well as I hope for? No idea. Their match at Great American Bash ’86 was pretty good! The build for this match was short, but I loved Hawk’s promo earlier in January. Linked that in the last NWA article. To the match!
Match Review: Hawk pushes Flair around at the start, then no-sells a chop. Ha. Hawk does that again, and winds up press slamming Flair afterward. He does it once more to Flair, then stomps on him. The crowd really liked that. After a dropkick, Hawk lands a fist drop as well. He throws Flair across the ring again, and Flair takes a break. Hawk suplexes Flair in from the apron, and puts Flair in a bear hug too. Hawk no-sells chops once again, and follows that with a flying shoulderblock. This is basically a squash. Outside the ring. Hawk kicks Flair in the face, and Flair comes back by throwing Hawk into the guardrail. Hawk doesn’t sell it, then grabs a set of wooden steps to throw at Flair. They miss, and both guys get back in the ring. Flair hits Hawk with a low blow, and now Flair’s chops are having a real effect. Flair drops a knee, and covers for 2. He then throws Hawk out of the ring, and follows him to whip him into the rail. Inside the ring, Flair comes off the top rope with a double axehandle to the back of the challenger, and another knee drop after that. Hawk replies with a neckbreaker, and misses a fist drop. Hawk hurt his knee or something like that, which Flair is sure to notice. He goes to work on that left knee, and lands another low blow when the official turns his back. Flair laughing at Hawk while all this is going on is very funny. Hawk and Flair get in a chop battle, until Flair gives him a back suplex, that is. He rams Hawk’s leg into the post, and goes to the FIGURE-FOUR! Hawk eventually reverses it, and that’s enough for Flair to break the hold. Flair then tries to go up top, and of course Hawk slams him down. Hawk hits Flair with a clothesline, but that clothesline goes all the way through Flair to the referee. That was ridiculous. Hawk clotheslines Flair over the top rope, as the official is still out of it. Flair and Hawk go down to the floor, and Flair gets ran into the post, head-first. I believe Flair is bleeding now, which is just fine with me! Inside the ring, Hawk powerslams him. The challenger follows that with another clothesline, as the referee is finally starting to stir. Flair tries to head up top again, but Hawk punches him and gives him a SUPERPLEX! Hawk has Flair pinned, but the referee isn’t there. JJ climbs into the ring, and clocks Hawk on the back with a CHAIR. It doesn’t hurt Hawk, so Hawk goes over to JJ and starts choking him. When Hawk turns around, Flair hits him in the head with the chair. He goes to cover and…Hawk kicks out at 2! Flair suplexes Hawk, but Hawk pops right back up! Hawk climbs up to hit Flair with 10 punches in the corner, and gives him another fist drop. Flair rushes over to the chair again, cracks Hawk across his back with it, and gets disqualified at 22:40. Sad.
My Thoughts: That’s a terrible finish. There’s really no reason that Hawk couldn’t be pinned after another chair shot. There’s also no reason that Hawk couldn’t be pinned after Flair cheated. It’s just Hawk! Granted, he’s over, but it doesn’t hurt wrestlers to have them lose to the champion. It’s backwards to have a champion who doesn’t win. One thing I’ve thought for a long time was that there was actually pretty good money in having Hawk do a singles run during this period. Of course, there was more money in the Road Warriors being intact. He could have been a big singles babyface, though. ***1/4 for the match, this was quite good. Strange booking though.
$500,000 8 MAN BUNKHOUSE STAMPEDE CAGE MATCH
Pre-Match Thoughts: Our 8 participants are the Powers of Pain, Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard (NWA Tag Team Champions), Ivan Koloff, Road Warrior Animal, Dusty Rhodes (NWA US Champion) and Lex Luger. This is a cage battle royal. Should be amusing at the very least. As the cage is set up, Bob Caudle audibly lists off the credits. That’s strange. Some of these guys look hilarious in street clothes. Luger got a big face pop, in case they didn’t know who to push.
Match Review: For some reason they’re chaining up the cage door. I thought they weren’t supposed to do that. Will mention notable moves only until this thing thins out. I don’t believe that fans could find this match very entertaining. The fence makes the match harder to see, and there’s barely any wrestling involved. The Horsemen team up on Luger, which makes a lot of sense. Barbarian tries to dump Dusty out over the top of the cage, but come on, somebody like Dusty is not taking that fall. Koloff is busted open, and continues to be thrown into the fence by Dusty. Dusty now tries to throw Arn out, but Koloff has to get his head back after being busted open by Dusty, and stops it. He chokes Dusty with something, and when Dusty breaks free, Arn heads into the cage. Tully does too, and he’s bleeding as well. I believe the Powers of Pain are the only heels who aren’t bleeding. Animal has been gouged open, and as that happens, Dusty grabs a belt and starts whipping people with it. Shit, this isn’t Adrian Peterson’s house…why does he have to go do that? The crowd loved it. Barbarian snatches the belt, and hits Dusty with it a few times. This match is hilarious. JR constantly putting over what athletes these guys are makes it even better. The Powers of Pain hit Animal with a double clothesline, as I’m just now noticing how ridiculous the Warlord looks with his muscles. Barbarian hits Animal with a diving headbutt from the top rope, as Dusty appears to have bladed his arm. He gets tied up in the ropes, and beaten up. Animal comes back on Barbarian with a flying shoulderblock, then unties his friend. It’s about time for some eliminations. Right after saying that, Animal tries to throw Arn Anderson over the top of the cage. Tully is trying to pull Koloff through the door, but that fails. Animal goes over to Koloff, puts him atop the cage, and dumps him to the outside at 16:39! About time!
Many guys standing around doing nothing, now. Over at the cage door, Animal kicks Warlord through it and down to the floor, at 18:07. Animal gets kicked from behind by Barbarian, and tumbles right out at 18:09. Didn’t take long for more eliminations! Luger gives Blanchard a powerslam, follows that up with…THE TORTURE RACK! Disgusting how these guys keep biting Dusty’s bleeding arm. The Horsemen drag Luger over to the door, and try to push him out. Luger just won’t let them do that, and kicks them away. Tully, Arn, and Luger are now all precariously close to the door. I don’t know what they’re trying to do here. Arn is basically out of the cage, and trying to pull Luger out as well. Luger pushes Arn back into the guardrail, and all three tumble out of the cage at 22:37. That was including Blanchard. It’s Dusty and the Barbarian now, and right away, Paul Jones hands Barbarian a foreign object, which he hits Dusty with. After Barbarian drops an elbow, he heads up to the top rope for a diving headbutt, which he lands. He goes to the top once again, and lands another diving headbutt. Barbarian tries to shove Dusty out of the ring, but Dusty comes back with some elbows to stop it. Barbarian and Dusty both climb to the top of the cage, and fight up there. Barbarian picks Dusty up, but Dusty comes back with a few elbows, and he picks Barbarian up. Over the top Barbarian goes, and after two elbows, he falls to the floor at 26:20. Boo!
Dusty gets presented with a trophy that resembles a big cowboy boot, and that’s the end of the show!
My Thoughts: This match was great until the eliminations started. I was extremely entertained by it until that point. Once the eliminations started, they didn’t seem to make that much sense. They were also very contrived. Battle royals are generally contrived, but not to this degree. The brawling aspects were a lot of fun, and I was thinking that the match was trending towards a 4 star rating. However, that’s not how it finished. ***1/4. I loved that the match finished with Dusty being booed. I’m glad this concept did not continue for years and years.
It’s embarrassing that Dusty would put himself over like that. It was completely unnecessary. That was a great opportunity to make Lex Luger a new star, or to present him as one, and they crapped all over the notion of it. Other than the Zbyzsko vs. Windham match, this card was plagued with bad booking. However, I’d still consider it better than the wWF’s offering on the same day, although not by a whole lot. Despite the good quality matches, there were some major production issues. Too many camera shots of empty seats. No interviews of anyone! To not have your best talkers speak on a show people paid to watch is awful business. It gave off the impression that I was watching a bush league promotion. Presenting a supposed 3 hour show that turned out to be 2 hours was yet another issue. The Clash hadn’t been announced, and nobody knew that it was going to exist, but I hope they did a lot better job with that. Next up, is going to be THE MAIN EVENT! That’s a very big deal indeed.
Wrestling Time: 1:28:16. Lot of wrestling, was required on a show that didn’t have anything else to offer. Didn’t try to offer anything else either!
Best: Road Warrior Hawk vs. Ric Flair. I preferred it to the main event.
Worst: Bobby Eaton vs. Nikita Koloff. This was terrible “wrestling,” I’m sad to say.
Card Rating: 5.5/10. Slightly better than the Royal Rumble from a wrestling perspective, but the WWF won the battle. They stole all the eyes away, and there was a match on it that I can rewatch time and time again. That is not the case for this show. Only a few tweaks were needed to make this card better. Simply, pinfall wins for Nikita and Flair, and Luger winning the cage match.
