Wrestling on the Socials 

Today, we’re taking a look at 4wrestlingfans’ channel. He has a vast collection of older wrestling, including a significant amount of Crockett and even some WWWF. It’s defintely worth checking out. 

04/21/1985: Jerry Blackwell & Sgt. Slaughter def. Masked Supsestar, King Tonga & Sheik Adnan in 14:43. I promise I’ll break my kick with AWA stuff in this feature, but I wanted to check out the cage match playlist specifically, and I remember liking this. Unfortunately, Blackwell is one of those individuals who has been lost in time. It’s not just the impressive shit he does for a guy his size, but all the in-between stuff looks good, too. They did double heat on Blackwell and Slaughter, and both babyfaces bladed. Adnan was wearing a cast and would only come in when his team had the advantage, repeatedly hitting the babyfaces with it. King Tonga is, of course, Haku, and even he bled during this match, forgoing the racist wrestling tradition of the time of the Poly’s head being almost impervious to pain. Bill Eadie was stuck out with some excellent selling and believable offense. Blackwell got the hot tag and went wild on Adnan. They paid off on Blackwell finally getting his hands on Adnan, including an awesome powerslam. Slaughter was battling with Tonga and Superstar when Blackwell hit the tremendous splash from the top. I loved the story and execution of this match. ****

01/04/1986 Continental 

The show started with Gordon Solie interviewing the King of the Carnies, Ronnie West, in an advertisement for buildings to come to them looking for dates. I love southern pro rasslin. 

Tommy Rich & Johnny Rich def. Larry Clarke & The Inferno in 2:13. The crowd loved the babyfaces, and this was all action, including a nice double dropkick spot by the babyfaces. Johnny pinned Clarke with a nice lariat.

Just as the match ended, the Nightmares ran to the ring and attacked the babyfaces, ending with them tar and feathering Johnny on the floor. This got a lot of heat and was a strong angle. 

Gordon interviewed the Njghtmares at the podium. Danny Davis was wearing a mask because he recently had his head shaved by the Riches. Ken Wayne was a little over the top with some of his laughing, but it was a strong promo overall. Still ringside, the babyfaces cut a promo, and Tommy was on fire and really got the crowd going. 

Adrian Street def. Jason Walker in 5:07. Adrian was the Southeastern champion and was accompanied by Miss Linda. Gordon made sure to mention how Street painted the title pink and how much that angered the other wrestlers. This was probably too long to be so one-sided, but Street won with a stiff knee to the stomach and a splash.

Street and Walker scuffled after the math until Norvell Austin ran in to fight Street, only to be outnumbered by Adrian and Linda. This brought out Lady Maxine, who looked taller than everyone in the ring by a foot, and she started laying out Linda AND Adrian. The crowd loved all of this!

Gordon interviewed Austin and Maxine, the latter of whom was not a good promo, but the previous angle sold itself. They showed footage of Adrian piledriving and injuring Candi Devine, and now they have this giant woman with a spiked mohawk in a part of the country where that wasn’t the norm. We can all forgive her promo, and Austin wasn’t bad, calling himself an American who loved American women. 

Tim Horner def. Paul Brown in 6:34. Horner cut a brief promo before the match, promising to win the US Jr heavyweight title for Roy Welsch. Horner was a good hand, so the match was solid, but there was also maybe a little too much back and forth for a match the crowd knew Horner wasn’t losing, and they seemed to die a bit. Horner eventually won with the victory roll. 

Gordon interviewed The Bullet, who essentially brought us up to speed on the central angles in the territory. First, they showed Mr. Olympia turn on him and help Robert Fuller and The Flame try to unmask him. Brad and Steve Armstrong tried to make the save, but both took beatings. Bob was supposed to be hiding his identity and flubbed by calling Steve “my other son,” but excused himself and said Bullet Bob Armstrong’s son. They then showed footage from a Christmas show where the Flame missed Bob with one of the best fireballs I’ve ever seen in wrestling, and lost a loser-leaves-town match. The Bullet saga continues as the heels try to prove it’s Bob. This was a strong promo, per usual, from Bob Armstrong. 

We got short interviews with Boomer Lynch and Roberto Soto about their upcoming Alanama title matches. 

TV Trophy Match: Robert Fuller (C) NC Brad Armstrong in 6:51. The action was good while it lasted. Brad just started making his comeback, and Fuller went to the floor after a beautiful Brad dropkick. That’s when the referee stopped the match due to an expiration of TV time and held the trophy up until they could continue the match. This was more or less to set up the rematch, but it was solid while it was in the ring. **1/4 

The show closed with Fuller and company cutting a promo at the podium and Brad & The Bullet doing one in the ring. As the show was closing, they did an awesome thing where the heels realized they had a numbers advantage and were talking about going to the ring before the commercial break. When they came back, Gordon only had time to sign off, but you could hear people bumping in the ring and the crowd reacting strongly. What a nice finish. 

This is an easy thumbs-up show, and we will definitely be watching more of Continental.