WCW Classics - 8/12/00 Page 2

And it's on to the second match:

U.S. Title cage match:
Magnum T.A. vs. Wahoo McDaniel (champion)
March 1985

This match is from the murky period where the Goergia and Mid-Atlantic territories had merged, but had no national TV between them (The WWF was airing on TBS at this time). McDaniel is a despised heel (they never explain why, but apparently he did a lot of evil things in the preceeding months). I should have mentioned this last week, but when Jim Crockett signed Magnum, he received a push that would make Goldberg blush. Week in, week out, he would win squash matches in roughly twenty seconds with his belly-to-belly suplex. They start with a little wrestling, but one kick to the groin by Wahoo is all it takes to turn it into a brawl. And the crowd is seriously into it. Wahoo dominates with his one move, the tomahawk chop. (Memo to Scott Keith: I have discovered the true opposite of Canadian Violence and it is Wahoo McDaniel, who actually stomps his foot when he chops.) Suddenly, Magnum hits the belly-to-belly out of nowhere for the pin and the U.S. Title. And the crowd erupts. I had forgotten just how over Magnum was.

Dusty incoherently rambles about Nikita Koloff. Since Dusty refuses to make any sense, I'll tell the story of Nikita's 1986 face turn. Magnum was on the verge of a main event push when he suffered career ending injuries in a car crash. Nikita was quickly turned face and put in Magnum's spot (getting World title matches, and having Dusty leech off his popularity). At Starrcade '86, Nikita went to a double DQ with Ric Flair, leading to:

NWA World Title Match; No Disqualifications
Nikita Koloff vs. Ric Flair (champion)
February 1987

Ahh, nothing like Dusty Rhodes booking, which is built on two things: screwjob endings and the complete obliteration of Ric Flair's credibility (which makes it a lot like Eric Bischoff's booking, and Hogan's, and Nash's, and Russo's). Let's see the Dusty-books-Flair checklist and see if this match stacks up:

Face no-sells Flair's chops: check.

Face no-sells Flair's piledriver: check.

Flair begs for mercy while Face poses: check.

A crappy non-ending that pisses off the crowd and destroys Flair as a credible champ: of course. In this case, Tully Blanchard runs out, and he and Flair double-team Nikita outside, leading to a double-countout. Then Dusty runs out and the two Horsemen get splatted. And Nikita winds up with the belt after Flair runs retreats. I don't even remember how he got the belt back.

Add it all up and you wind up with Ron Garvin as World Champ (because he was the only guy willing to return the job to Flair). See Dusty destroy a company with his magic pencil.

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