This wasn't a six star affair or anything, but it was really good and probably one of Wahoo's best in the back stretch of his career, or certainly the back stretch of him being a big name player. Arn had settled into a super consistent run as the TV champ by this point in the year and you could plug basically anyone in there with him. The floor on a 10-minute Arn Anderson match in mid-1986 was going to be relatively high no matter who he was against, whether it be Manny Fernandez or Denny Brown or Ron Garvin or Randy Mulkey. Wahoo was still tough as shoe leather and threw the sort of shots that would prompt bug-eyed facial expressions so he was really the perfect Arn opponent. It started with Arn asking for a test of strength, Wahoo obliging before smacking him in the chest with an overhand chop. Arn is flat on his butt, scooting backwards across the mat with his eyes popping out his head. Those chops were treated as game-changers and Wahoo threw more than a few, which you expect as he is Wahoo McDaniel and chopping people in the chest is what he does. Arn mostly worked from below, selling those chops like you expect him to, taking them from a few different angles. At a certain point Arn would take it to the mat and Wahoo would squeeze him in a body scissors, but it felt like a good place for Arn to be because he could at least force Wahoo onto his back and maybe keep his shoulders down. At least he wasn't being chopped. And then Wahoo threw one from his back and Arn sold it like someone jabbed a stick up his arse. You pretty much knew this was ending on some bullshit but at least they capped it with a nice struggle to get back in the ring at the end, Arn going into the post as Wahoo fails to beat the count by a millisecond.
Ric Flair v Robert Gibson (World Pro Wrestling, 6/16/86)
I'm glad Robert Gibson got a crack at the World Title. Actually this might not even have been for the belt, but I'm glad he got a crack at the World *Champion* if nothing else. They were about to make Morton v Flair the centrepiece of the upcoming Great American Bash tour so if you're Gibson you're probably feeling a wee bit hard done by. "He's wrestling in the main event while I'm jerking the curtain with Black Bart? Is this the Rock n Roll Express or the Ricky Morton Express?" In fairness to him if they wanted to put Flair in there with a teenybopper heartthrob then Gibson was nearly as ugly as Morton, but Morton is in that god tier of underdog babyfaces and Gibson...well, sorry brother, but you're not that. Still, if this was his chance to show he COULD have been a Flair foil at the same level of Morton then he sure grabbed it with both hands. I thought this was an awesome 12 minutes. Morton is at ringside in double denim with his big facial bandage and I'm pretty sure the crowd would've been wild for this without him, but his presence ramped the heat up even more and the whole thing was molten. Right at the start Flair does a drop down, and rather than jump over him Gibson just grabs Flair's face and rubs it into the mat. Flair backs away flabbergasted that this cross-eyed punk would do that to the champion of the world, sheer contempt practically radiating from him. It wasn't anything novel as far as Flair performances go. He didn't start off underestimating his challenger before realising he was in a fight -- he knew from the start what he was in, but it still caught him by surprise that Gibson had the gall to take it there as soon as he did. He spent long spells on the back foot, begged off when he needed a reprieve, took the signature bumps, got put in his own figure-four, gave Gibson a ton and made him look great. Flair has a brief stretch on top when Gibson goes shoulder-first into the post, he works the arm with some nasty stuff, wraps it around the top rope and kicks the rope away, then they flip the tables again as Gibson whips Flair into the corner and Flair takes a great shoulder bump on the buckles. Flair spits on Morton and Morton literally jumps in the ring to get at him, no half-baked attempt at showing how much he wants to throttle Flair, really making Tommy Young earn his keep by putting him back out. When this is going on Flair blatantly chokes Gibson, then gives someone in the crowd the pelvic thrust and you can tell Flair is in his element working with these guys. Of course he escapes in the end by the skin of his teeth, but Gibson at least gets the last shot in as Flair hightails it. I haven't watched the Flair/Morton cage match in about 15 years and I'm very hyped to check it out again soon.
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