Post by fifthhorseman on Jun 27, 2020 11:34:56 GMT -5
CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING FROM FLORIDA
EPISODE 16
EPISODE 16
A 60-second video montage showcasing some of the action that took place at Battle of the Belts began the show, ending with a still shot of the new CWF Florida Tag-Team champions, Billy Jack Haynes and Kerry Von Erich, celebrating in the ring.
Lance Russell: “Hello everybody, and welcome to Championship Wrestling from Florida. I'm Lance Russell, and I'm joined by the infamous color voice of the CWF, Stu Bennett. We have a jam-packed show for you tonight, and to kick things off, let's welcome the CWF Florida Heavyweight champion, 'Ravishing' Rick Rude, along with his manager, Percy Pringle III, Don Muraco, and Bob Orton, Jr.”
The crowd jeered all four men as they strutted onto the stage. Rude smirked at the audience, and he made sure that every person in the arena could see the heavy gold belt he lifted above his head. He summoned Russell to his side, and said, “What I'd like to have right now...”
But before he could finish his usual insult, a pair of big masked men burst through the curtain and attacked Orton and Muraco from behind! They stomped their oblivious targets to the floor – and to the crowd's shock, Rude also joined in the attack, making it a three-on-two. As tough as the original “Rock” and the “Cowboy” were, they never had a chance, and they had to be rescued by an assorted group of officials and referees. After Muraco and Orton were taken away, the two strangers pulled their masks off, revealing the faces of “Mean” Mike Enos and Wayne “the Train” Bloom – the Destruction Crew. Rude took the microphone again. “That's what happens when you ask someone to do a job for you and they fail! All they had to do was take out Razor Ramon before Battle of the Belts – and they couldn't even do that! So I made a call back home, and brought in some Minnesota muscle. A couple of tough guys who know how to take care of business. Let's get out of here – I gotta go take to Bobby about getting my match changed.”
They all left, and Russell and Bennett looked each other in disbelief before the veteran play-by-play man said, “Well, we still have to go to the ring for our first match. And how appropriate it is to say, after what we just witnessed... welcome to CWF!”
“WELCOME TO FLORIDA” BATTLE ROYALE
DORY and TERRY FUNK vs. JUSTIN GABRIEL vs. JERRY LAWLER vs, WAYLON MERCY vs. OTIS vs. PAT PATTERSON and RAY STEVENS vs. RYBACK vs. IRWIN R. SCHYSTER vs. TIMOTHY THATCHER vs. JIMMY and JEY USO vs. BARRY WINDHAM vs. DARREN YOUNG and TITUS O'NEIL vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER:
DORY and TERRY FUNK vs. JUSTIN GABRIEL vs. JERRY LAWLER vs, WAYLON MERCY vs. OTIS vs. PAT PATTERSON and RAY STEVENS vs. RYBACK vs. IRWIN R. SCHYSTER vs. TIMOTHY THATCHER vs. JIMMY and JEY USO vs. BARRY WINDHAM vs. DARREN YOUNG and TITUS O'NEIL vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER:
During each man's or team's entrance, a graphic was shown on the in-arena and television screens, highlighting their accomplishments.
As far as battle royales went, this one was stacked. Five former recognized World singles champions, and a bevy of World tag-team and secondary champions, were all in the ring, eager to demonstrate to the crowd – and Heenan – how good they were. But skill wasn't necessarily the determining factor in a battle royale, and while body weight and strength helped, there were no Andres in this ring.
The field eventually thinned to half a dozen competitors: Mercy, Ziggler, Lawler, Windham, Schyster, and Otis. “The King” was double-teamed by Ziggler and Schyster, and used every trick up his sleeve to hold onto the top rope until he was inevitably tossed out of the ring. On the other side, Windham was surrounded by the two biggest men in the match, and fought valiantly before his departure as well.
The final four all backed into individual corners to catch their breath, and they sized each other up for a few seconds... until Ziggler rolled underneath the bottom rope, grabbed the house mike from the timekeeper, and re-entered the ring. He gave each man a hard stare, and then he focused on the camera to deliver a very simple, but meaningful, statement.
“My name is Nick Nemeth. Kent State University.”
He looked over his shoulder to Schyster, and tossed him the microphone.
“Mike Rotunda. Syracuse University.” Another hand-off, this time to Mercy.
“Dan Spivey. University of Georgia.” And he looked at Otis, who nodded.
“Niko Bogojevic. Colorado State University – Pueblo.”
He set the mike down, and the four men left the ring as a unit, perplexing Russell and Bennett as the show went to
COMMERCIAL
An “earlier in the week” vignette aired, where the Freebirds declared that they would regain the tag-team titles that Haynes and Von Erich stole from them. Hayes and Garvin were going to take the week off, rest their bodies and exercise their livers in the worst bars found on Badstreet. However, their partners, David Von Erich and Ray Gordy, issued an open challenge.... they just wanted to beat somebody up.
EVER-RISE vs. RAY GORDY and DAVID VON ERICH:
vs.
vs.
The Canadians were game opponents, but aside from a few well-timed double-teams and a couple of hope spots, they didn't get any offence in. “Bamm Bamm's” son was the fastest man in the ring, and the “Yellow Rose of Texas” was the strongest – and the meanest. After Gordy took out Parker with an enziguri, Von Erich put Martel to sleep with an iron claw. It was over in less than five minutes.
After the scene cleared, Bennett introduced the CWF Southern Heavyweight champ, Brian Pillman, to the enthusiastic crowd. He said that he planned on watching the Nigel McGuinness/Sean O'Haire match alongside the two announcers, and was eager to face whoever was next week.
But he was interrupted by the gigantic visage of Bobby Heenan, who appeared on the videoscreen behind him. “Hey, champ, I think you've been misinformed! I never said that the tournament to determine your next challenger worked like that! No, no – those two matches last week were just qualifying matches. They both won, so they both get a shot at you in a triple-threat match. And it's not next week, it's after our next match! So you better go get your boots on, and remember, it's a triple-threat – no DQ, and the first pin wins, whether you're part of it or not!”
Pillman was furious, gave Heenan a vulgar salute, and left without saying a word.
COMMERCIAL
Russell was in the middle of the ring, and he introduced the new tag-team champions to the ring. Kerry and Billy Jack were all smiles, and gave the usual babyface speech, promising to take all comers and to defends the titles with honor. Whether it was the Freebirds – in any permutation of the stable – the winners of this next match, or any team in the territory, they'd take anyone on.
2MB vs. the STRONGHOLD (w/Oliver Humperdink):
vs.
vs.
The House of Humperdink was looking to get on the winning path after Battle of the Belts, while Slater and Bugenhagen were just looking for a win. Both squads realized that Heenan's recent talent raid brought in several world-class teams, like the Funks, the Usos, and the Blond Bombers – so the road to getting a shot at the Florida Tag-Team titles just got bumpier.
2MB did their best, and double-teamed Cameron early and often, but the Stronghold was just too powerful. Nation did most of the work for his team, and he pinned Slater after a press-slam/shooting star press combination.
Post-match, the Stronghold continued their assault on the two-man rock band until Slater's former partner, Justin Gabriel, ran down to the ring with a chair to clear house.
COMMERCIAL
Another vignette for “Superstar” Billy Graham aired – and he would be appearing in person next week.
CWF SOUTHERN HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
NIGEL McGUINNESS vs. SEAN O'HAIRE (w/Leo Kruger and Dexter Lumis) vs. BRIAN PILLMAN (c):
vs. vs.
NIGEL McGUINNESS vs. SEAN O'HAIRE (w/Leo Kruger and Dexter Lumis) vs. BRIAN PILLMAN (c):
vs. vs.
After the two challengers were announced, Pillman made his way to the ring, taking every extra second he could to stretch. He had barely broken a sweat warming up; he didn't have the time.
Because this was a triple-threat match, there were no disqualifications – and that was a huge advantage for the sadistic O'haire and his “Devil's Advocates” at ringside. The referee was instructed by Heenan before the bout began that they could stay, so stay they did... and for the first few minutes, every time McGuinness or Pillman were thrown outside, Lumis and Kruger attacked them.
Finally, the two had enough. They took out O'Haire with a double clothesline, then went outside, grabbed a couple of chairs, and went to work on the Advocates. A couple of stiff chair shots across each man's back, and the two bolted up the ramp for good. Satisfied with the result, the champion and McGuinness rolled back in the ring, their temporary truce over. It was a 10-minute sprint from there, and after O'Haire hit the Brit with his Widowaker slam, he leapt up on one of the turnbuckles, eager to connect with a Seanton bomb. But he failed to see the “Loose Cannon” scramble up one of the parallel turnbuckles... and when the 270-pounder took flight, so did Pillman, nailing him in mid-air with a perfect missile dropkick. The two bodies crashed to the canvas, alerting McGuinness – but before he could recover, Pillman draped an arm over O'Haire for the three-count.
COMMERCIAL
Bobby Heenan made his customary pre-main event appearance, and sat down beside Russell. When asked about the main event – Muraco and Orton out, Enos and Bloom in – he said, “Well, as you saw, Rick's original partners are in no shape to compete tonight. So when Rick and Percy asked me if they could replace them with Bloom and Enos, it made perfect sense to me.”
Russell: “But Don Muraco and Bob Orton weren't just attacked by a couple of strangers – they were assaulted by the same two men that are replacing them right now!”
Heenan: “Isn't professional wrestling funny like that sometimes?”
The DESTRUCTION CREW and RICK RUDE (w/Percy Pringle III) vs. MIKE GRAHAM, STEVE KEIRN, and RAZOR RAMON:
vs.
Enos and Bloom were in their more familiar (at least, to AWA fans) orange gear, wielding sledgehammers, when they walked to the ring behind the “Ravishing One”. The referee insisted they throw them under the ring, and despite Pringle's objections, they relented. Rude addressed the crowd as only he could, while the three men across from him waited impatiently - until Ramon finally grabbed the champ by the hair and slammed head-first into a turnbuckle pad.
It was a classic six-man battle, with the heels cutting the ring off and using their superior numbers (and Pringle's constant distractions) to stifle any offence from their opponents. Graham, Keirn, and even Ramon took turns being the face in peril, until the “Bad Guy” made a hot tag to his corner 15 minutes in. Keirn went wild, hammering away at all of his foes, and eventually everybody wound up in the ring. It was glorious chaos, and after Bloom clotheslined Graham over the top rope to the floor, Ramon doubled down by hitting both members of the Crew with clotheslines. Then, Rude drove a high knee into his most recent challenger, sending him to the floor as well.
While “Ravishing Rick” taunted Ramon inside the ring, Keirn sneaked in and rolled up the champion from behind, but only got a two-count. He followed that up with a backslide attempt – but Rude was too strong. He got an arm free, adjusted his stance, and in a flash, hit Keirn with the Rude Awakening. Enos and Bloom did their job on the floor, holding Ramon and Graham back while the arrogant champion made the cover on the former Fabulous One.
After the match, Graham checked on his friend, while Ramon stared down the Florida Heavyweight titleholder, who stood on the ramp flanked by his new colleagues and his manager. The show ended with Rude shouting into the camera, “You can't beat me, Razor! No one can! Who's next?”
Fade to credits.