Found Footage Friday: 1986 UWF SUPERDOME EXTRAVAGANZA '86

UWF Superdome 6/14/1986    

One Man Gang vs. Brett Sawyer

MD: Brett Sawyer is the king of Vault footage and here he is again with another really good performance. Well, a glimpse at one. Only so much you can do in a couple of minutes, but the cat and mouse at the start was spirited and effective with all the build and payoff you'd want as he built to a two hands-on-one test of strength only for Gang to crush him in the corner. Much of the rest of the match was Gang hamhocks coming down on him. Occasionally Sawyer tried to get shots to the legs in to no avail, but the effort was appreciated. Things finally went to the floor and Gang got DQed using some chairs. Back in the ring more crushing as the fans stomped in rhythm for anyone to make the save (no one did). This accomplished what it set out to do.

Robert Gibson vs. Baron Von Raschke

MD: It's always surreal to see Von Raschke in weird settings bumping without bending as he was want to do. Morton's up against Flair second from the top (we don't have that match) and Gibson's here on the undercard against the Baron. Fans were behind him but more in a general sense. After a quick shine, meat of the match was an armbar where the Baron kept going for a hairpull and it was fine but it didn't really get any extra heat. There's probably a different crowd where this match would work in front of but here, they just went up for the goosestepping and the claw attempt. Gibson blocked it, which was moderately dramatic stuff and then after Baron tossed him, he turned a slam attempt from the outside in into a small package for the win. Certainly not the best match we've seen out of the vault this year.

Koko B. Ware vs. Jack Victory

MD: This felt way bigger than you'd think. Victory had Mad Maxine with him and Koko had Dark Journey (babyface). Another weird pairing or set of pairings but they'd built it with Maxine bullying Journey. Maxine did not have a long run but she did pop up a number of different places, like Kamala in her own way (Kamala was also on this card vs Link but we don't have that). Florida, Continental, here. An attraction doing attraction things. 

We come in JIP here and the early stuff based around punching is great. Koko has just an awesome flurry to come back and the crowd goes up for it until he crashes and burns in the corner (which also looked great). Then Victory leans on him a bit until Dark Journey comes out, causing a huge pop. We lose the audio to a degree here but can still hear Ross. She's enough of a distraction to let Koko get a snap schoolboy takeover which has an almost power bomb impact to it. Looked great how Victory threw himself back for it. Post-match Maxine and Victory are poor losers but Journey gets big revenge with powder and a low kick and the place goes nuts. I imagine this probably made TV in part at least somewhere as we have commentary but it did feel like a memorable angle and a big deal, even if you wouldn't think Koko and Victory would be the ones involved. You'd almost think it'd be Taylor and Sawyer instead for instance.

Buddy Roberts & Terry Gordy vs. Blade Runners

MD: Hayes was fun on the mic pre-match letting Gilbert know that if he stays out of this, Hayes will stay out of this, but if he doesn't... This is an only time match up between Warrior and Gordy and it's a weird visual, let me tell you. Fun start to this where it's chaos and the ref has to appeal on the mic to Gilbert and Hayes to calm things down. I'm not sure I've ever quite seen that. 

Match itself had a Buddy playing face-in-peril. That meant some bearhugging from Sting, but most of it was Sting and Warrior working together. Lots of quick tags and double teams off the ropes. Eventually Buddy ducked one and Gordy came in to even the sides and he and Warrior crashed into each other with a double clothesline for a very unsatisfying (but still larger than life) double KO as neither met the ten count. 

UWF Television Title: Terry Taylor (c) vs. Buzz Sawyer

MD: This aired on Power Pro but it's likely a footage upgrade with just the crowd noise and we'll cover it. I've read someone recently question why Buzz was used so well by Ole and Watts when he was such a bad person (maybe Ron Starr's book?) but look at how he gave and gave on a big show like this for a guy like Taylor. He tried to lure him in with handshakes to start and got clowned. He got a little advantage and crashed into the turnbuckle. Taylor controlled on the arm for the next few minutes including hitting a big cross body. Buzz only took over because Taylor missed a second one. Then he honed in on the ribs/back because of the miss with bearhugs, basically. Taylor came back but ate the power slam. Buzz missed a top rope splash and lost to a sunset flip, clean. Then he demanded Taylor get back in the ring to have another impromptu match, ambushed him, immediately fed for a comeback, and lost to a quick Thesz press, again, definitively. I imagine one squash the following weekend would wash away any shame from this loss too. But he put over Taylor like a million bucks here. Maybe Taylor won due to Buzz's own mistake but then he won again even more definitively. You get a completely loathsome character who's as talented as Buzz was and that would do business on a big show and it makes sense why the guy got used as well as he did. 

Ted DiBiase vs. Michael Hayes

MD: I really love this pairing, especially when Dibiase is the babyface. Dibiase vs the Freebirds is probably one of my favorite feuds of the 80s honestly. It's a huge testament to Hayes that he could be a de facto babyface earlier against Gilbert and the Blade Runners and then go full on heel here. This starts with some great BS (even if maybe not all appropriate in 2026). Dibiase gets the fans chanting. Hayes moonwalks. He goes to the second rope to preen and Dibiase jumps up to shake the ropes messing with his balance. Criss Crossing ends abruptly with Dibiase putting a fist up and Hayes taking a powder. Hayes tries a cheapshot in the ropes but Dibiase ducks and hits a series of jabs before paying off that big punch. Hayes takes another powder. Hayes hits a bodyslam and struts. He hits an armdrag and shimmies. So Dibiase hits an armdrag and two bodyslams and the fist drop and then after a pause, struts himself closing the parentheses. Perfectly parallel pro wrestling. The fans are into all of it.  

Hayes plays mind games and gets a temporary advantage but misses a kneedrop after a strut. They do some legwork and tease the figure four but that leads to the actual heat which is mostly Hayes leaning on Dibiase's injured neck. It's just a chinlock with a hope spot or two but the fans go up huge for Dibiase firing up. Then they tease a kick with his head down for a back body drop but Dibiase dodges it and goes into his comeback. It was a clever and effective inversion. Finish is very wonky though. He hits the powerslam and goes for the Figure Four but Gordy comes out. Then he power slams him and pins him instead. Ref counts it. Gordy was mostly fresh. He's more foreboding and dangerous than Hayes (despite JR calling Hayes a Charles Manson like figure). If you used Buddy in that role it would have worked a hundred times better even though it would have still been an annoying and illogical bait and switch. Ah well. Post-match they beat on Dibiase and tease the pile driver but Dibiase gets free and gets out the glove to a huge pop as the Birds run away. The good in this was very good but I'm sure people would miss it all because of the finish. 

Street Fight: Bill Watts & Dusty Rhodes & Steve Williams vs. Ivan Koloff & Nikita Koloff & Korstia Korchenko

MD: This is a come as you are street fight. Watts' shirt is too small so he looks like Ricky Morton with the cut off shirt. He had to be aware of this. I do like the idea that the Soviets come in their gear. The Americans are in jeans like normal relatable people (Watts' shirt notwithstanding). The Russians are alien creatures with a broken society that we can't relate to. Etc. It's effective even if seeing these guys in street clothes would have been more entertaining decades later.

I don't have a ton else to say about this one. It's less than ten minutes in and out and mostly chaotic brawling. Dusty and Watts position themselves to save Williams from a double team once or twice. Ivan gets the chain out early and does damage with it. Finish has Gilbert try to intervene with a weapon but (I think) trip on the way in letting Watts get it and the win. Post-match Watts clears house with the chain and then gets to whip Gilbert a bit, but not enough that there isn't more meat on the bone. The one view meant we missed a decent amount of the action and Dusty sort of disappeared because of that in a way I'm not used to. Plus, given the build, this was the Watts' show after all.

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