Grilling JR - Clash of the Champions III [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Grilling JR - Clash of the Champions 3: Fall Brawl

We’re coming off the last major Jim Crockett Promotions show which was Great American Bash from Baltimore, MD where the Midnight Express defeated The Fantastics to win the NWA United States Tag Team Titles, the Garvins and the Road Warriors and Steve Williams defeated Kevin Sullivan, Mike Rotunda, Al Perez, The Russian Assassin & Ivan Koloff in a Tower of Doom match, Barry Windham retaining the US title over Dusty Rhodes and Ric Flair retaining the NWA World Title via blood stoppage over Lex Luger.

We are at the height of insanity booking by Dusty Rhodes and smack dab in the middle of the rumors that Crockett and Ted Turner were putting a deal together for a purchase of Jim Crockett Promotions. What was your feeling on the stability of the company at this point? 

How privied were you to the top level discussions going on regarding the sale from Crockett to Turner?

Coming off the Bash PPV comes the Bash tour. Were you at any of these shows and did you think the company was stretching itself very thin with all these shows?

There’s cage matches, scaffold matches, War Games matches all throughout the tour. Was Dusty burned out and just relying on gimmick matches to get him through at this point?

During this time Dusty put together a program with two heel teams with two heel managers going at each other in a round-about-way into a full blown program between the Midnight Express and Jim Cornette and Arn & Tully with JJ Dillon. How much of a risk was it to book two heel teams with two heel managers and not have a babyface reaction take all the heat of one of the heel teams?

You bounced back and forth between ring announcing and being an announcer. Did you find that difficult?

At the end of July Robert Gibson quits after only being paid $1100 for a week’s worth of the Great American Bash house shows. How did you hear about this and was that the true reason?

Did you talk to Ricky Morton about it and what were his thoughts on Gibson quitting?

Morton is put together with Nikita Koloff on the TV coming out of that...what did you think of the combo?

On WCW on September 3rd an ad is played for Clash of the Champions III where Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane are advertised to wrestle but it never happens...why is that and is that common at this time with Dusty’s booking?

Also on that TV Kevin Sullivan attacks Jimmy Garvin & Precious and Rotunda joins in and they break Jimmy Garvin’s leg with a cinder block before being run off by all the babyfaces. This is such a memorable angle...what do you remember about it?

Magnum TA debuts his talk show “Straight Talk” on Worldwide with Kendall Windham. What did you think of Magnum in this role and how good was it to see Magnum back again participating?

From the Torch 8/25/88…”Crockett reportedly took a loan from Ted Turner around the $600,000 range. The wrestlers have now begun to receive the money they are owed. The sale of the NWA to Turner has not taken place yet but is apparently closer now than ever before…”

Who do you know that was missing money and paydays and how close was the sale at this point to your knowledge?

“Ron Garvin has left the NWA and is already signed for dates in the AWA.”

Do you know why Garvin left and do you think it was a loss?

There was a lot of rumor and innuendo around this time about Ric Flair jumping to the WWF which Bruce himself had talked about on the podcast before. Did you hear those rumors or did you ever think it would be possible for Flair to leave?

Fall Brawl is coming to you live from Albany, GA in front of a crowd of 3,700 people and it would get a 5.4 rating on TBS! Review is from the Torch and Wade Keller:

What was it about Brad Armstrong that he just never got to another level?

Most people know the Sheepherders as the Bushwhackers but before they were the Bushwhackers they were some tough motherfuckers. Which rendition of the team did you enjoy the most?

First off...holy fuck Dusty pins Gary Hart to win? Second off do you know what happened to Dick Murdoch and why wasn’t he here?

Was this the end of Ivan Koloff at this point as a heel with losing in his type of match? The Russian Assassins at this point were Jack Victory as noted and Angel of Death (David Sheldon). What do you remember about these two?

During the show there are promos being cut that John Ayres will be the enforcer. Who is he and why should we care?

Wade’s a little rough on Jim here. Not sure I mention it?

All in all it’s a good little show. The last major show before Ted Turner makes the purchase, Steve Williams gets arrested, and the Four Horsemen split up as Arn & Tully leave 3 days after the show.