The SmarK Rant for WWF Wrestling Challenge – 11.22.86

OK, after taking yesterday off with a repost of the Main Event #5 (which literally no one clued into!) we’re back on the reviewing horse again with some Wrestling Challenge in place of NWA Powerrr. I know you’re heartbroken. But there’s only two episodes of this one left as well.

Taped from Glens Falls, NY, STILL. This feels like a really long taping cycle.

Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon & Bobby Heenan

The Moondogs v. The Hart Foundation

Well this is exceedingly random. It’s still “Brett” Hart at this point according to the graphics, for those keeping track. The Harts attack from behind, but Rex nails Bret with his bone and I guess the Moondogs are de facto babyfaces here. They work Bret over in the corner and we get an inset “promo” from the Dogs plotting their strategy, which proves to be Rex pantomiming hitting someone with the bone. Well he wasn’t wrong! At this point Bobby references the Red Sox blowing the World Series against the Mets. “The Red Sox didn’t cry when they lost, did they?” Yeah, they “didn’t cry” about it for nearly 20 years afterwards. Kind of weird to have that kind of momentous moment still being referenced as current at that point. Rex gets worked over by the Harts with stuff, but Spot gets a hot tag, and he’s the hot Dog I guess. Double elbow on Anvil gets two. But then the ref gets distracted and the Hart Attack finishes Rex at 3:54. This was, like, a match and stuff, and I mostly enjoyed it. 1 for 1.

Wrestler’s Rebuttal with the Rougeaus, as they peruse the WWF Magazine and they’re really cheesed about the Hart Foundation claiming to be the #1 tag team in the WWF. First they have to beat the Rougeaus! Well they took care of that about a million times in 1987.

The CAN-AM CONNECTION v. Barry O & The Gladiator

Holy cow, we’re up to that already? The Can-Ams are clearly “pretty boys” here and women-folk in the crowd are READY FOR IT. Bring on the beefcake, they say. Martel and Zenk get a double-team kneelift on the late Barry O and exchange a high five over it, and then Martel goes to work on Gladiator’s arm. Back to Barry and he gets caught in the Can-Am corner and double-teamed and Martel slams him, but the jobbers try to double-team and the Can-Ams run them together and dropkick them. Barry O gets tossed and Martel does an atomic drop on Gladiator, into a crossbody from Zenk, who then slingshots Martel from the apron with a splash for the pin at 3:25 and the ladies are like YES PLEASE. Man Zenk not only threw away a ton of money when he burned that bridge, but probably a lot of long-term loving relationship possibilities with audience members as well. 2 for 2. It’s crazy that Vince was so far behind the curve on that particular trend.

Junkyard Dog joins Killer Ken, and he’s also shilling the WWF Magazine because he’s on page 13 and his birthday is also on a 13^th day, so that’s gotta be lucky.

Meanwhile on Superstars, The Machines face Studd & Bundy and get screwed out of a win.

Sika the Wild Samoan v. Paul Roma

Roma slugs away in the corner and gets pulled off by Danny Davis, so he dropkicks Sika to the floor instead, and Davis gives Roma more shit about that. Back in, Sika gets a slam and finishes with the samoan drop at 1:45. 2 for 3.

The British Bulldogs join Killer Ken, as Dynamite Kid brags about Matilda having 80 pound bite pressure if anyone messes with her. I thought that was Kid himself? And then Kid has a conversation with the dog about the tag team challengers in the division. He’d better lay off the hard shit, man.

Dino Bravo v. Mario Mancini

2 for 4. Sorry, that’s my Bravo reflex kicking in again. I swear Bravo is already 20 pounds heavier than his debut on this show a couple of weeks ago. WONDER WHY THAT IS. VERY MYSTERIOUS. WINK WINK. Bravo immediately unleashes the SIDE SLAM OF DEATH and gets two off that while we get an inset promo from Johnny V, who appears to be learning French. Bravo with an atomic drop and clotheslines as the crowd is already turning on this match and giving Bravo zero heat. Bravo with a back suplex to finish at 2:33. My suspicions about the quality of the match were correct. 2 for 4. Bobby: “I hope Mario Mancini goes to the back and tells all the other wrestlers how bad Dino Bravo is”. I love shoot comments that aren’t supposed to be shoot comments.

The Snake Pit with special guest Hulk Hogan. Jake promises that he’s the man to lead us through the dark times we’re in, and Hulk gives him the “It’s best to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool” speech. Jake tells him to stop talking about him or else, and Hulk is like “When are you gonna have enough courage to strike?” and walks off on him, leaving Jake sputtering. These are the Dino Bravo of interview segments. 2 for 5.

The Rebel Dick Slater v. Iron Mike Sharpe

“This capacity crowd trying to get on its feet to see the Rebel Dick Slater!” Gorilla notes, somehow packing a multitude of lies into one sentence. That’s impressive efficiency. Sharpe charges in with his (ALLEGEDLY!) loaded forearm and hits the turnbuckle instead, and Slater takes him down and chases him to the floor. Back in the ring, Sharpe begs off and grabs a headscissors, but Slater reverses out of that and unloads with the forearms in the corner. Blind charge misses and Slater puts him down with an elbow for two while Bobby makes fun of him for “backing a loser” 100 years after the war was over. He’s not wrong, you know. Slater misses a dropkick and Sharpe goes to the tights to ALLEGEDLY load up the arm, but Slater blocks that and uses Sharpe’s own forearm against him. And then he goes up and finishes with the top rope elbow at 3:44. OK, this was pretty fun thanks to Sharpe getting some offense and making it a little different. 3 for 6.

Meanwhile, in the wilds of Australia, it’s OUTBACK JACK. Keep in mind, if you will, that this show aired in November of 1986 and Jack doesn’t debut on TV as a wrestler until GODDAMN JANUARY. Yes, we had to endure nearly TWO MONTHS of this shit before he ever made it onto TV because he was so horrible that they couldn’t get a watchable match out of him, at which point he quickly disappeared again. Think about that: He was so bad that the company that employed DINO BRAVO for 5 years after this was like “Holy shit, this dude is too terrible to wrestle on our television show.”

Magnificent Muraco & Cowboy Bob Orton v. The Killer Bees

It’s kind of amazing how far Muraco had let himself go by this point, complete with “Don’t give a shit Covid isolation beard” and 40 pounds of extra pork before suddenly getting motivated in 1987 and having a career resurgence as a babyface. Because this was pretty much his low point as a wrestler despite their attempts to pair him with Piper on the house shows at this point. The Bees double-team Muraco, but Orton gets the knee from the apron on Brunzell as Danny Davis completely ignores it and Gorilla freaks out. To be fair, he wasn’t actually looking directly at it, so he’s got plausible deniability here. He was probably having his vision blocked by Muraco, who was eclipsing the sun. Tell us about it, Scott Steiner!

That’s the stuff. Orton and Muraco switch off on Brunzell in the corner and Muraco puts him down with a clothesline, but Blair gets a hot tag and he’s A HOUSE OF FIRE. He somehow manages to get Free Willy Muraco up for an atomic drop that gets two, probably breaking his knee in the process, and Brunzell adds a dropkick for two. He gets a sleeper on Magnificent Shamu, but Orton comes off the top with a forearm from behind, so Blair gets all fired up and shoves the ref for the DQ at 5:00. I’d give it 4 for 7 but Muraco was so bloated that he was worth an extra point by himself so we’ll split the difference and call it 4.5 for 7. Any further notes to add, Scott Steiner?

Slick joins Killer Ken and brags about Sheik & Volkoff getting tag title shots at the Bulldogs. Also he’s got nothing against Hercules, but Bobby Heenan offered an “astronomical” amount of money for him and now he can afford to pay Butch Reed instead.

Next week: Apparently Randy Savage is defending the IC title against Ricky Steamboat on Superstars and we’ll take a look! I literally cannot wait until next week now. Anyway, it’s also the last episode on the Network and hopefully we get more, but I’m not holding my breath.

Syracuse, N.Y. — The puzzles posed by a strange upcoming high school wrestling season are capsulized underneath the roof of the Ciciarelli home in Liverpool.

Mike, the dad, is an assistant coach for the sport at Cicero-North Syracuse. He’s getting ready for the start of practices, which can begin Monday. As far as what the actual schedule and scope of competition looks like, well those are sort of moving parts right now.

One of Mike’s sons, Anthony, is an eighth-grader. He normally wrestles in the winter and plays baseball in the spring. But he was forced into a tough choice this spring because those two conflict. He’s going to stick with wrestling because he’ll be on the varsity in that sport.

Another son, Vinny, is a sophomore. His typical schedule has him wrestling in the winter and playing lacrosse in the spring. That’s not possible now. So he’s taking time away from the mat to go with lacrosse.

The good sign for all athletes battered by waves of coronavirus bad news is that they now have sports options. The challenge, however, is that some of those choices will be tough ones to make.

“I love lacrosse. I love wrestling. And I didn’t want to pick. But I had to,” Vinny said. “Our whole family is a family of wrestlers. It’s hard.”

Wrestling is normally a winter sport, and a handful of Section III schools opted for limited competition during that window. But most nudged the schedule to the spring, when hopefully the virus has calmed down a bit.

While that makes sense from a precaution standpoint, it forces some wrestlers to choose between sports. The spring is loaded with activities that wrestlers might normally participate in, such as baseball, lacrosse and track and field.

For some, the choice was relatively simple. Vinny Ciciarelli is coming off a knee injury and while he could have wrestled this spring he figured it was a smarter choice to take time off and stick to lacrosse.

For others, it’s a lot tougher. Jackson Taetsch is a senior at West Genesee who normally moves seamlessly from wrestling to lacrosse. Faced with the choice of which to close out his high school career with this spring, he picked lacrosse because he said he’s always liked it a little more.

“It puts kids in a tough situation, even if you felt the same way about both sports,” he said. “My whole life I’ve been able to play both of them. I’ve never had to choose.”

Taetsch’s fellow Wildcat, senior Scott Fura, is taking a different route. Instead of going out for baseball this season, he’s going to try to squeeze out a few more wrestling matches.

“Wrestling is an individuality sport,” Fura said. “It makes me challenge myself. Even though it was a tough choice, I feel like I made the right one.”

Fulton senior wrestler Sam May is turning his back on a chance at history by going with baseball instead this spring. May has 90 career wins, 10 shy needed for a spot on his school’s wall of honor. But May is going to wrestle at The Citadel and has opted for the fun of taking his place at third base for Fulton.

“It was a pretty difficult decision. I might still regret it after awhile,” May said. “As of right now, I still think playing baseball one last time is what I should do.”

There is not a lot of clarity behind the wrestling door this spring. Coaches are trying to figure out how to approach the season as their roster sizes dwindle because some wrestlers are doing other sports.

There will be no sectionals or states. Dual matches are likely out in favor of tri-meets and invitationals, in order to make sure that all wrestlers will have competition.

Fulton coach Jeff Waldron recently said he’s had about 20 wrestlers sign up for the sport, about one-third his normal preseason total. He said because of distanced learning, he’s had far less interaction with students and, therefore, fewer chances to recruit them to the sport.

“My contact with the students is about one-quarter of what it would normally be, maybe less,” Waldron said.

Liverpool coach Steve Lofaso said he normally has a roster of about 60 wrestlers, but is looking at maybe 30-40 now.

“Everybody’s in the same boat,” Lofaso said of his fellow coaches. “Every kid (on the team) will get a ton of wrestling time. Any mat time is a victory for us.”

Besides the conflict of sports, coaches said many parents don’t want their children going out for wrestling because of the virus threat.

“I’m losing some to parents being overly cautious, and rightfully so,” said Cicero-North Syracuse head coach Dave Wise. “I’m trying to tell parents it is safe. But it’s going to be up to the parents in the end whether they want their kids to try it.”

Conflicted athletes are turning to coaches as their sounding board for what choices to make. In general, the advice is to pick whichever sport they most enjoy. That’s especially true for athletes who lost their entire seasons to the coronavirus last spring. And athletes who see wrestling as their primary sport can still pick it back up in the summer.

“I’m telling my kids if you want to play baseball, play baseball. If you want to play lacrosse, play lacrosse. It’s not their fault wrestling landed on top of (the spring season),” Waldron said.

“As long as the kids are competing, what more can we ask for?” said West Genesee wrestling coach Brian McAvan. “How can you hold it (skipping wrestling) against a kid? You can’t. I’m not disappointed. I’m just super-happy that we’re allowed to wrestle.”

Mike Ciciarelli, too, focuses on the positives, especially from the perspective of a parent.

“It’s weird. I’m still going to coach whether they are wrestling or not,” he said. “As a parent, it’s kind of fun to watch them play baseball or lacrosse. So it’s kind of fun to be a dad.”

The payoff isn’t nearly as clear cut for Vinny Ciciarelli. He’ll happily head off to lacrosse practices this spring but will also know that just a short walk away somewhere else in the school’s complex his brother and other friends are going at it on the mat.

“I’m always thinking about getting back in the wrestling room,” Vinny said. “I still say I’m on the team even though I’m not actually wrestling.”

Contact Lindsay Kramer anytime: Email | Twitter

MORE HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS COVERAGE

How a Homer wrestler won 2 ‘state’ titles in one year (8 questions)

HS girls swimming roundup: Records shattered in undefeated Mexico’s dramatic win over Skaneateles

HS football roundup: Homer rolls past Cortland, stays unbeaten

Girls swimming and diving leaders for Section III and the state through April 13

Section III high school sports schedule, scoreboard and live stream info for April 14

On the day regional qualifiers are no longer allowed to wrestle with their teams, it didn’t stop the rich from getting richer in the Colonial Valley Conference.

In results from Tuesday night, undefeated Hopewell Valley, once-beaten Robbinsville and twice-beaten Hightstown all won with ease despite not having the services of their top wrestlers.

Hightstown 66, Notre Dame 12

106: Jack Kane (HIGH) over (NODA) (For.) 113: Joe Delli Bovi (HIGH) over Josh Ferdetta (NODA) (Fall 0:22) 120: Dennis Bustos, Jr. (HIGH) over Colin Monato (NODA) (Fall 5:36) 126: Sebastian Bollentin (HIGH) over (NODA) (For.) 132: Jacob Kochberg (HIGH) over (NODA) (For.) 138: Anthony Orlando (HIGH) over (NODA) (For.) 145: Jack Madigan-Green (HIGH) over (NODA) (For.) 152: Liam O`Donnell (HIGH) over (NODA) (For.) 160: Shaun Tom (HIGH) over (NODA) (For.) 170: Timothy Breslin (NODA) over Eddie Abreu (HIGH) (Fall 3:25) 182: James Colleton (HIGH) over (NODA) (For.) 195: Double Forfeit 220: Franki Garcia (HIGH) over John Marhold (NODA) (Fall 1:38) 285: Chris Corban (NODA) over Mason Blumberg (HIGH) (Fall 1:44)

Hopewell Valley 56, Nottingham 15

106: Rhiannon Gaguski (HVH) over (HNN) (For.) 113: Curtis Selmon (HNN) over Kiet Maloney (HVH) (Fall 0:00) 120: Chris LaBaw (HVH) over Aidan Babkowski (HNN) (TF 16-1 0:00) 126: Allen Lopez (HVH) over Jeremiah Northern (HNN) (TF 16-1 0:00) 132: Tyler Hersh (HVH) over Lucas Selmon (HNN) (Fall 0:00) 138: Garrett LaRaus (HVH) over Jacob Van Der Horn (HNN) (Dec 10-6) 145: Tim McKeown (HVH) over Angel Romero (HNN) (Fall 0:00) 152: Ben Thompson (HVH) over William Chrysler (HNN) (Fall 0:00) 160: Joachim Larose (HNN) over Chase Overman (HVH) (Dec 9-6) 170: Sam Ronollo (HVH) over David Aboasu (HNN) (Fall 0:00) 182: Ben Shevlin (HVH) over Jason Sanchez (HNN) (MD 9-0) 195: Gael Vasquez (HVH) over Bryan Villanueva (HNN) (Dec 5-2) 220: Kiril Petrosian (HVH) over Sofian Rashid (HNN) (Fall 0:00) 285: Bradley Toro (HNN) over Gabriel Leung-Kahler (HVH) (Fall 0:00)

Robbinsville 60, Allentown 24

195: John Bartzak (ROBB) over (ALLE) (For.) 220: Walter Diebel (ALLE) over (ROBB) (For.) 285: Faris Ahmed (ALLE) over (ROBB) (For.) 106: Anthony Viscido (ROBB) over Gavin Lourenco (ALLE) (Fall 1:54) 113: Caleb Chong (ROBB) over (ALLE) (For.) 120: Hector DeLeon (ROBB) over (ALLE) (For.) 126: David Kanner (ROBB) over (ALLE) (For.) 132: Hunter Lantz (ROBB) over (ALLE) (For.) 138: Dylan Cifrodelli (ROBB) over John McCarthy (ALLE) (Fall 1:14) 145: Nolan O`Grady (ROBB) over Monroe Schloss (ALLE) (Fall 3:14) 152: Aiden Backowski (ALLE) over Lakshay Khanna (ROBB) (Fall 4:00) 160: Richard Esterly (ROBB) over Joey Germino (ALLE) (Fall 1:36) 170: Jack McDonough (ALLE) over (ROBB) (For.) 182: Nick Migliaccio (ROBB) over Douglas Fusco (ALLE) (Fall 1:34

Princeton 46, Trenton 33

195: Kimberly Acevedo (TRCE) over (PRIN) (For.) 220: Eric Brown (TRCE) over (PRIN) (For.) 285: Garett Gayle (TRCE) over (PRIN) (For.) 106: Jennifer Estrada (TRCE) over Ava Rose (PRIN) (Dec 6-5) 113: Tyler Ehee (PRIN) over Osward Aponte (TRCE) (Fall 0:53) 120: Martin Brophy (PRIN) over Joseph Argueta (TRCE) (Fall 4:20) 126: Randolph Johnson (PRIN) over (TRCE) (For.) 132: Harrison Ehee (PRIN) over Karielys Reyes (TRCE) (MD 12-3) 138: Basil Rieger (PRIN) over Iwalani Arguedas (TRCE) (Fall 1:09) 145: Magnolia Huitz (TRCE) over (PRIN) (For.) 152: Donavon Jones (TRCE) over (PRIN) (For.) 160: Thomas Lambert (PRIN) over Fabio Villarevia (TRCE) (Fall 6:33) 170: Matt Elsworth (PRIN) over Anthony Rodas (TRCE) (Fall 1:11) 182: Jordy Paredes (PRIN) over (TRCE) (Fall 3:06)

Lawrence 58, Hamilton 12

106: Ryan Edwards (LASE) over (HAWE) (For.) 113: Patrick Maloney (LASE) over (HAWE) (For.) 120: Joelle D`Angelo (LASE) over Jaden Stimon (HAWE) (MD 10-2) 126: Joshua Merendino (LASE) over Logan Burns (HAWE) (Fall 2:32) 132: Alexandra Miller (LASE) over (HAWE) (For.) 138: Zach Roldan (LASE) over Ryan Burness (HAWE) (Fall 1:38) 145: ANDY FIGUEROA (HAWE) over Om R Patel (LASE) (Fall 0:58) 152: Emet Baria (LASE) over Justin Espinoza (HAWE) (Fall 1:23) 160: Tommy DeMarco (LASE) over Elson Peralta (HAWE) (Fall 0:52) 170: DONTAE BRYAN (HAWE) over Owen Drake (LASE) (Dec 6-5) 182: Matthew Melchior (LASE) over Matthew Watson (HAWE) (Fall 2:36) 195: Michael Cauthon (HAWE) over Antonio Pirone (LASE) (Dec 8-1) 220: Hamza Ebrahim (LASE) over (HAWE) (For.) 285: Double Forfeit

Haddonfield 30, Rancocas Valley 28

138: Blaise Hendrix (HHS) over Nicholas Lingle (RVR) (Fall 3:39) 145: Renaldo King (RVR) over Dom Hahn (HHS) (Dec 5-3) 152: Justin Rhyne (HHS) over Jedidiah Warren (RVR) (Fall 0:43) 160: Luca Caruso (HHS) over Lorenzo LoDuca (RVR) (Fall 2:29) 170: Drew Hutchinson (HHS) over Christofer Peterson (RVR) (Dec 5-3) 182: Demetrius Frangos (RVR) over Andrew Carroll (HHS) (Dec 3-1) 195: Ta`Kai Knox (RVR) over Chris Clax (HHS) (Dec 5-3) 220: Daniel Flood (HHS) over Joshua Oludoyi (RVR) (Dec 3-2) 285: Hunter Matthews (RVR) over (HHS) (For.) 106: Hunter Mullarkey (RVR) over Luke Wagner (HHS) (Dec 4-3) 113: Alex Hurly (HHS) over Ismael Maldonado (RVR) (Dec 2-1) 120: William Bayer (HHS) over Yasin Carter (RVR) (Dec 6-1) 126: Francesco Notte (RVR) over Beckett Doyle (HHS) (MD 13-4) 132: Giuseppe Notte (RVR) over James Duncan (HHS) (Fall 4:36)