NWA Cincinnati Handheld - Sept. 1986

1) Baron Von Raschke & Ivan Koloff vs. Mando & Hector Guerrero – 4
2) Wahoo McDaniel vs. Jimmy Garvin – 2
3) Ric Flair vs. Ronnie Garvin – 7
4) Arn Anderson vs. Dusty Rhodes (Steel Cage Match) - 3
5) Magnum T.A. vs. Nikita Koloff (Steel Cage Match) – 6

I’m not really one for fan-cams or handhelds of shows, mainly because you pick up a lot of verbage from the clowns filming the show, and the picture is often shaky. This is a handheld video of an NWA live event from the Cincinnati Gardens in 1986. I did notice two aisleways, one for faces and the other for heels. Not to mention, the matches are edited, like someone had only put in the good parts, which really detracted from the ebb and flow of everything. I wanted to review this tape beacuse it's not everyday you get to check out the action from a show that took place 40 minutes down the road from 20 years ago.

The antics of Von Rashcke and Koloff in the first match really didn’t intrigue me much. The Baron’s limited offense and Koloff’s over-selling were the big notes for me. On the other side, the Guerreros were working fast and hard like the evil foreign bastards pissed in their cocaine. Their fast-moving offense was really tits, mainly because it was ’86 and high flying hadn’t been run in the ground. Wahoo and Garvin was total garbage. Garvin was stalling like a used clunker on the highway. Wahoo’s chops were on the money, probably because he got tired of Garvin’s shit. Garvin bailed and Wahoo was declared the victor via count-out. Next, please.Flair and Ronnie Garvin absolutely tore down the house. Garvin came in with a taped fist for some reason. The ref removed the tape and Garvin was doing a great job of selling the injured hand after a set of chops. Flair’s selling was awesome as usual and the crowd was absolutely on fire for Garvin. Flair bled after some hard shots, which I give him kudos for doing on a live event. The match ended in a double count-out but was a load of fun and, as usual, a Flair/Garvin match didn’t disappoint. I would’ve like to have seen the match in its entirety as it was edited to about 20 minutes.

Arn and Dusty was about ten minutes long and there wasn’t really anything to note of, aside of Dusty’s bleeding. Those damn, dirty Russians ran in (wait, a run-in in a cage match?) and the brawl manifested into the Magnum/Nikita match, which was totally hot. These two absolutely destroyed each other by ramming themselves into the cage and slugging it out. There was blood, the crowd was hot, and I was totally glued to the action. They beat each other so bad that the ref said that the first man to his feet was the winner. This was filled with drama as Nikita almost made it, then fell, and then Magnum barely made it to win the bout. Overall, there was some interesting stuff presented but nothing I would go hunting for.