Wrestling History Message Forum

[Bushinyou]

The last listing I have of Manny Fernandez and Rick Rude defending the NWA World Tag Team titles is 05/22/1987, against Bob & Brad Armstrong in Richmond.

It has always been universally accepted that The Rock 'n' Roll Express were award the belts and it was announced on 05/26/1987 that they defeated Fernandez and Rude to win the titles in Spokane, Washington (a match taped in January 1987).

Obviously, that only leaves a four day window that Manny Fernandez & Ivan Koloff could have been NWA World Tag Team champions.

Here's the problem: May 26, 1987 falls on a Tuesday, and I highly doubt any JCP programming was broadcast on that day. Also, at what I assume was a TV Taping on 05/26/1987 in Greenwood (not sure what state), I have Fernandez and Koloff wrestling as a team. I have no record of them holding the belts at that taping or at any other time. However, unless I overlooked a couple of matches in June 1987, Fernandez and Koloff don't team again until July.

Is there something I'm missing here?

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

You know the title change was a fiction, right? I have notes on my listing.

Here's the timeframe I got from a Japanese website. Not sure how accurate it is, but the guy does a lot of researches from the US websites and magazines.

1987/05/22 Richmond, VA
Fernandez & Rude defend the title against the Armstrongs.

1987/05/24 Chicago, IL (UIC Pavillion)
I'm not sure if there was a title defense on this day, but Fernandez chose Koloff as a new partner to replace the "injured" Rick Rude.

1987/05/26 Greenwood
Fernandez & Koloff defeat Larry Stevens & Ricky Nelson

1987/05/30 Pennsylvania, PA (Civic Center)
It was announced that R&R Express defeated Fernandez & Rude (not Koloff) on 1987/05/26 in Spokane, WA for the title. Fictitious change, of course.

So, I guess Fernandez & Koloff were never "officially" the champs.

I tend to assume that neither the Chicago nor Greenwood card was televised. If they ignored the non-televised cards, the whole thing would make sense. (No, it doesn't, but this is pro-wrestling....)

[Bushinyou]

Oh yeah, I know it was a phantom switch. I'm just unclear on how 05/26/1987 is the date that was given to begin the fourth reign for The Rock 'n' Roll Express. If they "won" the belts on JCP programming, I don't see how the date could be 05/26/1987, since that was a Tuesday. It would just seem more logical that the date should be 05/23/1987 or 05/30/1987, with those dates being a Saturday, depending on what day the show that the Fernandez/Rude-Express "switch" aired.

But like you said, it's pro wrestling...