Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Pro Wrestling Illustrated Scouting Reports on WTBS "Best of Championship Wrestling" (1985-1986)

by Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway

In September of 1985, six months after Jim Crockett Promotions had taken over the wrestling slots on Superstation WTBS, they began airing taped segments during Sunday's "Best of Championship Wrestling" program called "Pro Wrestling Illustrated Scouting Report." The segments were in conjunction with Weston Publishing's "Pro Wrestling Illustrated" (PWI) magazine and were hosted by Senior Editor of PWI Bill Apter.

Bill Apter and Magnum T.A. on the set of
"Pro Wrestling Illustrated Scouting Report"
Initially the segments were all co-hosted by NWA World Champion Ric Flair. It became a running gag in those early weeks of the show that Flair would tell Apter that he (Ric) was actually the host of the segments and that Apter served as co-host at Flair's pleasure. By late October, other JCP wrestlers began co-hosting the segments (Magnum T.A., Tully Blanchard, Dusty Rhodes, and many others) and even some wrestlers outside of the promotions such as Jerry Lawler and Ted DiBiase. Apter now referred to them as his guests. Flair was would continue to be the guest most featured throughout the segment's entire run.

"Scouting Report" had been a segment on other territory wrestling TV shows at various times in the past, sometimes co-hosted by Craig Peters in addition to Apter, but this was the first time a promotion had hosted a series of segments than ran for this long of a period of time. There were 44 weekly segments in all, stretching though late August of 1986. The show ended in advance of the end of the "Best of" show which became "World Championship Wrestling Sunday Edition" in September of 1986, a live-to-tape show that would no longer feature the pre-taped "Scouting Report" segments.

"Scouting Report" usually lasted two complete show segments, with a WTBS commercial break in the middle. Apter would select 2-3 wrestlers to "scout" and his guest would provide analysis. When Flair was the guest, they usually reviewed his top contenders for the NWA title, not only in Crockett Promotions but in other territories as well. Sometimes tapes were shown of the wrestlers being "scouted", other times just photos or slides that occasionally included stats on the scouted wrestler.

Jim Crockett Promotions created a special set for the show, with "Superstars" and "The Superstation" featured in the background as well as a chroma-key screen for showing video clips. Apter would always be seated on the left, while the co-host would be seated on the right. A coffee-table would be between them, usually with an issue or two of the magazine on display, as well as occasionally the title belt held by the wrestler featured as guest or co-host.

The set was located at the Crockett Promotions main office on Briarbend Drive in Charlotte, NC. They would tape three to four episodes at a time to air over the next several weeks on "Best of Championship Wrestling." The shows were taped on the same day that they taped the local promotional inserts for the syndicated shows (Mid-Atlantic and Wide World Wrestling) at Briarbend Drive.

Listed below are all 44 installments of "Pro Wrestling Illustrated Scouting Report." There was one episode that aired on Saturday's "World Championship Wrestling", and there were a handful of episodes hosted by someone other than Bill Apter. They are notated within the list.

http://www.midatlanticgateway.com/p/almanac.html
The list is maintained as part of the Mid-Atlantic Gateway Almanac and is permanently located at this link.

 Complete List of all Pro Wrestling Illustrated Scouting Reports
(Superstation WTBS 1985 - 1986)
as featured on the "Best of World Championship Wrestling"
Hosted by Bill Apter

PWI Scouting Report

DATE
GUEST
SCOUTING REPORT / TOPICS
1
09/15/85
Ric Flair
Nikita Koloff, Carlos Colon (UWC),
Magnum T.A.
2
09/22/85
Ric Flair
Billy Jack Haynes (Florida),
Kerry Von Erich (World Class), Nikita Koloff
3
9/29/85
Ric Flair
Magnum T.A., Jerry Lawler (Memphis),
Butch Reed (Mid-South)
4
10/06/85
Ric Flair
Bob Armstrong (Southeast/Continental),
Wahoo McDaniel (Florida),
Road Warrior Animal
5
10/13/85
Ric Flair
Jim Duggan (Mid-South), Terry Taylor,
Dusty Rhodes
6
10/20/85
Ric Flair
Dick Murdoch, Ron Garvin, Dusty Rhodes
(featured live hook-up with Rhodes)
7
10/27/85
Jerry Lawler
Bill Dundee (Memphis), Arn Anderson,
Dusty Rhodes
8
11/03/85
Ivan & Nikita Koloff
Road Warriors (AWA), Wahoo McDaniel and Billy Jack Haynes (Florida), Rock & Roll Express, Don Kernodle.
9
11/10/85
Tully Blanchard
Terry Taylor, Ronnie Garvin, Magnum T.A.
10
11/17/85
Ric Flair
Ole and Arn Anderson
11
11/24/85
Ric Flair
Arn Anderson, Dusty Rhodes
12
12/01/85
Bill Apter
(solo from the Omni)
NWA TV Title Tournament,
Bunkhouse Stampede (Fireside),
Starrcade '85 Highlights
13
12/08/85
Paul Ellering &
The Road Warriors
Ivan & Nikita Koloff
14
12/15/85
Ric Flair
NWA TV Title Tournament, Starrcade match with Dusty Rhodes, Mike Ditka & The Bears, Ted Turner, Buddy Landel, Magnum T.A.
15
12/22/85
Dusty Rhodes
NWA TV Title Tournament, Ric Flair,
Starrcade '85
16
12/29/85
PWI Year End Awards
Jim Cornette, Road Warriors, Ric Flair
(all present to accept awards)
17
01/05/86
Magnum T.A.
Tully Blanchard, Buddy Landel,
Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair
18
01/11/86
(Sat.)
Magnum T.A.
NWA TV Tournament Highlights,
Arn Anderson, Bobby Jaggers (Pacific Northwest),
Ted DiBiase (Mid-South), Nikita Koloff
Q&A: Ronnie Garvin
19
01/19/86
Ron Garvin
Ric Flair, Q&A: Ricky & Robert
20
01/26/86
Ric Flair
Dusty Rhodes, Ole Anderson, Magnum T.A.,
Ron Garvin, Q&A: Magnum T.A.
21
02/02/86
Ricky & Robert
(Rock & Roll Express)
Midnight Express, Q&A: Ric Flair
22
02/09/86
Baby Doll
(No Bill Apter)
Dusty Rhodes, Tully Blanchard
23
02/16/86
Jim Cornette
Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup, Dusty Rhodes and Magnum T.A (America's Team), Sam Houston & Nelson Royal, Q&A: Dusty Rhodes
24
03/09/86
Ted DiBiase

(originally pre-empted by Braves Baseball on 2/23/86)
Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup
Dr. Death Steve Williams (Mid-South),
Wahoo McDaniel & Mark Youngblood,
The Koloffs, Rock & Roll Express, Q&A: Jim Cornette, Stan Hansen & Bruiser Brody,
Road Warriors, Ric Flair
25
03/02/86
Dusty Rhodes
Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup
Terry Funk history, Four Horsemen: Ole Anderson, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Ric Flair,
Carlos Colon & Invader (UWC),
Q&A: Ted DiBiase (Mid-South), Magnum T.A.
26
03/16/86
Bill Watts
Crockett Promotions Co-Ventures,
Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup,
Mid-South Wrestling, Q&A: Bill Watts
27
03/23/86
James J. Dillon
Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup,
Baby Doll, Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson, Ric Flair, Q&A: J.J. Dillon
28
3/30/86
Paul Boesch
Houston Wrestling History
Johnny Valentine, Wild Bill Curry
29
04/06/86
Paul Boesch
History of Team Wrestling, Jim Crockett Sr., George "Two Ton" Harris, Q&A: Bill Apter
30
04/13/86
Bob Taylor
(No Bill Apter)
Jim Crockett Sr. Memorial Cup Brackets
31
4/27/86
Paul Boesch
Houston Wrestling in the 1950s
32
05/04/86
Paul Boesch
The Graham Brothers, Buddy Rogers,
Killer Kowalski
33
05/11/86
Paul Boesch
Killer Kowalski
34
05/18/86
Gloria Allen
(Magnum's Mom)
Wrestling News by Bill Apter: Stan Hansen (AWA), The Fabulous Ones Stan Lane and Steve Keirn (Florida), Garvin vs. Blanchard, Freebirds Sign with the UWF, plus clips of Ron Garvin, Tully Blanchard, Ric Flair, Ricky Morton, Midnight Express, and Baby Doll
35
05/25/86
Baby Doll
Magnum T.A., Tully Blanchard, Midnight Express, Q&A: Baby Doll
36
06/01/86
Ricky & Robert
(Rock & Roll Express)
Guest host: Bob Taylor
Ric Flair
37
06/08/86
Ricky & Robert
(Rock & Roll Express)
Guest host: Bob Taylor
Rock & Roll Express Super Summer Sizzler Tour
The Russians, Ric Flair
38
06/15/86
Ricky & Robert
(Rock & Roll Express), Ric Flair
Guest host: Bob Taylor
Rock & Roll Express Super Summer Sizzler Tour
Great American Bash Tour
39
06/22/86
Magnum T.A.
Nikita Koloff,  Phone Call with Bob Geigel
40
06/29/86
Ricky & Robert
(Rock & Roll Express)
Rock & Roll Express Super Summer Sizzler Tour
Q&A: Ricky & Robert
"Best of Championship Wrestling" on Sundays preempted the entire month of July for the Goodwill Games and Braves Baseball
41
08/03/86
Paul Jones
(Joined in Progress)
Jimmy Valiant
42
08/10/86
Ron Garvin
Tully Blanchard
43
08/17/86
Ric Flair
Dusty Rhodes, Four Horsemen,
Kansas City & St. Louis,
4th NWA World Title Victory
44
08/24/86
Dick Murdoch
Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes


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