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This August's Mid-Atlantic Wrestling Legends Fanfest Weekend To Honor Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling History!



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Did Tommy Young ref in WWF? (Read 1007 times)
Red Bander
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Did Tommy Young ref in WWF?
Jun 29th, 2008, 2:13am
 
Just wondering. I could have sworn he did. No?
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bluedevil71
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Re: Did Tommy Young ref in WWF?
Reply #1 - Jun 30th, 2008, 1:34am
 
I had to double-check his Wikipedia page to confirm my notion, but yes, he did work WWF briefly in 1998 when they did the "NWA" angle with Jim Cornette and The Midnight Express of Bart Gunn and Bob Holly. It was short-lived.
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Red Bander
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Re: Did Tommy Young ref in WWF?
Reply #2 - Jun 30th, 2008, 2:06am
 
Thanks.
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MidAtlantic4ever
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Re: Did Tommy Young ref in WWF?
Reply #3 - Jun 30th, 2008, 10:23am
 
I remember seeing Tommy Young ref a match between Rock and Roll Express and Legion of Doom on Shotgun Saturday night, the late night WWE show that was on around that time. The funny thing is, the R&R were heels and Cornette was managing them. It was part of the NWA angle they had going. It was very nostalgic.
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danpoutsma
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Re: Did Tommy Young ref in WWF?
Reply #4 - Jun 30th, 2008, 3:45pm
 
If memory serves he was only around for a couple of RAWs. He was the senior NWA ref and officiated a tag title match between the Rock 'N Roll Express and the Headbangers. They played up the difference between the WWF vs. NWA over the top rope rule and he DQe'd the 'Bangers for that.
 
He was then supposed to officiate a rematch, but WWF Commissioner Sgt. Slaughter came down with I think Earl Hebner and they tossed him out. Hebner officiated the match instead and the 'Bangers won the belts. Cornette was up-in-arms because it was an NWA match and the WWF didn't have jurisdiction.
 
Fwiw, the NWA stable consisted of Cornette, Jeff Jarrett as NWA North American Champion, the RNRs as NWA World tag team champions, Barry Windham, the New Midnight Express, and Dan Severn as NWA World Champion. Legit NWA President Howard Brody and Vice President Dennis Coralluzzo also made appearances when they first introduced it. Jarrett beat Windham (at the time a member of the Blackjacks with Bradshaw) to become the NA Champion, but he later turned on Bradshaw and joined.
 
It eventually fizzled out over time. Jarrett dumped them and went back to his Double J country music persona. The RNRs turned face when Cornette brought in the New Midnights and they attacked them. They would go onto win the NWA belts from the Headbangers, but broke up after having to fight each other in the Brawl For All. And Severn turned on Cornette when Jimmy made the mistake of slapping him.
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Red Bander
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Re: Did Tommy Young ref in WWF?
Reply #5 - Jul 2nd, 2008, 2:25am
 
So Tommy Young was never an "official"  WWF ref?
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bluedevil71
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Re: Did Tommy Young ref in WWF?
Reply #6 - Jul 3rd, 2008, 1:51pm
 
As far as I recall he wasn't. He just did the "NWA" matches on WWE shows, which usually was one match or so per show and only for a few weeks. But he was on WWE/F shows.
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86skywalker
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Re: Did Tommy Young ref in WWF?
Reply #7 - Jul 8th, 2008, 3:39pm
 
No, he was never an "official" ref.  I thought the old NWA angle was brilliant, though; I don't know why they squashed it.
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danpoutsma
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Re: Did Tommy Young ref in WWF?
Reply #8 - Jul 8th, 2008, 8:19pm
 
I think it was Cornette's idea to do it. They were also interested in Dan Severn and used it as a way to introduce him into the promotion. They wanted to do a program with he and Shamrock, given their past history in UFC, but it didn't really go anywhere.  
 
I always thought the main purpose the NWA served was for them to take a jab at WCW, which was claiming the lineage of the NWA title as their own. Basically, it was a way for the WWF and NWA to say "this is the real NWA and what the competition is claiming is a lie". Of course though, Vince normally has a tendency to not place a great deal of emphasis on something he didn't create or allow it to succeed, so it petered out after a few months. I think Russo was a big proponent of it failing too, since he and Cornette held dissdain for one another.  
 
Nonetheless, even after the NWA disappeared from WWF TV, the relationship continued for sometime after that as certain WWF talent still appeared on NWA shows. Bob Holly and Bart Gunn even lost the NWA tag belts on a Greg Price show in North Carolina.
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Re: Did Tommy Young ref in WWF?
Reply #9 - Aug 10th, 2008, 6:12pm
 
I thought the whole NWA angle was just simply Jim Cornette's creative mind.  It never got over.  They pushed Dan Severn as the World Champion.
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starrcadefan
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Re: Did Tommy Young ref in WWF?
Reply #10 - Jan 5th, 2009, 8:27am
 
Cornette has said that it was done by Russo & Co to say "this ain't rasslin no more". They mainly did it as a jab at Cornette always lobbying for more traditional matches and storylines. Russo didn't appreciate that part of the business and did this to try and poke fun at tradition and make the old NWA seem like a relic. Cornette said that when the storyline actually started to get over and grow they pulled the plug on it immediately as it was never intended to draw any real interest.
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