New Footage Friday: NEW OMNI 11/6/83

Brad Armstrong vs. Chief Joe Lightfoot

MD: This was a weird one. Lightfoot wasn't necessarily a heel, but he ended up playing that de facto role here. It just took a little too long for him to get there given the structure. Lots of headlocks early on. That can work if they're full of struggle, and they were, but it only works if guy fighting from underneath has some heat and obviously he didn't here. Lightfoot always looked pretty good when I've seen him in Portland and he had good stuff here once he took over. Everything had a snap, especially the mares, which came at an odd, satisfying angle. He's the sort of guy that would have made a good FIP teaming with Wahoo or Youngblood. Once it got going, it was good, but this was the wrong match for the headlocks, especially considering just how well the same stuff was done in the main event.

ER: This one had some long headlock moments that kept threatening to take me out of the match, but execution, a hot finish, and other things kept pulling me in. It went a bit long for what it overall accomplished, but I did like what we wound up with. Armstrong can work some compelling headlocks and I do dig seeing sequences bases around headlocks and headscissors. Joe Lightfoot has a weird way of getting into position off Irish whips, I kind of love it and hate it. Lightfoot would get real close to the ropes when shooting Brad in, so Brad would smack into him immediately after hitting the ropes; it was close enough that it didn't felt like Armstrong could get any momentum recoiling off the ropes, so the hits never looked as tough as they could have looked, but it also makes sense from a physics perspective that Lightfoot and Armstrong would catch each other off guard and make a collision more likely (but it still feels like he was getting too close). Lightfoot has some simple offense that ends with impact, getting nice reactions from things like legdrops. And the finish is really hot, because Armstrong is a guy who is going to make small packages and roll-ups look like something that can finish a match. A major feature of the match was establishing that we got a real primo front row wrestling audience. The best fans are sitting at the left side of the screen, including an old lady yelling at the action, an older old lady next to her, and a younger girl looking bored and cool while kicking her legs over two chairs and focusing on a lollipop. 80s territory feuds added so much color to broadcasts.

Ron Garvin vs. Jake Roberts

MD: 1983 Georgia Jake is the Jake we were always promised. He was amazing here, absolutely amazing. The way he uses his body to always make sure that he's putting a hand or foot on the ropes and never kicks out is just a step above, as was the corner spot. Let's go over the corner spot. Garvin had him in the corner. The ref was trying to force a clean break. Jake couldn't capitalize. Therefore, he went and whispered to Ellering. They repeated it and this time, Ellering swiped at Garvin's foot and it still didn't work. I know that doesn't sound much, but it was a ton of set up for a spot that wasn't even going to work out for the heel. No one ever puts that much thought into something unless it's ultimately going to work. Moreover, the finish centered on the corner again so it all paid off in the end. Anyway, all of that was great as was every single punch Garvin threw and, of course, Jake's reactions to the time being counted down as the belt was only on the line for the first ten minutes. Again, it's the Jake we were always promised.

ER: This was Jake using some of his peak powers, a guy who really knew how to conduct a 10 minute TV match. Jake is absolutely massive (I don't know why his size started standing out to me these past several years, but he really intimidatingly towers over nearly everyone while still knowing how to get beat. Garvin is a guy I always look forward to seeing and this was the match that excited me most on paper. And it was a concise, wonderful version of exactly what I wanted. Garvin put over the height difference by hopping up half the time he was throwing hard individual right hands at the top of Jake's head, landing big close fists to the head with Jake leaning forehead first into every one. We get some great moments around this punching (and a significant portion of this match is punching), like Roberts getting put down hard with several straight punches, kicking out at 1, rushing to his feet and then immediately falling straight back; and Garvin set up these match long leaping punches to eventually build to a great leaping headbutt, leaving his feet to just smack heads with Jake. 

Garvin always comes off tough as hell, the best possible version of Da Crusher, dropping nothing but knees and elbows and fists. Jake was at his slithery best, adding personality to things as small as stepping into the ring (the moment where Jake steps over and slides over the top turnbuckle felt like a dance instructor doing a chair step routine for her students), and the way he can subtly keep his same demeanor while projecting dominant and dominated is really special. The moments he was beating down Garvin were great, and the moments where he is getting walloped were great, and Roberts is the same guy with important differences through both. The cheating finish is great, and Jake is one of those great cheating wrestlers who knows just how confidently to act after clotheslining your wrist tape into an opponents' throat and hitting that DDT. This was all I wanted.

PAS: Totally class match. Jake is such a master at timing out a match. He slows it down and then builds to these crashing heights. Garvin is such an explosive wrestler, and Jake orchestrates those explosions. When Garvin finally throws hands and lands the big headbutt, it is like the drum solo in "In the Air Tonight." Loved the heel sneaking in the throat thrust and DDT to sneak under the clock and get the pin.

Jimmy Valiant vs. Great Kabuki

MD: The first minute was legitimately great. The last minute was legitimately very good. Valiant grabbing the mic, threatening Hart, and then immediately living up to the threat, was such good folk hero stuff. He was lightning for the first minute with these awesome awkward clumsy skull-shattering forearms. The last minute where he brought out the chain and just pinballed his fist against both guys was also really good. There was too much BS on this card, up and down, but generally the talent overcame it. Everything between the beginning and the end was just okay, but overall, this was just primal stuff. Someone should have written a song about this match based on thirty year old memories of being in the crowd as a kid.

ER: I dug this. There's plenty of nothing happening, but plenty of great stuff happening. I'm not really a Valiant guy, while also recognizing that Jimmy Valiant is pro wrestling as fuck and that makes me a Valiant guy. He's definitely more of a "the feel of wrestling" guy rather than an execution guy, and that's cool. Wrestling ain't pretty and Valiant looks clumsy and dangerous at once. Valiant dodging so that Kabuki ends up misting his side is some excellent stuff, but I'm also a sucker for claw holds and we got several Kabuki clawholds. The match would gift us a minute (or two) headlock or clawhold, and then it would gift us something genuinely special like those two bumps Kabuki took off Valiant shoulderblocks. Honestly they could have done anything they wanted in this match, they could have sat on the mat in the loosest chinlocks you've ever seen, and been 100% redeemed by Kabuki getting absolutely upended by two shoulderblocks, bouncing off Valiant's shoulders like a kid getting bounced off the Blob in Heavyweights. Kabuki was taking those kind of bumps where you couldn't know how you're going to land, and it happening in a match like this made me love it even more.

Abdullah the Butcher vs. Buzz Sawyer

MD: As much as I love '83 Jake, the most interesting thing in this footage has been babyface Sawyer. It feels like one of the great turns of all time that has been virtually lost to history. We saw him teaming with Brett vs. the Roadies and in a match vs. Dibiase before. We haven't gotten the Thanksgiving tag with Rich yet though. This was right at the moment of the turn. I hadn't been sure it happened yet. In fact there's a promo where he calls out both Dusty AND Abby with Ellering with him that builds to this. When he just appears out of the corner of the screen like a bullet, it's magic though. The crowd goes absolutely nuts. Eventually, in this run, he'll go up against Leduc and the Sheik, but this is the first of these clash of the monsters. It's great. The match itself didn't go long but they just keep fighting and fighting and fighting, with Abdullah being the one to try to withdraw and Sawyer just leaping at him. It all ends up with what had to be the most triumphant moment of Sawyer's professional career up til that point, when he slides back to the ring, hits the kneeling mad dog stance, and just bathes in the adoration of a crowd that wanted his head only a few weeks before.

ER: Buzz Sawyer is such perfect pro wrestling. The horseshoe hair with an all time great wrestling build, a real crazy presence, the perfect brawling babyface who can bleed. He's a guy who territory fans love, whose case as a legend only grows with the release of unearthed footage. Vintage footage findings have raised Sawyer's stock as much as anyone's, and it's smoking performances like this one that will continue to do so. The "fighting bleeding babyface who doesn't want to stop fighting" is a role Sawyer can play to perfection, and this match was a total messy tangle, the kind of fight that goes on just as long on either side of the bell. Abby is a presence that I love, and Sawyer crashes through this thing with amazing intensity, getting old moms in the crowd behind him and cheering for him to bash Abby in the head again, even if it means him taking more shots himself. This has no finesse, and the parts of this I loved the most were the ugly, rolling on the dirty floor bleeding on each other moments. This is the kind of thing absent from major platform wrestling cards (you know, if we aren't considering Coacalco or Zona 23 to be major wrestling platforms).

PAS: This was really great, one of my favorite Abby matches ever and I am a guy who loves Abby. Abdullah is this slow moving movie monster wrecking everything in his path, so when you put a pinball bumper and and pace pusher against him, it works really well. Buzz kept coming forward and getting repelled, dusts himself off only to get repelled again. When he finally gets the upper hand it this cathartic moment for the entire crowd. That ending with both guys brawling and bleeding over the entire crowd only for Buzz to return to the ring as a concurring hero. That is just wrestling perfection. God bless the network for giving me all of this Mad Dog.

Road Warriors vs. Brett Wayne Sawyer/Dusty Rhodes

MD: I can assure you that if I was a ten year old in this crowd in 1983 (instead of being two and in New England), Brett Sawyer would have been my favorite wrestler. He was the scrappiest guy, just a never say die babyface with a lot of good daring looking stuff. Dusty was Dusty and he always stood out, even on the same card with '83 Valiant. I like how giving the early Road Warriors were, because they still came off as completely dangerous but it made for better matches. I liked the focus on Sawyer's back but they needed to build to better hope spots to keep the bearhugs interesting. I think Dusty shouldn't have gotten the slams in during the shine because then they meant less when he did them after the hot tag. The finish of these last few matches were all pretty weird and this one seemed to be about Dusty getting DQ'd for breaking up a pin. What will stick with me here though was Buzz coming back out to save his brother.

ER: This was a really terrific performance from Sawyer, a guy who - like his brother - has also had his stock raised through new footage finds. He reads as such an undersized guy in matches like this, but his shots pack a wallop and occasionally he shows flashes of the same kind of strength possessed by his brother. Dusty grabbing a knucklelock only to have Brett crawl between his legs to pop Animal is a moment that could come off silly, but since Sawyer sticks the punch it works great. Dusty was at his silky charismatic best, moving around the ring with impossible charm, and that Sawyer turns in such a compelling babyface performance while teaming with one of the most charismatic humans of all time is a true testament to Sawyer's skills. I thought he made great work out of the bearhugs, and I fully agree with Matt that early Road Warriors, far more generous than they would become just a couple years later, where incredibly fun. Road Warriors attacking Sawyer's arms was some nasty business, the two of them and Ellering dropping heavy legs on both arms. And it lead to perhaps the great moment of the match, which was Buzz coming out and Tasmanian Deviling his way quickly through the heels. Dusty gets a comeback blow against Ellering, Jake the Snake is out helping other heels, and Buzz protecting his brother came off like some of the most effective wrestling relative drama.

Ted DiBiase vs. Tommy Rich

MD: I wasn't really excited about this coming in. We've seen some lackluster heel Dibiase during these footage drops. This was next level stuff though. Dibiase was replacing a no-showing (or not booked, depending on who you ask) Race, so the crowd was robbed of a NWA championship match. They made it up by going at triple speed and getting mean and bloody. I can't say enough about the opening headlock exchanges. They were working it so hard while really entertainingly going in and out of them. Dibiase constantly went for the tights, until Pistol Pez (the special ref for the title match who just kept the booking) ultimately stopped him. Some of the best 80s opening headlock spots you'll ever see. When Dibiase ultimately took over (with just enough of him earning it and capitalizing on mistakes to be really satisfying), he was extra mean, probably the meanest I've ever seen him, with goozles and pounding and eventually opening Rich up and just trying to get as much blood as possible. The hope spots were equally satisfying though obviously the finish (likely Dibiase getting DQ'd for not stopping his assault in the corner despite Pez pushing him off repeatedly) was more confusing than effective and the post-match brawl probably shouldn't have been on the same card as the Abby vs Sawyer match. The action we did get was great and it was certainly a way to escalate the feud and build towards the loser leaves town match, even though they hadn't planned for this specific encounter in the overall booking.