The Unstoppable Force and the Immovable Object: Mad Dog Connelly vs Calvin Tankman

Mad Dog Connelly vs Calvin Tankman GCW The Last Ones Left 6/20/26

MD: Once upon a time Austin Connelly was a man like any other, a man like you and I. 

This world that we live in, however, this world that he had to endure day after day, year after year, it changes a man. Some of us can go about our lives keeping our heads down, watching, observing, yeah, even writing, instead of doing. 

Half of any crime is opportunity. 

We all have the intent deep down, whether we want to admit it to ourselves or not, but Austin Connelly had the opportunity we didn't. He was a professional wrestler, a fighter, a warrior. His trade, the living he made, was one of violence. When violent tendencies, the violent possibilities that tug at each and every one of us, and violent opportunities come together, a beast can be born. And so he was, bursting forth full grown from an unhealable wound upon the world. 

Mad Dog Connelly is an unstoppable force, ever roaming, a shark unable to stop, a predator that has to take the most vicious, the most onerous path. No choice, no hesitation, no regret. Pressing ever on.

Calvin Tankman, however, is an unmovable object. He'd taken some time to heal up, to recenter himself. Now he was back on the scene on home turf, in front of a crowd that was 95% supportive. 

What happens when an unstoppable force meets an unmovable object? The heavens themselves shake.

Connelly can be driven to acts of animal ingenuity, and he would be here soon enough, but his first instinct was to charge forth. He did so again and again, bounding right off of Tankman with sweeping momentum that would have taken down any lesser man. Tankman brushed him off like he was nothing. 

He was not nothing. He was rage and fury embodied in a mortal frame. The fight spilled the outside. Connelly gnarled at Tankman with teeth and forearms. Tankman staggered but struck back. 

And then they found the chain.

To Connelly, the chain is a comfort; the chain contains him, grounds him. The chain is a burden, for he is Sisyphus ever dragging the weight of the world behind him with it. It is not a weapon, no more than a fist or a foot is a weapon. It is a part of him.

Tankman learned that quickly, winning the tug of war but losing the war of momentum, Connelly shifted at the last moment to cause Tankman to careen into the post. From there, the choking began. The great equalizer. On the ground, any two men are the same size, and in this case, one man had linked rings of steel to wrap around the throat of the other.

He could have left Tankman for dead. That wasn't enough though. It wasn't satisfying. A few minutes of violence against an opponent so formidable? It didn't quench the need. It brought no peace, no quiet, no respite. It did not relieve the pressure. The boulder continued to press down upon Sisyphus.

So they made it back to the ring and he gave in to his desire to gutwrench him over, and then, when that proved ultimately futile, to trade strikes. Connelly's strikes were mighty, but even the harshest wind cannot punch down a mountain (at least not in the span of a day). And this mountain punched back. 

Tankman took over, knocking Connelly around the ring. He went for a power bomb, but Connelly blocked it. For a moment, the unstoppable force made himself an immovable object. It would not last. Tankman packaged him up, hefted him up, and turned that into a power bomb. Yet Connelly would not stay down.

Nor would he stop fighting. He would not because he could not. It's as simple as that.

He crawled his way out of a body slam and took out Tankman's leg from behind, cutting down a tree that he could not blow over. He hammered him in the corner with explosive dropkicks, and then, a rare sight indeed, he rose to the top, flying off with a diving headbutt. Tankman would not stay down either.

Heading back up to the top to fire off another shot, he found Tankman before him having given chase. Connelly meant to flip over him and power bomb him. Maybe he couldn't gutwrench him, but clever beast that he was, he could use gravity to his advantage. 

Tankman would not be moved. Instead he backdropped Connelly over, rose the rest of the way to the top, and just as Connelly had tried to become an immovable object before, Tankman himself now became an unstoppable object, flipping feet over head with a thudding moonsault. 

The fire within Connelly did not stop. The force continued to push against all of the injustices and hypocrisies of the world, but this once, with Tankman pressed down upon him, the force stoppable or not, simply had nowhere to go.

In the clash of these two primeval entities, the object bested the force on this night. But the force would travel on for the pressure is unbearable and the boulder ever needs pushing.

Read more!

Found Footage Friday: OMNI 83~! ZBYSZKO~! ORNDORFF~! ARN~! BORNE~! WILDFIRE~! ROOP~! GARVIN~!

GCW Omni 5/15/83

MD: Unfortunately, we're missing the six man which had Hansen and Murdoch teaming, plus a random Killer Brooks vs. Brian Blair match apparently, a testament to how the territory was a bit down and some guys were doing double duty, but we're going to be thankful we got this at all. 

Brett Wayne vs. Joe Lightfoot 

MD: It feels a little much that Lightfoot is a "Chief" too. Not everyone can be a chief. This started as a babyface match and the first thing we hear at the bell is someone shout from the crowd "Now don't you do any bodily harm to one another." which is some beautiful Georgia wrestling right there. And this was a pretty solid babyface exhibition for the first five minutes, headlocks into headscissors, that sort of thing. There was one nice moment where Lightfoot jammed a monkey flip in a way you don't usually see and there was a sense of struggle. That struggle boiled over and Lightfoot got more and more chippy, sneaking in a punch, hitting a chop, and then finally hitting a cheapshot from out of the corner. The fans did not like that. Wayne did not like that. They skidded into roll up exchanges before things could get too heated though and Wayne snuck one out with a jackknife. They more or less made up post match. If this had one or two more minutes for Lightfoot to lean harder heel and be in control, it would have been more memorable but it was a good opener. 

ER: Boy this really did end right when it was picking up steam. Brett Wayne has been one of my favorite "discoveries" of the Omni shows, and his talents admittedly shine brighter when he's in against a guy he won't be/shouldn't be beating. Underdog babyface fire and ability to take heavy thudding beatings are two things that won't be necessary in a face vs. face match with Joe Lightfoot. While I appreciated their work in the opening minutes, some snug headscissors and - importantly - always honest work, it got a lot better when Lightfoot started getting really bothered by someone in the crowd. I don't know exactly who it was but someone was getting under Lightfoot's skin - multiple times including post-match he flapped his hand at someone, telling them to Keep Yapping - and that little shove into being a heel made this temporarily catch fire. The honesty of the exchanges and the firmness of the contact suddenly meant a lot more. I like how they handled a blocked O'Connor roll, Lightfoot holding the ropes and Wayne not rolling back but splatting to his back, legs in the air for a kip up that never came. Lightfoot, picking up on Wayne's landing, pulls an inside cradle that looked like it could have won. The energy and weight for the actual finish was excellent, with Wayne kicking out of a sunset flip and pouncing into a jackknife pin. You watch enough Guerrero/Malenko roll ups sequences - and brother, that is a thing seared into my brain folds - and get used to the visual of the last 20+ years of Divas level copycat versions, and suddenly Brett Wayne shows what the sequence can look like when someone actually wants to win a match. 

Brian Blair vs. Chick Donovan 

MD: Blair came off as straightlaced and sound, a bit of a competent babyface bully on the mat. Chick preened and stalled to start. When they finally locked up, he tried to screw around with Blair. Blair showed him why that wasn't a good idea, clearly out wrestling him. He worked a hammerlock for a while and you got the sense he could do whatever he wanted with him. Eventually Chick got a few cheapshots in and took over. Blair was maybe a little less interesting working from underneath but his comeback was good with a leapfront, a huge forearm that knocked Chick into the ropes, and then catching him with a sleeper on the way back. Not only did he whack him to wake him up, but he did it with a second rope kneedrop to the back of his head as Chick was seated but unconscious, which was a great bit.

ER: Chick Donovan must have been poured into that coat OR bought it when he was less shredded because he is forced to enlist the referee just to help him out of it. Even with an extra man, it is still a full production. I've never seen a man take so long to get out of a jacket. Love the pack of women in the crowd screaming for Chick. Dude looks great, like the middle step of Jeff Jarrett evolving into Flair, and he wrestles like the best possible Jarrett. Chick was great bumping around for Blair and the bumping was made even better because Chick had no problem hitting a stiff back elbow or other stiff cheap shot, gain nothing from it, and then go back to bumping. I thought Joe Lightfoot had a nice kneedrop in the opener, but Blair had a gorgeous kneedrop that looked Harley Race level. I was still thinking about it when Blair smothered Chick with a sleeper to win, and was not expecting Blair to hit an even cooler kneedrop after the match. Matt's right, it's a great bit to put someone to sleep and then hit a move to wake them up, and I cannot say I have ever seen someone hit a kneedrop off the middle turnbuckle to a seated opponent. Blair's kneedrop has to be precise for the bit, but also seems insanely dangerous to even attempt. Blair leaps several feet away to perfectly place a pointed knee to Chick's cerebellum, snapping Donovan awake. 

Ron Garvin vs. Bob Roop 

MD: First time I caught this it was on a bus home from DC and I fell asleep a bunch. I don't think that's fair to the match but it's also not too surprising as a lot of this was Roop armwork and some of it was more compelling than others. Him actually chipping away at the arm was compelling because of how Garvin fought back. He was always threatening to throw a right hand and there were some bits, like Garvin having his foot caught and jumping over multiple trip attempts that I loved.

All of the hope spots were so good too. Garvin was fighting with one arm. Sometimes it meant he just got one punch and that was enough. Sometimes it meant he got Roop on the apron and could clubber until Roop draped his other arm over the top. Sometimes it meant a flurry of right handed punches followed up by a huge headbutt. The comeback was a headbutt to the groin and man did he ever thrash Roop after that, including the Garvin stomp. Fans were very much into all of it and it led to a fun finishing stretch where he tossed Roop off the top and when Roop tried it to him, he rolled him up. Maybe this got a little long in the tooth at times, but maybe they needed that for the comeback to work as well as it did? I don't fault the match for me being tired on a Thursday afternoon. 

ER: This was a slow burn that went up in hot flames the moment they wanted it to. For the first 12-13 minutes, Roop methodically worked over Garvin's arm in the kind of way that would potentially put you asleep after a long day at work, but was rewarding to someone watching with a fresh cup of coffee. Roop is Shooter Ned Beatty and all his arm work was honest and tough, jamming his shoulder into hard surfaces and not letting it go, working like Regal without the flash. Garvin endured and sold expertly throughout the long control, and the sudden payoff was incredible. Was the payoff even better because of the slow burn? I thought so, and loved how suddenly and explosively it came, with a Garvin headbutt that sends Roop backpedaling all the way to the other side of the ring, where Garvin stalks to meet him with a kick right to the face. Garvin's high kick is such a cool piece of offense that no other brawler used. When you had a great punching babyface - or any brawler outside of Takayama - they were never working kicks into their punching attacks. 

But if you want to talk about great punching wrestlers, we must discuss ALL of Roop's punches. How about his overhand right to back Garvin up, fanning out his hand after because he knew how fucking good it looked? His head movement to miss Garvin's response. His falling hammer fist into Garvin's throat, the punches in mount while holding onto the back of Garvin's head, every straight right to the head directly at the hard cam, busting Garvin open and leading to an even bigger comeback. Nobody talks about Roop as a great puncher but it's all here. He sets up the biggest comeback possible, the Garvin Stomp and big followup elbowdrop getting a big reaction, but nowhere near as big as Garvin biting Roop on the face after. Garvin is back raking and striking Roop all over the ring and we should all love how much Bob Roop absolutely refuses to fix his singlet after the left strap first falls, then is pulled down by Garvin. Roop works the rest of the match with his singlet falling off and I can't see that kind of stooging happening today. 

Tommy Rich/Ray Candy vs. Arn Anderson/Matt Borne (w/ Precious Paul Ellering)

MD: This was the one match on the card we had clipped already, but we did only have a few minutes of it and as best as I can tell this is our first full Anderson/Borne arena match.  Bleached Blonde Borne is a weird look for a guy who had so many looks. I really did love this though. It's a wonderful match. Rich's shine where he's ducking things and throwing fists and Arn and Borne are flying all over the place for him while the fans go nuts and "ooh!" for every punch is perfect pro wrestling.

It's amazing how good Arn was already, the way he moved his hands or looked at what was going on. He just got it so naturally. Such rich and vivid reactions to everything. None of it felt fabricated or overwrought. He had grown up a wrestling fan and I think he understood so intimately what connected with him and how not to play at a wrestler but to inhabit the character of one completely.

This had double heat on Candy where they were able to manage through quick switches and either riding him or clubbering away, tagging whenever he started to comeback. It was very effective because of the dissonance. You wouldn't think they'd be able to keep him down but they did it through hook or crook. Then there was a heat on Rich to finish it, with hope spots and all, before he got a roll up out of nowhere with Arn already celebrating on the apron since he thought they were doing great. Really good stuff all around and I like how unconventional the structure was overall. 

ER: Great stuff, great look at Destruction Inc, which happened when Borne was a better version of Arn than Arn. Young old man Arn and Borne working fully in sync, going after Candy and cutting him off, Wildfire raging on the apron for the hot tag, it's the perfect use of everyone. The Tommy stuff was a great way to start, Borne and Arn feeding perfectly for his wild fire, the way Arn and Borne moved into and fell away from Rich was electric. It's been said that wrestlers today are far better athletes but I don't understand that at all. The movement seen from ab-less 1983 wrestlers was such a better use of motion than anything in modern wrestling. Every strike led to a big recoil, selling happening constantly, everyone great at occupying themselves while feeding. 

When it's time for Destruction Inc to cut off Candy, Borne and Arn work the mat with him like they're specifically trying to gas Candy out, making him work through scrambles and pushing him to a pace he would never be able to handle. It's great psychology and a great way to use Candy, forcing him to be a tired monster swinging at two men who don't look like they'd be so fast. Paul is cheating from the floor, and I love how Candy falls when Paul grabs his leg from the floor, a real crashing wave that looked like a man actually thrown off balance by an unexpected full leg grab. Destruction are so good at keeping the ring cut off and the heat strong. Several moments stood out, but I loved one of Candy's big attempts to fight his way to Rich. Candy was punching at Borne while back elbowing Arn on the apron to escape their corner, and as Borne goes down from a punch he scissors Candy's leg as he's falling. When Rich finally tagged in it was a great as expected...but I did not expect them to then work a heat segment cutting off Rich! Great little twist, could have watched another 10 minutes of it. 

Paul Orndorff vs. Larry Zbyszko

MD: Larry's so great here. People complain about the stalling. People are, of course, fools. He doesn't do a lot of it here, but he does complain and grumble and get frustrated by everything. In college, my roommate, who did not like wrestling in the least, had to put up with us watching Nitro, and at one point Larry, on commentary, said "It hurts to live." and he loved that turn of phrase. Well, Larry sells life. He sells absolutely everything. And he's so damn active about it. If he takes a bump, he then flails his legs and slaps his arm against the mat and walks it off like he has ants in his pants. Early on he stumbles into so many different stooging scenarios. My favorite is him dropping down on his stomach, then on his back, which you never see, and then hitting a clunky front dropkick (Erik Watts level) as Orndorff catches himself on the rope, making Larry eat the bump. It's beautiful stuff.  

The transition has Larry sidestepping and Orndorff careening out. We don't see the bump into the guardrail but we hear it and it sounds nasty. Larry plays king of the mountain, of sorts, after that, heading out to the apron to lay shots in until Orndorff pulls the leg out. Larry gets up first and catches him on the way back in. He cuts him off one or two times like that but Orndorff is persistent and Larry is playing vulnerable. Orndorff has very stilted, staccato style attacks. Big sweeping stuff that doesn't really feel chained together. Drumbeat attacks so the last row can see (and hear). 

Larry, of course takes a beating. In the ring, out, onto the announce table, until he can shove Orndorff into the ref from the outside and then pin him with his foot stuck in the ropes.  That's a fake finish though as Tommy Rich comes out to tell the ref and they restart the match. Orndorff sells the leg from having had it caught in the ropes and Larry targets it, Orndorff fighting back on one leg really well. Larry keeps wanting the figure four but he wants it too badly and gets rolled up for his trouble. Fun match. Fascinating to watch both of these guys do their thing.

ER: I love these looks at Zbyszko, who looks and works almost like a normal size Buddy Rose in these environments. I love the way Larry moves, love how he feeds, love how he throws kicks and punches with similar to so many French Catch workers but perfectly distilled into a southern setting. Anytime the mics pick up Orndorff yelling about Zbyszko he sounds like Boomhauer because he hasn't yet had his New York Training. Zbyszko is so good at selling befuddlement while working out of holds. When he tries to push off and Orndorff holds onto a headlock, our Ordinary People couple in their same front row center seats actually have a rare small exchange, Jane Fonda pointing something out about the exchange while Donald Sutherland stares forward, emotionless. They are Georgia's two biggest wrestling fans and their demeanor never rises above that of a pair ordered to be there as part of some creative court mandated punishment. 

It's not always productive to view wrestling this way, but sometimes I watch a guy and think, "why doesn't anyone do this now?" I never actually know what those things might be, what things will get my attention. I don't always have a set criteria for Preferred Execution. It can be something simple or something complicated that someone makes look simple. Often it is concerning a common sequence done in a way that is so far removed from modern interpretations that it feels almost completely foreign. Here, it was the way Larry handled a dropdown/dropkick exchange, specifically the way he moved and got into position. He did two dropdowns then missed a dropkick, but it was this incredibly fast, incredibly tight work of clownery, and again I must compare Larry Zbyszko of all people to French Catch workers who he has surely never heard of in his life. His first dropdown was stomach down, but he took a back bump into his second one, and when he sprang up for the (missed) dropkick he did a flat back bump dropkick that made the whole sequence felt like it was evolving organically to the payoff of the specific way he fell.  

I loved the way he fought underneath, like trying to break a cravat with a hair pull that got him punished much worse, Orndorff dropping the hole and elbowing him in the nose before snapmaring him into a fistdrop. When it was Larry's time for control, he threw these great kicks while holding the ropes and keeping Orndorff in ring ropes purgatory, almost whipping his leg into Orndorff's body. Zbyszko does offense with his entire body, and that's the kind of thing I watch and think "athleticism". Using your whole body in the service of making all your actions more impactful. When I watch modern wrestling I predominately see athleticism used so frequently in the service of just getting into position for offense that all feels like wasted energy. No energy in this match felt wasted, even Larry reeling on his feet like a goofball for Orndorff's fire. 

Read more!

Found Footage Friday: OMNI 84~! SPOILER~! GARVIN~! JAKE~! ROAD WARRIORS~! ROOP~! ROGERS~!

GCW Omni 4/22/84

Tommy Rogers vs. Bob Roop

MD: We come in JIP here and you get the ambiance immediately as people in the crowd are shouting "hit him!" and "break his arm!" These two matched up very well for an opening match. They had a nice rope running exchange where Rogers ducked a clothesline and hit a cross body and some really good hammerlock switches. Rogers had an interesting sunset flip in this stretch too, one where he had to really struggle to get over and it's so different from anything you'd see today. He controlled on the arm for a bit but Roop took over just by grinding his heel into Rogers's face after standing up out of an armbar. So simple, so nasty, so effective. He really kept things moving on offense, switching between jumping knees and neckbreakers to just holding the ropes to step on Rogers' throat and and using an abdominal stretch. Rogers just punched his way back but it was with a perfect bit of 'fed up' head shaking and the punches looked good, especially after Roop sent himself sailing off the ropes right into one. Then they went into Roop bumping around for him until Rogers lifted up on a corner charge and got a roll up out of the corner. Different sort of opener than usual given the contrast. I enjoyed it.

ER: Based on the 10 minute call, this is only JIP by 30 seconds or so and it's great. Rogers is small but has real power, Roop leans into Rogers' offense and bumps with real respect, and punishes Rogers when the match calls for it. Roop is a dense, tough guy, and Rogers hits him and uses leverage in a way that makes his long control compelling. Roop is great at selling Rogers' focused arm work, at one point gripping the rope to slowly stretch out his arm, using the ropes to provide restraint while he rolled his shoulder. Roop is Shooter Ned Beatty, strong at injecting realism into matches where you might not be looking. When Rogers holds onto a bodyslam and turns it into a quick nearfall, it's the only time I've seen that spot look like a shoot. Bob Roop can be so realistic in everything he does, that every part of my brain believed he was trying to bodyslam Rogers. I wasn't expecting Rogers to snare him and drag him over when Roop tossed him away from his body. 

Roop moves to control by standing up in an armbar, one of my favorite spots. I love when a guy holds the bar, legs straight to his opponent's body. As he's standing, trying to break, Roop pulls himself up straight by the ropes, ref Nick Patrick focusing on Rogers' shoulders. When Patrick makes Roop break, he does so while stepping down onto Rogers' nose and mouth. Roop is great in control. He does no unique offense, but he does it using movement that nobody else uses. His elbowdrop lands heavy and his legdrop looks clean. His backbreaker has great bounce, truly backbreaking. He throws a straight right punch that might be the single best punch on the show. Several of his punches are in consideration. He bumps for Tommy Rogers' comeback like Tommy has the best punches on the show, arms slapping the mat in big rolling back bumps, going up for a back body drop, toppling over for a knee to the gut. There's a great misdirection before Rogers gets the win, as he wriggles out of a bodyslam and throws a dropkick upon landing, but Roop coolly takes on step back to avoid the dropkick. Roop doesn't capitalize, but the last minute doubt in Rogers win made his sunset flip after ring more true. Georgia was great at that kind of finish, setting up the win with a near loss like a marathon runner briefly stumbling down the final straightaway. Fantastic back and forth, a real tough opener. 

Tim Horner/Sweet Brown Sugar vs. Les Thornton/Rocky Jones

MD: I think Rocky Jones was Mike Masters. Again, it's weird to have a tag as the second match of the card on these Omni shows (from what we've seen at least). This was a fun one though. Jones and Thornton were in matching blue. There was a long shine where they got clowned a ton, first by Sugar on his own and then with phantom tags in headlocks. The heels did something similar with headscissors but it was a phantom heat too as the babyfaces took over soon enough. Horner got greedy and attacked Thornton on the apron and got swarmed for his trouble. Lots more switches behind the ref's back by the heels and the crowd hated each and every one of them, making that same audible buzz that you'd get for punches back then, just the negative version of it. Some good hope spots and Horner getting dragged back before he got a maybe-too-easy tag to Sugar and the babyfaces romped the heels on the way to a Sugar missile dropkick and Horner roll up and victory. 

ER: I'm not going to pretend I know who Rocky Jones or Mike Masters are, but now I have 15 minutes of this man who is shaped like an approximation of Buzz Sawyer and The Gambler. I don't think he has a whole lot to offer the babyfaces while being controlled, clunky about getting into headlocks, but when the match - too late - moves into Thornton and Jones controlling and isolating Tim Horner he suddenly comes into his own. The match comes into it's own once they go full heel control. While I wasn't engaging with Sugar and Horner's babyface headlock control, the Omni crowd was. 

I perked up when Horner tried to cheap shot Thornton on the apron, a confident move that backfires instantly as it grazes Thornton and Thornton sells it like a graze, returning fire and bashing Horner's face into the turnbuckle. Rocky throws an elbow to Horner's eye as he's tagging out. I loved the heel control, Rocky picking Horner's leg really close to a tag out, the physical weight of them dragging Horner back to their half of the ring, the energy Thornton puts into kneeing Horner in the back from the apron, heels trading headlocks behind the ref's back. Sweet Brown Sugar's hot tag has some hot punches, and his butt wiggling dropkick off the middle buckle was fantastic, whipping his legs out in front of him in flight to catch Rocky over halfway across the ring. When Horner tags in for the O'Connor Roll, he rushes into his so enthusiastically that he runs face first into Rocky Jones as he's shoving his body into the ropes, and I liked his dumb guy babyface dedication to not half-assing it. 

Jake Roberts vs. Brad Armstrong

MD: Definitely a tale of two or three matches. Jake is fascinating to watch for the first five or six minutes of this. Go back, if you've already watched, and watch again and just focus on his feet. Usually that's not the sort of thing we tell you to do around here (it's not that sort of blog) but he has these lanky legs and the long pants and just the way he moves around the ring, a stutter start or a bound towards the corner, is really interesting. There are inputs that I don't know enough about the actual mechanics to pick up or judge and on the top of that list is footwork, but I can tell you that his here is fascinating. 

Likewise, he's so good at playing around in the corner, drawing Brad in, complaining to the ref, taking up time, frustrating everyone, getting heat. For the first few minutes of this, I barely remembered he was wrestling someone or that Brad was in there. I was just watching Jake do his thing. 

And his thing for most of the match was to sell his stomach. Anytime there's motion, either him flailing about or Brad cutting him off with a shot to the guts, it's great. Even when Brad lifts him up for a bearhug, it's really good. The problem is that there's probably six or seven minutes of this match where Brad is just laying on the ground with Jake in a bearhug. The issue isn't that he's laying on the ground with Jake in a bearhug. It's that neither of two things are at play: 1) it's not the heel doing it to the babyface and 2) there's nothing that I know of on the line here. Jake's not the champion. So while the fans do care about the outcome; that's clear from the finishing stretch, there's no major stakes that would benefit from Jake being super vulnerable and on the verge of losing (not having ball control) for a brunt of the match. And since it's the babyface doing it to the heel, while the fans are fine seeing Jake writhe and hurt, they can't get behind Brad from underneath in the same way.

When Jake does take over he focuses on the gut too and it's good stuff, especially how he conducts Ellering to interfere or distract the ref. The finish is good too as Brad comes back with some shots to the gut and a great dropkick and Jake is able to just slink his leg over to the ropes to survive the Russian Leg Sweep. Brad gets revenge on Ellering for jumping in the ring to point that out but then eats the DDT. Fans are definitely into it. But that middle section was rough, not because it was a hold, but because it was the wrong person doing the wrong hold in the wrong match.

ER: I am not a Brad Armstrong fan. I acknowledge that he is a Good Hand but his Good Handedness gets in the way of him being a Better Worker. He limits himself in ways that undercut his talent, positioning himself in an underdog position that defined him in ways that could have been avoided. I can't get invested in his work, I rarely get invested in his matches. The right thing has to happen for me to engage with Brad. 

One of the things that makes me engage with a Brad Armstrong match, apparently, is a tremendous 20 minute selling performance from Jake Roberts. I'm not sure if it mattered much what Brad did here, because I could not stop watching every single shiver, shake, and cringe that Jake did. Master class. Did Brad Armstrong have good offense? Maybe? For a guy with a great body who was never taken seriously against heavyweights, I don't think his offense was as good as Tommy Rogers'. But Jake's selling sure made me buy into Brad's offense for a startlingly long match. Does Brad have a really good headbutt to the stomach? I'm not sure, but I sure bought into it seeing the way Jake covered up and flinched after taking it. Jake sells Brad's whips into the turnbuckles like he's feeling them in individual vertebrae. The way he falls to his butt multiple times after taking an unexpected shot was the kind of selling we praised Kawada for on message boards 25 years ago. Every little movement of his, every recoil, is worth a note.  

But what you want here is the way Jake sells Brad's bearhug. It's beautiful, even if it seems ridiculous that this tall drink of water who looks like a drunken little league coach would ever be found in a bearhug. You don't enter into a Jake/Brad match expecting it to be this long, and you definitely don't expect Brad to be wearing Jake down with a bearhug for any number of reasons, but it happens and I loved it. You get to see all the ways Jake tries to escape, all the bargains he makes with God and the Devil to be released. Trying to break with a handful of Brad's tight perm, his hands shaking as he's brought to his knees and Brad meets him there. When Brad tightens the bearhug, Jake actually leaps up into his arms the way Scooby would leap in Shaggy's arms after being scared by the ghost of an old prospector. Jake slowly falls to his back and Brad follows with the hug, Jake trying to fend it off by pressing his forearms into Brad's face bones. I found all of it captivating. 

When Jake is in control, he does some things totally unique to him, the way he drills offense to take small advantages. He hits a pair of sliding punches/shoulderblocks into Brad's kidneys that reminded me of the sadism you see in Abdullah The Butcher matches, a targeted missile that had fast closing speed and real impact, and something I've never seen before. I love Jake's messy fighting, how he kicks and shoves Brad to the floor when they're both on the mat. You don't see enough guys kicking at each other from prone positions, it's all getting into position now. Jake kicks at Brad from his back in smart and opportunistic ways, not caring if it looks messy and dirty. Boots hit just as hard from your back and side as they do standing. 

Jake Roberts made me buy into everything Brad Armstrong did, which is no small feat. It was a given that eventually Brad would focus his attention on the wrong man, and it's hard for people to mentally overcome that inevitability while watching his matches. Jake made me take interest, and when Brad actually hit the Russian legsweep it felt like others believed as well. It might sound easy to fill nearly 25 minutes with a Good Hand, but there's a difference between filling time and actually making it interesting. Jake did both. 

 
Ron Garvin vs. The Spoiler

MD: Really interesting set up here. Garvin's title is on the line for just the first ten minutes and Spoiler comes in with a plan. That's to work a headlock for the first half of it or so to really wear down Garvin. Then when there's just a few minutes, he really hones in on the throat. He has this amazing move he does where he puts the neck against the throat and kicks at the rope causing Garving to spiral back. But he also hits a neckbreaker and drives Garvin's head into the mat and climbs the top to drop neck first on the top rope as he drops to the floor himself. And then the last minute or two is all about Garvin just surviving. He does, but keep in mind he's basically not got a single piece of offense in the whole match.

But the match goes on with the title no longer on the line. And that's really interesting, because then what's it going to be? Usually, it's the babyface who is chasing and then he's going to get the win on the heel after the time limit. Now it becomes Garvin going for revenge for what's been done for him and trying to survive a pissed off Spoiler who knows he can't get the belt. The match switches between those two themes. Garvin starts by wielding a chair to get back into it. 

Once into it, he tries to get his punches in or to work on Spoiler's leg, but Spoiler is too big and strong. At the same time, Spoiler goes for the claw at times but can't get it on, in part because he has to defend against the punches. He is able to work the leg however. Things build past a few comebacks and momentum shifts to a great ref bump where Spoiler redirects Garvin into him. That allows him to start with the claw. Garvin fires back but Ellering gets a chair in on him. There's an awesome comeback where Garvin has to punch his way back into the ring and a great finish where Spoiler comes off the top but Garvin catches him with a punch. This was a little aimless after the ten minutes were over, but that almost worked in the match's advantage because it was about both wrestlers trying to score points and make something out of the violent opportunity given to them now that the title was no longer on the line.

ER: I love this shit. The crowd didn't seem to want a 37 minute match where Spoiler works holds while weathering punches from Hands of Stone but I sure do. Spoiler has such a unique way of using the ring and using his opponent, and I'm not actually sure the crowd enjoys watching him do anything. That doesn't matter to me, because I am so enthralled with his style. He's great at selling for Garvin, he's greater at beating Garvin's ass, stretching his leg, strengthening his neck with choking. When a match starts with a collar and elbow tie up this good, I guess I'm locked in for 35 minutes or so. I love a tough lock up, the legitimacy of it, the struggle. Spoiler shoving off the bottom buckle to get the small advantage. Spoiler's wide base on his side headlock to bring weight down on Garvin. Spoiler's perfect chinlock that looked like the most violent thing in the match, perfect camera angle on it like we were observing a cell phone recorded crime. I lost it when he rolled to his back to wrench it in tighter. 

Spoiler utilizes the ropes in ways that nobody else has, facilitating chokes that seem like something we should have seen in French Catch. The fans get so annoyed when Spoiler does rope chokes, and he has enough different variations that I'm not sure I can ever tire of them. When he's lying on his back, bending Garvin's neck back over the bottom rope, pulling down and back on Garvin's chin, that's wrestling. Nobody else does wrestling that looks like Spoiler's and that always makes me gravitate towards wrestlers. It's more common that when they do something different, they do it well. Not as many are just allowed to keep doing things wrong if they aren't any good. Spoiler finds endless ways to be annoying, tough ways to work holds. When Garvin misses a kneedrop off the middle - a great magic trick, great form on the miss - he takes over with holds targeting Garvin's leg. 

There's an honest to god reaction from Depressed Ordinary People Donald Sutherland, a man who I can't make sense of. He and his wife are front row center at every Omni show, and neither has shown any kind of interest in professional wrestling. I don't know why they're there. The most logical assumption is that their teen son drown to death practicing for a swim meet and they've been left in his wake to attempt to maintain their routines and move forward while being stuck in a specific year. Like the territories in 1984, I guess. Maybe his wife loves pro wrestling and drags him there every single week and forces him to sit through tough matwork that is the least interesting thing in his world. He doesn't react to any wins or losses or dangerous spots or adept exchanges, but he laughs with the two hesher teens sitting next to him as Buns of Stone Ronnie Garvin has those tight cheeks aimed directly at them. Spoiler has a knuckle lock held from his back, thrusting his crotch upward, to meet Garvin's Stone Buns, the arc of his thrust aimed directly at Depressed Atlanta Donald Sutherland and two teens that aren't made like that anymore. He laughs and shows emotion for the first time I've seen on any Omni show, a man who hates wrestling to his core and just misses his dead son, but can still laugh at wrestling when it looks gay. 

Road Warriors vs. Masked Superstar/King Kong Bundy

MD: I really enjoy 84 Road Warriors. They were raw but had such energy and didn't calcify into what they would someday be. They could have been anything. Hawk just flew around, both on offense and bumping for people. He came off the top at Bundy with an atomic elbow smash and then went for another and took the punch to the gut flip bump. A lot of this was just wondering how they'd be able to contain Bundy which is a great feeling for a Roadies match. Eventually they did it with a missed elbow drop, working the arm (including Hawk going up to the top to do it) and double teaming. Superstar was wonderful here. I haven't seen him as a face with the gimmick much but it had all of 89 babyface Ax fighting the Twin Towers which is a personal favorite. And of course the fans OOOHed for every babyface punch, a magical time. Bundy came back (with Superstar's help; all it took was a little) and hit that interesting inside elbow drop to win it which led to...

King Kong Bundy vs. Paul Ellering (3-minutes)

MD: I like how Ellering almost worked this like a cage match, desperate to escape the ring. Bundy had a lot of fun with him, tossing him about. He hit one kneedrop in the middle which was the most crushing thing I've ever seen. Looked amazing but I get why a big guy wouldn't do it often. He squashed him with a power slam and then lifted him up before finally finishing him and demanding the 5 count as time was ticking down. They really gave the fans their money's worth on this stip.

Read more!

A Week of Death Valley Days: Isaiah Broner

 Broner is a spiritually WAR wrestler, simple wrestling done with more paprika on every shot, we love a wince inducing forearm or clothesline and Brone induces the most winces of anyone in the world.

Isiaiah Broner vs. Manders GCW 10/24/25

PAS: A lights out match with a pair of KO artists swinging for the fences. Both guys go right up to the edge multiple times in this match. Spamming forearm exchanges has becoming one of the most tired tropes in current wrestling, I appreciate that Broner throws his like Tyson left hooks. Manders is a DEAN~! veteran and someone we will surely use again, and he is the perfect opponent to stand in the pocket and trade with Broner. I didn't think we needed the door spot, especially because in GCW there are doors almost every match, but that is a minor quibble for an otherwise delicious pot roast kind of match.  

MD: I loved how they set the tone from this right from the start. Broner hit Manders. That's fine. People hit Manders all the time. He takes hits. He hits back. He's Manders, right? Not here. Manders dropped in the corner on that first shot. Those chops? They caused him to writhe, to backpedal. Pro wrestling is a world of established meaning and it's been established plenty that Manders is the toughest of the tough. Broner is a tank, sure. Everything he does looks like it hits like one, absolutely. But to see Manders so affected so early into the match? That says something. 

Agreed that the door was maybe a bit much, but if they were going to use weapons in a place where weapons are so commonplace, most of the rest of the weapons shots are the things that'll stay with you, even the stuff with the pumpkin which has to be a fairly high level of difficulty. Broner hurt his arm early on the post, but what won the day for Manders was sacrificing his own arm to punch and lariat through a chair. They set up the stakes, they established the norms, and yeah, it was as believable as could be that 1) it was going to take that much to put Broner down and 2) Manders was one of one of the only people in the entire world that could do it.

Read more!

Vulnerability, Dissonance, Commitment. KJ Orso vs. Effy

KJ Orso vs. Effy GCW Code of the Streets 1/17/26 

Vulnerability is everything. 

Now you might say that vulnerability is everything for a babyface, but no, it's everything for a heel as well. The key to heat is dissonance, that gap between expectation and reality. Big John Studd might have been over because he was a menacing giant, but he was super over because he was a menacing giant who played the coward and refused to engage at the start of matches. 

That brings us to KJ Orso. As Fuego del Sol, he was bombastic, dynamic, a high-flyer. He was larger than life energy in a compact package that lit up the sky, always more over than his push. He could bound, flip, and twist with the best of his peers. He still can. The fans know it. They know it to look at him. They know it by how he moves. 

When he decided it wasn't working, that the fans weren't getting him where he needed to be, that he was ready to trade away easy certitude of the mask and gimmick to bet on himself, he changed his entire style of wrestling. He gives them nothing now, nothing to cling on to, nothing to embrace. He's dug deep into footage to reclaim old moves (like Jo Labat's shrugging shoulder attack from 1957) and spots. For a normal heel, just giving them nothing might be enough, but the GCW crowd knows him, knows who he was, and for them to watch him wrestling this way is like sticking a finger in the wound because they know he's still capable of it.

Every now and again you see a glimpse of it, a big bump, a key top rope move at a key moment, something strategic, opportunistic, there not to pop the crowd but to take advantage of a moment. It serves as dissonance in its own right, shows him to be a hypocrite, committed to who he's become right until it's convenient not to be. For the most part though, you wouldn't recognize him. 

This is a crowd used to seeing everything: chaos, mayhem, every excess known to man, and they're just happy to be there, happy to see it all and soak it in, but they're not happen to see Orso. He betrayed his friends, betrayed the crowd, betrayed the very aesthetic idea of modern spot-heavy wrestling. And they know, deep down, it wasn't due to strength but due to weakness. That means that when he succeeds, when he takes over in a match, and heaven forbid, when he wins, that makes it all the worse. 

And the key to the act? The confidence to be vulnerable. 

Watch him here. He comes out to the ring sneering and scowling at the camera, jawing with fans young and old, and he trips on the way to the ring. When's the last time you saw someone trip on the way to the ring? When's the last time you saw a heel do it? He trips and he sells it. He snatches a hat off someone's head, uses it to clean off the floor (because it had to be the floor's fault, not his, always someone to blame), and then punts it into the crowd.

He makes it into the ring and ring announcer Emil Jay, unable to hide his disgust, calls him KJ Asshole. He sells it by whipping about in fury, but then recoils back the other way as the fans start chanting asshole in turn; it's as if he took a one-two punch, and everyone there knows that they got under his skin, that if they stay invested, if they chant and boo, they can affect reality around them, they can make a difference. He makes the crowd feel like they matter, gives them a reason to care, to be invested, to not just cheer and chant 50-50 to not just be happy to be there and see spectacle before their eyes. All it takes is a little confidence and a lot of vulnerability. All it takes is to allow himself to be affected and to look the fool.

Effy gets in on the act too, mocking the trip. I've seen a decent amount of Orso this last year. I haven't seen a ton of Effy lately, so we'll lean just a little into this data point. Dissonance doesn't just create heat but it opens the door for all emotion. From the way he basks in the ring as Goodbye Yellow Brick Road plays in the background to how he's constantly adjusting his gear for the moment, to his mind games and his connection to the crowd, he presents himself with a lot of confidence and just enough vulnerability. If Orso's vulnerability is internal, here Effy's is external, based upon what happens to him in the match, real and meaningful acts of violence instead of imaginary slights in his head. He recently lost the GCW Title and it's clear that affects him, but he doesn't wrestle like a man who is lost and grasping for significance and meaning at every turn in the way that Orso does. He gives the fans just enough human vulnerability to connect to while giving them tangible results, substance to latch on to. It makes his accomplishments seem more admirable just as Orso's come off as endlessly frustrating and aggravating.

Effy certainly has a lot to work with. Orso, stinging from the trip, from the Asshole chants, from the disrespect, from not getting everything he's convinced himself he deserves, is a prime target for Effy's humiliating offense of butt attacks and gyrations. It does more than just getting under Orso's skin. It wounds his pride and his pride is everything. It's too tempting for Effy and he leans into it harder than he does his chops and other more conventional offense and that allows Orso to take over. Of course, as noted, Orso has his own failings, and he ends up too busy clapping the fans up so he can mock them and potentially deny them a dive, and he gets caught as well. Character drives everything here and that gives the fans so much to work with as well.

That plays out as the match goes on. Orso opens up on Effy's leg, but he can't help but steal the headband and taunt. Effy comes back but he goes for one too many vertical splashes and gets caught. The difference is that Orso is blindly lashing out at the world and Effy is trying to hit KJ where it hurts the most, the difference between a heel and a babyface, even if it leads to similar transitions nonetheless. 

Over time, those disparate wants start to lean in Orso's favor. He goes back to the leg time and again, chipping away it. It leaves Effy a half step slow. Even down the stretch, Orso, all too human and driven by the chip on his shoulder, would lose focus and Effy, embracing and leaning with his humanity, would capitalize, but in the end the leg gave way at a key moment and Orso was able to steal one out.

On some level, the fans knew what they saw was entertaining. They understood the skill involved. But due to the commitment, due to Orso giving them nothing and Effy giving them quite a bit, they were left legitimately frustrated and aggravated by the result of a match. In 2026. Emil Jay made the announcement, using Orso's name as written. He had no choice, Orso had won. He, just like the fans, was held hostage by the result. Orso had sold so much up front, shown so much vulnerability, and now he had snatched away the fans' joy and was gloating about it. Next time they'll hate him all the more and the circle will continue. In 2026, the beautiful art of pro wrestling can still work, can still move people, can still delight and infuriate. All it takes is a little vulnerability and total, absolute commitment.

Read more!

Found Footage Friday: OMNI 83~!

GCW Omni 8/28/83

ER: I'm so glad they included the opening promo package for this show, it's so good. Tommy Rich called Bill Irwin "Jack" (the greatest promo guys in history knew to call their opponents Jack), Mad Dog Sawyer has the greatest pro wrestling body imaginable, and the Brisco Brothers cut an honest to god excellent promo on the Roadies. Gerry is a bit rigid but he keeps calling their match a Texas Tarnado Match and talks about how they wrestle tarnadoes in the Great State of Oklahoma every day, but Jack is the real killer. I am not a big Jack Brisco guy. He is one of the All Time Greats whose work doesn't really thrill me. But he sounds so damn cool in this promo. He is calm, and delivers it with a smirk like he really doesn't give a good goddamn about the Road Warriors. There is no fear at all. He even makes fun of their big arms, and asks what they're going to do with those big arms when the Briscoes bend them behind their backs and they start gasping for breath, and then Gerry starts doing this incredible tongue out gagging. These Oklahoma men in their tan suits just out here mocking the fucking Road Warriors. Incredible. That sold me on their match so hard, I can't wait. 

Mr. Wrestling (Jesse Barr) vs. Joe Lightfoot

MD: Good mat-based opener to get over the idea that the fake Mr. Wrestling is capable enough. Lightfoot is basically the definition of a good undercard hand. I may or may not have mentioned it last time, but he was useful in Portland as a guy to build up Jay Youngblood coming in by giving the heels someone to beat first. They worked in and out of holds with some solid rope running. Barr did one of my favorite bits of mat wrestling where he has a toehold on and has to rotate around while keeping the toes in order to avoid his opponent from grasping his head. It's the slickest thing imaginable. Great finish here as he jammed a second headscissors takeover by turning it into a hotshot on the second rope, setting Lightfoot up for the running knee and then a back bridging pin for good measure.

ER: I dug this a lot. Barr does a lot of little things that I really like. I liked how he lay in wait to break Lightfoot's full nelson, holding his hands behind his head over Lightfoot's, motionless, before striking down in one quick motion. His drop toehold to set up his Indian deathlock was so tight. His fistdrop? A great, workmanlike Dibiase style fistdrop. He fell into the ropes selling for Lightfoot's comeback in a way that made it feel like he could accidentally slip through them. The finish is great, with Lightfoot going for a flying headscissors and Barr falling back with a hotshot that drops Lightfoot on the top rope to the middle. He sets up his Mr. Wrestling kneelift like an asshole, calling for it in the corner like an actually cool version of Edge. But the real asshole move was his jackknife neck bridge pin. I would have wanted to murder the guy if I were one of the front row men with their arms crossed. 

Brett Sawyer vs. Bob Roop

MD: This is an aside but I listened to an episode of Roop's podcast (#12 about his first tour of Japan) the other day and it was quite good. I'd suggest it. The more we see of Wayne, the better he comes off. Amazing connection with the crowd. Great seller. Throws everything into both his bumping and his shots, especially his comeback shots. Roop did a great job throwing himself into things too, especially his knee strikes. He used one to knock Wayne out of the ring early and Wayne came back a bloody mess. Blood on the second match on the card is a choice but it worked out here. Some great moments of comeback and cutoff, including a picture perfect posting reversal by Roop. Except for that wasn't a cutoff at all. As Roop tried to get back into the ring, a staggered Wayne managed to roll him up making it for two great, novel finishes in a row. Very good stuff for what it was.

ER: I really love Brett Sawyer now. I used to have not much of an opinion on him. All of these 1983 Omni shows have been so much fun, and everyone on them has had their stock raised by the new footage. Brett Wayne might just be the guy who has been raised the most, for me. Now, a lot of other guys had such high ceilings that they had less room to move up, but that doesn't matter. The Other Sawyer is great. This match was awesome. Bob Roop is one of the toughest men in wrestling history and looks like Ned Beatty. Sawyer looks like the ugly bassist in an 80s hair metal band, but he's just such a fucking great babyface. He has skills completely different from his brother. He was Mad Dog's younger brother, but by a lot less time than you'd think. They were a year apart but Brett Wayne was in permanent Kid Brother mode. Brett Wayne Sawyer was a GREAT Kid Brother wrestler. 

The Omni crowd sat with their arms crossed during a good opener, but Brett Wayne is the one who gets the old ladies waving their arms and pumping their fists for his comeback. This whole match is built around a big posting, where Roop runs Brett down the apron. Sawyer is great at dramatic falls, and I love how he absorbs the posting, how he falls off the apron, the time he took to get back in the ring. Sawyer is a great bleeder too, and as Roop hits a snaring clothesline you can see he has good color from the posting. Sawyer's selling is so good as he's fighting back, and it all builds to this incredible moment that mirrors his earlier posting. Sawyer now has Roop on the apron, now it's his turn for revenge, the fans all want it, the old ladies are screaming for Brett...and instead it turns out to be an incredibly done reversal. Sawyer runs Roop down the length of the apron and at the last second Roop smashes Sawyer's face into the turnbuckle, a shot maybe ever tougher than his posting earlier. I thought that would have played as a great, if demoralizing, finish, buy my boy Brett surprises me again when he gets a tight roll up immediately after, as Roop is getting back in the ring. I bit at all the exact things they wanted that Omni crowd to bite at, their storytelling and Sawyer's babyface fire hooking me just as it hooked ATL over 40 years ago.

Paul Ellering vs. Bruno Sammartino Jr.

MD: Seeing David with the Bruno Jr. name really hammers home how doomed the guy was. He was stocky and there's a world where he could have had a totally different name and been in Florida or Memphis teaming with Jim Neidhart and they could have been a hugely successful heel team, I think.  What we had instead was Ellering really guiding him through one. Paul would eat the mat and end up in cross toeholds again and again, then complain to the ref when he got out. He finally took over working the eyes and he had a great way of selling his fists after the punch or continuing to sell the leg that had him coming off like a vulnerable manager instead of a former muscleman wrestler. The fans were behind David when he came back. Weird spot down the stretch as he got pressed off the top (like Flair or someone would) by Ellering, but he came back again after that and hit a suplex and a belabored press slam before Ellering took a powder for the count out. Pretty transparent overall but still better than you'd expect and a testament to Ellering.

ER: That David Sammartino has BS all over his boots, poor kid really stepped in it. As Matt said, what chance did this kid have? He had his dad's build and none of his timing or charisma. There was a moment where he swept Ellering's legs late in the match and Ellering was just lying on his back, directing Sammartino to start punching him, and it took him forever to pull the trigger on them. Ellering did what he could, but you but my boy Brett Wayne in the same match and he'd have Ellering scrambling and begging off all around the ring. I did like Sammartino standing on Ellering's neck while holding his legs in a deathlock, but much of this was Ellering just making do. When Paul finally took over with a punch to a grounded Sammartino, shaking out his fist, I said aloud "finally" at my desk at work. Ellering had several nice punches and was good at working to get heat, since Sammartino was incapable of connecting with these people. Sammartino's big press slam was a good thing to end on. It looked good and I like how he really threw Ellering, but Ellering was great at deciding to take the count out loss, almost swinging at a cop on his way out. 

Texas Tornado Match: Road Warriors vs. Brisco Brothers

MD: This was already out there so I'll just hit it quickly. Gerry saying "Texas Tarnado" never gets old. What was most striking here was how this was so unproduced and raw. There weren't the sort of momentum shifts that you'd expect. It had all four men in the ring at the same time but very often one Brisco was in charge of a Roadie and a Roadie was in charge of the other Brisco. There were a few moments of double teaming if they got a Brisco out and a few moments of clear comeback, but in general, it was just barely controlled chaos. That's extremely refreshing even if it meant any possible narrative had to be entirely implicit. The finish was fun too since it had the Briscos resorting to using chairs (within the rules) and making it so the Road Warriors were too wary to come back into the ring. They got swung at every time they tried and that forced them to get counted out. It's a match that simply couldn't exist today.

ER: I thought this was mostly pretty bad. The Briscoes wrestled nothing like they said they would wrestle and the Tarnado stipulation played to nobody's strengths. Much of the fighting looked soft and slowed down. Many of the strikes looked so bad I had to check that I hadn't actually been watching the other matches in 1.5x speed and then got brought back to real life. Nope, it was just them moving slowly and throwing bad strikes. Animals kept doing this little hopping stomps, everyone moved like they didn't want to accidentally bump into anyone else, Gerry did a run of four push off double boots out of the corner and not only did it look like the Roadies didn't want to run into them, but Gerry threw them like he didn't want them to make contact. Jack did a couple things I liked, getting out of a bearhug with a big telegraphed eye poke, and I liked the visual of both Briscoes kicking their own Road Warrior in the knee around the ring at the same time, but then that chairs finish quickly brought this back to bad. The wrestling grapplers who were going to immobilize the muscle bound freaks on the mat, instead resorting to getting weapons (the Road Warriors did not do a single untoward action toward them!) and throwing the worst chair shots you've ever seen. Gerry's were especially terrible. The second match on this card had blood, motherfucker, throw a glancing blow off one of their heads or something, anything. No good. 

Mr. Wrestling II vs. Larry Zbyszko

MD: Totally down my alley. Mr. Wrestling II was an absolute folk hero here and Zbyszko was just the perfect heel. II started by dropping the belt between them like a line in the sand. Then, of course, Larry stalled. Until II gave chase and finally caught him as he thought he was free and clear to slide into the ring. A massive beating ensued until Larry stalled more into the corner. Then as he finally let the ref allow II to get close, he hit a kick, pulled the turnbuckle back and smashed II's head into it. That allowed him to control for a while, including a very interesting chinlock where he put it over by leaning to the side. Such a little thing but it was visually effective. II made it up and Larry went for the exposed corner again but II turned it around on him, leading to another beating and the eventual finish, which had Larry hold the rope on a roll up after he couldn't get a pile driver to work. Post-match II hit a kneelift and Larry tossed the belt straight up in one of the best visuals I've seen in a very long time. This was exactly what it should have been.

ER: Now we're talking, now we're back to the good stuff. The Omni Zbyszko has been so good, and this continues that trend. But this is also a tremendous Wrestling II performance, just fire the whole way through. The crowd starts swelling when Larry begins removing the turnbuckle pad, knowing what's coming, and once he smashes II into the buckle the real great shit begins. I love how these two fall for each other. Look how II smashes into that buckle and falls slowly down the ropes to the mat, and look how explosively Larry falls when the tables get turned. The second time Larry got smashed into the exposed buckle he sold it so well that I was sure he broke his nose, lying there on the mat covering his face, I fully expected a bloody nose and mouth when the hands came away. Wresting II was pushing 50 and his work was excellent. He beat Zbyszko's ass around the ring (paying him back for those great punches Larry threw right across his jaw) and scraped his boot all over Larry's face. Zbyszko took at least three back body drops from the guy, fast ones. Wrestling II has the best kneelift in wrestling: short, quick, sharp, damaging. I loved him dropping standing into Zbyszko's head and neck, doing a quick fist shake out to straight his arm after one to the dome. Zbyszko's finish was real scummy, great hold of the ropes after a cool piledriver reversal from II, and the post match fire was excellent. Wrestling II nailing him with another all time great kneelift causing Larry to toss the belt up into the air as he bumped. 

Tommy Rich vs. Bill Irwin (Loser Receives Lashes)

MD: When this show came out, I think people undersold just how great this one-two punch was, as one match led into the next and heated it up to a massive degree. Pez had the crowd anyway and the Kabuki/Hart act was super over; plus you had Ole to cheerlead, but it was all incredibly cleverly done. 

Rich and Irwin really did have great chemistry. There was a way that the two were visually balanced, something about how they both moved, emoting for the back row, big arm movements, a sort of lankiness where the sum of the two was more than the individual parts. And they had a certain explosiveness to how they hit the ropes, and whipped each other. They'd bring it up and down here, going right back to that explosiveness. Tommy got color early, because of course he did. He'd have a great hope spot where he reversed a smash in the corner and fired away for a bit until he got cutoff back in the corner again. The finish had him hitting the damndest small package out of nowhere, with the legs hooked just right. The fans went nuts and then doubly so as he handcuffed Irwin in the corner and started whipping. They had to deliver on the gimmick at least a little so he got a few shots in before Hart and Kabuki ran down to break it up. Then they got some shots in on a prone Rich before the place really exploded as Pez and Ole charged in to stop it. 

ER: Yeah this is another reason why we're here, this is what we want. Two wild men, Wildfire and Just Wild, one of the best bleeders of all time against a guy who will throw a couple dozen pump kicks into a bleeding man's face. Everyone in Georgia was so complementary to each other's style, everyone synced up so well, everyone was great at feeding for everyone else. This footage really is magic. Even before the blood, I could have watched a match built around these two hitting the ropes and Irwin doing drop downs. Irwin stayed on Rich and Rich was great at getting kicked around. It's a simple formula that they kept going to most of the match and I never tired of it, because Rich kept finding great ways to put over the kicks to his bleeding head. My favorite moment was Irwin busting Rich open because before you see that Rich is busted open, you see Irwin looking at his fist after punching Rich, and then shake his fist off. He clearly does not shake his fist because of the impact of his punch, he is shaking it to get the blood off. It's so good. The small package finish works really well, love how Rich grapevined those legs and how Irwin was wiggling to kick out. All of the pins in this were great, now that I think about it. Irwin had a great one where he posted up on Rich's laid out arm, body weight on one arm and his arm pressed down onto Rich's flattened arm, and I have no idea how Rich kicked out. Irwin missed a charge into the buckles really violently, perfect way to set up Rich cuffing him around the ropes. There were only a few whippings before Hart and Kabuki got in there to break it up but they all looked nastier than I expected, Rich really airing out that whip. 

Pez Whatley vs. Great Kabuki

MD: That led right into the Pez vs. Kabuki match, with the crowd on edge from the start. Pez dismantled Kabuki from the get go with each shot drawing that Ooooof noise that is so welcome in these early 80s matches. He got too close to the ropes as he was goozling Kabuki though and Hart got him in the eye. Hart was entertaining throughout since he was constantly trying to evade Ole. They brought it up and down with nerveholds but the fans got up for Pez's comebacks each and every time. Then they built to bigger spots with Kabuki coming off the top until Pez caught him and tossed him off. Finish had Hart grab the leg on a suplex attempt from the outside in but Pez actually kick out (the babyface never kicks out that scenario) and then Ole trip Kabuki off the ropes so Pez could hit the jumping headbutt for the win. Place went nuts, Ole celebrated with Pez. Post-match they had Kabuki ALMOST go after Hart until he got him under control; just beautiful pro wrestling all around.

ER: How good are these OOOF shots!? They added to every match they gave the OOFs and in such an ahead of its time wrestling crowd way. What's the fan crossover of fans who were doing the Omni OOFs and Knife Edge WOOs? Every shot in this match and the other Good Ones had it's own punctuation and since everyone in the territory was capable of throwing a great punch the matches feel like constant exclamation points. That's another reason the Road Warriors/Briscoes match was so bad, it was just a sloppy tornado with punches and soft kicks and a weird legdrop and nobody could find the rhythm. Nobody was timing their strikes for impact they were just in each other's way. No OOFs. 

If Brett Sawyer is a guy I didn't have an opinion on before the Omni stuff started showing up a few years ago, then Kabuki is a guy I didn't have an opinion on before the DVDVR Texas and All Japan 80s sets. The Chris Adams series was the peak but Kabuki revealed himself to have a real consistent TV match quality and a style I really like. Maybe our greatest Mysterious Asian Striker gimmick worker. He felt violent like Abby but with no weapons, just the savate kicks and throat thrusts and aura. Pez Whatley has been a real treat on these Omni shows too - they're a gift that has raised many boats - and his big headbutts and the way people were living with his selling were so good. The way Kabuki bumped for Whatley's first headbutt, flying back into a leaping bump for the first time all match......then the way Gary Hart bumps for Whatley's headbutt!!Hart takes it on the apron and leaps up high enough that I gasped, thinking he was crashing off the apron to the floor, but instead he gets tangled in the ropes in seven different ways before getting to the apron. It's the best Tangled in the Ropes bumping ever done among heel managers with the latest name Hart. Kabuki leapt high in the air to absorb Whatley's flying headbutt and it was the right amount of cartoon impact the crowd needed for one gigantic OOF. 

Dick Slater vs. Buzz Sawyer

MD:  The first thirty seconds of this went exactly how I was expecting. The two meet up on the floor and you get every impression that this was going to be a wild draw. But then it went in a completely different direction and stands as an incredibly complete match, just a real heated, grudge-filled but grounded main event (with some big high points) and it's almost surprising there wasn't a title match involved given how they worked it.

Slater controlled the arm early. They'd go out of it and right back into it. Sawyer would pull the hair or get a cheapshot in but they'd run two or three bits and then Slater would drag him back down. Varied stuff, hammerlock and wristlock variations, with the best of it being Slater throwing in a bunch of headbutts while he had the arm. The transition here had Ellering get involved, whacking Slater as his head was between the ropes and Buzz had the ref distraction.

First heat was chinlock heavy but they worked it well and the fans went up for every hope spot with the cutoffs being sufficiently weighty, including the last one where Sawyer tossed Slater to the floor. He started to hulk up out there and came back with big punches. This could have well built to a finish but instead the ref went down, Ellering handed Buzz some knucks, and they went around for a second bit of heat, Slater now bleeding. He survived the power slam, though, started firing back again, beating Slater around ringside. When things got desperate and Buzz went back to the knucks, Slater got them and KOed him right in front of the ref for the DQ. 

Just super complete. That's the best word for it. This is one of those matches that closed every parenthesis and was full of compelling stuff in the middle. Second time I went through this (even not remembering the details), I could feel every banana peel slip or cut off by Buzz coming but it all felt just right, perfectly placed, perfectly timed. You could program a match like this but of course it's Buzz and Slater's mannerisms and wild abandon that turned it from theory to gripping practice.

ER: 20 minutes of new Buzz Sawyer means 20 more minutes cementing him as one of my favorites. Can you imagine seeing a guy looking like and shaped like Buzz Sawyer walking into an Olive Garden in a mint green polo? A guy with that hairline who is jacked in that specific way looks like Instant Trouble. I don't know that there are five looks in wrestling history that I love more than Buzz Sawyer's. The fact he's not just a Perfect Look but he knows how to use it is lighting in a bottle. The way he uses his look, the way he bends his back taking payoff punches, the way he false starts and stomps before locking up, the way he walks around in a circle before bringing it back around to taking a shot. He's the beefiest Chris Candido possible and Dick Slater is like a strong silent Roddy Piper. People respond to both. 

They can work slow and they can work big and they have no problem filling 20. They could have filled 30. There were three different points where it felt like they were peaking things to the finish and they all worked, and the small stuff in between was no less interesting. The highest peak - and what certainly felt like the push to the finish - was Slater finally zombie staggering furiously after Ellering at ringside, throwing chairs and kicking tables in a rage while Ellering runs away in his silk robe like Don Knotts. Mad Dog grabs Dick from the ring and gets his lights punched out. You'll see two different great powerslams, Slater throwing a series of 8 consecutive headbutts short arm headbutts after also being the one to hit a charging JYD headbutt earlier, two hidden weapon punches that look like the finish, a great ref performance from Nick Patrick - a guy who needs to get more praise for everything he does - and a post match sour grapes stuff piledriver that could have started a riot. Pro wrestling. 

Read more!

Found Footage Friday: OMNI 8/14/83~! PIPER~! BUZZ~! ZBYSZKO~! GARVIN~! SHEIK~! TOMMY~! IRWIN~! ROAD WARRIORS~!

GCW Omni 8/14/83

Arn Anderson vs. Joe Lightfoot

MD: Interesting to place this one. This was Arn's second to last match in the territory. Borne had flaked out before this leaving Arn on his own and aimless. He drifted over to the babyface side and was mainly used for putting over the Road Warriors in various ways before heading to Alabama as Super Olympia. So this was more or less a babyface match. Arn was the aggressor maybe and ate a whole bunch of chops leading up to the finish but this was really just on the mat for the most part. Anyway, Lightfoot was a solid hand, a guy I know mostly for being Youngblood's little buddy to set up a program in Portland. This was five minutes in and out, and certainly didn't wear out its welcome before the double pin finish and Arn getting his shoulder up. Post match he shook Lightfoot's hand and past one Tony Zane match a couple of weeks later, that was it for Arn in Georgia.

ER: This got really entertaining when they transitioned out of the ground work and Arn was staggering into Lightfoot's chops, and that was the last 10 seconds of the match. Arn was 23!!

Fake Mr. Wrestling I (Jesse Barr) vs. Rick Rood

MD: Yes, this was Barr. I'm not sure if he was trying to work like Woods or not. I do know that he'd feud with Mr. Wrestling II after this and Wrestling II would take his mask in October. This went ten minutes as a draw which may have been surprising but Wrestling was supposed to be a bit of a fraud and he got his heat back after the match by attacking Rood. He had pretty solid armwork throughout with some big comebacks and revenge armwork by Rood. Rood had good fire and it was funny to see him do things like a headstand to get out of a headscissors which was very not Rood. Ten minute draws are far more palatable than 20 minute ones and this made me wonder what a babyface Rood might have looked like later in the decade.

ER: This was among the earliest Rick Rude matches I've seen, and it's very early. This is like 30 matches into a 1,500 match career early. It's impressive how far along he was this early while also wrestling like a completely different guy. This early on he still had elements of who he would be a thousand matches from now, in how he moved and how he sold while feeding. He already had an honest use of physics in his basics like dropdowns and shoulderblocks. He was already delivering his offense in a way where you could tell he knew what the goal of his match was. He also of course did a few funny things I have never associated with Rude, like a headstand escape out of Mr. Wrestling's great headscissors. I didn't actually know it was Jesse Barr until after I watched this. I was real confused when he beat Rude's ass after the loss after working an entire 10 minute draw without ever trying to beat Rude's ass. The crowd was really pissed off and I thought there was this great 50 year old Tim Woods heel run. 

Brett Sawyer vs. The Iron Sheik

MD: Brett was really good. Obviously there was a ceiling to him as a drawing card (Flair match from Portland and teaming with his brother vs. the Road Warriors aside) but he was just a great mid-card presence, very down home and folksy in a way that would never make it to TV today, not without being more stylized like a Mark Briscoe. But he just came off as a guy down the street with a lot of fire in his heart. 

The first third of this (after getting under Sheik's skin with the patriotic chants) was all headlocks and rope running and Sheik really was pretty lithe stooging his way into these and keeping up off the ropes. Brett eventually got caught and then Sheik jammed his face into his boot (with his boot on the top rope, which was a nice bit that he may not have been flexible enough to pull off in later years). That started the blood and with it came the woundwork and it was pretty glorious. A bloody Brett would wave his fists and try to power up and fight from underneath and the crowd ate it up. Sheik cut him off and did more damage right until the banana peel finish where Brett fell on Sheik on a suplex attempt and the place became unglued. Post match Ellering and Sheik pounded on Brett until Rich and Buzz (certainly not aligned) ran out for the save. Pretty electric stuff. This was third match on the card and it inspired so much emotion. Beautiful pro wrestling.

ER: There were at least five other matches on this show I was more excited to see. I don't know if I even registered this match when my eyes skipped past the bottom of the card to where the Valentine, Tommy Rich, Buzz Sawyer, and Road Warriors matches. I'm so glad I didn't just skip to those other matches as this match is a condensed gem. The fans really like Sawyer, hate the Sheik, and you get to see a vicious quick Sheik that would be a completely different wrestler in less than two years. Sheik is one of our great weird body wrestlers, and it's not a coincidence that so many of our great weird body guys were high level amateur wrestlers. Gary Albright's small arms and hunched shoulders and powerful belly, Tamon Honda's full long upper torso with his short sturdy legs glued to the canvas, and Iron Sheik's shredded distended belly with small arms and close shoulders, all weird amateur grappler bodies and all great. Sheik moved so weird and here he moves really well...while still moving the weird way Sheik moves. He has the same stiff old man posture as he did when he was ruining indy cards in the late 90s, but he has this cool unexpected quickness. When Sheik did a hindu squat splits dropdown into a leapfrog to set up a fast Sawyer sunset flip, I yelled aloud. 

Putting your boot up on the top turnbuckle and slamming someone's face into your boot is a real Lost Great Spot. Think of the last time you saw it. I saw Barry Horowitz do it 20 years ago and maybe it was something FTR pulled when they were The Revival. Tag partners should also yell at their partner on the apron to give them a boot more often. The boot eyelet raking made a comeback at some point, somebody needs to bring back the boot smash. Sawyer gets busted open from biting and Sheik pushes it well past biting when he throws a gorgeous belly to belly that started with him picking up a bearhug. His missed cannonball that gave Sawyer some fight was so unexpected. It's so weird watching Iron Sheik do a huge front flip. I love how it didn't lead to Sawyer's actual comeback, it just gave him a little time to fight to his knees and get the crowd believing. The finish coming right after as its own surprise was a great way to triple that reaction just as it was dimming. 

The post match was great with Buzz Sawyer and Tommy Rich coming out to save Buzz's bro from one of seven or eight Paul Ellering fueled beatings. Tommy looked so loyal, standing over Sawyer wanting to fight anyone who got near, but Buzz had this unreal aura. It's so unmistakably bad ass, a guy you don't want to cross who keeps this dangerous cool composure. "I know people don't like me but I'm not a total asshole" big brother energy. The way he carries himself with his hands in his sweatpants pockets, that torso in a tight 50/50 blend blue t-shirt, the fucking bandana essential to the look, sending calm threats to Ellering as he walked up to him. An unemployed adult older brother who stays at home all day coming out to the front yard to tell his teen brother's bully how he's going to cut him. 

Larry Zbyszko vs. Ron Garvin

MD: The TV title was on the line for the first ten minutes here. I'll be honest that there are single matches i want more or less out of the Omni footage, but if we're talking a run, then I want as much as Larry's run as possible. We have bits and pieces but it's right down my alley on paper. I think it ages better than a lot of heel Dibiase footage for instance.  

Anyway, this was the panacea to Larry's usual tactics as he only had ten minutes to try to take Garvin's title. Yes, he got punched out of the ring early, but he couldn't linger. He had to be more aggressive than usual. Tons of great punches in this one, especially in the corners. There was one comeback by Garvin where he knocked Larry down and then held on to the arm after he fell and the crowd realized it, realized that he was going to pull Larry back up to hit him again, and were elated about it. Larry was able to fire back out of the corner using the ref as a distraction and took about half the match pretty soundly. He had an advantage at the end as Garvin missed a knee drop and it seemed like he might have a chance of taking the title with a pile driver but Garvin turned it into a pin and got the win. This was a nice subversion of the Rood match which did go to a ten minute draw. It seemed like it would here too or that Garvin was going to lose and then he snuck out the win at the last moment. 

ER: I love this era of Zbyszko. Yeah Garvin looks like a jacked up super tough brat pack era Judd Nelson and hits with his trademark up close short range power, but Zbyszko man. Zbyszko sells the impact of Garvin's strikes better than maybe anyone. I love the tough guy sturdy gravity Valentine sells them with but Zbyszko is so moveable, a wiggly guy who bounces off ropes and uses body movement the same way Tully did, recoiling fast but being punched and physically reacting to those punches exactly the way 9,000 people wanted to see. He knows exactly how I want to see Larry Zbyszko reacting to being hit. He also punches exactly how I want to see a man punch. All the punches were great for the whole match, but Zbyszko's tight, straight reared back rights looked perfect. The finish of this was incredibly done and I didn't see it coming. We had our 10 minute draw already and every single piece of wrestling language made this look like a frustrated Zbyszko unable to win within 10 minutes. I actually but when Larry pulled off a sweet and smooth inside cradle to block a bodyslam in its infancy, but the actual finish was a great surprise. Zbyszko looking like he was going to cave in Garvin's teen idol 'do, with all the execution of Zbyszko lifting up the way you do just before you sit down, Garvin shifting his weight at the peak of lift off to tip the weight. Great finish, great match. 

Road Warriors vs. Mr. Wrestling/Mr. Wrestling II

MD: I really enjoy 83 Roadies. They were raw but they hadn't quite settled into what they'd become a year or two later. They wrestled much more vulnerably, more stooging, more backpedaling, while still being monsters both aesthetically and when they were doing damage. We've been hearing it for the last few matches but it's so great to have the crowd make that primal guttural noise whenever a babyface threw a shot. It was chaos to begin and chaos to end with Mr Wrestling having to fight from underneath in the middle. Wrestling II came in hot and it was rousing stuff but Zbyszko nailed him from the apron out of nowhere after a couple of kneelifts. All of this felt larger than life especially to this crowd.

ER: Man I LOVE the way the Road Warriors sell for two 50 year old man throwing big arm swinging punches. The Road Warriors sell so well for the Wrestlings that I want to see 1983 Roadies against 1989 Baba/Rusher. I couldn't get enough for Wrestling's big swinging punches that are thrown like nobody else threw punches and the way Hawk perfectly knew to throw his head back for them, just enough. We know the Road Warriors were not yet the monsters they would become just a year or so later, but it's still wild seeing Hawk taking multiple back body drops. This had another spectacular finish, with action so good I had to keep rewinding to watch what each individual was doing. Wrestling II was fending off Animal in the top corner, Hawk was roughing up Wrestling in the foreground. Wrestling gets thrown over the top down onto a table and almost into a front row before charging back into the ring by stepping up onto that table and getting back into the fight. Animal keeps charging into Wrestling II in the corner and keeps catching knees, until he charges in and catches two boots shoved squarely into his chest and gets bumped back hard. Zbyszko sneaks in and bashes II in the back of the head and staggers him into the greatest This is the End powerslam from Animal. This was not the structure I expected going in but now I want more Hawk and Animal selling for great old man strikes.  

Greg Valentine vs. Pez Whatley

MD: Pretty remarkable Pez performance here. He came in hot, even while Greg still had the title in hand and had Valentine rocking and falling over the place with headbutts early. Greg took over with a nasty kneeling piledriver and started on the arm. Pez came back with one arm with some great silly in his hope spots, using the head when he could, really solid stuff. They dropped the arm selling for the most part as it went on but you almost didn't mind because Pez was so good at working from underneath on a chinlock, just constant motion fighting up and engaging the crowd. Transition was another pile driver attempt which was a little like the Garvin/Zbyszko match but they had Valentine go into the corner again. Things got out of hand and it ended up as a DQ with him using the belt repeatedly, but Pez drove him off so the crowd got at least some satisfaction out of it. Very good match overall though, even if the arm selling went nowhere. 

ER: Every heel in this territory knew exactly how to sell the strikes of every top babyface and it's all so beautiful. Valentine makes Pez Whatley a god and Pez wiggles his way up to it, and once again, this rules. Valentine is on the Found Footage Friday Mt. Rushmore as we've now been uncovering unseen classics of his for nearly a decade, every one of them broadening his case as one of our greatest workers. Here's another for the pile. I'm so used to seeing Valentine take strikes from fellow tough guys and hitting them back. I've seen that Valentine more than I've seen the Valentine who sells for smaller ethnic babyface, and this one is great. With Valentine's selling, his head whips and stunned cobweb shaking, Whatley's headbutts looked peerless, the culmination of decades of black wrestler headbutts. His perseverance and big time style and charisma through his comebacks were getting reactions louder than any part of the Dog Collar main event, and it was such infectious babyface energy that played incredibly off the tough guy champ. Whatley's reversal out of the piledriver was such a cool spot, upending Valentine into and off the turnbuckles. It's one of those spots where, no matter how much wrestling I've watched, there's always something like that waiting to show me something new. 

Bullwhip on a Pole: Tommy Rich vs. Bill Irwin

MD: I've always been pretty high on Irwin. Great body language. Big lanky guy who was willing to throw himself into everything he did, and there was so much to throw himself into here. Every time either guy went for the pole, the other was on top of him instantly. Really gripping stuff. People don't understand today just how compelling these pole matches could be when the wrestlers put forth so much care towards whatever was on top of the pole. 

Here they had to really incapacitate the other. Irwin kept escalating things, hitting a gut wrench suplex, tossing Rich out of the ring, knocking the head against the post. Rich on the other hand got out of the way for Irwin's corner charge and he bumped huge over the top knee first, etc. Just more and more until finally Irwin started working the leg, a necessity since Rich wouldn't stay down. Even that didn't quite do it but it allowed for a hotshot and Irwin to finally get up the pole. One thing I wish we had were more pole matches from the 70s when there probably WASN'T an inversion of the finish. By the 80s, whoever first got the weapon tended not to be the one who got to use it and to see that once could be satisfying but to see it in every pole match gets a little frustrating. Sometimes you just want that nice clean feeling of something happening how it's supposed to. Still, Rich grabbing it mid swing and firing off on Irwin was a greater level of enjoyment for the crowd and this was really good stuff overall.

Dog Collar Match: Roddy Piper vs Buzz Sawyer 

MD: Pull this back up. Just watch a minute of it, any minute. Watch Roddy. Watch him move. Nothing specific that he does, though if you catch a bump or some selling or a punch, that's all the better. But just the in-between. Did you see it? Go look out a window or down the street. Find a neighbor, a spouse. Hell, look in the mirror. Watch yourself move. Whatever you see, it's not as alive and vibrant and vivid as this forty year old footage of Roddy Piper.

The anticipation early here, both of them six feet apart, the chain between them, a rabid game of chess to decide which would rush first to strike. At the start it was Buzz but when it was Piper's time, he became a man possessed, cutting the distance with wide eyes and a wild snarl. Buzz scored first blood but Piper's comebacks on the floor were things of myth and legend.

Matches like these, from this era, often end shortly after that first huge comeback, after the turn of the tide, after revenge is grasped. This one, however, went around one more time, as Buzz was able to sneak in a low blow. Things spilled back out to the floor but Piper fired back once more, moving the guardrail and basically punching Buzz back into the ring. Gripping, satisfying, refreshing stuff. In some ways a prototype for what would come later in both of their careers and something that almost impossibly lived up to the picture we had in our heads.

Read more!

ROAD REPORT: GCW Devil in a New Dress 4/10/22

This Road Report is going to be much more vibes than actual match analysis. This was the first wrestling show I had been to with this many friends (seven people, including myself) in who knows how long. It was a great night, fun as hell, but there's no way I'm going to be remembering full details of a 20 minute Dark Sheik match or what specific Kidd Bandit spots I thought were stupid. The card was changed around wildly and the two people I was most excited to see (Biff Busick and Gringo Loco) were either there and not used or not there for reasons I don't know (travel?). So that was a drag! And yet, we still had a good time. It was fun seeing it with several friends who don't follow indy wrestling, as a couple of my boys were only familiar with Busick, Jacob Fatu, and Suzuki. With no Busick or Fatu, that meant they were seeing nearly everyone on the card for the first time, brains unsullied by the opinions of those on the internet. I told them to "just think of this as early Jersey All Pro" and that set the mood just fine. 

Effy vs. Nick Wayne

ER: If you had told me earlier in the night that Effy would be the guy putting on my favorite performance of that night, then I would have been skeptical. Had it been my Looper, I would have been more inclined to believe me. This was my favorite personal Effy performance and I thought he came off like an honest to god star. The Yellow Brick Road music, the trashy blonde asymmetrical mullet, the fishnets, and the extreme confidence on the mic. For reasons I could not quite make out (it is not an indy wrestling show without somewhat questionable sound), Effy stated that this was a family show and he would therefore be working much less horny. And honestly? Focused ass kicker Effy is much more entertaining than horny Effy. He did a great job bullying a high school junior, caught all of Wayne's dives (including a big tope con giro), and came off like a real complete act. I'm not sure there was anyone on the card who carried themselves like a bigger star than Effy did in this match, and that includes Suzuki. 

My favorite moment of the match - which might sound odd - is how he handled a failing prop spot: Wayne brought the doors into the match, and as Effy was setting up a door on a couple folding chairs and trying to keep Wayne on them, the door just fell off the chairs. As the fans were jeering the extended spot set up, Effy just did the most hilarious hurrr durrrr face with a funny dance to accompany it, immediately shutting down any potential derision. Now, the *craziest* moment came right after, when Effy went up top and Wayne got up way too quick to catch him with a Spanish Fly. Wayne got up so quick that Effy's feet weren't squared up, one of them looked to be slipping, and those knees were shaking hard as Wayne flipped. I was standing near the turnbuckle directly opposite them, and I swear to you I looked directly into Effy's eyes and saw the expression of a man who did not think he was properly making it over on that Spanish Fly. I thought he was going to brutally plant chin or neck first directly into the mat, but somehow he made it over (not really through the table, instead going off course and flattening one of the chairs). People were going nuts after that Fly, and I know I'm not the only one there who thought we almost witnessed an opening match murder. 

Jordan Oliver vs. Jack Cartwheel

ER: The only thing really worth remembering about this match is the bananas finish, but honestly on a show like this having the most GIFable finish is way more valuable than just having a good match. This was a match that I really didn't care for as I wanted to see Cartwheel get punished for his frequent cartwheeling and I don't think it got there. I did not need to see these two working multiple stand and trade spots and reversals of reversals over a too long 15 minutes, and I could not believe how many Cartwheels Jack got away with. We had to have seen at least a dozen of them (conservative estimate) and every single time I wanted them to end with Oliver cutting them off HARD. I like Oliver and liked when he did get stiff with Jack, but Cartwheel is like a bad Dynamite Kid, only replacing the crisp execution and crippling alcoholism with cartwheels. This match felt like it was peaking to a finish, and then kept going, then went to more slapping and missed its window. However, the finish is something that only the most joyless wouldn't pop for, as Oliver bounced Cartwheel off the top rope with a front suplex and then caught Cartwheel on the rebound with a sitout powerbomb, fundamentally erasing the previous 15 minutes from my brain by finishing with the far and away coolest thing they were capable of doing.  

Allie Katch vs. Kidd Bandit

ER: I would be plenty happy never watching another Kidd Bandit match ever again. I hate a babyface whose only quality is being cute, and this was some next level eye rolling uwu waifu horseshit. I wanted to see them get the shit kicked out of them but instead we mostly got them doing simp fingers, making Allie sell for an eternity while they posed, then posed some more, then did a shitty stunner and 619. Her kicks couldn't break paper and Allie was insanely generous selling for any of it. The best parts were Allie trying to snap Bandit in half with a Boston crab and battering her in the corner with a lariat, hip bump, and big cannonball. I did like Allie's match finishing piledriver, draping Bandit over the ropes and sitting back with it, but Kidd Bandit's act is 100% not aimed at me and that is fine. I do not want to be a member of that club. 

Jimmy Lloyd vs. Masha Slamovich

ER: Out of everyone on the show, I think my friends left this show as bigger fans of Jimmy Lloyd than anyone else. They liked plenty of people on the card, but the different boy just connects...differently. I was excited for Masha/Busick - the originally scheduled match - but this was a fine replacement. I dug the story of Jimmy trying to outpower Masha at the outset with a powerbomb, but when all it did was fire her up, going immediately to the weapons and pushing things to more dangerous places (and Masha being totally fine being pushed there). The floor brawl was cool and lead to some nasty spots, with both throwing chairs (Lloyd is someone who is going to lean into chair shots), Masha running up the apron with a tornado DDT on the floor, and Lloyd hitting a nutso death valley driver off the apron through a door. They broke some doors in this one, and when they took it back in the ring was when Lloyd started breaking out his biggest bumps. He was really good at selling and taking damage from the smaller Masha, never feeling like he was overbumping and mostly selling her shots appropriately. When he flies into a door, it's because he got hit with a high impact missile dropkick that sent him flying across the ring. 

Masha didn't escape damage, as Lloyd powerbombed her across a trash can and brother, that trash can barely took any damage. The can won that battle, and Masha's future back problems will be testament to that. Lloyd leaned face first into her running kicks, took and sold a nasty suplex across an open chair, even took a piledriver onto some open chairs. We don't get to see a lot of classic piledrivers in wrestling these days, so seeing one dropping a guy head and neck through a chair is insane, and I love how she finished with another one right after. It's hard not to be a fan of the different boy after this match, and the boy came off even more lovable later in the night when my friends kept seeing him in the crowd, not always knowing if it was Lloyd or any one of a couple dozen wrestling fans who look exactly like Lloyd. After the show, when most wrestlers were hanging around ringside and the merch area selling polaroids and gear, Lloyd was just chilling in the crowd sitting alone. A different boy even among peers. 

Titus Alexander vs. Midas Kreed

ER: This was kind of a local showcase, although I'm not sure you'll be able to call Titus a local guy much longer, as clearly bigger things await him. The Bay Area scene is not where you stay if you want to grow your career, all the big ones get out and move east. Titus stood out in a big way on this card just by actually working heel, doing things that got actual heat, and sticking to it. He wasn't out looking for MJF "I'm a HEEL" type heat, he did some actual hateful stuff like getting right in the face of the female ref when she made him break a count. He moved into her personal space so quickly that I think it actually caught a lot of the crowd off guard and really got them turned against him. Titus knew how to get heel heat and comedy heat, which is an important distinction. He was good at setting up spots and not paying them off with what the crowd wanted, like clearing a section of crowd to throw Kreed through chairs, only to throw him right back into the ring instead. It's an old trick, but one I'll laugh about every time. It's an especially funny trick in GCW, since every person in the crowd knows there's a chance any match will spill into the crowd and a minimum four guys are going to get thrown through a section of chairs. 

Kreed had some flashy stuff, like a 450 splash that connected (even though he's a small guy) and a really cool pendulum swing reverse DDT that Titus took right on the back of his head. It was like a Sliced Bread, only Alexander really got drilled into the mat. Alexander has a nice moveset: a spinebuster, a couple kneelifts to the face, and a big rolling Chaos Theory German suplex that threw Kreed across the entire ring. These guys were probably the least known on the show, and post-intermission is sometimes a rough spot to connect to a crowd (which typically correlates with how long the intermission is, and this one wasn't bad at all), but these two won the crowd over pretty quickly. 

Matthew Justice/Mance Warner/AJ Gray vs. Juicy Finau/Journey Fatu/D-Rogue

ER: I was excited to see my boy Justice live. I've seen him a couple of times live, and I just really connect with him as a big time babyface. He wasn't really a babyface here, but he's got that same kind of working man's charisma that Jimmy Lloyd has, that same kind of guy who will bleed and wreck his body for the fans, with the major difference being that Matt Justice fucks. He also did not let me down, as he hit some of the absolute LOUDEST chair shots I have ever heard. He was pasting these Islanders with shots (even broke a cane over someone's head!), hitting them so hard in the head and back that I bet his hands were getting hurt just as badly. Justice wasn't just wrecking people with chairs, he also caught a big D-Rogue dive and got flattened by a Juicy splash from the middle buckle. When Juicy told the crowd he was gonna hit a 450, he climbed to the middle buckle and slapped his belly: "THIS...is 450" and then made Justice disappear beneath girth. Earlier, Juicy had threatened to do a dive to the floor, and Mancer got on the house mic and said he had a bad leg and there was no fucking way he was going to stand there and catch that motherfucker's dive. Jacob was gone, but honestly Journey isn't much of a step down in quality. He hung in for stiff shots, ran Gray through a door with a running powerslam, threw headbutts, basically everything I would have expected from Jacob. 

All the stuff in the ring was even crazier than the stuff on the floor. SGC combined forces to suplex Juicy through a table, Gray threw his lariat as hard as possible at Juicy, Justice and Mancer made the perfect bug eyed dumb faces when Juicy grabbed them in Tongan death grips, and we got a cool finish with Justice and Gray nailing D-Rogue with Superfly splashes from opposite corners. The deservedly loudest pop of the match was when Mancer wasted Journey with an unprotected chair shot to the dome, and Journey roared his way through it because, well, the brother is Samoan. This was probably my favorite match of the night, a great mix of violence and personality and big spots. 

Dark Sheik vs. Joey Janela

ER: I am not a big fan of these 20 minute Joey Janela matches, but I recognize that I am likely in the minority, and even though they had the longest match on the card they managed to keep the crowd's interest for all of it. That means something. Still, this felt like a match that was about to wrap up around 12 minutes in, so of course it shot right past that window and yep, we were locked into 20 minutes of move trading, back and forth. If you have the offense to fill 20 minutes of time then more power to you, but a lot of times there felt like no rhyme or reason as to who was in control. Joey catches her with a kind of blue thunder bomb, and moments later Joey is eating a big Sliced Bread on the apron. Joey eats a brainbuster and big guillotine legdrop, but Joey is the one setting up the prop spots just moments later. There was some entertaining bullshit with Dark Sheik's valet, SF drag star Pollo Del Mar, that ended with Del Mar putting Janela through a table with a powerbomb. At the start of the match Janela had hit her with a cheapshot and this was a good way to pay that off. 

After the powerbomb, Sheik hit a big coast to coast missile dropkick, and that's what I thought would be the finish. You know, the cheapshot at the beginning got paid off in a big way, Sheik hit a big impressive finisher, felt like a good time to end all of this. But we still needed another 9 minutes of prop set-up, bad strike exchanges, and even worse kneeling strike exchanges! Janela did hit an insane running elbowdrop through a table, running from the stage and leaping  FAR off it, far enough that I wasn't actually sure he would clear the distance. Great spot. It looked like Janela would pull this whole thing off after a piledriver and top rope double stomp, but nah, we needed to get to some of that kneel and trade that never looks good. If I remember correctly, Janela eventually lost when he suplexed Sheik through some chairs, and Sheik just wound up pinning Janela. They went all out and had a bunch of big moves, and that's great, but man was I ready for this to be over and done with long before we got there. 

Minoru Suzuki vs. Speedball Mike Bailey

ER: When we got to the venue (The Midway, great building for wrestling that I had never been to before) and started wandering around scoping out a spot to stand, one of the first things I noticed was Suzuki just hanging out by the bar, leaning against it and silently surveying the growing crowd. He was wearing a track suit with his name on it, and a sunbeam was coming down from a skylight, giving him a perfect spotlight to lounge in. I swear, I didn't see another sunbeam shining into that entire (large) venue, and here's Suzuki basking in his own personal warm glow. 

Suzuki has a pretty great thing going with his US appearances. He knows what the fans want to see, and he knows the exact bare minimum he can do to scrape by while still leaving everyone happy and excited that they got to see Minoru Suzuki live. Sometimes you get forearm exchange/silly faces Suzuki, sometimes you get that plus a little extra. I think we got the latter. There were a lot of forearm exchanges (way too many), and you can see his personal formula for them when you're watching up close. He throws 90% of his shots totally worked, but knows to payoff his killshots with real stiff killshots. This leads to a bunch of dull exchange where guys are pulling everything and meandering through their 5th, 8th, who knows how many stand and trade sequences, but they always end with an absolute jawbreaker. It's like Suzuki is using George Costanza's High Note Theory, where he knows he can sleepwalk through most of an exchange before throwing one tooth loosener, and everyone will mostly just remember all the big endings to those endless exchanges. I really liked some of their mat exchanges, and thought this would have been a lot more fun if Suzuki kept tying Bailey up with arm and wrist work, leading to Bailey forgoing his arm and just attacking with kicks. We didn't get that, but I would have liked that. 

Suzuki had a hilarious misread of the room, as he kept getting into the female ref's face when she asked him to break holds, I guess thinking that him telling a woman to get out of his face was going to get him cheered? After Titus Alexander used the exact same thing to draw strong heel heat just a couple matches earlier, it was completely brainless to go in thinking he'd get anything but awkward reactions for backing down a much smaller woman. He won them back pretty easily with a funny spot where he ducked a couple of Bailey head kicks, stuck out his tongue to mock Bailey, and then got kicked in the face. Bailey had a few cool spin kicks that stopped Suzuki cold, a couple to the chest and one that wrapped around his head. He also hit a big moonsault to the floor and had a near fall off his flipping double kneedrop that got me to bite. Bailey wound up missing the same kneedrop, only off the top rope, mine own knees crying out in eternal pain just witnessing it, and Suzuki planted him with his Gotch piledriver. The match had far too many strike exchanges, but I don't think it would have been as bad if four of the other matches hadn't had the exact same strike exchanges. If you're on the undercard of a show Suzuki is headlining, it seems pretty dumb to have a shitty stand and trade sequence in your match, but that did not slow down all of the worst strikers on the show! Even thinking that a lot of the strike exchanging in this match was cumbersome, I can't deny that this was a bigger Suzuki performance than I was expecting. The guy is a legend and has some of the most contagious charisma in wrestling, and I couldn't be happier that he's getting the biggest paydays of his life while basking in sunbeams. 

After the show we battled the strongest winds I have ever personally experienced in San Francisco, and drove a couple miles to go to one of the great SF restaurants, Papito. Papito is a great taqueria with a French chef owner-operator, and this is the first time I'd been to their new location (around the corner from their old location). My favorite music venue in SF (maybe anywhere?) is Bottom of the Hill, and Papito is a nice steep uphill walk a few blocks away from B.O.T.H. As I have not been to any concerts in SF since March 2020, I have not been this close to Papito in over two years. The original location would have been a logistical nightmare with a five person party as there were only a few tables inside. Now they have 3-4x the space and we were seated immediately. Glorious. I filled up on their excellent chips and salsa, ruining my appetite for their incredible hamburguesa, one of the greatest burgers I have had in my lifetime. My plan, however, was ingenious, as I took most of my burger home and wolfed it down the next night, regretting not requesting some of their orange salsa to go. 

As I was the driver on this trip and therefore chose what we listened to, my friends' ears were blessed by a 3-2 Giants victory on the radio, some Gene Vincent, Grateful Dead's excellent 4/8/72 show at Wembley Empire Pool (with awesome tonally shifting 30 minute Dark Star, among other highlights), The Brides of Funkenstein's disco classic Never Buy Texas From a Cowboy, and Charlotte Adigery's amazing new album Topical Dancer. 

Even though this was not the card I wanted, there was not one person in our group who was disappointed by this show. Even the matches that were firmly Not For Me had memorable moments, and the people I was excited to see totally delivered. Every one of my pals had a great time too, and when GCW announced they would be returning in July, we made plans to do it all over again. 

Read more!