FOUND FOOTAGE FRIDAY: OMNI 7/3/83

7/3/83 Full Show 

Bill Irwin vs. Brett Wayne

ER: Great combo of guys, a weird size mismatch but not a wrestling mismatch. We're both big Irwin and Sawyer fans, two more men who've had their career cases bolstered by all this Omni footage. Irwin is this great wrestling weird guy, a stumblier Terry Gordy, big and lunging and always off balance a bit. He's a stomping lummox and Brett Wayne is a strong underdog who connects with the Omni setting. He's great at fighting to his feet, he's great at taking offense with real expression. The way he rag dolls on a big backbreaker is just one good example of his emotive selling. Irwin mostly in control, but that off balance gait makes him feel less in control. 

Irwin builds to his biggest offense, and it's all powerful stuff. His gutwrench and vertical suplexes land heavy, and I loved his Bruiser Brody kneedrop. Fresh off an All Japan tour where he worked exclusively as Brody's partner, he does a pitch perfect impression of Brody's bodyslam and King Kong kneedrop, only Irwin's kneedrop looked better. Everyone in the Omni and my house thought Irwin was missing that kneedrop when he was setting it up. It hits square and Brett already has his foot on the ropes. I wish it had missed so it didn't lead directly to Brett fighting back with babyface fire. 

The count out finish is excellent, as Irwin tosses Sawyer to the floor and Brett gets his whole leg hung up over the guardrail as he lands. The guardrail isn't even especially close to the ring, a whole commentary table and more away, he just flew. He takes another, different kind of great tumble over the rail when Irwin boots him from the ring. Great rail work. Buzz Sawyer saunters out as this is happening, and there's a great bit where he keeps half heartedly talking Bill out of jumping off the top buckle to the floor as Brett is struggling.

MD: Loved this. Great way to get the crowd going. There was a massive size difference but they milked it as far as they could. In the first exchange on the mat, Wayne scrambling free got a massive pop because they made a big deal out of it. Then Irwin complained about him being greased up. The first few minutes were bit after bit, Irwin missing an elbow or running into a boot or getting twisted around while trying to control the arm. Celebratory babyface shine stuff made better by the connection Wayne had with the crowd, the size difference, Irwin's willingness to stooge. 

He did take over and there weren't really hope spots or comebacks so much as big kickouts from Wayne, starting with a kickout at one. Because it started the sequence, it had a completely different effect than a late match nearfall that was about fighting spirit. It was a bit of defiance before Irwin had beaten him down as much. At one point he managed a kick out and the place went nuts and Irwin slapped the mat in frustration. Then Irwin hit the knee but Wayne's leg bounced up on the rope for a great visual. He got mad at that (instead of making faces) and tossed Wayne out. Wayne took this amazing pinball bump over the rail, and then when knocked off the apron as he was trying to come back went sailing over it again. Great stuff leading to a countout. Post match, Irwin menaced him like he'd come off over the top but officials stopped him. He still got over for the sheer threat of it given his size.

Bob Sweetan vs. Killer Brooks 

ER: I love Killer Brooks' look as a wrestler so much, a total dirtbag who looked like Ricky Jay without success. He has the look of a man to be looked at with scorn, and the Omni all feels that scorn. This is a man to avoid as he's buying his beer and Twinkies at the store. Brooks is so hateable on sight that the Omni is excited to see noted huge piece of shit Bob Sweetan punch the hell out of him. That's what this is, a big fat piece of shit punching a scum bag around the ring while the scum bag begs off and takes funny bumps. Killer Brooks is one of the more underwhelming wrestlers I've come across in our 20 years of 80s projects, but he's great at getting punched around by Sweetan. Sweetan had a great bit where he kept badly hiding headlock punches from ref Nick Patrick, but the crowd disliked Brooks so much that they kept siding with Sweetan and saying he did nothing wrong. The time limit draw finish is unsatisfying, but Brooks' scramble at the finish was the coolest part of the match. Mr. Piledriver finally sets up the piledriver, and Brooks, panicking, floats his leg out to the ropes while dragging Sweetan down with a double leg. It looked more spry and agile than anything I've ever seen Killer Brooks do, so it's possible it was all an accident. 

MD: I'd say this overachieved. Same idea as the first match in some ways but this time Sweetan was more the aggressor and able to push Brooks around. Fans went up for every punch, especially the ones in a headlock that he hid from the ref. Brooks took over with a cheapshot or two and kept laying in punches (big stomp ones). Sweetan hulked up with a "Now you've done it" look that got a pop fromt he crowd and Brooks did take a draping face first bump into the corner. They kept brawling to the bell for a time limit draw. Pretty minimalist overall but you can't really say it didn't work. I do think Brooks needed something extra during his control whether it was working the crowd more or a little more variety in offense, but the fans still went up big for Sweetan's comeback. I would have rather a double DQ for too much punching than the draw maybe too.

Tully Blanchard vs. Pez Whatley

MD: Ah, this is why they didn't do the DQ in the previous match. After cutting Pez off on a comeback, Tully got DQed here for pounding on him in the corner. Then they had a post match of Tully running into a bunch of punches before he got the upper hand and more or less kept his heat on the way out in the Tully way. Match itself was a lot of fun. First few seconds were beautiful as Tully turned a handshake into a slap and then ran like hell. Of course he got clowned shortly thereafter. Then he reached over the ref to hit a cheapshot in the corner and was off to the races. What a jerk. What a pro. Little odd to see him in this setting but he was going to get over as a heel anywhere and he clearly did here.  

ER: I could have watched Tully go after Pez for a half hour without getting restless. Tully is both for this, born to move as despicably as possible. I think I love this match structure, where Tully beats Whatley's ass by being an underhanded but tough asshole for 5 minutes then Pez beats Tully's ass for a couple minutes after the DQ. Tully's movement should be studied. It's dickhead Baryshnikov, strutting around on his tiptoes after cheapshots and violent outbursts. That short elbow he shoots into Pistol's jaw, before violently pulling him by his trunks through the ropes to the floor? That's what I want. I want that trunk pull, that sudden jolt to the waist that sends Whatley's head and shoulders folding to the apron. The crowd hates Tully's shit pants smug strut after. Pistol's punches after the bell were hot fire, and Tully takes two big spills for him. He drops like lead from a missed middle buckle elbow, and flies fast through the ropes to the concrete to put over Pistol's atomic drop. If I could be guaranteed a Tully match like this on every indy card, I'd ho home happy with wrestling every time. 

Ronnie Garvin vs. Iron Sheik

MD: Weird card so far. This was a deal where the title was on the line for the first ten minutes only but it didn't matter because it was a non-match. Garvin choked him with the towel and kept choking him with the towel and the ref just threw it out. He said he was going to give everyone a July 4th gift and get Sheik out of the country and then really didn't do that. They did leave the fans with a happy memory as Garvin atomic dropped Ellering into Sheik on the floor. Still, this had to feel a bit like a rip off. And actually, that's maybe not the best idea in general, because Ellering was in the next match and it was built at least a little about deferring punishment to him. This card is kind of all over the place even if specific bits are okay in isolation.

ER: This was hot, smoking hot. Garvin is an animal and Sheik is great at being overwhelmed by this haircut of a man. The timing and scrap of it all was tremendous. It was a great Paul Ellering match, a guy we don't always praise and a guy who doesn't always add to a match. Here he's excellent dressing, a bee buzzing on the periphery and getting tangled into and out of the action in ways that felt like a guy actually breaking up and exacerbating a fight. When Nick Patrick would get tangled with them it would get even better! Sheik gets hung by the neck from the top rope that Garvin used to distract and snare like a gi. These Omni DQs/count outs/messes are great at building to a climactic explosion of someone out of the ring, and this one was perfectly executed: Sheik's flying into Ellering with a running kneelift, Garvin sidestepping at the last moment. Timed to the T, with nobody looking around for a cue. The sense of space from all used to max effect. 

Stan Hansen/Tommy Rich/Ole Anderson vs. The Road Warriors/Paul Ellering

MD: I feel for Arn that he wasn't in the Tommy Rich role after they made a big deal about him not going with Ellering in the build. This is Ole in his Bill Watts standing tall phase and he is over but it's still weird. Also weird is Hansen and Tommy Rich as tag team specialists and, of course, like always, the Roadies eating so, so much offense in the extended shine. It goes on forever. Very fun to see Hansen cutting off the ring by blocking so Rich can come in and keep the assault on. He also hit a great monstrous belly to back out of a headlock.

Pretty interesting heat. They kept cycling in the babyfaces (first Hansen) and controlling with headlocks using hairpulls or their own corner to keep control. There'd be tags but it'd be right back into the headlock. They opened things up on Rich which let Ellering tag in quickly over and over to get cheapshots. Eventually he kicked his way out of the corner (to great applause) and made a hot tag to Ole. Ole ended up back in the headlock and they really worked it this time. I thought maybe they took the fans a bit too low because there'd already been a hot tag but when Ole started to fight back, the fans did get up for the comeback. He went through the legs which was a wild image and got a hot tag to Hansen. Everything fell apart after that and I think the Roadies were DQed for tossing Rich over the top. Man Mountain Darsow (who just debuted on TV) came in to take care of business and the fans did like that. Too many inconclusive finishes on this one, I think.

ER: Hansen vs. The Road Warriors is so sick. He looks so damn tough against them, he looks towering. The way he knocks them both back with chops, the way he moves both with no issue, it's marvelous. Hawk and Animal are not yet Hawk and Animal. They are not will imposers yet, they are machines without full ideas of what to do. They're 10-20 matches into a 2,000 match career, a feeling that has never been felt before. Think of being 10 of 2,000 into anything. Your 10th ever beer, or your 10th ever burger; how those would be if Stan Hansen was punching your neck while you had it. Hawk has this nasty side headlock grab that looks like some real ranked bouncer Dalton sweep up the eyeballs toughness, and Hansen just lifts him cold and quick with a back suplex, like it was instinct and the easiest way to shake off a 275 pound man. 

The Road Warriors are infants with fuzzy Monchhichi haircuts. Hawk, always gifted with finding surprising ways to take offense, apparently had that skill from go. I watched it back a few times when he ran through a Wildfire punch to his stomach, stumbling through it and out of it with a leg buckling forward roll.  The Road Warriors long headlock control wasn't my favorite. Animal did the greater portion of it and his control was too stifling with too little advancement; too slow burn without catching fire, too smothering to lead to rewarding babyface selling, minimal intrigue given to Tommy and Ole in the headlocks. The headlock on Rich was enough, we didn't need one on Ole. Rich finally tagging out to Ole was one of the best parts of the match, Ole great at fighting messily through Hawk and Animal and Ellering for good measure. 

The real treat is after the match, as I've never seen any part of Barry Darsow's one month long Man Mountain Darsow era. His rarest persona. He's dressed like a 5 year old who likes big truck, and big hulking baby who's a Real Man's Man. Unrestrained Darsow is a sight. It's the biggest I've seen him outside any modern YouTube thumbnails. Had I been there and been even slightly more interested than the depressed man in white slacks in the front row, I would have thought Darsow was a future wrecking ball no different than Hansen and the Road Warriors. I wouldn't have known about how much he would call people goofballs.  

Buzz Sawyer vs. Scott Casey

MD: Casey had come in from Southwest and built this with a promo that he heard Sawyer was the toughest guy around so he wanted to fight him. Meanwhile, there had been some Rich and Sawyer animosity (re)building with a great backstage fight at the last Omni show. This was definitely good. Buzz got outwrestled to start, and he made it very engaging, constantly moving and flailing, teasing clean breaks and handshakes, taking his signature bump sideways out of the ring after a punch during rope running. 

He took over with a spinning heelbutt in the ropes after all those clean breaks and his cutoffs were all wild bits of body motion as he got his feet up. Finishing stretch had him missing a huge top rope knee drop and then holding the ropes after a roll up reversal. I could have used a little more on the comeback but this was really just to set the stage for Rich making the save for Casey and the two of them having a wild bloody brawl around ringside. Better to save the energy and fans' attention for that. 

Larry Zbyszko vs. Mr. Wrestling II

MD: We've not covered the weekly TV the vault has been posting leading up to this show. Those have had less great matches and more were great episodes where stories ran throughout the show.  

They had built to the last match by having this great show long story with Larry saying Wrestling II didn't deserve a shot followed by II winning a handicap match (pinning one person after another with his new pal Rick Rood coming out to ensure Larry didn't interfere), and then Larry's crony Killer Brooks failing to pin two guys, the second being Rood, after II came out to help him. 

That led to the last Omni show having Wrestling II get a pinfall on Larry that was counted by by Rood while the ref was down and stealing the belt. On the next show, they instituted a new rule where in case of a draw, a ref could decide a winner, and it was all about setting up Killer Brooks and guest commentator Wrestling I as co-refs for the upcoming match.

The following week, Larry finally got Geigel to force Wrestling II to give the belt back to him, but that led to a $25,000 vs Mask challenge where Larry brought in Tully and Wrestling II had Pez as his partner. They'd do a three round elimination tag. The reason for this was clearly because GCW TV wasn't set up to do one long match over the whole show. That defeated part of the purpose of the TV to cut promos for the weekly shows around the horn. By doing it in rounds, they could be a bit like Portland who would do promos between falls of 2/3 falls matches. The elimination gimmick was more to put Wrestling II's mask more at risk and build the story of the match. 

That was fun (even if it was weird to see Tully as anyone's second banana) and led to Wrestling II beating the odds.

Which brings us to this long, long title match. Like I noted, it was a great build and we were lucky to see it. 

The premise here is that with the two refs, Larry wants to wrestle clean if Wrestling II dares. Wrestling II does dare ("Mr. Zbyzsko, my name is Mr. Wrestling"). Brooks is all cleaned up which is funny to see. 

So they work this match for far longer than you'd expect with Larry getting one-upped hold after hold, exchange after exchange, and throwing a fit on the outside (with the fans counting along) only to come back in and get shown up again. That meant headlocks that II was able to keep despite Larry's best efforts, times where it looked like Larry might have gotten an advantage with something legitimately slick only to immediately lose it, and rope running where he did A-B and C right only to get clowned on D. At one point, when Larry was disengaging to try to figure out what to do, II grabbed the house mic and said "I thought you wanted to wrestle" to a big pop. We've seen this a thousand times, but I've never seen it taken to this level where they just run it for so, so long building up pressure for him to totally lose it. And the best part was that they had the fans the whole way between the build, the premise, and the execution (including and especially Larry's selling of the humiliation).

Finally, Larry got frustrated enough to throw a punch. Brooks (playing it even) was quick to admonish him and II hit a kneelift, only for Larry to go sailing out. Then the humiliation continued. Roll-ups, rope running, monkey flips. There'd be little glimpses of Larry losing it, not breaking clean in the corner, escalating to a body slam (only to get slammed immediately himself), but he kept going back to the wrestling, even having just a bit of luck with a full nelson. It wasn't enough and II escaped. That's when Larry lost it and kicked II through the ropes onto the table on a rope break. This was a whole 30 minutes into the match, which is a massive testament to the two of them, being able to keep the ball in the air that long.

Larry opened things up from there, peppering in punches on headlocks. Both I and Brooks (surprisingly) admonished him. He'd keep throwing punches, with Brooks doing most of the admonishing. Because he was giving him grief, there was only so much I could do, even as Larry came back for more punches. Eventually though, that little bit of delay, that little bit of distance let II start to duck and weave and mount a huge comeback.

Things get a little muddled for the finish unfortunately. We get a bit of out of the comeback clipping leading to a double down. II then does get the kneelift but Larry's hand is in the ropes and Brooks starts giving II grief. That causes I to get in his face and Brooks to toss I out. I eventually comes back and takes Brooks (who had been more or less doing his job) out of the match. II has a clear advantage down the stretch but can't quite put Larry away before the bell. As it rang, he had him in a great sleeper, with Larry's legs far, far out causing a big visual lean. I awarded the match to II (given the new rule that refs could do that on a draw) but said the belt should stay with Larry. The clipping hurts it a bit and it'd almost be better with only one ref (though it did help cover some of Larry's punching, maybe), but overall, I thought this was a fairly big accomplishment to pull off.

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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. 

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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. 

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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.

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Cactus Knows There is Crack in Everything, That is How the Light Gets In

Cactus Jack Manson/Rick Ryder vs. Steiner Brothers NWA 1/20/90 - FUN

PAS: It's Steiner brother mauling a pair of jobbers which is always a blast. Cactus is starting to get a bit of a push, so he jumps Rick and gets a couple of shots in before the hammer is dropped. Rick hits a released belly to belly which folds Cactus in half. Ryder comes in a gets thrown around top rope belly to belly gut wrench, sick Frankensteiner, only for Cactus to beat him up post match, and hit the hipbuster. You wouldn't guess Cactus had such a stellar future ahead of him from this, but this role of punching bag who kills his partners post match was a lot of fun.

Cactus Jack/Abdullah The Butcher vs. Bill Kazmaier/Brian Pillman WCW10/12/91 - FUN

PAS: This didn't have the chaos that your best Cactus/Abby tag matches had, but had some nifty moments. I actually loved the big guy face offs between Abby and Kazmaier and I want to track down their singles match on WCWSN, Abby was a force in this, thrusting Pillman in his bad throat, knocking him off the apron with a running shoulder block, and he and Kazmaier freight train into each other. Cactus was a bit subdued, especially for 91. He is mostly on the defensive and would have ended up pinned by Kazmaier's incubatory FU at the end of the match if Abby didn't cut loose with the Kendo stick. Much more of a standard tag then a whirlwind, but plenty to like.

Cactus Jack/Larry Zbyszko vs. Abdullah the Butcher/Ron Simmons WCW 2/2/92 - FUN

PAS: Love this pair of WAR teams locking up on the Main Event. This was set up to tease the Omni Cactus vs. Abby cage match, and they did a nice job whetting the whistle but never really giving us a full taste. I actually dug the Abby vs. Larry Z interactions the most, with Zbyszko breaking out his spin kick to Abby's big guts, only to be met with some nasty karate thrusts and Abby curling his finger and trying to rip out Larry's eye (with a great bellowing sell by Zbyzko). They did a Simmons face in peril section which wasn't much, only to have him hot tag Abby, almost immediately tag back in and spinebuster and pin Cactus. Felt like wires might have been crossed there. We go right into a fun post match brawl which sees Cactus hit a hipbuster on Abby and smash him with a big rolled up piece of cage material. Release the Omni footage!!

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New Footage Friday: LARRY Z~! KERRY~! BOLSHOI~! KURAGAKI~ ICEBERG~ HAYES

Larry Zbyszko vs. Kerry Von Erich Guam 6/22/90

MD: This was presented as a title vs title match and it's Larry vs a game babyface in front of a crowd more than willing to throw dangerous objects at him. I'm preaching to the choir here but the idea that Larry is anything but a hard worker is nuts. And that doesn't even account for the way he throws himself into a match once the stalling ends. There isn't a second he's not working and engaged and giving it his all when he's engaging with that crowd. He riled them to the point where just saying "Guam sucks" into the mic had them dangerous enough that they had to ask them to stop throwing things over the house mic. Of course he was going to stooge all over the ring for Kerry's spin punches later on too. You sort of knew this was building to a non-finish and I'm not sure, by this point of his career, Kerry was in any shape to maximize his opportunities against an opponent like this, but it was still a pretty fun spectacle as a unique match-up in a unique locale.

ER: I always love seeing pro wrestling presented in a country where I have zero clue of the pro wrestling culture, seeing two pros work a simple formula that almost always gets rabid heat. I have no idea what wrestling any resident of Guam had scene at this point, no clue what territory guys would have been recognized as draws, but this crowd is into every single second of this match and I love it. I'm with Matt as a big Larry Z fan, and the "lazy worker" talking point only sounds more ridiculous every year removed from his career. This may have been a simple match, but neither of these guys were dogging it. It was belt vs. belt (with one of the commentators frequently trashing the "gaudy" AWA belt) and the fans wanted Kerry to knock Larry's block off. I don't know why I'm so tickled by "Larry Sucks" chants in 1990 Guam, but when Guam gets on the mic to say that he doesn't suck GUAM sucks, the commentary crew immediately complains about getting hit in the back of the head with garbage, and garbage pelting a wrestling ring is always the best. This is worked around Larry avoiding Kerry and taking these perfect timberrrrr back bumps off of Kerry's discus punches, before suckering Kerry into discus punching the ring post. It's a great spot and it gives us several cool moments of Kerry still firing off discus punches that clobber Larry, but leave von Erich hopping and shaking out his fist (sadly von Erich just totally abandons the very interesting hand selling for the finish and just goes right back to punching and going for the claw). Both guys land hard vertical suplexes and the double count out finish is done satisfyingly, with Larry dodging the claw by throwing Kerry and himself to the floor, then firing into Kerry's head with his best punches of the match. Fans ate it all up, and why shouldn't they? 

   

Commando Bolshoi vs. Tsubasa Kuragaki JWP 8/2/09

SR: Kuragaki is one of those insanely talented wrestlers who just ended up not quite having the career they should‘ve had due to the industry tanking in the 2000s. So a match like this ending up on my internet is very pleasant. This is the kinda stuff that really bums you when it doesn‘t make tape so bless Bolshoi for granting us the watch. And well this was really really good too. These are two wrestlers who can do a ton of cool shit, and they do a ton of cool shit, and really work together in almost a Rey/Psicosis fashion. Kuragaki is just great basing for Bolshoi's crazy lucha moves, there was Mysterio Rana into a rolling legbar which just looked insane, 10/10 in execution really. Kuragaki's power offense mixed with swank backbreaker holds and hard lariats, as well as the bits of athleticism she sprinkles in all make for a really compelling match. And Bolshoi is a great Rey. Her flash submissions rule as usual, and she also laid in really hard with the kicks to Kuragaki's leg and back area, way harder than you expect from a match that would go unseen for over 10 years. It builds to this really sweet finishing stretch with Kuragaki selling the leg while trying to take Bolshoi out with lariats and power moves. Really liked the spot where they tease Kuragaki reversing Bolshoi's leglock into a Scorpion Hold but then it just doesn‘t happen. The spot where she lifts Bolshoi from her leglock into this gigantic suplex was also out of this world, and the sequence of nearfalls as the time limit ran out was excellent stuff. I absolutely lost it for Bolshoi's kido clutch. Just a super well executed match, which had enough cool shit in it that 3 wrestlers could steal all the stuff in it and each one would be considered really fresh and unique in 2021.

MD: This had a little bit of everything (and no, I won't make an "and the clowns too" joke) and it was all good. Speed, tenacity, and technique vs incredible strength and daring, full of escalation, callbacks, payoff. It was equally smooth as silk and gritty as hell, from the opening matwork to the crowd brawling in the chairs to the holds later on to the bombs at the end. They made each other work for everything but it was often still pretty to watch. Nothing was easy. Kuragaki would power towards the ropes after being stuck in an Octopus only for Bolshoi to roll it at the last second so as to trap her in a different hold in the ropes. Bolshoi would crotch Kuragaki on the top to stop a top rope move only to get caught in an over the shoulder backbreaker and shrugged down to the floor (only for Kuragaki to wipe out big on the missile dropkick attempt). There was a sense that either could get an advantage on almost any exchange. Maybe Bolshoi would be able to flip around and lock in la mistica or maybe Kuragaki would catch her for an Atlantida that led to a brutal faceplant into the corner. Kuragaki was a great base here, letting Bolshoi fly around her and falling right into her tricked out holds but you had the sense she could swat her like a fly at almost any moment. It made every small victory, even just getting Kuragaki to go for a more desperate, reaching rope break instead of power out of a hold feel important. Ultimately, there was a stretch of advantage from Bolshoi towards the end (after Kuragaki missed another shot off the top; killshot if hits but too much hubris for her size) but she wasn't able to put her away, not there or in a flash pin attempt that followed and the size advantage ended up just too much in the end. Really good stuff though. Everyone should check it out.

ER: Man you could not get more Wrestling Blindspot for me than late 2000s joshi. But since joshi kind of froze in time during the 2000s it is not surprising to see two of my favorites from 2001 JWP tapes were still wrestling in 2009 JWP. I really liked their chemistry and was really impressed with Kurogaki's ability to maneuver Bolshoi around without showing too many seams. This was not at all a go go go spotfest, instead working through some stiff body work and snug submissions before building to some fireworks. There was this really cool early spot where Bolshoi locked in an abdominal stretch and Tsubasa staggered over into the ropes, so Bolshoi rolled under and shifted the hold into a sick bottom rope tarantula. Bolshoi has a neat habit of ending some kind of juniors roll with a stiff strike, so you get cool spots like a Tiger Mask feint that ends in a hard right uppercut or swinging in with a knee, and I loved the way she used the ropes for leverage on a big stomp to the lower back. Tsubasa is great at using her size, powering out of Bolshoi holds and blocking ranas. I loved her lifting Bolshoi into a powerbomb from a rana, then lifting the powerbomb even higher, then lifting her into a splash mountain, before swinging her down into a nasty Iconoclasm. The ending nearfalls were really hot and well timed, didn't feel like wasted flash as they all actually looked like something that could get a flash pin. Joshi is probably the thing we talk about the least on this site, so I love when we pop in to a completely weird point in time for the genre and pull out something cool like this. 

PAS: I am not someone who as a rule searches out rare Joshi, but this was pretty great. You felt like these two ladies were a great matched pair, and this felt like a killer WCW Rey Jr. TV match, with a great base. I adored all of Bolshoi's tricked out spinning kneebar attacks, just momentously cool shit and a great way for someone so much smaller to stay in the game. Kuragaki hit some big throws out of those attacks and did a great job selling and putting over Bolshoi while remaining big and menacing. 

Iceberg vs. Bobby Hayes UIW 10/15/16

MD: I was a little apprehensive for the first few minutes here as the chain was a non factor from the start except for to prevent any distance between the two, but once Iceberg got massive color (blood all over the floor color) and Hayes started to really use the chain, it really picked up. Iceberg was always going to come back but the big turning point was him hitting his hand on the post. You got the sense that he had a window to open Hayes up and since he didn't manage to do it, time and blood loss were against him from there on in. Hayes would go to the hand now and again to keep control and Iceberg would get a little bit of hope but there was a weird sense of inevitability to this on the back end given who was in there. Once it got going it was good though. Though I bet it served its purpose for the indy, it was a little too one-sided overall to climb over the Fun barrier to Great or Epic.

PAS: This was really fun stuff as you would expect from an Iceberg chain match in a Southern indy. It is weird to see later career Iceberg, he had lost so much weight, that he just wasn't the elemental force he was when he was younger. He is bigger then Hayes, but not much bigger and is working as an underneath babyface which is an odd role for him. He is good at it though, bleeds a bunch, times his comebacks well, throws cool punches. Still he was so protected for so long in Cornelia, it is strange to watch him dominated and beaten clean.

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New Footage Friday: Great American Bash 7/16/88

Larry Zbyszko/Rip Morgan vs. Tim Horner/Bugsy McGraw

ER: Really dug Zbyszko in this one. With these raw footage shows it's always great to here more ring noises, and here we got Zbyszko shit talking Horner and yelling at Morgan to pull McGraw's hair. My favorite part of the match was when Larry tagged in and kicks Bugsy in the stomach, and then punches him three times right in the side of the head. I am becoming so much of a Larry guy. Rip Morgan works this like Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds, and it's pretty great. His heel crazy was a nice counterpoint to babyface Bugsy. And Morgan is good at being that stumbling type of bully who Horner can do all his graceful armdrags to. Horner is always a treat to watch, a real underrated babyface who should have been bigger. He just seems like a nice guy. I liked the fun simplicity of this.

MD: This never really had the depth for anything to set in. It felt like the cliff notes version of a match. I wonder if that was frustrating for them since there was so much repetition on this tour. I imagine they were just glad to get paid. Horner and Larry looked solid. McGraw was a poor man's Valiant by this point, but the shtick of him reacting to the Haka was obviously well worked out by this point. None of the hope spots or transitions or finished felt earned. Larry worked hard, bumping around the ring.

Ronnie Garvin vs. Itallion Stallion

ER: This was great. It goes about a minute, and heel Ronnie Garvin is now my favorite wrestler. I need to see all of the post NWA champ Garvin, because he was the smuggest asshole here and it was the best. Garvin does a fake towel toss to the crowd, and the crowd HATES him and it makes Italian Stallion a big babyface. Garvin sure doesn't let him do much with that though. This whole thing is Garvin faking an ankle injury off a leapfrog, really well, and the entire crowd getting louder and louder the longer he fakes it. It's classic, simple stuff, but Garvin is a much better actor than he's ever gotten credit for. The crowd knows exactly what's happening and they are desperately trying to warn this goof Italian Stallion that they've been forced into cheering by default. And of course, Garvin, after begging off and holding his ankle in agony, hops off and finishes off Stallion with one shot, sitting on his chest for the pinfall with the greatest grin. 1988 Ronnie Garvin is the best.

MD: One of my favorite sub 1-minute matches in forever. I'm not sure I've ever seen much of this short heel run and we were robbed of something long and meaningful. He was such a glorious dick, demanding to wrestle in one ring instead of the other, having Hart force Tony to announce him as the former world champion, almost immediately faking a knee injury, popping up for the fist of stone and then sitting on Stallion for the win. What a glorious jerk. Can you imagine him riding into 89 with this gimmick as a foil for guys like Sting and Steamboat?

PAS: Matt and Eric pretty much cover it, but man I want to third the greatness of Ronnie Garvin. His career is basically over four years after this match, but this version of Ronnie Garvin should have had another decade of just being a heel dipshit.

Dick Murdoch vs. Gary Royal

ER: The raw footage is a blessing for Dick Murdoch matches, as the way this match is shot is almost cinematic. This is Dick Murdoch in a John Cassavetes movie. He even looks like David Rowlands. The camera is in so tight on everything, and this honestly feels like the greatest footage ever filmed of Murdoch. And Murdoch is perfection. He holds headlocks, ignores Teddy Long, throws hard elbows across Royal's throat, throws punishing stomps from the apron, and the camera zooms in extra close every time Murdoch locks in a headlock and throws his greatest ever headlock punch. This cameraman knew what people wanted to see. Murdoch struts around the ring and ringside area so cockily, really taking his time to lay down a beating on Royal. I especially like him throwing Royal into the scaffolding that was set up at ringside; Royal took a couple great hard chest bumps right into it. Murdoch hits a gorgeous brainbuster, really holding that vertical suplex for a long time before dropping him, and that toothless grin he flashes during the pinfall is right up there with the greatest things I've ever seen in wresting. I would watch a match like this every time over a "great match".

MD: A great lost Murdoch squash. His interactions with Teddy Long here were just off the chart. We're blessed here by the lack of commentary, since you can hear all the jawing perfectly. He was a bit like a poked bear as Royal kept trying to take advantage early, and then when he came unleashed after Long admonishes him, he just used the entirety of the ring, including the scaffold and the apron to demolish the poor jerk. The delay before the brainbuster was the icing on the cake.

Rick Steiner vs. Jimmy Garvin

ER: What a fun 90 seconds of pro wrestling. The fans are louder for Jimmy Garvin than they are for maybe anyone so far on this card. Rick Steiner looks super formidable, really crashing into Garvin with a hard lariat and big punches to the head. When Garvin starts firing back the crowd really loses it. Kevin Sullivan gets involved, Steiner grabs Garvin for a powerslam, and Garvin gets the great small package surprise win. This was 90 seconds, but was a great use of 90 seconds.

MD: Good aggression from Steiner. Great punches from Garvin. This was ultimately nothing, but the way the crowd rallied behind Garvin and Precious was one of those things you wouldn't believe on paper. Garvin felt like the biggest babyface in the world here when he went to save Precious from Sullivan. You have to love this crowd.

The Rock n Roll Express vs. The Sheepherders

MD: This never quite settled down, but in a good way. Once they got past the initial goofiness with the flag things were pretty loose and chaotic. Morgan was a near constant presence and they weaved him in and out of the match believably enough. The Sheepherders had some memorable driving kneedrops and their usual ability to create an atmosphere of violence. The finish matched things well, coming out nowhere but feeling believable and triumphant.

ER: This ruled. I love how the Sheepherders match up against a team like the Rock n Rolls; Butch Miller especially always bumps around big for babyface offense (he had a fantastic bump from the ring to the apron to the floor here) and the Sheepherders work viciously enough that they come off like a threat. I love when the Rock n Rolls match the savagery of their opponents, and Ricky always comes off so tough against roughneck types. This felt like a real chaotic brawl, Rock n Rolls hitting crossbodies on both Sheepherders, Ricky taking a super fast bump to through the ropes to the hard floor, Butch hitting a great leaping fistdrop, everyone throwing punches. This is the kind of constant motion wrestling that I want.

Brad Armstrong vs. Al Perez

MD: I liked this but didn't love it. A lot of it was by the numbers, with the heel getting more and more frustrated at getting outwrestled until he took over by roughhousing, etc. Hope spots, comeback, the good type of heel manager finish with a leg grab. Like I said, a lot to like. For a cold match, the crowd was into it. Perez could be pretty emotive when he was getting clowned. He had some fun offense. Hart was very effective on the outside. The hope spots were really spirited, with Brad just flying across the ring at one point, and the comeback had a great revenge spot with a slam to the floor. There was just a disconnect when Perez was on offense. His stuff looked good but it didn't flow. There was a story they could have told following up on Brad's back and building to the hope spots and cut offs better and it just didn't happen. This would have been a great opening match on a more balanced card but without an underlying reason for the fans to care and even with the effort put in, it was more of a testament to the crowd than the match that this was still fairly over.

ER: This is the first match of the card that I wasn't super into. It just felt a little long, Al Perez threw on a chinlock for awhile, felt pretty time filler. There were some inspired moments, like Armstrong interacting with Hart on the floor and getting slammed into the scaffolding, or Armstrong's brief but fiery comeback down the stretch. But this match was a little too dry in the middle of a card that's been checking off all my boxes.

Midnight Express/Jim Cornette vs. The Fantastics

ER: The Midnights' gear is the stuff of wrestling miracles. Eaton is an Alabama crop top, kneepads over beat up jeans, a flat out gorgeous outfit for a bunkhouse match. Stan is dressed like a front row Malibu aerobics boy toy, tank top and pink/turquoise bike shorts and shag. Fantastics are both wearing tank tops, jeans, kneepads over jeans. It's the fucking code and everybody looks like the encyclopedia image for "What to Wear to a Fucking Bunkhouse Match". It's incredible. And this whole entire match is as great as it looks on paper. Bobby Eaton was god level here, it was the best in ring performance I've ever seen from Cornette, Stan Lane had meathead frustration bumping down to a science, and The Fantastics were throwing punches like the best fired up babyfaces. I think Bobby Fulton is underrated as hell, and his exchanges with Bobby were flat out pro wrestling punch master classes. You wanna punch? You watch the Bobby's. Throw Bobby Heenan and Bobby Blaze into that mix. Eaton vs. Fulton was awesome the whole match through, Eaton going from vicious puncher to man taking highest backdrop. When the match broke down they had a fantastic chairshot sequence, with Fulton bashing Bobby with a metal folding chair. As someone who great up with the weird wooden folding chairs of WWF, it's always shocking for me when I see metal chairshots to the head in the 80s. Fulton's shots to Eaton's head looked great, and Eaton would get his hand up while looking like he was getting totally obliterated by these shots. He take ones in the aisleway that the super hot crowd flips out for.

Now, James E. Cornette may have been the superstar of the match. As great as Nick Patrick looked in my absolute dream of a match against Jericho, Cornette looked here. This was the best in ring Cornette I have ever seen. He dropped an elbow on the floor, two picture perfect fistdrops, a great leaping elbowdrop, and some genuine top 20 all time punches. His punches were hot fire, and when it came time for him to bump for the Fantastics you know he flew into offense like he was Heenan. This was the kind of 15 minutes of wrestling that makes me love all of this so much.

The Road Warriors vs. Ivan Koloff/Russian Assassin #1

PAS: I am a scaffold match fan. I can just imagine how insane it must be to watch live, knowing you might see a murder. Ivan was especially great at teasing death, and Animal even tried a dropkick. Hawk and Russian Assassin spent most of the match brawling near the ends of the scaffold which had guardrails, which is kind of pussy. I don't need you to die, but at least tease me a bit.

MD: Not a ton to say here. As scaffold matches go, this was ok. The falls were bs, but are we really going to complain about that in 2019, especially knowing they had to work this match around the loop? In general, I was impressed with how well they moved around up there. A little can go a long way in a setting like this. The fans, again, were generous, happy with all of this, especially the half-baked falls. Great crowd.

ER: Yeah Scaffold matches are a gimmick match I absolutely adore. I couldn't imagine how much I'd be flipping out if I saw a scaffold match live. I would be standing the whole time with my mouth wide open. The Dundee/Koko 2/3 falls scaffold match was my #1 match of the 80s Memphis project. They come off so scary to me! Look at how narrow this damn thing is! Look at how HIGH this thing is! It is one of my all time favorite gimmicks and too many people undersell what a damn attraction a scaffold match can be. THIS crowd knew exactly how big a treat they were getting, and I was right there with them. It turns out Ivan Koloff is a master of scaffold matches. I need to know what other Koloff scaffold matches exist on tape, because I want to write about them. Koloff is the guy running around up there, he's the guy taking big bumps for Animal, he's the guy who takes a ridiculously high fall while swinging from the bottom of the scaffold, he's the one falling dangerously close to the edge; Koloff was 45 years old here. He's the oldest non-JJ Dillon guy on the card and he's in the running for craziest guy on the card. Animal tries throwing a dropkick and it doesn't totally hurt, but Koloff makes it special by getting bounced dangerously close to the edge butt first, and later Animal and Koloff both hang off the edges and the bottom in fun ways. Hawk and Assassin (who was Angel of Death) play it safer on the edge with a guardrail, but even that railing was rickety as hell so I was still feeling the danger. Scaffold matches are the ultimate gimmick attraction for me, and this didn't let me down at all.

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