Dark Match Legends: Vic Grimes vs. Erin O'Grady

Vic Gimes vs. Erin O'Grady WWF 1/20

ER: This is one of those legendary "both men were signed" tryout matches, two acclaimed APW students getting a dark match on a local Raw taping and tearing things down. Grimes and O'Grady had some great APW matches and this was a super condensed version of the best parts of those matches, two guys fully understanding all of the fireworks they could bring to grab attention from strangers. O'Grady had some mind blowing athleticism that was never present in this specific way once he became Crash a year later. He is so damn nimble here, and the way he moves in the first two minutes of this match are just as impressive as the first time I saw guys like Low Ki or Amazing Red. He gets from point A to point B in surprisingly quick ways and has really impressive body control. There's this wild bump where he gets lifted high up in the Savage/Steamboat choke, thrown down hard on the back of his neck, but somehow just absorbs this concussion worthy drop and floats back up to his feet with a kip up. O'Grady gets to the apron and up to the top rope for a missile dropkick so damn fast that the crowd is buzzing just watching him leap to the top rope.  

Of course, so much of O'Grady's offense wouldn't be possible without the sincerely top drawer base work of Vic Grimes. Grimes caught hurricanranas better than anyone, and O'Grady was athletic enough to effortlessly pull off ranas leaping off the top rope and a fly dragonrana that flipped him into the ring from the apron. These two were real dance partners, a west coast Reckless Youth/Mike Quackenbush. Grimes manages to steal the show away from O'Grady's athleticism and make it all about his crazy high slam offense and even crazier bumps. Grimes takes such an insanely huge bump on a missed avalanche, like Sgt. Slaughter's bump with 50 extra pounds, that the crowd takes to him like Jerry Blackwell in Minneapolis. Grimes' fall is so fast and dangerous looking, and as he staggers away he gets wiped out by a full run O'Grady springboard crossbody, Taka Michinoku as leprechaun. Grimes is more than bumps, and has strong big and small attacks. He can really level a guy with a well-aimed back elbow, but then do something extravagant like his sitout torture rack slam, something that looks skeleton shifting.

Grimes manages to outdo his earlier bump with one that should be every bit as legendary as Chris Hamrick's bump against 1-2-3 Kid. Vic sets up and elbow smashes O'Grady into a folding chair (after smashing that chair against his own head at ringside, a dark match gesture done only to entertain the dozens directly at ringside. When Grimes gets into the ring and runs into a head of steam off the opposite side ropes, you don't think there's any way you're about to see what you're about to see. No way. Grimes is too big and shaped like a way larger Mick Foley. Grimes was a really nice man, a guy nice enough to drive up and be my interview guest on my college radio show. He was really open about his dumbest bumps and honest about saying things that he shouldn't have said. He proposed to Vince McMahon the he be brought in as Mick Foley's brother, a team of hardcore psychos pushing each other to bigger stunts. It's a great idea on paper, but imagine just being the lunatic who pushes to the owner of the company that you should be immediately affiliated with one of the biggest stars in the company. I love it. 

Grimes runs off the ropes and flings his surprisingly limber body to the floor, flattering the now empty folding chair and making a dark match crowd that was still arriving the likely biggest bump any of them had ever seen. They are completely in Grimes' back pocket. Later in the match Grimes climbs to the top rope with impressive balance BACKING UP the ropes to the top, crashing and burning off a missed somersault elbowdrop. Grimes is great at bumping his opponent back to control, and O'Grady gets to show off in ways that even Juvy hadn't invented yet. Grimes shows off that base ability taking a  springboard tornado DDT, crazy flipping dragonrana from the apron, but catches the next one and tossing O'Grady into the air for a cutter. Grimes was a big fat Rupert Pupkin out there, showing up unknown and crushing every joke, catching every rana and sticking the landing on increasingly bigger and more dangerous spots. I'm lucky I got to go to a lot of APW shows in my formative teenage wrestling fan years, and this match deserves it's legendary tryout status. They brought something different to a crowd who didn't know to even expect it.