Mike Reviews World Championship Wrestling – 28.04.84

Happy Friday Everyone!

We’ve got some World Championship Wrestling today, with an hour of good old fashioned wrestling from WTBS courtesy of F+C. This week we’ve got Ric Flair showing up for some promos, whilst Ted DiBiase and the Road Warriors will see in-ring action. Decent star power there and we’ll hopefully have some fun squashes and interview segments

I tried to find the full card for this episode of World Championship Wrestling, but Cage Match looks to be a bit confused about the line-up. I’ll post it below anyway and any history buffs can let us know why we’ve got the mix up

World Championship Wrestling Card – 28th April 1984

World Championship Wrestling is emanating from the WTBS Studios in Atlanta, Georgia

Calling the action are Gordon Solie and Ole Anderson

Gordon Solie welcomes us to the show and brings in Ole Anderson, who confirms that we’ll see Ric Flair later on. NWA World Television Champion Ronnie Garvin joins us to try and set up some matches with Jake Roberts and Ric Flair. I’m sure both of those matches would be worth buying a ticket for. Garvin was a bit dull on the mic, but he could go in the ring at least. Garvin notably talks about Flair having two women on the show with him last week, implying that they were models hired especially for the show. That will come up later on

Match One
Mike Starbuck Vs Ted DiBiase

Starbuck is an enhancement guy who normally got walloped every week, with DiBiase one of the hottest talents in the whole NWA at the time, so I think we can all predict how this one is going to go. DiBiase looks great here, as he out wrestles Starbuck in aggressive fashion. DiBiase didn’t really get a chance to properly out wrestle people in the WWF as he was a Heel in there with much bigger opponents, so he usually had to bump around a lot and use Heel tactics. Here though DiBiase is presented as a high level technician who pretty much dominates the bout, outside of a brief section where Starbuck is allowed some token offence. DiBiase pulls Starbuck up a couple of times when he has the bout won, and eventually puts Starbuck away with the Figure Four Leg Lock.

WINNER: TED DIBIASE
RATING: SQUASH

Thoughts: An excellent squash match, as DiBiase wiped the mat with poor Starbuck and looked like a real star whilst doing so. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see more of this DiBiase when he was in the WWF

Match Two
Mike Jackson Vs Sweet Brown Sugar

Jackson was widely regarded as one of the best of the enhancement talent crew. There are three people on Cage Match with the name Sweet Brown Sugar, one of whom was Koko B. Ware, but he was in Memphis in 1984 so this wouldn’t be him. This is actually a competitive match, with the two doing some nice back and forth technical wrestling and rope running spots at points. The momentum ebbs and flows, with each wrestler getting a chance to do something. The crowd seems to be enjoying themselves, and neither wrestler is really playing Heel here. Sugar eventually counters a Sunset Flip into a pinning hold of his own for three.

WINNER: SWEET BROWN SUGAR
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: Totally fine short TV match there, with each wrestler looking decent and the live crowd in the studio enjoying the grappling on display. Fun stuff

There’s a big show at The Omni on the 6th May 1984, with The Road Warriors taking on King Kong Bundy and The Masked Superstar at the top of the bill. Also The Anderson’s EXPLODE when Ole takes on Arn. I can imagine that match being gruff and gritty. Starting a show at 8:30pm on a Sunday feels ludicrously late though, especially if you have to be up on Monday morning for work

Tommy Rogers and Brad Armstrong are going to be in Marietta, Georgia taking on Les Thornton and The Spoiler respectively. Both of those matches would probably be fun

Gordon talks about Hacksaw “Bruce” Reed coming in soon, which I think must have been a typo on the teleprompter and it’s actually BUTCH Reed coming in?

Match Three
Randy Barber and Joe Turner Vs Brad Armstrong and “Hands of Stone” Ronnie Garvin

Ric Flair joins the commentary desk during this one, as a result of Garvin talking about him earlier. Flair notes that the lovely women who were on the show with him last week weren’t hired models but just lady friends of his. Flair is of course mortally offended that someone would suggest that he has to HIRE women to appear with him. I’d like to think that Garvin could have called Flair a weakling who couldn’t beat an egg and Flair would have been less offended than the suggestion that he couldn’t pull some fit birds on his own. Armstrong and Garvin control this one with ease, with Armstrong trying to wrestle with the enhancement guys whilst Garvin just focuses on torturing them, as he was want to do. Armstrong eventually catches Barber with the Ukrainian Leg Sweep and that’s the three count.

WINNERS: ARMSTRONG & GARVIN
RATING: SQUASH

Thoughts: The match was a backdrop for the Flair Vs Garvin issue, but it worked well enough on that front. Garvin destroying enhancement guys is always a sight to behold as well

Flair calls Garvin over to the interview area following the match and tries to slap Garvin due to the aforementioned comments from Garvin that Flair had to hire some models. Flair being so irrationally angry about that accusation is hilarious. You can say or do whatever you want to Ric Flair, just don’t imply that he needs help with the ladies!

Gordon lets us know that there is a big show at the Meadowlands on the 29th May, which I think ended up being a cross-promoted event with multiple promotions getting involved

Match Four
Jerry Ellis Vs Nikolai Volkoff

Volkoff couldn’t have been far away from heading to the WWF at this stage I think (a trip to Cage Match reveals that Volkoff was in the WWF by the summer of 1984 in fact). Ellis is just here as a warm body to get clattered by the big faux Russian (Volkoff is actually from Lithuania), and that’s what happens here. Volkoff mostly just stomps and punches, but he does get an impressive looking Back Breaker for the three count.

WINNER: NIKOLAI VOLKOFF
RATING: SQUASH

Thoughts: Volkoff looked big and imposing but his offence was kind of dull so it felt like a bit of a flat squash, even though Ellis did his job correctly as the enhancement guy

Match Five
Bond, Roger Bond Vs National Heavyweight Champion The Spoiler w/ Paul Ellering

Ellering has his arm in a sling here, which I believe was courtesy of King Kong Bundy. Spoiler is a big masked guy, who surprisingly doesn’t spend the bout telling the crowd what the results of the upcoming matches on the show are going to be. Spoiler mostly punches and chokes Bond, with Bond selling it all well enough. Bond basically gets mauled for the majority of the contest, with the Face Claw eventually being enough for Spoiler to get the three count

WINNER: THE SPOILER
RATING: SQUASH

Thoughts: Spoiler just slaughtered Bond from start to finish, so it was an effective squash at making him look big and scary. He didn’t expect him to talk, he just expected him to die

Jake Roberts cuts a promo on Ronnie Garvin, but The Road Warriors get annoyed at Roberts suggesting that he’s the best member of the Legion of DOOM Heel faction and crash the promo to cut one of their own

Match Six
Jason Walker and Bob Brown Vs National Tag Team Champions The Road Warriors (Road Warrior Hawk and Road Warrior Hawk w/ Paul Ellering

Walker and Brown actually manage to make it past the 30 second mark, which is impressive for an enhancement team taking on The Roadies. The Road Warriors were still wearing leather pants at this stage and hadn’t moved to their more recognisable red and black tights yet. The Road Warriors just destroy the enhancement guys, with Walker in particular taking some great bumps for them in order to make them look like absolute monsters. Animal in particular looks like he just breaks Walker in half with a Back Breaker at one stage. Hawk ends up nearly taking Walker’s head off with a clothesline and that’s enough for three.

WINNERS: ROAD WARRIORS
RATING: SQUASH

Thoughts: There’s a reason The Road Warriors got so over, and it’s mainly because they were fantastic at squashing people, as this bout highlighted quite nicely

Match Seven
Dale Veasey Vs Tommy Rogers

This is the stand-by match whilst TV time is still remaining, so we’ll see if we get a finish here or if they just have them wrestle until the time limit runs out. The match is mostly a backdrop for Ole Anderson to hype up his match with Arn Anderson at The Omni, leading to Ric Flair heading down to the commentary desk to demand a TV match with Ronnie Garvin for Garvin’s TV Title. The match itself is competitive, with Veasey not just being an enhancement guy there to put Rogers over. There’s a brief moment where a rope running spot goes awry and Rogers has to unload with elbows to get them back on track, but that’s the only real time that there’s an issue, with the rest of the match being solidly executed. Rogers catches Veasey with a Powerslam OUTTA NOWHERE and that’s the three count.

WINNER: TOMMY ROGERS
RATING: **

Thoughts: Decent enough quick competitive match that gave Rogers a win in order to heat him up for a challenge of Les Thornton’s Junior Heavyweight Title

In Conclusion:

A solid hour of World Championship Wrestling. You know what you’re getting with this show, which is mostly squash matches and promos, and in most cases all of those delivered this week, so the show was an easy thumbs up as a result

You can check out some more World Championship Wrestling reviews courtesy of Scott Keith