The SmarK Rant for GCW in the Omni – 04.22.84

The SmarK Rant for GCW Omni Show – 04.22.84

Well once again the Vault messed up my posting schedule by dropping this on a random Wednesday and thus preventing me from reviewing 86 Worldwide again. So now everything gets moved back by a day. Thanks a bunch, Vault nerds.

https://youtu.be/qOjRvIlEG9c?si=EKEw8awuCTQEviTu

Taped from Atlanta, GA and we’re of course getting really close to the end. Real talk here, because I love the Vault nerds like my own offspring and I really appreciate them posting these Omni shows but for the LOVE OF PETE can we get something that’s not the dying days of the promotion soon? There’s a reason Georgia went out of business.

Tommy Rogers v. Bob Roop

We are Joined In Progress here with them fighting over the lockup, so I presume we haven’t missed much. They trade takedowns and Roop retreats to the corner before Rogers starts working the arm. That goes on for a while and Tommy tries a bodypress, but Roop catches him, so Tommy turns into a sunset flip and then rolls right back into the armbar again on the mat. Roop makes the ropes to escape all that armbar action. Tommy goes to a wristlock on the mat and Roop grabs the ropes to counter him, and then finally gets some heat on him and drops elbows to take over. Bob with a high knee and neckbreaker for two. Roop goes to the abdominal stretch to really get things going hot and heavy and follows with a backbreaker for two. Rogers makes the comeback and slugs him down before dropping a knee on him and he follows with a double stomp, but Roop headbutts him in the gut. Blind charge misses and Rogers gets a sunset flip out of the corner for the pin at 14:00. A very lethargic opener. *1/2

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

I’m not familiar with Rocky Jones, but he sounds like an underneath guy with a body who didn’t really go anywhere. Apparently he was better known as Mike Masters elsewhere. Sugar headlocks both Thornton and then Jones to control them, and then it’s over to Horner for more of the same on Jones. Rocky fights him off and looks kind of lost, so Horner takes him down with another headlock and then switches off with Sugar, who continues the headlocks. Sugar with a sunset flip for two and he goes back to the headlock. Over to Horner, back to the headlock. Finally Thornton comes in and stomps him to break it up, but Sugar switches off behind the ref’s back and grabs another headlock on Jones. Thornton tags himself in, but Horner takes him down with a headlock and at least Thornton knows how to counter out of it. So the heels switch off behind the idiot ref’s back for some easy heat. Then the babyfaces trap Jones in the corner and switch off working his leg. Finally the heels get the heat on Horner and double-him for a bit, before Jones goes to the chinlock. They trap him in the heel corner and cut off the ring as Thornton does the facelock and switches off with Jones while Sugar is all enraged and tries to run in. Finally Horner makes the hot tag and Sugar slugs away on Jones and follows with an atomic drop and missile dropkick for two. Horner dumps Thornton to get rid of him, and then he rolls up Jones to finish at 13:48. This was super generic tag team wrestling but the babyfaces knew exactly how to time the comebacks and they got the crowd into it by the end. **

Jake Roberts v. Brad Armstrong

They do a test of strength and Jake gets a cheapshot and goes to work on the arm off that, but Brad takes him down and Jake slithers to the ropes. Very interesting how he made the whole “snake” gimmick part of his persona before he ever got involved with real reptiles. Jake slugs away in the corner, but Brad whips him into the other corner and goes to work on the back, dropping knees on him as the crowd loses their mind. These people REALLY did not like Jake at this point. Brad with a bearhug and Jake goes limp on the mat, but Brad waits him out and then goes back to it again. So Jake punches him in the mouth to break free, but Brad goes right back to it as we’re 15:00 into the match and most of it has been Brad Armstrong doing a bearhug. Finally Brad tries a splash and misses, hitting Jake’s knees, and he bumps to the floor, where Jake drops him on the railing to take over with help from Paul Ellering. Jake and Paul were a great combo but the idea of JAKE THE SNAKE needing someone to cut promos for him is crazy. Back in the ring, Jake goes for a slam and his back gives out, putting Brad on top for two, but Jake clips him and goes to a chinlock. Brad fights out and makes the comeback with a dropkick for two and a backbreaker for two, and you know the crowd is good and revved up because they go OOOOOOF! with every move. Brad with the legsweep to finish at 23:00, but Jake claims to be in the ropes, so the match continues and Ellering takes the ref. And Jake hits Brad with a cheapshot and puts him down with the DDT for the pin at 23:30. Mostly dull stuff, but the last 10 minutes were really good and the finish was super hot. ***

World TV Title: Ronnie Garvin v. The Spoiler

They fight over the lockup and Spoiler takes him down with a headlock, but he grabs the ropes for leverage and gets caught. Spoiler takes him down in a chinlock and Ron gets to the ropes to break free, but Spoiler goes up to the middle rope and hits him with a forearm for two. Spoiler chokes him out in the ropes and gets two off that, and then yanks on his hair in the ropes and puts the boots to him as there are some REALLY angry rednecks yelling at the hard cam. Elbow gets two. Neckbreaker gets two. Spoiler necks him on the top rope and Garvin takes a nice bump off that, and Spoiler gets two. He keeps trying to work for the pin, but he misses an elbow and the TV title portion of the match expires, so now it’s non-title.

Garvin bails to the floor to regroup after successfully defending the title, and decides to tease bringing a chair with him, and then actually beats on Spoiler a few times before the ref steals it away. I’m guessing it must be no DQ? Garvin goes for the mask and Spoiler hits him in the nuts to escape. Garvin drops knees on him, but he goes up and misses a flying kneedrop. He beats on Spoiler’s ribs and it’s time for FISTICUFFS and that’s probably a bad idea on Spoiler’s part. But no, Spoiler actually puts him down with a forearm to take over and then goes to an abdominal stretch before taking him down to the mat and dropping knees on him for two. Garvin jumps on him with a double stomp and takes him to the post, crotching him repeatedly for big heat. He drops knees on him for two, but Spoiler takes him down and starts working a leglock as we’ve kind of hit a wall with this one. Did they have a bunch of no-shows and just went out and told these guys to do a 30 minute match to fill time? Because it was pretty good after the initial 10 minutes, with Garvin’s fired up comebacks, but now it’s…not. Garvin makes the ropes to escape the kneebar, but Spoiler works the leg on the ropes again and wraps the knee around the post. Garvin makes a brief comeback, but Spoiler stomps the knee down again and Garvin bails to the floor to regoup, throwing punches from out there before slugging away in the corner to make the comeback. Jackknife cradle gets two. Spoiler runs him into the ref to bump him and Garvin makes the comeback, but Paul Ellering hits Garvin in the back to put him down and Spoiler applies the IRON CLAW. Garvin powers up from that and throws punches to the gut while Spoiler hangs onto the claw, but then Spoiler does the ropewalk and Garvin slugs him on the way down and pins him at 36:12. This was WAY too long for what it was. It was fine for most of the way but holy hell did they need to edit it down by 20 minutes. **

The Road Warriors v. King Kong Bundy & Masked Superstar

So the stips here are Superstar’s mask v. Bundy getting five minutes with Paul Ellering. Superstar cranks on Animal’s arm and Bundy comes in and drops a leg on the arm for good measure before getting his own armbar, and it’s over to Hawk. It’s funny because there’s someone in the comments for this show who’s like “This was wrestling when it was real, before all the circus and flaming tables crap!”, as if the old timers in 1984 didn’t literally think the Road Warriors were the death of the wrestling business because they wore makeup and leather to the ring and couldn’t wrestle. Bundy and Superstar double-team Animal and Masked Superstar is a surprisingly effective fired up babyface and I’ve never really seen him do that outside of Ax. Hawk comes in and misses a blind charge, and the babyfaces double-team him in the corner, but Bundy misses an elbow and Hawk goes after the arm. The Warriors use the power of clubbing forearms to keep Bundy in the corner, but Superstar breaks it up and Bundy clobbers Animal and makes the hot tag as they’re rushing through this one in exactly the way they failed to rush through the previous match. But then Hawk cuts him off and Animal slams Superstar for two, and they start going for the mask before Superstar puts Animal down with a headbutt and brings Bundy back in. He drops the big elbow on Animal and gets a rare clean pin on Animal at 7:25, so that earns him 3:00 with Precious Paul. They kept it really short, and it was entertaining as a result. **1/2

King Kong Bundy v. Paul Ellering

Paul tries to run away and gets stopped by Superstar, and the crowd is going so crazy that the ring announcer has to tell everyone to sit down so people can see. Bundy beats on Ellering and chops him down while he begs for mercy, and then Bundy hits him with a press slam and hauls him off the top rope to keep him from running away. Bundy puts him down with a forearm and Ellering continues pleading for his life, but Bundy chops him down one more time and drops the knee on him before picking him up with time running out. And he finally powerslams and pins him with 10 seconds left, and then demands the five count for good measure to wrap it up at 3:00. Well, the man got his money’s worth out of that one.

This was…fine. You could tell there wasn’t a lot of roster depth left here, but the crowd was still rabid for most of it. Once again, I really wish we’d get more 82 and 83 stuff from when the promotion was on fire in a GOOD way. But early Road Warriors is always fascinating stuff.