The SmarK Rant for Georgia Championship Wrestling – 01.12.80

The SmarK Rant for Georgia Championship Wrestling – 01.12.80

Back to Georgia because someone asked me nicely for their birthday.

Taped from Atlanta, GA

Your host is Gordon Solie

We pick this one up with Tony Atlas kind of fearful to face Ken Patera because he’s powerful too, but he’ll rassle a gorilla if need be.

Meanwhile, Abdullah the Butcher joins us on Worldwide, now managed by The Great Mephisto. Apparently the sands will run red with blood if Abby doesn’t win the World title. Duly noted.

Dusty Rhodes joins us, as Gordon introduces him as a “rap master”. He’s no PN News. He’s here to tell it like it is, which is that Abdullah is the baddest and Dusty wants the baddest, so they’re gonna conduct some business in the Omni.

The Masked Superstar joins us and no one is gonna take the Georgia title from him, least of all Mr. Wrestling II. He’s the brick wall at the end of the road! But tomorrow night he’ll be defending against Wrestling II and he’s gonna tear the insides out and walk away with a white mask.

Meanwhile, Gordon chats with the fake Wrestling II, who has decided to stay in wrestling, and does a babyface promo about how he took $5000 from Superstar to ruin his reputation, but now he’s apologized to Wrestling II and will unmask to show how sorry he was. But then the jobber in the ring attacks him first, so he goes into the ring and finishes with the kneelift at 0:18. And then Masked Superstar hits the ring and does the unmasking himself, brutalizing the fake Wrestling II and putting him out with the cobra sleeper. But the real Wrestling II saves his faker and goes over for an interview, at which point Superstar runs back out and BLINDSIDES him with a great shot from behind, before II regroups and chases him off again. This was tremendous chaos. So then Tommy Rich comes out and does a promo on behalf of II, who is having trouble breathing after the attack, and then Wrestling II calls Superstar a PUNK and he’s gonna tear him apart at the Omni tomorrow night.

Next up, Lars Anderson stops by and he hopes Superstar gets run out of the state. I’ve never had any exposure to Lars, actually. I only know of him.

Tommy Rich joins Gordon again as we switch to the second hour and Tommy is looking forward to 1980. He beat all of Harley Race’s bounty opponents, so now he’s got a contract to face Harley all over the south for the NWA World title.

Toru Tanaka joins us to show off his wood-breaking skills, as introduced by manager Gorgeous George Jr. So he sets up 8 boards and can’t chop through them, so he uses an elbow to do it instead. “Ah, American boards #1” he notes to explain the failure on the first try. Next up, he breaks some boards with his head and then tries to break a concrete block, but fails, so he uses the elbow again. I don’t want to make any accusations, but those pieces all split exactly in the middle in two clean pieces. I’M JUST SAYING.

Killer Khan v. Gerald Finlay

Khan is another charge of George Jr, who feels like a pretty significant downgrade from Bobby Heenan. Khan does the test of strength with Finlay while Tanaka looks on, and then hits him with an elbow on the ropes. Khan puts the boots to him but Gerald fights back and dropkicks him before whipping him into the corner. FULL BODY LIFT AND SLAM and kneedrop gets two. Man the crowd is being mean to Killer Khan. Mongolians have feelings too, you know. Khan drops him on the top rope a few times and puts him down with a knee, then puts him in the dreaded STOMACH CLAW, which Finlay quickly escapes even though Gordon told me that he can’t escape. And then Khan reapplies it after a suplex to finish at 5:11. I’d like to see him try to do that on Rick Rude.

Gorgeous George Jr joins Gordon with his men, and they’re facing the team of Ole and Lars Anderson in the Omni tomorrow night.

Masked Superstar joins Gordon and he now has a pair of Wrestling II masks, one from the real thing and one from the imposter. And he’s going to keep collecting them because he’s the champion and thus he’s the DICTATOR. Whoever he says, goes.

Kevin Sullivan v. Sammy Hall

Hall tries to attack and Kevin smacks him down and drops an elbow on him before slugging away on the mat. Double stomp and spinning toehold finishes at 0:44. Afterwards, Kevin and his new partner Steve Travis join Gordon to discuss the upcoming US tag team title tournament. So then Gordon takes us back to Florida, as Sullivan teams with Mike Graham to face the Lewis brothers. The Lewis Brothers work on Graham with headlocks, but Sullivan gets a hot tag and runs wild. And then Gordon cuts the footage and notes that Sullivan and Graham went on to win the tag team titles, but then Kevin immediately left the territory and abandoned the tag titles and Graham. Kevin doesn’t want to talk about it because it was sensitive and personal, though.

Austin Idol joins us and wonders why everyone is screaming his name in the area if there’s supposed to be all these more famous and more popular wrestlers around him.

Georgia TV title: Steve Travis v. Austin Idol

Travis apparently upset Idol for the title in the episode we’re missing, and this is the automatic rematch. Idol takes him down with a headlock, but Travis controls with armdrags and goes to work on the arm. So Idol uses the hair to take him down and goes to a top wristlock, but Travis gets frustrated and slugs away in the corner. Travis with a headlock, but he walks into a high knee from Idol. Austin goes to work with a kneedrop, but Travis fights back again, so Idol blocks a charge and gets a pin in the corner with the ropes. But the ref catches him and Travis rolls him up for two. Slam gets two. Travis with the bulldog because he’s a cowboy, but Idol is in the ropes. Another bulldog, but Idol runs him into the corner to block it and then takes him down for the figure-four with time running out, and Travis gives up at 6:12 to make Idol the TV champion again. He only had to hang on for like 12 seconds and the show would have been over! I’m never gonna believe in any so-called cowboy from Virginia ever again.

This Superstar v. Wrestling II thing is a hell of a deal, get your tickets for the Omni show NOW. Time travel likely required but still.