The SmarK Rant for Texas Championship Wrestling – 10.27.80

I’m just cruising the WWE Network for something different to watch tonight and HOLY SHIT, the entire Hidden Gems library is now back on the site again, sorted into categories and everything. I don’t think I ever reviewed this show back when they were dropping the Hidden Gems back in, what, 2018? But it caught my eye here so let’s give it a look, as it’s the precursor to World Class Championship Wrestling. And if I’ve reviewed it before, hey, shit happens, but it’s not in my collection anywhere so I doubt it.

Taped from the Sportatorium in Dallas TX, which you kids may know better as the world famous GLOBALDOME. The actual promotion is Fritz’s Big Time Wrestling, but the show is called Texas Championship Wrestling for whatever reason.

Your host is Boyd Pierce, also doing ring announcing.

Killer Tim Brooks v. Ted Heath

Notably this has none of the production values that would define World Class just a few years after this. Very generic “Texas Championship Wrestling” graphic and music and a static shot of the ring from the hard cam. Heath hits Brooks with a pair of uppercuts to stagger him on the ropes and goes to a hammerlock, but Brooks reverses, so Heath does a nifty flip over Tim and lands back in the original hammerlock again. Well that was very European. Heath takes him down with a headscissors while Boyd really sells the shit out of our main event tonight, an 8 man loser-leaves-Texas match with the Von Erichs v. Gary Hart’s stable. I’M ALREADY WATCHING THE SHOW, YOU DON’T HAVE TO SELL ME! But I appreciate the thought. They do a test of strength and Brooks tries to boot him down, but Heath rolls out of it and takes Brooks down with a wristlock. Finally Brooks hits him with a cheap knee on the ropes to take over and drops a knee on him, but Heath grabs the arm and goes right back to twisting on it again. So Brooks takes him to the corner for a cheapshot with his chain and drops knees on Heath before going to a bearhug. The fans are surprisingly enthused for the short pudgy English dude, I will say. Heath manages to make the ropes and they fall to the floor, where Heath steals Tim’s chain and gets some shots of his own, as Brooks runs away to the dressing room in terror. He wanders back to beat the count, but Heath grabs the chain again and chases Brooks into the crowd again. Back in the ring, Brooks takes him down and goes after the leg with time running out, but Brooks gets his knees up to block a splash and finishes him with a legdrop at 13:00. A very watchable opener. **1/4

The Masked Jackal v. Brian Blair

The announcement is that Jackal is taking the place of Bulldog Brower, who was injured by David Von Erich, which causes the bloodthirsty crowd to CHEER. That’s cold. Blair, still fairly green and not long out of university, takes the Jackal down with a headlock and works on that for a while. Boyd notes that the only thing keeping all three Von Erichs from being World champion right now is the fact that only man can be NWA World champion at any one time. Well, yes, they are dreamy but can’t defy the laws of time and space, unfortunately. But Fritz probably tried to bribe someone to make it happen. Blair holds onto a facelock, but the Jackal hits a cheapshot to take over. Blair makes a comeback and slugs him down for two, but the Jackal goes to a headlock while Blair goes after the mask and nearly gets it off. Blair keeps going for the mask, but Jackal headbutts him and yanks him around by the hair as this drags badly. Jackal misses a legdrop and Blair hits him with an atomic drop and goes to the middle rope for an elbow. Abdominal stretch into the rollup finishes at 12:00. * Sadly, he’s unable to unmask the Jackal this time. I mean, if they had Cagematch back in 1980 he could just look it up and expose him that way.

Oddly enough, although Cagematch has this show listed, even they don’t know the identity of the mysterious Jackal.

Afterwards, Blair talks with Boyd about doing exercises to keep in shape and telling kids to stay away from “the drugs and cigarettes and stuff”. Strong words.

Crusher Stan Stasiak v. Bruiser Brody

They do a HOSS FIGHT right away and slug it out, then both retreat to the floor and threaten each other some more. Back in the ring, Stan goes for the heart punch, but Brody grabs the fist and blocks it. I say this every time I watch a Stasiak match, but “Buzzard Creek Oregon” is like an S-tier heel hometown. It’s up there with “Bucksnort Tennessee” or “The Double Cross Ranch in Amarillo Texas” on the Mount Rushmore of awesome city names for heels. Stasiak takes Brody down with a nerve pinch, but Brody has had enough and just beats the shit out of him in the corner and puts the furry boots to him. Stasiak bails to the floor and Brody and runs him into the apron, but he misses a kneedrop and Stan beats him down to take over again. And then he loads up his taped fist, knocks out Brody, and gets the pin at 4:27. This was WILD for a TV match in 1980 and is well worth a look. ***

Elimination tag match: David, Kevin & Fritz Von Erich & Bruiser Brody v. Gino Hernandez, Stan Stasiak, Pak Song & Gary Young

So the first loser of this has to leave Texas for 6 months, unless it’s a Von Erich, because they live there. Young goes after Brody to start, so Bruiser brings in David and he takes Young down with the armbar and the heels come in to break it up and trigger a brawl. Over to Gino, so Kevin tags in and beats on him in the corner to continue their feud, and Gino runs away. Back to Gary Young, who goes to a facelock. This is so early in Kevin’s career that he’s still wearing boots! Pak Song comes in and beats on Kevin with chops, but Kevin drops an elbow on him and puts him in the IRON CLAW at 4:10 to eliminate him and send him out of Texas. We take a break and return with Kevin going after Gino again after a brawl, but he misses a splash and Gino tosses him out of the ring and then chokes him out on the ropes. But Gino leaves his backside exposed, so Fritz takes off his belt and whips Gino with it, which he promised to do before the match. And they continue fighting out of the ring as the show runs out of airtime and the match ends with no winner. It’s odd that they booked it as an elimination match and then only had the one elimination of Pak Song. Why not just have it as a standard 8 man tag, I wonder? Anyway, there was nothing to this one and the young Von Erichs seemed like they were barely out of high school at this point, especially Kevin.

A very interesting oddity, but really it’s only the wild Brody v. Stasiak match that I’d call worth a watch.