The SmarK Rant for GCW at the Omni – 02.05.84

The SmarK Rant for GCW at the Omni – 02.05.84

Originally written 02.06.26

Don’t have to ask me twice.

Also, day 2 of taking the Macbook back to Sequoia and it’s a delight to work on and type things, although it’s very aggressively trying to convince me to upgrade back to Tahoe again and I’m getting a little salty about it because I feel like it’s going to “accidentally” update one night and destroy all my hard work restoring it to glory. NO MEANS NO, TIM APPLE!

Also completely unrelated but I started playing Yakuza: Like A Dragon because I bought it on PS5 years ago and completely forgot about it and it’s DELIGHTFUL. I had tried getting into the previous Yazuka games, most notably Yakuza Zero, but I never liked the fighting system, and Like a Dragon uses a turn-based RPG system like Mario RPG and it’s exactly what I wanted. I’ll probably check out Infinite Wealth and the pirate game at some point as well because I’m pretty sure I bought them and they’re sitting in my collection somewhere.

Taped from Atlanta, GA, in the dying days of the promotion

As always, no commentary here.

https://youtu.be/MbWtYEYydEw?si=sPvlloLEk90MJXUh

Jesse Barr v. Johnny Rich

Barr was still doing the weird thing where he’d play “Mr. Wrestling” in place of Tim Woods and everyone just acted like it was the same guy for whatever reason, but here he’s working as himself. We’re graced by the refereeing of Scrappy McGowen, he of the floppiest hair this side of Charles Robinson, but for some reason he never made it into the modern era of refereeing and it’s a shame because he’s a good ref. Rich works a headlock on Barr to start and drops an elbow on him when he escapes, so Barr grabs his own headlock in revenge. Headlocks on the best revenge, they say. I will say, both guys kinda look alike, but Rich helpfully has a big “R” on his boots to allow me to tell the generic white guys apart. Wrestlers identifying themselves by writing their names on their underwear like their mom told them to do is an underrated art form. They do the test of strength, but Rich stomps on his hands and we go back to the headlock. They criss-cross and Rich takes him down with a monkey flip and goes back to the headlock. They trade some reversals off that and Rich gets a sunset flip for two, but Barr chokes him out on the ropes with nothing much going on. Barr with a chinlock and a suplex for two with time winding down. Rich makes a comeback and slugs away as Barr does a goofy Flair Flop off that, and Rich dropkicks him for two. Rich with a backdrop, but he doesn’t really have any followup, and Barr whips him into the corner but misses a blind charge. Rich goes up and Barr slams him off, but Rich rolls through and into a cradle for the pin at 14:00. This was two good hands having a nicely worked opener. **3/4

Les Thornton v. Brad Armstrong

I think Thornton was the Junior heavyweight champion at this point, but the ring intro is cut off. Les quickly puts Brad down with a cheapshot and puts the boots to him before grabbing a headlock and working on that. Brad takes him down with a hiptoss for two, but Les reverses him into a headscissors on the mat. They work off that for a while with Armstrong fighting to get out and making a comeback, but he misses a blind charge and Thornton hits him with forearms in the corner. Brad takes him down with a hammerlock and Thornton does a slick reversal into a chinlock, but Brad holds the arm and reverses out again, sending Les to the floor. That’s a nice little slow-paced sequence there, just keeping things moving without having to go 100 miles an hour. Back in the ring, Les tries another chinlock and Brad smoothly reverses into the hammerlock on the mat. Man he was so, so good even early on in his career. Thornton grinds on a headlock and Brad smoothly bridges up to escape, so Thornton yanks the hair to put him down again. Thornton puts him down with a cheapshot and stomps him to the floor, but Thornton runs him into the post and pounds him on the apron to cut him off. Back in the ring, Brad makes a comeback, but Les hits him with a snapmare for two and goes to a headlock on the mat again. Brad fights out that and dodges a charge to make the comeback, slugging Thornton down and hitting him with a kneelift and backdrop. Kneedrop gets two off that. Dropkick puts Thornton on the floor and they brawl out there, with Brad hitting him with an atomic drop on the floor and bumping him into the post as a result. Back in the ring, Brad suplexes him in for a double down. Les slugs away in the corner and hits a butterfly suplex for two with time running out. Back suplex and he beats on Brad in the corner, but Brad cradles for two. Les reverses for two and they roll around in a small package fighting for the pin in a wacky bit that only happens in pro wrestling, but the time expires at 20:00 and it’s a draw. Really good stuff, I liked this one a lot and obviously both guys were pros. ***1/4

Ron Garvin v. King Kong Bundy

Well this is an interesting matchup. Bundy tries to overpower Garvin, but Ron keeps away from him and tries to goad him into a chase. Bundy keeps trying to beat on Garvin and he keeps running away, trying to run out the clock and stay away from him for some reason, and he finally decides to cheat and rakes Bundy’s eyes in the corner before adding some back scratches. Bundy does that himself, but the crowd doesn’t appreciate it in the same way, and he chokes Garvin out in the corner for good measure. Bundy gets distracted by someone in the dark at ringside, however, and runs after him to the dressing room, resulting in a countout win for Garvin at 6:20. I’m assuming that was Paul Ellering given Bundy’s feud with the Road Warriors at the time, but the lighting isn’t great here. Lame finish, lame match. DUD

World TV title: Jake Roberts v. Gerald Brisco

The title is only on the line for that first 10:00 and then after that it’s non-title. They should bring that back, it’s an easy way to give the title match some stakes but you can have the champion do a job if you need to. Gerry takes him down and works the arm to start, but Jake works him over in the corner and gets a snapmare for two. Brisco slugs back and wraps him up in a cradle for two, but Jake kicks him in the ribs to take over again and beats on him on the ropes. That gets two and he adds the kneelift, but charges and misses another one, and Brisco gets the figure-four before quickly releasing to chase Paul Ellering. They slug it out in the corner and Jake goes low and hits the DDT out of nowhere, and that finishes at 6:20 as Jake retains the title. This was fine. **

The Spoiler v. The Mysterious Mr. R

Mr. R of course has a giant swath of blond hair sticking out of his mask to go along with a running tab at all the local bars, making his secret identity not much of a…spoiler. Spoiler attacks and tosses the stairs at him right away, but R fights him off and Spoiler backs off for advice from Ellering. Spoiler slugs on him in the corner and does the ropewalk while trying to pull the mask off to reveal the incredibly guarded secret identity of the mysterious Mr. R, but R fights him off and preserves the secret. Spoiler rakes the eyes and goes to a clawhold, but R runs him into the corner. Spoiler goes to the top rope with a flying elbow for two, but misses a charge and gets hung in the corner as R makes a comeback. Spoiler gets some help from Ellering and loads up the mask to deliver headbutts and put Mr. R down, but he still can’t get the mask off. So he does another ropewalk, but R slams him off and makes the comeback. Spoiler sends him to the apron and they fight to the floor as Spoiler dramatically wields the ringbell before dropping it, allowing Mr. R to fight back and smash him into the table. They continue fighting out there as apparently countouts mean nothing in Georgia. WE USED TO BE A NATION OF LAW AND ORDER. Finally back in the ring and Spoiler chokes him out in the corner, but Mr. R comes back with a back elbow and runs him into the corner. They slug it out with the ref trying to break it up, but of course he gets bumped for his troubles. So Mr. R gets thrown over the top and then tossed back in by Ellering, and Spoiler chokes him out on the ropes and goes for the mask again. He misses a charge and hits the post as a result, and R goes for the mask now and throws elbows, but Paul Ellering runs in and R goes after him instead. So this allows Spoiler to hit him with a chair and that’s a DQ at 15:00. This went nowhere and took forever getting there. Luckily Mr. R’s good friend Brad Armstrong is there to save R from being unmasked. *

Georgia National title: Ted Dibiase v. Jack Brisco

Jack takes him down with armdrags and Dibiase bails to the floor. Back in, Ted blocks a slam, but makes the mistake of pointing to his head to indicate intelligence, so Jack immediately powerslams him and Ted has to run away again. Back in, Ted misses a charge and hurts his arm, allowing Jack to go to work on that until Ted hits him with a cheapshot to take over and choke him out. Dibiase puts him down with a back elbow and goes to a chinlock. Brisco escapes with a backbreaker and goes to a rear chinlock. Dibiase fights out of that, but Brisco gets the figure-four and Ted is really in some trouble now. He makes the ropes, and that allows him a chance to load up the ISOTONER OF DEATH and knock out Jack for the pin at 12:00 to retain. This was fine but the Briscos were obviously running out of passion for the business by this time and on the way out. **1/2

The Road Warriors v. Pez Whatley & Sweet Brown Sugar

I’m not clear on why Brown Sugar was working with a mask at this point, since he was already working as Sweet Brown Sugar without a mask for years before and everyone knows it’s Skip Young anyway. The babyfaces double-team Animal’s arm to start and it’s over to Hawk, who also gets worked over in the corner. The Warriors bring Sugar over and pound on him for a bit until Hawk demands a test of strength and Sugar monkey flips out of that. Animal goes to a lengthy, LENGTHY, chinlock on Sugar as we breeze past 10:00 gone and basically nothing happening. Pistol Pez comes in to break it up, but Hawk switches in behind the ref’s back and goes right back to squeezing on that chinlock. SBS fights out of it, but Animal backdrops him to cut him off and then yanks him back to the heel corner for more punishment. They’ve had the heat on Brown Sugar for too long and he’s gonna turn into caramel. Finally Pez gets the hot tag and it’s a pier six brawl, leading to the babyfaces double-teaming Animal with a backdrop and double slam. Double headbutt gets two, but Hawk makes the save and it’s a DQ at 15:00 as I guess they just didn’t feel like booking a real finish. This was NO GOOD. ½*

God bless the WWE Vault fellas but I really wish they had more shows to feature from BEFORE the sad and tortuous end of the Georgia territory. There was still some good stuff here but Ole was beyond washed as a booker at this point and the promotion was clearly out of juice.