The SmarK Rant for The Last Battle of Atlanta–10.23.83

The SmarK Rant for WWE Network Hidden Gems – THE LAST BATTLE OF ATLANTA!

Man, I know people have been saying we need more Georgia Championship Wrestling on the Network, but HOLY SHIT. So yeah, a couple of months back someone realized that they actually had the tape of the famous Buzz Sawyer v. Tommy Rich cage match in an unlabeled pile of master tapes, and decided to put that match up on the Network as a “hidden gem”. So now, just to be even more crazy awesome, I guess they figured “Fuck it, let’s put the ENTIRE SHOW on the Network”. John McAdam probably could have put his kids through college if he had this back in the early 90s when tape trading was a thing.

Taped from Atlanta, GA (duh), 10.23.83. No commentary for this.

Les Thornton v. Chief Joe Lightfoot

I’m not familiar with Chief Lightfoot, but he’s a much leaner breed of fake Indian than the Strongbows were, that’s for sure. His real name was Joe Ventura, he was from Quebec and had most of his success in Stampede, and he retired in 1988, and that’s about all I’ve got. They exchange facelocks on the mat to start as Lightfoot lives up to his name and moves quickly around the ring. Thornton reverses him into a full nelson, but Lightfoot takes him down into a facelock on the mat again in a nice little sequence. Sunset flip gets two, and Lightfoot gets a pair of headscissors and Thornton backs off. They trade forearms and Thornton gets two, and goes to a chinlock, but Lightfoot immediately reverses him into a hammerlock. He goes back to the facelock, but Thornton bridges out into his own, so Lightfoot does that same trick and goes back to it again. Thornton reverses out to a knucklelock and they work off that, with Lightfoot doing a nice bridge, but Thorton traps the legs and gets the pin at 9:37. This was all mat-based grappling, but very entertaining! 1 for 1.

Bruno Sammartino Jr. v. Pat Rose

Very early in the career for young David Sammartino here. Bruno Jr. presses Rose and sends him running out of the ring to start, and back in he works an armbar. And works it! And works it! Rose gets a cheapshot to escape and slams him for two, then goes to the chinlock. He chokes Junior out on the ropes while the kid does a rough approximation of selling and makes a comeback with punches and a backdrop, and a kneedrop for two. Powerslam finishes at 6:03. David looked greener than a cannabis dispensary on October 17. 1 for 2.

Mask v. Mask: Mr. Wrestling II v. Bob Roop

This was supposed to be Wrestling 1 v. Wrestling II, but Wrestling 1 was injured so they put Roop in as a substitute, and Wrestling 1 unmasks if he loses. In fact, the entire thing was kind of a moot point, because Tim Woods’ last ever match was about a month before this anyway and he was effectively retired due to injury. Wrestling II works a headlock on Roop and hits the kneelift in the corner for TWO (Two! Two!) and he goes to work on the knee and chases Roop out of the ring. II works a headlock on Roop and hits him with the kneelift again, sending Roop out of the ring, but Bob grabs one of Wrestling 1’s crutches and nails him from the floor. And wouldn’t you know there’s a pissed off granny in the front row who isn’t going to stand for this kind of bullshit! The lack of angry old ladies in the front row these days is one of the charming things I miss about territorial wrestling. Ric Flair used to WORK those grannies, to the point where they part of the show, and so did Ricky Morton, and it was awesome. Roop gets a neckbreaker for two and tries to get the mask off, then hangs him in the Tree of Woe and goes for the mask again. II fights him off and makes the comeback as the crowd goes nuts, and the grannies are losing their shit. Headbutt to the gut gets two, but Roop cuts him off with a high knee and tries a shoulderbreaker, which II reverses into a rollup for the pin at 11:05 as the arena goes INSANE, literally shaking the camera as a result. So Wrestling I gets his mask pulled off and slinks back to the dressing room with a towel over his head, and that was his exit from the sport. Pretty great match, too, with everything simple but well-executed and a stipulation that people believed. 2 for 3.

NWA National title: Brett Wayne v. Jake Roberts

Brett Wayne was of course better known as Brett Wayne Sawyer, brother of Buzz. He also trained Ken Shamrock, so there you go. Wayne works the arm and sends Jake slithering out of the ring with a dropkick. Jake had shifted from generic cowboy in Mid-Atlantic to slimy heel elsewhere at this point and he was knocking it out of the park, although his gear sucked. Back in, Jake wins a test of strength by cheating and holds the knucklelock, but Brett does a backwards roll to reverse it in a cool spot, and Jake is forced to make the ropes. Wayne works the arm and drops knees on it, and you can hear drunk rednecks yelling “DO IT AGAIN! DO IT AGAIN!” until Jake bails to escape. Jake gets a cheapshot from the apron and Wayne gets hung up in the ropes, so Jake pounds on the knee there to take over and undoes the knee bandage. And the grannies are PISSED. Jake grabs a kneebar, but Wayne actually pulls himself up and bites Jake to escape (“Yeah!” shouts Earl Hickey near the camera, “BITE HIM! BITE HIM!”) Jake pounds the knee again to cut off that comeback and goes to a spinning toehold and Jake is the best because he doesn’t just do the move, he SNEERS while he does it. Brett shoves him off, so Jake viciously clips the knee to put him down again and smiles about it. Over to a half-crab this time and he grabs the ropes, and Joe Bob Briggs is just screaming at the ref (“OH COME ON REF, YOU SAW IT!”) but Jake finally breaks. Jake tosses him and slithers around the ring to be a jackass, then drops Wayne on the railing to be an even bigger jackass. Man, where was this magnificent bastard in the WWF? Poor Brett Wayne crawls back to the apron in pain, so Jake suplexes him on the top rope and he’s busted open now. Brett fights his way back up and the drunken idiots are all about that, but Jake drops him with a suplex for two. Brett fights up again, so Jake punches him in the face and gets two, and now Wrestling II comes out with a towel, just in case. Wayne makes the comeback, but he misses a dropkick and Jake goes NUTS on the knee, just destroying it as the crowd sounds like it’s ready to riot. Finally the ref pulls him off and goes to check on the knee and now Buzz Sawyer and Ole Anderson are all at ringside cheering him on. Jake keeps destroying the knee with kneedrops, but Ole gets him all fired up, perhaps by threatening to cut his pay if he doesn’t win, and Jake keeps going back to the knee like a motherfucker. He drops elbows over and over until finally Ole dives in and calls it off at 21:50, and Jake thinks he’s won the title.

HOWEVER, much like a Vince Russo storyline, Jake didn’t read the fine print, because ref stoppage doesn’t count, only pinfall or submission. So Wayne retains. FUCK THAT NOISE. Ole Anderson literally dove into the ring and asked the ref to stop the match! That sounds like a damn submission to me! JUSTICE FOR JAKE ROBERTS, rightful National champion! Anyway, bullshit finish aside, this was FUCKING AWESOME, and then Buzz Saywer gets in Jake’s face and threatens to fuck him up for messing with his brother, so that’s pretty great, too. Easy ****1/2 match, maybe higher. Go out of your way to check this out, it’s a master class of dick heel greatness from Jake and babyface selling from Brett Wayne. 3 for 4.

TV title: The Great Kabuki v. Ronnie Garvin

Garvin immediately knocks out Gary Hart to get rid of him, but Kabuki goes to the dreaded nerve pinch to immediately slow the match to a crawl before it even gets started. Ronnie fights out, so Kabuki chops him down and goes right back to it again. So Garvin fights out again, and we’re more than 5:00 into the match with this being the only move thus far. Kabuki gets a high kick and, you guessed it, goes back to the nerve pinch. Garvin fights back and bites him on the ropes, then goes with the eye poke and uses his own thumb to the throat and drops a knee for two. He pounds away in the corner and time expires at 10:00, so it’s no longer for the TV title. So Garvin continues slugging away on Kabuki and stomps him down in the corner, and a suplex gets two. Kabuki goes to a standing facelock and DAG GUM, the rednecks want Ronnie to pull this one out, ya hear? Garvin drops an elbow for two and crotches Kabuki on the post, and grannies and rednecks alike think this is great. Damn mysterious Japanese coming to our country and stealing our jobs! Garvin with the GARVIN STOMP, which I actually thought he didn’t start until much later, and he drops an elbow for two. Gary Hart gets in his face again, so Garvin kicks his ass thoroughly (“GOD DAMMIT, LET ME AT THAT BALD HEADED BASTARD!”) but Kabuki gets some kind of shot off-camera and gets the pin at 17:00. This was very slow to start, but ended up OK. 4 for 5.

NWA National tag titles: The Road Warriors v. Jimmy Valiant & Pez Whatley

So we are of course very early in the career of the Warriors, and what happened was Ole saw money in them and literally just went on TV before they debuted and went “Well, this Road Warriors team you’ve never seen before won the National tag titles at a house show” and that was that. Hawk slugs it out with Pez and no-sells his dropkicks, but Pez dances in celebration anyway. Valiant comes in and slugs Hawk down before going to a sleeper, then grabs one on Animal when he comes in to save. The ref is quickly bumped in the fracas and everyone brawls for the double DQ at 4:00 as the Warriors get absolutely destroyed by Valiant. Wow, that’s definitely not a position you’d see the Warriors in at any point after this. This was kept incredibly short to protect them, but all they did was sell for the babyfaces. 4 for 6.

Buzz Sawyer v. Tommy Rich

Oh yeah, here’s what we all paid to see! The holy grail of tape collectors and wrestling nerds everywhere for decades, which was finally uncovered a couple of years ago. It’s a standard cage with what appears to be a chicken wire fence draped on the roof. Sawyer works the arm a bit and goes low on Rich, then runs him into the cage and Rich is like “Fuck it, it’s our last match” and immediately taps a gusher. Rich runs him into the cage and Sawyer starts bleeding as well, and it’s sad that this is raw TV footage without commentary because it really needs Jim Ross to give it historical weight and gravitas. Both guys are down and the ref counts them down over the house mic, but Rich is up to break the count. So it’s Last Man Standing, but without pinfalls. Rich runs him into the cage a few more times and slugs him down, but Rich runs him into the cage to escape. Sawyer with a backbreaker for two (with the ref counting over the microphone from outside) and they slug it out from their knees. And Rich’s hair is literally red. Tommy goes up and misses a fistdrop, but Buzz charges and runs himself into the cage as a result. Rich gets two from that. He keeps sending Buzz into the cage and pins him at 12:13, with both guys basically dead from exhaustion. Well, clearly this was a gimme. 5 for 7.

Then as a bonus, Paul Ellering was forced to fight Ole Anderson as a result of Rich’s win. Ole comes in, in street clothes, and absolutely beats the hell out of Ellering, but sells for a bit before coming back to finish him at 9:30. Nothing to this one and you could see the place emptying out while they did the match. 5 for 8.

Holy cow, what a show! This was great and well worth checking out on the Network, especially for fans of the Crockett stuff from around the same time. Seriously check out the Jake v. Brett Wayne classic, and the grappling match that starts the show is really neat, too. Thumbs way up from me.