Dark Pegasus Video Review: Georgia Championship Wrestling Supercard (02.28.82)

Georgia Championship Wrestling
by J.D. Dunn

With the numerous requests I’ve been getting to do more old school NWA & WCW, I thought, “Why not go back and do it right?” So, I’m going even further back than the PPV era to do a few regional supercards that I have before starting on the NWA in earnest.

Some of these matches you’ll note were already reviewed when I did the All Japan Classics series, but, in fairness to the matches, I didn’t really pay a lot of attention to things happening on this side of the Pacific. Many of the matches were kind of a nuisance, especially when you’re thinking along the lines of why Kintaro Ohki and Shoehi Baba were fighting, then you have to switch gears and look up who the Mid-Atlantic Middleweight Champion was on 07.24.77. So, for a lot of the American matches, I just sort of reviewed them and went on about my business. Hopefully, these will rectify that situation.

The first is a supercard from the Omni in Atlanta, Ga., featuring a tag title tournament and a title defense from then one-time champion Ric Flair.

For completists, the full card looks like this (courtesy worldofwrestling.us):

• Tag Tournament
• Jack & Jerry Brisco d. Kevin Sullivan & Ron Bass
• Terry Funk & Dory Funk, Jr., d. Buddy Rose & Rip Oliver
• Ron Fuller & Leroy Brown d. the Masked Superstar & the Super Destroyer
• Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta d. Ricky Harris & the Mongolian Stomper
• Ole Anderson & Stan Hansen d. Brad Armstrong & Tommy Rogers
• The Briscos d. The Funks
• Tenryu & Tsuruta d. Fuller & Brown
• Anderson & Hansen d. Tenryu & Tsuruta
• Anderson & Hansen vs. The Briscos (finals)
• Dusty Rhodes vs. the Great Kabuki (w/Gary Hart)
• PWF Title: Giant Baba vs. Terry Gordy
• NWA Title: Ric Flair vs. Harley Race

But only three of the matches are available as far as I know, so here we go.

February 28, 1982

From Atlanta, Ga.

NWA Tag Team Title Tournament Conference Finals: Stan Hansen & Ole Anderson vs. Jack Brisco & Gerry Brisco.
This is the finals of the “Eastern Bracket” of the one-night NWA Tag Title tournament with the winners here meeting the winners from the “Western Bracket.” That’s something I neglected to mention in the original review. The Minnesota Wrecking Crew were the tag champions, having finally vanquished Paul Jones and The Masked Superstar. However, their luck ran out when Gene Anderson was injured in October of 1981, and the MWC had to forfeit the titles. Ole recruited Stan Hansen, and here we are. The Briscos are the default babyfaces here, so Gerald winds up getting caught in the heel corner as Ole and Stan aren’t afraid to bring the roughhouse tactics early. The heels start working over Gerry’s mid-section. Gerry fights his way out of a Hansen bearhug but pays the price with a pummeling from both Hansen and Ole. The Briscos are just getting nothing in there. Gerry powers Hansen to his corner and makes the tag, but Referee Scrappy McGowan is too busy arguing with Ole to see the tag. Finally, Gerald crawls between Hansen’s legs and makes the hot tag. The Briscos bring the usual fired-up babyface comeback, but when the ref gets distracted by Jack, Hansen sneaks in and hits Gerald with the Western Lariat and Ole falls on top for the win at 12:10. I remember liking this a lot more during the first go-round, but it’s not much better than the average match. The Briscos barely got any offense in. Hansen & Anderson were supposed to move on to the finals to face Wahoo McDaniel and Don Muracco, but that team split up before it could happen so Hansen & Anderson were anticlimactically awarded the titles. Interestingly, they never really “won” the titles, and they’d never really “lose” the titles as they were stipped of them a few months later for reasons I’m not quite clear on. **

PWF Heavyweight Title: Giant Baba vs. Terry Gordy.
No real story here. Baba was just trying to get the PWF Title as much exposure as possible. Lots of power stuff to start with Baba trying to keep things on the mat. Gordy tries to turn it into a brawl, and Baba is willing to meet him blow-for-blow. To the outside, Baba tosses Gordy’s head into the post and applies a cravat once they’re back inside. They go back and forth, alternating between brawling and matwork, until Baba backdrops out of a piledriver. Gordy grabs an abdominal stretch, but Baba spins around a second try. Finally, Baba just gets sick of him and finishes with a big boot at 11:47. This is another one that seemed better the first time around. There’s nothing really wrong with the match, but they just didn’t have much ambition with it. *3/4.

NWA Heavyweight Title: Ric Flair vs. Harley Race.
This is in the middle of Flair’s first reign as champion as he had just beaten Dusty for the title the previous year, and then Harley came a calling. Those three men basically had a stranglehold on the NWA Title for the next five years. This was before Race got really serious about being champion and put a bounty on Flair’s head. Neither guy gets a particularly warm reaction, but Flair is the slight babyface. Race starts out strong with a wicked forearm that grates across Flair’s chin. A piledriver nets two for the challenger. Flair comes back with chops, but Race blocks a kneedrop and slaps on the Indian Deathlock he used to win the title from Terry Funk in 1977. Flair pummels his way out of it but gets sent flying over the top off a Race uppercut. They brawl into the crowd where Race misses one of his trademark headbutts and rams his own face into the concrete. The heel/face lines begin to blur as Flair ties Race in the ropes and starts dropping elbows between his eyes. Race hits a straight right to Flair’s nose and comes off the second rope with a headbutt. They trade blows back and forth, and Race shoves down a very young Nick Patrick. The brawl continues, and this time Flair accidentally knocks down Patrick. Both men’s faces have been turned to hamburger by this point, and Nick Patrick isn’t doing so well himself. The brawl spills to the outside where Race posts Nick Patrick twice, prompting Referee Scrappy McGowan to run down and call for the DQ at 11:57. Neither man really cares, though, as they keep going at one another until Tenryu, Tsuruta & the Briscos run down to break it up. Flair, in particular, is a complete mess with blood just covering his face and turning his hair orange. When they finally drag them apart, Ric’s glare just burns a hole in Race’s chest. The match was a nice blend of the psychology and hatred from their Starrcade match and the up-tempo excitement of their Japanese rematch, and the spectacular post-match brawl is the icing on the cake. ****

The 411: I can't really recommend this one for the wrestling alone. You need the context of the matches to truly appreciate them (especially the tag title match). The Baba versus Gordy match is only worthwhile because it's two legitimate wrestling legends, but neither man was at a point in their careers where they could have a good match with each other. The NWA Title match is the real draw, and you should definitely check it out if you're a Flair, Race, or old-school wrestling fan, especially since feuds are rarely built like that anymore. Very mild thumbs up for the for the Flair/Race match alone.

Final Score:  6.0   [ Average ]