GCW Superstars (June 1983) Review

-Perusing the Observers from the summer of 1983, this is actually a more interesting time for Georgia/World Championship Wrestling than I realized. Among Dave’s notes from around the time of this show:

#1. Ole Anderson has abandoned all pretense of a territory and is pretty much looking to book the company in any building that will have them, and we’re still six months out from Vince “declaring war” on the territories.

#2. Something was up between Ole and the NWA, because the WTBS show never mentioned that Ric Flair lost the title back to Harley Race, AND Ole was doing business with Joe Blanchard’s independent Southwest group, which had just held their infamous “World Title” tournament.

-Originally aired…hell, I don’t know. This isn’t a single episode. This is a mash-mash of segments from the effort to rescue the Georgia circuit.

-Your host is Michael St. John.

THE FANTASTIC ONES vs. LARRY HARE & BILL ROSE
-Holy crap, the studio is FULL this week. Okay, positive sign. After last week’s single full row and three empty rows, they have multiple rows of fans on three sides of the ring, and they’re AMPED. You know what? Good for them.

-Taylor tap-dances on Rose’s back. Larry Hare tags in and gets monkey-flipped. Fulton armdrags him into an armbar. Rose tags in and runs into an abdominal stretch. Hare breaks it up, with leads to your pier sixer. Terry press slams Bobby on top of Hare for the pin. Hey, they’re over! I’ll admit it!

SUPERSTAR BILL DUNDEE vs. JEFF YOUNG
-Michael St. John refers to the job guy as “Young Jeff Young.” As I understand it, he was a standout high school football player under, you guessed it, Sour Coach Sauers.

-Young armdrags Dundee, who gripes about hair-pulling. Dundee retaliates with right hands and stomps. Dundee tries to switch to mat wrestling but can’t get a grip on Young, who reverses an Irish whip and follows with a dropkick for two. Dundee just drops him with a right hand and follows with a backbreaker for two. Young reverses an Irish whip, but this time Dundee anticipates the corner charge, boots him down, and gets the pin. Dundee was feeling generous and we got a nice little bit of business there for it.

TITO SANTANA vs. SUPER DESTROYER
-Wow, okay! We ought to be getting a better house show in Chattanooga NOW. We’ve switched commentary now; it’s Les Thatcher & Bob Roop calling the action.

-We’re joined in progress with Super D wearing Tito down with a chinlock. Tito makes the ropes to break the hold, so Super D settles for stomping away at him. We have about three minutes remaining as Super D tries the chinlock again. Tito has one last burst of energy and fires punches and kicks as we get the one-minute warning. Bodypress by Tito gets two, and the moment the bell sounds for the time limit, Super D is OUTTA THERE, not wanting any more of Tito.

PAUL ORNDORFF vs. PAT ROSE
-Orndorff armdrags Rose. Wristlock by Orndorff as Roop explains his criteria for judging guys when he’s scouting potential opponents, and the fact that Rose can be led around like Orndorff is doing with him means that Rose loses 20 points. Wait, he’s scouting ROSE in this match?

-Rose rakes the eyes to take control, and the studio audience does NOT care for that. Orndorff recovers quickly and finishes with a powerslam.

RAY CANDY vs. DEKE RIVERS
-Snapmare into a chinlock by Candy. Candy just lets Rivers go and Rivers goes for the eyes. THey do the “you can’t hurt a black man’s head” spot with Rivers ramming Candy in the turnbuckle, but the spot accidentally works better than it has ever worked before here, as Candy goes into the turnbuckle that you hear a loud CLANK from the turnbuckle striking the post on impact, and when Candy no-sells after the studio audience heard that noise, everybody in the building goes “Oooooooooh.”

-Candy applies an armbar and takes him down. It’s odd seeing a guy Candy’s size wrestle like this. He’s about 350 and he’s been doing just a straight wrestling match, with no “big man” spots. Roop, on commentary, says that the best strategy for Rivers is to try to blow Candy up. But before he can ever try to do that, Candy whips him, backdrops him, and drops a big elbow for three.

SUPER DESTROYER vs. CHRIS LUCAS
-Kneelift and elbows by Super D. Super D goes to a front facelock, then puts the boots to Lucas. Elbow gets two, so Destroyer tries a chinlock, and whoever was recording this episode got so bored that he hit pause and dipped out of this match.

-Freddy Miller chats with Superstar Bill Dundee, who’s ready to fight anybody in Marietta, Georgia.

JERRY NOVAK & THE ANGEL (with Jim Cornette) vs. RICK CONNER & KEN HALL
-Jim Cornette marches over to commentary to rant about being disrespected by fans. The men in the studio audience didn’t even take off their hats during his entrance this week! Jobbers get dismantled some more, and Angel finishes with the claw. I feel like, uh, an ANGLE or two might be good at this point…

-Cornette and his Dynasty arrive on WTBS, as the Superstars roster is getting spotlighted on the Sunday Best of Championship Wrestling, and they promise to bring the best that money can buy to the state of Georgia.

THE FANTASTIC ONES vs. DEKE RIVERS & LARRY HARE
-Taylor takes Hare to the mat with a top wristlock, and comes off the second rope with an axehandle to work the arm over. Taylor comes back in with a dropkick and a slam. Rivers comes in and gets dismantled by Fulton. Another donnybrook breaks out. Jobbers get whipped into each other. Terry press slams Bobby on top for a three-count.

-Wild Bill Irwin and his whip are coming for Tommy Rich in Marietta, Georgia. By the way, I can’t let this review go without mentioning one detail. This compilation has local promos for Marietta, and it has national promos taped in the WTBS studio, and Freddy Miller wears a different toupee for Marietta than he wears for WTBS, and that’s the most amazing, wonderful thing I’ve ever seen from a wrestling announcer in my life.

6.8

The final score: review Average

The 411

A big improvement over episode #1, but is it enough?