World Class

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The SmarK 24/7 Rant for World Class Championship Wrestling – March 19 1983

Taped from Texas

Your host is Bill Mercer.

Wild Bill Irwin v. The Texan. Mr. Texan is a masked guy who signs autographs before the match, so you know he’s a babyface. Irwin goes for the test of strength and complains about the glove of the Texan, and they fight for an armbar until the ropes force the break. Texan comes back with a knee to the gut and takes him down with a side headlock. Irwin escapes with an atomic drop, but the Texan no-sells it and hits his own, then slugs him down in the corner. Irwin fires back, but that gets the Texan all riled up, and he boots Irwin down and adds the old eyepoke. Irwin pounds him into the mat and a running stomp gets two. They trade wristlocks and the Texan levels him with a clothesline, for two. The crowd chants “Chauncey” at Irwin, because apparently the running gag with Irwin is that he has a badass outlaw name, but he has a prissy “real” name. That’s a pretty darn good gimmick for annoying a heel with. The Texan works on a hammerlock, but Irwin makes the ropes and stomps him down, then puts him down with a high kick. A head down allows the Texan to come back with a kneelift that puts Irwin on the floor, but Bill fights back in with a sunset flip for two. The Texan finishes with a rollup at 8:54, shocking the hell out of me. *** OK, seriously, who was that masked man?

Buddy Roberts v. Iceman King Parsons. As usual, Michael Hayes mouths off too much, and Parson gets his revenge by hitting the butt-butt on Roberts and pinning him in 3 seconds! Quite the push for Iceman. Hayes continues by DEMANDING that Parsons come out and face the Freebirds right there, but the Von Erichs answer as well and suddenly the Birds aren’t such big men.

King Kong Bundy v. Mike Bond. I think that’s the jobber’s name, not that I care. Bond works on the arm but gets taken down by Bundy and dominated. Bundy at this stage of his career actually reminds me a lot of Big Show now. Maybe it’s the haircut. Bundy slams the guy and stomps him down, then chokes away on the ropes. Kneedrop gets two. Bond gets frisky and grabs a headlock, so Bundy hammers him with a forearm and elbows him down, then goes to the chinlock. Running kneedrop finishes at 6:13. *

Texas Heavyweight title: David Von Erich v. Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin. Garvin gets an armdrag takedown and struts to start, but David quickly matches him and Garvin bails. Back in, Garvin starts on the arm again, but David reverses and Garvin bails again. Back in, David works a headlock in dramatic fashion, but Garvin reverses and lips off at the crowd at the same time. David fights out, but Garvin elbows him down and goes back to the headlock. David fights out and threatens the claw, but can’t get it over Garvin’s overly fluffed hair. God bless the perm. Garvin fights back in the corner and then decides to beg for mercy, but David is from Texas, where they execute people for parking tickets. Garvin suckers him into a charge and David lands on the floor as a result, hurting his shoulder. Back in, Garvin finishes him clean with a brainbuster at 9:23. Bill Mercer complains that it was an illegal move, but the ref didn’t seem to mind. **1/2 We take a look at the replay after the break, and in fact David pretty clearly does not land on his head as Mercer claims. Expose the business much there, guys?

As always, the best part of the show is not the show, but Kevin Von Erich and Michael Hayes reminiscing about the show afterwards.