[1992-09-19-SMW-TV] Ron Garvin and Paul Orndorff

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Clips of a Kingsport, TN, house show match where Orndorff swipes Garvin's towel from him and uses it to tie him by the neck around the ring ropes. Orndorff's stuff looks really good in beating them up, but the heat is disappointing. Garvin does an interview vowing revenge. Seems a little silly to be feuding over a towel (listen to Garvin's promo to see what I mean).

[Tim Evans]

Yeah fighting over a towel is kinda ridiculous. I mean fighting over a robe makes sense.

[shoe]

The actual angle is great. Their was no give in that towel when Orndorff hung Garvin. Now the premise is stupid.

[El-P]

I love the Ronnie Garvin promo "I have green towel, yellow towel and red towel, and they are mine !!". Yeah, it is a bit silly, but I love this program.

[Kevin Ridge]

They took our towels!

[PeteF3]

Yeah, the announcer talking the towel up before the match starts pretty badly telegraphs this. If Garvin throws the towel out every night, why is he so attached to them? Oh well, there still aren't many guys who do a beatdown better than Mr. Wonderful. "IT'S A 1992 LYNCHING!" WOW.

 

Garvin's delivery is good, but yeah, weird that the towel is getting more play than Garvin getting hanged. This is a promising feud from an in-ring standpoint. Orndorff talks up collecting the Brian Lee bounty then has to be prompted by Caudle as to who this Garvin guy is. Multiple storylines put over at once!

[WingedEagle]

Orndorff attacks Garvin prematch and then chokes him with the towel. They call it a 1992 lynching. Stay Classy, SMW! Then an intense Garvin promo and Orndorff in studio. Seems like Garvin could be put to better use than a towel.

[GSR]

A house show match from Kingsport, TN is set, but before it can get going Orndorff jumps Garvin, snatches his towel and tears it in two. He then ties the towel round Garvin's neck, hangs him from the top rope by it and proceeds to beat on him until Danny Davis comes out to cut him free with a knife. Garvin cuts an interview and says that Orndorff went too far taking his towel, tearing it in two and using it to choke him with. The towel is like a ring jacket to him, he hands it to a fan every night and by doing what he did he deprived a fan of it. Orndorff has made it personal and he's going to take something of his and make him cry and beg! Orndorff starts by talking about the bounty on Brian Lee's head and says he has nothing to do with it, but will face him next week, stick him in the ring and then collect the $10,000. He then says how he is sick and tired of Ron Garvin, that he's starting to get under his skin and will stick it to him too!

 

I thought the angle (despite it being over a towel) was great. Orndorff is so intense in everything he does and has been superb ever since the heel turn. This feud has been much better than I ever could've imagined in every aspect.

[garretta]

I can't speak to the rest of the feud, since we don't have it here on the set, but put me in the "this is kind of dumb" camp as it relates to this angle.

 

First of all, I've seen what Ronnie really does with his towels: he simply throws them out into the crowd, not to one fan in particular. A certain fan may end up with it, but that's not the intent. This is Corny trying to copy the WWF and the ritual with Bret Hart's sunglasses, with the difference being that he never actually does it until the night that Orndorff doesn't allow him to.

 

Second, whoever the dweeb is narrating this footage must have been under orders not to use the word "kill". Tying a guy's neck in a towel and hanging him from the top rope is attempted murder, and should be sold as such. If ever we needed an announcer to take a class in hysteria from Vince, it's here. The best we get, unfortunately, is that it might cut off the flow of blood to the brain, just like your garden-variety sleeperhold. Oh hell, is that all? Why don't we arm the wrestlers with towels which they can use during their matches if that's the case?

 

As for the promos, I think Paul's was better, mostly because he worked in a plug for the following week's match with Brian Lee over the bounty (which he denies putting on Lee's head, though he'll be happy to collect it). He needs to learn to use another verb other than "stick", though, at least when he's looking for the same type of word three times in thirty seconds. Ronnie's was intense, but I'd like to have heard at least a hint of how he plans revenge against Paul. About the only object Paul brings to the ring is his robe, and the thought of Ronnie cutting up an expensive ring robe is pleasing to me just to see Orndorff throwing a tantrum like you know he would.

 

I wish we would have gotten just one match between these two on the set; it seems like they're still capable of some real barnburners.

[dawho5]

I will throw another vote in the camp of "silly" for this being about a towel.  Had he reacted that way to the hanging he had been subjected to, it would have been amazing.  Orndorff is really good here.  Please tell me more of this made the SMW set because I kinda need to see how Garvin handles this.  The match (even if the promo was about a towel) promises to be all kinds of violent.