[1986-05-03-NWA-Worldwide] Tully Blanchard vs Ron Garvin

[Superstar Sleeze]

NWA National Heavyweight Champion Tully Blanchard vs Ronnie Garvin - Worldwide 5/3/86

The whole Crockett absorbs Georgia, Florida and Central States and when they end as separate entities is still a little murky to me. The National Heavyweight Championship was the top Georgia title and it seemed to be active in Georgia through 1984, but was brought into Crockett in 1985. Blanchard has a history of bouncing from title to title. He won the Television Title pretty immediately in arriving in Crockett in 1984 and held it for a long, long time. He dropped it to Dusty at Great American Bash 1985 and then only a couple weeks later turned around and defeated Magnum for the US Championship coming off the loss to Magnum at Starrcade, it seems Tully worked Dusty a lot and worked as Arn partner a lot because Ole disappeared for a bit and I am not sure why (they were referring to themselves as "Three Horsemen"). When Flair began his feud with Morton this left Garvin without a house show loop partner. In the meantime, Tully Blanchard had won the National Heavyweight Championship from Dusty Rhodes who he was working since Flair was working Garvin on the house show loop. Prior to the match, Garvin had his right hand injured, which affects his ability to chop and use his Hands of Stone.

 

The hand psychology as one could predict was awesome in this. My only complaint and is a minor is that was even more exploited. I feel like this is the first 1980s match I have watched that needed an editor. Nowadays, it feels like every match needs an editor, which is hilarious because they actually have agents that go over the match lay out before hand. Yet, in the 80s when the vast majority was called in the ring, I have found one instance of needing an editor in the hundreds of matches I have watched. I digress. The match goes a shade over 30 minutes and there just does not seem to be a sense of progression in the match. There is a lot back tracking to previous segments and then when you think they are going to go forward they end up going in a different route. It also feels very meandering. It is 80s Crockett so that means there is plenty of action so it is never dull. I actually find my attention is more tested when there is too much going on because I am trying to process it all and then something else happens, which causes me to lose focus. I do try to watch a match especially on a first pass (I had seen this match about three years ago and loved it and still do love it) and just let it wash over me try to not think. It still happens when too much shit is going on I just lose focus and my mind wanders. There are enough elements in this match for me to call it a great match and enjoyable.

 

Stone Cold says you can tell how great a matchup is going to be just based how the guys lock up. Well, if thats the case this is *****, a definite contender for best lockup ever. The crowd is red hot for this. The Flair vs Garvin TV studio match bout will make any wrestling fan become a fan of Garvin, but this is the match to see understand how over Garvin was with crowd in 1986. Every offensive move he does gets a pop. Garvin avoids the use of the hand early and uses his head instead. We get a short little Tully control to lead to a pretty cool spot where Garvin leapfrogs over him on a charge and lures Tully into a backslide. Garvin forgets himself and uses his right hand to chop. OW! He immediately ties Tully up in effort to recover and basically this establishes he will have to fight the match one handed. Tully crowds him in the corner, Garvin accidentally uses the hand, which resisters pain, but then moves to headbutt that cause Tully to slump into the corner. Dusty and David applaud his efforts. Garvin applies a sleeper to a massive POP! The sleeper was fucking over in the 1980s. Garvin hits a simple elbow drop to another massive pop! I like how the right hand is affecting his pinning combinations.

 

In a weird coincidence, everytime we leave for commercial Garvin is on top and we come back with Blanchard on top. It would have been nice to see those transitions. Blanchard looks to finally make some head way when he blasts him with a knee that sends Garvin to the outside dazed and confused. Short-lived. Garvin smashes him into the turnbuckle and top rope cross body pops Dusty huge. "Somebody bring me some refreshments!" During a Garvin ab stretch, Dusty says "Canadian Born, United States Citizen" and it just made me laugh so hard. I love, Big Dust. At this point, I already feel like the match is meandering. They are working with a lot of energy and there is a lot of stuff, but it does not feel like they are working towards a finish.

There is come progression when a BIG headbutt rocks Blanchard and Garvin begins to work the leg. Now I have a sense of some forward progress that Garvin is going to break down Blanchard and win that match that way since he was robbed of the Hands of Stone. Blanchard is really great at selling. I love him pleading with the ref to give him more time in the corner to recover, Standing toe hold and David Crockett is at his most creepy here you know when he speaks with hushed excitement "Twist! Oh Yea! Tighter!" He wrenches the ankle around the post. We get back from commercial and Blanchard is in control and I would say within 2 minutes leg selling is totally dropped. Blanchard wants the piledriver, but Garvin backdrops.and sits down for a pin, the crowd totally bought into the nearfall. At this point, in my notes, I have written too long of a match.

Blanchard uses JJ's shoes and whacks Garvin's hand. FINALLY! The hand work that should be done 5 minutes ago! It is really, really great. Blanchard tortures Garvin and Garvin sells according. This what I mean there are elements of this match that really high-level, just needed an editor. I love Garvin biting Blanchard to keep him off the hand. Garvin fighting through the pain says fuck it and throws a chop now a boot. Garvin is coming on strong. Boston crab out of a Blanchard leapfrog. Dusty exclaims "Sit Down On It!" while David gets wicked creepy again with "Now, squat." GARVIN STOMP! YES! Garvin chops, but he is so much pain and Dusty is so pissed about it. This finish run feels like a total mish-mash of spots. I did like when Tully's feet made the ropes on a backlside, David "He must have the longest legs in town". Blanchard is whipped into the ref, yes the finish! Jumping headbutt and both men collapse. JJ hands Tully a roll of quarters while Dusty tapes Garvin's injured hand. HANDS OF STONE! 1-2-3! HUGE POP! Dusty and the crowd celebrate. Tommy Young realizes Garvin's fist was taped and DQ's him. Wow! Dusty finish with an immediate reversal.

All the elements of a classic were there, they just needed an editor. Garvin took way too much of the match also. I enjoy Garvin offense, but he needs someone like Flair that is going to go toe to toe with him. Blanchard's first instinct is to stooge and bump. Flair is going to fight for a bit then do that. Also without his chops, his offense felt meandering. Still an enjoyable match if just way too long. ****1/4

[El-P]

This is the match that finally sells me on Garvin, which I always found to be overrated. But by watching this and the two Arn studio matches the month before, Garvin regains the appreciation I used to have for him before he became the token "new discovery" of the 80's sets. And it appears in broad daylight that actually, Flair got Garvin way goofier than he is. Exhibit X of Flair not always bringing the best out of his opponents.

 

This, on the other hand, is just a great match. No sense of progression ? Meh. A sense of Garvin beating the fuck out of Blanchard, who hangs on as best as he can. I love Blanchard more and more. He was all about kick/punch (which he did way better than Lawler, just saying)/sell. Again, this looks way more legitimate and "real" than any Flair matches with Garvin, which did had urgency (although Flair really didn't need Garvin to push him, he could go-go-go whenever he saw fit, usually with good reasons) but also way more goofiness and Flair-formula stuff. This doesn't look like your formula "wrestling match". It looks like a fucking struggle, especially on Blanchard's part. The guy is just awesome at this. Interesting that along with the Magnum TA match, he probably has had the better big matches than Flair at the same period, while Flair got the best out of Dusty, which Blanchard couldn't do.

 

Anyway, this is just terrific, Garvin's selling of the hand is great, this is the ongoing story without it becoming the focus of the match, which looks like a fight. The ending is quite wonderfully done. Dusty's booking was clearly getting annoying by this point though. Maybe he borrowed the "Dusty finish" from someone else, but damn was he overusing it already. Plus putting himself around every big babyface feud (Magnum, Morton, Garvin) is getting old too.

 

MOTYC for 1986, my favourite Garvin match ever and another classic for Blanchard.

[Jetlag]

Barbarians the lot of ya. This is one of my favourite US matches of all time.

I'm not one to steal other people's reviews, but one YouTube commenter put it very eloquently:

 

This match is in the conversation for GOAT. Everything is there, The work is tight, crisp, realistic. The storytelling is awesome, with Garvin's greatest weapon being taken away from him. There arent obvious "rest" spots, --- putting on a meaningless hold to catch a breather. This is worked like an actual competition, and unlike a lot of great matches the work is safe not reckless, etc All japan matches, or those w/ dangerous high spots. Only prob was tully's selling. He abandoned the hurt knee.

This is just super high end US wrestling from the get go. As high end as a Regal/Finlay match, stiff, tight, everything looks great. Awesome lockup to start, then gigantic hip toss bumps from Tully, CRAZY CRAZY HOT crowd, Tully destroying Garvin in the corner with awesome combos, Garvin fighting back with great looking headbutts, boots to the face and huge elbow drops. The motherfucking PIN ATTEMPTS in this match are great! Garvin is just grinding down Tully, elbow to the face, using his legs to pin the arm down, trying all kinds of different ways to beat that fucker. This is how you make your matches look legit. I also love the 80s workrate spot where Garvin leapfrogs into a backslide or his flip over pin. Garvin really was trying all kinds of different things to pin Tully. There are some clever spots too, especially Garvin selling his hand while trying to hold onto the ropes and Tully just pulls the tights. Another thing I love about this match and old wrestling in general is how violent the "bash opponents head into the ring/corner" spots feel. Now, there are a few problems that have been mentioned on the match: 1. is the length, which I didn't have a problem with, because this match is a total madhouse without any restholds or dull moments, and they keep busting out the good stuff to keep you entertained. 2. is the meandering, which I thought was intentional as Garvin didn't have his greatest weapon and thus couldn't figure out how to beat Tully and it was resolved in the awesome bullshit finish 3. is how dominant Garvin was, which I thought was okay as he merely gave a strong challenger performance and the challenger one upping the champ greatly is part of the usual title match formula anyways 4. Tully's leg selling, which again I didn't have a problem with as the legwork was just a small fraction in a very long match and Tully was still but hobbling minutes after it happened before he recovered 5. is the commercial breaks, which is the biggest problem with the match, altough it's not a true US TV match if the heel doesn't have the upper hand post commercial break I guess.

Overall this is pretty much everything right with pro wrestling in my book.

[Microstatistics]

Decent match thanks to Tully's energy and selling. Garvin does absolutely nothing for me but his offensive assault in this is quite good so it's not a total carryjob. **3/4