[1980-01-28-Joint Promotions] John Elijah vs Smith Hart

[peachchaos]

Talk about it here.

[SAMS]

John “the Bear” Elijah is from Walthamstow and his hobby is the study of evolution! Amazing stuff. The poor ring announcer seemed to be going a bit senile. For two of the three falls he got the round number incorrect and ditto for the final result. 
Hart is one of the Hart brothers and at first glance he seemed pretty unremarkable. In the first fall he basically got nothing and when he did try something offensive, in this case a flying crossbody, he got caught and slammed for the first fall. He seemed a bit like a fish out of water and they did play up that this was his UK debut, so perhaps that was the intention and he did grow into the bout as it went along. 
He was decidedly more underhand than Elijah. Getting in a punch behind the ref’s back at one point, taking advantage of Elijah’s sportsmanship at others, and generally, without going overboard, coming across a bit more like a brat after being so thoroughly handled in the early stages.
Elijah finished him off with some sort of sideways bearhug variation. It was nothing to brag about but if this is the middling stuff for World of Sport then I have high hopes for the top tier stuff to come.

★★