The
third available 1984 episode of Central States All-Star Wrestling begins with
the typical low rent Vegas styled graphics before we cut to the first match.
Announcers Rick Stuart and Kevin Wall call the action between a babyface Ron
Ritchie, who the promotion would obviously love to get behind, and his opponent
heel Scott Ferris. It’s a non-descript back and forth for the bulk of the
match, the heel once again leading the way for Ritchie, before Ritchie scores a
pinfall thanks to a roll up off the ropes.
Tommy Rogers, reflecting the lack of
depth on the territory’s bench, faces off again against Missouri born heel
Grizzly Evans for the second time this month. It’s much like their January 7th
broadcasted encounter – a lot of typical heel spots, sloppily executed, while
announcers Stuart and Wall extol the virtues of Rogers obviously grooming him
for something at least resembling a top babyface spot on the Central States
roster. Unfortunately for Geigel and the rest of the territory, Rogers is
clearly unsuited for such ambitions, but scores the pin in a poorly executed
finish.
We are treated to a brief bit of Stuart/Wall
puffery with their promotion of the Jay and Mark Youngblood team, complete with
footage from a Mid-Atlantic match with Jerry Grey and Ben Alexander, but there’s
precious little to recommend further viewing. It’s rudimentary at best. We cut
afterwards to Stuart interviews with “Crazy” Luke Graham and Harley Race. We
discover Barry Windham scored a victory in the 35,000 battle royal St. Louis
battle royal, as well as a title shot against then NWA World champion Ric
Flair, and Race is none too happy about it. A nascent feud over the Missouri
title between Race and Wahoo McDaniel begins here and Race delivers a strong
interview to push things down the road.
“Colonel” Buck Robely, sans
customary yellow t-shirt, and Bruiser Brody (referred to interchangeably as “King
Kong” Bruiser Brody and just Bruiser Brody) tackle The Grapplers in a tag team
contest. Robely wrestles the bulk of the match and the Grapplers acquit
themselves quite well in the role of the masked heel team, but Brody soon
dominates once the Colonel finally makes the tag to Brody. It’s a hard hitting
match, better than the territory merits at this point in its history, and ends
with Robely busted open and The Grapplers scoring a disqualification victory.
A Marc Lawrence interview with Ric
Flair from World Class Wrestling about the St. Louis battle royal follows and
Flair does a workmanlike job building up his forthcoming confrontation with
battle royal winner Barry Windham. The episode then cuts to footage from the
aforementioned battle royal. Despite the lack of commentary and distant camera
work, participants like Ken Patera and “Crusher” Jerry Blackwell are easy to
discern amongst the ring of bodies battling for a worked prize. The final participants,
Windham and Dory Funk Jr., engage in a solid battle before Windham eliminates
him with a crowd pleasing near suplex over the top rope. It concludes the
episode on a rather anti-climatic note. The lack of any real rhyme or reason in
episodic structure becomes more apparent with each new 1984 episode.
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