BRUCE Reed??

Masked Superstar v Bruce Reed (GCW, 8/22/81)

I'm pretty well convinced that Georgia had some of the best studio wrestling in America in the early 80s. There, I've said it and I'll say it again and I don't care who hears me! Bruce Reed is a young BUTCH Reed and this is one of the earliest examples of him being awesome that I've seen, maybe the earliest. Superstar gave him a ton which didn't hurt. Reed had an answer to everything Superstar did so Superstar would need to take powders to compose himself. When he tried to get surly with the clubbering - and Eadie has great clubbering - Reed would punch him in the mouth and keep pressing. It's an easy enough story to tell, but champion underestimating his young opponent is always a good one and you know Solie is great at communicating it on his end. Reed's arm work was really good - nice tight hammerlock, throwing headbutts to the shoulder while he has it barred, yanking Superstar back to the mat when he tries to escape, etc. Loved the bit where Superstar tried to snapmare his way out of that hammerlock, but Reed held on, forced him onto all fours (or threes, as it were) and followed up with a big butt smash across the hammerlocked arm. Reed is also a guy who can do cruiserweight shit and make it look as impactful as it does graceful. Big guys doing high flying is commonplace today and you won't see him getting as creative as a Dominik Dijakovic or whatever, but his flying crossbody is always killer and his leaping shoulder tackle looked tremendous here. In the end Superstar used that athleticism against him, sidestepping another crossbody attempt as Reed hotshotted himself across the rope to set up the cobra clutch.