This might be the best studio match yet. Even if Eaton wasn't a household name yet he sure was fucking awesome. Keirn was all over him like a rash in the early going, really whipping him over with headlocks and giving him no room to breathe whatsoever. These TV title matches have a 15-minute time limit so it's cool to see the challenger show such urgency. Like, I'm obviously watching a bunch of different studio wrestling right now and I don't know if anywhere else nailed that aspect of the TV title quite as well as they did in Georgia. Eaton eventually takes over with a KILLER Billy Robinson-style backbreaker and goes after the future Fabulous One's spine for a spell. The kneedrops to the lower back looked great, the abdominal stretch looked tight, the back back suplex looked like a Bobby Eaton back suplex. Last few minutes kick it up another gear with some big offence, including Keirn hitting a Saito suplex and even a revenge abdominal stretch. Also liked Eaton trying to pull another fast one by putting his feet on the ropes (the same way he won the title the previous week), but this time the ref' spots it so he just chucks Keirn over the top rope instead. Champion keeps his belt on a DQ after all, so our future gator-hunter goes home empty-handed. I've always liked Keirn and this only bolsters his Very Good Pro Wrestler case. Eaton...looked very much like Bobby Eaton even at this point of his career.
Jake Roberts v Ron Garvin (GCW, 4/7/84)
I wanted to check out some GCW arena footage to go along with the studio stuff. There doesn't seem to be a ton available (that I could find anyway, though I may not know the best places to look and even then my search was hardly exhaustive), but this is on the Network in pristine quality. Also thought it would be interesting to compare a TV title match in an arena setting to one in a studio setting. This had a no time-limit stipulation (as befitting their feud. I assume) so it might not be the best comparison, but they certainly worked it differently. It was way more methodical than those earlier Sullivan/Keirn/Eaton bouts from TV, less frantic, which I guess made sense given that they weren't constrained to 15 minutes. I liked the early bit with Jake being so much taller than Garvin that Garvin could trip him onto his face out of a headlock. Jake taking over by using his height (and the turnbuckles) to catch Garvin with a punch to the eye (also out of a headlock) was a nice touch as well. Unfortunately Jake's control segment dragged a wee bit. The hope spots never felt as hot as you'd like and it needed a bit more energy, though Jake using his wrist tape to choke Garvin is one of those cool touches he always brings. I'm not entirely sure why the ref' let so much fly - I don't think it was no DQ - but the last few minutes were fairly rabid. Jake rips off Garvin's forehead bandage and opens him up, and the reaction for Garvin going bonkers with the chair is amazing. I bet there's some awesome Jake stuff in Georgia, and even if this wasn't at that level overall it was a hell of a moment in the end.
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