Dear Pro Wrestling History Enthusiasts:
It never fails, every time I am a guest on a podcast (and that seems to be once or twice a week) I am asked what I would go find first in the WWE Vault, which according to legend contains thousands and thousands of hours of footage we have never seen before or may never see.
So, when they release something new, It’s exciting.
I got out of the shower this morning to a special announcement from my friend Charles at Wrestling Playlists, who is the foremost curator of video footage in pro wrestling history.
I don’t think Charles would mind, so I am just going to copy his message here for those of you who don’t yet subscribe to his newsletter and video vault:
“WWE Vault just released an April 22, 1984, show at the Omni, presented by Georgia Championship Wrestling. This is a brand new show.
The card:
Road Warriors vs King Kong Bundy & Masked Superstar
Jake Roberts vs Brad Armstrong
NWA TV Title: Ron Garvin (c) vs The Spoiler
Sweet Brown Sugar & Tim Horner vs Les Thornton & Rocky Jones
Tommy Rogers vs Bob Roop
There is a stipulation attached to the Road Warriors match where if they win, the Masked Superstar must unmask while if Bundy and Superstar win, Bundy gets Paul Ellering alone for five minutes. The Road Warriors were the greatest asset the territory had at this point in time, among the biggest drawing cards in wrestling with bookings in high demand from other promoters, although in Georgia, they suffered from a lack of marquee opponents.
On paper, this show appears to present a territory in decline struggling to put together a compelling card, but some Omni shows have overdelivered, so we’ll see. Ron Garvin-Jake Roberts has been a consistently good to great match since late 1983 by this time, even if it has been done to death.
GCW was on its last legs at this point, and it showed both in the lineup and the attendance, as the show drew only 1,300 fans. Behind the scenes, Jack and Jerry Brisco had already sold their shares of the company to Vince McMahon, who coveted the Saturday evening timeslot on Superstation WTBS for the WWF. However, the sale was still being contested in an ugly court battle away from the public eye during this time.
Promoter Ole Anderson was infamously the first to notice McMahon’s expansion as a threat to the NWA territories. At the previous year’s NWA convention, Ole confronted Vince McMahon Sr. about his son’s expansion to other areas, although because Ole was abrasive and Vince Sr. was generally well-liked, most promoters did not take Ole’s accusations seriously. In response, Ole had been testing the waters himself, running shows in Ohio, Michigan, and Los Angeles, and even holding a card in Baltimore, a WWF stronghold, 16 days earlier that drew more than 10,000 fans, as NWA World Champion Ric Flair faced Jack Brisco. That card was previously released on Hidden Gems, the WWE Network feature that preceded the WWE Vault YouTube channel.
The WWF continued to sign talent away from the territory, debuting Buzz Sawyer for a short-lived run in May, but the WWF’s attempt to compete in every GCW city proved difficult. They won the wrestling war in Cleveland by the end of May and were trending that way in most other cities; however, in the same time period, the WWF cancelled a planned debut in Huntington, West Virginia, after selling only 200 tickets, during a time that GCW still averaged 3,500 fans per show. The WWF was waging similar battles with virtually every NWA promoter across the country and amassing a combination of big victories and disappointing results.
It’s important to get the numbers up to encourage them to release more shows, so make sure you watch so they do more of this type of thing!”
-Special Public Service Announcement, Wrestling Playlists, April 23rd, 2026
So, in cooperation with Charles stellar effort to encourage WWE Vault to release more and more classic footage by showing there are thos eof use out here who will show up in big enough numbers to move the needle, I am enouraging all my community of Pro Wrestling Enthusiasts to click the link, watch this OMNI Show and also press the subscribe button to help with our movement!
Thanks Charles and thanks everybody!
Tony
WATCH:
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I’m Tony Richards, Pro Wrestling Historian, Author and Storyteller. I share pro wrestling historical items in each issue of the Time Tunnel Pro Wrestling History Newsletter and each episode of our podcast show. Thanks for your support! If you enjoy my information on select events, matches and insights, please share with folks you think might like to be a subscriber!
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Thanks, Tony, this is great! I will add that Cagematch had one of the matches listed incorrectly so I've updated my post. It was actually Ron Garvin vs The Spoiler instead of Jake Roberts pulling double duty.