Hey everyone. Welcome back to another brand new Rewind. I am going to change up the presentation a little bit today and instead of using pictures and text, I thought I’d give you one better and use video and text. After the read, you will be able to see a video clip of the featured moment. I hope everyone enjoys.
Ronnie Garvin Sells Out
Great American Bash ’88
Ahh,Rugged Ronnie Garvin. The man who’s finishing move once consisted of him stomping on the chest of his opponent. Well, for the many years that he terrorized the wrestling world with his death defying moves, he was kind of the man in the NWA/Crocket Promotions/WCW at one point in the mid-late eighties. Ron Garvin and his brother, former Freebird, Jimmy Garvin, battled the likes of the Midnight Express, Kevin Sullivan, and the Four Horsemen all across the country during this time. In my opinion, it was during this period when the NWA was at it’s best. Crockett Promotions produced some of the greatest wrestling matches, storylines and feuds during this era. Unfortunately, they ran up against Vince McMahon and his bulldozer known as sports entertainment, which took the wrestling world by storm around this time as well. For those who had never seen Crockett at it’s best, try to find some footage on You Tube of this era. You will be in for a treat.
In 1988, Crockett put on it’s annual Great American Bash PPV. Ron Garvin participated in the awesome Tower of Doom match. The main storyline for the match was the ever going feud between Ron’s brother, Jimmy, and devil worshipping Kevin Sullivan. The Garvin Brothers and their team were victorious and many fans assumed the night was over for Ron.
Enter Dusty Rhodes. Later on in the night, Dusty Rhodes battled US Champion, Barry Windham, for the US Title. During the match, referee, Tommy Young, was bumped all the way to the floor and was knocked unconcious. Moments later, Dusty would slam Windham off the top rope and deliver his big elbow. Windham’s manager, JJ Dillon, saw an opportunity to get involved with the ref still out. All of a sudden babyface hero, Ronnie Garvin, came down to the ring and at first acted like he was going to assist Dusty and even the odds. Then, as Dusty had his back turned to Ronnie, he turned Dusty back around and dropped him with a vicious right fist to the head. Barry Windham got the claw on an unconscious Rhodes and got the easy victory. Moments later, the cameras would find Ron Garvin in the back accepting a serious amount of cash from Gary Hart and JJ Dillon. Ron Garvin had sold out. Garvin would later go on to battle Dusty Rhodes for a bit until he fled to WWF land. While working for McMahon, Garvin did pretty much nothing as he wrestled in very low profile feuds. I guess Vince didn’t really think of Ron as World Champion material, huh?
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