WhiteTail Wrestling

Part 1

Well its the festive season again so I decided with some time away from work it was time for some wrestling to match the season. Going back to the 80’s and before wrestling on Christmas Day was a major occasion with the territories putting on major shows to entertain their fans who no doubt wanted to escape the home and family arguments to watch some graps. This post was originally going to feature some action from numerous years of that decade of long hair and awesome music but the sheer amount of content meant that this will be a multiple part series with at least one more part I hope before the new year. In this part we have some action from 1980 as GCW ran the famous Omni in Atlanta and their was an absolute stinker in Indianapolis which I found to be a great cure for insomnia as I found myself nodding off before the bell to end the pain rang. We also have some action from this current year as AEW had a Christmas Day edition of Dynamite from the great venue of the Hammerstein Ballroom while this was a taped show it did air on the 25th so it definitely counts. To finish this introduction I would like to wish everyone out there a very Merry Christmas and best wishes for a happy and safe New Year.

1980

GCW had a Christmas day show from the Omni in Atlanta. I was able to find three matches from the show but all were clipped and not really reviewable. The first match features Tony Atlas defeating Kevin Sullivan to defend his NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship. The footage clearly from TV runs for about three minutes and shows Sullivan trying to cheat his way to a win but Atlas survives and wins the match with some help from Steve Keirn who takes away the weapon that Sullivan was using. Another three minutes of footage from a match where Mr Wrestling II defeats Mr Saito in a judo jacket match. Wrestling II mentions on commentary talking with Gordon Solie that Saito makes the mistake of removing Wrestling II jacket which transforms the match into a wrestling match which Wrestling II soon wins after hitting his knee lift finisher. Finally we have five minutes of footage from the main event a two ring battle royal which somehow transforms into a tag match between the Freebirds against Robert Fuller and Ted DiBiase. Fuller and DiBiase get the win and $30,000 after some help from Stan Frazier who stops the cheating of the Freebirds. Frazier gets jumped after the match and drilled with a chair shot to the neck. I enjoyed the footage here although it is very much of its time in the style of work and booking. The main event transforming into a tag match with wrestlers actually standing around on the outside waiting for a tag when the match is supposed to be a battle royal completely defies logic but hey if it works with the crowd at the time then fair enough. The heel heat was also very much of its time with all three matches featuring heels being heels.

WWA in Indianapolis as Dick the Bruiser takes on Baron Von Rashkie. A boring dull 10 minute brawl with not a single moment of drama or excitement. They grabbed each other with awful claw holds or punched each other and that was it with the comedically bad selling from Von Rashkie being particularly noticeable. A genuine dud of a match if this was the sort of crap that the people of Indiana were subjected to then no wonder the promotion went out of business.

2024

AEW Dynamite aired a Christmas day episode in 2024 as the Continental Classic tournament wound down with the semi finalists decided prior to the World’s End PPV on Saturday. First up it was Will Ospreay taking on Brody King in a match that Opreay had to win if he was to have any chance of progressing. This was an excellent match not one of Ospreay’s great matches for the year but for what this was it did everything it needed to do. King is excellent in his big man role and overall I thought highly of the match despite it not being quite at the level of a VOW notebook match. Ospreay got the win resorting to the Stormbreaker on the big man once the hidden blade failed to keep King down. King looked good and had a competitive performance and the program had an excellent kick off match with furthered the storyline of the show in a good way rather than a corny contrived way which has become an unfortunate theme in modern professional wrestling.***3/4

Ricochet vs Darby Allin was next with Allin needing to win to have any chance of going through and Ricochet just needing a draw to progress. It was Ricochet that managed to progress getting his draw and thinking he is the duck’s nuts for not winning a wrestling match in the aftermath. It was instantly obvious this was going the distance with slow work to begin with and to be honest only picking up on a couple of occasions with both men obviously holding back. Some good moments with the highlight probably being Ricochet putting Allin through a table after an amazing 630 splash. Allin desperately makes a comeback at the end and lands the coffin drop but it was too late and the time expired along with his time in the tournament. Good to very good match but could have been better. ***1/4

Komander got his first win of the CC defeating Claudio Castagnoli in an upset to eliminate the member of Jon Moxley’s death riders. This was just good at best. The action was decent enough and the match didn’t overstay its welcome and Komander gets a rare win on TV that sets up the last two matches of the tournament prior to the semis. ***

After the match we had the death riders attack Komander resulting in Jay White and Orange Cassidy coming to the ring. The two men were outnumbered and brought down by a dastardly attack by AEW champion Jon Moxley who jumped them from behind. Just as Moxley looked like he was going to come out on top prior to World’s End Hangman Adam Page comes to the ring and suddenly the faces have the advantage with each man hitting their finisher on Moxley and standing tall in the ring. A good angle leading to the four way match at World’s End which made it look like Moxley may finally pay for his sins and lose the AEW Championship but I doubt it.

Kazuchika Okada once one of the best wrestlers in the world now taking it easy in America and taking a wildly inflated salary from Tony Khan defeated Shelton Benjamin who despite pushing 50 looks almost as athletic as he was 20 years ago. A very good match even when he isn’t really trying Okada can’t have a bad match. Even so he does need to make an effort to have a great match which means we can’t go that far. Okada goes to the semis where he will face off against Ricochet in a test of how great these two workers who once had great reputations can perform in the ring. ***1/4

Toni Storm the once timeless one has now lost her memory and thinks she is a rookie in AEW in a ridiculous storyline which makes a mockery of what made AEW great. Crappy storyline which makes no sense and results in matches like this where a veteran like Storm who was once of the bright lights of women’s wrestling putting in great performances all over the world including in the ultimate test Japan somehow forgets how to wrestle and allows a nobody like Valkyrie to have all the offence and what boring and dull offence it was resulting in a match that never rose above completely mediocre. Storm the rookie somehow wins with a lame ass rollup. A waste of time.

The main event as Kyle Fletcher defeats Daniel Garcia to win his group and set up a rematch with Will Ospreay in the CC Semi Finals. This was an excellent match which built up really well towards the finish. Garcia who had a chance to go through almost gets the win with the submission but he gets too close to Fletcher who escapes the hold by grabbing Garcia and slamming him into the mat. The match continued to be exciting towards the finish with Fletcher winning after hitting his brainbuster like move to the turnbuckle. Fletcher and Ospreay at World’s End should be a great match with the winner having a great opportunity to win the tournament as a whole. Moxley ends the show with a good promo in the bowels of the arena. Moxley is a great promo but I’m not sure that this heel character is working with the fans. Overall a really good Dynamite although there was nothing great here there was nothing terrible either with the Toni Storm match being the only thing that was just really mediocre. The non wrestling segments were fine as well with nothing completely cringe which is always a plus.