30 Years Ago: DiBiase Gets the Mask, Loses the Belt

Tommy Rich From John Cannon: For many like myself, the mid-1980s were a great time to watch wrestling, and nothing could top ...

Tommy Rich

From John Cannon:

For many like myself, the mid-1980s were a great time to watch wrestling, and nothing could top World Championship Wrestling on the Superstation, WTBS! While the studio matches with top names beating up jobbers might draw yawns today, they were great additions to the awesome interviews and promos presented at the microphone of Gordon Solie.

Truth be told, some of my favorite wrestlers got their cans handed to them each week, but what always intrigued me as a teenager was the masked wrestlers. Looking at pictures of them now with their ski mask style disguises they don’t seem quite as scary, but back then they always seemed to be the biggest and the baddest. Still, no matter how cool and ominous a masked wrestler appeared, I always seemed to root for the young long-haired southern wrestlers that I could identify with – after all, how can you identify with a mysterious masked guy if you can’t see their face?

Probably my all-time favorite has to be Michael Hayes of the Freebirds, but in 1983 and 1984 I didn’t think anyone was cooler than Tommy “Wildfire” Rich. Maybe it was because all the girls I knew loved him, and I in turned loved all the girls. Simple fact of the matter – I was a die-hard Tommy Rich mark.

Ted DiBiase

In 1984, Rich was probably the wrestler I was most familiar with. I had followed him through his 1981 Georgia TV Title run, his matches teaming up with the Junkyard Dog against the Fabulous Freebirds (who would eventually become my favorite group of wrestlers), his wild feud with Buzz Sawyer, and, of course, his win over Harley Race for the NWA World Heavyweight belt right here in my home town of Augusta, which was one of my favorite “late” birthday memories. No one represented the rockin’ long-haired, blonde, jean wearin’, Camaro drivin’ southern white boy like Wildfire, and since we already had the look in common, and the gals liked Tommy … I was on the right track!

Now here I was at the tail end of high school enjoying life, girls, rock & roll, and wrestling on TBS. Life couldn’t get any better. Well, that is until, suddenly, good ol’ Tommy goes off and loses this Loser Leaves Georgia match against Ted DiBiase. This was before the kooky Million Dollar Man stuff when DiBiase was still a true bad-A. What?!?! No more Tommy?!?! Only a teenage princess coulda broke my heart more. How am I gonna watch wrestling without “Wildfire” doing his thing on TV every week?

Well, as a true wrestling fan, I couldn’t keep away from watching, no matter how hard I thought I wanted to. Boy, I was some kinda mad at DiBiase, and out of the blue here comes this Mr. R cat with a mask going after DiBiase. If anything I was a fan now of Mr. R because I wanted DiBiase to get what he had coming to him!

I was even kind of excited when Mr. R headed out to talk to Gordon Solie the first time. Then it was weird. This masked dude sounded like Tommy Rich. “Holy cow! It is Tommy! Of course, no human on the planet was fooled, but it was fun watching DiBiase frustratingly claim he knew what everyone else pretended not to know. The only masked guys more obvious in history was the Boogie Woogie Man, the Midnight Rider, and Hulk Hogan in that stupid Mr. USA getup or whatever he was called. But anyway …

Brad Armstrong

So on February 18, 1984, I tuned and it turned out Mr. R was going to fight DiBiase for the NWA National Heavyweight Championship – on television! Stuff like that rarely went down on TV in those days, and it was cool but nerve racking. What if Tommy’s true identity gets revealed? What will it mean to him wrestling in Georgia again? Finally, it was match time.

I know I have always remembered this match as a good match, but when this date came up I was curious and was lucky enough to find it on YouTube, and I have to say the match still holds up for me all these years later. For those of you who have watched it (you can below, by the way), you know how the story goes.

Mr. R and DiBiase take turns getting the upper hand. DiBiase tries several times to remove the mask, prompting Solie and Ole Anderson to question what happens if it is revealed to be Rich. DiBiase loads up his glove and gets a few shots in before finally getting the mask off to reveal that it is Tom…No! It’s Brad Armstrong! And standing outside the ring is an unmasked Tommy Rich, which draws DiBiase’s attention, opening up a spot for Armstrong to roll DiBiase up for the three-count and the title win! On TV!

Sadly, Tommy’s time at WTBS was winding down, and he headed off for stints in Memphis Wrestling and the AWA. It would be a while before Tommy would turn up again on WTBS, for Ted Turner’s WCW.

Thanks for the memories, Mr. R …