Hapless jobbers seemed to abound in Crockett era NWA, but they were by no means exclusive to that territory. In fact, I am pretty sure there was bad ‘enhancement talent’ the globe over in the early to late 1980s, as was the case when Sgt. Slaughter took on young Paul Fisher in this here SQUASH of the Week.
Now THAT my friends is a worthy jobber. Decked out in his hard rock black t-shirt, flowing mullet, and skanky mustache, this guy is just asking to have a tooth or six knocked out.
And that’s exactly what he’s going to get with Sarge, or Gomer as he was known to his detractors at ringside. See, the joke there is that Gomer Pyle was a television character who originally appeared on…you know what, no no, I’m not going there. Because if I fully detail this I am going to feel like even more of a geezer than I already am.
Instead, let’s focus on the background there, as we see not only the Grand Wizard (who I legitimately have zero memories of) but also a young Danny Davis as the referee! I like to think Wizard is giving him advice on nefarious tactics he kept in the back of his mind until he turned full on heel and joined the Hart Foundation some five years later.
The match begins and it is very apparent that this Fisher guy has zero idea what he is doing. Sarge backs him into the ropes and waylays him with a forearm while commentator Vince McMahon notes this geek already had a concave chest and Slaughter’s just making it worse.
Sarge does his best, but Fisher is so out of position for a clothesline Slaughter needs to jump off his feet just in hopes of coming close to landing it. You’d think it couldn’t get worse, but sure enough it does with some of the most horrific rope running you ever did see. Clearly annoyed, Sarge drops him with another clothesline that nearly takes off his head.
The dreaded Cobra Clutch ends things…eventually. No idea what on earth Fisher was doing there but it looked like Sarge legitimately had to wrestle the guy to get him into position for his finisher. Woof.
And that was the end of Paul Fisher. Don’t know if he ever made another appearance, but if he did, rest assured it was a SQUASH of the Week!