WWWF/WWF #33 Page #2
Garea & Zbyzsko waited until November of 1978 before finally gaining those titles from The Yukon Lumberjacks, in what has to be considered somewhat of an upset as the Lumberjacks were poised to be an unbeatable team at the time.
Garea & Zbyzsko defended the titles against such teams as Victor Rivera & Spiros Arion, Baron Scicluna & Rivera, and Scicluna & Stan Staziak. But it was The Valiants who upended the tandem this time. Although they tried in vain to regain the straps, the Valaints proved too tough (or too elusive).
Finally, in July 1980, Garea's longest reigning tag team partner split up with him amid controversy. Shortly after Zbyzsko turned on his mentor, Bruno Sammartino, he turned on his partner, Tony Garea, after a televised bout where Larry just defeated Billy Burger. Garea faced Zbyzsko in several shows, but Tony usually ended up on the short end. Garea teamed with Rene Goulet to go to the finals of the World Tag Team title tournament when the belts went vacant in 1980, but the team was short lived. Around this time he also had short-lived tandems with "Rookie Sensation" Steve Travis, and Rick McGraw, but McGraw & Travis eventually wound up teaming together as the "Carolina Connection."
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But he was not without a partner for long. Almost immediately after this controversial split, Garea found his newest partner in Rick Martel.
Together they won the tag team titles much faster than with Zbyzsko, and held them on two separate occasions, defeating The Samoans the first time, and The Moondogs the second. Martel left the WWF shortly after losing the tag titles to Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito, but the team saw faster and longer success than any other partner Garea ever had.
Tony Garea also had many important singles wins throughout his career, including Baron Mikel Scicluna, Bulldog Brower, Swede Hansen, Tony Altimore, and Hans Schroeder, and occasionally defeating the likes of George "The Animal" Steele and Killer Kowalski by disqualification.
But come 1982 Garea was once again without a partner. He did a search and found Eddie Gilbert, and with Gilbert the two received several shots at World Tag Team Champions The Wild Samoans, but the Samoans proved too tough. He also briefly teamed with a young Curt Henning at this time. He also formed occasional teams with people like Salvatore Bellomo & S.D. Jones. When Henning & Gilbert left the federation, Garea was forced to go it alone.
Although he received some success, and even achieved some shots at Intercontinental Champion Don "Magnificent" Muraco, he again failed to win singles gold.
Finally, come 1984 Garea found the last man he would form a regular tandem with in B. Brian Blair. They failed to become contenders before The Samoans lost the tag titles to Tony Atlas & Rocky Johnson, and Blair left sometime when Adonis & Murdoch were the champions. Garea & Blair did however, have some memorable matches with another contending team of Mr. Fuji & Tiger Chung Lee, trading off wins in various arenas.
During 1984, Garea also tried his hand at commentating, for several episodes of All Star Wrestling, and even a few house shows. But this venture never really took off. He found himself lost in the shuffle for the latter half of 1984. From 1985 until he retired he was used almost exclusively as enhancement talent, although wins over Tony Garea still seemed to mean something, as Garea still got in considerable offense in his matches. He received one last shot at the World Tag Team Titles on a Saturday Night's Main Event in 1986 with Lanny Poffo against Greg Valentine & Brutus Beefcake, but no one took them seriously as a threat to the titles by then.
He made some of his final appearances as late as 1987, and pretty much hung up the boots as of early that year.
But Garea stayed on with the WWF as a road agent, and remains in the corporation in that capacity until today. He may be the company's longest running employee, with the exception of Vince McMahon himself. His legacy will be well remembered.
NEXT MONTH:
I haven't done anything with the late 1980s in a while, so I'll jump into a famous angle with the evil referee, Danny Davis and examine his short wrestling career, and long refereeing career.