The rarest of wrestling footage - The Last Battle of Atlanta

A match that was thought to be lost to the ages has apparently been found, and WWE are releasing it on the WWE Network on the 6th September. Described by some as the precursor to the "hell in a cell" match, The Last Battle of Atlanta was the final match between “Wildfire” Tommy Rich and “Mad Dog” Buzz Sawyer who had one of the longest, most personal and violent feuds in pro wrestling history. They appeared to have legit hatred of each other and they ended their feud with a blood bath of a match, that featured both men locked inside the first ever roofed-in steel cage, with Sawyer’s manager Paul Ellering locked in a separate cage above the cage they were fighting in. Funnily enough, not long after this match, they formed a tag team despite everyone thinking that they truly hated each other. Maybe they just beat that hatred out of themselves in the final match of their long feud.

Shawn Michaels described the match as the inspiration for the first ever Hell in a Cell match that would hit WWE 14 years later.

In 2012, WWE did an article on the video, saying:

Very little, if any, video footage of The Last Battle of Atlanta exists. No one knows what happened to it. There are rumors that a Georgia Championship Wrestling official may have erased the footage by mistake. Every now and then, rumors pop up online of a mysterious tape trader who got hold of the footage, but nothing ever comes of it. All we have that confirms the match took place are a few photographs. Otherwise, one of the most brutal bouts in wrestling history is lost in time.

To make it even more interesting, some historians have listed the match as the rarest unseen footage in wrestling history. Reports say that Ole Anderson accidentally ruined the only footage of the match that there was, but pictures of the match did survive so people do know that it actually took place.

According to WWENetworkNews.com, WWE have managed to get their hands on the footage somehow, and will be adding The Last Battle of Atlanta to the WWE Network on the 6th September as a part of their "Hidden Gems" collection that showcases rare footage. If this is true and WWE really have managed to unearth the rarest footage in wrestling history, it won't be long until everyone will be able to watch a match that previously, only an infinitely small percentage of people have ever laid eyes on.