Championship Wrestling
Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Gene Okerlund
Show starts with Vince and Gene running down the card and then showing us the locker room celebration that occurred after Hulk Hogan beat the Iron Sheik for the WWF Heavyweight Championship.
The Iron Sheik is in the ring waiting for his match when Sgt. Slaughter’s music hits and he comes to the ring. Slaughter gets into the ring and faces off with the Sheik. After the Sheik pushes back, Slaughter eggs on Sheik to hit him in the face. Slaughter eventually leaves the ring. Great segment as the crowd was about to explode when the two faced off.
Ken Jugan vs. Iron Sheik w/Freddie Blassie
Sheik stomps Jugan as the voiceover plugging the hosue shows mentions that Sheik will be facing Hogan in a Texas Death Match for the title. Sheik hits a belly-to-belly for the pin as the crowd starts a loud “We want Slaughter” chant. Sheik grabs the mic and says “Iran
Thoughts: Just a match to make Sheik look strong.
Gene Okerlund is with Slaughter. Sheik is still in the ring with Blassie. Slaughter calls Blassie a traitor and states that the two were the biggest “maggots” of all time. Slaughter goes off about troops being killed in Iran USA
Steve Lombardi vs. Paul Orndorff w/Roddy Piper
A fan holds up a stenciled sign that reads “Pretty Paula.” Orndorff tosses Lombardi outside then rolls him back in the ring. Orndorff with a clothesline and then the piledriver for the win (1:00).
Thoughts: Another match to make Orndorff look strong as he is been destroying jobbers for a few months at this point. The crowd hates him too.
Mr. Fuji & Tiger Chung Lee vs. Ivan Putski & Andre the Giant
Lee and Putski start out. Putski gets a backdrop then some punches. Lee coems back with a nerve hold that Putski easily escapes from. Heels then get some double team moves behind the ref’s back. The heels do some more illegal double team stuff until Andre gets fed up and attacks them. He gives them the double noggin knocker and then chops Lee out of the ring and the heels then leave, losing by countout (2:51)
Thoughts: Short but this wasn’t going to be much of a match anyway. Still, it was a bit lame for the advertised bout this week.
Rudy Diamond vs. Greg “The Hammer” Valentine w/Capt. Lou Albano
Valentine gets an inverted atomic drop off of a lockup. He follows a backbreaker with several rapid-fire knee drops. Valentine gets a drop toehold and works the leg as Vince breaks the news that Sheik has accepted Slaughter’s challenge for next week. Valentine gets a back suplex and then the figure four for the win (1:35)
Thoughts: The hammer continues to impress since his return to the WWF.
Matia does his stupid hair pull spot (He is bald and always complains to the ref about his hair getting pulled). Tito grabs a side headlock to start. Matia backs him into the corner but gets whipped and caught in a hiptoss. Dropkick by Tito who then takes him down with a side headlock. Tito gets a slam then finishes with the flying forearm (2:28).
Thoughts: Tito is looking good but this wasn’t a stand-out squash or anything
John Callahan & Frankie Williams vs. “Dr. D” David Schultz & “Rowdy” Roddy Piper
This is the WWF TV in-ring debut for Roddy. He has the Superman logo on the front of his shirt. The crowd is teasing Rowdy about his kilt as he takes it off to reveal green trunks. Piper with a few punches and quickly tags Schultz. Suplex by Schultz and a tag to Piper, who repeatedly slams Callahan’s head off of the mat. Piper gets a gutwrench and pulls up Callahan at the two count. Lifting chokehold by Piper and then Schultz comes in and whips Callahan, who then gets caught in a sleeper by Piper for the win (2:46).
Thoughts: Piper and Schultz make for an entertaining tag-team. Piper has nuclear heat and so does the people associated with him. Piper looked good enough in the ring.
Butcher Vachon vs. Salvatore Bellomo
Here is a match that no one wants to see. The two trade counters until Vachon rakes the back. Bellomo comes back with a snapmare and then rakes the eyes with his boots. Bellomo gets a dropkick as the announcers hype up next week’s Slaughter vs. Sheik match. Vachon stomps Bellomo and then gets a backdrop. Bellomo leapfrogs over Vachon and gets the mule kick for the pin (3:41)
Thoughts: Two glorified jobbers in a nothing match. The mule kick is one crappy finisher. Vachon might be the worst worker in the company at this point.
Final Thoughts: Good show as the build towards Sheik vs. Slaughter has been awesome. Also, having the match on TV next week makes that a must-see show. The newer heels like Piper, Schultz, Orndorff, and Valentine are all looking impressive too.
All-Star Wrestling
Video of Hogan’s MSG Title Celebration
Entire recap from Championship Wrestling’s Sheik/Slaughter confrontation
Bob Bradley & Rene Goulet vs. Rocky Johnson & Tony Atlas
Rocky runs over Goulet then gets a sunset flip. Goulet eggs on Atlas and Tony tags in. Goulet with a slap to the face then fails to lift him up. Atlas presses Goulet then places him gently no the top rope. Bradley tags and gets a few clubbing forearms before getting dropped. Tag to Rocky who gets a pair of dropkicks for the win.
Thoughts: The tag-champs still don’t impress me much. Match was fine for what it was.
John Callahan vs. Paul Orndorff w/Roddy Piper
Orndorff tosses Callahan then rolls him back in the ring. Clothesline and then the piledrivers finishes at (0:40)
Thoughts: The same exact formula in his match this week on Championship Wrestling.
Tony Colon vs. Brian Blair
Thoughts: Blair is solid in the ring but the crowd doesn’t care about him. He debut a few weeks ago but really doesn’t have a much that stands out about him.
Rudy Diamond vs. Greg Valentine w/Capt. Lou Albano
Diamond is African-American and wrestles barefoot. Valentine tosses Diamond into the ropes and works the leg. He brings him on the mat and works the leg some more before Diamond submits to the figure four.
Thoughts: Another squash against Diamond. Really not much to this at all.
Piper’s Pit with the Wild Samoans and Capt. Lou Albano. Piper mentions how they were robbed of the tag-titles and demands justice. For those who don’t know, the current champs, Atlas & Johnson, won the belts from the Samoans after Capt. Lou accidentally hit one of his men with a chair and then panicked as the ref counted to three. Anyway, Piper complained about the illegal man getting the pinned and Albano wanted a rematch. A weak segment to be honest. The change was a few months back and the heat against the Samoans has started to chill.
Charlie Fulton vs. Tito Santana
Tito with a backdrop and a side headlock. Damn, Tito loved the side headlock in 1984. Fulton Fulton
Thoughts: Fine for what it was, which is a basic squash match.
Eddie Gilbert & Frankie Williams vs. “Dr. D” David Schultz & “Rowdy” Roddy Piper
Roddy and Eddie start off and they engage in a test of strength. Both men tag out and Dr. D murders Williams. He gets him a chinlock then a blind tag to Piper. The heels use some more illegal double team moves as Gilbert is going nuts. Kneelift by Roddy and he wails on Williams until Gilbert runs in to break that up as Schultz gets on the middle turnbuckle and drops an elbow on Williams for the win. The crowd is booing like crazy as the heels beat their opponents. One guy loudly and clearly calls Piper a “fucking pussy.” Piper and Dr. D walk up the ramp and look directly into the camera and call out Hogan.
Thoughts: Schultz and Piper were fantastic after the match, especially while they were looking into the camera. Just two men who are great at being heels. The stuff with Gilbert was fine and a continuation of Piper’s Pit were Roddy made fun of Gilbert’s dad. At least they are making attempt to have Gilbert stand out a bit from the rest of the jobbers.
Butcher Vachon vs. Ivan Putski
Wow, these might be the two worst workers in the company. Vachon breaks a lockup and uses a low blow and some chops. Putski fires back with windmill punches, causing Vachon to go outside and grab a chair. He drops the chair as the ref yells at him. Back in the ring, Vachon gets an eye rake but gets shoved down as Putski takes revenge on Vachon with a back rake. Putski smashes Vachon into the turnbuckle then hits the Polish Hammer for the win.
Thoughts: Weak, but not as bad as I thought it would be. The crowd is getting less vocal when the older wrestlers are in the ring.
They plug Sheik vs. Slaughter for next week.
Final Thoughts: This was certainly a show that you could have skipped over and not missed a beat in 1984. The Piper/Schultz squash was easily the best thing.
I give you credit for even reviewing these, I know I couldn't sit through this many squash matches and stay awake.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I watch one show at a time but they dont take long to review and I can write them up rather quickly. Plus, it's helping me learn about the WWF at this time and I havent seen stuff from this era reviewed on the net so I thought I would take a crack at it.
ReplyDeleteHey just had a question that popped in my head and wondered if anyone knows. Yes this is kinda obscure but during that ppv match where Bulldog beat diesel by CO and Vince got mad at Diesel what was he expecting to happen? Obviously they weren't going to put the title on Bulldog so was he expecting a clean Diesel win?
ReplyDeleteI love these cause they take me back (to a bit before I started watching actually). Its cool to see who is still active at theis point and who is starting out. Incidently did these shows air in the same markets? Seems to be a lot of overlap of who is doing squashes and whatnot.
ReplyDeleteI think Vince got mad because Nash was lazy and stunk up the joint and the match sucked, though the Bulldog really wasn't doing any better IMO, pretty much just working the leg the entire match. As far as I know the ending went off as planned, Vince was pissed off at the quality of the match. The title was taken off Nash at the next PPV, though I'm willing to bet that was the plan all along to set up Hart/HBK at WMXII.
ReplyDeleteI like reading reviews from this timeframe.. This was a couple of years before I started watching, and it's interesting to read the backstory unfold.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering that myself. They both aired on the same da but it seems different than Superstars/Challenge in the sense that those shows did not show reacps of what happened on the same day.
ReplyDelete