March 17, 1984
Your announcers are Gene Okerlund and Vince McMahon
Vince and Gene run down the card, plugging Andre the Giant appearing on ”Piper’s Pit” and the featured bout, Tony Garea vs. Greg Valentine
Afa and SD trade shoulderblocks then SD works in a wishbone. Tag to Lombardi, who misses a leg drop but is able to roll away from a splash. Afa hits Lombardi and tags Sika, who gets a headbutt and a slam before tagging out. The Samoans get several headbutts on Lombardi before Afa finishes with a Samoan Drop (3:34)
Thoughts: Not much to see here. Half of the match consisted of the Samoans head-butting their opponents. The Samoans were starting to get phased out around this time.
Angelo Gomez vs. “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff
Orndorff grounds Gomez as the crowd breaks into a loud “Paula” chant. He starts toying with Gomez as he maintains a front facelock. Orndorff gets a clothesline and finishes with a piledriver (2:49)
Thoughts: The match consisted of Orndorff toying with his inferior opponent. The crowd hates him and his squashes with Piper are entertaining.
Vince has a WWF Magazine segment on Sgt. Slaughter and the Cobra Corps. The show a clip of him leading the crowd into the “Pledge of Allegiance” and Vince closes by plugging WWF Magazine, with several articles including one on the Von Erich family. Just Vince trying to sell the new magazine.
Two children are in the ring and they perform an amateur-style wrestling match. They are trained by Bob Backlund, who was welcomed by mostly boos from the crowd. It goes on for about three minutes and Gene comes out to interview Backlund, who claims he is healthy and will wrestle here next week. The crowd was mostly dead here and those who were vocal booed Backlund. This segment was a dud.
Charlie Fulton & Tony Russo vs. The Invaders
Russo and Invader #2 start off. #2 cartwheels away and gets a slam. #1 tags in a snapmares Russo, who then tags out. Fulton
Thoughts: The Invaders were ahead of their time here. If they were around a few years later, they could have had some really good matches with the tag-teams that were around.
Piper’s Pit with Andre. At first, Andre doesn’t acknowledges Piper’s questions and gets his intelligence insulted as a result. Piper brings up John Studd’s claim that he has slammed Andre, who states that it never happened and he has never been slammed. Piper says that if he had five minutes, he could slam Andre but Andre gets up and picks Piper up by his shirt, ripping it off. Andre leaves the set as an irate Piper is screaming about how Andre isn’t tough. Fun segment and the crowd loved seeing Piper get a taste of his own medicine. Also, the raging and screaming version of Piper is the best.
Tony Garea vs. Greg “The Hammer” Valentine w/Capt. Lou Albano
Valentine starts with a drop toehold but Garea gets up an comes back with an armdrag. The Hammer ducks out and snapmares Garea when he re-enters the ring. Garea gets two off of a sunset flip. Valentine blocks a reverse rollup but walks into a dropkick. Garea is whipped into the corner and comes back with a crossbody but Valentine side steps the move and drops an elbow for the win (2:21).
Thoughts: This certainly didn’t make Valentine look strong. Two weeks ago he hospitalizes Jose Luis Rivera, dominating him the entire time and here he wins because Garea missed a crossbody. I have no idea as to why they protected Garea around this time. He was a lower card worker but never got squashed and usually his partner at a pin or he lost because he missed a move. He also sucks a selling.
Frank Ruiz vs. Butcher Vachon
Vachon works the arm until Ruiz fights back. They trade snapmares and Ruiz works a neck vise until Vachon yanks him by the hair. Ruiz charges but gets booted and Vachon finishes with a double stomp for the win (3:04).
Thoughts: No one in the crowd cared about this. Boring match and Vachon is essentially a jobber who was just one step above his opponent in the pecking order.
Ron Shaw vs. Salvatore Bellomo
Shaw starts by grabbing a hammerlock then gets a snapmare. He gets a slam but Bellomo rolls away from an elbow drop . Dropkick by Bellomo and he follows that with an armdrag. Bellomo works a side headlock and gets a waistlock suplex for two. Bellomo works the legs of Shaw for a bit but runs into an elbow smash. Shaw then whiffs on a chop and Bellomo comes back with a crossbody block for the win (3:02).
Thoughts: Decent little match that featured a good amount of action. Bellomo is still useless and looks like less of a star than Shaw does though. Shaw really isn’t bad at all.
Vince and Gene plug next week’s featured bout, Tiger Chung Lee vs. Bob Backlund
Final Thoughts: A lot of filler this week. Piper’s Pit was fun and Orndorff’s squash matches are entertaining but the Backlund segment bombed and the matches were mostly from lower-midcard workers. Guys like Salvatore Bellomo and Butcher Vachon are not particularly exciting.
March 24, 1984
Your announcers are Vince McMahon and Gene Okerlund
Vince and Gene run down the card and plug the “WWF Magazine.”
Tony Russo vs. Tito Santana
Before the match, Tito throws his rose towards the crowd. Tito gets a hiptoss before taking Russo over with a headlock. He gets a slam then goes back to the headlock. Russo breaks and they do a pinfall reverse sequence, ending with Russo getting two off of a cradle. Russo lands a few shots in the corner but Tito escapes and hits a flying elbow smash before coming back with the flying forearm for the win (3:31).
Thoughts: Fine for what it was I suppose. Tito usually works a lengthy headlock into his matches.
Johnny Ringo vs. “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff w/Roddy Piper
Ringo is a bearded guy with long hair billed from Texas
Thoughts: Very similar to the squash from the week before but its still entertaining. The WWE should do the same style of squash matches today, it would get someone over instantly. I know there aren't any others like Orndorff of Piper today but even second-rate impersonators can get this act over.
Vince is at the desk with a “WWF Magazine” segment on Hulk Hogan. He says that “Hulkamania” is more contagious than the common cold. Clips of Hogan beating the Sheik at MSG for the belt are shown as Vince narrates the highlights.
Ron Shaw vs. Sgt.Slaughter
Much less cheers for Slaughter than usual. Shaw refuses a handshake and gets his ass kicked as a result. Slam by Slaughter is followed by a knee drop. He gets a backbreaker then a clothesline from the second rope, setting up the Cobra Clutch for the win (2:12).
Thoughts: Total domination by Slaughter, who was overly aggressive the entire time. For some reason, the crowd wasn’t very responsive towards him.
Angelo Gomez vs. Tonga
Thoughts: Tonga
Charlie Fulton & Israel Matia vs. Tony Atlas & Rocky Johnson
After the champs are introduced, the camera cuts to the crowd, showing a young Dwayne Johnson, who was thirteen years old at this time. Matia jaws with Atlas, who was on the apron, and Rocky slaps him on the back of the head. Matia shoves Rocky then uses some basic heel stall tactics. Shoulderblock by Matia but he gets caught with a slam. Fulton tags and hits a few forearm shots before Rocky tags out. Matia tags in and Atlas headbutts him down. Press slam by Atlas is followed by a splash for the win (2:45).
Thoughts: A dull match and the team of Johnson & Atlas is not an exciting combo.
Piper’s Pit with the Iron Sheik and Ayatollah Freddie Blassie. Piper apologizes on the behalf of America for their behavior towards the Sheik. He still refers to the Sheik as the world’s champion. A loud “U-S-A” chant breaks out in the crowd and the segment closes with Blassie offering Piper a Rolls Royce. Not much of a segment, which consisted of heels gushing over each other.
Steve Lombardi vs. “Dr. D” David Schultz
For some reason, Piper is not accommodating Schultz for his match. Schultz starts with a hiptoss. Snapmare gets two. He takes Lombardi down with a back elbow smash as the crowd starts a “Hogan” chant. He beats on Lombardi before getting a slam then hitting his elbow drop off the second rope for the win (1:40).
Thoughts: Total domination by Schultz, who was set to face Hogan at house shows. No explanation was given as to why Piper was not with Schultz.
Tiger Chung Lee vs. Bob Backlund
The crowd reaction here for Backlund is a lot more favorable than last week. The two start off with some matwork and Backlund has the advantage. He works the arm for a bit until Lee lands a few shots. Backlund ducks an attack from Lee and gets a backslide for the win (4:08).
Thoughts: This was very boring to watch and it was like watching a worked amateur-style match. Winning with a backslide is as lame as it gets too.
Victor Mercado vs. “Iron” Mike Sharpe
Several in the crowd have signs that read “Wimp,” which are directed towards Sharpe. He jumps Mercado before the bell and tosses him outside. Sharpe brings him back in with a snapmare then chops him hard before choking him out with his foot. Mercado is able to dodge a charge and lands a dropkick but Sharpe quickly regains control. Jumping forearm smash to the back by Sharpe then he drags Mercado outside. After smashing his head off of the announcers table, Mercado is rolled back inside and Sharpe finishes with a clothesline (2:50).
Thoughts: Not much to this and Sharpe isn’t much of a threat to anything important anyway.
Next week’s featured bout is SD Jones vs. Roddy Piper.
Final Thoughts: Not a bad show but it was certainly unmemorable. The squash matches didn’t stand out and Piper’s Pit was even on the dull side.
How strange is it to have TV shows that your top star doesn't appear on? Imagine if they did that today.
ReplyDeleteThat dope that reviews nitro thinks the tonga kid is samoan.
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