WWF Championship Wrestling August 25, 1984

August 25, 1984

Your hosts are Tony Garea and Vince McMahon

In action tonight are the Wild Samoans, Sgt. Slaughter, Brutus Beefcake, The Spoiler along with Piper's Pit.

Robbie Parliament & Rene Goulet vs. Wild Samoans

The fans are solidly behind the Samoans and Vince mentions how they are no longer with Albano, as he cost them the tag-titles when he was the special guest referee at a recent show. That show he was referring to actually took place at MSG the day this show aired. Back to the match as Goulet stalls and complains about hair pulls. Afa chops him down and he tags out to Parliament, who Vince says was the surprise partner of Goulet. Parliament is a big oaf who moves very slowly. Hell, Vince even makes fun of him, referring to him as a “big, bag of blubber” as Afa tosses him down. The Samoans work on Parliament as Goulet interferes a few times with minimal effect. The match then breaks down with all four men in the ring as the Samoans do the double noggin knocker. They hit Parliament with a double clothesline then a double falling headbutt for the win (5:57).

Thoughts: The match itself wasn’t much but the fans really dug the Samoans as faces. Their slow face turn seems to have paid off. Parliament really was awful in the ring and Goulet is hardly worth anything at this point.

Gene Okerlund plugs the September 19^th show at the Inglewood Forum. Capt. Lou Albano comes out as Gene mentions his upcoming six-man tag match with the champs, Adrian Adonis & Dick Murdoch, against the Wild Samoans and Mil Mascaras. Albano goes off on Mascaras, calling him a “little, demented halfwit.” Albano was his usual tangential and hilarious self. The champs come out and cut a basic promo on the Samoans.

Jose Luis Rivera vs. Brutus Beefcake

The fans start a “Fruitcake” chant for Brutus. He takes forever to remove his entrance gear. Brutus tosses Rivera around for a bit then hits him with some forearms. He takes him down with a snapmare and works a neck vise. He then gets a scoop slam and overpowers him some more until he gets the win with a sitdown splash (2:53).

Thoughts: Brutus didn’t show much in the ring, but he was far from horrible. The fans didn’t react all that much to him besides the “Fruticake” chant at the beginning. It’s clear that they are positioning Beefcake to quickly rise up the card.

Okerlund plugs the Wendi Richter vs. Fabulous Moolah match at the September 19^th show in California.

Dave Barbie vs. Sgt. Slaughter

The fans go shithouse for Slaughter. He brushes off a forearm smash from Barbie and hits one of his own. He gets a slam and follows that with some knee smashes before working the arm. Barbie gets an eye rake but Sarge fights right back. He then hits the Slaughter Cannon, setting up the Cobra Clutch for the win (3:49).

Thoughts: Slaughter was incredibly over with the crowds, getting just as much of a reaction as Hogan. His program with Sheik was starting to get a bit old and Terry Daniels is failing to get over as his partner and protege so they are trying to start a new feud for him.

Okerlund is now with the Iron Sheik, plugging his match against SD Jones in California. He goes off about how Backlund was supposed to be his opponent the night he lost the belt to Hogan. His shirt shows off all of the medals he has won in his amateur career. Sheik was not ranting and raving here and the result was a dull promo.

WWF Update with Vince McMahon. This week’s subject is Hulk Hogan, who was being honored, along with former Dallas Cowboy quarterback Roger Staubach, for a physical fitness award. They showed a clip of him coming to the ring. Your typically useless WWF Update segment.

Piper’s Pit with guests Freddie Blassie, Kamala, and Friday. Piper talks to Blassie about Kamala, who puts him over as being an unstoppable monster. Kamala is pacing around as Friday, who we learned was trained in the missionary, calms him down. Blassie even let us know that Kamala is a cannibal, but not just any cannibal as he apparently eats humans too. The segment was short and it was tough to hear Blassie over the noises that Kamala was making.

Jeff Lang vs. The Spoiler

The Spoiler is billed as the “National Heavyweight Champion,” which was part of Georgia Championship Wrestling. Spoiler attacks Lang to start. He does the ropewalk, going across the entire rope before dropping an elbow on Lang. That put the Undertaker’s version to shame. Speaking of that, Undertaker emulated his moves after him and there are those claiming that he was actually trained by the Spoiler. Back to the match as the Spoiler remains in control, Dave Wolff joins the announcers booth. Spoiler hits a double underhook suplex then shortly after that, he jumps off the ropes and puts on the iron claw, causing Lang to submit (3:24). After the match, Wolff lets us know that the Fabulous Freebirds have joined the WWF.

Thoughts: The crowd was fairly quiet during the match but the Spoiler looked good. He also makes the iron claw look painful as he really wrenches and digs into his opponent. Wolff sucked on commentary and he would get booed out of the building if he was to appear like this on RAW next week but the Freebirds coming to the WWF is a really big announcement. They actually made their debut at a house show that took place at the Philadelphia Spectrum almost three weeks before this show aired, beating three jobbers.

WWF Review with the song this week being “Warrior” by Scandal. The match clips shown are Paul Orndorff vs. Chief Jay Strongbow from June at MSG and Iron Mike Sharpe vs. Jose Luis Rivera at the Spectrum.

Gene Okerlund is with Hulk Hogan, who plugs his match against Jesse Ventura in California. Hogan claims that Jesse is hiding from him then proceeds to cut a borderline incoherhent promo, stumbling all over his words. He says that he heard from his “protein” guy Dave, that Jesse was hiding out in San Diego. I’m beginning to think that Dave also supplies cocaine at this point. He tells Jesse not to go into Gold’s Gym and that after their match, he will be known as “Jesse No Body.” After watching this, I can kind of understand why the WWE wants people to script things for their wrestlers.

Final Thoughts: A solid show. Nothing dragged and they continue to bring new guys into the promotion. They are setting up feuds and look to expand into newer markets, like California and the Southern part of the country. The show long interviews plugging the house shows would become a familiar thing throughout the decade. Its clear from watching that the WWF is trying to become the most popular wrestling promotion in the world.