As we continue down the road of the history of the WWE… Well, the history of WWE on video anyway…. We start digging and searching around to bring to you the most complete coverage of any WWWF footage available. This time around we visit several sites to piece together some MSG rarities from the early ’70s. Some of the matches below come straight from WWE.com, while others derive from Coliseum Home Video as well as other means of video-sharing websites.
We start off with a pair of matches found on a specific video-sharing site. It was originally recorded via 8mm footage back in 1972 and later converted to miniDV in 2009. We are only lucky enough that this piece of history has been shared with us through the wonderful world of the internet. Keep in mind, these two matches from 7/29/72 were shot on 8mm, and thus only 8 minutes of action is available. But it’s a fun 8 minutes!!!
WWWF “All-Star Wrestling” from Madison Square Garden 7/29/72
1. Gorilla Monsoon vs. George “The Animal’ Steele
After the intros, we see Steele repeatedly running away from Monsoon and his deadly chops… Gorilla has Steele on his back, George grabs the ropes but Monsoon pulls the Animal into the air by his legs and drops him on his back repeatedly. Steele goes to the foreign object offense on Gorilla and makes a pair of covers but Gorilla kicks out so hard that the Animal goes flying to the apron each time… We even get a shot of superfan Mrs. Krieger giving Steele the business while he’s on the apron. A brief bear hug by Gorilla is shown, and then Gorilla goes into a series of chops, shoots George into the ropes for the BIG CHOP but Steele kicks out… Both men fight into the ropes and are laid out on the mat. Gorilla back up, nails the BIG CHOP again, and Monsoon for the big SPLASH, but he MISSES!!!! Clip ahead and Monsoon is laid out on the apron, presumably from the foreign object, and Gorilla is counted out. Steele gets the win and Monsoon chases him out of the ring afterwards…
2. WWWF Heavyweight Champion Pedro Morales vs. The Spoiler (w/Lou Albano)
The Spoiler is indeed Don Jardine, and because of the silly “no masks in MSG” rule, the Spoiler wrestles WITHOUT A MASK!!! Morales starts the match off with a series of armdrags and the Spoiler regroups on the apron. Back inside the two men begin to battle back and forth. The original master of walking the top rope, the Spoiler uses the middle rope as a spring on more than one occasion to add momentum to his blows. Spoiler grabs some near falls on the champ after dropping some springing knee drops from the middle rope. Spoiler with a backdrop for 2… Spoiler lands a big scoop slam, but Pedro pops up and hits his own slam, and a FLYING HEAD SCISSORS from the champion… Clip ahead and Pedro has Spoiler tied to the tree of woe… Then the Spoiler has Pedro pinned down to the mat with his patented skull CLAW!!! Morales miraculously fights his way up and lands his patented BACKBREAKER to escape the Spoiler’s grasp!!! A little back and forth and Morales hits a backdrop, then goes up top… FLYING CROSS BODY on the Spoiler ends it… Fun match…
************************************************************
Now, we fast forward ahead a year and return to MSG. The following three matches from the 7/23/73 show were reviewed straight from WWE.com and Coliseum Home Video.
WWWF “All-Star Wrestling” from Madison Square Garden 7/23/73
1. Victor Rivera vs. “Classy” Fred Blassie
We join this match in progress as Rivera has Blassie beaten down to the mat. Victor is in clear control and hooks a nerve hold as Blassie gets in the ropes for a break… Once to his feet, Blassie continues to get blasted from Rivera until he takes a bump to the ring apron. Rivera drives Blassie into the buckle on the apron. As the referee tries to separate the two, Blassie reaches over and hooks Rivera in a choke ove3r the top rope and refuses to release the hold causing the DQ. Only about 1:40 of the match is shown. The ring announcer calls the match 15:12. Rivera’s hand is raised in victory, Blassie raises his hand on the apron but gets decked by Victor for his troubles. (There was no commentary for this match)
You can view this match here http://www.wwe.com/videos/victor-rivera-vs-freddie-blassie-july-23-1973-25056657
2. Blackjack Lanza vs. El Olympico
Again in progress, Lanza has Olympico down, and in case you’re wondering, yes Olympico has the ridiculous cut-out mask on. The usual heel stuff from Lanza, choking and stomping. Lanza hangs Olympico’s body outside the ring and continues to choke him, even trying to use cords at ringside… Back inside, Lanza whips Olympico hard into the far corner and the semi-masked man takes a bump over the top to the floor… Lanza mocks his opponent by doing the worst looking Jumping Jacks possible while he waits for Olympico to get back in the ring… Olympico looks to turn the tide after he reverses a whip into the corner and lands a dropkick on Lanza… Olympico tries a second dropkick but misses… Lanza drops a knee and hooks in the skull CLAW until Olympico is rendered unconscious. The referee calls for the bell and deems Lanza the winner. About 2:45 shown of the match, announced as 6:35 in total. Lanza does some more crappy Jumping Jacks after his win…
You can view this match here http://www.wwe.com/videos/el-olympico-vs-blackjack-lanza-july-23-1973-25056449
Two Out Of Three Fall Tag Team Title Match
3. WWWF Tag Team Champions Haystacks Calhoun & Tony Garea vs. Mr. Fuji & Professor Toru Tanaka
Fall #1: Gorilla Monsoon does voiceover work for this match as part of the Coliseum Home Video release “Best of the WWF Vol. 7”. Old Mrs. Krieger is at ringside to wipe the ceremonial salt off the ring canvas, she even smacks her ass towards the Japanese duo. Match cuts from the introduction and is joined in progress, Garea has Tanaka down with a headlock. Tanaka repeatedly tries to counter with a head scissors, but Garea keeps hooking a headlock or an armdrag/armbar combo. This excites Calhoun who can only wish he could move that quickly. Haystacks comes in to pat Tony on the back, and when the ref tries to get Calhoun out of the ring, Fuji comes in and takes a cheap shot on Garea for the heels to take control. The Japanese pair lure Stacks back in the ring while they double team and choke Garea in the heel corner… Fuji tags in and chops the crap out of Tony, but Fuji telegraphs a backdrop and Garea lowers the boom and rings Fuji’s bell for good measure… The match clips here and jumps ahead to…
Garea hits Fuji with a backdrop and Tanaka tags in. Garea whips Tanaka into Haystacks and he bounces off… Tanaka tries to hook a choke on Tony, but Garea gets the tag out to Calhoun!!! Stacks comes in and sticks Toru’s head between his legs and does a little wiggle… lol… Stacks rings Tanaka’s bell, Fuji comes in to attack, but Calhoun turns and causes Fuji to chop Tanaka down!!! Haystacks sits on Tanaka’s chest!!!! Fuji comes in, but Garea drops Fuji on top of Toru, and then Haystacks sits on BOTH men!!!! Garea then stands on top of Haystacks back and the crowd goes nuts…. It was a fun spot.
While the ref gets Fuji & Garea out of the ring, Tanaka uses some salt to rub in the eyes of Calhoun. Garea manages to tag in but the Japanese pair remain in control. Tony reverses an Irish whip and takes over with a series of tackles on Tanaka. Tony tries a third tackle but it looks like he runs into a superkick of sorts from Toru, and Tanaka takes the first fall. About 6:00 of this fall was shown. Damn, that was a lot of writing for 6:00.
Fall #2: Garea has control to begin, but Fuji chops the crap out of him to take over. The Japanese duo send Garea flying over the top to the floor, and Haystacks comes in to help. Tanaka & Fuji corner Stacks and choke him until the referee calls for the bell, DQing the challengers. Not sure if this fall was in progress or not, it appeared to be complete, but can’t say that for positive. The time shown was 2:32.
Fall #3: Tied at a fall apiece, Tanaka continues to try and punish Garea, but Tony manages to tag out to big Stacks. Garea drops Tanaka with a backdrop, and Calhoun comes in with the BIG SPLASH for the 1..2…3……And the champions retain in 1:06 of fall 3.
*******************************************************
As we continue on our trip down Memory Lane and the 1970s, the WWWF began airing more and more of their Madison Square Garden events on Home Box Office (HBO) and eventually the MSG Network. While some of these events have never been re-aired in completion, over time the WWE has kindly released pieces of footage and random matches from several of these 1970’s events. Whether it was on their old 24/7 – Classics on Demand subscription, on old TV episodes, or released as part of a Home Video, many of these rare matches have made it back to the light of day.
Someone has kindly placed pieces of these shows back together to bring forward the most complete available footage of many of these old classic MSG cards. I can’t begin to express how grateful I am that someone took the time to do this. I’ll leave names out of this to protect the innocent. 😉
Some searching online brought up several of these events, and I’ll cover the first of such events below. We’re going to be taking a look at the MSG event that followed the July event covered above as we dive into the 8/27/73 show from MSG.
And we begin…
WWF “All-Star Wrestling” from Madison Square Garden 8/27/73
1. Chief Jay Strongbow vs. Professor Toru Tanaka
Super fan Mrs. Krieger has returned for another show, wiping away the ceremonial salt of Tanaka from the apron and shaking her butt at Toru in a “kiss my ass” manner. The fans eat it up. Tanaka tosses more salt in the opposite corner and Mrs. Krieger follows Tanaka to the opposite end and wiping that salt off the mat as well. More butt shaking gestures from the 70 something widow. You can read more details on the elderly super fan Georgette Krieger from HeelsInc’s latest write-up found here http://crazymax.org/newsite/reviews/the-chronicles-of-wwe-on-video-wwwf-msg-63073/ .
Tanaka stalls to start, but finally, the Chief gets in some licks, chops and armdrags from Strongbow and the Professor is reeling. Tanaka takes a powder on the apron but has a hard time finding his way back into the ring as the Chief meets him at every stop. Finally, Tanaka climbs back in and takes over with some sort of titty-twister nerve hold thingy. Jay repeatedly tries to dance his way out of the hold, but Tanaka keeps pressure on that titty twister and the Chief goes nowhere! Finally, Strongbow is able to break the terrible nerve hold, but then finds himself in an even worse position…. TANAKA APPLIES A DOUBLE TITTY-TWISTER!!!! The most dangerous nerve hold ever!!! This weakens Chief again, but again Strongbow fights his way out…. Chief Jay starts to do an “Indian dance” around the ring… For those who don’t know, that was his version of Hulking Up… Oh shit, Tanaka’s in trouble now! Dancing and the Chief’s patented knee lifts send Tanaka to the apron once more. When Toru gets back in, he takes over a whip into the ropes and connects with a double thrust chop on Strongbow. Tanaka tries for more of the same, but this time Chief comes bouncing off the ropes and lands a Lou Thesz Press that gets the win in 12:40. Most of that 12:40 was stalling and the titty grinder. I love how the crowd ate up Strongbow’s gimmick, they were insane for him, but even the loud pops couldn’t save this match for me. BOOO.
2. Gorilla Monsoon vs. George “The Animal” Steele
We’re joining this match in progress from a Coliseum Home Video release. Monsoon ironically introduces the match. Gorilla is on the mat as he has just presumably been hit with Steele’s always hidden foreign object. Steele continues his usual foreign object tactics until Gorilla chops his way up to his feet and catches George coming off the ropes into a BEAR HUG! Steele escapes the hug by what else? Steele drives the object into Monsoon’s head once more to escape, and then again for good measure. The referee seems to know there’s an object but can’t prove it. Steele tries another shot with the object but takes a big Gorilla Chop, and the object visibly goes flying into the air, and MONSOON GRABS THE OBJECT! The referee sees all of this but inexplicably just lets the match continue. Monsoon now jabs Steele in the head with the foreign object, and the Animal runs around the ring to escape before finally jumping to the floor and walking straight out of the arena. The referee doesn’t even make a count, he just rules Gorilla the winner by count-out, or forfeit, or DQ, or something. 6:00 of this match was shown. Again, NOTHING to see here.
3. Pedro Morales vs. Stan Stasiak (w/The Grand Wizard)
Referee here is Dick Kroll, with hair. The Wizard screws around with Stasiak before the bell and is forced to leave ringside. As the match gets going Pedro has the advantage to begin. Stasiak fights back and locks in a head scissors on the mar. Pedro eventually escapes after standing on his head and sliding out. As Morales escapes he slaps Stan across the face which draws a big pop from the crowd (and a laugh from me, hah). Stasiak rolls Pedro up in a cradle and hooks the tights, the referee makes several two counts in this hold as Stasiak just keeps the roll up applied as if it were a hold…. It was kind of weird seeing that….
Pedro escapes that with a Mil Mascaras style spinning headscissor takeover with a little extra dazzle at the end and the fans pop loudly again. Stasiak comes right back with a good old-fashion American chinlock. Morales makes several attempts to break, but Stan keeps the hold on for a good FIVE MINUTES. Finally, Pedro breaks, but runs into a backdrop and slam from Stasiak… And Stan goes right back to the chinlock!!! Now that’s a veteran right there!!! 😉
Pedro eventually counters the chinlock into a hammerlock, and Pedro now holds the hammerlock for FIVE MINUTES…. Stasiak finally reaches the ropes, but Pedro locks him right back into the hold for another couple minutes before shooting the half and getting a 2 count. Stasiak takes back over, pounding on Morales before setting up for his finisher THE HEART PUNCH!!!! BUT Morales counters by…. KICKING STAN IN THE SHIN?!?!?!?!?!? I rewound this and watched it three times, that’s what he does… He kicks Stan in the SHIN and then Stasiak takes a ridiculous jumping back bump to sell it. Now Morales is FIRED UP!!!! Pedro begins to beat down on Stan and the crowd goes into a frenzy, security has to calm them down. Stasiak ends up tied in the ropes, but the referee makes Pedro back up while Stan gets released.
Pedro right back on Stan with more punching and whatnot. Stasiak fights back, and the two eventually collide in the center of the ring for a double down spot. Once back up, Morales tries a slam, but Stasiak’s weight causes Pedro to fall back and Stan on top gets a near fall… Morales tries a dropkick, but misses, and Stasiak with another near fall… The two men then take turns in control, throwing punches and the usual stuff. They seem like they’re building to something, but all we wind up with is Pedro applying a chinlock…. Joy….. Stasiak eventually escapes and locks in a Boston Crab. But that doesn’t last long before Pedro is back on his feet. Both men try for dropkicks at the same time… Now, THAT WAS COOL Watching the big man Stasiak throw a dropkick like that was pretty cool. Both men try the same move, and both men miss.
Pedro beats on Stan in the corner, Stasiak knocks Morales down. Stan misses a splash… The two men roll around the ring in super cat fight position as the bell sounds to signal the time limit expiration, presumably for “curfew”. Match went something like 35:27.
Referee Dick Kroll raises the hand of Morales after the match, awarding him the win, or something. Pedro holds up two small flags, one US flag and one Puerto Rican flag. And that concludes tonight’s main event title match.
* Other matches on this show that are not known to publicly exist included Farmer Jerome & Little Louie defeated Little Brutus & Pee Wee Adams, Manuel Soto fought El Olympico to a 20-minute draw, Victor Rivera defeated Mr. Fuji
BJack’s Thoughts: For 7/29/72 – I’m just amazed that someone saved this footage all those years, took the initiative to have it converted, and then took the time to upload and share. Sooooo cool. The Gorilla/Steele match was fun, but that four minutes of Morales vs. Spoiler really packed a lot in. It was literally like a clipped version of the match and contained enough to tell the story of the match. I really enjoyed it and Spoiler was a hell of a bumper for a big guy…
For 7/23/73 – The first couple of matches from WWE.com are worthless. Lanza was a great heel, but there’s just so little of the matches shown that I don’t know why WWE took the time to upload such small portions of the matches. Moving on to the Japanese vs. Haystacks/Garea match, I really liked being able to see just about the entire 2 out of 3 fall event. Fuji & Tanaka had lost the tag belts to Stacks and Tony a couple of months prior, so the Japanese team was chasing them at this point. I enjoyed the match honestly. That first fall ran a little long, but in all it was okay to check out once…
Moving on to 8/27/73, the real meat and potatoes of the review… It’s kind of funny, but other than the outcome, the Steele vs. Monsoon match on this show almost looked to have duplicated the stuff from the July 72 show from this same review. No real shocker there. The heat for Tanaka/Strongbow was great, but the match was just one long titty twister. Poopy… And then the main event with Morales vs. Stasiak… It had some good spots when the two guys were on their feet, but most of the match was just holds being applied for 5 minutes at a time. It wasn’t the worst match ever, but it’s not something you “need” to see, nor is it something I’d want to see again. You’ll notice going forward as we head into 1974 the pace of the matches seem to pick up a little. Times were a-changing.
HeelsInc Thoughts: For the July ’72 show, it was pretty cool seeing The Spoiler wrestle without his mask. I wonder if the wrestlers felt not being able to wear the mask hurt their gimmick or if they just didn’t give a shit?
The first two matches from the July ’73 show are short and nothing really worth seeing. I found it odd that there was no commentary on them and that the one from the coliseum video had a voiceover. This card was supposedly shown on HBO so it should have had Vince on commentary.
There’s nothing worthwhile on the August ’73 show for me. I know in the past I have said that I love the 70s style of wrestling where the rest hold meant something, well it doesn’t work during a 35 minute match. I can deal with a 2 minute rest hold broken up and reapplied for another 2 minutes a few times back and forth, but the Pedro/Stasiak was like 20 minutes of holds five minutes at a time. The fans loved Pedro so they were into it but I was falling asleep. This match was actually announced as being 53 minutes but I clocked it the same as Jack so there was either an edit that I missed or they were using one of their wrestling clocks.
