WWWF All-Star Wrestling Review 04-15-78

Patera’s gear rules!

WWWF ALL-STAR WRESTLING 04-15-78

All-Star Wrestling is taped from the Fieldhouse in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.
Taping date is April 5, 1978.  Your announcer is Vince McMahon.

Joe McHugh does the introductions.

MATCH #1: WWWF TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS DINO BRAVO & DOMINIC DENUCCI VS. JOSE ESTRADA & JOHNNY RODZ

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Our referee for the opener is Dusty Feldbaumer who looks 80 but is actually only in his late 50’s. Bravo & DeNucci have recently dethroned Fuji & Tanaka for the belts on Championship Wrestling. This is non-title, but I always enjoyed the team of Rodz and Estrada as they were both very competent workers and solid heels. That said, this is still non-title. The heels quickly maange to get Bravo into their corner where they work him over with a lot of double teaming and quick tags. Rodz hits a terrible legdrop as he bumps on his back to deliver the move. Bravo finally has enough and delivers a kneelift to Estada before tagging in DeNucci. Dominic comes in with a backdrop on Jose and takes control. Estrada tags in Rodz, who climbs to the top rope but opts not to jump off when he sees Dominic is ready. DeNucci maintains control and tags back to Bravo. Dino nails Rodz with his patented dropkick… Wow, it’s crazy typing the words “Dino Bravo” and “patented dropkick” in the same sentence. The champs continue to dominate Rodz, Estrada comes in to prevent a pinfall on his partner the Unpredictable one. Estrada accidentally nails his own partner and Rodz becomes loopy. Now Rodz argues with Estrada, but the heels take over on DeNucci in their corner. Rodz slams DeNucci and Estrada comes off the top with something… LMAO Estrada misses whatever he was going for, Dominic doesn’t move, Estrada just misses. So Rodz goes up instead and comes off the top onto Dominic. It doesn’t matter however as DeNucci soon hot tags to Bravo who whips Estrada and Rodz all around the ring. Another dropkick by Bravo and DeNucci comes in for an airplane spin on Estrada to finish this in 6:26.

Winners are Bravo & DeNucci

Notes: It was a match. Bravo and DeNucci were both using the airplane spin at this point so it was basically “Who’s going to hit that move to win the match?”. Other than Estrada coming off the top to miss a phantom move there’s nothing to really talk about here. Like I said, it was a match.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #2: “IRON GREEK” SPIROS ARION (w/FRED BLASSIE) VS. DENNIS JOHNSON

Arion shows a little aggression this week as he pounds on Johnson. Spiros sends Johnson out of the ring and has fun knocking him off the apron repeatedly. While the referee is busy checking on Johnson, Arion removes the turnbuckle pad off the top rope and rams Dennis head first into the exposed steel. Arion follows up with the over the shoulder backbreaker and gets the submission win with ease after 4:20.

Winner is Spiros Arion

 

 

 

 

 

Notes: Short and to the point. Good aggression by Spiros. I liked the unnecessary use of the exposed buckle. Extra heely. Arion continues to remain relevant here as he continues on his final run in the big leagues.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

RINGSIDE INTERVIEW WITH SPIROS ARION & FRED BLASSIE

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Vince McMahon makes mention of Arion SQUASHING opponents. Blassie starts making fun of several of the babyface wrestlers from DeNucci to Haystacks Calhoun. Blassie spends some time ripping on Calhoun being fat before his attention is once again turned to the obese fan in the front row. Apparently the only different between Haystacks and the fat fan is that the fan is dirty. Blassie spends more time making fun of Calhoun. “When he pulled his fat up, 8 chickens ran out”. LOL. Vince can’t help but smile through a lot of this. Arion gets in a few words, challenging Bruno, Haystacks, and Strongbow. We run out of time.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #3: “HIGH CHIEF” PETER MAIVIA & SPECIAL DELIVERY JONES VS. BUTCHER VACHON & STAN STASIAK (w/THE GRAND WIZARD)

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Stasiak is rocking a mustache now. Butcher starts with Maivia and uses all the dirty tricks early on the High Chief from eye gouges to back rakes. Vachon distracts referee Feldbaumer while Stasiak beats on Maivia on the floor. SD Jones stands on the apron worthless in all of this.

Maivia finally manages to tag in Jones. SD comes in and blocks a Heart Punch right away. Dear God, when SD Jones starts blocking your finisher I think you’re done in the territory. Jones responds by giving Stasiak TWO Heart Punches of his own….. to the wrong side of the chest… Ohhhh SD. Stasiak sells it and bumps to the mat. Vachon tags in but takes a big slam for a 2 count. A second big slam by Jones gets another 2 count on Vachon. Butcher fights his way back with a choke.

Maivia and Stasiak join the match and we’ve got all four men in the ring. The faces ram the heels heads together using battering rams, Bushwhackers style. Then we get the old row boat spot. Things slow back down with Jones and Vachon doing a test of strength. That’s an odd place to put that spot. WTF? The heels do take back over. Stasiak rams SD head first into the buckle but Jones no sells, because he’s black or something like that. Jones dances around after no selling and Stan wants no part of it tagging Vachon in. Maivia also FINALLY tags back in as well. Maivia plants Vachon with his patented gutbuster but Vachon gets his foot on the ropes to stop the pin.

Now Stasiak tags back in and he and Maivia do a crisscross spot that just eventually stops. Seriously. Nothing happens. Even Vince is confused. SD Jones is back inm and he rocks Stasiak with a trio of heabutts, and then the bell sounds. THANK GOD

Result is a 10:00 time limit draw, but we were forced to watch 11:10.

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Notes:Rather than shave time, they gave these guys an additional minute or so. WHY??? Other than Jones initial hot tag where he showed a little fire this entire match was a stinker. SKIP THIS. You’ll thank me later.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #4: KEN PATERA (w/LOU ALBANO) VS. TED ADAMS & MIKE MADERO

Handicap match time. Madero has self esteem problems, he’s always looking down at the mat during his introduction. Patera spends the first whole minute removing his jump suit. Madero & Adams get smart and both attack Patera, and it works briefly. I said briefly. Ken quickly rams them together where Vince uses the term “noggin knocker”. Adams & Madero again double whip Patera into the corner and double team him until they boot Patera to the floor. Albano jumps up on the apron in protest, but he too takes a few shots.

Patera slowly gets back in the ring, and now he takes over. No more playing around by the world’s strongest man. BUT AGAIN it’s Adams and Madero who do a good job showing fire and coming at Patera full force pummeling Ken with punches until he falls out of the ring a second time.

Okay, NOW Kenny is PISSED. Ken grabs both men in front facelocks from the apron and drops their throats across the top rope. Ken stomps and knees both men before tossing Adams to the floor. Madero gets slapped into the FULL NELSON and Madero submits immediately after 5:54.

Winner is Ken Patera

The show is running long so we cut to commercial before the winner is announced.

Notes:  A fun Patera squash. Rather than just murdering his opponents, Ken decided to sell the 2 on 1 beatdown a little more realistically and it gave his opponents some fan reaction. Pretty smart move by Patera as it resulted in him getting more heat when he disposed of his foes.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #5: STRONG KOBAYASHI (w/FRED BLASSIE) VS. FRANK “GYPSY” RODRIGUEZ

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]I like the Rodriguez when he’s rocking his Gypsy gimmick gear, here he’s just in jobber gear. Kobayashi whips the Gypsy off for a pair of big chops. A delayed suplex ends it in 53 seconds. Who does he think he is, Bobby Lashley?

Winner is Kobayashi

Notes: Kobayashi got off of his opponent at the two count after the suplex and continues to beat on Frank as if the match was going to continue, but the referee calls for the bell and announces it as a 3 count even though it clearly wasn’t. I don’t know if this was a mistake by Koabyashi, the referee, or if the referee called the match because All-Star was ready to go off the air. This match was rushed as there was no time left for it.

All-Star goes off the air immediately following the post match announcement.[spacer height=”20px”]

Closing Thoughts: The last couple of segments were getting rushed, especially Koabyashi. MAYBE DON’T HAVE MAIVIA/JONES VS. STASIAK/VACHON GO FRIGGIN’ 11 MINUTES THEN. It was funny to see Blassie go after the large ringside fan again but he didn’t spend nearly as much time on him this episode as the last time. The managers continue to be the best thing on most of these shows, they may have been props in the 80’s but they were the center of the shows in the 70’s, and for good reason.

That wraps it up for this issue of the Retro Rasslin’ Review…