WWWF All-Star Wrestling Review 09-13-75

With the recent surge in Classic Content being added to the WWE Network it has energized me as a writer and I’ve decided to join in on the fun and review here for the Crazymax site. My Retro Rasslin’ Review will tackle all things from the 1990’s and earlier. With the help of my own personal video collection as well as the WWE Network (which I encourage you to sign up for, only $9.99 a month!) I hope to cover lots of legendary as well as forgotten pieces of Retro Rasslin’ history. Right out of the gate I’m going to be tackling a large chunk of the WWWF/WWF All-Star Wrestling program but I plan to jump around and cover all of the territories from World Class to Mid-South to Mid-Atlantic and beyond as we move along.

I hope you’ll find my reviews educational, informational, but most importantly entertaining. I’ll be trying to get you up to speed as to what is going on around the territory as I cover each individual show in order to give everyone an understanding of where we are in the business. I also hope to have a lot of fun as we progress and evolve as a review column. I hope you enjoy the first installment with many more to come. I’ll be adding a few screen captures and GIF files as I feel needed throughout the reviews.

Sit back and enjoy my Retro Rasslin’ Review for…

WWWF ALL-STAR WRESTLING 09-13-75

WWF All-Star Wrestling would become the replacement show for the original wrestling from DC program hosted by Ray Morgan. The change was made due to the DC arena being so large for a weekly TV taping venue, and with declining attendance they wound up moving the tapings up to Pennsylvania. All-Star Wrestling would debut and remain at the Hamburg Fieldhouse from 1972 through the summer of 1986, when the show was rechristened “Wrestling Challenge” for the new fall lineup. Your original hosts for All Star here are Vince McMahon and the legendary box office attraction Antonino Rocca.

We kick things off with the intro video. Pretty bland with little square boxes showing random stars doing very little. Rather than use the whole screen for the opening video they opted to look “fancy” and use small squares showing action. For such a large market as NYC, I always felt the WWF’s intro videos were among some of the worst produced territory openings during the 1970’s and early 1980’s.

This episode was recorded on August 27, 1975. To our hosts Vince McMahon and Antonino Rocca.

And for every bit of superstar that Rocca was in the ring, he was just awful on commentary. His accent is just something I can’t overcome. At times it’s downright impossible to understand what he’s saying. Not to be disrespectful to the legendary performer, but American commentary simply wasn’t his best suit. I honestly don’t understand how Rocca worked on color for so long before his death in 77.

Ahh, now we’re cooking! To the ring with our ring announcer Joe McHugh! He really stretched out the introductions. Especially in the opening intro with the physician, referees, and all that jazz. Not every word, but EVERY SYLLABLE is stressed and said in slow motion. I move me some Joe McHugh but watching a lot of his stuff in one sitting can become tedious.

[spacer height=”20px”]

MATCH #1: “SUPERSTAR” BILLY GRAHAM (W/ THE GRAND WIZARD) VS. TOM STANTON

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]This is Superstar’s second appearance ever on WWWF TV. They do a spot where the Wizard has to help pull the tie-dye shirt of Graham off of Billy’s arms with the gimmick being that his arms are so large the shirt gets stuck. Pretty clever for back then. Pretty cool seeing Stanton here as I had only seen him in Stampede prior to this. Referee here is the awesome Dick Woehrle by the way. After flexing, Graham tries some form of a hiptoss takeover and on the very first move Billy damn near breaks his own legs performing the simplest of wrestling maneuvers. That was dangerous. Graham quickly moves on to moves he’s more comfortable with, punching, stomping, more stomping. Sloppy knee spot. Stanton takes a great Irish whip into the corner bump. Bearhug ends this thing in 3:55.

Winner is Superstar Graham

Notes: If you came to 1970’s WWF looking for quality matches on TV then you’re in the wrong place. Like all territories way back when TV was used as a means to get guys and feuds over to draw the money at the house shows. Nobody had ever seen someone who looked anything close to the likes of Graham in wrestling prior to this. He was the inspiration for Ventura, Hulk Hogan, Austin Idol, Scott Steiner’s Big Poppa Pump character, and so many others. He literally set the mark for modern day wrestling as far as character, looks, charisma, promo, and all of that good stuff. The match was nothing, but just getting a glimpse of the Superstar on TV would draw thousands to the arenas to see the man live.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #2: WWWF TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS THE BLACKJACKS (W/ LOU ALBANO) VS. BUDDY PORTER & BUD / BUZZ SAWYER

It goes without saying that this is non-title. The Blackjacks have JUST defeated Dominic DeNucci & “Irish” Pat Barrett for the Tag Team Titles on the previous episode of All Star Wrestling (same taping). Mulligan and Lanza hammer on each other to warm up pre-match. For the record one of the enhancement guys is announced as “Bud Sawyer”, though his jacket reads “Buzz Sawyer”. Either way I should note it is NOT the Buzz Sawyer of 1980’s fame. Lots of the punch and kick stuff as the Blackjacks try to stretch the match out a little. Lanza finishes the match with the CLAW on Porter and gets the pin in 5:11.

Winners are the Blackjacks[spacer height=”20px”]

Notes: People who only saw Mulligan in the 1980’s should really track down some of his stuff from the 70’s in Mid-Atlantic. He was a hell of a worker in his younger and thinner days. As a match this was nothing, but it was fun to get a look at the legendary Blackjacks team during their memorable, though brief, Tag Team Title run. They would go on to lose the belts in November to the team of Louis Cerdan and Tony Parisi.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

RINGSIDE INTERVIEW WITH SUPERSTAR GRAHAM & THE GRAND WIZARD

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Vince McMahon stands ringside to speak with the Grand Wizard and his latest protégé, Graham. Wizard does some talking while Graham flexes for the cameras. This is a fairly important segment because this is Graham’s first WWWF promo. Graham drops several of his famous lines. He mocks Heavyweight Champion Bruno Sammartino who Graham calls “fat pot belly” and insists that Bruno is sitting at home in his EZ chair. I should mention Bruno is smack dab in the middle of his second tenure as Champion. Graham talks about his workout routine and says he finally made it to the east coast to challenge Bruno for the belt. Graham claims Bruno has paid the promoters of the WWWF to keep Billy out of the east coast, but Graham is here now. Vince makes a hilarious face at Graham’s claims. Back to the Wiz on the mike while Graham shoves his bicep into the TV monitor to close out the segment.

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #3: BARON MIKEL SCICLUNA VS.  MANUEL MIRANDA

Rocca’s commentary continues to annoy me, though he only speaks sporadically. This match is shit. Scicluna may have been a bigger deal earlier in his career but he was ass by this time. Two kneedrops ends this nothing of a match after 3:34.

Winner is the Baron

Notes: Scicluna wins what was the definition of a squash. I’ve always had a guilty pleasure for Scicluna as a character, but having to watch his matches is another thing entirely. It was short, but not short enough.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #4: FRANCISCO FLORES VS. “FABULOUS” FRANK MONTE

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]This is my first look at Monte outside of his early 80’s stuff in Mid-Atlantic and Mid-South where he worked solely as enhancement. It’s a fun look at his bleach blond “Fabulous” character I had only read about prior to now. Flores had done extensive work all around the world from Mexico to Japan to the States, but he’s probably best known as being a major contributor as one of the promoters for the UWA in Mexico. The UWA was the top rival of the EMLL promotion for many years south of the American border. Both men were moving past their prime here, especially Flores, but they put on an entertaining little back and forth match. Monte eventually picks Flores up in a fireman’s carry and dumps him out of the ring over the top. Both men fight on the apron with Frank getting in most of the offense, but both men struggle to make it back into the ring. The referee winds up counting both men out in 6:01.

They continue to trade blows after the bell with Flores winning that battle. Francisco enters the ring just in time for Joe McHugh to announce the decision.

This match ends in a double count out.

Notes: There’s not a whole lot here and the finish was blah but I absolutely loved seeing both of these guys on video from this time period. It’s great preservation from two lesser talked about stars of the forgotten pre-VCR era. While you may question why two lower mid-carders went to a double count out here, it was commonplace back then to not give away very many real finishes on competitive TV matches.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #5: LOUIS CERDAN & TONY PARISI VS. BUGSY MCGRAW & WALDO VON ERICH (w/ ALBANO & BLASSIE)

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Interesting pairing here having two separate managers bring their charges together for this match. It’s nice to get a glimpse of Waldo Von Erich in his later days as a performer and Bugsy in his younger days when he played more of the crazy monster heel rather than Three Stooges comic relief. The heels cause trouble early on with the heroes and Albano legitimately slams a wooden chair until he breaks it on the floor. The heels and managers don’t wish to play fair, so Cerdan and Parisi leave for the locker room. ONLY TO RETURN WITH ANDRE THE GIANT!

Andre on the first show! WOOT! When Andre appears to act as corner man the heels throw a fit but the match continues. While Andre keeps a close eye on the managers at ringside, the baby faces take over control of the heels. Parisi lands an atomic drop on Waldo, but he misses a second rope knee drop and it allows Bugsy to tag in. McGraw takes over on Parisi while Andre chases Albano away. McGraw misses a big splash and Cerdan gets the hot tag. Cerdan goes crazy on the heels. The managers rush the ring and Cerdan begins beating on them as well. Lou takes a funny ass bump face first into the ropes. DROPKICK ON BLASSIE! Both faces pound on Blassie. The managers are taking better bumps than the guys they manage!

Blassie’s pants are falling off of his ass. ANOTHER FUNNY SPOT, where the managers lean up against each other to prop themselves up on the floor, then Blassie just walks away and Albano takes a bump. Crowd is audibly enjoying themselves.

Order is finally restored and the match continues. Parisi sets Waldo up for the top rope Bombs Away butt drop, but Bugsy pulls Von Erich out of the way. Parisi settles on an abdominal stretch on Von Erich, but again McGraw interferes. This brings Cerdan in and things begin to break down. AGAIN. The managers jump into the ring to make it 4 on 2, but ANDRE quickly joins in on the fun to even things up a little.

Andre bumps the managers and sits on them. Bugsy is thrown on top of the managers and Andre sits on all 3 men as the show goes off the air with the action in progress. There’s no bell or announcement but I’d imagine this match went to a double DQ or no contest. There was somewhere around 10:30 of action here.

No Contest???

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Notes: The early part of the match was no different than the rest of the show, but I did enjoy some of Bugsy’s antics. Bringing Andre down the ring really popped the crowd and gave the entire match a spark. Both Blassie and Albano were great here, they knew hot to get heat as well as laughs. The managers made this entire match. I can honestly say I was entertained for much of the match as it was very little wrestling but a lot of fun action. The next time you’re yawning at mid 80’s Capt. Lou and Classy Freddie, pop this match on your TV and get a better glimpse as to what made them legendary managers for the WWF.[spacer height=”20px”]

Closing Thoughts: If you’re watching 1970’s All Star Wrestling hoping for some classic action, you’re not going to find that very often here. However, if you’re into the history of the business and getting a glimpse of many stars you’ve only heard of or never got to see in their prime then I recommend checking portions of this show out. It was cool to get a rare look of the Blackjacks as Champions. Hearing Billy Graham’s very first WWWF promo and watching his character’s second appearance in the ring was pretty historical for me. Flores vs. Monte made for fine TV fodder and I was just happy to get a good look at the Fabulous Monte character. The main event is something worth checking out if you’re a fan of Andre, Albano, Blassie, or any variation of the three. If you skip this show you’re not missing much from a historical standpoint, but there’s enough little things here that I’d recommend skipping around and checking out.