WWWF All-Star Wrestling Review 09-30-78

Barons, and Butchers, and Midgets… Oh, My!

WWWF ALL-STAR WRESTLING 09-30-78

All-Star Wrestling is taped from the Fieldhouse in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.
Taping date is September 20, 1978.  Your announcer is Vince McMahon

MATCH #1: WWWF HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION BOB BACKLUND & “HIGH CHIEF” PETER MAIVIA VS. JOSE ESTRADA & MOOSE MONROE

[spacer height=”20px”]Arnold Skaaland accompanies the baby faces to ringside. Vince comments that this is the first time Skaaland is managing a team. Referee is Al Bass. Maivia and Moose will start. After a brief time in control, Maivia winds up in the heel corner where he is double teamed and worked over. The High Chief escapes a chinlock by arm dragging the Moose into the baby face corner. Moose tries to tag in Backlund before he realizes what corner he;s in. The High Chief tags in Backlund and Bob catches both opponents with a pair of over head slams. Backlund had freakish strength. Estrada comes in to aid his partner, but accidentally hits Monroe instead. Moose escapes a seated chinlock from Backlund after working hard to trip Bob up.

Moose and Jose double team Backlund, with Estrada coming off the top on the champ. But Bob still manages to tag out to Maivia. Peter comes in and lights up Estrada for a moment before tagging right back to Bob. Backlund comes back in and plants Estrada with the ATOMIC DROP and this is over after 6:04.

Lou Albano randomly shows up at ringside at the end of the match and stomps around. Vince suggests it’s in protest of Backlund and Maivia ever receiving a title shot at the Lumberjacks. I guess Vince forgot about Albano and Koloff heeling all over Backlund last week but what-evs.

Winners are Backlund & Maivia

Notes: A typical baby face squash. The heels got in just enough stuff to make them look credible as opponents, as it should be. Love the team of Backlund and Maivia, but this match did nothing for me other than a fun spot with Moose trying to escape Backlund’s seated chinlock.[spacer height=”20px”]

MATCH #2: COWBOY LANG VS. BILLY THE KID

Another midget match this week. For some ungodly reason Billy the Kid is introduced as “The Six Million Dollar Midget”. Ugh. Billy’s shirt reads “Cajun Power”. I can’t remember if it was Prichard or Cornette (I think Prichard) who mentioned how Cowboy Lang used to like to show his, a-hem, UNIT, to ladies as a pick up line because it was so large.  Jokes on him though because Robert Fuller’s is as large as Cowboy Lang himself…  or so I hear.

Another competitive fight this week. Lang winds up tied in the ropes and Billy takes advantage. Once freed from the ropes Lang is hit with a backdrop and double stomp from “The Kid”. Lang catches Billy in a head scissor in the corner. Billy hides behind referee Dick Woehrle, but they’re midgets so Lang just walks under Woehrle’s’s legs. LOL

Cowboy Lang places Billy’s legs spread eagle outside the ropes, like Goldust’s “Shattered Dreams” and Woehrle comically pulls Billy off the ropes. Lang hooks Billy in a Full Nelson, and Billy kicks his feet up and hooks Woehrle in a head scissors. Lang releases the hold and Billy takes a bump. As the referee argues with the Lang, Billy kicks the referee in the butt.

The midgets do a crisscross spot with Lang landing a dropkick. Cowboy lands some punches but swears to the ref they were open hand.

Cowboy with a backdrop and then an Airplane Spin, Lang gets dizzy himself. Lang stumbles around before dropping Billy the Kid in an AA (eat your heart out John Cena) and falling on top for the cover after 7:42

Winner is Cowboy Lang

Notes: Much longer and more fun than last week’s match with Tokyo vs. Coconut. The crowd was dead early but woke up for the comedy spots and continued to enjoy the match thereafter. They still treated this as competition versus a comedy match, but there was just enough comedy in the middle to give you a little bit of everything. It was a solid old school midget match if you’re into that type of thing.[spacer height=”20px”]

RINGSIDE INTERVIEW WITH VICTOR RIVERA & FRED BLASSIE

Vince is with Blassie and his latest charge. I never realized how thick of an accent Rivera had. Rivera loves to talk out of the side of his mouth. Blassie essentially name-drops the entire baby face roster and puts them on notice. Blassie says he taught Rivera all the cheap tricks and shortcuts and now Victor is unstoppable.

Rivera takes over the promo… In Spanish… No idea what he said. I think he just name dropped a bunch of faces again.

Blassie says he told Rivera to forget everything he’s learned and use Blassie’s methods. Freddie has fun with the fat ringside fans. Ahhh, it’s been a while since we’ve seen that. lol.

Shit like this is why the managers owned things back then. Without Blassie, or Wizard, or Albano, many of their wrestlers would have NEVER gotten over due to their inability to cut promos or speak English very well. Rivera was easily understandable, but he was just a lousy heel promo. This interview was the shits, but Blassie kept it from being unbearable.[spacer height=”20px”]

MATCH #3: VICTOR RIVERA (w/FRED BLASSIE) VS. STEVE CAGLE

Victor is all over Cagle as he roughs him up. The turnbuckle has been removed from the top buckle. Rivera drives Cagle’s head into the exposed steel turnbuckle repeatedly before dropping him in a poorly timed suplex. Rivera yanks Cagle up at the count of 2. This time Victor connects with a double underhook suplex and it’s over at 2:05.

Winner is Victor Rivera

Notes: They continue to play Rivera up as the next Spiros Arion in regards to his return as a heel with master manipulator Fred Blassie as his manager. Victor was aggressive enough here to put over that he’s a heel, but this match was pretty short. And by the looks of Rivera here in 1978 it was probably a good thing to keep this short.[spacer height=”20px”]

MATCH #4: DINO BRAVO VS. TONY RUSSO

Even though I’ve seen it before, it still amazes me to watch a much leaner Dino Bravo perform leapfrogs and armdrags, and at a speedy tempo nonetheless. Not that Bravo was ever fat, but he got so thick and musclebound by his second WWF run that he could barely move or bump. Dino reverses an Irish whip and hits Russo with a powerslam for 2.

Tony catches Dino with a boot to the gut and a kneelift to take over, momentarily. Bravo blocks an Irish whip and is right back on the offense. A dropkick and an airplane spin ends this in 3:51.

Winner is Dino Bravo

Notes: Wow, two Airplane Spin finishes on the same show. Who’da thunk it? Another quick squash. Nothing of substance here.[spacer height=”20px”]

MATCH #5: LARRY ZBYSZKO, DOMINIC DENUCCI & TONY GAREA VS. STAN STASIAK, BUTCHER VACHON & BARON MIKEL SCICLUNA

[spacer height=”20px”]My money is on Larry’s mustache. I was scared this match would go on too long, but thanks to Joe McHugh eating up 3 minutes for introductions I feel a little bit better. Stasiak and DeNucci will start. The heels get control of DeNucci and take turns working him over. The heels draw Garea into the ring to do more shady stuff to Dominic behind referee Al Bass’ back. They repeat this by luring Zbyszko into the ring. After several minutes of working over DeNucci, Dominic is able to tag to Larry Zbyszko.

Larry gets control of the Baron, and Dominic comes in and grabs Larry in a waistlock FOR NO REASON. Everyone is confused. lol. WTF?

Vachon meets the same fate as Larry works him over with an arm wringer. Now Garea tags in to continue working the arm of Vachon. Butcher realizes it’s Garea who is in and hauls off and nails Tony in the face. LOL, NICE. The heels get the advantage, but it’s short lived.

As Baron releases Garea to tag in the Butcher, Tony finally staggers to his corner to hot tag Larry Z. The Magical Mustache of Zbyszko is in the ring no time before he lands a backdrop on Vachon and gets the easy win as his partners fend off the other heels. Time was 7:55.

Winners are Zbyszko, DeNucci & Garea

Notes: Three quarters of the match was a generic beat down on DeNucci. This was not good.[spacer height=”20px”]

Closing Thoughts: The midget match wasn’t bad as far as midget matches go. I still like the team of Backlund and Maivia, but Bob is clearly the work horse. Having been bored with some of Backlund’s later stuff as Champion in the 1980’s, watching his TV stuff here has reminded me of how good he was and boosted my appreciation for him in the position he was given. Another underwhelming show. Even without the Luke Graham curve these last two shows have been pretty uneventful.

Even still, the Retro Rasslin’ Review will continue with more of 1978!