WWWF All-Star Wrestling Review 01-17-76

We continue with our second episode of All-Star Wrestling from 1976.

Sit back and enjoy my Retro Rasslin’ Review for…

WWWF ALL-STAR WRESTLING 01-17-76

All-Star Wrestling is taped from the Fieldhouse in Hamburg, Pennsylvania. Taping date is January 3, 1976.  Your hosts again are Vince McMahon and Antonino Rocca. With the prior episode airing the week prior, we have consecutive shows which would mean some continuity IF there were stories to tell. We get a shot of some of the front row fans and they are…….. interesting. We’ll go with that.

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Joe McHugh makes the opening announcements and it’s time for action.

 

MATCH #1: SUPERSTAR BILLY GRAHAM (w/ THE WIZARD) VS. SYLVANO SOUSA

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Your referee for the opener is Wee Willie Webber. This week Billy is wearing some type of fur outfit. He poses for the camera as we get things going. Superstar no sells everything Sousa throws at him. Graham throws Sousa out of the ring, but his foot gets tied in the ropes. LOL!!! Last week Sullivan’s foot got tied in the rope as part of the plan, this week Sousa is so inept he can’t even take a bump out of the ring properly and accidentally gets stuck. Like a pro, Graham jumps out of the ring and attacks the tied up Sousa who is hanging upside down. Graham picks up a water logged piece of corrugated looking cardboard and drops it on Sousa Sousa. Well that was ineffective. Back in the ring Graham applies the bearhug and this thing is over after 3:35

Following the match, the Wiz distracts the referee while Graham continues to apply the bearhug. He locks it in under Sousa’s arms and doesn’t even lock his hands together. It looks like he’s hugging him. It looks like shit.

Winner is Superstar Graham

Notes: Short and to the point. This match would have been nothing at all if it weren’t for Sousa accidentally getting stuck in the ropes and Graham dumping a sheet of nothing on his head. It didn’t hurt him, but I thought it was funny nevertheless.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #2: “POLISH POWER” IVAN PUTSKI VS. BUGSY MCGRAW (w/GRAND WIZARD)

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Ivan Koloff and Lou Albano also accompany McGraw & Wiz to ringside. Putski is heavily outnumbered so he brings Cerdan and Parisi to the ring to even the odds. Very similar to what Parisi & Cerdan did with Andre in the 1975 episode. Putski’s in between his pot belly stage and his complete roided out stage here, he’s a little bit of both at this point. Putski shows off his strength early by cranking a headlock and breaking free of a top wrist lock by throwing McGraw backwards. Both men take the fight to the corner, where they refuse to break up. Both men shove referee Dick Woehrle, causing Dick to call for the bell and disqualify both men.

Things break down immediately after the Double DQ with Koloff, Albano, Cerdan and Parisi all getting into the ring for a brawl.

Then, the faces outnumber the heels when Bobo Brazil makes his way out to COCO BUTT all of the heels out of the ring.

After the match, Putski calls the heels back to the ring but they don’t answer.

The Results is a Double DQ / “DRAW”

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Notes: You knew what was coming here with all of these men at ringside. I didn’t understand Bobo coming out to give the faces the advantage but the brawl was fun. It’s also amazing to see how a simple headlock or escaping a wrist lock could mean so much when done right. Putski knew how to play to the fans and how to work his gimmick. His strongman style cranking of McGraw’s head meant more than every flip in an episode of 205 Live combined. There was no substance to the match but the brawl was okay, in part to Albano’s over the top selling.

 

RINGSIDE INTERVIEW WITH TONY PARISI & LOUIS CERDAN

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Vince McMahon interviews the Tag Team Champions. Cerdan looks like an older bloated version of Greg Brady (Brady Bunch). It’s kind of creepy. The champs issue an open challenge to any team that want a crack at the belts.

 

MATCH #3: LOUIS CYR (w/FRED BLASSIE) VS. JOHNNY RIVERA

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Rivera will go on to work as Invader #3 for Carlos Colon’s WWC for much of the 1980’s. For now, Rivera is simply a good hand who mainly works the opening matches in the baby face roll. This is our second look at Cyr. I hope he uses that Saito Suplex again! Cyr with several variations of takeovers, including one that dumps Rivera right on the back of his head and neck. OOF!  A unique move as Cyr picks Rivera up in an over the shoulder backbreaker, but catches Johnny’s throat under the top rope while applying the hold. It’s kind of unorthodox but cool at the same time.

Referee Willie Webber makes Cyr release the hold for being in the ropes. A frickin nasty ass biel throw out of a front facelock… That was dangerous and nasty. This guy is pretty dangerous. He toys with Rivera for quite some time before he THROWS RIVERA across the ring with a gut wrench suplex. DAMN! This guy may be the original suplex machine. Solid big boot by Cyr and there’s the Saito Suplex! Shoulder breaker ends this in 5:37.

Winner is Louis Cyr

Notes: Cyr was an unorthodox wrestler using moves that range from lame, to sick, to just downright dangerous. There’s enough unique or wicked stuff here to give it a once over. Rivera usually gets in a little offense but he was owned here, and lucky his neck wasn’t broken on at least two occasions.

 

MATCH #4: “RUSSIAN BEAR” IVAN KOLOFF (w/ALBANO) VS. PETE MCKAY

We get another job from McKay here. Ivan gets lazy here and works a stomach claw for a while. A few stomps and elbow drops later we see the diving kneedrop to end this squash after 5:12.

Winner is Ivan Koloff

Notes: Koloff is usually a machine in the ring but on this night he took it easy. This match was barely there.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #5: “BIG CAT” ERNIE LADD VS. PETE SANCHEZ

Ladd is the only top heel without a manager during this period. I suppose he didn’t need one. Vince announces that there’s a DeNucci vs. Koloff match for next week. Ernie shockingly takes bumps for Sanchez early on, including getting stuck across the top rope. Ladd bumps all over for Sanchez before digging into his trunks and catching Pete with the dreaded loaded thumb! Ladd uses the taped thumb throughout the rest of the contest, though Pete continues to try and fight back. Pete charges Ladd into the corner but runs right into that evil thumb. Ernie tosses Sanchez to the floor where Pete is counted out. Ladd gets the victory in 6:34.

After the match Ladd teases climbing the ropes but the ropes are so loose it’s comical.

Winner is Ernie Ladd by count out

Following the match Ladd appears to get into a verbal confrontational with a rather large ringside attendant. The camera is too far away and credit begin to appear which makes it hard to determine if this is just a random attendant or possibly Gorilla Monsoon.

Notes: Standing 6’9″, Ladd could have easily dominated the entire match and owned Sanchez. Instead, Ernie knew in order to get more heat on the loaded thumb it’d be smarter to give Sanchez the clear advantage before he used the illegal object to take control. I was surprised by the count out finish, but it worked just as well with the Big Cat getting over that illegal spiked thumb.

 

Closing Thoughts: Not a whole lot to report here. I did enjoy Ladd’s selling for Sanchez, and I found Cyr’s offense to be a guilty pleasure. The squash matches felt under par here by Graham and Putski who seemed to both phone it in. It was also cool to see Putski command a response from the fans for the simplest of moves. Watching it even today I bought it, so I’d imagine other new school fans would as well. Maybe if guys spent more time getting the psychology of the moves over rather than seeing how many flips they can do in a match then guys wouldn’t be broken in half by the age of 40.