WWWF All-Star Wrestling Review 01-20-79

[spacer height=”20px”]It’s a New Year, YES IT IS!

Last we met we were closing out 1978. As we say goodbye to the old guard of guys like “Crazy” Luke Graham and Spiros Arion, we begin to welcome a whole new troop of talent to entwine with some of the New York mainstays. Business really begins to pick up for the WWWF (soon to be WWF) in 1979 as they take a step in the direction of a youth movement of sorts. You’ll see what I mean as we move along throughout the year.

Don’t be confused, this episode of All-Star Wrestling labeled January 20, 1979 is actually two different episodes of the program spliced together. This is why the episode is listed with a 58 minute run time. The first 12 minutes of this video is from the 1/13/79 episode featuring only the Scicluna vs. Steve Travis match, while the remaining 46 minutes are the complete 1/20/79 episode.

Please also be aware there’s a certain site out there that claims the following episodes were part of “Championship Wrestling” Tapings rather than All-Star, but you’ll plainly hear Joe McHugh announce both shows as being All-Star tapings.

 

WWWF ALL-STAR WRESTLING 01-13-79

This show was originally taped January 3, 1979 from the Field House in Hamburg. Vince and Bruno on commentary.

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MATCH #1: STEVE TRAVIS VS. BARON MIKEL SCICLUNA

Since the Network is missing most of December 78 and early January 79 this is our first look at Steve Travis. Travis claims he was originally hired to perform as a member of the Valiant Brothers when it was thought Jimmy Valiant would not be able to perform with Luscious Johnny in their return to the company. Steve claims to have dyed his hair a blonde color only to be informed his time as a Valiant was nixed before it started. No offense to Steve, but I just don’t see a “Valiant” type personality exuding from his persona. The story does jive well however, as both Travis and the Valiants debuted on the same set of tapings in December.

On to the match.. Referee is Dick Koll here. Lots of arm drags and arm work early on by Travis. I want to like Baron but his stuff is just so phony. While in control Scicluna just stands hunched over at one point just waiting for Travis to land a kick. Baron follows with punches that miss by a mile, and some other equally bad moves. Baron lands an awful knee to the gut and covers, and what appears to be his version of comedy he pretends Travis throws him off the cover so hard that the Baron goes flying on top of referee Kroll.

Travis begins a comeback and with a straight face Vince claims Baron is one of the toughest men to pin. Baron takes back over with an embarrassing kneedrop and a blatant choke. Travis has enough and fires back with a series of punches, but Baron cuts him off and lands another awful kneedrop for a 2 count. Scicluna tries to set Travis up for another knee, but Steve counters a snapmare into a backslide and mercifully ends this snoozer in 8:06.

Winner is Steve Travis

Notes: I can’t see Travis shining as the blonde outlandish speaking heel as he claimed he was originally hired to be, but he fits well here as a mid to lower card baby face. Baron, God bless him, he tried. You’d never accuse the Baron of working too stiff, that’s for sure. His stuff is so light it’s the type of stuff that the non-wrestling fan would point to as proof wrestling was fake in those days. This match was not good though Travis appeared to have potential here.

Following the match Vince promises us a bout with “Bad News” Allen Coage when we return from break, but sadly this is the only match that survived. We move on to 1/20/79…[spacer height=”20px”]

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WWWF ALL-STAR WRESTLING 01-20-79

All-Star Wrestling is taped from the Field House in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.
Taping date is January 3, 1979.

“Living Legend” BRUNO SAMMARTINO joins Vince McMahon once again at the announcer’s table. After a rundown of today’s show we throw to Joe McHugh and the opening bout involving the Valiant Brothers.[spacer height=”20px”]

MATCH #1: “HANDSOME” JIMMY & “LUSCIOUS” JOHNNY VALIANT (w/LOU ALBANO) VS. KEVIN VICTOR & JOE MASCARA

Some fun from Handsome Jimmy to start the match as he struts around the ring before the Valiants start tearing apart poor Victor. Mascara gets more of the same. Lots of surprisingly quick tags by the Valiants before Victor gets tagged back in and immediately dumped over the top rope onto his head. More double teaming and posing by the Valiants. Johnny finishes Victor off with a pair of elbow drops in 4:12. And half of that was just posing and stalling.

Winners are The Valiants

Directly after the match the Valiants attack their opponents and continue to put a whoopin on them outside of the ring on the floor. Albano even joins in on the fun.

Notes: I always enjoyed the Valiant personas and reading the random stuff on their jackets and tights. This was a squash, nothing by way of wrestling but they worked their characters well. The post match beat down was also fun.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #2: “POLISH POWER” IVAN PUTSKI VS. TONY RUSSO

Referee is Dick Woehrle. Russo snags himself a headlock but doesn’t get very far with the stocky muscle man. Putski reverses a hiptoss early on but Russo fights back with some knees and forearms. It doesn’t take long for Polish Power to no sell Russo’s offense and take control. Tony continues to try and fight back, but Ivan ain’t having any of it. POLISH HAMMER wins it in 4:22.

Winner is Polish Power

Ivan hopes everyone had a good Christmas and New Year. How nice.

Notes: For a match that went over 4 minutes there was very little action to be had here. Next.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

RINGSIDE INTERVIEW WITH LOU ALBANO AND THE VALIANT BROTHERS

[spacer height=”20px”]Vince McMahon is with Captain Lou alongside Jimmy and Johnny Valiant. Lou says the Valiants are back to get revenge on current Tag Team Champions Zbyszko and Garea who defeated the Captain’s last team The Lumberjacks for the titles. Albano has been recording the champs matches and the Valiants are ready to take the belts.

Jimmy Valiant with a fun promo as he mocks Larry Z and Tony Garea. Johnny Valiant is toned down but not bad.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #3: DICK “THE BULLDOG” BROWER (w/LOU ALBANO) VS. CHARLIE BROWN

[spacer height=”20px”]Did I say there was a youth movement coming in? Well, maybe not all at once. “The One Man Riot Squad” Brower has seen better years and is well past his prime but he still knows how to work the gimmick. With Brower a staple of the wrestling rings in my neck of the woods I’m very familiar with his history and thus he’s a guilty pleasure of mine. Bulldog works the crazy gimmick before the match.

Brower attacks Charlie Brown and tips him upside down backwards over the top rope and onto the table at ringside. Brower then proceeds to stomp the crap out of Brown on the table and them repeatedly ram his face into it. Wow, that was some fun shit. Brower did more cool shit in the first 40 seconds of this match than I’ve seen in a while on this show.

[spacer height=”20px”]Bulldog allows Brown back into the ring and Charlie tries to amount a comeback. He stuns Brower with a pair of head butts, because you know he’s black, and so for some reason he has a hard head. Bulldog is quick to cut Charlie off and fling him out to the floor where he slams the wooden steps across the back of Brown.

Brower then rolls Charlie inside for a kneedrop and the academic win after 1:56.

Winner is Brower Power

Notes: Bulldog wasn’t getting paid by the hour. He mauled Brown in a VERY fun squash. Crowd was hot for it. Bulldog knew how to work his gimmick and did it well here. He still wasn’t going to go out there and put on a wrestling clinic however.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #4: GREG VALENTINE (w/THE GRAND WIZARD) VS. LOUIE POLAMICHI?

I have no idea how to spell this jobber’s name. Referee Woehrle grows tired of waiting for Wiz to leave the ring and warns him before starting the match. Valentine just takes apart Louie with some solid work. A delayed back suplex followed by two elbow drops ends it after 4:40.

Winner is Greg Valentine

Valentine even proves he’s not such a bad guy as he helps adjust Joe McHugh’s tie after the match.

Notes: Valentine was just sooo good during this period. He didn’t even have to try. He was just so crisp and everything he did looked great. It wasn’t until the mid 1980s that he started to regress like many others in the WWF at the time. But here in 1979, Valentine was a top level heel.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #5: TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS LARRY ZBYSZKO & TONY GAREA VS. UNPREDICTABLE JOHNNY RODZ & BULL MOLINO

Dick Kroll will ref this one. Rodz and Zbyszko will start. Some really good mat based wrestling by both men. They make this look like WRESTLING. Rodz finally gains control after a short trip to the floor. But then that comes to abrupt halt when Bill Molino tags in and Larry ain’t selling his offense on bit. Zbyszko fights back the first chance he gets and tags in Mr. Excitement himself, Tony Garea.

We end up with all four men in the ring and the champs whip their opponents into each other. The champs continue to dominate both Molino and Rodz. Eventually, Rodz catches Garea with a knee to the stomach and makes a short comeback. Garea whips Rodz across the ring and Johnny takes a cool little bump over the top rope.

Zbyszko tags back in and escapes a big splash from Rodz. Johnny winds up being tied in the ropes and the champs double team. We wind up with all 4 guys in the ring again and the heels try and whip the champs into each other. The champs dosey-doe their way around it and sock the heels.

Some more cluster fuck stuff happens before Garea makes Molino submit to the Abdominal Stretch in 9:32.

Winners are Zbyszko & Garea

[spacer height=”20px”]Notes: I don’t know why this needed to go 10 minutes. The first couple of minutes with Larry vs. Rodz was good stuff and then everything went to shit when Molino and Garea tagged in. Lots of confusion and sloppy work when all 4 guys got in the ring. First 2 minutes were good, last 8 minutes weren’t all that hot.[spacer height=”20px”]

This week we close the show with Vince getting Bruno’s opinion on some of the heels like Brower and Valentine. McMahon hypes next week’s episode with Victor Rivera vs. Steve Travis, and that’s all she wrote.[spacer height=”20px”]

Closing Thoughts: Even with the “bonus match” from Jan. 13, this still wasn’t a good episode of All-Star. I promise 1979 will pick up, but this wasn’t a good representation of what’s to come. Nothing wrong with the Valiant or Valentine matches, but they were what they were and that’s your typical squash from this era. I can’t believe I am writing this in 1979, but Bulldog Brower was the only saving grace and sadly that match didn’t even go 2 minutes.[spacer height=”20px”]