WWWF All-Star Wrestling Review 02-11-78

Freddie Blassie OWNS a fan, ya pencil neck geek…

That said, it’s the Retro Rasslin Review!

WWWF ALL-STAR WRESTLING 02-11-78

All-Star Wrestling is taped from the Fieldhouse in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.
Taping date is February 1, 1978.

Vince McMahon looks as high as a kite.

[spacer height=”20px”]Larry Zbyszko is still fighting Juvenile Diabetes. Good man.

[spacer height=”20px”]To the ring with Joe McHugh and tag team action.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #1: PAUL “BUTCHER” VACHON & BARON MIKEL SCICLUNA (w/LOU ALBANO) VS. SPECIAL DELIVERY JONES & PETE AUSTIN

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]While Lou managed Scicluna to a tag team title run with King Curtis Iaukea years earlier, I doubt the Captain is with him here. Rather, Lou is managing the Butcher. Albano is in an extra energetic mood today and he pretends to jump rope with an imaginary rope throughout the introductions. SD Jones finally nails Albano to send him out of the ring and to the locker room and we start the match.

Jones causes the Butcher trouble early and Paul tags in the Baron. Pete Austin also tags in and the heels immediately gain control of Austin. SD Jones eventually manages to get back in the ring but he suffers more of the same. Jones randomly hits Butcher with a single headbutt and Vachon lays out flat like he died. Even SD looks puzzled. Vachon sold that like Bobo Brazil just COCO BUTTED him with a titanium steel plate. Austin tags back in and looks LOST, Pete finally covers Butcher, but Vachon kicks out. The heels are back on top of the green Austin. Vachon with a double stomp on Pete, and Baron tags in to drop a REALLY SHITTY KNEE to get the win. Match was 5:34. God the Baron was AWFUL.

The heels do this weird hand swaying thing after the match. Synchronized dancing?

Winners are Vachon & the Baron

Notes: SD Jones was the best wrestler in the match and he didn’t do a damn thing. Not trying to take anything away from Paul Vachon who had big runs with his brother Mad Dog, but nobody in this match was lighting the world on fire. Albano was the most entertaining thing in this match, and he was ran from ringside before the match even started.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #2: “HIGH CHIEF” PETER MAIVIA VS. STAN “THE MAN” STASIAK (w/THE GRAND WIZARD)

[spacer height=”20px”]Maivia tries to get the upper hand early and often, but Stasiak keeps finding his way to the ropes for a break. At one point the High Chief even drops Stasiak crotch first over the top rope, but somehow that wasn’t a DQ. Finally, Stasiak plants a cheap shot on Maivia to take control. Stasiak pounds down the High Chief and sets Maivia up for his dreaded HEART PUNCH finisher. As Stan cocked back and began to throw the punch, Maivia breaks free and blocks the punch with some kung fu style shit and starts to retaliate with strikes of his own.

Now it’s the High Chief who stomps Stasiak into the mat and out of the ring. Stan has a word with the Wiz and returns to the ring where Maivia locks him in a Full Nelson. Stasiak escapes and sets Maivia up for another Heart Punch, but AGAIN Maivia blocks it and goes to town on Stan, sending Stasiak to the floor once more after a big wind up punch.

Stasiak returns to the ring this time incensed, the Wizard distracts Maivia as Stasiak pounds down the High Chief, chokes him down on the ropes and sends Maivia out to the floor. Peter pulls Stasiak outside to continue their fight. The two men brawl at ringside and with the ring steps until they’re both counted out after 7:00.

The result of this match is a double count out.

Notes: I enjoyed the Stasiak/Zbyszko match much better from an earlier review. The brief fight at the end was fine but it didn’t make up for a lackluster match. I did enjoy Maivia’s martial arts style block and counter strike to the Heart Punch. That was pretty cool.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

RINGSIDE INTERVIEW WITH SPIROS ARION & FREDDIE BLASSIE

Vince McMahon is with Arion and Blassie. We start the interview off with Blassie arguing with a morbidly obese ringside fan who appears to be one of the regulars. Blassie unleashes a hilarious diatribe on the fan, making fun of how large he is. Blassie is ripping the fan so bad Vince McMahon is just dying laughing. Vince puts his face down but he is clearly laughing his ass off. I’ve never seen a wrestler/manager spend so much time ripping a fan. It was AWESOME. Vince can’t stop laughing and smiling but he calls it absurd. I should note this fan is appears to be a weekly spectator as he can be seen center of the front row for a large number of episodes.

Arion tries to play off the fat guy interview by name dropping large wrestlers. “Gorilla Monsoon, Haystacks Calhoun…. JOE MULDOON…” WTF??? Does he mean Haystacks (William) Muldoon, the shitty ripoff of Calhoun who hasn’t wrestled IN TEN YEARS??? WTF. Arion is in his own little world. Arion enjoys wrestling “fatman”. He enjoys “busting them in the face and making them bleed”. LOL, WTF.

Vince tries to turn Arion against Blassie by asking him if he enjoys taking bruises and beatings so Blassie can get paid. Arion corrects him with a great line “I take no bruises, I take no beatings”. That’s some good heel shit, denying you ever get hurt.  Blassie is the man who made him “see the lights” (plural). The promo abruptly ends as time runs out.

I’m all for comedy so I applaud this segment, but nowadays I think Blassie would have been charged with something, or at least been fired after Snickers and whiny people on Twitter complained. This country has gotten far too PC. Grow a sense of humor and move on. [spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #3: SPIROS ARION (w/FRED BLASSIE) VS. PETE REEVES & DENNIS JOHNSON

Another handicap match for the Golden Greek. Arion jumps both men at the same time and drops them to the mat.  The jobbers never really have a chance. Reeves is tossed outside while Spiros beats down on Johnson. Arion stiffs them both with some European forearms. He simultaneously chokes both men over the top rope. Blassie briefly joins commentary to state that Reeves is the champion of Lodi, New Jersey, and that Dennis Johnson is a pro baseballer. LOL. Arion tries to sell a double team but he just SUCKS at selling. It’s not long before Spiros is back in control. He goes for covers but pulls the men up at 2. Reeves is thrown outside a second time where Blassie sticks his cane in the throat of Pete. Arion picks Johnson up in the over shoulder backbreaker for the win as referee Wee Willie Webber calls for the bell in 4:46.

Winner is Spiros Arion

Notes:  That was probably one of the better matches I’ve seen with Arion. It still wasn’t good, but it was better than most. He took control of these guys and maintained control. The problem I have here is that Arion is an average sized wrestler. He’s not super muscular like Superstar Graham, he’s not a giant like Ernie Ladd, he’s not large like Crusher Blackwell. He’s a good sized man, but nothing special as a wrestler. It’s just odd they kept feeding him handicap matches.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #4: DOMINIC DENUCCI VS. “CONTINENTAL NOBLEMAN” JOE TURCO

Referee is Dick Woehrle. Turco is a guilty pleasure. He sucked, but he looked hilarious and could oversell his bumps at times. DeNucci wrestles Turco down and schools him for much of the match. The Nobleman does manage to take over on offense and work Dominic’s arm for a short bit, but he makes the mistake of ducking his head for a backdrop and Dominic counters with a sunset flip for the win after 5:48.

Winner is Dominic DeNucci

Notes: While once a great hand in the ring, Dominic is already in his mid 40’s here and while he’s in good shape for that age in this time period, he’s slowed down quite a bit. This wasn’t one of Turco’s more entertaining matches either. Like most of Dominic’s singles matches by this point it was Boring, Bland, and can be skipped.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

– A quick promotion job for the Second Edition of the “Wrestling Action” Magazine, featuring Bruno Sammartino on the cover. It’s the magazine of the WWWF, purchase yours today!

 

 

 

 

 

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MATCH #5: WWWF TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS MR. FUJI & TORU TANAKA VS. FRANKIE WILLIAMS & JOE MARCUS

Wee Willie Webber is the referee. It goes without saying, this is non-title. For some reason Blassie is not at ringside with his champions. Maybe Blassie is taking some of those mysterious “Oriental” vitamins he talked about on an earlier episode. Tanaka tosses the ceremonial salt to begin things. The champs beat down Williams to begin things. Marcus tags in and eats a nasty ass chop from Fuji that may have dropped him for real. Vince calls Tanaka the “Hiroshima Bull”. Frankie Williams tries to reach in to grab Fuji but can’t reach him from the apron. Tanaka is back in with a JUDO…. CHOP and this thing is OVER in 4:48.

Winners are Fuji & Tanaka

Notes: Not as good as some of their other squash matches. Fuji & Tanaka will be losing the titles to Bravo & DeNucci in the next month so their time as a team is winding down. It was fun while it lasted. [spacer height=”20px”]

After the match Vince wraps up the show and talks about what’s to come. Vince said he would have liked to have seen Maivia vs. Stasiak go 30 minutes to an hour… NOOOOO THANKS.

 

 

 

 

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Closing Thoughts: Another uneventful episode. I can’t think of a single thing on this show worth seeing besides Blassie verbally lambasting the large fan in the front row. NEXT!

Retro Rasslin’ Review, baby!