WWWF All-Star Wrestling Review 03-06-76

It’s the Retro Rasslin’ Review! You know the drill by now… Let’s do this!

WWWF ALL-STAR WRESTLING 03-06-76

All-Star Wrestling is taped from the Fieldhouse in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.
Taping date is February 18, 1976.

 Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Antonino Rocca
Ring Announcer is Joe McHugh

 

MATCH #1: CRUSHER BLACKWELL VS. AL WILLIAMS

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Dick Woehrle is the referee to start this week off. The Grand Wizard doesn’t appear to be here this week. Al Williams is a pretty tall guy with super saggy boobs. And that’s saying a lot considering his opponent. Blackwell dominates the match, even pulling Williams up off the mat during a pinfall attempt. Vince McMahon makes a hell of an ironic comment when he claims “it takes all shapes and sizes to make professional wrestlers”. I found this comment quite hypocritical given his long time stance on his cookie cutter muscle boys. I THINK Rocca at one point says “that big black flesh” stands no chance against Blackwell. Rocca doesn’t feel he could keep up with the Crusher in an eating contest. Blackwell with a standing fireman’s slam, similar to Cena’s “AA”. A giant legdrop finishes Williams off in 5:22.

Winner is Crusher Blackwell

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Notes: Nice height on the legdrop by Blackwell, he was a hell of a worker for his size. Williams looked clueless here, from throwing terrible punches, to taking shitty bumps and not posting for the bodyslam.  Blackwell was saddled with a poor opponent that did him little favors in making the Crusher look good, but he was still impressive with what he got out of Williams.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #2: BOBO BRAZIL VS. JOHNNY RODZ

Rodz jumps Bobo from behind to get things going, but Brazil quickly turns it around. Bobo works an armbar until Rodz can make it to the ropes. Brazil tries a clean break but Rodz hits a sneaky boot and takes over with Bobo in the ropes. Brazil doesn’t stay down too long before he comes right back with a pair of Irish whips, a backdrop, and the COCO BUTT ends it in 5:17.

Winner is Bobo Brazil

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Notes: Rodz is so underrated. A great bumper and can make anyone look good. Rodz couldn’t save this match, however. Bobo was WELL past his prime at 50 something years old here, and Rodz simply fed into Brazil.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

RINGSIDE INTERVIEW WITH FREDDIE BLASSIE & LOU ALBANO

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Lou Albano announces he will be bringing in a new tag team who will become his 5th team to win the Tag Team Titles. Albano claims he will own the Tag Team Titles and the Heavyweight Title.

But where does that leave Blassie??? Fred Blassie claims that 6 wrestlers attacked him and blinded him in his right eye as he was walking to his car. He names all 6 men – Bruno, Parisi, Cerdan, Gorilla Monsoon, Putski, and Strongbow. Blassie claims his new stars Skandor Akbar and Stan Hansen will get revenge. Blassie says Hansen loves squashing “Latins”. Blassie hates Latins. Yikes…

It should be noted that Blassie is telling a half truth about his blinded eye. While a wrestler didn’t attack him to cause it, Blassie was indeed blinded after being struck in the eye by a hard boiled egg thrown by a fan. Rather than put over the fan, Blassie used this excuse of being attacked to cover up the stories that were circulating.

Albano lists his 4 previous tag teams that held the tag team titles and hypes his new team coming in but refuses to name them.

You can easily see why the “Three Wise Men” (Wizard, Albano, Blassie) are spoken of with such fondness. They basically ran the entire heel side of the WWWF during the 1970’s. The wrestlers were just props for these guys to control. It was these managers that got the heat and basically manipulated everything. The managers of the 1980’s became more of the props and cartoon characters, save for Bobby Heenan. As you watch these All-Star Wrestling episodes you quickly come to understand how important the managers were and what an amazing job they did as the leaders of the heel side of the business.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #3: STAN HANSEN (w/FRED BLASSIE) VS. BOBBY SCHAEFFER

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Referee is Woehrle. Hansen rushes poor Bobby Schaeffer and beats him into the mat. Hansen flings Bobby outside to the floor and Schaeffer goes flying. After Bobby finally climbs back into the ring he’s met with more brutality including a backbreaker and a nasty kneedrop. Hansen finally adjusts his elbow pad and smashes Bobby with the LARIAT to end things after 2:50. Now that was a bad ass Lariat!

Winner is Stan Hansen

Notes: Hansen with a much better Lariat here this week. He ran poor Schaeffer over. Too short to be much of a match but Stan laid in some stiff looking shots. Blassie and Hansen begin to cut a promo with Vince after the match but the feed cuts to commercial.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #4: PETE SANCHEZ VS. JOHNNY RIVERA

As I’ve mentioned before, Rivera will go on to become Invader #3 in Puerto Rico. Pete Sanchez would never rise above the undercard of the WWWF but he was still a favorite among the fans during this point in his career. Both men are fan favorites and undercard talent here, so I expect a clean fought yet underwhelming match. And yup, here it is. Armbar, Head scissors. Side headlock. Nobody is really controlling the match. Rivera tries for a nice flying head scissors from behind, but Sanchez doesn’t seem to know what’s going on so he simply doesn’t follow through with the move. Sanchez tries a monkey flip BUT RIVERA LANDS ON HIS FEET!!! Rivera follows up with a dropkick. But we quickly slow things right back down with a test of strength. Pete manages a cover but Rivera BRIDGES out of the pin. Rivera comes back with a monkey flip and a nice dropkick. Rivera comes after Sanchez, but Pete catches him in an inside cradle for the fall after 7:38.

Winner is Pete Sanchez

Notes: Travesty of justice here. Someone with Rivera’s talent should have been given more opportunity. Pete Sanchez was a perfectly fine opening match guy, but Rivera was far more athletic and explosive in the ring. When given the opportunity Rivera could go, as seen during his time in WWC in the 1980’s. As for this match, it’s pretty much what you’d expect out of an opening match from an MSG card back in the day. The majority of the match was wrestled on the mat, but it picked up near the end. Meh.

 

MATCH #5: BILLY WHITE WOLF VS. SKANDOR AKBAR (w/FRED BLASSIE)

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]If White Wolf looks familiar to you, he should. AWA fans will remember him as Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie. And WWF fans will simply remember him as the manager of Sgt. Slaughter, General Adnan. Here the Iraqi Adnan plays the part of a Native American, and the fans bought it hook, line, and sinker. Similar to the Italian Joe Scarpa portraying Chief Jay Strongbow. Most of you may also know Skandor Akbar better for his managerial roll throughout the 1980’s and early 1990’s for World Class, Mid-South, JCP, the GWF, WWC, and places in between.

Akbar quickly attacks White Wolf and sends him out to the floor. Skandor works Billy over on the apron and Blassie gets in some cheap shots as well. After a couple of minutes of playing whipping boy, White Wolf fights his way back into the ring for a big WAR DANCE and a BIG CHOP gets Billy a 1 count. Akbar quickly bails to the floor to talk with Blassie.

Once back in the ring White Wolf does a lot of teasing of throwing a chop, but Blassie distracts Billy and Akbar attacks from behind. Once Skandor has White Wolf down, Akbar distracts referee Woehrle so Blassie can choke Billy on the apron. The fans make “Indian noises” to try and rally behind White Wolf, but Akbar uses dirty tricks to remain in control by pulling the trunks, pulling the hair, and the ever popular choke hold. Billy finally TOMAHAWK CHOPS his way free and the two men go into a crisscross spot. Blassie trips up White Wolf from the outside and Akbar jumps on top of Billy. Referee Woehrle tries to pull Skandor off of White Wolf and Akbar shoves Woehrle across the ring, causing a DQ after 8:34.

Winner is Billy White Wolf by DQ

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]White Wolf begins to fight back, he chops Akbar down. Fred Blassie jumps onto the apron and Billy chops the shit out of Blassie as well! Akbar is quick to collect Blassie and both men stumble to the locker room.

Vince McMahon calls White Wolf over for an interview, but the credits are rolling and it’s hard to hear him speak. Show ends.

Notes: I can’t tell you how excited I was to FINALLY have a TV match of Billy White Wolf on video. I also can’t tell you how awesome it is to have Skandor Akbar on video during his wrestling career as well. The two men fighting each other didn’t translate into a great match or anything close to it, but I was super pumped to see both of these names on an episode here. More great rarities coming to light, and for that reason alone I was excited for this match. As a wrestling match this wasn’t very good with White Wolf doing next to nothing until the very end.[spacer height=”20px”]

Closing Thoughts: I loved the Albano and Blassie promo. Hansen continues to shine in short fashion. Johnny Rivera impressed me here. The Blackwell & Brazil matches on this episode were very underwhelming. The main event between White Wolf vs. Akbar was pretty bad as a match, but I’m still excited that this match has made it to public preservation. As a show, nothing of any relative importance happened here this week.