WWWF All-Star Wrestling Review 03-20-76

1976, we hardly knew ye. The Retro Rasslin’ Review rolls on…

WWWF ALL-STAR WRESTLING 03-20-76

All-Star Wrestling is taped from the Fieldhouse in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.
Taping date is March 10, 1976.  Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Antonino Rocca. McMahon makes fun of Rocca’s hair. “Who’s your new hair dresser?”, HAH!

We kick things off with Joe McHugh and referee Wee Willie Webber in the ring for the opening contest.

 

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]MATCH #1: THE EXECUTIONERS (w/LOU ALBANO) VS. “IRISH” PAT BARRETT & JOHNNY RIVERA

The Executioners tower over their opponents, and for very good reason. Wrestling fans who know even a little history of the business will know who these two mysterious masked men are. Ready to have your mind blown? The Executioners here are the legendary Killer Kowalski and a young Big John Studd! Maybe you’ve heard of them? The masked team take Barrett down and beat the crap out of him, with Albano even getting in his licks. Finally, Pat has enough and fights his way to his feet and over to his corner to tag in Rivera. The babyface duo manage to double whip Studd into the corner, but like idiots they whip Studd right into the heel corner. So Kowalski easily tags in and the Executioners go to work on Rivera. Albano can be heard near the announcers mocking Barrett’s heritage, doing an Irish accent and mentioning shillelaghs and leprechauns.

Albano continues to get in shots that causes Barrett to chase Lou around ringside while the Executioners have their way with Rivera. Kowalski ducks for a backdrop, and RIVERA BACKDROPS HIMSELF. Kowalski literally didn’t even stand up with the move, Rivera just flipped himself over Killer. Rivera is thrown on the floor where Albano repeatedly kicks him in the ass.

Now back inside the Executioners hit Johnny with a double backdrop. The men then take turns performing the GIANT SWING before Kowalski ends things with his patented yet shitty top rope kneedrop. (Tell that to Yukon Eric)

Winners are The Executioners in 6:45

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Albano and the Executioners continue to beat down Rivera after the match while Barrett stands there staring at Kowalski like an idiot.

Notes: This was the Executioners first All-Star taping. They’d go on to make the Captain a 5-time manager of tag team champions in just a couple of months where they’ll defeat Parisi & Cerdan for the belts. The Executioners would hold the titles until the fall, when they were stripped of the titles for using a third Executioner (Nikolai Volkoff) to retain. They made a very imposing team, especially for this time period. Kowalski was the shorter of the two, and even he was 6’7″.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #2: “THE UNPREDICTABLE” JOHNNY RODZ VS. FRANKIE WILLIAMS

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Referee here is Mario Savoldi. It’s not often we get a match that FEATURES Johnny Rodz. Johnny is impressive here, coming off the middle rope many times. Nothing fancy, but he was pretty nimble and always solid. Unfortunately, Vince uses this match to promote the rest of the program. Rodz dominates the match and lands a legdrop that was CLEARLY A THREE COUNT, but this referee for some odd reason just stops counting. Williams doesn’t mvoe at all, he’s clearly laying flat out, but Webber doesn’t count the three. Even Vince is confused. I guess Webber wasn’t used to Rodz getting the win. So Rodz continues his punishment and comes off the top rope with a flying stomp. Vince continues to promote the rest of the show rather than the match in the ring. Williams HULKS UP! Oh shit, Rodz is in trouble now!!! Well that lasted 5 seconds. Rodz with a kick to the gut and Frankie goes down. I’ve heard of a glass jaw, but a glass stomach?  Rodz lands a suplex into a bodyslam and drops another LEGDROP and THIS TIME the referee counts three. RODZ JUST CRUSHED FRANKIE’S HEAD WITH HIS ASS! OOF! They even show it in replay. Rodz lands hip first across poor Frankie’s FACE. That’s all she wrote after 6:12.

Winner is Johnny Rodz

Notes: This was a good display of Rodz talent. In his late 30’s here Rodz was still in great shape and could still go. I have no idea WTF the referee not counting to three was about. It prolonged the match and Frankie got his face crushed for the troubles. I’m thinking Frankie wished the ref had counted to 3 the first time.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

RINGSIDE INTERVIEW WITH TONY PARISI & LOUIS CERDAN

Vince McMahon is standing with the WWWF Tag Team Champions. Parisi has noticeably trimmed down quite a bit. He credits….. handball. Parisi says he’s trimmed down to pick up stamina to wear down the big monster heel tag teams. Makes sense. The bloated Greg Brady – Cerdan however, is as pudgy as ever. Maybe he didn’t get the handball memo.

The champs talk Albano and the Executioners, foreshadowing things to come. Parisi says he’s 5’11, but he can get 6’7″ when he’s mad. Parisi claims Albano changed his last name to Alban because Lou denounced his Italian heritage. It’s simple things like that which could easily rile up the fans, especially the large Italian population in NYC.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #3: SKANDOR AKBAR (w/FRED BLASSIE) VS. PETE SANCHEZ

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Last we saw Sanchez he was picking up a win over Johnny Rivera, now it’s time for Pete to do the favors. McHugh pronounces Akbar’s homeland as “SaudiA Arabia”. Akbar pummels on Sanchez and tosses him outside where Blassie rakes at Pete’s eyes right in front of referee Dick Woehrle. Sanchez stays outside the ring so long I think Blassie actually gets more offense in than Akbar. When Pete FINALLY gets back in the ring he unloads on Skandor including a pair of nice dropkicks. Akbar puts an end to that with a knee to the gut. Skandor then picks Sanchez up in an atomic drop, but drops Sanchez across the top rope, straddling him for an intentional low blow and the DQ in 3:20.

Winner is Pete Sanchez by DQ

Following the match, Dominic DeNucci comes out to assist Sanchez and raises his hand in victory.

Notes: Holy balls, if you were to tell me Pete Sanchez was going to pick up back to back wins on TV I would have told you that you were crazy. BUT, here we are. Other than Woehrle repeatedly watching Blassie lay into Sanchez there was no substance to this match. It does get over how “crazy” Akbar’s Saudi Arabian character was since he cared more about hurting his opponent than winning.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #4: KEVIN SULLIVAN VS. CRUSHER BLACKWELL (w/THE GRAND WIZARD)

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Vince says that Blassie claims Blackwell is a former preacher. Okay. Blackwell dominates, with Blassie continuing where he left off in the prior match, interfering and holding Sullivan so Crusher can take the advantage. WAIT A MINUTE!! THREE POLICE OFFICERS COME TO RINGSIDE AND ESCORT BLASSIE TO THE LOCKER ROOM!!! WELL WHERE THE HELL WERE THESE GUYS AT LAST MATCH WHEN BLASSIE WRESTLED MORE THAN HIS ACTUAL WRESTLER??? I guess enough was enough. Blassie is taken to the back and the fans cheer loudly.

Needless to say, Sullivan takes control and and has Blackwell down on the mat. It appears the Crusher lands a low blow to take back over. Blackwell with a nice legdrop across the back of Sullivan. But Kevin keeps fighting back. SULLIVAN WITH THE DOUBLE STOMP!!! HOLY SHIT HE WAS USING THAT EVEN IN 1976! Blackwell quickly kicks out however. The Crusher uses a choke to gain control. The bell randomly sounds after 7:55 of action. What the eff???

Joe McHugh steps in and claims the time limit has expired.

The match is announced as a 10 minute time limit draw

After the bell, Sullivan begins to fight back and he sends Blackwell out of the ring.

Notes: While nothing special, I probably enjoyed this match the most thus far out of all of these episodes… as far as a wrestling match goes. It felt competitive and there was very little stalling or rest holds used. It felt like both guys were actually fighting for something rather than killing TV time. They shaved some time off to end the match early, but I would have really liked to seen a winner here.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #5: BOBO BRAZIL VS. BUGSY MCGRAW (w/THE GRAND WIZARD & ERNIE LADD)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Referee here is Wee Willie Webber. Ernie Ladd accompanies Bugsy and the Wiz to ringside, but THE PO-PO RETURNS! Now we have 4 or 5 cops out here trying to escort the Big Cat to the back. But Ernie isn’t have any of it. He tells the cops to Fuck Off, and Ladd remains at ringside, taking a seat on the ring steps. So apparently Blassie, a manager, can be ejected, but Ladd, a wrestler, can stay. The distraction of Ladd at ringside works, as Bobo becomes distracted and McGraw initially takes over. That doesn’t last long before Bobo makes the comeback. A pair of COCO BUTTS later, which Vince refuses to refer to as such and simply calls them headbutts. Bugsy goes down, Brazil makes the cover, BUT ERNIE LADD ATTACKS!

Ladd begins to stomp down Brazil, when Billy White Wolf hits the ring to even the odds. White Wolf helps Bobo clear the ring as Parisi and Cerdan join in. The referee finally calls for the bell and this one is over in short fashion at 2:32.

The referee has ruled this match a no contest, double DQ, or something like that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Notes: As you can see here there wasn’t a match to be had. Which I’m happy about because there was no way this way going to follow Blackwell vs. Sullivan. I would have rather seen Ladd simply interfere in the match rather than allow Bobo to basically squash McGraw before Ernie got involved.

We close the show with Vince interviewing Brazil. Bobo thanks his friends for giving him some help at the conclusion of the match. Brazil vows that Ladd will pay. You’d think this angle would be here to set up a run around the loop, but my records indicate Ladd and Bobo worked one time a few weeks later in Baltimore.

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Closing Thoughts: As I already stated, out of the first 6 episodes that I’ve reviewed I found the Sullivan vs. Crusher Blackwell match to be the best match that closest resembles anything to modern day competition. It’s a shame it went to a draw. It was cool seeing an early match with the Executioners and it’s no wonder they were given the tag team titles so quickly as they dwarfed almost everyone else on the roster. Rodz gets a rare TV win, we get another Akbar match (if you want to call it that), and the final match left the fans cheering. This was an okay episode, I’d recommend checking out the Sullivan/Blackwell match, and maybe the Executioners for curiosity, but everything else can be left on the cutting room floor.

I felt it necessary to note the lack of the WWWF Champion Bruno Sammartino on these shows. It was a rarity to see the Champion on the actual TV program, however they were given plenty of TV time to promote their upcoming local matches at the Garden and whatnot. Unfortunately, the WWE has not included those lengthy insert promos that took place in between commercial breaks and thus it appears as if Sammartino or any of the other Champions were not given any TV time. Rest assured Bruno was on TV weekly cutting promos, but sadly those promos and all other syndicated interviews are not included. I recommend seeking them out on Youtube.

And now, we come to an end with the episodes of 1976. I would have loved to seen a lot more here, but apparently this is the best surviving footage available from the era. This also marks the final episode featuring Antonino Rocca, who would pass away the following year.

We will move on to a pair of 1977 episodes next before settling in on 1978 for a while.