WWWF All-Star Wrestling Review 07-15-78

It’s BONZO GONZO in the main event of this Retro Rasslin’ Review!

WWWF ALL-STAR WRESTLING 07-15-78

All-Star Wrestling is taped from the Fieldhouse in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.
Taping date is June 28, 1978.  Your announcer is Vince McMahon

 

MATCH #1: DINO BRAVO & JOHNNY RIVERA VS. JOSE ESTRADA & JOHNNY RODZ

Referee here is Dick Woehrle. Rivera starts for the baby face time and the heels just totally annihilate Rivera. Johnny usually gets in some ddecent offense, but the heel team just uses tons of quick tags and double teams to keep Rivera down. Rivera finally manages a tag to Dino, who comes in and immediately takes over, first dropping Estrada and then nailing Rodz with a nice dropkick.  The heels do manage to once again go back to double teaming Bravo, but Dino quickly tags back to Rivera. And once again Rivera is immediately dismantled with the quick tags and double team efforts in their corner. They begin to work the leg of Rivera with Estrada holding it while Rodz comes off the top repeatedly with a flying stomp. They pummel the leg for quite some time. Rivera sells the leg something bad. Johnny finally breaks free and hot tags to Dino Bravo. Dino comes in a house of fire on both heels. AIRPLANE SPIN on Estrada, AIRPLANE SPIN on Rodz. Bravo dumps Rodz on top of Estrada and pins them both in 4:57.

As soon as Bravo gets the win he rolls to the floor, picks up Johnny Rivera over his shoulder and carries him to the dressing room.

Winners are Bravo & Rivera

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Notes: Fun match. The Rodz and Estrada team have always been underrated, really great heel work and team work to boot. They made a great team. If Rodz had been a few years younger I’d imagine he would have worked as the other Conquistador with Jose Estrada. Rivera sold the leg great, great team work by the heels, Bravo comes in and just OWNS them. My only peeve is Dino dumped Rodz on top of Estrada face down, and Rodz was technically the legal man. Not that it mattered I suppose. Bravo also immediately rolling out and scooping Rivera up and storming off to the back almost came off heelish, or at least made Rivera look like garbage. Maybe Dino was pissed about losing the tag titles. ;)[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #2: “RUSSIAN BEAR” IVAN KOLOFF (w/LOU ALBANO) VS. SPECIAL DELIVERY JONES

Albano shouts to Vince, letting him know that a front facelock is also called a front chancery. Meanwhile, Koloff works over Jones and pitches him to the floor where Lou can get in a cheap shot on SD. Koloff eventually follows Jones outside and rams SD into the ring post. HEEL! As SD climbs back inside he fights back with a headbutt but not much more as Koloff cuts him right back off. Lots of choking by Koloff as he drops SD across the top rope. A nice backbreaker by Koloff gets the 3 count in 4:54.

Winner is Ivan Koloff

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Lou Albano taunts SD Jones after the match and Jones knocks him off the apron. Koloff attacks Jones and sends him to the floor. Ivan slams SD into the wooden steps to teach him a lesson about going after the Captain.

Notes: The definition of a squash. Solid heel squash here with Koloff dominating Jones and using enough heel tactics to draw the necessary heat. Albano got his cheap shots in too. Made for a fine TV squash match.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

RINGSIDE INTERVIEW WITH LOU ALBANO & THE YUKON LUMBERJACKS

Vince McMahon is with Albano and the NEWWWWWW WWWF Tag Team Champions, The Yukon Lumberjacks. This episode was taped only two days after winning the titles from Bravo & DeNucci at MSG. Eric (Scott Irwin) speaks first but then tries to calm down Albano. Pierre speaks in his thick French Canadian accent. Albano finally takes over, he mentions he’s had 7 World Tag Team Champions. Albano starts naming random wrestlers he’s issuing tag team challenges to. Eric cuts Albano off and challenged names like Bob Windham (AKA Blackjack Mulligan). Well, that was random. Albano cuts Eric off and says he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. WTF? Pierre starts ranting in French, Albano says Pierre is challenging anyone to a match for the titles.

Vince asks both Lumberjacks about their controversial win over the former champs. Eric denies any controversy. Pierre says the fans are happy the Lumberjacks won. Albano touts himself as the maker of World Champions and the guiding light of the team. Well that promo was all over the place.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #3: GEORGE “THE ANIMAL STEELE VS. DAVE DARROW

Steele takes Darrow down quickly and has some fun with him on the mat. Steele goes over and begins to gnaw at a turnbuckle pad and eat the stuffing. Vince explains the story Albano told on a previous episode, where Steele’s tongue is green because he is aroused by turnbuckle pads. Jesus. Steele rubs some stuffing in the eyes of Darrow and begins using the infamous white foreign object. Darrow falls to the outside. Steele never leaves the ring but grabs Darrow through the ropes and rams his head into the time keeper’s table. Darrow is then whipped out of the ring on the opposite side, and Steele again reaches through the ropes and rams Dave head first into the wood steps and the ring post. George stomps the arm of Darrow before clobbering him with the foreign object. George hides the object in his mouth as Dick Woehrle searches him for it. Flying Hammerlock ends this in 5:50.

And George goes back to groping the turnbuckle with stuffing and saliva dripping off his tongue. Beautiful.

Winner is George Steele

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Notes: I don’t know if Steele was being lazy by not going outside the ring, or just trying to be different. Honestly, I loved it. It was different than everyone else by just reaching through the ropes and delivering offense. It made me take notice, which is always a good thing. I really enjoyed heel Steele in the 70’s. Another fun heel squash. This show has been solid TV so far, BUT THAT’S ALL ABOUT TO CHANGE with our next match…..[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #4: LUKE GRAHAM (w/THE GRAND WIZARD) VS. FRANKIE WILLIAMS

I don’t know if it’s me, but it seems like “Crazy” Luke Graham is on every episode. Why? Was it because he was so awful that Vincent the elder made him wrestle 10 times more to get his money’s worth out of Luke? Or was Vince Sr. just as cynical as his son and wanted to torture the fans? Luke grabs a hammerlock and a half nelson at the same time. Referee Wee Willie Webber calls for a break, though I have no idea why, and neither does Vince. Webber must have been thrown off by Graham actually applying a wrestling hold.

Graham applies a sleeper on the mat, but it’s so crappy that even Frankie Williams won’t pass out. Graham moves on to a head scissor. Anything to lay on the mat. Frankie goes for a backdrop but Graham kicks him and drops a…. I honestly don’t know WTF that was he just pretended to drop on Frankie. AWFUL.

Choking and biting by Graham. Frankie fights back, Graham takes a turnbuckle smash in slow motion. Graham “loads” his thumb and jams it into the throat of Williams to get the win after 6:02

Winner is Luke Graham

Notes: That did NOT need to go 6:00. Dreadful. I don’t know how Luke kept this job for so long. I’d go so far as to say I could see Luke being a pretty damn entertaining heel in his prime years, but those were long gone. The scary thing is, he was only 38 years old here.[spacer height=”20px”]

 

MATCH #5: WWWF TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS THE YUKON LUMBERJACKS (w/LOU ALBANO) VS. CHIEF JAY STRONGBOW & TONY GAREA

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]This is non-title, even though Lou Albano just challenged anyone to a title match only 3 segments ago. So much for Garea planning a singles career. Eric and Pierre try to have their way with Garea early, slapping him in the face on breaks. Tony returns the favor, slapping Pierre in the face. Strongbow tags in and does a crisscross spot with Pierre, leading to Chief catching Pierre in his patented Sleeper Hold, but Eric breaks it up. Eric tags in and goes to work on Strongbow. The Lumberjacks begin double teaming Strongbow in the heel corner. Garea finally has enough and tries to make the save. but the Lumberjacks beat down Garea as well.

Finally, Strongbow is able to tag out to Tony, but Garea continues to take a beat down. Now Strongbow comes in for the save, but Pierre flings the Chief out over the top rope. Eric beats down Strongbow on the floor, and the Lumberjacks double team Garea in the ring, the referee isn’t even counting. All four men take it to the floor and big brawl ensues. Dick Woehrle counts both teams out after 6:37.

Strongbow takes a bar stool and bashes it over Pierre’s head, Eric’s head, Albano’s head. The crowd is standing and pushing towards the fight, trying to see more. The Lumberjacks are whipped into each other on the floor. Chief chokes Pierre with a camera wire. The faces are beating the crap out of the heels and the crowd is eating it up. Gorilla Monsoon is out to try and pull the faces off the Lumberjacs. IT’S PANDEMONIUM!

The result is a double DQ (I think it was a count out)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[spacer height=”20px”]Notes: Now that was fun TV. The early part of the match was bland, but when the Lumberjacks threw the rules out and refused to leave the ring with the double teaming business picked up. They were a great bruiser tag team as you can see here. The brawl on the floor was really refreshing, I haven’t seen an angle that hot on an episode yet I don’t believe. The fans really loved it. I would have been eating it up too. Hell, I’m eating it up now 40 years later. A wild brawl ends the show as we go off the air after the official announcement. Good stuff.[spacer height=”20px”]

Closing Thoughts: We kick off with 3 solid squashes and end with a fun 4 man brawl all over the floor. As shitty as the last episode was, this one was that good. One of the better episodes to date. And after the crap episode last time we needed a fresh pick-me-up and this episode did the trick for me. I recommend you checking out the heel team work from Rodz and Estrada, and I really recommend the main event for the fight at the end. Nice solid show.