WWWF All-Star Wrestling Review 11-11-78

I’d tell you the feature match… But then you would stop reading. 😀

WWWF ALL-STAR WRESTLING 11-11-78

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

“Living Legend” BRUNO SAMMARTINO joins Vince McMahon at the announcer’s table this week for the action.

MATCH #1: TONY GAREA VS. “CRAZY” LUKE GRAHAM (w/THE GRAND WIZARD)

Referee is Mario Savoldi. I wouldn’t expect a classic here. Garea starts off with the basics, a top wrist lock and a waistlock, before Graham makes it to the ropes for a break. Crazy Luke takes over and hooks on a sloppy Cobra Clutch and holds it for over a minute before Graham turns it into a choke and has to break. More choking from Graham. Garea begins fighting back and grabs a side headlock which he holds…. and holds… and holds. Not sure what that is supposed to accomplish. Finally, Luke goes into his tights for a foreign object and loads his taped thumb. Graham jabs it into the throat of Garea to break the headlock. Graham takes over with chokes, chokes, and chokes. Garea starts punching back and knocks Graham out of the ring to the floor. Tony follows him out where the two men trade punches until the referee claims he has counted both men out at 7:26.

They continue to fight, apparently have sex on the apron, and then roll into the ring where Garea finally fights off Crazy Luke and sends him packing…. Finally.

Official result is a DOUBLE COUNT OUT

Notes: Well, this was pretty much 7 minutes of nothing. BUT on the positive end it wasn’t the worst I’ve seen from either of them. They didn’t do much, but what they did do wasn’t the worst of their individual bodies of work. Still, this was not good, as you can probably imagine.[spacer height=”20px”]

MATCH #2: “HIGH CHIEF” PETER MAIVIA (w/FRED BLASSIE) VS. STEVE COOPER

Referee is Dick Woehrle. For those who recognize the name Steve Cooper, he worked a bit in Detroit for the Sheik around this time and in the WWA for Dick the Bruiser. Cooper is probably best known as the manager of one Randy “Macho Man” Savage in the ICW during the very early 1980s. Maivia has just recently turned heel on both Bob Backlund and Chief Jay Strongbow. Maivia is the latest of fan favorites to turn on the baby face World Champion. Blassie seems to have the market cornered on getting guys to turn heel on the champ. Arion, Rivera, now Maivia.

Maivia just hammers on Cooper, not really letting him get to a standing position. Maivia pounds on Cooper up against the ropes and Steve winds up tied in the ropes. On commentary Bruno comments that he can’t believe the new aggressiveness of the High Chief. Cooper finally gets a chance to fight back, throwing a few punches. Maivia no sells and floors Cooper once more. Maivia even distracts Woehrle so Blassie can sneak in a cheap shot with his cane. Maivia scoops Cooper up in a fireman’s carry and drops him throat first across the top rope for the pin in 3:45.

Following the match Maivia drives Cooper down into a gut buster just for the fun of it. He’s a HEEL (in my best Jim Cornette impersonation)!

Winner is The High Chief

Notes: Match lacked any real offense and offered no real entertainment for me. It did however serve it’s sole purpose. That being – Maivia got his face on TV, got himself over, he dominated, he cheated, he’s proved himself a threat to the title. Nothing of a match, but the segment did what it was intended to do.[spacer height=”20px”]

RINGSIDE INTERVIEW WITH “HIGH CHIEF” PETER MAIVIA & FREDDIE BLASSIE

Blassie claims Maivia doesn’t have much of an education so that’s why Skaaland and Bob Backlund used Peter Maivia. Blassie only has “foreign wrestlers”. Failing to realize Samoa is part of America. Blassie helped Maivia see the light. High Chief claims Backlund called him personally to ask him for help. Maivia claims he helped Backlund remain World Champion. Maivia says Backlund was using Maivia as a stepping stone and was keeping Maivia as an ally because he was afraid to wrestle the High Chief. Maivia says Backlund and Skaaland will never double cross him again.

Vince claims that Backlund was taught how to wrestle by Maivia in the amateurs. WTF? I guess whatever sells the story. Anyway, Backlund wanted to repay Maivia for his help by being his tag team partner.

Blassie claims every time Backlund and Maivia teamed up that Peter did all the work and Backlund came in to make the pin. Blassie says Arnold Skaaland stole the money. We run out of time on the promo.

Not a bad promo this week. They actually had a story to tell in the interview, so it wasn’t the typical ranting and raving about nothing in particular. It covered what it needed and progressed the storyline from the heels point of view.[spacer height=”20px”]

MATCH #3: “RUSSIAN BEAR” IVAN KOLOFF (w/LOU ALBANO) VS. FIREBALL ROBINSON

Albano may be rocking his very best outfit here. Fireball (Henry) Robinson worked the Georgia “outlaw” promotions during the 1970s and ran a short lived promotion in the Northeast Ohio area in the early 1980s. He has since passed away. Koloff dominates the match, though Robinson tries to throw in a shot when he can.  Ivan works a rear chinlock before Fireball comes fighting back, landing some left handed shots and a headbutt. Robinson cranks a side headlock on the Russian Bear. Bruno isn’t buying the headlock is affecting Koloff. He’s right. Ivan scoops Fireball up and throws him across the ring to escape the hold. Soon after it’s Ivan with a flying kneedrop off the middle rope.

Koloff works over Robinson’s leg and lands a second flying kneedrop before applying a new hold, a Standing Figure Four. It’s actually a pretty sweet looking hold. Bruno is impressed with the new hold, as am I. Koloff gets the submission win in 4:36 and Fireball fizzles out.

Winner is The Russian Bear

Notes: Another typical heel squash. Was interesting to see Koloff drop his finisher from the middle rope rather than the top rope, then it all makes sense in the end. I really liked the standing Figure Four, and Koloff applied it in a very believable way. I honestly would have liked to seen Koloff use this more often, or for another wrestle to have adapted this hold.[spacer height=”20px”]

MATCH #4: DINO BRAVO VS. B.B. COLEMAN

Billy Coleman is a pretty well known worker in the Ohio / Michigan / West Virginia / Pennsylvania region during the 1970s and 1980s. He works a wild style at times. A pretty good hand with decent size that didn’t make a bad heel on the Indy shows. He also did lots of job work for the WWF (as seen here). Bravo shows solid mat skills and he keeps Coleman on the mat early on. Coleman finally finds himself in control as he works over and chokes Dino against the ropes. Bravo has enough and blocks a right hand before driving Coleman face first into the mat. Dino delivers the big dropkick and the airplane spin ends it in 5:18.

Winner is Dino Bravo

Notes: A pretty quick by-the-numbers baby face squash. Dino showed some nice moves on the mat. Match honestly felt shorter than it was. Just a squash.[spacer height=”20px”]

MATCH #5: WWF TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS THE YUKON LUMBERJACKS (w/ALBANO) VS. LARRY ZBYSZKO & SPECIAL DELIVERY JONES

Alas, Larry has lost his mustache and it doesn’t appear it is coming back. So long to the polish caterpillar.

This is non-title I’d imagine. Zbyszko and Lumberjack Eric (Scott Irwin) will start. Eric eventually gets a single leg on Zbyszko and takes Larry down. The Lumberjacks work over Zbyszko’s leg for a bit before Jones gets a tag. SD comes in and unloads on Lumberjack Pierre, but Pierre soon cuts him off and the Lumberjacks now work over Jones.

SD gets a tag back to Zbyszko, and the two faces take turns making quick tags, grinding a headlock on Pierre. Jones allows Eric to tag in, but SD reverses an Irish whip and Eric takes a flying chest bump into the turnbuckles. Nice. Eric lands near the heel corner and he tags back to Pierre.

Jones whips Pierre into the corner next. SD charges in but Pierre moves and Jones crashes into the buckle. Pierre quickly covers and gets the pin in 5:14.

Winners are The Lumberjacks

Notes: Well that was a shitty finish. This was really a nothing match. I generally enjoy Zbyszko’s work from this period, and I really was impressed by the Lumberjacks (especially Scott Irwin) in some of their earlier matches in 1978, but this match really didn’t do anybody any favors. Zbyszko didn’t really get positioned to do much of anything, the Lumberjacks were losing their luster though they were still solid heels and bumpers, and SD was SD. The Lumberjacks would go on to lose the Tag Team Titles to Zbyszko and Garea at the next set of Championship Wrestling tapings. So maybe Larry was just biding his time and feeling out the Lumberjacks. Perhaps Larry was using this match to take notes. First note, DO NOT USE SD JONES AS YOUR PARTNER. Hell, Jones once jobbed to a COIN FLIP against Tony Atlas for shits sake. [spacer height=”20px”]

Closing Thoughts: The shows feel a little repetitive lately. Mostly the same few guys getting the rub. It was a mixed bag as we go from someone like Ivan Koloff who makes even the simplest squash enjoyable, to a “feature match” with Garea vs. Luke Graham which was less than stellar. While not a good wrestling match, Maivia working to get heel heat here was a no-brainer in booking 101. He went in there and got himself over as a heel, and again while not the greatest promo, his promo served a purpose which made it more interesting and developed the Backlund vs. Maivia matches that would main event for the next couple of months.

As we start to close in on the end of 1978 things are slowly starting to change. We’ll see a lot of these names disappear with a new roster of talent coming in. Business is picking up here on the Retro Rasslin’ Review!