WWWF All-Star Wrestling Review 11-18-78

In case you didn’t know, Ernie Ladd Promos Rule!!!

WWWF ALL-STAR WRESTLING 11-18-78

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

This show is incomplete and appears to be missing two segments.

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

Joe McHugh does the intro routine and we’re ready to go.

MATCH #1: LARRY ZBYSZKO VS. BOB COLTER

[spacer height=”20px”]Referee is Dick Woehrle. I don’t know a whole lot about Colter, other than he was pretty big and worked under a mask in a group called the Black Avengers in Angelo Poffo’s ICW. I also got this tidbit from the ICW Poffo Wrestling fan website. This bit of info comes from the late Steve Cooper, who we will also see on this episode. Cooper mentioned about Colter “Bob Colter was a Vietnam Veteran, a Green Beret, and a former football player at ole Miss”. Here’s a pic of Colter in the Black Avenger costume.

He is quite the big boy and moves around pretty well, though sometimes he seems a little clumsy. Zbyszko is very crisp and deliberate, landing a nice fireman’s takeover into an armbar. Some miscommunication sees Larry have to force Colter into a head scissors. Colter with a HEAD STAND and he flips his way out of the hold. Bruno and Vince are impressed with Colter’s size, but Larry is the one dominating the match. Colter actually takes over and grabs a headlock on Larry. Zbyszko counters into a back suplex and a bridge that gets him a 2 count. Colter gets up and biels Larry out of the corner, but Zbyszko gets back on top and ties big Bob up.

Colter AGAIN gets to make a comeback. A hiptoss on Larry and Bob works Zbyszko over in the corner. By this point Bruno and Vince start pointing out Colter’s flaws. Bruno craps on Colter’s inability to follow up on moves and points out that he isn’t using his size and strength. Larry with a hiptoss which Colter takes very sloppy, almost dragging Zbyszko down with him. Larry finishes it off with his rolling crucifix for the win in 4:39.

Winner is Larry Z.

Notes: Colter was clearly green as he seemed to have bits of ability but could be clumsy or off balance at times when executing or taking moves here. Sloppy in parts but still a fun squash with Larry letting the bigger Colter get some shots in.[spacer height=”20px”]

MATCH #2: CRUSHER BLACKWELL (w/THE GRAND WIZARD) VS. STEVE COOPER & FIREBALL ROBINSON

I touched on both Cooper and Fireball’s wrestling background in the last All-Star Review from 11-11-1978. This is a handicap match if you couldn’t tell. Blackwell crushes both men in the corner together, and then rushes in and smashes Cooper with a big Avalanche splash in the corner. Crusher tosses Fireball outside for a nasty bump and then works over Cooper in the ring. With both men back inside Blackwell continues to destroy both opponents. Nothing fancy from Crusher this week as he just hammers both guys all around the ring.

Blackwell with a nice looking one armed bodyslam on Fireball. Powerslam drives Cooper into the mat. Crusher then slams Robinson next the Cooper. Blackwell drops a big leg onto both guys, sort of, and gets the easy win.

Winner is Crusher Blackwell

Notes: A basic squash. Blackwell looked good but did less in the way of impressive moves here as he just mauled both guys for most of the match. I did like the corner splash and the one handed slam. Blackwell continues to be an asset as a heel here. It’s a shame that he got cold feet in 1984 and quit the WWF before he even started. [spacer height=”20px”]

RINGSIDE INTERVIEW WITH CRUSHER BLACKWELL & THE GRAND WIZARD

Vince McMahon asks Wiz if he gets his jollies from Blackwell lifting him up and carrying him. WOW. Wiz plays along, then says 2 men weren’t enough for Blackwell, Crusher needs 3 or 4 men for a real workout. Blackwell says he’s sick of the lack of competition, he wants Backlund, he wants Bravo. Blackwell asks Vince to get in the ring. Now THAT I would have loved to seen.

Blackwell mentions he beat a top star in 9 seconds, Vince concurs but says he attacked the opponent from behind. They never mention who Blackwell is referring to, but they’re talking about Crusher destroying Tony Garea at the Spectrum back in October. Didn’t Bundy set that bogus 9 second record 7 years later?

Blackwell challenges ANYONE to get in the ring and bodyslam him. He will give $5,000 to ANYONE that can slam him! Wizard even challenges Bruno Sammartino to come and try and slam Blackwell. Crusher jumps in the ring and looks for challengers, but nobody responds before we go to commercial.[spacer height=”20px”]

MATCH #3: “THE KING OF WRESTLING” ERNIE LADD (w/THE GRAND WIZARD) VS. FRED MARZINO

This match was originally taped back on August 29th and aired on the September 9th episode of Championship Wrestling from the Philadelphia Arena. Ring announcer is Gary Capetta here. Reason for this is Ladd wasn’t in the territory full time at this point but he was still coming in to work the big MSG cards and so they needed to keep his face fresh on TV. This was during the period where Ladd was working the “King” gimmick. Ladd with a hammerlock takeover early on, which is impressive for anyone his size. Off topic: The Arena floor looks like it could use a new coat of paint… 20 years ago. Ladd pitches Marzino to the floor for the fun of it. Once back in the ring, Ladd slams Marzino with ease and then hits him with a pair of thumbs to the throat. UUuuuuu-maga. Ladd plants the BIG BOOT and the legdrop finishes it in 3:00.

Winner is the Big Cat

Notes: Short and sweet, nothing to write about.

RINGSIDE INTERVIEW WITH ERNIE LADD & THE GRAND WIZARD

Ladd says the Wiz has brought him in to go after the World Champion Bob Backlund. Ladd says he hears that Backlund is soft and he’s coming to “do the job”. Ladd plans to be the next WWF World Champion. If only…

I love Ladd’s promos with Vince, he rides Vince so hard it’s hilarious. “A-YACK YACK YACK”. This is a quick promo and this is where the WWE Network version of the show ends.

As I mentioned at the start of this episode, it’s incomplete and missing the final two segments of the show.

Missing from this episode are…

* Ivan Koloff over Frankie Williams (4:58)

* And yet another TV 6-man tag with Jay Strongbow, Dino Bravo & Dominic DeNucci over Moose Monroe, Baron Mikel Scicluna, and Crazy Luke Graham (Bravo pins Monroe, 11:20)

Closing Thoughts: Out of all of the All-Star episodes I have reviewed thus far, this is only the second episode that is missing a segment or two. I’m sure the Koloff match was what we’d expect, but it’s always a bummer to miss out on a feature match like the 6-man tag, even if it likely wasn’t very good. And judging by the heel team alone, it was probably a rough 11 minutes to sit through, but still.

Based on what we DID see, everything accomplished what it needed to. Blackwell continues to dominate and has stepped it up with the proposed $5,000 Bodyslam challenge. Ladd does little in the ring, but his promos are always a thing of beauty… and hilarity. I’m also a big wrestling historian buff so I mark out for video footage of the more obscure wrestlers who competed in years gone by, so I was pleased to get this rare look at Bob Colter. With two segments missing, this episode only runs about 26 minutes or so.

On the next edition of the Retro Rasslin’ Review it’s EVIL Peter Maivia, Mike Paidousis proves to be an ass, and SD Jones gets a win… Seriously!