WWWF Championship Wrestling - April 23, 1977WWWF @ Philadelphia, PA - Unknown Arena - April 12, 1977
Commentary: Vince McMahon Jr. and Gorilla Monsoon (portion of the Main Event) Ring Announcer: Howard Finkel A very young Vince McMahon Jr. opens this edition of the WORLD WIDE WRESTLING FEDERATION'S Championship Wrestling! I do have a soft spot for young Vince Jr.'s campy wrestling announcing. Doing the ring announcing is HOWARD FINKEL! JOY! The Fink is looking rather young himself. It is 1977, after all. So far, nothing but GOOD TIMES! Lets go to the ring! "HIGH CHIEF" PETER MAIVIA making his WWWF debut here tonight in Philadelphia. Obviously, the relative to one of the greatest Superstars of all time.... ROCKY JOHNSON! Ahhhhh, just kidding. I'm of course talking about THE ROCK. Both McMahon and Finkel botched the pronunciation of Maivia. They were pronouncing it as "MI-vEE-'YUH". Botchamania-worthy, right there. The High Chief picked up the victory in about five minutes with some sort of Boston Crab-like submission hold. I looked it up, and apparently it's called the SAMOAN STUMP PULLER. I am not trying to be funny. Next up, we have fucking LARRY ZBYSZCO, and I'm not making this up, his tag-team partner..... TONY FUCKING GAREA! What a team for the ages this could have been. Their opponents being JOHNNY RODZ, which is rad, and his partner TOR KAMATA. I have never heard of Kamata until today. This really wasn't much of a match. Team Charisma of Zbyszko and Garea pinned Rodz when Kamata "accidentally" chopped his partner in the throat, TWICE. I don't like this Kamata guy; BOOOOOO. Post-match, Kamata did an interview with Vince. Apparently Tor had a match with WWWF Champion Bob Backlund recently, but came out on the losing end. Vince informed us that Backlund has granted Kamata a rematch. Kamata then began to speak..... stuff. I have NO unearthly idea what kind of gibberish he was speaking, but somehow Vince did. McMahon relayed that Kamata will only accept Backlund's rematch offer, if the contest is held under TEXAS DEATHMATCH RULES! OK, now I am extremely happy. The Midget Attraction match is up next! WOOO! We've got THE HAITI KID and HILLBILLY PETE taking on LITTLE JOHN and the self-proclaimed "SIX BILLION DOLLAR KID" BILLY THE KID. Really short match... see what I did there? Some cool little action in this match.... see, I did it again. Anyway, enough with my poor attempt at humor. The coolest spot in the match came when the referee got caught up in the action, and ended up getting sunset-flipped. That was awesome. The finish came when Hillbilly Pete put the six billion dollar kid in an Airplane Spin, with both Pete and The Kid getting the DOUBLE pin-fall victory for the win. "Boy, these midget wrestlers are tough!" - Vince McMahon. Tremendous. "This contest is set for one fall with a 10 minute time limit" - The Fink. PETE AUSTIN is from my neck of the woods, Londondary, NH. He'll be taking on the man "recognized as the strongest human being in the World today" as per Vince Jr., KEN PETERA with his manager, the late, great CAPTAIN LOU ALBANO! Patera firmly in control here in the opening moments. Vince is talking about Patera representing the US in the Olympics, however, he has since been corrupted by the evil mind of Cpt. Lou! Patera continues to control Austin, whom is getting in zero offense. A big scoop slam and a back breaker by Patera. Goes for the cover, but pulls him up at 2. He wants to make this man submit, and does so with the bearhug at four minutes and nineteen seconds. IVAN PUTSKI now taking on JoJo ANDREWS! "This should be some action", says McMahon... I don't count on it. Side headlock applied by the Polish Hammer. Whipped to the ropes, but takes JoJo down with a BIG shoulder block. Takes him down with a side headlock takeover. JoJo gains some control with a few pokes to the face, but Ivan - "says what's good for me, is good for you" says McMahon, as he regains control. Putski is going to work on JoJo with rights and lefts. Irish whip into THE POLISH HAMMER! LEG DROP! Pin fall victory for THE HAMMER! And tonight's main event is former WWWF Champion Stan 'THE MAN' Stasiak and his partner, current European Wrestling Champion according to Finkel, Baron Von Raschke, with their manager's Freddie Blassie and the Grand Wizard. Their opponents are Special Delivery Jones and Johnny Rivera. I think I see where this one is going.... Not much of a match, really. Gorilla Monsoon joins Vince on commentary! Good times! Vince and Monsoon talk about the Backlund/Kamata Texas Deathmatch. Monsoon reveals that the match has been signed and will air on Championship Wrestling for the first time ever on TV next week. The rules of the WWWF Texas Deathmatch is no holds barred, no time limit, no DQ. The only way to win is via pin fall of submission. Gorilla then leaves the booth. Jones blocked Stan's heart punch, but gets put in a bearhug for his troubles. Headbut by Jones, but Stasiak falls to his corner for the tag. Von Raschke in and puts Special Delivery in another bearhug. Tag into Stan "The Man". He nails SD with the heart punch for the 1, the 2 and the 3. Vince notes that this team is currently undefeated here on Championship Wrestling. CREDIT ROLL! AN INTERMEDIA PRODUCTION! Vince plugs next weeks TV with the Texas Deathmatch between Bob Backlund and Tor Kamata! MY THOUGHTS: Not too much to say. Very interesting to see a TV show from 1977. Boy oh boy have times changed. If I were around in '77, and I had the choice between this or and episode of Memphis..... I think my choice would be rather obvious. Fun 44 minutes, though! |