Dark Pegasus Video Review: Madison Square Garden (12.28.82)

Madison Square Garden (12/28/82) by J.D. Dunn Twitter.com/jddunn411 Brightkite.com/jddunn411 Facebook.com/jddunn411 December 28, 1982 Live from New York City, N.Y.. Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Gorilla Monsoon. Opening Match: S.D. Jones vs. Eddie Gilbert. Gilbert would go on to fame as a manager/wrestler/booker in several promotions, but here he’s just an underneath guy trying to make a good showing. And he does! Gilbert controls most of a scientific battle with Jones. They do get chippy with one another at points, but both guys are babyfaces so it doesn’t last long. Even Gorilla is surprised at how much offense Gilbert gets. S.D. comes back with power moves and headbutts. He’s kind of like a poor man’s JYD in there. He hits a straight headbutt to put Gilbert out, but time expires at 13:44 (of an alleged 20:00) to give Gilbert the moral victory. It started out okay but settled into restholds and boring power moves. *1/2 Tony Garea vs. Johnny Rodz. Rodz is “unpredictable,” according to his nickname. Rodz catches Garea in a charge early and controls. Rodz is awkward in the ring, but in a way that looks realistic. Think Bad News Brown. Garea avoids a charge this time and goes to work on Rodz’s arm. Rodz charges again, but Garea sunset flips him for the pin at 9:04. Well, that charge was hardly “unpredictable.” Weird “technical guy vs. unorthodox guy” match. Kind of like Bryan Danielson vs. The Berzerker or something. *1/4 Ivan Putski vs. Buddy Rose. Putski stomps on Rose’s “$3,000 robe.” Rose is positively svelte in comparison to his later career. At least this match has some personality to it. Rose is a heat magnet, pissing off the crowd with his body language. The crowd, of course, loves Putski. Rose runs a lot and gets beat up a lot, much to the crowd’s delight. Finally, he takes a breather and sneaks in a shot to the throat with a foreign object. Rose chokes him against the ropes, but Putski gets mad and Fargos up (this was pre-Hogan Era WWF, after all). Rose gets knocked to the apron, so Putski follows him and beats him to a pulp. But then, disaster strikes as Putski knocks Rose through the ropes at a count of eight and gets counted out himself at 7:33. Oh, the fickle hand of fate. They put together a nice store with great personality to make up for other obvious limitations. ** Intercontinental Title: Pedro Morales vs. Don Muraco (w/Captain Lou Albano). This is toward the end of the long-standing feud between the two as they traded the title over the course of two years. Albano gets tossed early. Pedro suckers Muraco into missing an elbow. Btw, what in the hell does Gorilla Monsoon mean when he calls that a “double-cross?” He keeps using that word. I do not think it means what he thinks it means. Pedro grabs a hammerlock, so Muraco goes low with a mulekick. Now that’s a heel! A swinging neckbreaker gets two for Muraco. A suplex gets two more, and Muraco tosses Pedro to the floor for poops and giggles. Apparently, he has enough poops and a fair amount of giggles because he suplexes Morales back into the ring and dropkicks him back to the floor. Muraco follows him out and beats him down into a couple of empty chairs. “Standing Room Only” my ass. Pedro gets pissed and rakes Muraco in the face. He’s fired up now! Muraco goes up top but gets crotched. Hilarious ending as Pedro accidentally knocks the ref down, so when the ref tries to intervene, Muraco blatantly kicks him back down for the DDQ at 14:24. This would set up a rematch a month later where Muraco won the title back. Decent brawl, but it had a number of dead spots. ** Jose Estrada vs. Salvatore Bellomo. Estrada would go on to semi-fame as a Conquistador. He heels it up here, suckerpunching Bellomo in lieu of a handshake. Estrada looks like the bastard child of the Iron Sheik and Superstar Billy Graham. Bellomo controls with a headlock and an armbar for a while. He jumps up for mounted punches… but then only hits two. No. It’s supposed to be ten, dude! He tries on the opposite side and botches… something. No idea what he was going for there. It looked like a top-rope Broncobuster. Estrada reverses a whip to the opposite corner but gets crunched under a crossbody at 7:45 (of 8:46). Just horrible. DUD WWF Heavyweight Title, Lumberjack: Bob Backlund (w/Arnold Skaaland) vs. Billy Graham (w/The Grand Wizard). These two had a knockdown-dragout a few months earlier that ended with both guys brawling to a draw. That led to Swede Hanson being named the referee for this match. That becomes important as Vince repeatedly questions Swede’s quick count (which is quite fast by normal ref standards) when Graham covers. Graham seems content to toss Backlund to the floor to let the heels have their way with him. When Backlund makes his comeback, Graham pulls Swede in the way of a charge – oh, but Swede is a big guy, so he’s barely fazed. Graham gets caught in the CFCW, and after a long period of Vince yelling for Swede to ring the bell, Swede signals the submission at 11:05. Not what you’d call a good match, but it had tons of heat. Graham was horribly immobile at this point **1/4 After the match, Graham and Swede get into a fistfight over Swede’s refereeing. Fabulous Moolah & Wendy Richter vs. Elizabeth Chase & Princess Victoria. This is a far cry from the Divas of today, but they’re still the filler comedy act. Nice to see some things never change. The ref gets caught up in a scrum on more than one occasion. Must be his birthday. Or maybe he pissed someone off. It’s hard to know if the WWF thought that was a reward or not back in the day. Eventually, Princess Victoria gets the wind knocked out of her, and Moolah gets the pin at 9:08. Flashes of competence, but that’s about it. Moolah and Richter would wind up feuding a few years later. *1/4 Jimmy Snuka vs. Ray Stevens (w/Freddie Blassie & Lou Albano). Snuka goes to the back and brings out Buddy Rogers to neutralize Stevens’ managers. The story here is that Snuka came in as a heel managed by Albano, but Rogers pointed out to him that Albano was stealing his money. Snuka went nuts and fired his manager only to be jumped by Stevens and his manager Freddie Blassie. Jimmy had a lot of huge moments in the early 1980s now that I think about it. The fans LOVE Snuka, and the only thing holding him back from being the World Champion was his mic skills. Stevens shows what a great bumper he is in the loss. Snuka is hellbent on revenge, so he beats Stevens from pillar to post and whips him so hard into the corner that Stevens falls to the floor where he gets counted out at 6:54. A small measure of revenge for Snuka, and it was fun to watch him destroy Stevens. **1/4 Rocky Johnson vs. The Black Demon. Ah yes, the Rock’s daddy. It’s eerie how similar Rocky Johnson and Rocky Maivia wrestle in the ring, and it just goes to show you timing is everything because if audiences had been receptive to Rocky Maivia in 1997, we’d never have “The Rock.” Johnson flusters the Demon (Don Serrano) with his wild, energetic offense. Demon eventually settles things down with a chinlock and some restholds, but Rocky fires back with three dropkicks and a sunset flip for the win at 5:30. Gorilla: “I don’t care who you are. You’re not going to kick out of three dropkicks and a sunset flip.” Yes, the times have changed, indeed. *3/4

The 411: Kind of a middling card here for the time. Most of the usual guys (Snuka, Backlund, Rocky Johnson) deliver decent performances, and the crowd provided a lot of heat, but the card is just a hodgepodge of brawls. Thumbs down.
Final Score:  4.5   [ Poor ]