WWWF All Star Wrestling (12.31.1977) Review

-Originally aired December 31, 1977.

-Your host is Vince McMahon.

-We get a public service announcement from Larry Zbyszko, and this company is kayfabing so hard that we apparently can’t even have a script for a public service announcement. Watching Larry try to speak off-the-cuff about juvenile diabetes is excruciating.

TONY GAREA vs. “Pretty Boy” LARRY SHARPE
-Armdrag by Garea. They jockey for position for a bit until Tony locks on a side headlock. Referee forces the break due to whatever. Test of strength leads to a sweet spot where Garea cartwheels in the hold to flip Sharpe over. Sharpe gets him down to the mat and works a hammerlock, but Garea flips himself on top for a pinning combo even as he’s still in the hammerlock. Tony gets to his feet and hiptosses free, going back to the side headlock, and Sharpe just cannot shake the hold.

-Garea misses a corner charge and appears to injure his shoulder on impact, so Sharpe has his target and he wrings and winds the arm over and over. Garea comes back and goes to the side headlock again. Sharpe breaks out and hiptosses him, but an attempted elbow misses and Garea cracks him with a series of punches and gets two from a sunset flip. Garea keeps punching him down for another two. They keep battling it out until the bell abruptly sounds for the ten-minute time limit, and the referee calls it for Garea! Sharpe is outraged at this abuse of a Get Out of Booking an Actual Finish Card, so he attacks Garea after the bell. Kind of funny as the referee just backs off and lets him beat Garea up, until Garea finally fights back and dropkicks him out to the floor. Match was fine but very very much a ’70s WWWF match.

BOB BACKLUND vs. TERRY YORK
-Backlund keeps trying holds but York keeps getting to the ropes, and Vince indicates that this is York’s whole deal in the ring, he just goes to the ropes whenever he can, “which is legal, but not very sportsmanlike.” Yes, using the rules of a sport to your benefit in that sport–what a shitgibbon.

-York starts laying in forearms and knee shots. Backlund fights back, whipping him hard into the corner and clamping on a wristlock. Backdrop by Backlund, and the atomic drop finishes. You could tell from Vince’s commentary that something big was on the horizon here.

-Vince McMahon talks to Fred Blassie, Mr. Fuji, and Professor Tanaka, and the whole promo has the vibe of all four guys playing a rib on each other. Vince asks Blassie about the champs’ diet, and Blassie talks about how he’s created a “secret vitamin formula” not available to the public–and Tanaka just interrupts him and says “It’s ginseng.” Blassie looks totally thrown off by that and tries to move past that, but Vince won’t move on until Blassie has addressed this claim that his secret formula is just store-bought ginseng, and Blassie looks like he’s trying not to laugh as he clarifies that he and Fuji TELL Tanaka it’s ginseng so the secret won’t get out. Okay, ONCE in a while, it’s a little fun to watch the guys screw around like this.

MIL MASCARAS vs. FRANK WILLIAMS
-Odd start to the match, as Blassie apparently just stays at ringside to watch, but Captain Lou Albano rushes out, whispers something in his ear, and they both hurry back to the locker room.

-Mascaras works the leg and then stretches the arms out for a spell until Williams makes the ropes. Williams goes for a corner charge and crashes, and Mascaras finishes quickly with a bodypress off the top.

KEN PATERA (with Captain Lou Albano) vs. PETE AUSTIN
-Patera makes it a point to stop on his way to the ring and yell “You’re overpaid!” at Vince.

-Forearms and a big slam by Patera. Vince actually seems to be talking up the jobber a bit, but it appears that he left the business completely in 1979 and never really did anything. Bearhug by Patera ends it.

DOMINIC DENUCCI vs. DYNAMITE JACK EVANS
-Dynamite attacks before the bell and chokes him out. Dominic fights back and knocks Evans to the floor. Back in, DeNucci just dominates and gets Evans caught in a side headlock. DeNucci hits the ropes and gets backdropped, but Evans misses a legdrop on the follow-through, so both men are hurt.

-Kneelift by Dominic. He follows that with a shoulderblock, but Evans pulls the referee in the way to absorb the blow, and the referee gives DeNucci the win by DQ.

6.0

The final score: review Average

The 411

It was...fine.