WWWF All Star Wrestling (3.20.1976) Review

-Originally aired March 20, 1976.

-Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Antonino Rocca. Watching these two interact is so fascinating. Vince is clearly tolerating Rocca and recognizes how bad he is at this job, but Vince isn’t the boss yet so he’s stuck with the guy. So instead he settles for just screwing with Rocca by asking him about his haircut out of nowhere, and Rocca begins rambling about what a great match it should be before he realizes that’s not what Vince asked him.

THE EXECUTIONERS (with Captain Lou Albano) vs. PAT BARRETT & JOHNNY RIVERA
-The Executioners are Killer Kowalski and Big John Studd under masks. #1, the one who’s unmistakably Studd, backs Barrett into the ropes, but Barrett comes back swinging and manages to apply a side headlock. Barrett gives him a right and #1 hurries out of the ring for a breather. Weird to see Studd showing a little bit of speed and agility.

-#2 helps with a sneak attack and double-team Barrett to turn the tide. Albano offers some help, choking Barrett out over the ropes, but Barrett gets good & mad from that and starts fighting both Executioners. Rivera tags in and the jobbers double-team, Irish whipping #1 into his own corner, allowing him to make the tag. Great strategy, boys.

-Executioners work the arm while Captain Lou storms over to the commentary table and goes on a weird tangent about Irish people. Executioners gang up on Rivera and heave him to the floor, where Albano takes more free shots. Back in, Executioners take turns doing giant swings on Rivera. Knee from the top rope gets the win for the Executioners, although Vince is pretty sure the illegal man got the pin. Jobbers got to shine a little bit and it was a decent squash.

JOHNNY RODZ vs. FRANK WILLIAMS
-Williams’ entire legacy in wrestling would actually be his last appearance in the business in 1984, when Roddy Piper kicked his ass on “Piper’s Pit” and Williams remained seated for the entire beating. In an odd coincidence, Rodz would actually help launch Piper’s career around this time with an angle on the west coast where he thoroughly battered jobber Piper, and Piper showed up the next week so impressed by the beating that he appointed himself Rodz’s manager.

-Rodz beats down Williams with repeated shots from the second rope. Williams fights back and they trade punches, with Williams getting the upper hand. Williams is slow to capitalize, so Williams just boots him away and drops a leg. Awkward moment as Vince declares that the finish, but the referee screws everything up by doing his job and pointing out that Williams has one foot out of the ring.

-So Rodz just keeps dishing out punishment, but Williams punches back and this match keeps going, which is weird because Vince clearly thought we were done after the leg drop. Williams rams Rodz into the turnbuckles. Rodz fights back and slams him, dropping the leg again, and NOW we’re done.

-Louis “Milque” Cerdan and Tony “Toast” Parisi are here to cut a promo about taking on all comers and defending their Tag Team Titles, minutes after we saw the debut of a new tag team managed by Captain Lou Albano. This was another issue that did shockingly little harm to this company–the old WWWF had an irritatingly predictable tag team division.

SKANDAR AKBAR (with Freddy Blassie) vs. PETE SANCHEZ
-Sanchez comes out swinging but Akbar manages to dump him on the floor and Blassie takes cheap shots, rubbing something in his eye. He’s just blatantly doing it in full view of the referee and the referee is like “Hey now, be nice” and allowing the match to keep going.

-Sanchez still has some fight in him, punching Akbar on his way back into the ring and dropkicking him. Akbar blocks a backdrop with a boot and atomic drops him on top of the top rope, and the referee’s so appalled by that, he calls for the bell and gives Sanchez the win by DQ.

CRUSHER BLACKWELL (with Freddy Blassie) vs. KEVIN SULLIVAN
-We get backstory for Blackwell this week, with Vince telling us that Blackwell is a former preacher who, according to Blassie, has “seen the light.”

-Blackwell applies a side headlock and backs Sullivan into the corner, ramming him repeatedly with fatness. But suddenly, a team of policemen show up at ringside and force Blassie to leave ringside because of his shenanigans in the last match, so now Blackwell’s out there without a manager.

-And with Blassie gone, Sullivan just begins kicking the crap out of Blackwell, taking him off his feet even, and punching and chopping him repeatedly to get a two-count. Blackwell fights back and drops a big leg on Sullivan.

-Sullivan takes everything Blackwell is dishing out and manages to snapmare the big guy for another two-count. Blackwell, showing signs of frustration, throws a big forearm and declares that NOW he’s doing to finish this. Chokehold by Blackwell, but Sullivan is still in it and whips him from corner to corner. You would never, ever see a big guy work a match like this in the ’80s, especially not against a jobber.

-They trade more punches when the bell abruptly sounds and Sullivan biels him across the ring! So we get the official verdict. The ten-minute time limit expired, and it’s not a draw, the referee gives the win to Sullivan! Sullivan was firmly a jobber at this point in his career, and it’s not even like Blackwell is on his way out of the territory; he’s around for a few more months. The only way I can read this is “Blackwell pissed off somebody good.” Good match though.

BOBO BRAZIL vs. BUGSY MCGRAW (with The Grand Wizard and Ernie Ladd)
-And now suddenly the same group of cops show up and hassle Ernie Ladd, but Ernie ain’t budging and the cops just kind of give up after a while.

-Bobo gets the advantage early, but Bugsy hammers away and charges. Bobo whips him back and forth, and the coco butt looks to finish, but Ladd storms into the ring and attacks, which brings out the Cerdan, Parisi, and Billy Whitewolf to clear the ring.

6.6

The final score: review Average

The 411

This didn't suck!!!