Donnie watches WWWWF 1979

[BigVanDonnie]

WWWWF WORLD CHAMPION: BOB BACKLUND- Since 20/2/78
WWWWF WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS: THE VALIANT BROTHERS-Since 6/3/79
WWWF NORTH AMERICAN HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION: TED DIBIASE-Since-13/2/79

WWWWF-All Star Wrestling
June 2nd, 1979
Hamburg, Pennsylvania.

Vince and Bruno run down the card and they make our hearts full when they announce Tito vs Rodz.

Match#1 Ted DiBiase vs Jose Estrada'
Another really solid showing from Ted as he improves as a babyface as the weeks go one, and Jose is great as always as a flashy heel. Ted wins with a powerslam, although the refs fucks it up and only counts 2, but they go with it
**

Match#2 The Great Hussein w/Classy Freddie Blassie vs Steve King
BACKS AND ASSES ARE BROKEN OLD COUNTRY STYLE.
**

At ringside, the Vaillant's and Lou cut another INSANE promo that i can do justice to. Just know that war is coming for Paul Jones and anyone who doesn't wear a rubber band in their beard.

Match#3 Steve Travis vs Mr X
Hell yeah. Another awesome showing from the rookie of the year. I did a bit of research and it turns out he was in a car crash in 84 because he was fucked up on drugs and it ended his career. Sad, sad stuff, and another tragic wrestling story that will last forever. Sunset flip out of the corner does it
**

Match#4 Tito Santana vs Johnny Rodz
DREAM MATCH!!!! Fired up babyface vs sneaky shithead is the best thing in the world, and these two kill it for 8 minutes. Awesome fight on the mat where Johnny sits on the leg so Tito can't kick him off when he targets the arm!!! great work on that and Tito sells wonderfully. Johnny get a ton of time in control and it's sooo fucking good. Lots of nasty work on the arm in between throwing punches and kicks and just being a shithead. Tito's attempted comeback rule and the eventual final one is pure fire. Finishing run rules and really escalated it well as they fight over it, Tito gets the win with a flash Thez Press
***

Post match, Rodz tries to attack, but Tito drives him off. GIVE ME MORE, VINCE.

At ringside, Bruno interviews Tito. Another classic babyface promo from our hero.

Match#5 The Valliant Brothers w/Capt Lou Albano vs DeNucci & Calhoun
Not good at all. Not that's a shock given how terrible everyone in this is, but you could have had Rodz/Tito in this spot, you know. Brothers win with a move.
1/2*

 

[bloody sundae]

i'm here for the greg valentine praise & his dive bomb strikes

 

[BigVanDonnie]

WWWWF WORLD CHAMPION: BOB BACKLUND- Since 20/2/78
WWWWF WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS: THE VALIANT BROTHERS-Since 6/3/79
WWWF NORTH AMERICAN HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION: TED DIBIASE-Since-13/2/79

WWWWF-All Star Wrestling
June 23, 1979
Hamburg, Pennsylvania

Once again, a few weeks are missing. The 80's can't come quick enough, friends.

Match#1 Chief Jay Strongbow vs Jojo Andrews
Oh, sweet Jesus. 6 fucking minutes of terrible shit from a dude named Luke


X-Pac telling stories is far more interesting than this shit

Post match, Bruno interviews him and the world gets worse.

Match#2 Valliant Brothers vs King & Rodriguez
Hell no
Twisting your ankle

Match#3 Ted DiBiase vs Ron Lee
Another fun outing from baby Teddy. Elbow to the head does it
**

Match#4 Nikolai Volkoff w/Classy Freddie Blassie vs SD Jones
Ewwwwwwwwwww. What a terrible episode this is
1/2*

Match#5 Tito Santana vs Jose Estrada
Tito saves the day with another awesome showing of how he might be the best babyface of them all. Crossbody does it
**

 

[bloody sundae]

this is the era when it was always sus to have the tiny latino jobbers all the time & no amount of Tito or Pedro would make that ok

 

[Keith]

This is a fun idea. Will have to check some of these out myself.

 

[GARBAGE]

I had no idea Tito Santana was there in 1979 squashing dudes, sounds rad. DiBiase vs. Rodd sounds pretty hot too.

If it aired on their weekly tv, you should almost be up to Valentine vs. Strongbow aka maybe the best carry job I've seen. Strongbow's hulk up in it is lmaooo.

 

[Chris]

Match#5 Ivan Putski vs Pole & Cage
Oh, fuck off.

 

[BigVanDonnie]

thank you so much to everyone for the responses. I'm going to keep going and hopefully everyone finds something cool, or a new wrestler they like. just don't let it be Putski or Strongbow lmao

 

[GARBAGE]

......was someone's ring name actually just "Pole"? Please say yes I want this to be true more than anything.


Edit - just noticed you wrote about a Valentine vs. Strongbow already. Pretty sure I've not seen that one though, the match I meant is I think on 7/21.

 

[BigVanDonnie]

His last name is Pole. Think his first was Mark or Mike, not sure which.

 

[bloody sundae]

Mark, or Mike maybe, Pole is my favorite jobber name now. Pat Rose has finally been topped

i should have chose my words more carefully

 

[BigVanDonnie]

WWWWF-MSG-JUNE 4TH
Before the match, Vince says Sheiky won a battle royal earlier in the show to get the match. This was done because there are at least 20 top contenders and they wanted to make it fair for everyone. Also, in a really cool touch they try to check the infamous boots to see if they're loaded, and Lou freaks out and they are too distracted by him to get a good look at them. He runs around the ring and towards Vince AND VINCE THROWS HIS DRINK IN HIS FACE AND THE REFS DRAG LOU TO THE BACK. HOLY SHIT, THE FIX IS IN.

Bob Backlund (c) w/Arnold Skaaland vs The Great Hussein Arab (WWWF World Championship)
They get to it right away with a killer fight to gain control as they fight for control of the others arms, and dive for takedowns on the legs. Just a wonderful battle between two master going at it in the best way. At one point Sheik catches Bob's leg and holds it as he kicks away the thigh of the other, so Bob has to keep trying to position his body lower to prevent it, and eventually he gets down low enough to use his amazing monkey flip to finally get him off. Bob keeps frustrating him and doing loads of cool shit to keep him off balance, but he gets caught when Sheiky grabs his hair and throws him down to the mat, He attacks the arm for a while and it's awesome as hell, as is Bob's attempts to fight out of it. Sheik pulls his arm back when Bob gets to his feet and they fight over it for a few minutes and it's sooo cool. Sheiky has to throw headbutts at the spine to stop him from swinging out, which is something i don't think I've seen. He keeps kicking the shit out of him and stopping Bob from getting out for at least 5 minutes, and it's a wonderful thing to watch. Bob finally gets out and goes for the neck and arm with a cool headscissors and some gross offence to it. In a cool reversal of the arm offence, Bob hold on to it for a few minutes and it's Sheik who has to fight out. Bob grinds him down for a while and it starts to drag and the criticism of Backlund being too dry and boring comes to life for a while. It's all great offence, but he has no fire, and it's hard to enjoy. It FINALLY breaks down and they beat the hell out of each other. Sheiky gets a chair and beats him over the head and the ref doesn't DQ him, so i guess this is No DQ???? Bob kicks out and gets the chair and goes insane with it, and Sheik no sells it and takes back over like nothing happened. WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING? He misses a headbutt and Bob hits him the Atomic Drop to win. Weird as hell final few, but the rest was killer.
***

 

[BigVanDonnie]

FUCK, i missed this as well. This is what happens when the footage jumps all over and i don't have all of it in order. My bad homies, I'll do better.

LIVE EVENT-JUNE 19TH.

Ted DiBiase (c) vs Pat Patterson w/The Grand Wizard (WWWF North American Championship)
Never knew these two met as Pat is well done by the time Ted shows back up in the 80's, but a super cool piece of history. Pat jumps him before the bell and a big ugly fight breaks out and it's awesome as hell. Loads of fire from the kid and Pat is great as a sneaky shitheel. Ted dropkicks him out of the ring and hurt his shoulder and he goes to work on it. Lots of fun offence from Ted,
and Pat's selling is great. Ted misses a shoulder block and flies through the ropes and lands on the concrete. Fucking hell, dude. He's obviously fucked up, so he tires to end it quick but Pat throws him head first intot he ref and he's dead. Pat pulls out a foreign object an KO's him to steal the title
**3/4

 

[BigVanDonnie]

WWWWF WORLD CHAMPION: BOB BACKLUND- Since 20/2/78
WWWWF WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS: THE VALIANT BROTHERS-Since 6/3/79
WWWF NORTH AMERICAN HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION: PAT PATTERSON-Since-19/6/79

WWWF All Star Wrestling
July 7th, 1979
Hamburg, Pennsylvania

TONIGHT. TRAVIS VS BULLDOG BROWER.

Match#1 Tito Santana vs Marc Pole
Fuck yeah. Awesome, awesome stuff from Tito for a few minutes, and Pole is a good enough body to die for him as a good Pole should. Tito wins a Legdrop this week. Insane to see that before Hogan gets here
**

Match#2 Pat Patterson w/The Grand Wizard vs Bill Berger
Berger goes on the attack and smacks Pat's head off the turnbuckle a dozen times, so Pat bails to cut off the momentum. He gets back in and beats the shit out of him in anger, and every time the kid attacks him, the beating gets worse and worse. Knee drop off the top does it
**

Post match, Bruno interviews them about "stealing" the title. Pat loses his mind and says Bruno is a bum and he's proud of the win, and all his friends in Cali are going to have a parade for him.

At ringside, Vince interviews our mortal enemy Strongbow about being a loser with a shitty leg. He can't even cut an angry promo about it and just rambles for a few minutes and Vince starts to get pissed off at him for not being angry and it's amazing to see. Had this been 82, i imagine he would have fired him.

Match#3 Bulldog Brower w/Capt Lou Albano vs Steve Travis
Fuck yes. Bulldog unloads another insane man beating on the young super rookie and its wonderful. Really come off like a madman just attacking some random guy on the streets and everyone is too scared to stop him. Punches, kicks and throwing him into things super hard. Lou gets on commentary and barks like a dog and keeps barking at ringside like a lunatic. Travis tries to fight back but the Bulldog can't be stopped and he keeps battering him until the time limit expires.
**3/4

Post match, they fight again and Travis runs him off. Need more of that

Match#4 Colombian Jaguar vs Jose Estrada
Jaguar is a dude in a jaguar mask and a leotard. No idea whose under the mask, but he's not very good. Jose beats the shit out of him and he unloads a lot of mean stuff and looks really good on offence. They replay CJ doing a headscissors takedown like he's the first, and i can tell you that's bullshit. Jose keeps beating him up and this thing is really weird because i don't know if CJ is meant to be a star or not, but he's got his ass kicked for the entire thing. He wins with a shitty sunset flip and i hate everything
3/4*

Match#5 Chief Jay Strongbow vs Mr X
No fucking chance

 

[GARBAGE]

Pole AND Bill Berger? Colombian Jaguar too!! WWE try desperately to create interesting ring names for NXT guys when they already peaked in the 70s.

Babyface DiBiase in New York is kind of surreal sounding, would very much like to go through it one day.