2/4/12
Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Gene Okerlund
Championship Wrestling
Butcher Vachon & Rene Goulet vs. Andre the Giant & Tito Santana
Apparently, Vachon & Goulet are replacing last week’s advertised opponents, Masked Superstar & Mr. Fuji. This is quite a big step down in star power. Goulet and Tito start off. Tito backs Goulet in the corner then takes him down with a pair of flying headscissors, then keeps the hold on Goulet for a minute. Goulet escapes but Tito goes back to the headscissors a few more times. Goulet whips Tito to the ropes and he gets kneed by Vachon from behind. Andre complains to the ref as the heels hit Tito with a double suplex. Vachon beats on Tito for a bit but he manages to tag Andre. Andre roughs up Vachon then tags Tito and launches him at Vachon, getting the pin (4:14).
Thoughts: Boring match. The advertised opponents of Mr. Fuji & Masked Superstar have much more star power than these two stiffs.
SD Jones vs. David Schultz w/Roddy Piper
Schultz gets backed into the corner and complains to the ref. He ducks outside and consoles with Piper. Jones chases after him but gets stomped when he re-enters the ring. Schultz gets a slam but Jones blocks a turnbuckle smash and follows with a headbutt. He charges at Schultz but eats boot. Schultz gets a slamthen follows that with an elbow drop from the middle rope for the win (2:45).
Thoughts: Squash to further establish Piper and anyone else associated with him as a major heel.
Bill Dixon & Ken Jugan vs. B. Brian Blair & Eddie Gilbert
Blair is already aligned with Gilbert, which isn’t a good thing as it means you are a step above the Ken Jugan’s of the world. The faces work the arm of Dixon Dixon
Thoughts: The team of Blair & Gilbert wasn’t that spectacular. Just a bunch of quick tags and wristlocks from the two.
Pancho Boy vs. Tiger Jackson
Tiger mocks Pancho and runs all around the ring. The voice over plggung the house shows mentions that Tito Santana had won the Intercontinental Title and that Magnificient Muraco will have his rematch in a Texas Death Match. Tiger ducks a chop and hits a dropkick. He takes Pancho down with a flying headscisor and finishes him off with a jumping elbow drop (1:38).
Thoughts: Nothing more than filler. I guess you could say that Jackson
Steve Lombardi vs. Iron Sheik w/Freddie Blassie
The camera shows all of the anti-Sheik signs in the crowd including “We Smell Camel Breath” and a young girl with her grandma holding up a “Camel Jockey” sign. Yes, this was all acceptable in 1984. Sheik further agitates the crowd by praying. Lombardi gets destroyed by chops then Sheik hits a back suplex and locks in the Camel Clutch for the win (1:41).
Thoughts: Total domination by Sheik. They were trying to build him up again after he lost the belt to Hogan.
Back from commercial break and Sgt. Slaughter’s music hits. Sheik and Blassie are going up the aisle and they cross paths. The two initially refuse to move out of the way and a brief argument ensues. Crowd is really into Slaughter, despite him still being a heel.
John Callahan vs. Sgt Slaughter
Crowd is still fairly pumped for Slaughter. He takes down Callahan with a snapmare. Slaughter’s name comes up on the screen prematurely then he locks on the Cobra Clutch for the win (0:48).
Thoughts: The slow face turn for Slaughter continues as he makes quick work of his opponent.
Bob Bradley & Israel
Atlas runs over Bradley and tags Johnson. Vince tells us that the reason Fuji & Superstar didn’t team up tonight was that Fuji
Thoughts: A basic squash for the tag champs, who are really not much of a team to be honest.
Next week will feature Iron Sheik, Sgt. Slaugher, David Schultz, B. Brian Blair, and the Piper’s Pit.
Final thoughts: Outside of the Sheik/Slaughter confrontation, this was a boring show. They did not promise on the advertised main event and the squashes weren’t impressive.
All-Star Wrestling
SD Jones vs. Paul Orndorff w/Roddy Piper
Damn, the heel heat for Orndorff is off the charts. He complains to the ref about a hair pull then grabs a side headlock. After some matwork, Orndorff retreats to the corner and stalls for a bit. He hits SD and stomps him down. Kneedrop gets two. SD blocks a turnbuckle smash and rams Orndorff in the corner as the crowd goes nuts. Orndorff retreats outside and gets hit with a headbutt when he re-enters the ring. SD misses a falling headbutt and Orndorff hits some elbow to the back of the neck before finishing him off with a piledriver (3:45).
Thoughts: Orndorff was just hated by the crowd and they are building him up quite nicely as a heel. Wrestlers today can only wish they could get the reaction as a heel that Orndroff gets here.
Tony Colon vs. Ivan Putski
Putski takes Colon Colon
Thoughts: Putski receives a decent amount of cheers but its obvious to see that he is getting phased out.
Eddie Gilbert & Ken Jugan & Frankie Williams vs. Wild Samoans w/Capt Lou Albano
Samula is here, making this a six-man match. Eddie is stuck with two of the most pathetic jobbers in the company. Sika and Eddie start out and Eddie eventually knocks him down with a dropkick. Sika backs Eddie into the corner but he escapes and cleans house on all three Samoans. Albano yells at his team and Gilbert works the arm of Samula, who just tagged in. Tag to Williams and he lands a few punches but drops his head in a backdrop attempt and gets headbutted down. Afa tags in and gets a headbutt and follows that with a Samoan Drop for the win (3:48).
Thoughts: Gilbert looked good here but that is about all. No idea why this had to be a 6-man match though as Jugan never even tagged in.
Salvatore Bellomo vs. Israel
Oh boy, what a treat! Matia, who is bald and somewhat resembles Bad News Brown facially, complains to the ref about a hair pull. Bellomo sends Matia outside with a few dropkicks. Matia re-enters and they do some matwork until Matia gets the advantage briefly until Bellomo takes him down and gets a falling headbutt. Matia charges at Bellomo in the corner but he counters it into a sunsetflip for the win (3:02).
Thoughts: A jobber vs. jobber match. Bellomo is just slightly above Matia in the pecking order.
Tony Garea vs. Masked Superstar
Superstar starts out by beating on Garea until he comes back with two shitty looking dropkicks. Garea works the arm, as usual, as Vince reads Gene another fanmail question that he ignores regarding Buddy Rogers being beat up by Capt. Lou at MSG. Superstar knocks Garea outside and kicks him down. He throws him into the railing then delivers a running knee to the head. Garea tries to re-enter the ring and does so successfully. He takes down the superstar and delivers several kneedrops. He hits him with a crossbody but Superstar rolls through and gets the win (5:15). After the match, Superstar beats on Garea and puts him in the tree of woe. Andre the Giant then runs out for the save and Superstar fakes going to the back and then jumps Andre from behind. Andre eventually gains the advantage and then chases the Superstar to the locker room
Thoughts: Nice build for a Superstar vs. Andre feud. The match itself wasn’t much and Garea is really just here to put over people at this point.
Piper’s Pit with Eddie Gilbert. Roddy brings up the fact that Gilbert is just 22 and tells him how he was a light heavyweight championship and compares that to Gilbert, who was recently in a car accident and had his neck broken by the Masked Superstar. Piper then insults Gilbert’s dad and insists that he is stupid for letting his son wrestle after his accident. Gilbert sticks up for himself but Roddy keeps on cutting him off and this ends eith Piper walking away, stating how Gilbert can’t control himself and that is why he cant win anything. Piper was great here and the crowd just hates him at this point. The trio of Orndorff, Piper, and Schultz is fun.
Replay of the Iron Sheik/Sgt. Slaughter confrontation from Championship Wrestling.
Bill Dixon vs. B. Brian Blair
Blair gets a few drop toeholds and stretches Dixon Dixon
Thoughts: Blair showed some emotion out here and looked good as a result.
Next week’s show includes Greg Valentine, Paul Orndorff, Tony Atlas & Rocky Johnson, Tito Santana, and Roddy Piper in action.
Final Thoughts: The Andre/Superstar feud is a good start and the first Piper’s Pit was interesting. Other than that, the show was fine.
Nice job, it was right around this time that I started watching WWF, so this takes me back a bit.
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