WWF Tuesday Night Titans 6/12/84

June 12, 1984

*Quick note: I will be posting more house shows and different TV shows besides Championship Wrestling. I chose an episode of TNT to switch things up. This is, I believe the 3rd show of TNT. Coming soon will be a house show from the Met Centre, The "Brawl to End it All" and the "Black Saturday" show.  

Vince McMahon is the host and Lord Alfred Hayes is his co-host. The set up for this is similar to that of the “Tonight Show,” as Vince is channeling Johnny and Hayes is attempting to be Ed McMahon. Its a variety show with wrestling matches and clips sandwiched between the skits and other pieces.

The two men discuss Paul Orndorff. Hayes is impressed with his physique, as is Vince. They then introduce us to a televised match between him and SD Jones. Hayes tries to tell us that SD is gearing up for a singles run towards the Heavyweight Championship. As funny as that sounds, at least they tried to put their lower workers back then instead of today where they job out the IC champ. They show us the match and I believe it was from Championship Wrestling several weeks ago where Orndorff won using the piledriver.

Back from break, Vince tells us that a camera crew spent the day with Orndorff at a gym training men and women. The camera shows several people huddled around Orndroff, who runs them down and puts himself over. His arrogance is kinda funny here. They show him berate two guys using the bicep curl machine and makes one of them do ten reps set on the highest amount. Orndorff then trains a heavyset women and rags on her for being out of shape. He actually tells her she needs to stay away from the dinner table at night then calls her an embarrassment. In a funny moment, the woman struggles to get out of the machine and Orndorff refuses to help her. Orndorff makes his way back to the men where the lady touches Orndorff, who flips out and calls her a fat hog, which sends her scurrying back to the machines. He shows up the men some more. Orndorff as the arrogant dickhead heel was a work of art. They would never do a piece like this today, being as it was entirely politically incorrect, but this was largely funny.

Salvatore Bellomo comes out on the couch. Vince speaks his name in an over-exaggerated Italian tone which wasn’t ethnic enough for Hayes, who requests Bellomo say his name with more passion. Bellomo’s speaking skills, much like his wrestling, sucks something terrible. They show a short match from Champioship Wrestling a few weeks ago where he beat Ron Shaw.

Back from break, Vince and Hayes ask Bellomo about his hobby of making ships from magazine pages. He then works on making a ship designed with pages from the “WWF Magazine.” My god was this boring.

Ivan Putski vs. “Rowdy” Roddy Piper

This was from the MSG show on 5/21/84. Piper comes out flanked by two cops and has a pair of guys playing the bagpipes. The crowd gets on Piper for his kilt and he goes along with it, mocking them while he removes it and getting a good heel reaction. Piper stalls which angers Putski as he attempts to hit him off the apron. The two men are in the ring and the engage in a slugfest. Piper runs out and Putski chases then gets beat while re-entering the ring. Putski no-sells some punches but Piper rakes the eyes. Putski fights back as the bagpipes play. Piper appears to have reached for something in his tights and knocks Putski down a few times. The bagpipes are still playing and Piper knocks Putski to the floor. Putski re-enters and hulks up before using his windmill punches but he accidentally hits the ref and he rings the bell for the DQ (4:09) ½*.

Thoughts: A brief match as Putski was limited and Piper was coming off injury as he was hurt for the first several months of this WWF tenure. Piper could agitate a crowd with the best of them though.

The camera shows Bellomo working on his ships as Hayes reads some fan mail. Per usual, these questions are never answered but at least Hayes isn’t as bad as Okerlund. Someone asks about whether Albano will manage the Wild Samoans again and if Magnificent Muraco will return to the WWF. Hayes has no idea about Albano but suspects Muraco will be back soon. Another writer tells us that he saw Hogan wrestle in Los Angeles 5 years ago and thinks he is the best ever.

Freddie Blassie joins the set. He tells us that clean living and going to the gym are the keys to success. They show a clip of him wrestling Baron Leone in 1952. Blassie was quite athletic in those clips. They then show Blassie with the Pacific Coast Heavyweight Title that was retired when he left to join the WWWF. He says his dream was to win the belt in the WWF Belt but and that happened when the Iron Sheik won. Vince brings up how he lost to Hogan and they show a clip of that, which has Blassie irate. He says that they were jobbed as Backlund was supposed to be the opponent and Sheik never trained for Hogan. He promises that the Sheik will destroy Hogan and tells us that the Ayatollaoh told the Sheik before he left for America to see him and that he was the Ayatollah of the USA. Lenghty segment, which is the theme here, but Blassie is funny when he is upset.

Mr. Fuji comes out next. He makes fun of Bellomo for being a loser, stating how he should go out and meet women instead of making boats. Good point. Sheik laughs a lot then they show a match.

Mr. Fuji vs. Nick DeCarlo

This is from All-Star Wrestling. DeCarlo ducks a chop from Fuji and fires away. He stomps him in the corner as the crowd is completely silent. Fuji gets up and laughs and DeCarlo goes back on offense until he runs into a boot. Slam by Fuji who then climbs up top and hits the Bonzai for the win (2:01).

Thoughts: Very brief and meaningless. Fuji was just about phased out as a wrestler at this point anyway.

They ask Fuji about the match, who says he loves to watch American’s suffer. He then brings out a surprise, which is a dancing Geisha girl. They then have Saki and before that they do a comedy bit were they get Vince into a robe. As they go for a second cup of Saki, the Geisha accidentally spills it on Fuji, who goes postal and chops the table. 

We return from break, with Fuji still upset. Vicne brings up how Fuji is a manager now and they show a clip of him managing Don Muraco against Billy Travis. Fuji is entertaining but it didn’t come across when he was a manager. He just stood  around a did nothing.

Big John Studd joins the set. He says he is the biggest in wrestling today and says only Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan are worthy enough to face him in the ring.

Salvatore Bellomo vs. Big John Studd

Studd shoves Bellomo across the ring. Bellomo grabs a hammerlock for a bit but Studd backs him into the corner. He misses a charge and Sal comes back with mounted punches but Studd shoves him down and drops the elbow for the win (1:49).

Thoughts: Studd was quite terrible in the ring. I never liked him at all and he was one of my least favorite wrestlers. He was big and that was all.

Studd then goes near Bellomo, who is still making his paper ships, and tells him that he was lucky to face him and he should go to the gym. Bellomo is getting shitted on quite a bit here.

They show very short clips of Jesse Ventura, Rocky Johnson, and Adrian Adonis & Dick Murdoch in tag action.

Bellomo gives Vince his ship. The camera zooms in on the WWF logo.

Final Thoughts: Although entertaining at times, this was way too long. The format, mixing matches and clips with interviews and segments was fine but two hours is just insane. It can be tiresome watching an hour-long talk show with a similar format.