Skip to main content

MOTD: Ivan Koloff vs. Bruno Sammartino



Since someone was just e-mailing me asking about this match, I figured I'd throw this up there.  The WWWF didn't actually film the match at the time because it was never intended to be shown and they wanted the title change to be as low-key as possible to prevent rioting, but this is fan footage that showed up many years later with someone adding commentary themselves.  WWE of course doesn't own the rights to this, which is why they never show footage in their documentaries and countdown shows and such.  Plus it looks pretty crappy.  But there you go, the most historic title change until that other one in 1997.

Comments

  1. Hogan/Shiek is most historic. Word.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The crowd sounds to be dubbed too.



    Does anyone know what's the deal with the footage of Bruno's first title reign? WWE never seems to use it on archival DVDs or in clips, and there was a surprising few Bruno matches on the Best of MSG DVD despite Bruno being front and center on the DVD cover.


    Does WWE just think that most Bruno fans are dead at this point (which is a fair assumption) and that there is no market for this, or does WWE not actually have a lot of early Bruno footage?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Did Bruno ever show up on tv during the Hogan era? I don't remember ever seeing him.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sure did. He was a commentator and had mini-feuds with Randy Savage, Roddy Piper, Honky Tonk Man, and Hercules. He also was in his son's corner at the original Mania and was in the Mania 2 battle royal.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Of course. Constantly as announcer, plus a feud with Savage.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I thought Ivan won via some hijinks though...no? Doesn't look like it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What kind of ref bump is that? He's right back up after five seconds! They bred 'em tough in 1971...

    ReplyDelete
  8. CruelConnectionNumber2December 1, 2014 at 9:04 PM

    Punk MITB 11 win over Cena.

    ReplyDelete
  9. One big difference between back and then: Can you imagine anyone (excluding Bryan) losing their title in less than 8 minutes in a match that wasn't a cash-in?

    ReplyDelete
  10. By "the most historic title change until that other one in 1997," I'm sure you mean Prince Iaukea defeating Lord Steven Regal for the WCW TV Title.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Vince Sr. was paranoid about riots. Mr. Muchnick just put on the classiest professional sporting product, which led to well-behaved fans and next to no unrest.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I think the match was longer as there were a few cuts in the match.

    ReplyDelete
  13. hogan over Luger to regain the title?

    ReplyDelete
  14. just checked on history of wwe, it was 14:55

    ReplyDelete
  15. He didn't even hook the leg. They made Sammartino look like a chump. Total burial.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Great stuff. Bruno knew how to work a match for a live crowd.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Actually he did. He was in that NFL battle royal main event for the Chicago part of WM 2.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Jets could have Vick, Geno and RGIII, and would still probably draft at least 2 QB'S in this year's draft.

    ReplyDelete
  19. WWE and New Japan have done that, too. NJPW used off-air TV recordings for their big Tiger Mask set, and the Bret-Andre match from one of Bret's sets is a Youtube rip.

    ReplyDelete
  20. That was Rick Martel's finisher for a brief period circa 1990.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Maybe it's the camera angle, but that kneedrop looked like it missed.

    ReplyDelete
  22. That ha never been painted as any kind of main event.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Undertaker beating Sid for the title wasn't that big a deal, Scott.

    ReplyDelete
  24. That was so annoying. They couldn't find the guy who ripped that match to YouTube and changed up whatever his source was?

    ReplyDelete
  25. Wasnt it the main event in Chicago that night?

    ReplyDelete
  26. Lots of stuff that wad trapped in the old Boston Garden.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Yep. Didn't go on last, but to me, the Main Event is the big draw. The Battle Royal was definitely the big draw of that part of the card.

    ReplyDelete
  28. I would say that the 1988 title change was more historic than this one.

    ReplyDelete
  29. The main event was Bulldogs vs Dream Team.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Yeah, but women wrestlers get only about 3 tolerable years of booking before it's jobberville for them.


    I dunno, I hope AJ bucks the trend.

    ReplyDelete
  31. You had a celebrity battle royal, a tag title match, a women's title match, and a flag match with with international ramifications. Truly every match was a main event!

    ReplyDelete
  32. One minute into it and the announcer said it was the greatest match of all time. Even Tony Schiavone is impressed.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Could they have had a more generic Italian guy doing the commentating? As a pisan I was offended by Joey Bag-A-Donuts call of this historic match.

    ReplyDelete
  34. It's literally because he's a big lug, and Vince will push anyone who's massive and imposing. He has a very well documented hard on for overly muscled talent, of course - but his wider disconnection from reality helps too. This is no longer a game filled exclusively with insanely roided beefcakes. Fans react well to smaller guys, and buy them as threats. Fans - marks and smarks alike - value quality wrestling over two meatheads hitting each other with fake punches etc.


    Probably wishful thinking on my part, but Ziggler's performance in the recent SurSer main made me think they might've finally wised up to this. But apparently not...

    ReplyDelete
  35. I expected, and was hoping for, more old-timey fan rioting.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Pretty sure he meant Lex Luger's landscape-shifting five-day WCW title reign.

    ReplyDelete
  37. The thing is, Koloff won fair and square. So... Would the fans really have been justified in rioting? I mean, the guy won. (then again, it's not like rioters need a valid excuse)

    ReplyDelete
  38. So, when I was in elementary school, think late 80s, we had a camcorder and it was roughly the size of a bazooka. What kind of fan cam camera are we talking about here?

    ReplyDelete
  39. Are we sure this is *the* match? It wasn't uncommon for a big match to be repeated in different cities.

    I just can't believe WWE wouldn't be able to purchase footage of one of the most important moments in its history. Even if the owner was reluctant to sell, they'd find a way.

    ReplyDelete
  40. The Capitol tapes were treated like shit and most of the footage is gone. They were either thrown out or taped over to save money. Vince Jr. rescued what he could but it seems like no one before 75 had any inkling how important archival material would become.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Eeeetsaaameeee Mario!!

    ReplyDelete
  42. Kneedrops off the top rope are always missed, otherwise you'd kill the guy.

    ReplyDelete
  43. To be fair, that's more or less the deal with every media company. Nobody thought this stuff would be valuable

    To put it in perspective: despite being broadcast by two national networks (CBS and NBC), there is no complete copy of Super Bowl I, and until a nearly complete copy was found in a Pennsylvania attic in 2011, only short clips were known to exist.

    A majority of World Series games between 1952-1974 are missing or incomplete, and there is little to no footage of World Series games prior 1952.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Charismatic eNegro Jef VinsonDecember 2, 2014 at 10:29 AM

    Depends on if he stirred up the crowd with shit talking with interviews or not.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Charismatic eNegro Jef VinsonDecember 2, 2014 at 10:32 AM

    Look up Sammartino/Santana vs. Adonis/Savage cage match. It's pretty good.

    ReplyDelete
  46. The advertised main even was the battle royal.

    ReplyDelete
  47. video cameras in the 60s were quite small.

    ReplyDelete
  48. The Wall vs The KISS Demon was advertised as a main event. That doesn't make it so.

    ReplyDelete
  49. this makes me realize how much of a visionary (no survivor series pun here) Vince is/was

    ReplyDelete
  50. Hmm...ok. I guess the one I'm remembering was one of the early VHS camcorders.

    ReplyDelete
  51. that's real heel heat, stunning the crowd into silence with a victory

    ReplyDelete
  52. the Sid/Bret title change on RAW

    ReplyDelete
  53. This is Vince's daddy not Vince himself.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Bruno was a commentator for the WWF syndicated shows from 1984-1988.

    ReplyDelete
  55. The battle royal was the rosemont main event. Period.

    ReplyDelete
  56. I'm assuming that he misspoke, and meant TLC 2012, on which Punk didn't appear, Cena main evented, and it did worse than 2011.

    ReplyDelete
  57. No, he definitely meant TLC 2011. He made something up or got his facts wrong. No big deal

    ReplyDelete
  58. It was Wrestlemania 2, not Wrestlemania 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3. Hogan vs Bundy was the only main event. Period.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Good point but of those four Rosemont matches andre was the star and his match was the draw and selling point.

    ReplyDelete
  60. Right, he meant that TLC 2011 did BETTER THAN, but what I'm saying is that it did better than TLC 2012, a show he missed, headlined by Cena, NOT TLC 2010. Is mixing up the word "before" for "after" really that hard to believe in an meandering "interview" bouncing back and forth over a two and half year timespan?

    And if he didn't mean that, then I'll say it for him. TLC 2011, headlined by Punk, sans Cena, did better than TLC 2012, headlined by Cena, sans Punk.

    ReplyDelete
  61. So regardless, Bruno was not headlining this so-called "main event"

    ReplyDelete
  62. I still don't see the problem with a triple threat headlining 29. The crowd shat all over the finish and post-match celebration anyway, so it's not as though leaving Punk out prevented that. And it could've just been a regular one-fall match, rather than elimination-style, so as to not disrupt it midway. The finish could still come down to Cena and Rock, with Punk indisposed. I think Punk probably suggested the elimination so as to emphasize how little he cared about being put over, not as the only booking option.

    Far from being unworkable, I think the triple threat was creatively preferable. All three had individual issues with each other, Punk-Cena, Rock-Cena, and Punk-Rock, and had been the biggest stars in company over the preceding two years. Punk's presence also lessens the predictability of Cena getting his win back over Rock, and addresses the biggest flaw in the lifeless Rock-Cena II build: that they were inevitably building to something no one wanted to see. The whole point of a rematch, in principle, is to see the hero avenge his loss. The problem with Rock-Cena II was that the audience already saw the desired result the first time, and was now trudging towards something they wanted no part of. Punk's presence at least disguises this inevitability better, and the added dynamics of Punk-Cena and Punk-Rock freshens up the build, while still going back to the Rock-Cena cash-cow.

    Cena still gets to pin Rock for the title, and the crowd is no less pissed. Punk bitches that he was never beaten for his title, and we get the final Punk-Cena blowoff at Extreme Rules. Cena wins, of course, Heyman has the Shield turf Punk on RAW the next night, and Punk gets his vacation until SummerSlam this time.

    In the WM undercard, run Taker-Brock a year earlier, and HHH can team with Orton and Sheamus to be the first super-team to finally defeat the Shield.

    ReplyDelete
  63. ... and a lot more respect for not filming it for that reason than the LOD refusing to drop the titles to Money Inc back in the day if there were even still photographs taken of the match

    ReplyDelete
  64. Circa CM Punk: "pay me like it was-"

    ReplyDelete
  65. Correct Andre and maybe Fridge were the headliners.

    ReplyDelete
  66. I think I've also read that there is no footage anywhere of Walter Cronkite doing the news, outside of the famous clip where he announces Kennedy is dead.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment