WWF Tuesday Night Titans December 18th, 1984

December 18, 1984

Your hosts are Lord Alfred Hayes and Vince McMahon

This week’s show is the wedding of Butcher Vachon. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first wrestling wedding ever shown on television. There would be many more to follow.

This week, Butcher Vachon gets married. Howard Finkel is in the ring, which is set up like an alter. There are wrestlers in both sides of the aisle, separated by heels and faces. Finkel introduces the attendee’s: Wild Samoans, Freddie Blassie, Jessie Ventura, Jose Luis Rivera, Mr & Mrs Executioner, David Schultz, and Capt. Lou Albano, who was a riot here, just blurting out stuff and cracking jokes.

The reverend is introduced. His name is Meyer Lipschitz. Mad Dog Vachon is the best man and the Fabulous Moolah is the maid of honor. Vince says this will be the 6^th marriage for Butcher as Albano is screaming that he wants to make this a double wedding and marry Moolah. Jesse takes the flowers from the flower girl (Played by female midget wrestler Diamond Lil) and Sky Low Low is the ring bearer but Blassie whacks him with his cane and takes the ring. He inspects it then gives it back. The bride, Ophilia, is given away by George “The Animal” Steele. Some of this was pretty funny and stuff you would never see on WWE TV today as it is far from politically incorrect.

The ceremony takes place. Mad Dog interrupts to yell at those who came uninvited. The heels then yell at the reverend to hurry things up. Steele lifts up the bride’s veil and we see her wave around her green tongue, just like he does. Albano gets into the ring and the Vachon’s assure him that the bride is not a virgin. A clusterfuck but Albano was hilarious.

Back to the exchange of vows as Steele is eating the turnbuckles and taking apart the decorations. Just before Vachon kisses the bride, Schultz runs in and hits him with a slam. Chaos erupts as the bride is carried away.

We are with Vince and Hayes. They are standing in front of the ring with Jesse, discussing the wedding. Jesse says there should be violence in love. When asked why he ran into the ring, Jesse said it was to either kiss the bride or knock her out then states that anyone who marries Butcher Vachon should get knocked out. Jesse said he is itching to get back into the ring. His voice is really coarse here. We are then shown a clip of his match against Ivan Putski, four months prior in St. Louis. Jesse gives us commentary, accusing Putski of cheating. After the clips are shown, Jesse goes off about getting a blood clot in his lungs from being exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam. He closes by saying he will sue everyone for what has happened to him.

The Wild Samoans join Hayes and Vince. Afa said “many fun and good time” at the reception. A house show clip of them facing Lee and Fuji at the Meadowlands is shown afterwards.

Capt. Lou Albano joins the hosts. He brings up supporting Multiple Sclerosis. He says that he and Cyndi Lauper are voted as the national chairmen for MS. Albano came off as a complete face.

We are now at the reception. Vachon opens up gifts. Albano gives him a lifetime supply of rubber bands, Jesse gives some hair coloring to the bride, Blassie gives a pair of glasses to inspect cheap diamonds, a fish from the Samoans, and someone then gives a gift that is too risqué to be shown on TV. Schultz is seen inspecting all of the gifts as they are being opened.

Clip of JYD squashing Vachon from Maple Leaf wrestling. The poor guy cant even be featured winning a match during his wedding ceremony.

George Steele tries to gives a toastm, but he cannot speak. Everyone starts cheering for him to do a toast then he finally speaks, saying “pumpernickel.” Others start to give their own toast, including Sky Low Low, who got threatened by Blassie. Finally, McMahon goes to Schultz, who goes on a tirade (that gets bleeped out) and says he will only toast himself and finishes by threatening McMahon.

Vachon and his wife have their first dance as Albano constantly runs over to McMahon so he can burp into his microphone. Albano then threatens to moon everyone. He was out of his mind during this show.

Barry Windham vs. Moondog Rex

This is the featured match this week and took place on the November 26^th Madison Square Garden show. Rex shoves Windham off a lockup. They do it again and Windham gets a hiptoss and a dropkick. The crowd has certainly deflated since the last match. Windham works the arm. Rex comes back and grabs a headlock. Windham catches him with a slam then goes back to working the arm. The announcers are talking about everything else but this match as Windham now works a headlock. Rex goes to the apron but Windham drags him and Rex’s feet are on the ropes. Windham drops him down just before the five count and that actually gets the crowd to make noise. Rex lands a few punches then drops a knee. Rex throws some forearms before catching him with a knee. Windham fights back and punches Rex through the ropes. Rex then fights back then starts biting the forehead. Windham is sent to the floor with a shoulderblock. Back in the ring, Rex drops Windham neck first on the top rope then uses clubbing forearms. Backbreaker gets two. He rams him in the corner then grabs a lengthy bearhug until Windham escapes. Rex sends him down with an elbow smash then picks him up for a body breaker. Windham escapes and backdrops Rex as both men are down. They then trade punches but Rex hooks the ropes on a dropkick attempt. He gets two off an elbow drop but Windhm punches him in midair after an axe handle attempt. Rex shoves Windham in the corner but misses a splash and Windham hits the running bulldog for the win (12:11) **3/4.

Thoughts: This was a really solid match. It was put in a tough spot, following the Piper match, but these guys were able to bring the crowd back into the show. The Moondogs, the Rex & Spot version anyway, were a solid and underappreciated team. Windham looked good too and you could tell right away that he had everything it took to become a star. If Windham was focused for his entire career, he could have been one of the all-time greats.

Back to dance, as Sky Low Low cuts in between the newlyweds.  Alban then dances with Diamond Lil, which causes Blassie to laugh hysterically.  

The Samoans and Albano, I guess patching up their differences, start to sing Wooly Bully. The Samoans then hold up Sky Low Low then Albano pulls up shirt and dumps his drink all over him. Poor Sky Low Low got abused during this show.

Schultz interrupts the cutting of cake. Says he wants to know if the bride knows how to take care of man. Schultz berates her, yelling that when a man want something, you get it. He then says a woman should change a flat tire and get fire wood when necessary. Schultz yells at Vince then shoves cake in the bride’s face. Steele hits the reverend then Vince starts to laugh uncontrollably as Hayes gets cake shoved in his face. Schultz nails Vicne then the organ plays as a food fight breaks out. Mad Dog Vachon is seen throwing chairs all over the place.

The show closes with Vince and Hayes, covered with cake, saying goodbye. Vince then pulls a pie tin from Hayes’ jacket and starts to laugh as the credits start scrolling down.

Final Thoughts: This was long but some of this was hilarious and the type of stuff that you never get to see on television nowadays. Albano was a riot and Vince did a really good job at playing the straight man to all of the insanity that surrounded him. It did not advance any story lines, but did drop a small hint of an Albano face turn.