[1980-04-21-WWF-MSG, NY] Bruno Sammartino vs Larry Zbyszko

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[SAMS]

1980-04-21
WWF
Bruno Sammartino vs. Larry Zbyszko
Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA
Card
★★★★

Their arena shows have been building on each other beautifully and they’ve ranged from very good and at times verged on great. I think that this might be the best one yet and all it needed to solidify its classic status was blood and a stronger finish.
Zbyszko jumped Bruno at the bell and he was like an attack dog right from the off. Larry’s stomps haven’t looked better as there was a crispness and a viciousness that I think may have been missing before. This match also gave Larry the opportunity to explore his in-ring character work. Considering he was on top for so much of the first half having blindsided Bruno, he had time to gloat, goad and taunt a prone Bruno and I thought he did this masterfully. My only issue with this part was that when Bruno ended up on the floor to the outside, I didn’t find it engaging at all for Larry to keep kicking him off the apron. In contrast to later on when the roles were reversed and Larry sprinkled in some stalling when getting into the ring, this constant delay of the action was quite boring. 
The switch of momentum occurred on a flailing kick from Bruno that caught Larry down low and Bruno was in the ascendency from then on. After getting battered to the outside one too many times Larry took his sweet time in returning and this kind of stalling I thought was really effective. Larry’s character again really shone through and the whole time Bruno was frothing at the mouth to get Larry back in the ring.
Once action finally did resume it was a pure beatdown. Larry couldn’t get anything going and it was just Bruno laying in those kicks and punches for all they were worth. Finally Larry had had enough and he took his ball and went home. 
The finish obviously wasn’t decisive, but I’m sure their next matchup is at Shea Stadium, so it makes sense to leave things on a cliffhanger of sorts. Overall I thought they managed to reach a strong peak early and really never dropped that standard for the whole match. The crowd were on fire for Bruno and those moments where he played up to them generated such amazing responses. It wasn’t on the cards but if this had been the blowoff and they had committed to a decisive finish, it very well could have been a MOTYC. For what it was it wasn’t that far off anyway.