[1970-06-15-WWWF-MSG, NY] Victor Rivera & Tony Marino vs Beppo & Gito Mongol

[paul sosnowski]

Now available on the Network, Collections, Nikolai Volkoff, "Mongolian Gold June 15, 1970"

The Mongols debut at MSG and challenge the WWWF International Tag Team Champions

[Ricky Jackson]

I enjoyed this match once it got going, which took about 15 minutes, just before the end of the first fall. Mongols go up one fall to none, but the heroes nab the second with a flash sleeper on Geeto. Third fall is really good, as the heroes keep re-applying the sleeper to Geeto knowing they have discovered the Mongols weakness, but Bepo continually interferes and breaks it up before they can finish him off. Geeto finally gets a tag while trapped in an abdominal stretch, and the fresh Bepo takes advantage of an unaware Marino, quickly finishing him off for basically a clean win. Cool historical match, coming from the first card to sellout the new MSG, and uber rare footage of the Mongols team, who had taken the territory by storm and were a big reason for the sellout