OJ's WWWF/WWF thread

[Chess Knight]

I LOVE that Andre/Slaughter match. I'd recommend Hogan/Andre from the 3/21/81 Philly show as well (same night as Slaughter/Backlund in the cage). Almost couldn't imagine they have a better match against each other. Also Andre/Patterson vs. Patera/Bobby Duncum Jr 3/24/80.

[Ricky Jackson]

Just saw Andre/Garea vs Sarge/Moondog Rex (yes, really) from the Spectrum, April 81, for the first time a few days ago, and it was quite good actually, especially the Andre/Sarge interactions 

[SAMS]

I second the praise of all the recommended matches above, but Andre's performances stick out to me specifically in those two tag matches. Andre/Patterson vs. Patera/Bobby Duncum and Andre/Garea vs Sarge/Moondog Rex are just ridiculously fun to watch and are great examples of how to wring the most out of having Andre involved in what otherwise could have been throwaway matches. The Spectrum one in particular was so good just for how they managed to make Andre merely charging the opponent's corner feel like a high spot

[Dav'oh]

12 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

Sgt. Slaughter vs. Andre the Giant (WWF, 3/16/81)

This was a ridiculously fun bout. I wish they'd booked more Andre bouts like this.

A good, wholesome wrestling match. Good for the soul, especially after This Week in WWE.

[ohtani's jacket]

Bob Backlund vs. Stan Hansen (WWF, 4/4/81)

I felt this cage match worked with respect to the finishes in the previous matches between the two, but I would have liked to have seen Backlund earn his victory a bit more. I liked the way Hansen bumped and flailed to allow Backlund to walk through the door, but they could have beat on each other more. I did like Hansen hamming it up after the loss. Hansen in New York is now a thing in my mind even if he never goes full Hansen. 

FWIW, there's an amusing part at the beginning where Finkel screws around trying to get them to lower the MSG house mic again so he can remind people of the WWF cage match rules and Vince is like, "We already knew that."  Early savage Vince!

[elliott]

On 1/30/2024 at 6:43 PM, Chess Knight said:

I LOVE that Andre/Slaughter match. I'd recommend Hogan/Andre from the 3/21/81 Philly show as well (same night as Slaughter/Backlund in the cage). Almost couldn't imagine they have a better match against each other. Also Andre/Patterson vs. Patera/Bobby Duncum Jr 3/24/80.

 

Oh man, if we're doing Andre in WWF recommendations I've got some recs  -

Andre the Giant & Chief Jay Strongbow vs Ken Patera & Nikolai Volkoff (WWWF - 6/27/77)

Andre the Giant & Ted Dibiase vs Jerry Valiant & Baron Mikel Scicluna (WWF - 7/26/79)

Andre the Giant vs Hulk Hogan (WWF - 3/21/81) (agreed with @Chess Knight this match is awesome)

Andre the Giant & Jimmy Snuka vs Wild Samoans (WWF - 2/18/83)

Andre the Giant & Jimmy Snuka vs Roddy Piper & Dave Schultz (WWF – 3/25/84) (The best Andre performance you probably haven't seen yet, Piper too for that matter. anyone that reads this you should watch this match next)

Andre the Giant vs Ken Patera (WWF – 1/21/85)

Andre the Giant & Paul Orndorff vs Roddy Piper & Bob Orton Jr (WWF - 8/10/85)

Andre the Giant vs King Kong Bundy (The Colossal Jostle - WWF - 9/23/85) 

[ohtani's jacket]

Bob Backlund vs. Larry Zbyszko (WWF, 10/11/80)

This was so much fun. Zbyszko has the most punchable face in the history of professional wrestling. The part where the crowd booed him and he blew them a kiss was priceless. Zbyszko spent an eternity stalling, which forced Kal and Dick to fill in the time. Also priceless. Kal kept telling Dick what was happening in the match to the point where Dick got exasperated. Once Zbyszko took over, it was high IQ stuff and a brilliant manipulation of the fans, a hot headed ref, and a typically fired up Backlund. This isn't my first choice professional wrestling, but I happily acknowledge that Zbyszko was a master at it.

[Ricky Jackson]

Yeah, that's an all-time favorite underrated match for me. With the Bruno feud, plus the amazing Putski match and this one, Zbyszko had such an incredible 1980

[ohtani's jacket]

Bob Backlund vs. Larry Zbyszko (WWF, 11/08/80)

This is a return match but the heat is on Zbyszko vs the special guest referee, Tony Atlas, making Bob a passenger at times. OK for what it was, but not a very satisfying return bout. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Andre the Giant vs. Hulk Hogan (WWF, 3/21/81)

This has got to be the best Andre vs Hogan match ever. Not only is it surreal watching a heel Hogan wrestle a face Andre, Andre channeling his inner Stan Hansen is incredible to watch. Just an incredible spectacle. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Greg Valentine vs. Tony Garea (WWF, 11/14/81)

First of all, I've got to thank @SAMS for turning me on to this gem of a match as I sure as hell wouldn't have found it by myself. I'm a massive Valentine mark, but it wouldn't occur to me to watch a Tony Garea match. There's so much to love about this match. I love how the Spectrum still uses a tough as nails ref and a geriatric ring announcer. That pair could have easily worked one of those black and white 50s matches that Loss has been uploading lately. Then there's the fact that Garea hails from Auckland, New Zealand, which also happens to be my home town. What should have been an extended squash turns into a competitive fight. Greg makes Garea look great. Dick and Kal treat Garea like he's a serious threat. The action is fantastic. Even the screwy finish is awesome as Dick and Kal get the ref and Garea to watch the replay on their monitor and have the ref explain the decision. Gaera has one messed up accent, but that happens to Kiwis living overseas (myself included.) I loved every thing about this. SAMS, you're a man of impeccable taste. 

[SAMS]

I'm just happy somebody enjoyed it as much as I did! Felt like I was going out on a limb being so high on this considering I'd never heard anything about it period, let alone whether it was good or not. Definitely wasn't expecting much but I'm a sucker for the Spectrum, I was riding a real Valentine high when I watched this and Garea really pulls his weight. Anybody who's interested in pre-Hogan WWF should definitely check this out.

[Ricky Jackson]

I need to see that match. As a fellow pre-expansion WWF/Valentine enthusiast, I'll put forth my own sneaky good Valentine match: vs Dom DeNucci at MSG from June of 1979

[SAMS]

Cool! I'll star that matchup so that when I come round to it I make sure I don't skip over it!

[ohtani's jacket]

Greg Valentine vs. Chief Jay Strongbow (WWF, 7/21/79)

I can't find the DeNucci match online as it's too much of a deep cut for the internet. Instead, I went with one of my all-time favorite Valentine performances. It's one thing to have great matches against Bob Backlund or Tito Santana, but to have a feud this good against Chief Jay Strongbow? I'm sorry, you're somebody special. In theory, every feud should be this good, but somehow they aren't. It's not that workers don't try, I guess it's that the planets have to align somehow and you need a Philly crowd like this that is amped for the Chief to tear Valentine's head off. God bless old-school professional wrestling. 

[Ricky Jackson]

Yeah, you probably need to find the whole 6/79 MSG card to get the DeNucci match

Man, that Strongbow Philly match is so special. I remember showing it to some friends who otherwise never watched any wrestling so old, and after not paying close attention at first, they slowly became riveted and by the end couldn't take their eyes off the screen

[Shrike02]

On 3/21/2024 at 8:38 AM, Ricky Jackson said:

Yeah, you probably need to find the whole 6/79 MSG card to get the DeNucci match

Man, that Strongbow Philly match is so special. I remember showing it to some friends who otherwise never watched any wrestling so old, and after not paying close attention at first, they slowly became riveted and by the end couldn't take their eyes off the screen

When I dove into this period with your encouragement I was just amazed by this match, as I had never seen Strongbow do anything laudable in the ring. Valentine performed miracles here.

[ohtani's jacket]

Greg Valentine vs. Chief Jay Strongbow (WWF, 8/18/79)

They can't recapture the magic of the July match, but this is still a really good bout that descends into a bloody brawl where both men are throwing chairs at each other outside of the ring. A few things ran through my mind watching this. The first was that it was amusing to me that it was a poor man's Wahoo McDaniel vs. Greg. The second was that I wish Kal Rudman was calling the bout as Vince was shit in this. The third was that as a kid I mostly knew of Valentine as the guy who feuded with the ref Ronnie Garvin and then was tag partners with the Honky Tonk Man. Little did I know that he was the fucking man a decade earlier. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Rick Martel & Tony Garea vs. Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito (WWF, 10/13/81)

I'm not very familiar with WWF TV from this era aside from an angle or two, but this was intriguing for me for a number of reasons. First of all, my parents used to always name drop Rick Martel as someone they remembered from the NWA New Zealand shows they went to when they were dating. Secondly, Garea is announced as being from Auckland, New Zealand, which the ring announcer has a tough time pronouncing since us Kiwis don't pronounce the "au" sound the same way that Americans do. I kind of wish that this match had happened seven or eight years later, as us Kiwi kids would have gotten a kick out of it. We did get the Bushwhackers, I suppose, even if one of them was Australian. Masa Saito had to have been a top 5 Japanese wrestler at this point (no less than top 10), while the only time I ever saw Fuji wrestle was when he was a manager. There's not much difference to be honest. Just at this point he had an amazing partner. 

All of these factors made for an intriguing television bout. The end result was a fun television bout on par with the offerings from other territories. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Rick Martel & Tony Garea vs. Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito (WWF, 10/19/81)

Another fun bout. The contrast between Fuji and Saito is interesting. Fuji belongs to the lineage of Japanese-Hawaiian wrestlers that we first saw in the 50s while Saito belongs to the first generation of really good Japanese workers. Their pairing works nicely with Fuji doing the stooging and Saito doing the grunt work. It's a half-hearted tag match in terms of structure, but Martel brings plenty of fire. He would have made a great intercontinental champion if you ask me. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito vs. SD Jones & Tony Atlas (WWF, 11/14/81)

I wasn't sure what SAMS was talking about during the beginning of this match, but man, once Atlas bleeds, this gets REALLY good. It's a heck of a bladejob for the era, and it leads to a huge dramatic conclusion where SD Jones takes on Fuji and Saito by himself until Atlas makes the save with a bloodied rag around his head. I have no idea where this spectacle came from. Rudman was marking out like it was real. Fun stuff. 

[SAMS]

I'm might be a little overzealous with my praise for Fuji and Saito. I'm not sure whether it's because I'd only ever come across Fuji as a manager in the 90s and I expected him to be terrible, so in contrast he seems like a super worker. Or that the other heel teams in WWF were actually pretty terrible, so again in contrast they look amazing. Either way I'm sticking by what I said: best tag team in the world for '81! haha

Anyway, the match above really resonated with me, both because it came out of nowhere and because it sort of achieves everything I would want out of a match between these two teams. Add in the Spectrum, fast becoming my favourite wrestling venue, and of course Kal, and it all just works for me personally.

[ohtani's jacket]

Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito vs. Rick Martel & Tony Garea (WWF, 11/29/81)

I kind of expected Martel and Garea to win the tag belts back in quick succession, but I've since learned that Fuji and Saito held onto them for a lengthy period of time. This was an interesting match in the sense that instead of teasing the faces winning back the belts, it felt like the door had shut on them. Fuji was becoming increasingly devious and Saito looked awesome beating on Garea. Martel didn't get to unleash the way that he or the fans would have wanted. Garea was solid as the beatdown victim. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Pat Patterson vs. Sgt. Slaughter (WWF, 4/18/81)

I'm not even sure I knew his match existed before but this is a heck of a Spectrum match. Slaughter does a brilliant job of jawing with the fans at ringside. He calls a couple of them maggots then mocks their attempts to front him. He beats Pat up a bit then threatens to jump from the top turnbuckle to the floor, which of course he was never going to do. Once he gets Pat n the Cobra Clutch, the crowd shout "Gomer!" at him. Then they transition nicely into Sarge trying to jump off the top rope in the ring and damaging his leg. Patterson tries to take advantage of Slaughter's miscue with a figure four and Slaughter gets himself DQ'ed instead of tapping. After the bout there's a great interview with Pat where Kal has his arm draped over him and Pat is cutting a promo about how much he wants to hurt Slaughter. This pro-wrestling 101 as taught by Sgt. Slaughter and Pat Patterson.

[ohtani's jacket]

Pat Patterson vs. Sgt. Slaughter (WWF, 5/4/81)

This is a match I've always struggled to get into, and even immersed in the culture as I have been, it's still a match that doesn't do a lot for me. In fact, I like the April a lot more than the Alley Fight. The finish is great with Slaughter bleeding like a stuck pig and Patterson attacking him with his cowboy boot, but the beginning of the fight isn't violent enough and I don't believe that the Slaughter bladejob is earnt. There's too much smoke and mirrors stuff with the belt and Patterson's shirt, and they don't tease the Cobra Clutch at all, which I thought was a mistake. The WWF was never very good at these no holds barred matches during this era, and while this is the probably the best one they ran, I'm still not a huge fan.