OJ's WWWF/WWF thread

[ohtani's jacket]

Pat Patterson vs. Sgt. Slaughter (WWF, 8/1/81)

I'm not sure why they ran the Alley Fight in Philly three months after the New York bout, but I thought this was a much better bout. The build was smarter and they used better transitions. The chokes came latter in the bout and somebody remembered the Cobra Clutch. It was the same basic finish with Slaughter's bladejob and the cowboy boots, and that was probably more shocking in New York, but add the mutant Philly fans at ringside and Dick and Kal doing a better job of calling the match than Vince, and I give it to the Spectrum. 

Now, if you took the body of the match from Philly and added the finish from New York, you'd get the Dr. Frankenstein version of the bout. 

[Ricky Jackson]

I need to watch that one again. I've only seen it once, about 10 years ago. I rewatched the April Philly match recently and really liked it.

I've also often wondered why there was such a gap between the first match and the Alley Fight in Philly (3 1/2 months). The Backlund main events on the May and June shows were nothing major (Mosca, Steele) and drew poorly, so it's not like they had a hot title program that couldn't wait and were intentionally saving the Alley Fight for later

[Chess Knight]

I don't think I've watched that Philly one, and the last time I watched the MSG one I still thought it was really good but also felt a little flat in the middle for some reason. Maybe I'll like the Philly one more too.

[ohtani's jacket]

Andre the Giant & Tony Garea vs. Sgt. Slaughter & Moondog Rex (WWF, 4/18/81)

This was fun, to an extent. It would have made more sense if it had set up the Slaughter vs. Andre singles match since the result left everyone frustrated. The faces were frustrated, the crowd was frustrated, the ref was frustrated, this viewer was frustrated. Andre clearing house after the shitty finish wasn't the same as Andre clearing house in a live match. 

[ohtani's jacket]

Pat Patterson vs. Sgt. Slaughter (WWF, 4/6/81)

Here's another Patterson/Slaughter match I didn't know existed prior to the Alley Fight. This has some really good brawling in it. I'm not really a Patterson guy but he was fantastic in this. He went after Slaughter like a man possessed and manhandled the ref as well. There was a great shot of a woman cheering Pat on during the figure four spot. The Cobra Clutch sequence wasn't as good as the Philly bout, but chalk this up as another bout I prefer to the Alley Fight. I really think they missed a trick not using some of these spots in the Alley Fight. 

Incidentally, I used to think the MSG matches were the pinnacle of this era of WWF and that Philly was the leftovers. I was hugely impressed by solo Vince the first time I heard him commentate late 70s matches. However, I'm starting to enjoy Dick & Kal a hell of a lot more than solo Vince. During the bout, I kept wondering how Kal would react to the action. We talk about stock rising and falling... Kal Rudman may end up being the biggest mover once it's all said and done. 

[Ricky Jackson]

That's one of the great things about this era, New York and Philly each have their own flavor. Dick and Kal, plus the camera work, which employed more close ups and ringside filming, gave the Spectrum shows a different vibe. MSG just feels important, like a game at Yankee Stadium. Vince solo isn't always great here, especially in the 70s, when he would just not talk for several minutes at a time. I think his best work from this time is actually his selling of big angles on the weekly TV. Another plus is you often get slightly different matchups at each arena, like the great Larry Z vs Putski feud in Philly 

[ohtani's jacket]

Pat Patterson vs. Ken Patera (WWF, 4/21/80)

Well, I thoroughly enjoyed this. Is this the first great Intercontinental Title match in WWF history? Granted, it was a lot better when Patterson was on top as opposed to the brief moments where Patera was in charge, but that's okay. Patera was an excellent bumping stooge for a guy his size and Patterson was an amazing offense seller for a guy who had an incredibly limited repertoire. Patera's win was cheap, but I suspect that was part of the strategy. He could have easily controlled long portions of the match if they'd wanted him to look like a killer. 

[JerryvonKramer]

Incidentally, if OJ ever gets to the "Battle of Atlantic City" (Andre / DiBiase vs. Scicluna / Jerry Valiant (7/26/79)), I've been sporadically writing in a question to DiBiase's podcast asking 1. Why they booked Atlantic City, 2. Why it was taped and aired.

 

This remains a complete mystery. I recall it being better than it had any right to be.

[ohtani's jacket]

Pat Patterson vs. Ken Patera (WWF, 12/29/80)

I wish we'd gotten more from this feud, but Patera went on to challenge Backlund immediately after winning the IC title. This had the makes of a decent scrap, however the card appeared to have gone long and they had to work an 8 minute bout as a result. Not exactly the return match I was looking for.