The SmarK 24/7 Rant for MSG Show – December 19 1977
– OK, this is a bit out of my comfort zone, being that I was only 3 years old at the time and 70s wrestling in general is kind of an acquired taste, but I’ll give it a go. Interestingly, the WWWF was part of the NWA at this time, so you get things like a Harley Race World title match and Dusty Rhodes as a part of the show.
– Taped from MSG
Baron Mikel Scicluna v. SD Jones
Scicluna is actually part of the WWE Hall of Fame for reasons that elude me. Scicluna works the arm to start, but Jones comes back with an arm wringer and holds it for a LONG time. Baron escapes and tries slugging away, but hurts his hand on SD’s head, because he’s black and all. I’d say it was a different time, but I’d just be fooling myself. Jones headbutts him down and goes back to that arm wringer. Baron punches him down and goes to the eyes before choking him out on the ropes, but makes the mistake of ramming SD into the turnbuckle. Because he has a hard head, you see. Jones slugs him down and goes to a chinlock, but Scicluna stomps him down for two. Jones slugs him down for two and goes back to the chinlock. Jones punches him into the ropes and ties him there, and another headbutt has the Baron punch drunk. He recovers and takes Jones down, but Jones stomps him down and goes back to the chinlock again. Say, didn’t they mention this was a 15 minute time limit? I wonder if that will come into play given this blistering pace? Baron boots him down, but misses a kneedrop and Jones gets two. He gives Baron a really shitty looking kneebar of some kind, and even Vince notes how lame it is, but Scicluna keeps kicking out of it. He pounds Jones down for two as this is going nowhere slowly. Slam gets two. They collide for the double count and Jones recovers first, grabbing a headlock, but Scicluna pounds him down and stomps away on the ropes until the time expires.
(Baron Scicluna draw SD Jones, time expires, 15:00, *1/2) Technically fine, just really dull and slow.
NWA World title: Harley Race v. Rick Martel
This is from a show in Australia for some reason. Race gets a slam to start, but Martel rolls him up for two. Martel takes him down with a very dramatic armdrag and armbar. Race hiptosses out of it, but Martel backdrops him and goes back to the arm. This sequence apparently is so exciting that it warrants a replay, and Race drops a knee to break loose and follows with a butterfly suplex for two. Headlock takedown gets two. Race goes to the chinlock, but Martel reverses to a hammerlock and works on the arm. Race slams out of it, but Martel hangs on and rolls through into the hammerlock again in a very nice little sequence. Race finally throws knees on the ropes to break and slams him for two. Martel keeps fighting and slugs away in the corner, but whiffs on a springboard bodypress and Race calmly finishes with a delayed vertical suplex.
(Harley Race d. Rick Martel, suplex — pin, 6:50, ***) Quite the entertaining little match, actually, as Martel was young and full of fire and Race was in his prime.
OK, back to MSG now.
Johnny Rivera v. Butcher Vachon
Johnny is subbing for brother Victor, apparently. Dammit, I wanted to see Victor! Stupid transportation problems. Vachon gets a cheapshot right off the lockup and stomps him down, but Johnny is a feisty midget and fires back at Vachon. Butcher takes him down by the hair and works on the arm, protesting his innocence all the while, but Rivera dropkicks him for two. Vachon goes with the choking to take over again, disguising it as a nerve hold. Rivera slams him for two, but Vachon pulls the hair to escape, and then slickly chokes him out on the mat. Rivera comes back with dropkicks, but Vachon simply moves out of the way and double stomps him for the pin.
(Butcher Vachon d. Johnny Rivera, double stomp — pin, 6:33, *1/2) Pretty much a squash.
Battle of the Managers: Captain Lou Albano v. Arnold Skaaland
Skaaland attacks to start and Albano runs away, but he quickly finds an international object and gains the upper hand. We play “Hide the object” for a bit as a result. The legend of the month on 24/7 is Pedro Morales, and you haven’t lived until you’ve sat through a month of boring-ass Pedro matches, but one of the highlights was a match against Mr. Fuji in 1974, as Fuji put on a CLINIC of concealing a weapon and managing to be searched head-to-toe and never letting the ref see it. It was tremendous. Anyway, Skaaland finally gets the object and sends Albano running to the floor, and he’s had enough for tonight.
(Arnold Skaaland d. Lou Albano, countout, 4:35, DUD) Not like I was expecting much here anyway.
Bob Backlund v. Mr. Fuji
Speaking of Fuji, here he is, oddly enough managed by Freddie Blassie. I’m not used to Fuji being managed by someone. Backlund won the WWWWWWWWWWF title from Superstar Graham in February of 1978, which in the slower moving 70s made this the equivalent of wrestling in the midcard on a PPV and then winning the World title the next night on RAW. Fuji starts with the salt ceremony and then pounds on Backlund off the lockup, which is unusually aggressive for him. He takes Bob down with an armbar and then very politely informs the ref that no hair was involved. Fuji was quite the heel. Backlund gets pissed and pounds out with forearms and a slam, and then dropkicks him into a series of armdrags. He starts working on the arm, but Fuj the Stooge (as Demolition would say) nails him with a chop to the throat and cranks on the neck. He goes to the VULCAN NERVE PINCH OF DEATH and Backlund keeps fighting out of it, then whips Fuji into the ropes, where he gets tangled up. Backlund pounds on him and cranks on the arm for a while. Fuji escapes and tries to go up, but gets slammed off and Backlund dropkicks him to set up the ATOMIC DROP OF DOOM.
(Bob Backlund d. Mr. Fuji, atomic drop — pin, 9:24, **) In all fairness, it was a heck of an atomic drop, lasting several seconds. Blassie’s departure at the beginning of the match leads me to ponder — Back in the day, managers would just come out, draw boos, and then head back to the dressing room after getting the heel some heat. Jimmy Hart was the first guy (according to him) to stick around and annoy the faces and fans at ringside, thus opening up a whole other universe of cheap booking tricks involving outside interference that no one had even thought about before. So is there perhaps some obvious but heretofore un-thought-of twist that could change wrestling again so drastically? Something to think about.
World Wide Wrestling Federation World Wide Wrestling title: Superstar Graham v. Mil Mascaras.
Well, I guess this is our Latino connection for the month. Graham is scary-pumped here, like Scott Steiner levels of steroid. Oddly enough, Grand Wizard asks for and receives special permission to remain at ringside here, “as long as he behaves”. Mascaras attacks after all the brouhaha, and Graham heads to the floor and confer with Wizard. Back in, Mascaras puts him in a surfboard, which Graham is unable to power out of. Finally he makes the ropes and runs away again. Back in, Graham wants the test of strength and Mil is raring to go, taking him down with a headscissors when Billy powers him to the mat. Mascaras goes to the arm and takes him down with an armdrag, and Graham hides in the ropes as a result. Graham tries a full-nelson next, but Mascaras breaks it and gets his own, and Graham is in the ropes again. Back to the full nelson and into an abdominal stretch now, but Graham hiptosses out. Backdrop and dropkick and Graham is on the floor again, as Mascaras teases a highspot but sadly doesn’t deliver. Back in, Graham chokes him out with the wrist tape, but Mascaras suplexes out of it. Graham stomps him down, but Mascaras runs after Grand Wizard on the floor, which is enough for the Wizard to get kicked back to the dressing room. Apparently managers giving advice was illegal at that point. Back in, Mascaras is distracted enough for Graham to whip him into the corner and into the bearhug, but Mascaras slips out and gets his own. Graham barely makes the ropes, then clobbers Mascaras off the break and stomps him down. He goes after the mask, but Mascaras slugs him down before he can get anywhere with it. Graham bails again, so Mascaras rams him into the post, drawing blood. Back in, Mascaras gets the flying headbutt and rams him into the turnbuckle, but the ref stops the match, which has Mascaras and the crowd going nuts.
(Mil Mascaras d. Billy Graham, ref stoppage, 15:30, ***) Stoppage due to blood does NOT change the title, which made this a popular way to screw the fans out of a title change years back. Nice story told here, with Graham having all his stuff reversed and getting increasingly frustrated by his challenger.
Stan Stasiak v. Dusty Rhodes
Dusty is rather svelte at this point, actually. He jukes and jives before getting headlocked, but quickly escapes that. Stasiak tries a hammerlock next, but Dusty reverses to an arm wringer and starts elbowing him. Stasiak punches out of the armbar and sets up for the dreaded heart punch, but Dusty slugs him down and out to the apron. Maybe he should have used a Splotch Punch on Dusty instead, as I’ve long been convinced that that thing is Dusty’s weak point. Stan facelocks Dusty on the mat, but Dusty slugs out of it and hits the chinlock. Nice to know that Dusty sucks no matter what decade you’re watching him in. Stan fights out and tries another heart punch, but Dusty ducks it and goes back to the arm again, which has Stasiak miffed. Stan armbars Dusty again and tries the heart punch again, but Dusty elbows him down and finishes with the elbowdrop.
(Dusty Rhodes d. Stan Stasiak, elbowdrop — pin, 11:25, *) A very slow paced match with nothing really going on storyline-wise.
Toru Tanaka v. Chief Jay Strongbow
Bigtime stall to start before Tanaka starts choking in the corner. Strongbow comes back with chops and a rollup for two. Tanaka chokes him out again and that goes on for a while. Next, we move to the nerve hold to use up more time. Strongbow is filled with the Great Spirit and takes Tanaka down with a leglock as a result. Geez, given the buildup I was expecting something a little more high impact. I guess the gods realized that he wasn’t a real Indian and cut his powers off accordingly. Tanaka chokes away in the corner again, but Strongbow is on the warpath and gets the sleeper, as this match is pretty embarrassing by modern standards of race relations. Just to reinforce that point, Tanaka throws salt at the referee for the cowardly way out.
(Jay Strongbow d. Toru Tanaka, salt — DQ, 11:09, DUD) Both guys were pretty bad, actually.
2/3 Falls: Larry Sharpe & Jack Evans v. Tony Garea & Larry Zbyszko
Sharpe, who was never anything special in the ring, of course made his name as a trainer after he retired. Sharpe whips Garea around to start, but gets hiptossed and slammed for his troubles. Garea slams both heels, and they bail and regroup. Back in, Sharpe and Evans work Garea over in the corner, and Evans takes him down with a side headlock. They criss-cross and trade armdrags, and it’s a stalemate. Over to Larry Sharpe again, and Garea immediately goes after the arm, but gets double-teamed in the corner. Evans pounds away and Sharpe stays on the arm. He drops an elbow for two, and prevents Garea from making the tag. Backdrop and he stomps on the back, but Garea catches him with his head down and finally tags in Larry Z. Larry backdrops Evans and stomps him for the pin and the first fall at 8:19. The second fall begins with Larry working on the arm, but he gets double-teamed in the heel corner and it’s the false tag as a result. Sharpe goes to a chinlock and it’s more double-teaming, but Larry escapes and makes the hot tag to Garea, and it’s a big brawl. It’s the meeting of the minds and Garea slams Evans, but curfew brings a halt to things and the faces win by virtue of being up one fall.
(Garea & Zbyszko d. Evans & Sharpe, referee decision, 13:19, *) One of those inoffensive, dull tag matches with a crowd that was clearly bored and burned out.
The Pulse:
It’s all pretty inoffensive, but don’t expect to be rocked out of your seat or anything.
