The SmarK 24/7 Rant for Showdown At Shea Stadium (August 1980)
– This show is crazy rare, with only select matches having been aired on TV before this, but of course 24/7 is awesome so here it is in full.
– Taped from Queens, New York.
– Your hosts are Michael Cole & Mick Foley, since there was no commentary originally recorded. Vince McMahon does handle ring introductions, though.
Jose Estrada v. Angel Marvilla
Marvilla takes him down with a hiptoss and they trade lockup attempts and headlocks as Michael Cole mocks the lack of dress code at ringside back in 1980. He can actually be really funny when Vince isn’t yelling in his ear. Jose grinds on the headlock, but Angel escapes with a dropkick and goes to his own headlock. A dropkick puts Jose over the top, but he recovers with an eyepoke to take over. He misses the charge, however, and Angel slugs him down and hits a flying headbutt to finish at 7:24. Just your standard kick and punch stuff. *1/2 Cole and Foley get in their shots at Vince for missing his announcing cue and his malfunctioning mic.
Baron Mikel Scicluna v. Dominic Denucci
Mick’s deadpan delivery of “The man who would go on to train one of the all-time great superstars in wrestling history…Shane Douglas” is hilarious and it’s nice to hear him so loose and happy on commentary. They trade wristlocks to start and the Baron stomps Denucci down and whips him into the corner, but Dominic takes him down and gets his own stomp. They trade shoulderblocks and Denucci slugs him down for two. More great stuff from Mick as he talks about “the championship title that is worn around the waist which is definitely not a belt”. I’m guessing Vince didn’t review this one before it went to air. Mikel goes for the international object, but Denucci slugs him down as the announcers are just having a grand old time reviewing history and goofing on the match. Denucci finishes with a sunset flip at 5:53. *1/2
WWF Junior title: Tatsumi Fujinami v. Chavo Guerrero
PANDA ALERT! Mick says “the old WWF” on commentary. And so does Cole. I’m scandalized and I feel the market being confused as we speak. They trade hammerlocks to start and Chavo takes Fujinami down with a leglock. Back up and they trade flying headscissors before Fujinami takes him down with an armbar. Fujinami pounds him in the corner with forearms until Chavo falls to the grass, and Fujinami follows with a rare plancha. Chavo responds by tossing him in turn and tries his own dive, but gets caught in the ropes. Give the point to Fujinami there. Chavo wraps him up with a surfboard hold on the mat and then switches to an armbar. He switches it to a hammerlock and handstands in a neat move, then pounds away with forearms in the corner. Fujinami fires back, but Chavo backdrops him out of the corner for two. Chavo shoulderblocks him down, but walks into an airplane spin, which stuns both guys. They both try a dropkick and miss, and Chavo misses a senton. Fujinami tries a suplex, but Chavo rolls him up for two. Fujinami gets his own bridging rollup to finish at 10:31. This was pretty seriously high-tech stuff for 1980, with lots of cool fakeout spots and the dueling rollups to finish. ***1/4
WWF World Martial-Arts title: Antonio Inoki v. Larry Sharpe
Mick questions how pretty the Pretty Boy actually is. Inoki grabs the headlock while Cole & Foley discuss Japanese history and the bizarre title held by Inoki. Sharpe takes him down with the drop toehold, but Inoki makes the ropes. They fight for the hammerlock while Cole makes an offhand “…while the Bee Gees look on from ringside…” in reference to the ring attendants. Awesome. Sharpe controls with a hammerlock on the mat, then pounds Inoki down on the ropes, but he throws the ALI KILLING leg kicks to put Sharpe down, and goes to work on the leg. Sharpe rams him into the turnbuckles to come back, but Inoki puts him down again with chops. A running chop gets two. Sharpe slams him and goes up, but misses an ugly splash and falls victim to the enzuigiri at 8:50. Pretty entertaining, even with Sharpe falling backwards off the move. ***
WWF World tag titles: The Wild Samoans v. Bob Backlund & Pedro Morales
Pedro and Bob trade headlocks on Afa after some stalling to start, and Backlund dodges the charging Samoan while our commentators are having a ball with the crowd at ringside. Backlund hammers away on Afa and adds a backdrop, and the Samoans stop to discuss things with Albano. Over to Pedro, who hammers away but gets caught in the heel corner and double-teamed. He manages to tag Backlund back in, however, and he quickly falls victim to a Vulcan nerve pinch. And we get the quality cheating in the corner with the tag rope, but Bob fights out and makes the hot tag to Pedro. It’s BONZO GONZO and Bob finishes Afa with the atomic drop into a Pedro rollup at 9:48 for the first fall. Cole delightedly points out Vince screwing up the announcement of the first fall, as he mistakenly calls it a title change here but gets corrected by the ref.
The second fall sees Albano slamming Pedro on the floor as the Samoans take control, which leads to the NYPD escorting the Captain to the dressing room. Back in the ring, Sika goes to a nerve hold on Pedro, but Bob tags back in and rams their heads together. Which does nothing. Bob with the abdominal stretch on Afa, into a piledriver for two. He tries the atomic drop on Sika, but Afa slugs him down to break it up. Afa tries the samoan drop, but Pedro dropkicks them over and Bob gets the pin and the titles at 14:40. Sadly, since Bob was already WWF champion, they had to forfeit the belts and the Samoans got them back shortly after. **1/2
Pat Patterson v. Tor Kamata
Kamata jumps him in the corner to start and dropkicks him down, but goes up and misses by a mile. Patterson goes up himself and gets a flying knee for two. He follows with a backdrop and slugs away in the corner, but Kamata tosses the BABY POWDER OF DEATH for the DQ at 2:08, or as called by Vince “one minute and 81 seconds”. Weak. *
Peggy Lee & Kandi Malloy v. Fabulous Moolah & Beverly Shade
Mick notes that Peggy Lee went on to be Peggy Lee Leather, his future touring partner. Huh. Lee attacks Moolah to start and gets thrown around by her hair as a result. Shade works on the arm, as does Moolah, but she gets the tag to Malloy. Many monkey-flips result, but the heels choke her out in the corner until she escapes and makes the hot tag to Peggy Lee. More monkey-flips off that and Lee takes Moolah down with a stepover toehold, but misses a splash and a dropkick. Moolah gets a backdrop to finish at 5:58. A backdrop? Really? *
Intercontinental title: Ken Patera v. Tony Atlas
Atlas slugs away to start and gets a one-footed dropkick to send Patera into the corner, then presses Patera with ease. Patera comes back with a sloppy clothesline and an elbow for two. He rams Atlas into the corner, but being black that has no effect on his head. Atlas comes back with a headbutt and a melodramatic splash for two. He fires away with headbutts as Cole and Foley discuss the exaggerated selling and motions of both guys for the stadium audience. Patera comes back with a necksnap from the apron and gets his own press slam to take over. Mick diplomatically notes how crappy the show has been thus far while Patera gets the spinning full nelson, but Atlas makes the ropes. Patera goes with a straight choke, but Atlas fires back with another headbutt and slugs away while Patera continues his overblown selling for the nosebleed seats. Suplex gets two. Atlas goes with a sleeper, but Patera clotheslines him on the top rope to break, and that gets two. Atlas comes back with a bodypress for two and they slug it out to the floor, but Patera clubs Atlas back in…costing himself the countout loss at 8:10. Mick bitches about the finish and they mock Vince’s announcing job some more. This is some of the most brutally honest announcing I’ve heard and I love it. Good, fun, over-the-top stadium action. ***
Ivan Putski v. Johnny Rodz
Rodz jumps Putski to start and drops an elbow, but Putski headlocks him and fires away, then hits the chinlock. Rodz fights out and knees him down, then drops an elbow for two. Meanwhile Mick tells a funny story about attending the Rodz training camp, then reminisces about the Dudettes as Cole wonders how Mick ever got women to hang out with him. Putski catches Rodz coming off the top and bearhugs him. Rodz escapes but walks right back into the move again, but elbows out of it. He follows with a slam, but misses the big splash and Putski unloads on him and finishes with the Polish Hammer at 4:42. *
The Hangman v. Rene Goulet
Cole and Foley are really funny in their exuberant praise for the match before it even begins (“Pause it if you must, but don’t miss it!”). They don’t even know who the Hangman is, and neither does Wikipedia, so I’m at the end of my resources. He’s not even wearing a mask! What kind of generic heel is that? Hangman works on the arm while Cole & Foley just totally no-sell the match and try to one-up each other with goofy stories about singing karaoke. Then they acknowledge that they’re ignoring the match and go right back to telling the story, which is even funnier. Mick denounces Goulet’s talents as a road agent based on the quality of this match as the armbar just goes on forever. Goulet comes back with a facelock while the announcers move on to reading facts from their notes and trying to tie them into the action, what there is of it. They move on to discussing the definition of “popcorn match” and making fun of the ringside photographers while Goulet moves onto the chinlock to really crank it up. Hangman goes to his own chinlock (“Goulet is going to sleep, like many of the 36000 fans in attendance are…”) while Foley philosophically notes that people watching on 24/7 can fast forward so their commentary will likely never be heard anyway. Goulet goes up and gets slammed off for two, and Hangman follows with a big boot, then drops him on the top rope for the pin at 8:26. Cole is SHOCKED that Goulet would job. Horrible match, HILARIOUS commentary. -**
Andre The Giant v. Hulk Hogan
They must have switched this card around because I KNOW this wasn’t second from the top originally. Hulk starts with the headlock and Andre casually lifts him off the mat, then applies his own headlock. Hulk is unable to overpower him, and Andre surfboards him and throws headbutts, and Hulk can’t wrestle out of it so he forearms out of it instead. That just annoys Andre, and he headbutts Hulk into the corner, but Hulk comes back with a bearhug while Foley gets fixated on Hulk’s hairy back. Andre headbutts out and Hulk bails for some advice from Freddie Blassie. It apparently doesn’t help, as Andre suplexes him back in, but he misses the splash. Hulk pounds away, but Andre hammerlocks him and follows with a slam. Well Hogan would get his receipt 7 years later. The ref gets bumped off that and Hulk jumps Andre from behind and gets his own slam, but Andre splashes him for the shady pin at 7:45, as Hogan clearly kicked out at 2. So in fact both times Andre pinned Hogan, he actually kicked out at two. Weird. Anyway, there you go: Andre was definitely slammed before Wrestlemania III, for those of you still holding onto your childhood memories of the buildup. Mick also mentions that if you attend a BBQ with Harley Race at any point, he’ll likely show you a picture of him slamming Andre as well. *1/2
Steel cage match: Bruno Sammartino v. Larry Zbyszko
The story here is one of the oldest and most effective in wrestling or any other medium, as Bruno mentored the younger Larry until the student decided that he had surpassed the teacher and turned on him. Bruno attacks and chokes him out in the corner to start, then sends him into the cage all over the place and rakes his face into it. Larry goes low and stomps him down, but can’t make it out of the cage, so he rams Bruno into it a few times and tries to climb out. Bruno yanks him down and they slug it out, which goes Bruno’s way. He rams Larry into the cage, but he tries to climb out again and Bruno slams him off the top again. Larry eats the cage a few more times and Bruno chokes him out in the corner, but Larry slugs him down and pounds away in the corner while Mick tells a story about travelling with Larry in later years. Cole wonders how either one ever got a word in edgewise during their trips. Ha! Larry manages to tear open a gash in Bruno’s arm and he tries to walk out, but Bruno yanks him back in again and sends him into the cage. Into the post and Larry does the obligatory blade, so Bruno sends him into the cage a few more times to really give the fans their money’s worth. He kicks Larry in the head one more time, wipes his sweat onto him, and then walks out to win at 15:04. Just a total fight from start to finish. ***1/2
The Pulse:
While the show was historic and stuff and had its moments in the ring, really the reason to watch this one is the awesome commentary from Cole and Foley. They’re loose and having fun and give great background on the time period, plus just it all hang out with some of the most honest commentary I’ve ever heard.
Strongly recommended.
