wrestling / Video Reviews

The Name on the Marquee: WWF TV (4.28.1984)

September 14, 2013 | Posted by Adam Nedeff
7.9
The 411 Rating
Community Grade
12345678910
Your Grade
Loading...
The Name on the Marquee: WWF TV (4.28.1984)  

WWF CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING

-Originally aired April 28, 1984.

-Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Gene Okerlund.

TITO SANTANA (Intercontinental Champion) vs RENE GOULET
-Rene slaps Tito across the face with the ominous glove to start, and when Tito starts to show a little fire, Goulet backs away and complains about hair-pulling. Just because you’re a jobbert doesn’t mean you have to be anonymous. You can still do shit like that and look like a star. And an asshole.

-Tito applies an armbar, and follows with a fireman’s carry takedown while hanging onto the armbar. Monkeyflip by Goulet is countered by Tito and then Tito shoves Goulet into the corner, where the referee happens to be standing. We have the rarest of rare occurances, a ref bump in a squash match. Crowd screams and stands up, waiting to see a shocking turn of events happen, but the referee fully revives before anything happens. I actually like that; it looks more believable when the referee is bumped and something DOES happen now.

-Goulet applies a headlock, but Tito snapmares out of it. Monkeyflip and an armdrag by Tito, and he goes back to the armbar. Goulet gets free and Tito gets aggressive. Kicks and chops by Goulet. Tito fires back and hits a backdrop. Goulet tries to make a comeback but makes the fatal mistake of sending Tito into the ropes, and the flying forearm connects, giving Tito the three-count. Hell of a match!

UPDATE
-Vince profiles the unusual career of Roddy Piper, the most prolific manager in the WWF and one of the world’s top ten wrestlers in his own right. We take a look back at the day that Andre the Giant was a guest on Piper’s Pit.

“Mister Wonderful” PAUL ORNDORFF & “Dr. D” DAVID SCHULTZ vs PETE SANCHEZ & SALVATORE BELLOMO
-Orndorff and Schultz are suspiciously Piperless. “Paula” chant thoroughly enrages Orndorff and he meets Bellomo coming off the ropes with a dropkick. Bellomo gets double-teamed and tags in “the veteran Sanchez.” It’s a miracle that a generation of wrestling fans didn’t grow up totally misunderstanding the meaning of the word “veteran,” because thinking that it means “cannon fodder” would be understandable.

-Schultz applies a chinlock, turns it into a front facelock, and holds on while Orndorff comes off the second rope with an axehandle. Bellomo tags back in and manages to take control with punches and an Irish whip. He charges, Orndorff raises the knee, and Bellomo comes to a screeching halt and tags Sanchez. The heels are just pissed now, and Schultz slams Sanchez into place and comes off the second rope with the elbow to get the pin.

SGT. SLAUGHTER (with Pvt. Terry Daniels) vs TIGER CHUNG LEE
-Tiger backs Sarge into the ropes, teases a clean break, and then fires a shot right into the throat. That just pisses Slaughter off. Sarge goes to work with elbows and boots. Detail I just noticed: The back of Sarge’s singlet is held together by three straps, resembling three stripes for a sargeant. If that’s on purpose, that’s pretty clever.

-Chunger goes to work with chops and turnbuckle shots. Sarge gets pissed again and rakes his fingers across Lee’s back. Stomachbreaker by Slaughter and a double-boot to the abs. Elbow off the ropes as Slaughter keeps targeting the stomach. Lee goes to the eyes to fend off Sarge. Slaughter sees a kick coming and holds onto Lee’s foot, and connects with the Slaughter Cannon to get the three-count.

PIPER’S PIT
-Piper welcomes Captain Lou Albano, who says that Piper’s skills as a manager and a wrestler. Piper says that Cyndi Lauper is an example of what Lou Albano is capable of. Albano says he took her from #100 to #1 with his help in making the music video for “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” They watch the video, including Captain Lou’s cameo.

IRON SHEIK (with Ayatollah Blassie) vs STEVE LOMBARDI
-Massive “Sgt. Slaughter” chant by the crowd, with sloppy execution. The crowd does three-syllable rhythm for the chant because nobody had invented the four syllable/clap-clap-clapclapclap yet.

-Lombardi gets a sunset flip early on for a one-count. Sheik gets pissed and tosses Lombardi out to the floor, where Blassie taunts him by poking his head with the cane. Slam straight down on the concrete by Sheik. Sheik brings him back into the ring and spits on him. Back suplex by the Sheik, and he finally puts Lombardi out of his misery with the camel clutch. Unbelievable heat for the Sheik, who actually managed to become a bigger star AFTER losing the World Title in a virtual squash.

IVAN PUTSKI vs ISRAEL MATIA
-Big slam by Putski. Backdrop and a hiptoss follow, and the bald Matia complains about hair-pulling. Gene Okerlund marvels about the put-together package of Ivan Putski. Matia gets some token offense until Putski finishes very abruptly with the Polish hammer.

WWF ALL-STAR WRESTLING

-Your hosts are Vince McMahon & Gene Okerlund.

NON-TITLE: TITO SANTANA (Intercontinental Champion) vs. “Dr. D” DAVID SCHULTZ
-Kind of surprising to see this match lead off on the weekend TV show. Tito gets the early advantage with a hammerlock. Schultz makes it to the ropes, which Vince says is not a very sportsmanlike way to break a hold. Seriously?

-Test of strength and Schultz backs into the ropes to force the break, leading Vince to speculate that Schultz backed into the ropes to force the break. Thanks, Vince.

-Armbar by Schultz, who simultaneously drives a knee into Tito’s face.Tito manages to get an Irish whip and clubs Schultz down as he bounces off the turnbuckles. Kneedrop by Tito gets two. Shoulderblock by Tito. He goes for another one, but Schultz dodges and sends Tito crashing onto the lethal parquet floor. They brawl on the floor until the referee calls for the bell, and it’s a double-countout.

UPDATE
-This week, Vince looks at the Iron Sheik and his vicious camel clutch. He and Freddy Blassie reportedly took a lavish trip to New York City and went on a shopping spree. Vince notes that a flock of pigeons “made a deposit” on Sheik’s new Rolls Royce.

PRINCESS VICTORIA vs COWGIRL WENDI RICHTER
-Wendi is still heel and chatters during her match Iron Mike Sharpe-style. Headscissors by Richter; Victoria gets free and they roll around trading chokeholds and steamrolling the referee, which gets a mega-pop from the crowd.

-Referee breaks them up and forces them into their corners to basically restart the match. Clothesline and a splash by Richter. She grabs Victoria’s pigtails and uses them to choke her. Victoria fires back with a side headlock, and Richter immediately screams, “Choke! Choke! Choke!” to get the referee’s attention. Referee won’t break it, so Wendi breaks it with a back suplex. She drops Victoria throat-first across the top rope and surfboards her. Victoria sweeps the leg to get a breather.

-Tombstone piledriver by Richter only gets two, surprisingly. Side headlock by Richter. Victoria dodges a charge and Richter comes to a stop, steps through the ropes, and falls off the apron onto the floor. Yes, it looked as bad as it sounded.

-Back in the ring, Victoria gets a double chop off the ropes. Richter goes to the second rope and tries to connect with an elbow, but Victoria ducks, Richter crashes, and Victoria rolls her up for three. Richter complains post-match about pulling the tights, and the crowd gives her a hilarious sarcastic “Awwwww” as she walks away.

B. BRIAN BLAIR vs ISRAEL MATIA
-Pretty basic mat wrestling to start, and Blair wins that battle with a side headlock. Front facelock by Blair, and that’s as much as the fans will put up with because we get a nice, hostile “boring” chant going. Matia backs him into a corner and rams him to break the hold. Blair fights him off with forearms and goes back to the side headlock, getting the “boring” chant revving back up. Addominal stretch roll-up gets the three-count.

-We take a look at Slaughter and Piper’s Pit from Championship Wrestling.

“Mister Wonderful” PAUL ORNDORFF vs SALVATORE BELLOMO
-Orndorff gets control early on, but misses a charge and goes elbow-first into the turnbuckles. Dropkick by Bellomo dazes Orndorff, but Orndorff fights back with a forearm and a facelock. Roddy Piper abruptly shows up mid-match to show support. Bellomo mounts a comeback, but runs into a high knee. Orndorff tosses Bellomo to the floor and Piper provides the distraction while Orndorff sneaks up with a boot to the head.

-Back inside, Bellomo targets the stomach and it causes Orndorff to retreat. Bellomo comes off the second rope with a bodypress, but Orndorff rolls through and turns it into a roll-up for three.

IVAN PUTSKI vs TONY COLON
-Putski works the arm. Colon fights him off with punches, but they just piss off Putski, and he throws a shot that sends Colon to the floor. Polish hammer finishes a short time later.

The 411: Interesting week, as they seem to be tinkering with their formula, going more the NWA route with longer, competitive jobber matches. The nice part was they finally stumbled into a sense of pacing that worked, limiting it to one match per segment, instead of clustering two matches and a Piper's Pit into an eight-minute frame. Good week!
 
Final Score:  7.9   [ Good ]  legend

article topics

Adam Nedeff

Comments are closed.