The Name on the Marquee: WWF Championship Wrestling (08.04.1984)

-Originally aired August 4, 1984.

-Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Tony Garea.

-Total running time is 32 minutes, so this is unmistakably an incomplete episode.

“Mister Wonderful” PAUL ORNDORFF vs SALVATORE BELLOMO
-Nuclear heat for Orndorff. Bellomo backs him into the corner and applies a hammerlock. Orndorff gets free and rams Bellomo into the buckle. Bellomo reverses an Irish whip and hiptosses Orndorff, who heads out for a breather.

-Back in, Orndorff goes right to the eyes and then tosses Bellomo to the floor. Orndorff goes crazy on Bellomo outside, slamming him leg-first onto a table and ramming him into the steps.Orndorff faceplants Bellomo. Bellomo throws a few weak kicks but Orndorff is absolutely dominating him and the kicks, zey do nutzing.

-Orndorff whips Bellomo into the ropes, but Bellomo reverses it and meets him with a dropkick. He tries another move, but Orndorff catches him and stunguns him. Elbow finishes.

GREG “The Hammer” VALENTINE vs B. BRIAN BLAIR
-Predictably good scientific exhibition. They trade holds and go to a stalemate. Blair applies a wristlock as Vince notes that both men are wearing black tights, so it might be difficult to tell them apart. And if one of them decides to call himself Ax and the other calls himself Smash, then we’ll just have total chaos, won’t we?

-They trade elbows until Blair goes back to the arm. Turnabout’s fair play and now Valentine works the arm, applying a stepover on the arm and then falling backward with it. He hangs on and makes it a hammerlock. Blair fights his way to his feet and runs a circle around the ring while Greg holds onto the hammerlock, until finally he uses the momentum to force Greg to ram himself into the corner.

-Valentine attempts a suplex, but Blair counters it by turning it into a roll-up. Valentine reverses the roll-up and gets the win, and Vince notes that because they’re both wearing black tights, he can’t tell which one of them won.

-We go to MSG and watch highlights of the Moolah-Richter title change.

UPDATE
-Sgt. Slaughter recently visited West Point in his camouflage Cadillac. He takes a boat ride and watches the restoration of the Statue of Liberty while he’s at it.

-Rowdy Roddy Piper voices his disgust about the Ladies’ Title change. We go to MSG again and see the post-match party, where Cyndi Lauper puts Wendi Richter over as a strong woman with new ideas. Rowdy Roddy is irate about how completely unfair and wrong the decision was. He vows to get the change reversed and promises to deliver next week.

NON-TITLE: HULK HOGAN (WWF Champion) vs GENTLEMAN JERRY VALIANT
-Hulk dodges a punch the first time, but Valiant connects with a series of blows after that. He attempts to ram Hulk into the turnbuckle, and NOW Hulk comes to life, reversing it and giving Valiant a right hand of his own.

-Valiant tries a nerve hold. Hulk hulks up without even giving his usual courtesy arm drops first. He punches Valiant hard enough to get himtangled into the ropes. Clothesline and an elbow by Hogan. Bodyslam puts Valiant into position, and the legdrop finishes.

The 411: Getting into a groove! We're finally seeing the launch of Wendi Richter, with Piper throwing in some incentive to watch next week. And we got a decent couple of matches live in the arena, too. Thumbs up.
Final Score:  6.9   [ Average ]