WWWF All-Star Wrestling Review 10-14-78

Featuring SABU!!!

WWWF ALL-STAR WRESTLING 10-14-78

All-Star Wrestling is taped from the Fieldhouse in Hamburg, Pennsylvania.
Taping date is October 11, 1978.  Your announcer is Vince McMahon

A certain site with incorrect information would have you believe Bruno Sammartino joined for commentary on this episode, but that’s simply not the case. Surprise, Surprise, Surprise. #Gomer

MATCH #1: DINO BRAVO VS. MOOSE MONROE

Referee is Dick Woehrle. Monroe getting his usual “MOOSE” calls from the crowd. Dino out wrestles the Moose early and often, though Monroe himself has some impressive strength. Bravo with a jackknife pin for 2. A nice kneelift and an inside cradle gets another near fall, but the Moose kicks out. Monroe finally powers Bravo back into a corner and lays in some shots. Dino fires up out of nowhere and a single punch floors Monroe! Bravo with the dropkick, and the Airplane Spin ends this in 6:19.

Winner is Dino Bravo

Notes: A typical squash match. You know the drill.

MATCH #2: SPIROS ARION & VICTOR RIVERA (w/FRED BLASSIE) VS. LARRY ZBYSZKO & SPECIAL DELIVERY JONES

Referee is John Stanley. Arion and SD will start. Jones does an odd spot where he runs the ropes alongside Arion but then abruptly stops. They go nowhere, which leads to Rivera and Larry tagging in. Zbyszko flips Rivera around with a series of armdrags and Victor quickly tags back out to the Iron Greek. Larry and Spiros trade Full Nelsons and top wrist locks before Arion forces Larry into the heel corner and Rivera tags back in. Victor is almost immediately pinned with a Zbyszko sunset flip, but he manages to kick out on 2 and a half and once again tag back out as quickly as he tagged in.

It’s Arion and Jones now. The heels work over Jones in their corner for a moment before SD no sells a turnbuckle smash. CUMMON Rivera, don’t you know by now SD has a hard head. Jones fights back and tags to Larry Land. Zbyszko is a house-o-fire on both heels, but Arion gets the worst of it. Rivera goes to Larry’s eyes and works him over in the corner. Victor with a backdrop and a knee drop but doesn’t cover. Instead, Arion tags back in as the heels continue to double team Larry in their corner. Blassie even joins in for a triple team.

Larry catches a boot from Arion and sends Spiros down. HOT TAG to SD Jones. SD explodes with a series of jabs and headbutts, one sends Rivera flying over the top rope to the floor. SD with a near fall on Arion. Tag back to Zbyszko, and Larry hooks Arion in the Abdominal Stretch!!! But Rivera is in to break it up! And the heels take back over.

Double gut buster on Zbyszko, Rivera covers but SD Jones is over to stop the pin. Victor sends Zbyszko out to the floor and into the “iron ring post” to quote Vince McMahon. Larry pulls Rivera outside to the floor and returns the favor by sending Victor face first into the post! Arion tries to interfere but fails.

Back in the ring, Zbyszko & Rivera crack heads in a collision. Larry is first to tag in SD Jones. SD with a high backdrop on Rivera! Jones tries a second backdrop but Rivera is ready with a big kick. The heels with a double bodyslam on Jones, and Rivera hits some sort of a jumping stomp but lands gingerly on his ass. WTF? No matter what it was supposed to be, that’s all it takes to pin SD Jones after 9:34.

Vince wants to know why the referee allowed the heels to double team near the end of the match. Oh that Vince, trying to make sense of things like logistics.

Winners are Rivera & Arion

Notes: Nothing to write home about, but I like Rivera and Arion a lot better here as a team. By this stage in their careers they’ve slowed down but as a team they were able to show more aggression and made a good heel team here. Perfectly fine match for TV and we got a real finish, which is always a plus. They finally find something that works for Arion and he’s going to be gone by Christmas. Irony for the Iron Greek.

RINGSIDE INTERVIEW WITH FRED BLASSIE, SPIROS ARION, VICTOR RIVERA

Fred Blassie thinks Rivera and Arion will be the next Tag Team Champions. Rivera speaks some Spanish. Arion calls their match a walk in the park. Arion says he’s an Iron Greek, and Rivera is a Puerto Rican made of steel. Blassie doesn’t forget to rip on the ringside fans, mentioning that a father and son share the same set of teeth. Freddie tries to make a joke about Ivan Putski’s height but fails miserably. Vince calls Freddie absurd. McMahon thinks Blassie is still upset that Bob Backlund chose Arnold Skaaland for his manager and not Blassie.  Freddie refutes that statement. The fans cheer for Skaaland’s name, so Blassie says the fans are all Arnie’s family. Freddie leaves us with this “You spell Blassie’s charm M-O-N-E-Y!”. Well, then.

MATCH #3: “RUSSIAN BEAR” IVAN KOLOFF (w/LOU ALBANO) VS. JOHNNY RINGO

Koloff tears right into Ringo and is relentless as he hammers him into the mat with elbows, knees, and whatever else he chooses. Ringo tries to fight back with an Irish whip but does a lousy job of following it up and eats a boot for his troubles. Koloff briefly works a bearhug before he continues to beat down on Ringo on the mat. A flying knee drop off the top ends it after 4:52.

Winner is Ivan Koloff

Notes: Another typical squash. That doesn’t make it bad, it just makes it a squash. I love Ivan’s aggression and realism he brings to most of his offense.

MATCH #4: TONY GAREA VS. THE GREAT SABU

Nope, this is not the Sheik’s nephew, nor is it Cocoa Samoa. This is yet another incarnation of the Sabu name used by an enhancement talent. Most people don’t realize that the name Sabu is taken from a famous Indian actor from the 30’s – 50’s who made a name for himself in Hollywood under the Sabu character. Story goes the Sabu we all know best from ECW fame, Terry Brunk, was given the name “Sabu” by his uncle the Sheik, because the Sheik really enjoyed the old movies. How’s that for your tidbit of useless information for the day?

Okay, so there’s a match in the ring. Tony keeps full control of Sabu on the mat for the first couple of minutes with armlocks and such. Sabu tries to come back by grabbing Garea’s arm, but he seemingly has no idea what to do with it, and Tony is right back on top with “tremendous” moves like a side headlock and a waist lock. Sabu finally comes fight back with a series of kicks. Sabu with an irish whip and follows up with an AWFUL punch. Tony cuts him off after that atrocious attempt at offense and what happens next is just as bad…

I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that Sabu had NO CLUE how to hit the ropes, or how God awful Garea’s shitty dropkick was. It’s like he tried to jump up and touch Sabu as fast as he could before catching himself on the mat. He literally lands on both hands and a foot.

So after that crap spot, Tony scoops Sabu up in a slam and falls down on top of him with it. Vince calls it a “powerslam”. I’d use that term loosely. Garea wins with a friggin’ body slam in 5:03.

Winner is Tony Garea

Notes: Garea bored us with his mat basics early and often and then when it came time to pick up the tempo Sabu looked completely lost. Garea then followed that up with a ridiculous looking dropkick and a bodyslam to end it. And then there’s that stupid hair and forearm tattoo. No thank you.

MATCH #5: CRUSHER BLACKWELL (W/THE GRAND WIZARD) VS. SYLVANO SOUSA

Referee is Dick Woehrle. I love Woehrle’s pre-match look in this pic with Sousa. It’s like Dick is saying “you have no f**king chance”. After Crusher helps the Wiz over the top rope to the apron, Blackwell and Wizard stall as they talk things over. Woehrle makes Crusher get to the wrestling. Blackwell ambushes Sousa and just mauls him with an awesome looking Avalanche in the corner.

Blackwell crushes Sylvano’s face with his knee. With Sousa on the apron, Blackwell runs Sylvano into the corner buckle and down to the floor.

Back inside the ring, Crusher delivers a huge kneedrop and a running elbow drop that he also gets nice height on. Blackwell yanks Sousa up off the mat at the count of 2 after both moves and receives a warning from Woehrle. Blackwell steps on the chest of Sylvano and walks across him. Oof. Fistdrop on Sousa, but again Blackwell yanks him up on the count of 2. Running Powerslam finally puts Sousa out of his misery in 3:21. See, now that’s a powerslam.

Winner is Crusher Blackwell

Following the match Sylvano is being stretchered out of the ring, but Blackwell drops another elbow for good measure before the referees can get Sousa out of the ring.

Notes: A solid squash with Blackwell continuing to deliver impressive moves for a guy his size. I have no doubt is Blackwell could have maintained his health during the Rock & Wrestling era, or had 1978 Blackwell been around in 1985/1986, Vince would have easily plugged him into the WWF. Crush may not have been the tallest heel in wrestling, but his mass still dwarfed most and he was an incredible talent.

Closing Thoughts: This episode didn’t deliver anything special but it was still a step up from the other more recent episodes. All of the matches felt like acceptable TV matches, whether they were squashes or the tag team feature with Rivera & Arion. Speaking of which, I actually enjoyed Spiros and Victor Rivera as a team here, it worked for me. They were big enough names and good enough heels that their lack of offense didn’t hurt as much as a team. I would have liked to seen them get a run, but Arion was soon out of the territory and for the most part out of the business. The only thing on this show that was downright bad was the Garea vs. Sabu match. There’s a reason Tony was stuck in the tag team scene all those years.