WWWF: Championship Wrestling
January 28, 1978
Philadelphia, PA
Philadelphia Arena

Your current WWWF champions are as follows:
WWWF Heavyweight Champion: Superstar Billy Graham (4/30/1977)
WWWF World Tag Team Champions: Mr. Fuji & Professor Toru Tanaka (9/27/1977)

Pop Culture #1s:
#1 Movie of the Week: Saturday Night Fever starring John Travolta
#1 Song of the Week: Baby Come Back by Player
#1 TV Show of 77-78 Season: Laverne & Shirley starring Penny Marshall & Cindy Williams

Your host is Vince McMahon.

• Mil Mascaras vs. Ted Adams
  

Bob Backlund had been appearing in the corner of Mil Mascaras at MSG for the last two months as Mascaras had been wrestling the WWWF champ Superstar Billy Graham. Backlund and Graham started brawling during their last match on January 23 to award Superstar the match via DQ and now Backlund is on his way to a WWWF title match on February 20. In other action throughout this week, Superstar Billy Graham goes down to the Orange Bowl in Miami to meet the NWA world champ Harley Race in a 2/3 falls match. Anyways, Mascaras outwrestles Adams and submits him to a rowboat surfboard hold for the win in 5:33.

• Handicap Match: Ken Patera vs. Mike Madera & Dennis Johnson
  

Patera handles these ham-and-eggers pretty handily. He slams them on top of each other and pins them in 2:44.

• Baron Mikel Scicluna vs. SD Jones
  

Jones is too quick for Scicluna’s fists and headbutts the man down. Boy, those black man headbutts will destroy you. Scicluna finally goes low to take control and chokes him in the ropes, but Jones fights back and headbutts Scicluna to the floor. Jones gets pulled out to the floor and they both get counted out at 3:14.

• Bob Backlund vs. Jose Estrada
  

Backlund is now the #1 contender to the WWWF title. McMahon says the tag match between Fuji and Tanaka against Strongbow and Maivia was supposed to go on next, but that Freddie Blassie got them to change the match for the end of the show. That Blassie has done it again! Total headlocks and headscissors match for Backlund. The ATOMIC DROP ends Estrada in 4:36.

• Spiros Arion (w/Freddie Blassie) vs. Frank Williams
  

Spiros Arion had recently made his return to the WWWF area. His career certainly hasn’t been the same since his Greek Death match with Bruno in April 1975. CANADIAN BACKBREAKER takes care of Williams in 3:43.

• Mr. Fuji & Professor Toru Tanaka vs. High Chief Peter Maivia & Chief Jay Strongbow
  

This is a non-title match. Tanaka kills some time with the whole salt routine. While Strongbow is trying to protest, Tanaka thumbs Maivia in the eye. Whatever he had in his hand, Fuji now hides it in his tights. Some great heel work from Fuji and Tanaka. They keep Maivia in their corner and choke the life out of him. They do a couple false-tag spots as Maivia gets dragged back over to the Japanese corner. CAN MAIVIA ESCAPE THE NERVE HOLD? When Maivia fights up, Fuji punches him into a hot tag to Strongbow. Knowing you can’t let Strongbow have an opening, Fuji works him over in the Japanese corner and tries to repeat the process. Maivia has enough of their double-teaming and comes to help out. Strongbow and Fuji brawl on the floor while Maivia keeps Tanaka in the ring. Looks like the crowd might be getting out of hand here. Fuji and Tanaka get ran into each other and it looks like the good guys are on their way to a victory when Fuji rakes something from his tights across the eyes of Strongbow. They keep Strongbow in the nerve hold, but Fuji and Tanaka keep cutting off the tag. Strongbow comes back with knee lifts and ends up going SLEEPERHOLD CRAZY on the heels. The hot match continues as we completely run out of time. BLASSIE, YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD. (15:20 shown) This was a fantastic look at the work of Mr. Fuji and Professor Tanaka. They just did every trick in the book on Maivia and Strongbow to keep them down and never really gaining any advantage. Even though on the surface it looked like they were going back to the same nerve hold to keep the good guys down, it never felt boring and always felt dramatic. That’s not the word I’m looking for. Anyways, great stuff here. ***¼

We will keep going in February as I have the 2/4/78 episode of Championship Wrestling. Stars include: Tony Garea, Nikolai Volkoff, (the WWWF debut of) Dino Bravo, more of Mr. Fuji and Professor Tanaka, and the rematch between SD Jones and Baron Mikel Scicluna!

Until next time, so long for now.