WWWF: All Star Wrestling
January 10, 1976
Hamburg, PA
Hamburg Fieldhouse

Your current WWWF champions are as follows:
WWWF Heavyweight Champion: Bruno Sammartino (12/10/1973)
WWWF World Tag Team Champions: Louis Cerdan and Tony Parisi (11/17/1975)

Pop Culture #1s of the Time:
#1 Movie of the Week: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest starring Jack Nicholson
#1 Song of the Week: Convoy by C.W. McCall
#1 TV Show of 75-76 Season: All in the Family starring Carroll O’Connor

Follow along if you have the WWE Network!

The following wrestling exhibition requires discretionary viewer participation.

Your host is Vince McMahon and Antonino Rocca. The poor man — I never have any clue what Rocca is actually saying. But hey, it’s ANTONINO ROCCA.

• Bobo Brazil vs. Davey O’Hannon

Pretty cool seeing the crowd swell as they spy Bobo Brazil coming to the ring. Aww, we start off with a handshake. How nice. Vince is shocked to see O’Hannon wrestling so clean. When he doesn’t give Bobo a clean break and delivers a forearm shot to the chest, Bobo gets a little excited. He powers O’Hannon down with a knucklelock. He eventually steps on the hands and twists on the arm, but then O’Hannon goes to the eyes. BOBO IS PISSED. He pounds O’Hannon into the corner and brings him out with a hiptoss. O’Hannon begs off in the corner. They lock up again and Bobo pushes him into a corner and gives him a receipt. He stays on O’Hannon and works a front headlock. O’Hannon punches back on Bobo, but he’s whipped into the ropes for a backdrop. O’Hannon retreats to the apron and gets flipped back inside the ring. He does this odd thing where he pushes Bobo back into the ropes and then chokes him over and over again until Bobo has enough and destroys him with the COCO BUTT for the win. (7:40) After the bell, Vince calls Bobo the U.S. heavyweight champ, which always seemed unclear if that was a “real” thing or something the promotion just labeled Bobo to give him instant credibility with the fans. Of course, it was the major championship in the Detroit territory which was Bobo Brazil’s bread and butter forever, which makes one wonder if they were really ever two separate championships. Just a thought.

• Louis Cyr (w/Freddie Blassie) vs. Pete McKay

Looks to be very early in Louis Cyr’s run in the WWWF. He’s known all over Canada as Gilles Poisson with a strong man gimmick. He works pretty snug with McKay and absolutely dominates him. A nice back suplex leads to a shoulderbreaker for the easy win. (4:32) Afterwards, Blassie distracts the referee while Cyr gives McKay another shoulderbreaker to get some more heat. Louis Cyr will continue to heel it up through the mid-card before heading over to the AWA and then eventually back to Canada for the rest of the his career.

Vince McMahon gets an interview with “Big Cat” Ernie Ladd. He says he didn’t get what he asked for tonight, which was a handicap match against Ivan Putski and Bobo Brazil. The crowd collectively roll their eyes. He really wants Bruno Sammartino on TV so everybody can see him whoop Bruno. When asked who wouldn’t give him the match, Ladd says they wouldn’t accept the match for fear of embarrassment. Ladd really wants to run Bobo Brazil out of town because he’s not a wrestler. He doesn’t feel Bobo Brazil is an athlete because he headbutts people and Ivan Putski isn’t an athlete because he’s muscle head who stays up all night studying for a blood test. HA. He feels Superstar Billy Graham is a REAL athlete. Ivan Koloff is a REAL athlete. The Golden Greek Spiros Arion is a REAL athlete. He calls Dominic DeNucci a stooge for Bruno Sammartino. Bobo Brazil is a stooge and a Uncle Tom for Bruno. He spits on the good guys and then snarls at Vince McMahon. Ladd wants Vince to put on tights and face him, but he dares Vince to NEVER make that mistake. Awesome interview from the Big Cat.

• Ernie Ladd vs. Tito Torres & Sylvano Sousa

Ladd does an AMAZING DOUBLE BEARHUG on these two ham-and-eggers. When Sousa gets punchy, Ladd reaches in his tights and starts using his taped thumb, which Vince believes is fairly sketchy. Speaking of Torres, he takes a questionable bump out to the floor as Ladd delivers the LEGDROP to Sousa for the win in 4:48.

• Louis Cerdan & Tony Parisi vs. Vincente Pometti & Baron Mikel Scicluna

Captain Lou is at ringside talking smack to Cerdan and Parisi and then we never see him again. Scicluna gets taken over with a series of armdrags as Parisi and Cerdan work the arm. Pometti keeps on sticking in his nose into the match to annoy the tag champs. Parisi does a cool flip off Scicluna’s back as he runs the ropes, but then gets grabbed for a slam. He presses Scicluna off him at a two count. Tag to Cerdan, he gets scratched and clawed by Scicluna. Pometti finally gets a tag, but he’s taken over to the wrong side of town where he gets his beard pulled. Of course, here in the WWF the babyfaces can never do wrong even when they cheat. Parisi really looks like John Belushi here. Pometti gets whipped into a forearm smash by Cerdan behind the ref’s back. Parisi then gives Pometti a slam and an elbow drop for the win at 6:03.

• Bugsy McGraw & Crusher Blackwell (w/The Grand Wizard & Freddie Blassie) vs. Kevin Sullivan & Francisco Flores

We’ve seen it before on PDRwrestling, but it’s always strange seeing Kevin Sullivan as a babyface. Flores is advertised by the ring announcer as the Mexican heavyweight champion. This is what I mean about Bobo Brazil. There’s no listing anywhere of him being a champion in Mexico at any time in his career much less in 1976. Anyways, Sullivan starts off against Blackwell. Sullivan uses his speed against Blackwell and manages a nice armdrag on Blackwell. In comes Flores, he twists the arm and hammers on the elbow. Sullivan and Flores then do the switcheroo on Blackwell to get the crowd laughing. Tag to Bugsy, he overpowers Sullivan at every turn until Sullivan catches him coming off the ropes with a chop to the throat. Back to Blackwell, he takes Sullivan over to his corner so that McGraw can get some revenge. He beats and kicks on Sullivan before throwing him to the floor. Sullivan shoulder butts McGraw back, but then gets tied up in the ropes by Blackwell. Blassie wants to give Sullivan a shot, but Flores stands in between them as the ref calls for the bell. (5:38) So Blackwell and McGraw win by countout. They bask in the glory of their victory like they just won the tag titles.

Vince mentions Ivan Putski will take on Bugsy McGraw in the feature match next week. Until then, so long for now!