WWWF: All Star Wrestling
January 17, 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: I Write the Songs by Barry Manilow
#1 TV Show of the 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 hosts are Vince McMahon and Antonino Rocca. The poor man – I never have any clue what Rocca is actually saying. But hey, it’s ANTONINO ROCCA.

• Superstar Billy Graham (w/The Grand Wizard) vs.  Sylvano Sousa

Wizard puts some wrist bands on Graham and they make a big deal out of trying to make those stretchy wrist bands fit over his HUGE forearms. Graham pounds and stomps the guy until he puts Sousa away with the BEARHUG. (3:34) Can anything stop this man? Perhaps Howdy Doody?

• Ivan Putski vs. Bugsy McGraw (w/The Grand Wizard)

This is the feature bout of the week. Ivan Koloff and Captain Lou Albano are out here causing trouble, so Putski brings him with Louis Cerdan and Tony Parisi to keep those guys under control. They take turns shoving each other off into the corner. The top talent here really makes the most out of nothing in this territory. Of course, they don’t want to give anything good away for free. I get that, too. Bugsy reverses out of a headlock into an overhead wristlock. They kill a good minute or so with this hold until Putski finally powers out. Bugsy takes a nice bump making Putski look like a superman. McGraw then jumps Putski from behind and beats him in the corner. This triggers a bru ha ha that causes a double DQ. (6:32) The fight appears to be a stalemate until BOBO BRAZIL appears and COCO BUTTS the heels out of the ring. You can see policemen escorting the bad dudes to the back, which is pretty cool. Putski gets on the house mic and dares Koloff, McGraw, and Albano (I’m assuming even the Wizard!) to come back and fight. Of course, Putski gets no response. POLISH POWER! ¾*

After the break, we hear from the WWWF tag champs Louis Cerdan and Tony Parisi. Cerdan doesn’t care for all the cheating going around here and he’s not going to stand for it. As for Parisi, he responds to the claims that he and Louis cheated to beat the Blackjacks to win the tag titles. He says they worked hard for their championship and will work hard for the people to continue their success. Cerdan wants to prove to the people they aren’t paper champions by taking on all challengers. He really wants to get his hands on Albano, too. Parisi explains his workout regime – mostly cardio and weights. SHOCKER.

• Louis Cyr (w/Freddie Blassie) vs. Johnny Rivera

Looks like all the heels killed an animal to get their pre-match outfit together. Cyr does a couple judo tosses on Rivera and then hoists him up on his shoulder to use the top rope like a guillotine. Never seen that before. This becomes one of those matches where the guy is beat, but the heel keeps pulling him up off the mat after a two-count. Cyr delivers some nice suplexes and finishes off Rivera with a SHOULDERBREAKER with a knee on the chest in 5:32.

• Ivan Koloff (w/Captain Lou Albano) vs. Pete McKay

Koloff takes McKay down and squeezes on the mid section like he’s Killer Kowalski. Vince asks Rocca if he thinks Ivan Koloff is the same athlete he was five years ago when he beat Bruno Sammartino for the world title. Sounds like Rocca is saying yes, but it’s anybody’s guess. Koloff delivers a rib buster and a series of elbow drops. He pins McKay with a boot on the chest, but lets up McKay so he can deliver the BOMBS AWAY knee drop for the win in 5:12.

• Ernie Ladd vs. Pete Sanchez

Ladd makes fun of the height of Sanchez and drops to his knees to mock him, but then Sanchez is feeling froggy with a standing dropkick and takes Ladd over with an armdrag. Ladd complains that Sanchez pulled the trunks, which is great stuff. Sanchez catches Ladd with another armdrag, but once again Ladd complains to the ref. They lock up and Sanchez gets cornered, but ducks under a shot and dropkicks Ladd up to the top turnbuckle where Sanchez gives him a couple kicks to the ribs. Sanchez gets in a few more shots before Ladd puts the LOADED TAPED THUMB THING on and jabs him in the throat. It looks like curtains for Sanchez, but he makes a nice Ricky Steamboat comeback on Ladd. One headbutt to the guts puts Sanchez down. Sanchez punches back once more, but Ladd headlocks him and jabs him in the throat with his thumb again causing Sanchez to fall to the floor for the countout win in 6:02.

NEXT WEEK: Ivan Koloff will meet Dominic DeNucci in the feature bout!

Until next time, so long for now.