WWWF: All Star Wrestling
September 23, 1978
Hamburg, PA
Hamburg Fieldhouse

Your current WWWF champions are as follows:
WWWF Heavyweight Champion: Bob Backlund (2/20/1978)
WWWF World Tag Team Champions: The Yukon Lumberjacks (6/26/1978)

Pop Culture #1s of the Time:
#1 Movie of the Week: Grease starring John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John
#1 Song of the Week: Boogie Oogie Oogie by A Taste of Honey
#1 TV Show of the 78-79 Season: Laverne & Shirley starring Penny Marshall & Cindy Williams

Follow along if you have the WWE Network!

The following wrestling exhibition requires discretionary viewer participation.

Your host is Vince McMahon.

• Larry Zbyszko vs. Stan Stasiak

Zbyszko is all hammerlocks and wristlocks to start. Stasiak catches Larry Z in the bread basket and then goes to work on pounding Zbyszko’s face. He yanks the hair to get Zbyszko to the mat during an armbar. Eventually, Zbyszko escapes and connects with a hiptoss. Stasiak grabs a key lock and cranks on it to try and weaken the arm for the Heart Punch. Zbyszko counters the hold, but Stasiak pulls the hair again to take back control. He punches Zbyszko in the face behind the ref’s back and reverts to pounding his face some more. Zbyszko gets ANGRY and hiptosses Stasiak across the ring to come back. Zbyszko puts the boots to him and knees him down into the corner. He delivers another hiptoss across the ring and slams Stasiak for a nearfall. He catches Stasiak with a sunset flip just as the bell rings to signal the time-limit draw. (10:00) Ehh. Basic stuff. Stan just needs to go back to Portland where he’s more fun. ½*

• Crusher Blackwell (w/The Grand Wizard) vs. Frank Williams

Why does Wizard need to go through the ropes when he’s got Crusher Blackwell here to pick him up and place him onto the apron? Blackwell works Frankie’s arm and delivers a CRAZY jumping elbow drop. Crusher lifts Williams up off the mat to prevent a three-count. There’s a CRAZY jumping knee drop to show off. Again, Crusher prevents the pinfall from happening. Crowd wants Dino, but Frankie is probably wanting an ambulance as Blackwell hits a running legdrop. The RUNNING POWERSLAM gets the win in 5:31.

Afterwards, Frankie does a stretcher job since he was pretty much flattened to a pancake. For some reason, Dominic DeNucci is out here to help.

Crusher Blackwell and the Grand Wizard meet up with Vince at ringside. Blackwell shouts that he’s the greatest ever in fantastic southern ‘rasslin promo fashion. He wants some real competition because all he’s getting are a bunch of bums to wrestle. Blackwell threatens to “do” Vince right on the floor here. Oh boy. He tells Vince there’s no way Backlund can give him the atomic drop, so bring it on. Grand Wizard gets on the mic and calls Blackwell a “modest gentleman” and can’t wait to see Blackwell inflict pain on Mr. Backlund. So awesome.

• Coconut Willie vs. Little Tokyo

Coconut Willie, huh? Sounds rather painful. Tokyo can’t punch Coco’s head because he’s wearing a hair helmet made of some sort of metal, I’m assuming. Willie can do an awesome standing backflip though. Tokyo still manages to control most of the match and avoids a dropkick to land an elbow drop for the win in 4:15.

• Ivan Koloff (w/Captain Lou Albano) vs. Steve Cagle

In TV time, Koloff is days away from getting his rematch with Bob Backlund in MSG. Koloff just absolutely pounds the heck out of this rube. Vince mentions that Koloff is treating Cagle as though he were wrestling Bob Backlund right now. A pair of slams and the Bear Hug takes care of Cagle in 2:57. Afterwards, Albano distracts the ref while Koloff delivers the Bombs Away to “Bob Backlund”. Oh, and don’t quit your day job, Cagle.

• Baron Mikel Scicluna & Spiros Arion vs. SD Jones & Jim Ray

Scicluna starts out with a wristlock on Ray and keeps him down on the mat. Once Scicluna switches to a headscissors, Ray is able to escape and tags SD. Scicluna wants none of SD and tags out. Arion pulls the tights to keep SD down during an armbar. While Arion holds SD’s arm down on the mat, Scicluna starts stomping the hand. CRAP. Once the ref regains order, SD headbutts out of an armbar and stalks Scicluna around the ring. Scicluna buries a knee and takes over on SD to start up some more double-teaming. Jimmy Ray keeps coming over thinking he’s going to help out, but of course he gets owned. Eventually, Ray gets a legal tag and he’s immediately stuck in the wrong corner for more double-teaming. Scicluna grabs Ray from behind allowing Arion to whip Ray into the ropes for a boot from Scicluna. There’s the backbreaker across the knee by Arion and he gets the pin. (4:49) I guess Jimmy Ray is going to be picked last in gym class for a little while. Two weeks he’s been picked for a tag match and in both weeks, he takes the fall. ½*