WWWF: All Star Wrestling
October 14, 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: The Boys from Brazil starring Gregory Peck & Laurence Olivier
#1 Song of the Week: Kiss You All Over by Exile
#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.

• Dino Bravo vs. Moose Monroe

Dino plays fair and tries to keep MOOSE in a headlock. They switch over to wristlocks and hammerlocks. Vince must really hate body hair because he’s always quick to call it out on guys like Moose Monroe or George Steele. Monroe corners Dino and starts raking the face. Bravo fights back and puts Moose on the mat for a headlock. Moose gets Bravo again in the corner for more abuse. Of course, Bravo comes right back and hits the dropkick to set up the AIRPLANE SPIN for the win in 6:19.

• Spiros Arion & Victor Rivera (w/Freddie Blassie) vs. SD Jones & Larry Zbyszko

SD messes around with Arion to start trying to get him to take a shot at him. Zbyszko and Rivera tag in now. Larry Z catches Rivera with a pair of armdrags and Rivera tags out. Back to Arion, he takes his time locking up. Anytime Zbyszko has advantage of a hold, he finds the ropes to immediately break it up. In comes Rivera, he gets caught with a sunset flip for two. Another tag and we get SD against Arion. Jones counters a headlock into an overhead wristlock. Enough wrestling – Arion decides to go the cheap route by punching and choking. Rivera comes in and double-teams SD with Arion. Jones NO-SELLS the turnbuckle smash and hauls Rivera across the ring with a hiptoss. Tag to Larry Z, he and SD punch on Rivera in the corner. Zbyszko goes HIPTOSS CRAZY on the heels. Rivera tags in and punishes Zbyszko with turnbuckle smashes. He backdrops Zbyszko and delivers a knee drop. Arion gets a tag and corners Zbyszko on the wrong side of town. Rivera gets his hands on Larry Z. Even Blassie gets a hair pull. Zbyszko grabs Arion by the leg and kicks him down to make his way over to SD for a tag. JONES IS FIRED UP. He’s got headbutts for both guys. Rivera takes a nice tumble over the top rope to the floor. He whips Arion hard into the corner for a nearfall. Tag to Larry Z, he puts Arion in the ABDOMINAL STRETCH. Rivera breaks up the hold allowing Arion to take over. Arion and Rivera deliver a DOUBLE GUTBUSTER on Zbyszko for 1-2-NO! SD makes the save. Well, kinda. Rivera starts choking Larry Z and raking his face. Out to the floor, Zbyszko gets his head smashed into the ringpost. SD helps Zbyszko up, but Zbyszko pulls Rivera out to the floor and runs him into the post for good measure. Back inside, Zbyszko and Rivera knock each other down. Tag to SD, he’s got a nice backdrop for Rivera. He tries another, but Rivera sees it coming. Arion comes in for a DOUBLE TEAM SLAM. Rivera legdrops SD and that’s all she wrote. (9:34) Vince complains that the ref should not have let Spiros Arion enter the ring to double-team SD Jones, but here we are. The match is over, pal. Fun TV match and I think Arion and Rivera — while weak as singles guys — could have had a good run together as a team. **½

Vince McMahon gets a word with Spiros Arion, Victor Rivera, and Freddie Blassie. Blassie admits this combination could become tag champs. Victor Rivera cuts a promo in Spanish for his Puerto Rican friends. Arion admits all they did was beat a couple scrubs a few moments ago and wants some REAL competition. Talk turns to Bob Backlund who Blassie says is a good reason for birth control. McMahon considers maybe Blassie is still upset that Backlund chose Arnold Skaaland over him. All Blassie says he cares about is making money and Backlund certainly would have made him more money since he’s the WWWF champ.

• Ivan Koloff (w/Captain Lou Albano) vs. Johnny Ringo

Another relentless and aggressive squash match for Koloff. He doesn’t bother with wrestling holds much during this match and wins with the BOMBS AWAY in 4:52.

• Tony Garea vs. The Great Sabu

Obviously not Terry Brunk here. He does resemble the Sheik a little bit, but he stands pretty stiff and of course he’s very green. Let’s go ahead and end this. There’s the crappy dropkick from Garea and a standing powerslam gets the win in 5:03.

• Crusher Blackwell (w/The Grand Wizard) vs. Sylvano Sousa

Sousa ain’t got no chance. He gets avalanched and ran from buckle to buckle. Blackwell drops a knee on Sousa and keeps picking him up off the mat after a two-count. The dude is such an impressive big guy. The RUNNING POWERSLAM ends Sousa in 3:21. Is it possible Blackwell won’t get a match with Backlund because he can’t give Blackwell the atomic drop? Afterwards, some refs put Sousa on a stretcher. Even then, Blackwell drops an elbow on him. VICIOUS.

That’s it for this week. Until next time, so long for now.