WWF: Madison Square Garden
August 27, 1979
New York City, NY
Madison Square Garden

Your current WWF champions are as follows:
WWF Heavyweight Champion: Bob Backlund (2/20/1978)
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Pat Patterson (6/23/1979)
WWF World Tag Team Champions: Johnny & Jerry Valiant (3/24/1979)

Here are some match results that didn’t make the video courtesy of TheHistoryofWWE.com:

-SD Jones pinned Frank Rodriguez at 6:02.

-WWF Tag Team Champion Johnny Valiant defeated Dominic DeNucci via count-out at 8:31 after a collision caused DeNucci to fall out of the ring.

-Greg Valentine pinned Steve Travis at 11:39 with an elbow drop.

Your host is Vince McMahon.

• Butch Cassidy & Tiny Tom vs. Ivan the Terrible & Billy the Kid

I don’t know why any heel little person would want to team with Billy the Kid. He’s got to be the WORST partner as he’s never in the corner when you need him to be and his double-team offense has been known to backfire on almost every occasion. Butch Cassidy and Tiny Tom are a pair of blonde goodies who are primed and ready to get the crap beat out of them. That’s what ends up happening as we go to the finish. Ivan the Terrible catapults Tiny Tom into a backdrop from Billy the Kid to get the three-count. (6:56) Not a lot to it. *

• WWF Heavyweight Championship: Bob Backlund (c) (w/Arnold Skaaland) vs. Pat Patterson (w/The Grand Wizard)

These two had quite a feud going in 1979. They wrestled an UNHEARD OF four times in a row in MSG throughout the summer and this is match number three. The first match was stopped due to excessive blood loss from the WWF champ Bob Backlund and the second bout ended in a double-countout. Due to Skaaland’s involvement (and possibly the Wizard’s as well) in the decision of the second bout, both managers are barred from ringside. It’s important to note that this is the first time Patterson is announced inside MSG as the INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPION. As Skaaland turns his back to the ring, Patterson jumps him from behind. Backlund comes to his manager’s aid and kicks Patterson clear out of the ring. Awesome. Patterson pulls Backlund to ringside where Backlund smashes Patterson’s face on the apron and then slams him to the floor. Back inside, Patterson misses a corner charge and runs his knee into the buckle. Backlund does what Backlund does and legdrops the knee a few times. The crowd is just beyond hot. Backlund wants the figure-four, but Patterson punches him away. Backlund isn’t too concerned and trips up Patterson so he can post the knee a few times. In the ring, Backlund tries the figure-four again only for Patterson to kick him off into the corner. Patterson tries to take a powder, but Backlund is right there to send him back in the ring. Now can he get the figure-four? YES HE CAN, but Patterson quickly reverses the hold into the ropes. Patterson finally has enough and throws Backlund to the floor where he hits his head on a chair. With Backlund down, Patterson tries to remove one of three top turnbuckle pads. When he gives up on one, he goes to another until he finds one he can pull off. Not sure if that was a shoot or what. As Patterson prepares to run Backlund off into the exposed corner, Backlund pushes him off into the steel buckle. That gets Patterson busted open and Backlund pounds on the cut forehead. Backlund goes for the Atomic Drop, but the ref gets kicked down by Patterson. With no ref standing there, Patterson rakes the face and reaches in his tights for some brass knuckles to play off the finish from the prior month. Backlund sees it coming and blocks the shot before taking the knucks away from Patterson. WILL HE ACTUALLY HIT PATTERSON WITH BRASS KNUCKLES? They get into a brawl on the floor where Patterson tries to keep Backlund away with a chair. Patterson finally hits Backlund over the head with the chair and gets back into the ring to get his hand raised to win by countout. (14:29) Love me some fiery Bob Backlund. Good stuff. And with that finish, we set up the CAGE MATCH for next month to end the feud. ***½

• The Great Hussein vs. Tito Santana

Tito catches Hussein early with a hiptoss and a monkey flip to get things going, but then slows things down with a headlock. These are two guys who could easily work a good twenty minute match, but instead they work a headlock for half the match. Hussein finally has enough as he fights out of the headlock and hits a back elbow to turn the tide. Hussein hammers him down and picks him up for a whip into the ropes for a backdrop. He hits the jumping elbow drop for two. A double-KO ensues. They trade turns on an abdominal stretch. Hussein grabs a chinlock and keeps Tito down by grabbing the hair. Eventually, Santana powers out into an overhead wristlock, but Hussein grabs the hair and pulls Tito back into the chinlock. Once Santana escapes and they run the ropes, Hussein catches him coming off the ropes and drops a knee for two. Hussein now goes to the Boston Crab. Santana reverses the hold and falls on top of Hussein when he tries a vertical suplex for 1-2-NO! Santana fires away on Hussein and dropkicks him down for another nearfall. Hussein LOADS UP THE BOOT, but Santana avoids getting his head smashed into the boot. He then starts working on the leg and tries to take the boot off to show everybody that Hussein is a dirty cheater, but Hussein kicks him away. He winds up kicking Tito to the floor so that Hussein can fix his boot. Santana sunset flips back in for 1-2-NO! After another nearfall attempt, Santana grabs a chair which is then intercepted by the referee. Hussein chops Tito down and heads up top, but Santana is there to slam him down just as the bell rings to signal the 20-minute time limit draw. (20:00) Quite typical of these twenty minute broadways. I feel like they could have done more though. **¼

Vince McMahon – concert promoter – talks with Debbie Harry and Chris Stein from the band Blondie who were enjoying the success of their seminal record Parallel Lines with their best known hit song “Heart of Glass”. If it were present day, they would be plugging their next record, but not here. They are just enjoying the wrestling and having a good time.

Howard Finkel plugs WWF programming appearing on WNJU-47 TV on Tuesday and Friday nights at 11PM.

• Bruno Sammartino vs. Nikolai Volkoff (w/Freddie Blassie)

AFRO BRUNO goes absolutely nuts beating Nikolai from pillar to post to start. Volkoff has just been a bully on TV hurting guys and calling out Bruno and Backlund. He gives Volkoff such a beating that Volkoff sells the beating throughout his comeback and Bruno’s shine. Bruno runs Volkoff from buckle to buckle. Volkoff brings a chair into the ring, but misses and Bruno hits him instead to get the pinfall. (6:21) How was that not a DQ? Fiery brawl as you would think Volkoff had said something about Bruno’s mother. *½

• Ted DiBiase vs. Jimmy Valiant

Captain Lou is “conspicuous by his absence” here. A clash of styles for sure. Valiant does very little and does his Memphis heel stalling shtick while DiBiase is ready to wrestle. DiBiase works the arm and tries to keep the people invested. Valiant breaks free and catches DiBiase with a kitchen sink knee to turn the tide. There’s lots of punches and kicks until DiBiase refuses a turnbuckle smash. He dropkicks Valiant to the apron and beats on him until both guys are counted out. (6:19) WEAK finish. ¾*

Vince flirts a little bit with Debbie Harry. Her favorite wrestler is Bob Backlund even though she has trouble saying his name. WEIRD.

Howard Finkel runs down the card for next month’s MSG show headlined by Bob Backlund against Pat Patterson – INSIDE A FIFTEEN FOOT HIGH STEEL CAGE~!

• Andre the Giant vs. Jerry Valiant (w/Captain Lou Albano)

Vince has some band manager saying this and that about rocking out at the Cape Cod Coliseum for the next two matches. It’s been a minute since we’ve seen Andre inside MSG. He gets his mitts on Albano at the bell and headbutts him back to the dressing room. Andre backs his body into Valiant over in the corner. He headbutts Jerry to the apron and yanks him back in by his neck. Pretty standard Andre match. He gets some punches in, but Jerry ultimately eats a big boot to set up Andre’s RUNNING SPLASH for the win in 3:43. ½*

• Chief Jay Strongbow vs. Bulldog Brower

We’ve got a punk rocker referee in this match. Pretty crazy looking. You might hear about a youth movement in the WWF in 1979, but this is not part of that youth movement. Brower beats on Strongbow to set up the VINTAGE STRONGBOW comeback. Looks like the crowd had started to leave before this match even started. Skip ahead to the finish, Brower misses a corner charge and hits his knee on the buckle. As he crashes to the mat, Strongbow covers Brower for the win in 4:53. ½*

Final Thoughts: As with every MSG show I’ve seen back in these days, there are no hidden gems. They book the main events to be the best matches on the card and that’s all you really ever want to see. If you dig Backlund and Patterson, check this one out for sure. The Bruno fight was intense, but it’s not all that different than most other Bruno matches to go out of your way to see. This show isn’t on the WWE Network, so you may never be able to find it. But if you do, then I got your back. Thumbs down for this 8/27/79 MSG show.