WWF: All Star Wrestling
September 15, 1979
Hamburg, PA
Hamburg Fieldhouse

Your current WWF champions are as follows:
WWF Heavyweight Champion: Bob Backlund (2/20/1978)
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Pat Patterson (9/1/1979)
WWF World Tag Team Champions: Johnny & Jerry Valiant (3/24/1979)

Pop Culture #1s of the Time:
#1 Movie of the Week: Apocalypse Now starring Martin Sheen & Marlon Brando
#1 Song of the Week: My Sharona by The Knack
#1 TV Show of the 79-80 Season: 60 Minutes hosted by Mike Wallace

Follow along if you have the WWE Network!

The following wrestling exhibition requires discretionary viewer participation.

Your hosts are Vince McMahon and Bruno Sammartino.

• Greg Valentine (w/The Grand Wizard) vs. Fred Marzino

Valentine has trouble with his boot laces in the beginning of the match. You can even hear Vince whisper to someone about it and in the ring, Valentine is shown tucking his laces into his boot. Marzino thinks he’s going to punish Valentine with a headlock, but winds up taking a back suplex that begins a BEATING on Marzino. He throws Marzino through the ropes for a thud to the floor. It gets an instant replay. Back inside, Valentine gives Marzino a backbreaker and cradles him for a three-count at 2:42.

• Ivan Putski & Tito Santana vs. Gypsy Rodriguez & Jose Estrada

Vince mentioned at the beginning of the show that we would see the debut of a new team: Putski and Santana. We see a clean-shaven Putski here. Gypsy Rodriguez gets controlled with a headlock by both babyfaces. He’s able to back Santana into the ropes to tag Estrada, which leads to some quick heat on Santana. Hot tag to Putski, and the match breaks down. Rodriguez and Estrada are rammed together. Gypsy nails Putski when he’s not looking to break up a chinlock. When Putski gets stuck on the wrong side of town, he gets choked with the tag rope. Putski then OVERPOWERS Estrada and lifts him up in the air, walks him back to his corner, and smashes Estrada’s back on the buckle. Santana becomes the legal man even though I don’t see a tag. He whips the heels into a shoulder butts from Putski. Santana quickly finds himself in the wrong corner and stuck in a chinlock by Gypsy. They continue to beat on the guy until there’s another tag to Putski. He goes nuts punching away on the bad guys. Tag to Santana, Putski whips Rodriguez into the ropes for a dropkick by Santana. Another dropkick by Santana puts Gypsy down for the three-count. (7:35) Afterwards, Vince McMahon meets Ivan Putski and Tito Santana at ringside. Putski puts over Santana as the guy he wants to have as a full-time partner. Santana says Putski has been putting under INTENSE training as their ultimate goal is to win the WWF tag team championship. Putski really puts over the fact that he feels he can trust Santana and says they are OBSESSED with winning tag team gold. They already have matches set with the Valiants in MSG on September 24. Tito Santana gets the chance to team with Andre the Giant against Jimmy and Jerry Valiant while Ivan Putski battles Johnny Valiant. Putski and Santana share a MEGAPOWERS handshake to end the segment. **

• Dominic DeNucci vs. Jimmy Valiant

Captain Lou is “conspicuous by his absence” here. As you can probably imagine, Jimmy Valiant does all he can to stall any kind of physical contact. You have to hand it to guys like Jimmy Valiant who get the most out of very little which is a true art in wrestling. DeNucci tries a bearhug. When Jimmy finally breaks away, he sneaks a foreign object out from his tights to rake across DeNucci’s face. Valiant grabs a nerve hold to wear down DeNucci some more. For some reason, Vince and Bruno don’t think this will bother him too much despite DeNucci fading away. Vince thinks guys who paint their thumb nails black are WEIRDOS. Moving forward. There’s a double-KO which leads to a few nearfalls traded back and forth. DeNucci finally gets the foreign object and rakes Valiant across the eye – RIGHT NEXT TO THE REF. As DeNucci starts the AIRPLANE SPIN, the bell rings to signal the time-limit draw. (10:00) DeNucci wants some more of Valiant, but we’re done here. *½

• Swede Hanson (w/Freddie Blassie) vs. Joe Mascara

They continue to set up Hanson to do battle with Bob Backlund in October by violently running through these jabronis. Probably the high point of the match is when Hanson NO-SELLS all of Mascara’s punches and takes him out with one blow. He gives the thumbs up to Blassie to signal the PILEDRIVER for the win in 4:38. Mascara does a stretcher job to take him back to the locker room. I wonder where those guys are now that carried him out. Hmm.

• Ted DiBiase vs. Moose Monroe

We have a MOOSE sighting. He jumps DiBiase at the bell hoping to get a win on the young star. He puts DiBiase down and grabs a chinlock, but DiBiase knees him on the top of his head to escape. Frustrated, Moose boots DiBiase to the floor and then knocks him off the apron. Back inside, DiBiase punches and kicks his way back. Moose begs off, but DiBiase continues to pound away. A jumping knee drop by DiBiase gets two. DiBiase finds a way to grab the Abdominal Stretch (the only babyface submission hold in those days?) and gets the victory in 2:45.

And that’s going to do it for this week. Until next time, so long for now.