WWF: All Star Wrestling
December 8, 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: Ivan Putski & Tito Santana (10/22/1979)

Pop Culture #1s of the Time:
#1 Movie of the Week: Star Trek: The Motion Picture starring William Shatner
#1 Song of the Week: Babe by Styx
#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. Gary Michael Capetta is out this week, which means JOOOOE MCHUGH is back on the program.

• Ivan Putski & Tito Santana vs. Johnny Rodz & Pete Doherty

So Pete Doherty gets another shot at the tag champs with a different partner. Rodz is still doing this good guy shtick to set up his opponent for an eye gouge or some sort of rude move. He goes for the arm on Tito and forces him back into his corner so Doherty can choke him with the tag rope. Putski comes into the ring to help out. Tag to Putski, Rodz finds a way to take him down in a chinlock. He pulls the hair to keep Putski in the hold and when he’s caught, Rodz decides to choke Putski while he’s at it. Well, Putski gets PISSED and starts punching away for two. In comes Doherty, he and Rodz get the battering ram into one another. Putski whips Rodz into Doherty to knock him off the apron. Alright, let’s see what Doherty can do this week. Putski punches him clear over the top rope to the floor again. Back inside, Putski avoids a headlock and runs Doherty down. Tag to Santana, he grabs a chinlock. Doherty escapes, but misses a corner charges knees first. Back over to Rodz, he runs the ropes with Santana and finds a punch to the gut. Rodz corners Tito, but Santana reverses a whip and punches the gut again. He grabs the wrist, but Rodz punches back. Sunset flip by Tito gets two. Doherty and Rodz keep Santana on their side of town for a few moments, but Tito quickly dives into a hot tag to Putski. He grabs a bearhug on Doherty. After Doherty escapes, he runs into the ropes and leaps over Putski for a dropkick by Santana for the three-count. (8:22) Cool to see them flip the finish around so that Santana could look great and not always Putski with the Polish Hammer. Not quite as fun of a match as the last time we saw Doherty when he teamed with Jose Estrada, but still pretty good. *½

• Ken Patera (w/The Grand Wizard) vs. Johnny Rivera

Rivera has his left hand taped and Patera wants the ref to check the hand. He cranks on a headlock to start. Bruno isn’t buying that Rivera is doing any harm to Patera. He drops to a knee and then gets up to throw Rivera away. Bruno gives us all an “I told ya so.” Vertical suplex connects. Patera takes control until Rivera gets FIRED UP. Again, Bruno isn’t thinking that Patera is in any kind of trouble. They are continuing to build to a couple MSG main events with Bob Backlund in the winter of 1980. He slams Rivera from one side of the ring to the other and elbow drops him. He gets two, but lifts him up off the mat. He knocks Rivera down and lifts him up a second time before he decides to grab the SWINGING FULL NELSON for the win. (6:05) Patera is just on a roll right now. ¾*

In a rare occasion, Bruno Sammartino interviews the heels Grand Wizard and Ken Patera. Bruno asks the Grand Wizard about all the illegal moves Patera was doing in the ring like lifting the man up during a pinfall and not allowing the pin. Is that actually illegal? Anyways, Wizard says Patera did all of this to show the world just who this man is. Patera accuses Bruno of harassing him and before he can finish a thought, he tells the crowd to SHUT UP. Anytime you see Ken Patera in the ring, you better believe his opponent should expect to be hurt. He namedrops his brother as the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. He then runs down his credentials and claims to be the number one man with the number one mind behind him. Grand Wizard even dares to put his man Patera against Bruno – if he’ll ever crawl out from behind the desk. Great promo by Patera.

• Hulk Hogan (w/Freddie Blassie) vs. Frank Williams

This is Hulk’s debut on All Star Wrestling. While Vince marvels over Hogan’s size, Bruno is curious as to what wrestling skills he has since we haven’t really seen any up to this point in his time around here. Hogan hits a LEGDROP and beats Williams with a bearhug in 1:57.

• Larry Zbyszko vs. Jose Estrada

Estrada is resilient to hook up with Larry Z to start. Some fans are getting pretty rowdy yelling at Estrada. Zbyszko slips out of a headlock with a wristlock and we get a clean break in the ropes. Estrada complains of a hair pull and Vince mentions how RIDICULOUS that is to think Larry Z could possibly do something like pulling hair. After some holds and reversals, Estrada pounds and kicks Zbyszko down into the corner. He then reapplies the headlock in the center of the ring on Zbyszko. Larry Z punches out of the hold and puts Estrada down with a headlock of his own. They play off the headlock until Estrada rakes the eyes. He whips Zbyszko across the ring into the buckle and continues to pound him. Zbyszko again fights up and this time he rakes the face. He whips Estrada into the corner and steps on the face. He tries the ABDOMINAL STRETCH, but Estrada hiptosses him over. Estrada gets a slam and tries a second one, but Zbyszko slips out and gives Estrada a back suplex with a bridge for the win. (6:49) The push to make Zbyszko a serious contender for Bruno continues. **

• Tony Atlas vs. John Callahan

While Tony Atlas has made plenty of appearances over on the A-show Championship Wrestling in 1979, this is the first time we’ve seen him in Hamburg. While he debuted in 1972 at the age of 18, he’s already shown to be successful all over the southern territories including Georgia and Mid-Atlantic where he’s won tag team championships with three different main event star partners: Tommy Rich, Mr. Wrestling II, and Thunderbolt Patterson. He even had a month long run with the Mid-Atlantic heavyweight title in 1978 after dethroning Ken Patera.

Onto the match, Vince of course is loving the big muscles and small waist. There’s nothing Big John Callahan can do to reverse holds with a guy this strong and well-conditioned. Tony’s punches are terrible though. He comes off the middle rope for a headbutt on Callahan and gets the three-count in 3:12.

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