WWF on MSG Network 1/23/84

Legacy Review- From the Vault

WWF on MSG Network 1/23/84

January 23, 1984 from Madison Square Garden in New York City

 

Commentary: Gorilla Monsoon and Pat Patterson

 

It may not look like it on the surface, but this is one of the most important events in not just WWF/E history, but all of wrestling history, for one simple reason: the birth of Hulkamania. It's January 1984. Vincent Kennedy McMahon (or Vince Jr to the old guard) was barely two years removed from purchasing the company from his father, much to the chagrin of many in that old guard. Vince the Younger had one immediate goal: make WWF national, the first wrestling promotion to ever do so. Step one was divesting from the NWA, which he did in '83. Step two, get a major star to carry the company. For that he only had one man in mind- Hulk Hogan.

 

Hogan had his initial run in WWF as a heel from '79-'81 under Vince Sr, but when he was offered an opportunity to star in Rocky III, anti-Hollywood Vince Sr made him choose. Ever the astute businessman himself, Hogan chose Rocky, which skyrocketed him in public perception. After that he moved over to the AWA, where he quickly became the most popular babyface in the company and the #1 AWA World title contender. The AWA, however, was legendary for its ass backwards World title booking, and constantly found new ways to screw Hogan out of the title rather than put it on him, even at their major Super Sunday show that was *designed* to get the title on Hogan. Or so it seemed. Hogan, seeing the writing on the wall, jumped at the chance when Vince offered to make him the face of the WWF if he came back over, and Vince wouldn't waste any time making it happen. And that's where we are today. 

 

Tony Garea def Jose Luis Rivera in 6:46- Garea was one of the most successful tag team wrestlers in WWF history, winning the tag titles five times with four different partners. He's on the downslope of his career now. If he was in New Japan he'd be a New Japan Dad. The Fink is still wearing his frilly '70s shirt. Love it. Not a fan of the bell ringing after everyone's introduction. That was very much an MSG thing at the time. Old bald ref for this match looks like Mills Lane before Mills Lane. Some standing switches at the start lead to a quick mat stalemate. Hammerlock tradeoffs. Garea pushes Rivera away with his boot after getting taken down. Long series of headlock/headscissors exchanges that end with Rivera holding the headlock. Speed run and Rivera gets a small crossbody for 2. Garea comes back with an armdrag takedown into an ARMBAR. More speed and Garea hits a couple of shoulderblocks, then another armdrag. Rivera tries to slam out of an armbar but Garea rolls through and hangs on. Rivera takes advantage of Garea's love of shoulderblocks to dodge and roll him up for 2. Garea dodges a monkey flip attempt with a cartwheel. Garea ducks down for a backdrop and Rivera counters with a dropkick that pretty much goes over Garea's head. Garea sells it anyway. That gets some boos in MSG even in this pre death of kayfabe era. Snap mare from Garea for 2. He goes back on Rivera's arm. Corner whip tradeoff. Rivera tries a reverse crossbody, but Garea rolls through and gets the pin. Other than the dropkick whiff it was mostly technically proficient, but also awfully dull. *1/4 

 

Mr. Fuji & Tiger Chung Lee and The Invaders 20:00 time limit draw- The Invaders are a rare masked team that are faces. They're billed from Puerto Rico and had recently arrived in WWF. Fuji was another tag team legend, like Garea a five time tag champ, and also winding down his in ring career. He'd soon transition to managing and be one of the famous deep roster of WWF managers in the late '80s and early '90s. Lee was more well known elsewhere under his real Korean name, Kim Duk. The Invaders are nearly identical and telling them apart will be hard but I'll try 1 and 2. Commentary is actually a better help in that than I anticipated. Thanks, Gorilla. 1 starts with Lee and they do some clean break gamesmanship. 1 gets a quick sunset flip for 2. 2 almost trips over the top rope trying to do the fancy leap over the top after tagging in. They crazy rapid fire tag on Lee's arm literally nearly a dozen times in one unbroken sequence. Lee finally picks one up and drags him to his corner, but for some reason doesn't tag out and 2 (per commentary) escapes. Fuji tags in, takes some shots and begs off. Invader 1 keeps leaping off the apron into the ring and back for reasons that are completely beyond me, other than he had too much caffeine before the match. No such thing as energy drinks back then. 2 catches Fuji with a crossbody for 2. Fuji takes an armdrag and looks like he's about to murder someone. 1 and Lee do some more back and forth stuff with the Invaders keeping more of an edge. They love their armdrags. Invader whichever gets caught in the wrong corner and Fuji chokes him with the tag rope. Fuji hits a diving headbutt to 1's gut or possibly lower. 1 goes officially In Peril. 1 comes back with a suplex, then slams Fuji off the top rope. Both sides tag. Lee does a nice flip upside down in the corner and 2 jumps all over him. Lee cuts the momentum off with a back suplex, almost a Saito. Gutwrench suplex from Fuji on 2 for 2. Big chop from Fuji. Lee hooks on a bear hug. 2 bell rings out but Lee cuts the tag off. Back to the bear hug. 2 starts to fade, so 1 comes in to break it up. The heels use that to swap without a tag. Fuji stays on the back with one of his nerve holds. Because he's Oriental, you see. 2 (who Monsoon keeps calling "Johnny Rivera", completely blowing the guy's secret identity, he can never fight crime again) kicks free and just manages to make a tag. Lee completely no sells 1's chop. 1 tries a crossbody, can't get his footing on the ropes and barely gets off, then Lee barely manages to catch him and drop him with some kind of atomic drop. Snap mare into a chinlock from Lee. 2 distracts the ref so Lee and Fuji quickly grab a double team nerve hold. Because they're Oriental, you see. 1 fires back with a dropkick. Lee dodges a big dive and 1 crashes into the corner hard. Cover from Lee, but 2 reaches in to break the pin up, allowing 1 to tag out. 2 dropkick with a jackknife cover on Lee for 2. He starts working on Lee's leg. The Invaders go to the rapid fire tags again, which really gets the MSG crowd that wasn't sure about them at the start behind them. Lee fights off a spinning toe hold. 2 cuts off a tag and hooks up a leg scissors. Lee fights it off and tags. Monsoon correctly gets on the Invaders for failing in basic tag team tactics, not cutting the ring in half. Now it's time for crazy rapid fire tags on Fuji's leg. A bit slower, they're getting a little tired. The Invader in the ring puts Fuji in an abdominal stretch. Fuji is able to work over and tag out. Lee runs into an abdominal stretch! I love Monsoon critiquing how the hold is being applied. Behind the ref's back Fuji runs in and hits Invader from behind and Lee covers for 2. 2 tags in and tries his own abdominal stretch on Lee. It's still not put on right as far as commentary is concerned. Things break down and it's EVERYONE IN THE POOL. The heels are run into each other and the Invaders start rowboating their legs. The bell rings. No one's sure at first if there was a submission or DQ because WWF didn't do time calls during the match, but Fink announces it as a time limit draw. You know, I wasn't expecting a whole lot there, but that turned into a pretty damn fun match. Kind of a shame the Invaders didn't stick, they definitely had potential. ***

 

The Masked Superstar def Chief Jay Strongbow in 7:26- Strongbow was kind of WWF's version of Wahoo McDaniel, a longtime popular wrestler in the territory with an Indian gimmick, though I don't think he delighted in stiffing the bejeesus out of all his opponents like Wahoo did. Like a lot of others so far on this show he's in the final wind up phase of his career. The Masked Superstar is Bill Eadie, the future Demolition Ax, still using his original gimmick that he'd been using in the southern territories before coming to WWF. Holy hell, once he gets his entrance gear off Strongbow does look like he needs to park it in a rocking chair and call it a career. Superstar shoves Strongbow a bit on the first rope break and Strongbow lets him know how he feels about that. Extensively. Headlock, another rope break and more jawing. Shoulderblock from Strongbow and he slaps the headlock right back on. He does a nice slide under Superstar to put it on again. OK, guess he can still move a little. After a while trying to catch a cradle pin Superstar does a headscissors counter. Strongbow pops right back out reading the riot act again and Superstar backs off, then hides in the ropes. Strongbow ducks a chop, hits his own, and right back to the headlock. Speed run and Strongbow hits another chop. He goes for Superstar's mask. Why is that OK just because Superstar is a heel? Superstar gets out of the ring to escape with his identity intact. Hey, at least Monsoon isn't spoiling it this match. Johnny Rivera. Superstar hangs out on the floor complaining that Strongbow isn't allowed to do that. When Superstar gets back in Strongbow starts warming up the war dance, then hits a series of kneelifts. He goes for the mask again. Superstar hits an elbow to the gut to get free this time. Strongbow immediately starts no selling and war dancing. Chops. Another kneelift. Sleeper! Superstar gets free and wallops Strongbow with a clothesline. That gets the pin. 1/2* 

 

Sgt. Slaughter def Ivan Putski by countout in 11:29- Our first real high profile match of the night. Slaughter was still a heel at this point following a feud with then WWF Champion Bob Backlund after coming back to WWF, but he was about to turn face to kick off a big feud with the Iron Sheik. Putski was another of the last of the old Vince Sr guard still standing, one of the most popular wrestlers in the company in the '70s despite the fact he never got a run with a singles title. Slaughter is the first guy tonight to have any kind of entrance, with music. I've always liked seeing the walk in from the MSG locker rooms in that very distinctive hallway. There's a great shot where we can see the ref reflected in Slaughter's sunglasses. The bell rings and Slaighter puts on a stall fest that could make Larry Zbyszko jealous. He slowly steps out of the ring and takes off his hat, sunglasses, whistle and belt. Damn, Slaughter's so young he's still got hair! Putski swings a bunch of jabs that Slaughter ducks, then he steps out to the apron again. Slaughter tries to get into a flex off. Putski's going to win that one every time. Now Slaughter backs out of a lockup. LOCKUP! Finally. Like three minutes into the match. And stalemate. On the third go Putski pushes Slaughter into the corner, then slams him as he comes back in. Slaughter immediately bails into the corner. Putski cranks a headlock, which gives us a great shot of Slaughter's bald spot. Spoiler: it's gonna grow. Speed run and Slaughter does one of his classic pinball bumps off a shoulderblock. Say one thing about Slaughter, he was always an enthusiastic bumper. Again Slaughter's in a headlock he can't escape. Finally he does by lifting Pustki up into an atomic drop. Backbreaker from Slaughter for 2. He runs Putski's back into the top turnbuckle and hits another backbreaker for 2. Putski blocks a buckle shot and rams Slaughter's head all the way into the ring post. Kicks to Slaughter's gut and Slaughter flies up and dangles over the top rope! Corner whip and Slaughter does another classic crazy face first bump into the corner. Another corner whip reversal and Slaughter hits a clothesline. He tries a slam but Putski falls on him for 2. Off the ropes Putski hits the Polish Hammer! A shoulderblock sends Slaughter out of the ring. Somehow he gets caught on the bottom rope. I know his chin is massive, but those ropes are loose as hell. Putski helps him get free and Slaughter goes to the floor. We can see he's bleeding a little. Slugfest on the apron. A punch sends Slaughter tumbling over the top back in. The ref calls for the bell, but Putski doesn't care as he's still all over Slaughter. Slaughter does another corner hit that sends him back out to the floor. He comes back in and tries to jump but Putski is still all over him. This brawl is going on almost as long as the match did. Finally the ref gets them separated and explains the decision. Slaughter wins by countout. Putski stayed on the apron too long, and punching Slaughter back in allowed him to beat the count. Weak. Pretty decent match before that once they got going though. **1/2 

 

"Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff (w/Roddy Piper) def Salavatore Bellomo in 14:06- More of the soon to be important new guard coming in. Orndorff and Piper had both just arrived in WWF, and this is Orndorff's MSG debut. This is just two months after Piper's bloody dog collar match war with Greg Valentine at the first Starrcade. He's managing here I think because he had a non-compete with Jim Crockett he was working through, but if so it was a short one and would be over before long. Bellomo was a Belgian wrestler billed as Italian that there was some high hopes in when he first came to WWF, but he quickly ended up as a jobber. Orndorff really gets into the cocky stalling, staying on the floor with his robe on all through intros. The stallfest continues after Orndorff finally saunters into the ring with Piper in tow. Bellomo and the ref try to get things going, so Orndorff and Piper hop back out and walk back up the aisle. Apparently they're using Bellomo's knee brace as an excuse, saying it's an illegal weapon. It's not even a knee brace as we know them know, just a wrapping. They get back in and Piper slowly disrobes Orndorff. Never mind, they're walking out again robe still on. Even Naito would have had his suit off by now. Orndorff takes his robe off on the floor while the ref finally starts a count up. Then Piper distracts Bellomo and Orndorff ambushes him. All Orndorff squash match style for the first portion while Piper provides extra commentary for it all from the floor. Orndorff only gets a 2 count after a backdrop and both heels complain about the count. Orndorff tries a slam and Bellomo falls on top of him for 2 with literally his first "offense" of the match. Now Piper's complaining about the ref counting too FAST for Bellomo! He's a natural. Bellomo dodges in the corner and Orndorff posts his shoulder with some A+ selling. A couple of desperate dropkicks from Bellomo hit. He goes to work on Orndorff's hurt arm. Orndorff tries a kneelift for space but Bellomo is back on the arm. Orndorff tries an armdrag but Bellomo hangs on. Piper claims a hair pull from the floor. Orndorff ducks under the arm and hits a modified northern lights suplex, but Bellomo uses that position to put on a headscissors, then again holds the arm. Orndorff finally gets Bellomo down again with a back suplex. Piper shouted "suplex" before Orndorff hit it. Reminds me of a house show I went to in my town one time, sitting not far away from a guy that delighted himself (not so much everyone around him) by calling every move just before it happened. Some stomps from Orndorff and he tosses Bellomo to the floor right in front of Piper. Piper makes a big show of not touching him while getting in his face. Or is possibly trying to kill him with his breath. Wonder if Piper is Scots enough to be a haggis eater, that might do it. Right when Bellomo gets back on the apron Orndorff hits him full speed to knock him down again. Orndorff then goes out and slams Bellomo on the floor. The still unpadded floor back then. Orndorff was very gentle with it. Back in Orndorff hits a delayed suplex. Cover for 2. Bellomo tries some more desperation comebacks but Orndorff cuts them all off. Setup slam and Orndorff goes up top. Bellomo dodges a kneedrop! He starts slugging back again, then hits a shot that Monsoon says "stretched the knee ligaments" but looked like a straight up low blow to me. Orndorff sells it that way too. Bellomo tries some speed stuff but runs into an Orndorff powerslam. The piledriver hits, and it's over. Honestly they probably would have been better off with a straight squash rather than Bellomo grabbing an arm for five minutes in the middle of it, but it's still mostly fine. A squash is perfectly fine booking since it's Orndorff's MSG debut, and he looked great here and would be a major player in short order. *3/4

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: The Magnificent Muraco (c) (w/Capt. Lou Albano) and Tito Santana double DQ in 16:03- Muraco is in his second reign as IC champ and had just hit the one year mark on this reign. Santana was another guy that had a cup of coffee in WWF under Vince Sr, including a short tag title reign teaming with Ivan Putski, but had just been brought back in by Vince K to be a near term major player. And.......never mind. For some reason this match has been cut out of the Vault copy of this show. Based on what I've read I don't think we're missing to much, but I hate it when things aren't complete. Like all those old New Japan Tokyo Dome shows that have matches not available on NJPW World. In this case I don't care enough to try to dig it up elsewhere though. After this double DQ Santana would stay focused on the target and a few weeks later succeeded in dethroning Muraco in WWF's #2 regular arena, the Boston Garden, for his first of two IC title reigns. 

 

There's also a midget match that took place here on the card that's been cut out of the Vault copy. No loss at all as far as I'm concerned. Nothing screams wrestling's carnie roots, in a bad way, more than comedy midget wrestling.

 

To set up for tonight's not the final match main event: on the last MSG show the day after Christmas the Iron Sheik upset Bob Backlund for the WWF Championship, ending Backlund's near six year reign as champion. WWF's business model all through the Vince Sr years was long multiyear babyface title reigns with short heel transitional champions in between. Backlund wasn't the longest (Bruno Sammartino's first reign was nearly eight years), and Sheik wouldn't even be the shortest. That match was hugely controversial, as Backlund's manager Arnold Skaaland threw in the towel while Backlund was in Sheik's camel clutch without Backlund ever submitting. A decade later in his WWF comeback crazy old man Backlund would insist he never lost the title and was still champion. When Hogan made his WWF return just a few weeks before this he saved Backlund to make it clear he was a good guy now for anyone that still remembered his previous heel run.

 

WWF Championship: Hulk Hogan def The Iron Sheik (c) (w/Freddie Blassie) in 5:40- Hogan makes his iconic walk out of the MSG hallway for the first time in his red "American Made" shirt with "Hulk-A-Mania" on the back. They're still settling on his look. His gear is the soon to be classic red and yellow. Real American is dubbed over his entrance on this copy even though it hadn't even been written yet. At this point Hogan was coming out to Eye of the Tiger from Rocky III.  He does a short version of the shirt tear as that also wasn't a Thing yet. The belt is awfully cheap looking, fortunately it would soon be replaced with a better version. Hogan jumps Sheik from behind before Sheik gets his robe off! What a bully. Running elbow in the corner. Hogan chokes the Sheik with his own robe! The ref gets it and tosses it away. Clothesline from Hogan. Kneedrop. Eye rake and Hogan chokes Sheik as he continues to do heel style moves. Big boot! Hogan covers for 2. Took the ref forever to get in position. Running elbow from Hogan, followed by an elbow drop for 2. Sheik dodges another corner elbow. He immediately stomps away on Hogan's back, setting the camel clutch up. Backbreaker. Cover and Hogan does a huge mini-Hulk up kickout. Sheik kicks Hogan right in the throat with that spike on his boot, then starts kicking his boot on the mat like he's getting a piece of steel or something in there into the right position. Another stomp to Hogan's back. Double leg takedown into a Boston crab. Hogan powers out! Gutwrench suplex from Sheik for 2. Much less energetic kickout from Hogan there. The camel clutch is on! In WWF's canon no one has ever escaped this before. He's got it fully on too. Hogan powers up and lifts Sheik on his back! He runs Sheik back into the corner. Legdrop! Hogan covers and gets the pin! MSG goes NUTS! Definitely no issue with the New York crowd accepting Hogan quickly. As Monsoon famously always said, history has been made. But even moreso than usual. In Monsoon's own words, "Hulkamaina is here". The industry would never, ever be the same again. The match was fine, pretty much all it needed to be. **1/4

 

Doctors come out to put Sheik on a stretcher. After several tries he eventually fights free of them and goes after Hogan again. Hogan tosses him over the top and out, taking out some of the commentary/officials table too.

 

After commercial we go back to Mean Gene in the locker room, where the celebration is on. It's kind of crazy seeing Hogan's emotion at this first title win given how many there would be after. Andre the Giant then comes in, pours a whole bottle of champagne on Hogan, and congratulates him on his win. That's a clip that will get played a LOT when we get into the build to Wrestlemania 3.

 

It was common on MSG cards at the time to have a couple of short "wind down" matches to close out the night, so here we go with those. Why the previous matches were cut out of the Vault copy and not these I have no idea.

 

"Superfly"Jimmy Snuka def Rene Goulet in 3:54- Snuka was one of the first "Vince Jr guys" brought in, initially as a heel but he was getting cheered for his crazy for the time athleticism so he was turned face in short order. The legendary moment where Snuka hit Muraco with a Superfly Splash from the top of a steel cage, an unheard of move at the time, had just happened in MSG the previous October. Goulet, with his blonde hair and glasses, would later be one of the most recognizable WWF officials/road agents that always ran out to stop big fights when they happened outside of matches. Even commentary is still recovering from the title match as this starts, much less the crowd. Goulet jumps Snuka before the bell. He bites Snuka! Back elbow and slam from Goulet for 2. He hits a gut stomp. Snuka fires back with those half open hand half chop/half punches of his and tosses Goulet out of the corner. Goulet begs off and tries to hide in the corner. That's not going to work. He does get an opening to get some more shots in though. Goulet snap mares Snuka and puts a claw on. There we stay for a while. Kneelift from Goulet. Snuka ducks another claw and hits a chop, then a leaping headbutt. Speed run and another big Snuka chop. He goes up top and hits a crossbody, not the full Superfly Splash, to get the pin. 3/4*

 

Andre the Giant and WWF Tag Team Champions Rocky Johnson & Tony Atlas def The Wild Samoans in 5:29- Quite the all star six man tag to close things out. Andre had just been convinced by Vince to sign a full time contract, ending his years as a roving special attraction. Johnson is of course the Rock's father, and unbeknownst to anyone outside the business had married into the same Samoan family he was wrestling against. Tony Atlas is.....Tony Atlas. Don't think much more needs to be said. He was a character. On the Samoan side we have Afa, his son Samula (later Samu) who was just starting his career, and Sika, father of Roman Reigns and Rosey. Johnson and Atlas defeated the regular Samoan team of Afa and Sika for the tag titles in November. Andre's still in trunks, not the half singlet yet. Young Samula starts with Atlas. I really like Atlas' trunks. Reminds me of the Harlem Globetrotters uniforms and basketball for some reason. I loved the Globetrotters when I was a kid. They go speed pretty quickly and Atlas hits a crossbody. Afa quickly comes in to save his kid. Atlas gets Samula into the face corner. Johnson tags in and holds him so Andre can chop him from the apron. Samula quickly recovers and we get a criss cross. Johnson stops and Samula keeps going! When he finally realizes he's been running for no reason he's slightly perturbed. Things stop as both teams reposition and posture. Samula gets Johnson in the heel corner, but Johnson ducks a chop and Afa takes it. Johnson then gives Afa and Samula double noggin knocker. Clearly Samula is young enough his thick Samoan skull hasn't developed yet as he goes down from that. Atlas takes some pity on the kid, giving him a clean rope break. Full nelson from Samula that Atlas easily powers out of. He whips Samula into another Andre shot. Andre tags in for the first time. He goes for a backdrop and Samula headbutts him. He finally tags out to Sika and Andre takes a double headbutt. More headbutts from Sika just annoy Andre. He gives Sika a headbutt right back and Sika goes down. Andre, the only guy with a skull big enough to hurt a Samoan coconut. Afa and Sika take an Andre double noggin knocker and actually get staggered. Andre big boot on Samula, butt splash and it's over. Combination training match for Samula and killing time until curfew, which was still a thing in NYC then. *

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- None of the wrestling is going to blow you away, but it's still a decent little MSG show to watch, topped off with arguably the single most important moment in WWF/E history. Hulkamania is the rocket the company will ride to going national and mainstream as we get further into the '80s, and it started right here.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+