This was Howard Finkel's debut at MSG.
Baron Mikel Scicluna v. Pat
Patterson-Ref Terry Terranova
 |
| Awesome! |
Match was nothing special, mostly Pat
working from the bottom. This was his MSG debut and he was billed as
the North American Champion. It was also Pat's second match for
Vince Sr. as he had only previously wrestled in August 1967 in San
Francisco against Jim Osborne. That card looks to have been a Shire show with some New York guys sent to help out. Not sure if that was just a mistake
in announcing him by Finkel on the title. Vince kept mentioning he was in
contention for the United States Championship, alluding to the NWA
San Francisco US Title that he had lost to Mr. Fuji around a year
earlier. It certainly was not the WWF North American Title he won in
1979 that was referred to. The match was built around the fact that
the Baron was hiding a foreign object. The match was back and forth,
in a way, as Baron would be stomping on Pat for a while and Pat would
get a quick hope spot and get shut down soon after. Baron got in a
back drop and when he tried for a second, Patterson gave him a sunset
flip and won. Baron attacked him after the match but Patterson fired
back and Scicluna retreated.
Bruno Sammartino w/Arnold Skaaland &
Larry Zbyszko v. Ken Patera w/Capt. Louis Albano-WWWF
Championship-Ref:Danny Bartfield
This was a back-and-forth match with a
pissed off Bruno towards the end. This was also Patera's first match
in MSG. The fans were whistling at Patera as he disrobed. Captain
Lou went at Bruno and got nailed and he ran to the back. Patera won
a lock-up but Bruno followed up with a slam. Patera called for a
test of strength and despite a small attempt at some shots, this stopped
Bruno for a bit. Bruno's lower back was hurt and Patera knew it and
targeted it with knees and elbows. Ken initiated some bearhugs that
were stopped and Bruno was fired up. He hit a back drop after a
corner mule kick and he mocked Patera with a biceps pose, which was
great.
They both ended up on equal ground
again with a lock-up with Bruno getting an arm drag in. This was
countered into some elbows, a chin lock, and a full nelson attempt
that was thwarted. Bruno was fired up again and Patera was
bewildered. Bruno had a front face lock in but it was broken by the
ropes and Patera followed up with several chokes and was close to
getting disqualified. Bruno hit one of his numerous mule kicks and
they began dueling on their knees with punches. Bruno won out and
nailed some stomps to the head. Quickly, after an irish whip out of
a headlock, they both were in a criss-cross and they collided sending
Bruno to the floor. Patera followed as they brawled and Ken grabbed
a chair and hit him in the back and got back in. Bruno was counted
out for the win by Patera but they both still wanted to fight.
Patera charged at him but was met with a kick and Ken left. This
match set up some future matches between the two with four major
matches held at Madison Square Garden, of which Patera only won this
one. Check out their great blow-off to this feud in my write-up of
August 29 show.
Billy White Wolf/Chief Jay Strongbow (WWWF Tag Champs) v. The Executioners (Big John Studd/Killer Kowalski)-WWWF Tag Team Championship-Ref:Danny Bartfield
The Executioners won the tag titles on May 11, 1976 but were stripped of the belts for foul play in a previous encounter with Chief Jay and Billy. The Executioners were disqualified after an October 5 match when a third Executioner (Nikolai Volkoff) interefered. Strongbow and White Wolf won the belts on December 7, 1976 in a tournament.
Not too unentertaining. I liked Studd
and Kowalski a lot. They spent most of the time double teaming Billy
and Jay. Kowalski did some great strikes off the top and middle
rope. In fact, he went to the top a lot here. All four guys got in
but Kowalski was knocked outside. Studd was hit with a running chop
and lost the first pinfall.
Chief Jay got isolated really early in
the second fall with lots of double teaming from the heels. At one
point, he was in a double bearhug. Jay started to pull at Studd's
mask and almost got it off. I am left to wonder if the fans in the
territory knew who the Executioners were under the masks. Jay made
the tag and Billy got no offense in at all. He got brought back into
the heel corner and hit with a double slam and a pin.
Third fall started with another bearhug on White Wolf. He was not too bright in this match. He got pushed into the heel corner more and Kowalski hit a couple moves from the top. Billy managed an ugly sunset flip but could not win. Billy went behind Kowalski later as Jay nailed him, and he tripped over Billy and got pinned.
 |
| Finish |
Not much to this match, just a lot of
clubbering. Putski had Brody reeling with headlocks initially until
Brody got some offense in. Brody hit an atomic drop out of a
headlock to stop Putski. Later, they started hammering each other
and were fighting in the corner. Terry Terranova warned them to stop
but they did not and he disqualified both guys. There was never a
blow-off for these two and Brody left the territory later in 1977,
for the time being
Stan “The Man” Stasiak w/The Grand
Wizard v. Bobo Brazil-Ref:???
Mostly striking and brawling for this
one. Early on, Stasiak tried for the heart punch twice and failed.
Neither guy had much of an advantage. They ended up fighting twice
on the apron teasing a count-out both times. After the second
attempt, Stan choked Brazil in the corner and would not break it and
got disqualified.
Refs
|
| Unknown |
 |
| Danny Bartfield |
 |
| Terry Terranova |
Jose Gonzalez fought Pete Sanchez to a draw
Doug Gilbert defeated Don Serrano
North American Champion Pat Patterson pinned Baron Mikel Scicluna with a sunset flip at 11:15; after the bout, Patterson cleared Scicluna from the ring after he had attacked hi from behind (Patterson's MSG debut)
Greg Gagne defeated Johnny Rodz
Tor Kamata & Nikolai Volkoff defeated Dominic DeNucci & Manuel Soto
Ken Patera defeated WWWF World Champion Bruno Sammartino (w/ Arnold Skaaland) via count-out at 19:54 after hitting Bruno with a chair as he was climbing onto the apron after they briefly fought on the floor; prior to the bout, Capt. Lou Albano escorted Patera to the ring and also Larry Zbyszko was introduced to the crowd as Bruno's protege, and that he would be wrestling at MSG on 2/7 against Executioner #1 (Patera's MSG debut)
WWWF Tag Team Champions Chief Jay Strongbow & Billy Whitewolf defeated the Executioners in a Best 2 out of 3 falls match, 2-1; fall #1: Strongbow scored the pin at 5:14 with a double chop to the chest; fall #2: Whitewolf was pinned at 4:55 following a double bodyslam and kneedrop; fall #3: Whitewolf scored the pin at 4:38 after Strongbow hit a shoulderblock, sending the Executioner falling backwards over Whitewolf, who was on his knees behind him
Ivan Putski fought Bruiser Brody to a double disqualification at 6:10 when both men ignored the referee and kept brawling in the corner
Bobo Brazil defeated Stan Stasiak via disqualification at the 5-minute mark when Stasiak refused to stop choking Brazil in the corner; prior to the bout, the Grand Wizard escorted Stasiak to ringside
Check @stevesgraps on Twitter for some unused pics and gifs. Contact me at stevesgraps@yahoo.com with questions and I'll do my best to answer them.
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