WWF Championship Wrestling (January 19, 1985)

 

Original Airdate: January 19, 1985 (taped December 17, 1984)

From Poughkeepsie, New York; Your Hosts are Vince McMahon and Bruno Sammartino

Blackjack Mulligan v RT Reynolds: Mulligan coming out to entrance music feels weird to me, though I’m not sure why. I guess he just seems like too serious of a customer to ever rock and/or roll. Mulligan with an elbowdrop at 3:21. DUD

Hulk Hogan and Captain Lou Albano are at Studio 54 with Cyndi Lauper, where Lauper is doing a charity event for MS. And, as usual with the WWF, they find a way to make it about them

Brutus Beefcake v Jim Powers: Vince gets annoyed with Beefcake’s endless primping before the bell, and demands he wrestle, since ‘that’s what it says on the marquee.’ Vince McMahon, wanting less gaga, and more wrestling? What an odd time. Beefcake with a high knee at 1:12. DUD

Gene Okerlund catches up with Andre the Giant, who has been training with Blackjack Mulligan to get ready for his Texas Tornado match (with Junkyard Dog against Big John Studd and Ken Patera)

Junkyard Dog v Rusty Brooks: They advertise this match as ‘heavyweight junkin,’ whatever in the hell that means.I don’t dislike Bruno on commentary, but they need a third man in the booth to play the actual color man (preferably a heel), with Bruno just chiming in with analysis. The teaming of McMahon/Sammartino/Jesse Ventura was good. JYD puts him away at 1:59. Junkin’ indeed. DUD

Gene catches up with Iron Sheik, who is not impressed with Mike Rotundo’s college background. Sheik’s been world champion, why should he be impressed by some college trophy? Fair point

Spoiler v Salvatore Bellomo: Spoiler is a guy I’m not really familiar with, but man, he was around forever. It’s just that pretty much all of his run either a) predated my fandom, or b) took place outside of my scope. Spoiler with a flying clothesline and a clawhold at 2:53. DUD

Roddy Piper hosts Piper’s Pit, with guest Tito Santana. Piper isn’t used to having ‘hasbeens’ on his show, but he’s making an exception for Tito. Piper also thinks the figure four is a joke, and even offers to let Santana put it on… Bob Orton to prove it. Tito agrees, and Orton is immediately screaming in pain, so Roddy breaks it up to prevent an official submission. Great segment - short, to the point, and got over

Big John Studd and Ken Patera v Paul Roma and Jim Young: Bobby Heenan reiterates his $15,000 prize for anyone who can bodyslam Studd. Poor idiot Roma actually goes right for it. It ends badly. Studd puts this away with a backbreaker rack at 2:27. DUD

Don Muraco and Mr. Fuji hang out in Hawaii, promising to fuck all the beautiful women. So far, I just see the two of them

Hulk Hogan v Johnny Rodz: The WWF Title is not on the line here, though the actual belt (the ‘Hogan ‘84’) is really ugly, and would luckily get replaced shortly after (by the slightly superior ‘Hogan ‘85’). The difference between them was mostly just the paint, but it made a huge difference in presentation. And they’d only get better from there. Big pop for Hogan the moment his music hits. Brutus Beefcake comes down during the match, allowing Rodz to briefly gain control, before Johnny eats a legdrop at 4:13. Hulk gave him too much here, this needed to be more of a Road Warriors squash. But who am I to second guess them, obviously everything they did worked just fine. DUD

Gene catches up with Don Muraco, and he’s still claiming he’s hooking up with gorgeous women every night. This dude would have been a hit on social media

BUExperience: This is a fun and easy show to watch, especially since this period is still something of a blind spot for me, so it’s filling in a lot of gaps.