WWF Championship Wrestling (April 6, 1985)

 

Original Airdate: April 6, 1985 (taped March 26)

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

The British Bulldogs v Matt Borne and AJ Petruzzi: We’re just kind of moving on, without even a mention of WrestleMania here. The Bulldogs finish Petruzzi off with a flying splash from Dynamite Kid at 3:34. DUD

Lord Alfred Hayes is in the studio with Update, and at least we’re acknowledging this WrestleMania thing happened here. And, apparently Paul Orndorff had a falling out with Roddy Piper after the main event

WWF Magazine ad

Don Muraco v Billy Mack: Muraco with a tombstone at 3:04. DUD

Gene Okerlund catches up with Tito Santana, who is pissed that Greg Valentine got away with the WWF Intercontinental title again. Tito’s promo here is terrible, he sounds like he was fighting heartburn 

The Dream Team v Jose Luis Rivera and Aldo Marino: Brutus Beefcake scores the pin here at 2:22. These were two fumbling, bumbling jobbers. DUD

Okerlund catches up with Don Muraco, though he’s without Mr. Fuji today

Ricky Steamboat v Jim Haley: Steamboat with a flying bodypress at 2:07. DUD

Roddy Piper catches up with Big John Studd, who denies that he was ever slammed, and Andre the Giant is a common thief who stole the $15,000

WWF Tag Team Title Match: The US Express v Nikolai Volkoff and Iron Sheik: From WrestleMania on March 31 in New York City. I can't believe they're actually showing this, but I guess this was the birth of what would become pay per view, so they were still figuring it out. Mike Rotundo starts with the Sheik, and wins a criss cross with a hiptoss, followed by a dropkick. Bodyslam leads to a mat-based side-headlock from the champion, and he tags Barry Windham in to nail Sheik with a flying elbowsmash. Barry grabs his own headlock, but Sheik muscles him into the corner - only to hit Volkoff with a dropkick as they try a double-team. The referee counts that as a tag, and Barry slaps on another headlock, but quickly tags out. Mike backelbows him down to setup an elbowdrop for two, and the Express take turns going to work on some Russian arm. Rotundo ends up taking a cheap shot, however, and the challengers cut the ring in half. Mike manages to reverse a vertical suplex from Sheik, but Volkoff cuts off the tag, and drops the champion across the top rope. Volkoff keeps working him over, but Mike manages to escape an abdominal stretch from the Sheik (no one knows the mechanics of an abdominal stretch like Mike Rotundo, after all), and he gets the tag. Windham is a stable of fire to ignite a four-way brawl, and the Express control, but Sheik bashes Barry with Freddie Blassie's cane, and Volkoff gets the pin to win the belts at 6:56. I never really cared for this one in the past, but I actually got into it a lot more this time around, and it was tremendously fun, and much more modern than the Intercontinental Title bout. ** ¼

Tito Santana and Junkyard Dog v Rusty Brooks and Bob Wade: Santana wraps up Wade with a figure four at 3:37. DUD

Okerlund catches up with Bobby Heenan, Johnny Valiant, and Jimmy Hart, who are having a ‘manager’s summit,’ which basically just amounts to them standing around and talking shit about other managers

BUExperience: They didn’t really pick up with many post-WrestleMania directions, but I enjoyed this from the perspective of seeing how a post WrestleMania show was handled in the infancy of the events run.