World Wrestling Federation House Show
Date: 3/17/1985
From: Philadelphia, PA
Dick Graham and Gorilla Monsoon are on commentary for the show and they promote the matches to be seen on the show tonight.
MATCH #1: MOONDOG SPOT VS. ROCKY JOHNSON
FINISH: Johnson wins following a sunset flip.
Bob’s Take: Another instance of a Moondog singles match and I’m not sure why this is happening on such a regular basis. Johnson has a ton of charisma, and certainly a lot more than other lower card guys as the same action could be happening and I wouldn’t care nearly as much. Spot’s offense isn’t all that high impact after an atomic drop and brings the match to a bit of a stall, but did hit a middle rope strike. For the most part, this was a dull match action wise that was carried by Johnson’s charisma.
Match Rating: 1/2*
MATCH #2: TITO SANTANA VS. MR. X
FINISH: Santana wins following a flying forearm smash.
Bob’s Take: A bit of a dull start to the match as X controlled Santana with a headlock for a bit. X accomplishes basically nothing when he had control there was zero impact done to Santana. This is basically just an extended squash for Santana.
Match Rating: SQUASH
Backstage, Kal Rudman interviews Mr. Fuji and Don Muraco. Fuji puts over Muraco and Muraco says that he’s been in the WWF for a long time and notes that Rudman can see talent when it is in front of him. Muraco says they have been waiting for time as Hogan is a different champion now picking lice out of Cyndi Lauper’s hair. Muraco thinks Hogan is afraid to wrestle big guys with big arms. Rudman says he always expected Muraco to be the best and doesn’t doubt Muraco will prove it.
MATCH #3: DON MURACO VS. THE COBRA
NOTE: The PRISM network spells Mr. Fuji’s name wrong as that spell it ‘Fugi” instead.
FINISH: Muraco catches Cobra on a crossbody attempt to hit a tombstone piledriver for the win.
Bob’s Take: The growing trend is that chances are if a known name is wrestling against an unknown masked wrestler there is going to be a one-sided battle. Cobra is a masked wrestler. Cobra actually got a decent pop when he tried to pin Muraco in the early stages of the match. Muraco methodically works over Cobra and gets the crowd to jeer him fairly well as he’s beating down Cobra easily. Cobra gets some momentum with a middle rope elbow strike, but got cutoff quickly. Cobra hit a standing spin kick and is actually far more competitive. Cobra almost won after a huge clothesline. The finish was nicely done and Muraco looked strong. I liked that Cobra had a little bit of momentum and the crowd was invested in the action. A lot better than I expected.
Match Rating: **
MATCH #4: KING KONG BUNDY VS. SWEDE HANSON
FINISH: Bundy delivers a big splash in the corner followed by a knee drop to the chest for the win.
Bob’s Take: Two big fellas battling it out lead to a slow start since that tends to be the case between two bigger sized wrestler. When I say slow, it was as if they were just standing in a wrist lock trying to do as little as possible. Fans are so bored they are chanting weasel toward Jimmy Hart, but weasel is Heenan’s nickname. I didn’t find this to be an entertaining match and Bundy wasn’t made to look at that good.
Match Rating: SQUASH
MATCH #5: RODDY PIPER VS. JIMMY SNUKA
FINISH: Piper punches the referee causing a disqualification. After the match, Pipe bails to avoid further punishment from Snuka. It’s actually announced as being a draw due to the referee not knowing what happened despite Piper blatantly punching him.
Bob’s Take: Piper attacked Snuka before the bell and worked over Snuka with a belt. Easily the biggest match on the show thus far and the crowd is buzzing for the action. Snuka fighting back with strikes saw the crowd go nuts, which just speaks volumes to how over Piper is as a heel. They went to the floor where Piper hit Snuka with a stool and ring bell. Snuka fought back by ramming Piper into the post. Piper bumps around quite a bit falling to the floor where Snuka continued to beat on Piper. Snuka almost won with a sunset flip, but moments later they fall over the ropes to the floor as Snuka hit a crossbody. The finish is a bit cheap, but needed to avoid either one from doing the job. This felt like a messy brawl, which is a good approach and the fans ate it up.
Match Rating: **
MATCH #6: MATT BORNE VS. RICKY STEAMBOAT
FINISH: Steamboat wins following a top rope crossbody.
Bob’s Take: It is remarkable to see Borne in action before his Doink character let alone before being Big Josh in WCW. I wouldn’t have even realized he was Big Josh if it wasn’t told to me he’s able to transform his look fairly well. It’s a mostly generic start to the match. While there’s some basic wrestling holds, they have a solid pace and they show their wrestling skill far better than other guys on the show. I wouldn’t say there’s much action that is overly memorable in this match. This felt like a match filling time on the card.
Match Rating: *1/2
MATCH #7: WWF INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPION GREG VALENTINE VS. JUNKYARD DOG
FINISH: Valentine takes JYD down in the corner and puts his feet on the ropes to win the match.
Bob’s Take: Philly loves JYD making this feel like a worthwhile battle. The crowd responds well to JYD putting a simple wrist lock on Valentine. JYD pops the crowd crawling on the mat to headbutt Valentine several times and kept the early advantage for a bit. Valentine focuses his attack on JYD’s left knee for a few moments. Valentine delivered a backbreaker, but couldn’t finish off JYD. Valentine decked Jimmy Hart off the apron, and JYD pummeled Valentine as the crowd was riled up, but Valentine quickly cut him off for the cheating finish. Compared to the other Valentine matches, I’d say this was one of the duller matches from an action standpoint.
Match Rating: *1/2
The ring announcer promotes the April 27th show. There are no matches announced. It’s just the date.
MAIN EVENT: THE HEENAN FAMILY (HEENAN & ORNDORFF) VS. DAVID & BRUNO SAMMARTINO — LUMBERJACK MATCH
FINISH: Bruno knocks Heenan off the top rope and David manages to pin Heenan for the win.
Bob’s Take: Sammartino’s don’t waste any time going after the Heenan Family. Orndorff is worked over a bit by the Sammartino’s and tried to tag out, but Heenan didn’t want to enter the match. By the way, the lumberjacks are just the same wrestlers that had been on the show earlier. Heenan bumps around for David, but the crowd is noticeably less than excited for this match compared to the previous encounter between the two teams. The money here seems to be Bruno getting his hands on Heenan as that interaction generated the most crowd reaction. The lumberjack stipulation didn’t play much of a part in the match, so that was kind of pointless.
Match Rating: *
Final Thoughts:
Probably one of the more lackluster shows I’ve seen. Snuka/Piper was enjoyable, but not a good wrestling match. The lumberjack match was a bit more dull, which is not what I thought would be happening. I figured there’d be more heat for the lumberjack bout. A skippable Spectrum show.
Thanks for reading.