Tracking the Territories 1984- Volume Three

by Liam Byrne

  The main event is up as Mike Von Erich gets to shine alongside Chris Adams in a match against Michael Hayes and Buddy Roberts. ‘Go Home Freebirds’ chants start up after the introductions, with Hayes standing up on the turnbuckle to seductively remove his gown. It is Mike and Roberts who begin the match first, though they take a while to really engage properly. A trip by Roberts leads to Von Erich reversing it into a leg scissors, targeting the knee with a big elbowdrop. Roberts manages to break the leglock with an eye rake, but a tag to Hayes only sees him taken down to the canvas with a drop toehold ‘like an ocelot’ according to Mercer. Hayes does force Von Erich into the corner, but he ducks a punch by Roberts and tags in Adams for the first time in the contest.

  Roberts and Hayes both get sent into the air with back body drops, whilst Adams barely connects with a superkick on Roberts. A slam gets him a two count, before Adams slaps on a chinlock in the center of the ring. Roberts makes an attempt to escape into the heel corner, but Adams drags him back, lands a snapmare and tags to Von Erich who comes in with a big dive off the top rope. Adams also comes off the top after the next tag, landing a double axehandle, yet a punch to the stomach and throat allow Roberts to tag out to Hayes. Hayes actually misses an early elbowdrop, but is up quickly enough to slam Adams face first into the canvas. A neckbreaker is enough for a two count, with Hayes also utilising a rear chinlock to control the contest.

  Roberts scores a two count with a bodyslam, only to run into a monkey flip style manoeuvre and a dropkick. Rather than tag out, Adams goes for a charge and finds himself entangled in the ropes as Roberts moves. Unfortunately, the replay of the monkey flip means we miss what happens next, as it looks like Roberts also missed a charge and is now on the floor at ringside. The camera also misses an apparent Adams superkick on Hayes, who then tags out to allow Mike to bring Roberts back into the ring with a flying headscissors. Roberts manages to stand up in the headscissors and tag to Hayes, who drops Von Erich with a bodyslam and a clothesline before landing a second rope elbowdrop for a two count. Mike manages to make the tag and all four men are in the ring as the ref loses control. Hayes and Roberts are whipped into each other and Von Erich saves Adams three times after illegal double teaming. Roberts goes to slam Adams for the third time in a row, but this time is rolled into a small package for the three count. Fun main event played out in front of a hot crowd who lapped it up.

  The Freebirds are clearly unhappy and try to do some damage post-match with an attack on Mike and setting up for a spike piledriver on Adams, but Von Erich shakes the ropes enough to send Roberts flipping off the top, meaning Hayes only hit an ordinary piledriver before the Freebirds fled. After the commercial break, Mercer talks to Mike in the ring, with Von Erich pretty much just rambling about how Adams is fine and how the Von Erichs will get those cheating Freebirds.

  A good show overall, only really let down by a mediocre Irwin versus McCord match. I’m not totally convinced about the Devastation Inc. versus Freebirds versus Von Erichs feud as it stands, as I feel it detracts from the heat for the Freebirds, but it is definitely serving up some interesting television at least.

  WWF Championship Wrestling 4.8.84

  A third show in a row has Vince McMahon and Tony Garea in Ontario as they introduce the matches for the evening: Paul Orndorff versus Salvatore Bellomo, B Brian Blair taking on Greg Valentine, with an appearance from Hulk Hogan to boot. Doesn’t sound too shabby at all.

  The crowd are hot and McMahon explains it is because Paul Orndorff is making his way down to the ring. Indeed, the ‘Paula’ chants are audibly loud as he steps into the ring opposite Salvatore Bellomo. Both men take their time to engage, with a collar and elbow tie up seeing Bellomo push Orndorff into the ropes to force a break. Bellomo lands a side headlock and a shoulderblock when they re-engage, whilst Orndorff overshoots on a side headlock attempt after a drop toehold that allows Bellomo to scoot out the back into a hammerlock. As both men battle over a top wristlock, Orndorff takes a shortcut by landing a knee to the gut, but Bellomo reverses an Irish whip into the corner moments later and hits a hiptoss, leading to Orndorff heading to ringside to regroup. The timeout does wonders for Mr Wonderful as he rakes Bellomo’s eyes, throws him through the middle rope and slams him hard on the concrete floor after what might have been a foreign object to the face.

  Orndorff’s violent flurry has him in complete control, nailing a back body drop, driving elbow and dropkick to continue his assault. Bellomo gamely tries to fight back, but Orndorff dumps him with a German suplex that wasn’t exactly the crispest in terms of impact. Bellomo lands a dropkick to briefly hint at a comeback, but Orndorff catches him moments later in midair, dumps him throat first on the top rope and then drive an elbow into the same area for the three count. Orndorff squashes are universally fun, and this was no exception.

  The local promotional interviews focus on The Wild Samoans taking on Dick Murdoch and Adrian Adonis for the WWF World Tag Team Title, with the added wrinkle of Captain Lou Albano as special referee. This is the continued split between the Samoans and Albano as I assume things can only go awry, though Mean Gene Okerlund stokes the fire by suggesting that Albano might favour the Samoans. The waning moments of the interview are given over to Okerlund talking about Albano’s shirt, one that is open down the middle and clearly shows off Albano’s less than impressive physique. To his credit, he does flex his…pecs... before he leaves.

  A decent looking match on paper follows as Greg Valentine takes on B Brian Blair, with some early grappling showing some parity between the two men. Blair locks on an armbar, but every hold requires a struggle that eventually sends them both into the ropes to force the break. Tired of messing around, Valentine slams Blair hard to the canvas, only for Blair to return the favour moments later. They trade punches to the stomach and strikes, which once again Blair comes out on top of by going back to the armbar, a hold he uses to take Valentine down to the canvas.

  In an impressive feat of strength, Valentine lifts Blair off of the canvas and into an atomic drop whilst his arm is still tied up. A big knee to the gut earns Valentine a two count before he uses a hammerlock to work the arm, sticking his leg in and falling backwards to add extra pain. Blair has to bridge out of an attempted pin by Valentine as he seeks to roll him over, but as the match returns to its feet, Blair uses Valentine’s own momentum whilst still held in a hammerlock to send the Hammer into the turnbuckle.

  A huge knee lift has Blair firing up and Valentine begging off, with Blair even walking straight through a forearm attempt by Valentine to take him to the canvas with a side headlock. Just as it looks like Valentine is in trouble, he ducks a charging Blair who ends up going through the middle ropes. Valentine tries to suplex him into the ring from the apron, but Blair turns it into a small package. This is where all the good will for this match that has been built up is ruined by the referee, who takes an age to count the pin as McMahon on commentary even calls him on it. He is also out of frame for the decisive pinfall, with Valentine shifting his weight in the package to pin Blair with a handful of tights. A very good match let down by poor officiating in the last ten seconds. In what was quite possible a slip of the tongue, McMahon calls Valentine’s win an ‘upset victory’.

  After local promotional interviews that see the Iron Sheik celebrate the Iranian fans in Los Angeles by speaking Iranian for almost all of his promo shilling a match against Andre the Giant, we are sent to the footage we had been promised last week as Wendi Richter and the Fabulous Moolah met in Madison Square Garden with Cyndi Lauper and Captain Lou Albano at ringside. We join mid-match as Moolah finds herself hanging upside with her legs tied between the top and middle ropes. The referee is trying to keep Richter away whilst Albano is struggling to untangle his charge. From time to time, Richter gets a couple of boots to Moolah’s back, but the referee continues to hold her back. Finally, she is released from the ropes, only to end up in a full nelson.

  Lauper gets up on the apron as if to tease a slap for Moolah, which
she eventually does give although her hand is wrapped in a towel. Oddly enough, this doesn’t require a disqualification and Richter gets a two count off of a dropkick, as well as a gutwrench suplex. Richter also earns a nearfall after a backbreaker, though decides to use a chinlock to further wear down her opponent. Moolah uses a chinbreaker to break the hold and gets a one count off of a very poor looking monkey flip. A back body drop has Richter down again, but Moolah pulls her opponent up at two.

  We get a repeat of the full nelson spot from earlier, though Albano this time tries to hit Richter, yet misses and hits Moolah. Moments later, Moolah rolls Richter out of the corner, both women have their shoulders on the canvas but Richter raises hers at two. This leaves Gene Okerlund and Gorilla Monsoon confused on commentary whilst Lauper and Albano argue in the ring. It takes the announcement by Howard Finkel that we have a NEW Women’s Champion for things to be cleared up and the fans go crazy. Moolah takes her frustrations out on the referee, nailing him with a dropkick. What we saw of the match was awfully bad, but the fans clearly loved seeing Richter win the title, so it did its job.

  What follows such a hot angle is something that is demonstrably not that good – an interview with Private Terry Daniels. The man is a charisma vacuum on the microphone, somewhat chivvied along to something worthwhile by Okerlund’s questions. Daniels primarily is here to talk up Sergeant Slaughter and how proud he is to be the first inductee into the Cobra Corps.

  Roddy Piper had promised to have the Woman’s Champion on the Pit this week, but first he begins by introducing us to footage of Cyndi Lauper and Wendi Richter celebrating the victory later on that evening. Lauper talks about how unique and strong Richter is, before the return to Piper has him tell the fans that the following week, he will prove that Richter won nothing. We get a classic ‘Just when you think you know all of answers’ line from Piper, as well as unbridled glee at his opportunity to break a girl’s heart next week.

  In a rare television appearance, we see Hulk Hogan take on ‘Gentleman’ Jerry Valiant as the crowd goes absolutely crazy the moment ‘Eye of the Tiger’ hits the PA system. No-one can garner a reception like Hogan can at this time, even for a nothing match against Valiant. Hogan avoids an early attempt by Valiant to land a punch, but Valiant does have some success with a side headlock and some strikes. Valiant goes to smash Hogan’s face into the turnbuckle, but he blocks the move and begins to mount his own offense. Two punches to the face put Valiant down on the mat, as does a side headlock takedown.

  It feels odd that Valiant is getting more time – and offense – than you might expect, as he once again takes control with a nerve hold. Tony Garea on commentary talks about the trapezius being a known Hogan weakspot…apparently…but this naturally just leads to Hogan firing up, with several punches leaving Valiant tangled in the ropes. A clothesline, elbowdrop, bodyslam and legdrop are enough for Hogan to defeat Valiant, with the ending sequence that would become so popular not yet part of Hogan’s offense. Obvious squash is obvious, if only a little surprising to see Valiant get some offense on the champ.

  The focus of the WWF Review this week is an odd choice as, after various clips of stars like Hogan and Tito Santana are shown, we get highlights from Mad Dog Vachon against Moondog Spot. Cynically, it could be suggested that in montage form is probably the best way to see this match. Vachon hits three piledrivers for the win, with the third one seeing the initial lift get botched, so yet another reason why I don’t really understand the decision to showcase this. Strangely, we also see footage of Gamma Singh (WWF spelling of Gama Singh), who would apparently only wrestle fifteen matches for the company that year. He puts a jobber to sleep with a Cobra Clutch and that is the end of the WWF Review.

  To finish, we get a slightly less crazed interview by Captain Lou Albano in which he talks about being special referee for the WWF World Tag Team Title match between The Wild Samoans and the team of Dick Murdoch and Adrian Adonis. He constantly refuses to be drawn on whether it is a conflict of interests or whether he even is the manager of the challengers anymore.

  A good show, primarily due to Valentine and Blair match as well as more shenanigans with Piper, Lauper, Albano et al. Coupled with a rare appearance from Hogan, it was a stronger showing of what WWF had to offer than what you sometimes see from their weekly television programme.

  Championship Wrestling From Florida 5.8.84

  One of the things I really like about CWF television is that the opening often shows us some action from an angle or a match that will then be referenced at the start by Gordon Solie. This week, we have the visual of the Saint holding down Billy Jack in the middle of the ring whilst Dory Funk Jr. takes a whip to him with reckless abandon. As a means to engage an audience, it gets the fans asking questions and wanting to find out from minute one what has gone on.

  This week, we don’t have the footage coming from the studio but from the arena as Solie is ringside. This does mean he initially brushes over the footage, promising we’ll see it in its entirety later on, whilst also meaning we join our first match in progress as Hector Guerrero is attacking Denny Brown’s leg. Hector grabs the leg and rolls into a small package for two before a drop toehold brings Brown back to the canvas. Both men trade holds and reversals with Guerrero eventually coming out on top, only for Brown to fight his way back to standing. Guerrero grabs the arms and sends Brown over his head as the commentary team debate about Guerrero’s kneepads that might have metal in them that the Mexican hasn’t been known to use but could be utilised illegally if wanted. Some more scuffling leads to a belly to belly suplex by Guerrero for a three count in a match that lacked structure and was hurt by joining it in progress.

  Considering all the build of the Billy Graham versus Billy Jack feud, it is Scott McGhee of all people who has taken the Florida Heavyweight Title from around Graham’s waist. This is revealed at the same time we are told that McGhee also beat Ric Flair in a non-title match, footage of which we are shown next. This sounds like a surprise, but Flair was among a collection of wrestlers, alongside McGhee’s own dad, who trained Scott McGhee when he first broke into the business. Funnily enough, this match doesn’t seem to exist according to several of the websites online, though the two men would meet for the title several times later off of the back of this result. We see the finish as the arrogant champion aims to hit a stalling vertical suplex, McGhee slips out of the back and nails his German suplex for the clean victory.

  Solie is now at ringside with Oliver Humperdink and the Saint, with Humperdink talking about the open contract that he has out for anyone who thinks they can take out the Saint. However, Humperdink believes that, considering Florida is a hotbed of wrestling, people are running scared because the Saint could tie them in knots. Mid-interview, One Man Gang interrupts to whip out a contract for the show on September 1st, which Humperdink happily signs. Unfortunately for Humperdink, he doesn’t read the small print as the contract is for a tag match which will see Humperdink team with the Saint to face One Man Gang and a partner that Solie chooses not to reveal at this time. Classic bait and switch.

  What the arena footage of Florida allows us to see are some of the bigger contests that the promotion are booking. Whilst they aren’t a territory who shies away from putting a big match on television, they are often over quick with schmozz finishes designed to entice people to buy tickets to the shows. This week though, due to this being in the arena, we have a Florida Heavyweight Title match as Scott McGhee defends his newly won title against Ron Bass. Bass is in McGhee’s face before the match officially starts in an attempt to intimidate him. As the bell rings and Bass walks back to his corner, McGhee comes to the center of the ring, catching a turning Bass in a small package for a three count! So much for my proclamations of just a couple of sentences ago. The fans are exuberant; Bass is irate.

  After a commercial break, Solie talks about the footage we saw at the start of the show involving the Saint, Billy Jack and Dory Funk Jr. Solie introduces the footage in full, as we join a S
aint versus Jack match in progress. The Saint misses a diving headbutt from the second rope which allows Jack to fire back with a back elbow and a suplex. An elbowdrop is then followed by a backbreaker, with Jack then nailing a fistdrop off of the second rope. Funk Jr. is up on the apron, meaning the referee misses the initial stage of a small package, turning around just in time for a two count. The Saint is backing off, but gets given the whip by Funk Jr., who distracts the referee long enough for the Saint to use it to assist a punch. A small package gets only a two count though, and Jack then uses one of his own for a three count. With the big sell being how unbeatable the Saint is, it feels a little bit silly to then show him getting pinned on television.

  Even with the odd booking, the focus is really on the post-match attack. The Saint grabs Jack by the legs and Funk Jr. uses the ropes for leverage to add that extra bit of power to all of his strikes with the whip. He runs the referee out of the ring and connects three times before Jack is able to escape. Speaking of Jack, he is with Solie to talk about the incident, with the main through line of his interview being about him just trying to make a living and how no-one is going to whip him like a dog in front of these fans.

  This is where the arena taping somewhat breaks down as, for no apparent reason, Billy Jack is fighting once more as he goes from the interview straight into the ring and straight into an attack by Black Bart. He doesn’t even have his gear off yet but is on the canvas following a big clothesline. A second clothesline seems to anger Jack more than hurt him, with him finally removing his jacket and hitting a clothesline of his own. The two men trade turnbuckle smashes in the corner, before an eye rake by Bart allows him to take out an illegal object from his trunks. Without trying to hide it, Bart goes to use it but gets blocked, with Jack nailing him with a punch to halt the attempt. Jack slaps on the full nelson for the easy victory, only to continue to attack Bart’s arm by the ropes to try and get the name of the person who gave Bart the weapon. Unsurprisingly, he screams ‘Funk’, with Bart then releasing the hold. A nothing match that just works to further the Funk Jr. versus Jack storyline.