Bob Orton Jr vs Ken Woodby
Woodby is pale, portly and auburn haired; a less
intimidating grappler you couldn’t hope to meet. Orton controls him on the mat,
working the arm to keep him grounded. Orton then hits a back breaker, a leaping
second rope forearm and a piledriver in quick succession to win.
Ted DiBiase vs Ron Cheatham
Flavourless squash, as DiBiase controls Cheatham rather
easily and hits powerslam and the figure four to win. Meh.
The Wild Samoans vs Junkyard Dog & Mike George
This takes two attempts to happen, as the first sees a fun
angle with Ernie Ladd furious that Skandor Akbar has taken managerial control
of the Samoans, his charges. He goes on the assault, beating all three men
down, until an unnamed One Man Gang comes in a beats him down, hitting a (shitty)
top rope splash on his legs to injure him.
Twenty minutes later, after Akbar demands the Samoans be
allowed their scheduled match, we get it…and it’s a bit nothing. It’s for the
tag titles, held by Dog and George, but it’s too short for much to happen. What
it does do is show how useful Akbar will be for the Samoans. After a ref bump,
a chair gets brought into the ring and, whilst JYD is able to use the chair to
deflect an attempted fireball by Akbar, it gets left in the ring and the
Samoans take advantage, hitting a Samoan Drop on George onto the chair to claim
the tag belts. I hoped for a better match, but the whole deal was fun.
Bob Roop vs Frank Monte
Short, but with bits to enjoy. Liked Roop showing hid power
to muscle Monte through a hip toss after it looked like they’d blown it, and I
enjoyed Monte slipping out of a second attempt to hit a flying headscissors,
which he then held on the mat. Good ending too, as a clubbing blow to the back
of the head by Roop sends Monte into the corner and Roop hits a shoulderbreaker
for the win. Good stuff.
Paul Orndorff vs Mr Olympia
Really good stuff here. They work a nice even pace, with
some lovely punches thrown by both, before Orndorff takes control by rebounding
from the corner with a second rope clothesline. Nice driving knees into the
side of Olympia’s face. Orndorff starts getting frustrated as Olympia kicks out
of some big moves, with a powerslam and driven elbows only getting two. Olympia
reverses a piledriver, hits an enzuigiri and locks in a sleeper that, even
though Orndorff tries his best to fight it, gets the victory. Good sprint.
Ed Wiskowski vs Brian Blair
They get the “TV time limit” death spot here, but both guys
wrestle like they want to win instead of killing time. This is speed vs power,
with Blair showing his skill early by reversing a Wiskowski suplex into a small
package for two. From there, Wiskowski keeps hurling Blair into the ropes,
first catching him with a stungun, then with two slingshots. Blair kicks out of
an O’Connor roll, sending Wiskowski headfirst into the bottom turnbuckle,
giving him the comeback until time runs out. Fine enough.
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