WWF Madison Square Garden 20/03/1983

Baron Mikel Scicluna vs Mac Rivera

Joined in progress opener. Scicluna controls the majority of this with some unconvincing offence, mainly weak blows. Rivera makes a comeback after Scicluna misses a wild swing that was obviously nowhere near Rivera’s head, and Rivera isn’t particularly dynamic on offence either. Rivera at least plays to the crowd. The Baron does hit a nice knee lift before a Rivera hits a sunset flip to give him the win.

Tony Garea vs Johnny Rodz

Liked Rodz throughout this one, especially at the start where he ducked around and tried antagonise Garea, begging off and then hitting a sucker punch. Rodz misses a splash, fully committing to the miss, and Garea takes him down with an armdrag. Garea holds onto the arm for A LONG time. Just holding Rodz on the mat and armdragging him back down every time. Rodz continues to enhance the match with a nice leaping forearm, decent legdrop and a hilarious bump into the ropes where he just gets totally caught up. The end of this got quite exciting, back and forth shifts in momentum that make both guys feel like believable winners, before Garea gets an O’Connor roll for the win.

Superstar Billy Graham vs Jules Strongbow

Is it wrong that I actually enjoyed this match. Took me by surprise how much I dug this, all pretty simple stuff that told a simple story. Strongbow works the arm of Graham, in a far more interesting manner than Garea did in the previous bout, actually making it seem like he was trying to hurt the limb. Graham grabs him in a bearhug…then has to release it as his arm is too damaged to maintain the hold. Loved that. Graham has a brief period of control before Strongbow fires up with a war-dance and locks on a sleeper to a giant pop. The crowd honestly went nuts for it. Graham escapes though, and hits an illegal karate chop to the throat to get the victory. Totally effective.

Salvatore Bellomo vs Ray Stevens

Thankfully, a chunk of this is clipped after we endure a lengthy Sal headlock. Stevens bumps around a bit to try and fire this bout up, but Sal offers very little here, going back to the headlock at the earliest opportunity. They exchange fists and end up fighting on the apron, leading to both men getting counted out. That’s it? Stevens tried to make this interesting, but there’s basically zero content here.

Bob Backlund vs Don Muraco

World champion vs IC champion, though only Backlund’s world strap is on the line. This is billed as a Texas Death match by Monsoon, but this just means there has to be a winner by pin or submission. Though it only seems to be Monsoon who knows this, as he chastises the ref for counting for rope breaks and breaking holds. This starts with some fun schtick based around Backlund holding and maintaining a headlock on Muraco. He works the hold too, which at least keeps it interesting for a while. There’s a great spot where Muraco finally breaks a headlock and wearily climbs the rope, only for Backlund to leap to the top and take him back down with another headlock. This does go on too long though, nearly ten minutes, and it gets tiresome after a while. It finally picks up when Muraco takes control, dropping Backlund headfirst on the steel railing and hitting a legdrop on the ring apron. Muraco wastes some time celebrating though, and gets rammed into a ringpost and busted open. Backlund works the cut, before Muraco hits a sudden powerslam from nowhere. He’s too worn down to make the cover though, selling the bloodloss and the lengthy headlock. The ending is pretty great, nice back and forth as Backlund gets an Argentine backbreaker, Muraco uses his feet on the top rope to flip out, Backlund locks in a chickenwing, Muraco gets the ropes and Backlund finally hits a German suplex for the victory. The overlong headlock spot was really tedious, but the second half of this really delivered.

WWF Philadelphia Spectrum 19/02/1983

Jose Estrada vs Curt Hennig

Pretty decent opener. Hennig is really early into his career here, and is obviously lacking some of the polish he’ll have in in just a few years time. A lot of the early stages of this match are based around front facelocks, with Hennig grounding Estrada for a long time with one, and later Estrada holding one of his own. Outside of the front facelocks, both guys looks pretty fired up. Loved the short knee to the head hit after Estrada placed Hennig on the top rope and Estrada catching Henning with a big shot on a leapfrog. The end sees Estrada roll through a top rope crossbody to win.

Mac Rivera vs Johnny Rodz

Rivera jumps Rodz to start here, and even cheapshots him over the refs shoulder, but Rodz controls the majority of the bout. Really liked Rodz on offence here, thought his execution was excellent. Lovely diving fist from the second rope and I loved him causally stepping over a dropdown in order to attack. A stomp to the throat from the second rope looked nasty. They maybe throw in a few too many headlocks, seems to be peppered in between every 2-3 moves, but the meat of this was good. Rodz wins after side stepping a backdrop and hitting a back elbow for three.

Tony Garea vs Charlie Fulton

Like the Hennig match, Garea is more than happy to hold onto a headlock for a while. It takes Fulton cheapshotting on a break to take over. Nothing Fulton does is fancy, but it provides a welcome change of pace and his focus on Garea’s back is nicely done with Irish whips to the corner and a bearhug. Garea takes a big bump over the top to the floor and there’s a mix up on commentary as they think Garea has won it with a sunset flip. He hasn’t, but an O’Connor Roll gets the win moments later.

Swede Hanson vs SD Jones

Bit uncomfortable to watch in places, as you watch a tubby looking redneck, who’d come to the ring with the Confederate flag, slapping about SD. There’s some neat strikes by both, some nice kneedrops and Jones hits a nice diving headbutt as he gets up. The end sees Jones going for an airplane spin, but Hanson holds the ropes and falls on top for the victory.

Baron Mikel Scicluna vs Eddie Gilbert

Interestingly, Gorilla Monsoon says on commentary that the Baron has the flu, giving him a bit of an out for the upcoming result. Slightly clunky match, early on Baron gets caught up in the ropes Andre The Giant style, and Gilbert doesn’t really do anything, which kinda deflates the crowd. Scicluna controls with some weak blows, but Gilbert is at least fired up on his comeback. He misses a crossbody, but gets a sunset flip to win.

Bob Backlund vs Big John Studd

Not a great match, but a fun Backlund performance. He works an enjoyable cat and mouse sequence with Studd early on, ending with a leg lock on the big man. Studd doesn’t offer much offensively, aside from a nice elbow, but Backlund works the crowd nicely, getting them fired up for a near slam. He also really works a hammerlock, torqueing the arm. Studd controls a good chunk of the match, not particularly memorably, but Backlund fires back, locking on the crossface chickenwing from the apron, and climbing back into the ring just a second too late and getting counted out. Match result keeps both men strong and builds to a rematch, but it felt like it dragged when Studd was in control

The Wild Samoans vs the Strongbow Brothers

This is 2/3 falls and a bit of a mess. It really feels like the Samoans should just be able to wipe the floor with the unimpressive Strongbows, but instead they get controlled by the Strongbows ineffectively working an arm on Afa. The Samoans eventually work heat on Jules Strongbow, choking him out with wrist tape, hidden from the ref. Eventually Jay Strongbow has enough, and chokes both Samoans with their sarongs, getting disqualified for the first fall. The second fall sees the brawl continue and Jay getting choked on the outside. The Samoans crotch Jules on the top rope for the win in two straight falls. Not much to enjoy here.

Andre the Giant, Jimmy Snuka, Rocky Johnson, Pedro Morales & Sal Bellomo vs Buddy Rose, Mr Fuji, Ray Stevens, Billy Graham & Don Muraco

This, on the other hand, is a total crowd pleaser of a main event. It’s 3/5 falls, which allows for a lot of possibilities and fun nearfalls. The tone is set as Rose and Stevens pinball all around the ring for Johnson’s armdrags. The crowd is hot for everything, and everyone involved seems to be motivated, which is great. Muraco takes a big dive over the top from an Andre boot, only to be awkwardly shoved back in by his partners. Lots of goofy selling, Graham takes a tree fall bump from an Andre chop, whilst Muraco makes himself really dizzy hitting an airplane spin on Bellomo. A belly to belly on the hapless Bellomo by Fuji gives the heels a one fall lead and a bit of heat is worked on Sal after that. The falls are equalised when Fuji tries to slam Bellomo, but Snuka dropkicks Sal on top for three. The end comes quickly as everything breaks down. Snuka hits a sunset flip on Rose to make it 2-1, before Andre rampages everyone, hitting Rose with a big boot and buttdrop for the victory. Immensely enjoyable.

WWF - Andre The Giant

I believe this is an old CHV release that they just directly ported to DVD, but it's nice to see they used full matches on this release, was expecting a whole bunch of clipping

Andre the Giant vs Moondog Rex

Quick little squash to show Andre’s physical dominance. Some fun little touches with Andre booting Rex up the arse as he tried to cower in the ropes, and I liked the raw power of Andre lifting Rex off the mat by the belt. Big boot and splash get the win.

Battle Royale

Real who’s who of names here….Hogan, Orndorff, Dick Murdoch, Mil Mascaras, Pat Patterson….and Salvatore Bellomo. Even the commentators don’t know who’s in there, as Gorilla Monsoon occasionally blurts out “Is that Alexis Smirnoff in there?” Fun spot sees Murdoch and Adrian Adonis try and take out Andre in the corner, only to get shrugged off with ease. Terrible camerawork means we almost miss Big John Studd getting eliminated by Hogan then dragging him out of the ring. Somehow, as we hit the final furlongs of the match, Smirnoff and Tiger Chun Lee are still in there, with Smirnoff making the final four. Alexis is soon dispatched, taking a massive bump over the top from an Andre atomic drop, before the Giant eliminates Murdoch and Adonis to win. This was fun.

Andre the Giant vs Black Gordman & Great Goliath

Handicap match, and pre-match Alfred Hayes highlights the empty front rows, as promoters were so worried about Andre throwing his opponents into the crowd, that they left those seats empty. Fans eat up all the size spots, laughing at Gordman trying to slam Andre and loving Andre placing Gordman on the top rope and slapping him. Goliath tries a go behind, but Andre rams his backside at him so hard, he flies out into the empty front row.  Just as the one-sided beating is wearing thin, Andre misses a corner charge and Gordman works him over with a concealed weapon. No matter, as Andre soon shows off his power, locking both men in a big body scissors and hitting a monkey flip on both men at the same time. Andre press slams Gordman onto Goliath and sits on the pair for the easy win.

Andre the Giant vs Johnny Rodz, Jack Evans & Joe Butcher Nova

Obviously not the Canadian high-flyer Jack Evans, though I’d love to see that. Andre repeats the body scissors/monkey flip spot from the previous handicap squash, so it was an obvious crowd pleaser. All three heels try a dogpile pin, which sees Andre power all three off. Nova and Rodz clash heads and Andre piles all three up and sits on them for the easy victory.

Andre the Giant vs Gorilla Monsoon

This is a boxing match from Puerto Rico, and is a lot of daft fun. None of this resembles a classic boxing match, with Monsoon punching Andre’s legs and hitting a spinning backfist of all things. Round 1 ends with Monsoon barely standing up, but he starts the second round in control until Andre hits a headbutt and a butt splash. Not strictly boxing moves. Andre hits three big roundhouses to the staggered Monsoon and stops him with an overhead punch for the KO in round 3. Stupid, but fun.

Andre The Giant & Jimmy Snuka vs The Wild Samoans

Man, Snuka is a pretty useless tag partner here. The first half of the match is just the Samoans destroying him whilst Andre watches on from the apron. To the point where now and then Andre will just get in the ring to hit a Samoan, probably through boredom. I did love Afa stopping Snuka getting a tag with a swift headbutt from the floor. Finally, Snuka tags in Andre to a MASSIVE pop, who blitzes the Samoans. Andre hits a big boot and Snuka hits a splash from Andre’s shoulders to pick up the win. The Samoans were fun on offence, so this was pretty decent.

Andre the Giant vs The Masked Superstar

Really enjoyed this. There’s a great visual early on where Superstar has a headlock on Andre, who just stands up with Superstar dangling from his neck. Andre dominates until Superstar hits a knee to the back and then wisely barrages Andre with blows until he falls to the floor. Superstar locks on a Cobra Clutch, but Andre escapes rather cheaply by trying to remove his opponents’ mask. Big boot and a butt splash seal the win.

Andre the Giant & SD Jones vs Ken Patera & Big John Studd

More angle than match, but what an angle. The heels isolate Jones early and work him over. Jones tags out, but is thrown over the top by Patera, hitting his head on the metal railings in the process. The heels swarm Andre, leading to the match getting thrown out, and they get scissors from Bobby Heenan to cut Andre’s hair. Hot angle to set up….

Andre the Giant vs Ken Patera

This is billed as the revenge match and is from MSG. Patera stalls to avoid the angry giant, but eventually gets caught by Andre, who throttles Patera. The faces Patera makes as he gets swung back and forth are hilarious. Patera gets very little offence, but ragdolls about all over the match for Andre, pretty impressive considering Patera is no small guy. He’s unable to escape the Giant, even outside the ring where he gets hurled into the railings. Heenan attacks Andre with brass knuckles, which briefly slows him down, and draws a DQ. Andre soon recovers and squashes both Heenan and Patera in the corner. Really fun, made better by Patera’s commitment to getting destroyed.

Andre the Giant vs Big John Studd

This is the Wrestlemania slam challenge. The DVD commentary is done by Michael Cole and Tazz, but my DVD started skipping here, so I went to the network version. Forgot how brief and one-sided this is. Andre chops Studd to start before a long bearhug sequence. Andre maintains control and easily slams Studd. Wasn’t much to it, but I don’t think anyone was hoping there would be