New Footage Friday: 1984 WWF MSG Shows

3/25/84

B. Brian Blair vs. Charlie Fulton

MD: Pretty good second match on a card. Straightforward but well worked with Blair controlling a shine on the arm, where he kept it interesting and varied, a pretty pedestrian transition where Fulton wouldn't break clean on the corner, some solid back work that followed, and a fiery comeback with good, chippy shots from Blair. All the offense looked good, the selling worked, the crowd barely cared, and Monsoon and Patterson were entertaining on commentary talking about Tony Garea and old injuries. About as good a mid-80s MSG second match as you could hope for.

Ivan Putski vs. Iron Sheik

MD: Well, you can't say the fans didn't care about this. It didn't last long either. Sheik looked fine in there, with good clubbering in his early ambush and then quality stooging and staggering and feeding after Putski came back with his belt and the rapid headlock punches. Putski knew what he was doing, I suppose, and even hit a nice suplex reversal. The Polish Hammer looked crummy as Sheik recoiled into the corner off of it to set up the finish. Four minutes that worked but that definitely shouldn't have been any more than that.

Iron Mike Sharpe vs. Tony Garea

MD: This wasn't listed in the results. Lucky us. Look, it was fine, but the only thing worth mentioning is how Sharpe got heat to start by complaining about his weight being announced as 282 when it's really 284. I like the sort of subtle image that evokes. This isn't like the Buddy Rose deal. It instead shows just how irritating Sharpe is to the crowd. Who cares if it's 282 or 284? What's the difference? Why get so worked up over that? What a pest. Of course, knowing about Sharpe's OCD, who knows?

Bob Backlund vs. Greg Valentine

MD: They were building to a rematch to end the next show, so this ended inconclusively, but what we got was good. Monsoon was playing up that Sheik had hurt Backlund's neck and shoulder, and Valentine eventually was able to target it, including a pretty nice short arm scissors. Backlund managed a back bridge while in it, before shifting Valentine over, which is not something I'm sure I've seen before. Of course the hold ended with the lift, before a brief comeback and a subsequent second bit of heat with the leg. There Backlund pushed Valentine off of a figure four attempt only for Valentine to run right back with an elbow drop which is an all time great cut off. It ended up on the floor with them slugging it out convincingly and set up the more decisive rematch the following month. Backlund got to interact with all the matinee kids after the match.

Paul Orndorff vs. Tito Santana

MD: We didn't really have a good match for Orndroff when he died earlier this year, so this feels like as good a choice as any. I know there's a readily available match vs. Santana (the May MSG) that a lot of people watched at that time. This goes back to the Sharpe bit (or Albano's pre-match antics) but Orndroff really lingers on his way in, including complaining about how his robe was being carried. Trying to get heat that way is up and down the card on this show and it's something no one in wrestling even thinks about doing today. Match itself was solid. They were working towards a draw. Some production elements are just funny. Patterson got there late to announce the first match because he was stuck in traffic. No one clued Monsoon in on the finish so he was aghast that it was even a 30 minute draw let alone a 20 minute one (let alone an 18:30 draw). Everything Orndorff did looked good. They were fairly minimalist in the matwork but it all worked. Tito doesn't get enough credit for his strikes though a good chunk here was Orndorff making them look good too. Tito had a great atomic elbow off the second ropes and his big comeback move was a diving elbow into the ropes after Orndorff had tossed him back in. Both guys could be absolutely explosive when the moment called for it. Finish was the sort of BS people were used to in New York and it sets up that May match which doesn't even have a much better finish.

5/21/84

Bobo Brazil/SD Jones/Rocky Johnson vs. Samoans(Afa/Sika/Samula)

MD: Historic match to some degree as it was Brazil's last MSG appearance. He was almost 60 and it showed whenever he tried to do anything complicated, though he looked pretty good moving around in general. I swear there was one moment in there where it seemed like he wanted to do the headscissors take over/headlock takeover at the same time spot with two Samoans and it just did not work. He got to clear house at the end with headbutts before they double clotheslined SD on a leapfrog (sounds better in theory than it was in practice, like the rest of this match). Rocky was almost 40 and he looked very good in there. I get that Brazil was a sub for Atlas for this short run but I don't see why they couldn't give them the nod on this. Brazil was billed on the way in as the greatest black wrestler of all time, but it wasn't a great showing and I can see why this stayed in the vault.