JHawk
Last week, Bob Backlund’s next challengers were announced, but the focus was mostly on new Intercontinental Champion Don Muraco as syndicated TV reviewed his title victory, and he was announced as the next challenger for Backlund at Madison Square Garden.
February 1983, Monday, Week 1
The ratings for both shows were up from last week. That’s the good news. The bad news is that in nearly every region, the WWF finished in the lower half of the area’s ratings for the month in comparison to the other companies, which is going to take a huge chunk out of their prestige. It will be interesting to see how they recover from here. On top of that, the company lost nearly $25,000 last month, although they didn’t run Philadelphia last month and you can usually count on close to 10,000 tickets being sold.
Mil Mascaras’ contract with All Japan has expired, although there are rumors that they are trying to sign Masked Superstar.
Tito Santana became a champion in Georgia, as he and Buzz Sawyer, dubbed Bad Habit, won the vacant NWA National Tag Team Championship last night by defeating Ron Garvin and The Super Destroyer.
Even though this is the WWF’s self-appointed “signing week” I don’t expect too many new signings. There might end up being a couple more women signed but I wouldn’t expect any major names.
February 1983, Tuesday, Week 1
The NWA has once again loaned out Andre the Giant, this time for one shot to All Japan. All Japan doesn’t have another tour until March, but Andre is expected to wrestle on the first week of the new tour.
Championship Wrestling taping (February 1983, Tuesday, Week 2)
In a match that had some good action and average heat, Ray Stevens went to a double countout with Tony Garea in 8:39.
In a match that was surprisingly even throughout, Rocky Johnson pinned Johnny Rodz with a sunset flip in 4:59. It seemed like they were trying to make these two look evenly matched, but they have horrible chemistry so it came off disjointed.
Ivan Koloff (w/Freddie Blassie) pinned Jules Strongbow in 1:14 when he came off the top rope and drove Strongbow to the mat with his knee. These two work remarkably well together and I would have liked to see this one go five more minutes.
Vince McMahon announced that Ray Stevens will take on Chief Jay Strongbow at Madison Square Garden on Friday, Week 3.
In an awful match that was completely devoid of heat, Salvatore Bellomo defeated Tiger Conway Jr. in 4:07 by pinfall with a Pizza Splash.
Big John Studd was the guest in Buddy Rogers’ Corner. Studd claimed that nobody will ever be able to bodyslam him, even if he ups the stakes to $100,000. He specifically asked Bob Backlund to take his best shot at it when they meet at the Philadelphia Spectrum in two weeks.
In an extremely short match, Mr. Fuji defeated Barry Hart in 1:06 by pinfall with a Kamikaze Clothesline.
S.D. Jones defeated Bob Bradley in 0:52 by pinfall. It felt like something must have ran long early because they were greatly rushing through things here.
The Wild Samoans (w/Lou Albano) defeated Eddie Gilbert & Curt Hennig in 3:27 when Afa pinned Hennig with a Samoan drop after Sika caught Hennig with a knee to the back. After the match, Vince McMahon announced the Samoans would take on Jimmy Snuka and Andre the Giant on Friday, Week 3 at Madison Square Garden before conducting a brief interview with the Samoans and Albano at ringside.
Jimmy Snuka (w/Buddy Rogers) defeated Charlie Fulton in 3:11 by pinfall with a Superfly Splash. After the match, Pat Patterson interviewed Snuka at ringside regarding his recent match with Buddy Rose and his upcoming tag match with the Samoans. As Snuka walked away, the Strongbows came out and joined Patterson to discuss their non-title match with the Samoans in Philadelphia in two weeks.
In a bout that featured great action and average heat, Masked Superstar defeated Pedro Morales in 6:38 by pinfall with a swinging neckbreaker. Best match of the night and a pretty good main event.
Good show overall, but it seemed like they didn’t really build up to the MSG and Philly shows enough this time around.
February 1983, Wednesday, Week 1
Last night’s Championship Wrestling drew another sellout of 1,300.
The Polish Prince was apparently very upset about his deal not being renewed, as last night he was angrily complaining about it to pretty much anybody within earshot. Booker Jared Hawkins tried to calm him down and let him know he might be back in the future, but Polish Prince stormed off calling it a complete waste of time. From the sounds of it, he might be leaving the company at the perfect time.
Longtime journeyman wrestler Jose Estrada will be rejoining the company shortly, as he has signed a long term deal.
A number of wrestlers are beginning to complain about how little they’re being used, including The Invaders, who haven’t been used at all yet, Andre the Giant, George Steele, The Iron Sheik, and even Howard Finkel. Head booker Hawkins has said he wants to hold off on The Invaders until April or so to allow the Samoans-Strongbows program to finish up, and Sheik is in the plans for later this year. I’d expect Steele and Andre to get plenty of shots. Finkel is an odd deal as he’s the official company ring announcer but apparently wants to try his hand at commentary, but with Pat Patterson doing such a good job I don’t see how they’re going to use him that way unless they go to a three man booth. They are considering having Finkel do commentary for Philadelphia in two weeks to see how he does.
Gorilla Monsoon recently won a mail-in poll naming him the best announcer in wrestling. I have to think part of that is because he only works the big shows so he isn’t overexposed on TV.
All-Star Wrestling taping (February 1983, Wednesday, Week 1)
A few minutes after the show started, Bob Backlund began doing the Harvard Step Test, going up and down some steps that were set up by the Rogers’ Corner set. Apparently he was going for the World Record, so this became a show long thing and distracted me from some of the action, so we’ll see how much of this I get right.
In a match that had some good action but not much in the way of heat, Ray Stevens defeated Curt Hennig in 8:07 by pinfall with a Bombs Away. Stevens seemed a step off tonight.
Rocky Johnson defeated Baron Mikel Scicluna in 3:51 by pinfall with a Johnson Shuffle.
Ivan Koloff pinned Pedro Morales with a kneedrop off the top rope in 3:29. Pedro seemed a step off which makes me think he’s phoning it in now that he’s lost the Intercontinental Title.
Buddy Rogers’ Corner featured Arnold Skaaland, who explained that Backlund working on the Harvard Step Test is a way to gain endurance before his matches with Don Muraco and Big John Studd later this month.
Chief Jay Strongbow was announced as a last minute replacement for Tony Atlas, who wasn’t being advertised anyway. The Wild Samoans defeated S.D. Jones and Strongbow in 3:25 when Sika pinned the chief with a Samoan Drop. That was actually a clever way to build for the tag title program, as one of the champs gets pinned, albeit with a different partner than he’s accustomed to.
Tony Garea defeated Charlie Fulton in 4:44 by pinfall. Garea was a step off tonight, which is turning into a running theme.
Jimmy Snuka defeated Israel Matia in 0:59 by pinfall with a Superfly Splash.
Barry Hart pinned Tiger Conway Jr. in 1:36 with a three quarter nelson roll up. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Hart win a match before this.
Pat Patterson interviewed Don Muraco, who cut an incredible interview where he not only promised to beat Backlund for the title at the Garden, but that he would defend both belts against everybody including Pedro Morales and Rocky Johnson. Muraco had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand and drew some incredible heat for this.
Alexis Smirnoff came to the ring for his TV debut, cutting a promo claiming that he was not only superior to Americans, but also better than wrestlers from other countries who pretend to be Americans. This brought out Andre the Giant, who said he loved wrestling in America and challenged the Russian to a match right then and there. Andre won the match with a bodyslam in 4:05.
The show ended with Vince McMahon once again interviewing Arnold Skaaland, who praised Backlund for doing the Harvard Step Test and claiming you’ll see a quicker and leaner champion by the time MSG rolls around.
Pretty good show all things considered, but it’s clear that they consider Championship Wrestling to be their A show.
February 1983, Thursday, Week 1
The attendance at the Hamburg Fieldhouse dropped to 1,693 last night, which is still above what was expected thanks to a great walk up.
Morale was up in the locker room last night, mostly thanks to Israel Matia, who drew some funny caricatures of his colleagues.
The WWF completed the signing of Joyce Grable, who will be used part time as part of the women’s division. This signing is considered a surprise due to the breakdown in negotiations with her partner Wendi Richter last month, but this could be a way to convince Richter to sign later down the road.
February 1983, Friday, Week 1
“Polish Prince” Ed Wiskowski’s contract has expired and he is officially gone from the company.
The WWF has signed Judy Martin to help bolster the women’s division under a long term pay per appearance deal. This is apparently the last signing we will expect this month as they want to try to build up some of the talent they currently have on the roster.
February 1983, Saturday, Week 1
There are rumors out of the All Japan Women’s promotion that Judy Martin and Chigusa Nagayo are at each other’s throats. Martin has supposedly been bragging about her new WWF deal, which has made a lot of enemies in the locker room, and Nagayo supposedly told her that nobody cared about American women’s wrestling so she better be quiet about it. Apparently any time they were in the same room yesterday, many of the roster had to step in between them to keep them from coming to blows.
February 1983, Sunday, Week 1
Curt Hennig lost the AWA Television Title last night to Jerry Blackwell in Denver.
Next week: A new challenger steps up for Big John Studd’s bodyslam challenge, and the lineups for the Madison Square Garden and Philadelphia Spectrum shows continue to shape up.
