WWF All American Wrestling – Potpourri

A potpourri edition of All American Wrestling this week, with a mix of matches, interviews and angles from across the span of the show.

The Wild Samoans vs. The Invaders

A very interesting match here with truly international dynamics. Colour commentator Pat Patterson screws up with the first sentence he speaks by calling Gorilla Monsoon “Vince”. Sika starts with the smaller Invader II and surprisingly gets hip tossed, then accidentally hits brother Afa. Invader I, the infamous Jose Gonzales, tags in and takes a rear waistlock on Afa, then gets a dropkick. I notice the Invaders have stars and planets on their masks, so was it a case of them being space invaders? Sika gets a back elbow and a falling headbutt when he comes back in. Invader I gets caught when he tries to bodypress Sika, but II dropkicks him over for two. Weird bit with bad timing where both Samoans come in and do a chase sequence of one of the Invaders and run into one another and both get ousted. With the extended advantage they keep over the bigger guys, I wonder how much of the Invaders the Rockers watched. Sika has enough and puts II out to the floor. Back in, Patterson ponders this being “the start… of the end”, which Gorilla quickly corrects as “the beginning of the end”. Captain Lou gets some shots in, so I runs him off and then slingshots II over a doubled over Sika for a sunset flip for two. Yep, the Rockers definitely watched these guys. One of the Samoans gets tied in the ropes, so Albano comes in, leading to him having to do a rare bit of running off a double Irish whip and double dropkick. The referee throws the match out and the brawl continues with all four men. I was actually expecting, as this was a title match, that the champs would go over, but I imagine they were booking ahead towards a more definitive MSG match. Good match, shame about the finish.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1FpKidF7Dg

Mad Maxine vs. Susan Starr

Debut for giant heel Mad Maxine, who knocked around for a bit, but I believe was actually a gonzo journalist who just wanted to check out what the sport was all about. 6’4″, pale, green and blue Mohawk, she’s managed by Moolah. Logical contender for Wendi Richter, but wasn’t around too long. Starr is a cowgirl and looks even smaller than Moolah did next to her. Maxine does a few charges and misses and gets rolled up. Maxine is so green that Starr does all the work for her, bumping like mad. You can tell she has no natural instincts. Suplex finishes for three. She definitely had the look, but the matches with Wendi would’ve been pretty awful. Back in the studio, Gene of course can’t resist commenting on her tits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqiITzC942w

Gino Carabello vs. Les Thornton

Les is announced as the WWF light heavyweight champion, but the chyron adds junior to it too. A Brit who evidently liked getting a good tan, so he stayed in North American until he died. He’s probably more famous nowadays for being the pro Mick Foley teamed with in the match against the British Bulldogs where Dyno decided to break his jaw. The crowd give them no time before they start up with the “BORING!” chants, so Thornton gets a couple of uppercut forearms and a pair of suplexes. Side backbreaker, Billy Robinson’s hold, for the win. This did not get over at all in spite of Les’ technical excellence.

Tiger Chung Lee, Les Thornton and the Spoiler vs. Gary Starr, Joe Mirto and Paul Roma

Just to make Les look more out of place, let’s team him with a Korean and a masked man. Roma gets the biggest pop of the job guys on account of the one who looks like something. He starts with Les, who Gorilla reminds us is the man of a thousand holds. He also reminds us of him being the light heavyweight champion too, which is never a good sign for the belt. Gutwrench suplex to get the advantage, bringing in Lee for a nice thrust kick and chop. Spoiler’s in, doing his rope climbing fist drop. Mirto gets the tag, but Les grabs his hair from the outside to bring it back for the heels. Spoiler traps Joe’s head behind the ropes and then kicks it. Thornton back in with another gutwrench for two. Chung Lee gets a butterfly suplex for his own two. Starr, who’s diminutive, finally gets in, but Lee blocks him and Thornton Irish whips into Spoiler’s flying clawhold for the submission in a pretty slick move. Kept moving quickly enough to not cause any trouble.

Interview with the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers

Podium interview held by Craig DeGeorge, who I thought was gone by this point in September of 1988. The building of their heel gimmick continues as they’re selling up in Montreal and going to move to the States. Jacques claims they have a 1-800-Fabulous number, with people calling them to come and be their neighbour, which Vince pours sarcastic scorn on. Over to Raymond, who says they’re so busy that they’ve “choosen” a new manager, which Vince again picks up on and Jesse defends with “They’re foreigners, McMahon”. Out comes Jimmy Hart to add the irritating cherry on the whole trolling cake. His first gift to them is to give them shares of the Hart Foundation’s contract that he still has in revenge for them dumping him over the summer. A lot going on here, so a pretty good interview overall.

The Dragon vs. Colonel Mustafa

Joined in progress. Sheiky baby has just had his last sniff of the main event at Summerslam and here is out without General Adnan. Ricky dropkicks him out, so Mustafa takes his time coming back in. Steamer is trying some USA chants to no success. This is actually a trainee vs. trainer match, as Sheik had a big part in training Steamboat, Flair and others under Verne Gagne. Mustafa rams the Dragon’s head into the loaded boot and gets a choke, but Dragon gets a dropkick and bodyslam after sliding through his legs. Attempt at a splash meets knees, followed by a Mustafa gutwrench suplex for two. Dragon blocks a vertical suplex and just about gets him up for his own. Flying bodypress finishes a wholly unimpressive match. Steamboat was up for trying, but the Colonel was about half a decade past his prime and had declined quickly.

Texas Tornado vs. Shawn Michaels

Joined in progress again, with Shawn trying a hip toss and reversal, then getting clotheslined out. Shawn and Sherri work the mirror gimmick outside, so Kerry drops out and hits and gets him back in. Shawn tries to crawl back out and Kerry grabs him by the feet. Sherri grabs him by the hands on the outside, so Kerry just lets go that Shawn falls on top of her. Kerry grabs him by the mullet and brings him back in for punches, but runs into a boot and gets stomped. Sherri gets her own shots in from the outside behind the ref’s back. Tornado leapfrogs over a back body drop, but walks into the superkick. Kerry gets his own punch out of the corner for two, but Sherri slaps him over the referee’s watch to get his attention, so he picks her up to the apron and goes for the claw, but Shawn runs in and gets clawed himself. Shawn tries to escape to the outside, so it’s another Sherri assist, pulling both men out. Shawn actually gets the worst of it, landing on the mirror and breaking it, cutting his elbow, but Sherri gets him back in before the count for the win. Pretty energetic short match which gives us the chance to say something like we’ve seen Kerry against Shawn.

Damian Demento vs. The 1-2-3 Kid

I was looking at some costume designs recently that reveal we almost got Sean Waltman in a neon orange version of this outfit. His eyebrows haven’t grown back yet after some ribbing gone wrong with Curt Hennig and the Smoking Gunns, and he has the prototype version of the rock mix of the Red Rooster’s music. Demento pounds away to start. Kid literally doesn’t get a shot in for about two minutes before avoiding a splash. No joy on a slam, so back down he goes after a backbreaker. Missed charge and Kid finally gets the slam. Rough DDT sets up the legdrop off the top to the back of the neck for the win. Shockingly brief, even though Waltman was working his gimmick excellently at this point.

The 1-2-3 Kid and the Smoking Gunns vs. Bam Bam Bigleow and the Headshrinkers

Bam Bam, Samu and Fatu were a pretty regular tandem for a few months this year and the next before the latter pair turned face. Bammer starts with Kid and throws him around, but gets caught with a dropkick and gets spinkicked to the outside. The Headshrinkers try to disable him, but he escapes them and gets a flip to the outside onto Bigelow while the Gunns double dropkick them out. Back in, Kid more than holds his own with his educated feet, but gets press slammed and in comes Fatu (later Rikishi) for a triple backbreaker. Samu splits the wishbone with him and drops an elbow. Nice one-handed slam, then a weird cut where Bart has replaced Kid as the beating victim and Bam Bam is dropping his head and weight on him. A camera shot in the corner shows that they’ve actually gone to the trouble of having two tag ropes in each corner. Samu clothesline Bart on the top rope with an assist from Fatu while Gorilla gets some knocks in on what a politician Jack Tunney is. Bart gets a DDT on Bam Bam, but Bigelow is up first. Bodypress, assisted by Billy. Kid gets tagged in and flies off the top with a missile dropkick. Everyone in as the Kid goes for a crucifix, which he manipulates into a cool DDT move, but he gets caught coming off the top with a slam by Bam Bam for the heels to win. Nice match to finish the week on.

The red, the white and the blue: Worst match was Mad Maxine showing she was as green as her hair. Best matches were either the opening tag title match and the closing six man. Nothing too weird or out of the ordinary this week.

Back next week with a 1985 episode from an uploader with a bit of a Brutus Beefcake crush.