August 1976

Bruno Sammartino vs. Stan Hansen WWWF Championship - Madison Square Garden Steel Cage Match August 7, 1976 A young Stan Hansen is working an earlier variation of his Lariat gimmick here, with bright green trunks and bleached blonde hair, sans cattle rancher gear and a loaded elbow pad for added effect. Chris Hero's gimmick in 2009 was very reminiscent of this look and honestly its a good one to recycle. I couldn't find the matches leading up to this one, and essentially the story boils down to the fact that Stan Hansen broke Bruno Sammartino's neck with the loaded Lariat. Now Bruno gets his chance for vengeance in a Steel Cage Match at MSG. Bruno is hesitant to…

Single leg takedown by Faulkner and he goes to slam Grey's leg into the canvas but he hops up. Wristlock, and Faulkner is starting with his tricks early, motioning with his head for Grey to look up. He does, then Faulkner immediately headmares him but Grey holds on to the move. He tries again to no avail, so a nip up, forward roll and he propels himself backwards off the ropes to get the reversal and Grey rolls through to escape. Side headlock by Grey and Faulkner starts running on the spot, but in the process is repeatedly kneeing Grey in the base of the spine to free himself from the hold. Dropkick by Grey and they start criss crossing. Grey stops as Faulkner cont…

Jumbo Tsuruta vs Jack Brisco - AJPW 8/28/76 NWA United National Heavyweight Tournament Final This was actually the match that revived the United National Heavyweight Championship after JWA closed and became an All Japan belt, first Jumbo's belt, then Tenryu's belt and ultimately as a part of the Triple Crown. Brisco was no longer the World's Heavyweight Champion relinquishing that position to Mr. Terry Funk. This is a two out of three fall match. The first fall features Jumbo at his offensive best. He is laser focused on Brisco's back and ain't never going to let up. Brisco actually had an early advantage countering into a crossface/deathlock and applying a bearh…