Posted July 28, 201213 yr comment_5511422 VQ - Bad to Okay (Low Audio) 1. Jimmy Snuka vs. Don Muraco The match was cut off mid-way into the tag match that I'm going to review next. Bizarre. This was okay in spots and eh in others from what we have. Muraco took some good bumps for Snuka's offense but once he took control everything went down hill. It was all very slow and methodical. He did one move at a time and nothing looked or seemed particularly effective. He had Snuka in an abdominal claw before the match got cut off. Maybe it was good thing I didn't have to see the rest. 2. The U.S. Express vs. Dick Murdoch/The Assassin (WWF Tag Title) JIP. What we have of this is good but I can't imagine we have enough of it to fairly nominate it. It's pretty clear that the first five minutes or so have been scratched off. Rotundo is in peril where we get in and Barry gets the tag and cleans house. There's a great spot where Barry gives Murdoch an atomic drop and Murdoch waddles around the ring in pain but high tails when he runs into Rotundo on the apron. Murdoch gets in a cheap shot on Barry and Windham is now FIP. He takes a nasty front atomic drop from Murdoch and bumps wildly to the floor as Murdoch drags him to the outside. Barry gets pounded on pretty extensively throughout this and Assassin does a very good gut wrench with his knees. Windham eventually does tag in Rotundo as he's in a front face lock applied by Assassin. Rotundo clears the ring of Murdoch and gives The Assassin the airplane spin meanwhile hitting a returning Murdoch in mid-rotation. Rotundo follows it up with a fireman's carry slam for the win and the U.S. Express retain the tag belts. I can't justifiably nominate this because I believe there's too much missing from the match and it's only borderline nomination worthy from what I've seen. 3. David Sammartino vs. Paul Orndorff This match was good. Orndorff is good with green workers. That's one of the things I've discovered so far on this set. He made all of Sammartino's offense look great. The early stooging was fun but it did go a little too long. Orndorff's heat segment started off great with him tossing David outside to the floor and soon after that using debris a fan threw into the ring as a weapon to further piss the crowd off. This is the second time he's done that since I've been watching the stuff for the set. There were some really good cut off spots including a cross body for a near fall by David. Orndorff did a great job taking all of David's comeback offense including a nice dropkick. Orndorff was disqualified after crotching David on the top rope mid-comeback. The crowd hated Orndorff a lot during this time because they were furious after the match. I liked this a good bit but not quite enough to nominate it. The early stooging was too long for my liking. 4. Battle Royal (Paul Orndorff, David Sammartino, Swede Hanson, Rene Goulet, Charlie Fulton, Mr. X) This is seriously one of the most bizarre matches I've EVER seen. The participants in this match are hilarious. This match and the Sammartino-Orndorff match aren't even listed on Graham's site so I had a hard time finding out who the hell was in this match. I'm pretty positive I got all the right guys down though. The beginning of the match is tremendous. Some fucker throws a roll of toilet paper in the ring and Rene Goulet picks it up and fires it at David's back to start the match. That was fucking awesome and funny as shit. The brawling that followed was absolutely abysmal though. Swede Hanson has no redeeming value as a wrestler at all. His strikes and mannerisms were terrible in this match. Orndorff got rid of David early and Hanson disposed of Mr. X pretty quickly too. Orndorff then made easy work of Fulton and he and Goulet double teamed Hanson. Orndorff held Hanson's arms back as Goulet threw some decent punches to Hanson's face. Hanson broke free and took down both guys then tossed Goulet out of the ring. The finish was initially botched as Orndorff immediately kneed Hanson in the back but Hanson's so bad he couldn't get over the ropes so Orndorff had to whip him to the other side and knee him with more force to send him to the floor. Orndorff wins probably the most random battle royal or match I remember seeing in a long, long time. It wasn't anything special but definitely entertaining in an extremely strange way. Final Analysis Fun show if nothing else. It seems like the Hartford shows would just get a small crew of random fuckers to put on a show. The biggest names were Snuka, Orndorff, and Muraco. No match really delivered the absolute goods but a few were close. These handhelds sure are entertaining though.
