WWF Tuesday Night Titans: July 17, 1984

By Scott Keith on February 13, 2013

July 17, 1984

Your hosts are Lord Alfred Hayes and Vince McMahon

Vince starts off by making a Wimbledon joke at Lord Alfred’s expense. Hayes nearly pisses himself with laughter afterwards. Vince then moves on to talk about the upcoming Fabulous Moolah vs. Wendi Richter at Madison Square Garden before showing us the training video of Wendi Richter with Cyndi Lauper.

Back from break, Vince plugs the MSG show then invites Richter to come out. Vince immediately brings up her association with Lauper, grinning uncontrollably the entire time. He then brings up a quote that Capt. Lou Albano made about women only belonging in the kitchen or getting pregnant and Richter doesn’t like that. Richter is really not a good speaker at all. Richter then talks about how Lauper has taught her about makeup and hair, as well as women’s rights. However, she did not throw away her cowboy boots. Before the alignment with Lauper, Richter wrestled as “Cowgirl” Wendi Richter and was a heel. Anyway, this drags on some more and Hayes tells her that he would drink champagne out of her boot anytime.

They then speak about Tony Garea. Hayes calls him a great representative of professional wrestling and Vince says that Garea’s accent is “kinda funny.” Garea comes out and says that he has held the tag-team belts on five different occasions. Garea confirms that he is wrestling single now but still keeps an eye out for potential tag partners.

Tony Garea vs. Johnny Rodz

This match looks to be from a house show taping as the arena is really dark. Vince McMahon is joined by Ray Stevens on commentary, who spent the whole time putting himself over. They do some matwork to start then Rodz works the arm. Garea ducks a chop and gets an armdrag. Rodz lands a cheapshot then works on Garea in the corner. He removes some of the turnbuckle padding but Garea blocks the turnbuckle smash and slams Rodz head against the exposed steel. Backdrop gets two. Rodz lands another cheapshot and beats on Garea. Jumping back elbow smash and Rodz chokes out Garea with his knee. Rodz wins a slugfest but Garea ducks a chop and gets a crossbody for two. Sunset flip gets two. Rodz grabs a front facelock but Garea eventually fights out of that by flipping Rodz over his back. Garea lands some forearm smashed but Rodz stops that with a knee. Garea is able to reverse an Irish whip and comes back with another crossbody for the win (6:38) ½*.

Thoughts: Really dull match. It was just about what you’d expect from Garea. The crowd was dead the entire time too.

After the match, Vince asks Garea about his stint as a color commentator. Garea enjoys it and would like to do that again in the future. He then talks about possibly facing Tito Santana for the IC belt, stating that it would be a good match but also says that he has no shot against Hulk Hogan, listing off his height and weight in the process. He then closes by saying that the most important thing he looks for in a partner is agility. Garea is nothing more than a jobber to the stars at this point.

Samula vs. Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka

Samula is also known as “Samoan #3.” This match is from the MSG House Show on 2/20/84. Samula jumps Snuka before the bell but Snuka fights right back. Scoop slam by Snuka and Samula is begging for mercy in the corner. After a bit of stalling, Snuka grabs a side headlock. Snuka ducks a pair of leapfrogs from Samula, who was mimicking Snuka’s patented double leapfrog spot, and gets two off a crossbody. He goes for a front facelock but Samula picks him up and rams him in the corner. He chokes out Snuka until the ref steps in then gets two off of a scoop slam. Samula works a nerve hold for a very long time until Snuka escapes. Samula takes him down with a shoulderblock but misses a crossbody. Snuka comes back with a flying headbutt and a suplex. He goes up top as the fans are going crazy and gets a crossbody press for the win (9:32) *1/2.

Thoughts: Way too much stalling here. Samula was a good worker for his age and Snuka did a few decent highspots so it wasn’t terrible or anything. Snuka is starting to get another big push now, as they are focusing on him a lot, specifically the incident on Piper’s Pit.

The mailbag segment is next. A girl wearing a short dress and stockings brings out the mail as Hayes can barely keep it in his pants. She kisses him on the cheek and he asks if that can be done in private before trying to get her name and phone number. Vince starts to read the mail as a writer in Philadelphia asks why Hogan is never around or on TV since becoming the champ. Vince proudly states how he has the busiest schedule out of any wrestler in the world and has duties that take him around the world. A writer in Milwaukee states how they loved the Ivan Putski segment when he sang and danced and asks if any other wrestlers will be doing the same. Vince’s reply is that the wrestlers have many other talents besides being in the ring. The last question is someone requesting that Rocky Johnson appear on TNT shortly. Vince says that we will be seeing him soon.

Vince welcomes out Red Bastien, who is in his 50’s at this point. Red says that he is representing WWF in California. They show a clip from a match that he had with Dory Funk Jr. in Texas that looks to have been shot in the late seventies. Red narrates the clip and the action looked okay but the quality of the video was poor, so you couldn’t make out everything that happened. Vince puts over Dory as an all-time great. Besides giving time to legends, I have no other idea as to why this segment took place.

Greg Valentine is brought out next and the crowd boos. He blows off handshakes from the hosts and asks if this is the place where retired wrestlers come. He says that he main goal is to win the WWF heavyweight Belt. Although not announced here, he was to face Hulk Hogan for the belt at the upcoming MSG show.

Greg “The Hammer” Valentine w/Capt. Lou Albano vs. Tito Santana

This match is from the 6/23/84 edition of Championship and is a non-title bout. Tito hiptosses a charging Valentine then eggs him on. Tito works the arm for a bit then the two engage in some matwork before ending in a faceoff. Tito ducks an elbow smash as Valentine gets pissed. He is able to slam Tito then drops a knee, getting two. He then begins to beat the piss out of Tito and chokes him out. Tito is able to shove Valentine in the corner and fires away. He takes him down with a kneelift but Valentine is able to block a suplex attempt with a knee to the gut. He suplexes Tito, who is able to roll away from two consecutive elbow drops. Both men are outside and slugging it out on the apron as the ref is counting. Greg is able to go over the ropes, just beating the ten count and gets the win (5:28). Tito flew over the ropes and tried to cover Valentine but was unaware of the decision.

Thoughts: Decent action for a short TV match. This match aired a week after their awesome match at MSG. All signs point towards a feud between these two wrestlers.

Valentine then says how he could have beaten Tito a few times during that match but the referees were biases against him. He then says how he should be the IC champion and mentions that another goal of his is to become the IC champion. Vince then brings out Valentine’s wife, Julie. She comes out and is a very attractive woman. She is blond and soft spoken with a great body. I remember reading that there were plans for her to become a regular on TV with her husband but that was scratched for some reason. I guess that she was to have the same role as Miss Elizabeth would have the following year. Julie says that her husband is a pussycat and only aggressive when in the ring, causing Hayes and Vince to laugh.

Back from break, Valentine lays across a table and has his wife come out and massage him. He says that this is the secret to his success after naming off all of the condos, homes, and cars that he owns. She is wearing a bikini and begins to rub him down as Valentine gives her directions and just babbles on about nothing important. I gotta say that she fills out her bikini well. This segment did a great job introducing Julie to the audience.

Bagpipes start to play loudly as several bagpipers come out before Roddy Piper. He then goes on the chair and sprawls out, grinning from ear to ear. He cracks jokes and tells Hayes that he wrestled against him when he was seventeen years old and won the match.

SD Jones vs. Roddy Piper

This match is from the 3/31/84 episode of Championship Wrestling. Piper stalls and takes off his kilt, which had the crowd taunting him loudly. He starts by shaking hands and using clean breaks, in a very insincere manner. It was pretty funny, actually. Piper then clocks SD after teasing another clean break. SD manages a sunset flip for two but Piper goes to work on the neck. SD makes a comeback as the crowd goes crazy. He catches his foot and hits an atomic drop and the crowd is insane right now as Piper is staggering all over the place. SD then ducks his head and Piper hits him with a swinging neckbreaker for the win (4:43).

Thoughts: Not bad at all. The wrestling wasn’t much but Piper really could work the crowd. He had the crowd go nuts for SD Jones.

After the match is shown, Piper is laughing and said that he once made a mistake, stating he thought he was wrong once but it turned out that he was right. Vince then asks Piper if he can play the bagpipes as Piper, who is obviously lying, says that he can but he left his at home. After a lot of stalling, he eventually plays. The segment wasn’t much but Piper did what he could to make it entertaining.

They then show the bagpipers playing as Piper calls himself a “One Man Band.” He then says that he is a “Legend Killer” as he killed the legend of Jimmy Snuka. He laughs as Vince warns the viewers about the upcoming clip as they replay Piper attacking Snuka on Piper’s Pit. Vince calls the clip disgusting as Piper says that Snuka was an idiot who rambled on and he was lucky that he didn’t get hurt more than he did. Hayes calls Piper a man without dignity and that sets Piper off. He yells and screams before slapping Hayes across the face and storming off the set.

Next is the “WWF Review” segment with features a clip of a match between the Fabulous Moolah vs. Penny Mitchell.

After the break, the camera zooms in on the face of Hayes, showing the mark left on his face after getting slapped by Piper. He once again calls Piper a man without dignity and looks devastated as the camera shows Vince laughing before plugging Andre the Giant’s appearance on next week’s show.

Final Thoughts: The show wasn’t bad. They set up two feuds (Piper/Snuka and Tito/Valentine) as well as plug the MSG match between Moolah and Richter. The Garea and Bastien segments were a waste of time but the show didn’t drag on too much as this show could really be a chore to watch for two hours. Piper was hilarious and did an awesome job in his lengthy segment, which was the highlight of the night.

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