WWF Championship Wrestling: May 11th, 1985

Your hosts are Bruno Sammartino and Vince McMahon

In action tonight are Tito Santana & Junkyard Dog & Pedro Morales, who is making his return to the WWF, in six-man tag action. Plus, Ken Patera and Jesse Ventura.

Rotundo gets the best of Barry O. in a brief fast-paced sequence before tagging out. Haley messed up the timing off a Thesz Press and that legit pissed off Windham, who stiffed him with a forearm smash. Powerslam gets two. Rotundo tags and works the arm of Haley. The ex-champs take turns beating on Haley until Rotundo gets him up for the Airplane Spin and gets the win (3:30).

Thoughts: The former champs were wrestling aggressively tonight as they are pissed over losing the belts at WrestleMania. Once again, Albano was not with Windham & Rotundo.

WWF Update with Lord Alfred Hayes. This week’s focus is on the British Bulldogs as we see a clip of them in a TV squash. Hayes puts them over for their innovative offense and says perhaps they could take the titles away from the Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff.

Black is dressed in a gi and leads the crowd in a “weasel” chant. He also uses various martial arts poses. Patera grabs a front facelock then works the arm. Black tries to use “judo” moves but just ends up getting tossed around. After some stomps and turnbuckle smashes, which all looked horrible, Patera slams him off the top rope then drops the elbow for the win (1:45).

Thoughts: I have no idea who Black was and he might have been the single worst wrestler I have seen but this match was so bad it actually came off as entertaining. Even the announcers were ragging on “Judo Joe.” Anyway, here is a link to the match: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEZgvid1ckk

Gene Okerlund welcomes Tito Santana, who will be facing Brutus Beefcake at the Boston Garden on May 18th. Tito compares Brutus “Fruitcake” to a combination of Gomer Pyle and a “fruit” before wishing a happy Mother’s Day to all of the mothers.

Before the match, Jesse points at Bruno. After some stalling, Jesse backs Marino to the ropes then knocks him down with a cheap shot. Jesse overpowers Marino, stopping to taunt Bruno, then puts him away with the Bodybreaker (2:35). After the match, Jesse continues to taunt Bruno, who is now standing up and pointing at Jesse. The fans are going nuts for Bruno.

Thoughts: They are looking to set up a feud between Jesse and Bruno in a battle between color commentators. Jesse wasnt much at all in the ring.

Okerlund is with the Junkyard Dog. Speaking of Okerlund, he is tanned to the point that it looks like he is wearing blackface. He then tries to teach JYD the Boston accent. JYD gets upset when Okerlund breaks up Jimmy Hart, who JYD refers to as “mouse.” JYD plays up his relationship with Tito during the interview and it is inevitable that they will be feuding against Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake.

S.D. headbutts the heels before putting Valentine in a headlock. Beefcake interferes behind the referee’s back then tags in and beats on S.D. Valentine roughs him up too but S.D. rolls away from a pair of elbow drops and tags Roma, who promptly gets destroyed. Beefcake hits Roma with the running knee lift then tags Valentine, who makes him submit to the figure four (3:25).

Thoughts: Beefcake and Valentine looked good here and are starting to gel as a team.

Piper’s Pit with guest Ricky Steamboat. Piper brings up how the women are calling Ricky a heartthrob but then says that he is much better looking according to the ladies. He also calls Steamboat a cheater for using martial arts in his matches. Steamboat pisses off Piper by calling him “Rodney” and this ends in a stand off.

Maxine bails after Peterson hits a few armdrags. Maxine boots her down then overpowers her. Her offense looks bad but she does look the part as the was legitimately 6’2 and dressed like a punk rocker, complete with a mohawk. She hits a leg drop then works a headscissors. Slam gets two. Then, in one of the worst sequences you will ever see, Desiree hits Maxine with a dropkick and off the rebound takes her over with a monkey flip. Maxine had no clue as to where she was supposed to be. Maxine slams her down then hits a suplex for the win (2:57). After the match, Moolah attacks Peterson.

Thoughts: Maxine would be gone just as soon as she appeared. She was being groomed for a feud with Wendi Richter. She had a great look but was horrendous in the ring. She went on to the AWA then quit the business a few years after that and now apparently works as a journalist.

Rodz chops Pedro against the ropes to start. They go back-and-forth for a bit until Morales tags Tito. The faces then all take turns beating on Rodz until Morales gets trapped in the wrong corner. The match completely breaks down and Powers ends up landing right on his head after being thrown into the ring then submits to a Boston crab applied by Morales (4:17). After the match, the heels attempt to attack the faces as they dance but get chased away.

Thoughts: Pedro didnt really fit in the WWF at this time. He was old and part of the crew that Vince Sr. pushed that was being kicked to the curb at this time.

Okerlund is with Bob Orton, who is plugging his tag match with Piper against Hogan & Snuka. He makes a point that they cannot lose since Orndorff is no longer part of their team. After that, Luscious Johnny Valiant and Brutus Beefcake come out and run down Tito. Valiant thinks Tito belongs in a psychiatric unit then mocks Hillbilly Jim with a stereotypical hillbilly voice.

Next week, we will see a special episode of “Piper’s Pit” from the Nassau Coliseum. It was actually the installment that took place at the debut episode of “Saturday’s Night Main Event,” which aired on the same day as this show. Oddly enough, that show was not promoted on this episode at all, or even on the TNT show from the prior day.

Final Thoughts: Not much of a show this week. The Judo Joe match was so bad it has to be seen though and it did contain a rare TV appearance rom Mad Maxine but not much of note happenend other than that.