WWF Championship Wrestling July 13th, 1985

Your hosts are Bruno Sammartino and Vince McMahon

In action this week are the Missing Link, Paul Orndorff, Terry Funk, and George “The Animal” Steele. Also, the main event will be Barry Windham & Mike Rotundo vs. Iron Sheik & Nikolai Volkoff for the Tag Team Championship. Plus, “Piper’s Pit” with guest Randy Savage.

Orndorff aggressively attacks the arm. He slams X before tossing him to the floor. Orndorff follows him out and rams his head off of the table before rolling him back inside. He hits an elbow drop from the second rope as Bobby Heenan is shown watching from the aisle. Orndorff hits a sloppy-looking slingshot suplex then flexes to the crowd, which is going crazy for him. He then hits a clothesline and finishes off X with the piledriver (2:33). After the match, Heenan angrily kicks open the door that leads backstage then comes out with the briefcase as the crowd starts a loud “weasel” chant. Orndorff then slams Mr. X on the floor.

Thoughts: Man, the crowd was jacked for Orndorff. The bounty angle is still going strong too.

WWF Update with Lord Alfred Hayes. Randy Savage is this week’s subject. We are shown a clip of his TV debut match from last week.

This is the TV debut for Lanny. Rizz is some hairy fat guy. Bruno talks about Lanny Poffo’s dad for a minute as Lanny and Barry take it to the mat. Lanny does a few flips then hits a dropkick. Pedro tags in and works the arm. They trade slams then Morlaes works the arm. Poffo tags back in the match but gets clotheslined. Rizz tags but Lanny plants him with a pair of super kicks that has Vince laughing. Rizz seems to have no clue what to do in the ring. Pedro tags then makes Rizz submit to the Boston Crab (3:36).

Thoughts: Poffo looked okay but this team had no chemistry and the crowd didn’t care at all.

Jack Reynolds is backstage and alerts us that Tito Santana defeated Greg Valentine for the Intercontinental Title in Baltimore, MD last week. He then brings out Freddie Blassie and he talks about the Tornado Tag Match between Sheik & Volkoff vs. Windham & Rotundo in Providence. He promises that his team will win.

Link hits a bunch of headbutts then rams his own head off of the turnbuckle. He hits an elbow smash then takes down Young again. He then hits a slam before putting him away with a springboard headbutt (1:51).

Thoughts: The Link was not over at all. It made little sense to have him in the same promotion as George Steele, seeing how they basically have the same gimmick. Link’s gimmick was better off in the 70’s.

Jack Reynolds is with Capt. Lou Albano, who talks about the Tornado Match in Providence. He compares the match to painting a “tit mouse’s hind legs on a Saturday night” and that he and his team are ready.

Adams attacks Steele before the bell but ends up getting tossed outside. Steele then tosses him back outside and rams his head off of the table. Back inside, Steele stomps away then eats the turnbuckle, throwing the stuffing at the referee, Rita Marie. Vince is cackling on commentary as Steele puts him away with the flying hammerlock (2:57). After the match, Albano calms down Steele, who takes some of the turnbuckle stuffing before walking back to the locker room.

Thoughts: The crowd dug Steele as a face, especially the turnbuckle eating. I thought it was odd that they had this right after the Missing Link match but the crowd responded well to Steele and barely reacted at all to Link.

Piper’s Pit with guest “Macho Man” Randy Savage. Piper is enamored with Savage, who declares that Hulkamania is dead. Piper refers to Savage as the #1 draft choice then asks him what it is like to be a real macho man. Savage offers Piper a chance to wear his million dollar robe, while reminding him that Hulkamania is dead, as Piper puts it on and says that he feels better. Funny segment as they continue to push Savage strong right out of the gate.

Funk chops Mancini hard in the corner. He hits a neckbreaker then a piledriver but Mancini is able to kick out. He jumps on the back of Mancini, who was hunched over the middle rope, but misses a second attempt. Mancini knocks him out of the ring but back inside, Funk tosses Mancini to the floor. Back inside, Funk puts on the spinning toe hold for the win (3:38)

Thoughts: Funk looks good in the ring and is getting over as heel, although not as much as Macho Man. However, Funk still stands out from the other heels and is a legitimate threat. Pretty sweet that the WWF managed to get Funk and Savage debut a week apart from each other.

Tito Santana comes out with a public service announcement about never swimming alone.

Jesse Ventura does the voice over for the WrestleMania home video.

Windham and Volkoff starts things off. Volkoff does a cartwheel but Windham dropkicks him down. They slug it out for a bit until Rotundo tags himself in and gets two off of a rollup. Sheik kicks Rotundo in the back from the apron. He tags himself in and hits a backdrop before he stomps away. The crowd starts a “U-S-A” chant as Rotundo gets beat down. Sheik gets two off of a slam. He puts on the camel clutch but Windham breaks that up. Rotundo counters a suplex with a small package. Volkoff then reverses the pin behind the referee’s back but Windham reverses it back and the ref turns around and counts to three and we have new Tag Team Champions (3:13). The fans are going nuts for this, throwing trash at the heels.

Thoughts: It was always a treat to see a title change on TV during this time. I doubt that this finish would get over today but it worked great here.

Jack Reynolds is with Mr. Fuji, who talks about Don Muraco’s match in Providence against Andre the Giant. Muraco himself then comes out and wants to know if we have ever seen a giant cry.

Next week, Don Muraco will take on Ricky Steamboat in a rematch from two weeks ago.

Final Thoughts: Good show this week. The tag titles switching hands was fun and the pushes for the new arrivals, Funk and Savage, continue. Even the Poffo & Morales and Link matches, which were dull, didn’t drag the show down too much. The Orndorff bounty angle is still going strong too Plus, the Steamboat and Muraco for next week rematch looks to be good as well. We also found out that the Intercontinental title also changed hands and while it was only mentioned casually here, they will touch upon that more next week. The WWF did cool down after WrestleMania but it was not like they had nothing going on.