Pittsburgh Civic Arena
Pittsburgh, PA
January 15, 1971
While half the WWWF roster was performing at Witchi's Sports Arena in North Attleboro, MA.....the other half was at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena for a great card of wrestling three days before Madison Square Garden. WWWF and adopted hometown hero Bruno Sammartino teams with Dominic DeNucci against the dastardly Baron Mikel Scicluna and George "The Animal" Steele in the main event. Other matches include a young John L Sullivan taking on Jim Dillon, Gorilla Monsoon teaming with Victor Rivera against number one contender Ivan Koloff and the insane Jos Le Duc, and "Nobleman" Joe Turco taking on Bobby Hunt. Let's get to the matches.
Match 1
Frank Holtz vs Mike Conrad
Check it out, its Frank Holtz! I said this before but he was a local Pennsylvania police officer who was booked when the WWWF came to Pittsburgh from the 60's all the way to 1976. As per norm, this was a 15 minute time limit draw.
Time of match: 15:00
Winner: No one (Draw)
Match 2
Jim Dillon vs John L Sullivan
Talk about two guys who would go on to greatness. For those that don't know, Jim Dillon is none other than James J Dillon the future architect of the Four Horseman in the NWA. Back then he was a 28 year old "rookie" just getting into the business. He was doubling as referee and enhancement talent. John L Sullivan would later become Luscious Johnny Valiant. He was born Thomas Sullivan and was good friends with Bruno Sammartino in the Pittsburgh area in the late 60's. It was Bruno that helped Johnny get into the business in Detroit, being trained by Al Costello and working for The Sheik. In 1969, he came to New York as the babyface John L Sullivan basing his name off 19th century boxing champion John L Sullivan. Seeing these two great managers in their prime would have been fun to see. Sullivan got the duke when Dillon was counted out.
Time of match: 11:40
Winner: Sullivan by count-out
Match 3
Victor Rivera and Gorilla Monsoon vs Jos Le Duc and Ivan Koloff
This is an interesting matchup as Koloff was three days away from challenging Bruno Sammartino for the heavyweight crown and here he is teaming with the lunatic Jos Le Duc against Rivera and Monsoon. The heels got themselves disqualified.
Time of match: 13:08
Winners: Rivera and Monsoon by pinfall
Match 4
"Nobleman" Joe Turco vs Bobby "Hurricane" Hunt
Hurricane Hunt was a local Pittsburgh wrestler and he had the hometown advantage against the dastardly Turco. Hunt pinned Turco to win the match.
Time of match: 10:33
Winner: Hunt by pinfall
Match 5
Jim Grabmire vs WWWF Junior Heavyweight Champion "Jumpin" Johnny DeFazio
What's that you ask? Believe it or not the WWWF did have a rarely used Junior Heavyweight title for the smaller guys of the time. This would be a non-title match as Jim Grabmire was 6 foot 6 and 242 pounds. DeFazio pinned Grabmire to win the match.
Time of match: 13:19
Winner: DeFazio by pinfall
Match 6
Baron Mikel Scicluna and George "The Animal" Steele vs Dominic DeNucci and WWWF Heavyweight Champion Bruno Sammartino in a 2 out of 3 falls match
The champ is here and he's teaming with DeNucci to take on Scicluna and the insane George Steele. The first fall went to the faces as Sammartino pinned Steele but George got mad and belted Bruno with a chair rendering him unable to continue in the second fall. The third fall went to the faces when Scicluna and Steele were disqualified for doubleteaming Bruno. Back then house shows weren't really talked about on TV but these days they could play up Bruno taking a beating at the hands of Steele & Scicluna just days away from his battle with Koloff. Still, the Pittsburgh Italians win it.
Winners: Bruno & Dominic 2 falls to 1
We're just days away from the big MSG showdown and both the Heavyweight and US champion took beatings at the hands of the heels tonight. Once again, WWWF had only local syndication on the weekends so Friday night Smackdown didn't exist in 1971, otherwise you could play up Morales and Sammartino getting beat up days before their title defenses. Still there was a lot going on that's been lost to time. A younger JJ Dillon duking it out with the future Johnny Valiant and the Junior Heavyweight Champion Jumpin Johnny. There's only one house show left before MSG so we'll see you in Philadelphia.
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