Little Palestra Gymnasium
Allentown, PA
February 1, 1971
Its a new month and we are one week away from Madison Square Garden's big showdown between WWWF United States Champion Pedro Morales taking on WWWF Heavyweight Champion Ivan Koloff. Both of them will be defending their belts tonight as Morales once again faces The Wolfman while Koloff takes on Chief Jay Strongbow. The WWWF International Tag Team Champions The Mongols also take on Gorilla Monsoon and Manuel Soto. Without further adieu, let's get to the action.
Match 1
Jean Dubois vs Blackjack Mulligan
This match stems from the six man tag the previous day where these two were on opposite teams. Now they face each other one on one. Mulligan continues his hot streak by getting the victory
Winner: Mulligan
Match 2
Tony Marino vs Bulldog Brower
Marino needed a win to stay in contention as a future opponent for Ivan Koloff while Brower needed a win to get back in contention just in case Morales won the world title. Brower got the win.
Winner: Brower
Match 3
The Wolfman vs Pedro Morales for the WWWF United States Championship
Wolfman has been chasing Morales for a solid month to try to get the US title away from him and also keep him from facing Koloff at MSG. Well he fails again as Morales wins.
Winner: Morales (Still US Champion)
Match 4
Gorilla Monsoon & Manuel Soto vs The Mongols (Geeto & Beppo) for the WWWF International Tag Team Championship in a 2 out of 3 falls match
Monsoon had a one on one contest with Beppo Mongol coming up at MSG but here he tries to win the tag titles with Soto. The Mongols won the contest 2 falls to 1
Winners: The Mongols (still Tag Team Champions)
Match 5
Chief Jay Strongbow vs "The Russian Bear" Ivan Koloff for the WWWF Heavyweight Championship
Koloff had pretty much dispatched every babyface on the roster with the exception of Morales since he took the belt from Bruno Sammartino. Bruno didn't get a rematch so Koloff has been defending against everyone else. Strongbow was game but Koloff won by a count-out to retain the title.
Winner: Koloff by count-out (still WWWF Champion)
With MSG a week away Vince Sr had to put on good cards without spoiling the main event for MSG. Having everyone wrestle each other in house shows leading up to MSG was fine since before cable and the internet, not very many people knew what happened in Allentown, PA if they were living in Boston or NYC. Giving MSG quality cards in the territory was common at the time and this felt like a big show with all the titles on the line. Obviously none of those titles were going to change this close to the big show but at least they were defended. Tomorrow the WWWF comes to Scranton, PA so I'll see everyone there.
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