Madison Square Garden
New York City, NY
March 26, 1973
Two days after Andre The Giant made his WWWF debut, he makes his MSG debut on this card. This is actually a damn good card as we got The Vachon Brothers taking on King Curtis Iaukea and Louie Tillet, Gorilla Monsoon vs Moondog Mayne and Freddie Blassie takes on Pedro Morales for the WWWF Heavyweight Championship. There does exist a clip of Andre's bout against Buddy Wolfe so let's get to it.
Match 1
"Nobleman" Joe Turco vs El Olympico
The masked man takes on the Nobleman, Joe Turco. This might have been fun to watch if any footage of it existed. As it is, Olympico wins it.
Time of match: 8:14
Winner: Joe Turco
Match 2
Frank Valois vs Tony Garea
The Frenchman Valois takes on the New Zealand fan favorite Garea. Don't be surprised, but Garea gets the win.
Time of match: 10:15
Winner: Tony Garea
Match 3
The Vachon Brothers (Mad Dog and Butcher) vs Louie Tillet and King Curtis Iaukea
Now THIS is a match I wish had footage of. You had some of the all time crazies in Iaukea and the Vachon brothers. Now Tillet we already know but what about the other three? Maurice "Mad Dog Vachon" was born Joseph Maurice Vachon and started amateur wrestling as a teenager. He competed in the 1948 Olympics and took seventh place. That's where he met Verne Gagne who had just won the national championship in wrestling at the University of Minnesota. He made his professional debut in 1950 working in Canada but got his name in 1962 working for Don Owen in Portland. From then on he was a big rough heel, eventually beating Gagne for the AWA Championship in 1964. Paul "Butcher" Vachon is the younger brother of Mad Dog and is also a lunatic. They're also the older brothers of the late Vivian Vachon and Butcher is the adopted father of the late Luna Vachon. Curtis Iaukea was born in Hawaii and was the great-grandson of legitimate Hawaii Royal member Curtis Iaukea. He dropped out of UC Berkley to play in the Canadian Football League before becoming a wrestler in Don Owen's promotion in 1960. He was a great heel but had turned face by the 70's. The Vachon Brothers won the match.
Time of match: 12:09
Winners: The Vachon Brothers
Match 4
The Great Goliath vs Victor Rivera
Two latin stars here as Rivera takes on Goliath. Goliath was born Pablo Crispin in Mexico and was a territory star in the 50's and 60's. These two fought to a 20 minute draw.
Time of match: 20:00
Winner: No one (draw)
Match 5
Sonny King vs Mr. Fuji
Battle of the former tag team champion taking on the current tag team champion. King and Chief Jay Strongbow knocked off Baron Scicluna and Curtis Iaukea only to lose the belts to Toru Tanaka and Mr. Fuji. Now King gets Fuji one on one at MSG. Fuji got the win and we'll see his partner later
Time of match: 7:26
Winner: Fuji
Match 6
Gorilla Monsoon vs Professor Toru Tanaka
The other half of the tag team champs, Mr. Tanaka takes on Gorilla Monsoon who wants to knock him off for personal reasons. The bout ended in a draw
Winner: No one (draw)
Match 7
Moondog Mayne vs Chief Jay Strongbow
Mayne had failed to win the WWWF title two days earlier and Strongbow was still irate after losing the tag belts to Tanaka & Fuji. Unfortunately no one got any momentum as this bout also ended in a draw.
Winner: No one (draw)
Match 8
Buddy Wolfe vs Andre The Giant
Andre The Giant made his WWWF debut two days earlier but tonight makes his Madison Square Garden debut. Who is his opponent? "Beautiful" Buddy Wolfe played minor league football before being trained by Verne Gagne in 1968. He was a good territory heel in Atlanta and Dallas before coming to New York. The first highlight we see is Buddy getting a front headlock on Andre and Andre effortlessly standing up and carrying him around the ring before putting him on the top rope. Andre backs down the much smaller Wolfe as Wolfe gets a side headlock in. Once again Andre just stands up and throws him around. Buddy runs right into a scoop slam and a big right hand. Andre decks him with an uppercut then headbutts him down. Andre delivers a backbreaker and a big splash for 1...2.....3 that's it. Andre gets the victory as the fans cheer the big guy. At 26 years old, Andre had a bright future ahead.
Time of match: Unknown
Winner: Andre The Giant by pinfall
Match 9
"Classy" Freddie Blassie vs Pedro Morales for the WWWF Heavyweight Championship
Interesting that the aging Blassie gets another title shot after he's failed time and time again since 1971. Not surprising but Morales gets the victory. Modern logic would have Andre come after Pedro as a heel but behind the scenes Andre was making bank as a babyface attraction around the world so staying in one territory would have actually cost him money at the time. So Morales doesn't have to worry about him moving forward after defeating Blassie.
Winner: Morales
Sad to say but apart from Andre The Giant's MSG debut the show wouldn't be noteworthy at all 50 years later. Fans in 1973 had a blast but with the way wrestling is structured today, not really much of anything would make sense. Vince Sr was still pushing the territorial house show system where everything happened on live events instead of syndicated television. Still, everyone bought tickets to see Andre so any time he was in town, it was worth seeing. Morales is still the champ and the tag champs have hell to pay moving forward. WWWF now has some TV tapings that have been unfortunately lost to time but the next house show will be Thursday night in Lowell. The tag champs will be in singles action, see you there.
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