Madison Square Garden
New York City, NY
April 1, 1974
We've made it to the big one, Bruno Sammartino defends the WWWF Heavyweight Championship against Nikolai Volkoff. Also on the card, Gorilla Monsoon takes on Don Leo Jonathan, Pedro Morales takes on Larry "The Axe" Hennig and the tag team titles are on the line as Toru Tanaka & Mr. Fuji go after Dean Ho and Tony Garea. Unfortunately the only match that still exists is a 3 minute clip of Morales vs Hennig but that's not worth doing a write up on. The worst part is this is one of the best MSG cards I've ever seen on paper. Not even the main event remains, damn you 1974 production people!
Match 1
Otto Von Heller vs Jose Gonzalez
For those that don't know, yes, that's the same Jose Gonzalez who killed Bruiser Brody in Puerto Rico in 1988. Otto was actually Canadian wrestler Mike Hall doing the ol "evil German" gimmick. Apparently they fought to a 20 minute time limit draw.
Winner: No one (Draw)
Match 2
Ed Sullivan vs Larry Zbyszko
No, not the talk show host Ed Sullivan. Eddie Sullivan was a territory villain that was notable in the 1960's being in a tag team with Frank "The Angel" Morrell called The Mighty Yankees. The future "Living Legend" was born Larry Whistler but took the name Zbyszko after the 1920's wrestler Stanislaus Zbyszko. He started wrestling in Pittsburgh in the same camp as Bill "Ax" Eadie with Bruno Sammartino and Geeto Mongol. Thanks to his ties to those two, he was in WWWF shortly after as a mid-card babyface. Larry got the win here
Winner: Larry Zbyszko
Match 3
Mr. Fuji and Professor Toru Tanaka vs Dean Ho and Tony Garea for the WWWF Tag Team Championship in a 2 out of 3 falls match
Fuji and Tanaka dropped the belts to Dean and Tony in November and get another crack here. Unfortunately for the heels, they got disqualified allowing the champs to retain.
Winners: Ho and Garea by DQ (still WWWF Tag Team Champions)
Match 4
Don Leo Jonathan vs Gorilla Monsoon
The Mormon Giant as he was called takes on Monsoon here. Jonathan was a legit 6'6 300 pound monster but even he looks small compared to Gorilla. Gorilla got the duke in this one.
Winner: Gorilla Monsoon
Match 5
Chief Jay Strongbow vs Stan "The Man" Stasiak
Stan's big moment came on December 1, 1973 when he was told on literally hours notice that he was beating WWWF Champion Pedro Morales for the title after chasing him for months. The backstory was the predominant Latino crowds that followed Pedro were causing riots in Madison Square Garden any time Pedro got in trouble so a pissed off Vince Sr had no choice but to take the belt off Pedro before someone got killed. Knowing the Garden would have burnt to the ground if it was done there, Vince Sr had Stasiak beat him in the Philadelphia Arena and the story goes ring announcer Buddy Wagner had to tell the audience to give a hand to Morales for nearly 3 years as champion rather than announce Stasiak the winner out of fear for further rioting. 9 days later Stasiak dropped the belt to Bruno Sammartino for his second run with the title. Ironically that 9 day reign was longer than Kane's only time as WWF champion and the time John Cena won the WWE title only to lose it to Batista minutes later at Elimination Chamber 2010. The former WWWF champion takes on Strongbow in a big grudge match. Strongbow actually got the win over the ex-champion.
Winner: Strongbow
Match 6
Larry "The Axe" Hennig vs Pedro Morales
Another big time match as Larry The Axe takes on the former WWWF champion Morales. Now there does exist footage of this match but its so cut up its not worth doing a write up about. Morales wins the match.
Winner: Pedro Morales
Match 7
Nikolai Volkoff (with Freddie Blassie) vs Bruno Sammartino (with Arnold Skaaland) for the WWWF Heavyweight Championship
Shedding the Beppo Mongol label, the now Russian Nikolai Volkoff gets a shot at Bruno. As usual, Bruno retains the title.
Winner: Bruno Sammartino (still WWWF Heavyweight champion)
That was a stacked card with maybe one throwaway match. A young Larry Zbyszko, the tag champs, Larry The Axe, two former champs in Pedro & Stasiak, Monsoon, Strongbow, the main event and Don Leo Jonathan make up for a great card. Too bad its been lost to time, that sounds like a lot of fun.
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