Madison Square Garden August 29, 1977

Play By Play : Vince McMahon Jr
Written by: OldSchoolNWA (Frank)

Opening Match
Chief Peter Maivia vs. Stan Stasiak

Vince mentions how all the tattoos covering the Chief legs/torso should have taken 4 months to do, but the Chief got them all done in 4 days which
resulted in the Chief almost dying from Lead poisoning. The Chief is very charismatic inside the ring, and the crowd really seems
 to enjoy watching him work.

The "Stupid Move of The Night" Award goes to Stan Stasiak applying a bearhug. Stasiak has never been known for his strength or power,
 and this move looked ridiculous. In fact, Vince even states how surprised he is because Stasiak is not very strong.

Winner : Chief Maivia wins by count out after ducking the Heart punch, causing Stasiak to punch the ring post. 7:36

Second Match - 2/3 falls
Baron Mikel Scicluna/George Steele vs. Tony Garea/Larry Zbyszko

All four men try firing up the crowd by brawling in the ring, but the fans just don't seem to be buying into it. For some reason, Zbyszko looks
 extremely weak in this match. Garea is in the ring, taking his usual beating for 99.99% of the match. Whenever Zbyszko comes in to try and save
 his partner, he also takes a beating. The team of Steele and Scicluna end up losing the first fall by disqualification for repeatedly double teaming Garea.
 During the second fall, Zbyszko does something that has always confused the hell outta me. Garea has been in the ring getting killed for the
 entire match...he is finally able to tag in Zbyszko, who comes in for almost 20 seconds, and then promptly tags Garea back in ?!?
Anyways, second fall and the match go to the team of Garea and Zbyszko.

Winner : Garea/Zbyszko after Garea pins Scicluna with a sunset flip off the top rope. 8:52

Really not that bad of a match, especially because I got to see Garea flip-flopping around like this was the end.

Main Event - WWWF Heavyweight Championship
Ivan Putski vs. Superstar Graham

The first thing that came to mind after seeing both these men inside the ring, was "Thank god it's not gonna be Putski vs. Von Raschke". Putski
immediately brings the fans out of their seats by attacking the champ. The crowd is electric for this match. In fact, at one point Putski catches Graham
coming off the ropes with his patented "Double ax Handle" blow and the pop is so tremendous that I actually got goose bumps. This match was way
 better that I would have expected from two muscle heads.

Winner " Superstar Graham by count out after backdropping Putski over the top rope. 13:50

Fourth Match
Verne Gagne vs. Nikolai Volkoff

I heard a few things during this match, that I would never have believed I would have heard during a WWWF/WWF broadcast. First, the ring
announcer calls Verne a former American Wrestling Association Heavyweight Champion. Vince credits Verne for being the reason that their is such
 a huge crowd at the Garden. Vince also mentions that Verne lost his AWA Title to Nick Bockwinkel, and that Bockwinkel was doing a great job
 in the AWA. Vince then brings up the fact that Harley race is the NWA World Champion, and that alot of people are gunning for him.

The crowd really seemed to appreciate Verne's technical ability. There were many "oohs" and "ahhs" coming from the crowd whenever Verne used
his speed to escape Nikolai, or whenever he used his skill to tie Volkoff up like a pretzel - which was a strange sight.

Winner : Verne Gagne pinned Volkoff with a small package. 7:10

Fifth Match - Texas Death Match
Ken Patera vs. Bruno Sammartino

You would think that with as many times as Vince mentioned that this match had "No Holds Barred", Vince would have told these guys to employ
 some holds that normally wouldn't be allowed....well, apparently he didn't because this match looked pretty much like a normal match.

Winner : Bruno Sammartino by pinfall. 12:13

Sixth Match
Chief Jay Strongbow vs. Mr Fuji

Professor Toru Tanaka is at ringside on crutches. This match was simply two guys doing a great job of telling a story inside the ring. Fuji grabbed
 a hold of and punished Strongbows left pec at every opportunity. The Chief made sure to continuously sell the fact that he now had no feeling in his
 left arm, even while mounting a comeback. Unfortunately this match never got to play out due to the curfew.

Overall, this was the best of the House Shows I've reviewed so far. From top to bottom, all the matches were worth watching. The least entertaining
 match was Sammartino/Patera, and that may have been because I expect more out of a Texas Death Match .