Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Waldo Von Erich dies - notes on his WWWF runs

Waldo Von Erich portrayed himself as a nasty German.

Here are notes on his key runs in the WWWF in the 1960's and 1970's, with a focus on Maison Square Garden, and champion Bruno Sammartino.

-- 3 major runs against Bruno Sammartino for title -- 1964, 1969, and 1975

-- 1964

· Went to an 81:00 minute draw against Sammartino at Madison Square Garden, on Aug. 22nd, 1964; not quite a sellout. Von Erich wore a Nazi arm band and carried a riding crop; spoke of Bruno as being from an “inferior race”, as he was Italian (they held back nothing on ethnicities in NY in those days). Crowd: 16,958, not quite a sellout.

· Sept. 21st, 1964 – rematch in front of 14,915; Bruno wins on countout.

· Oct. 19, 1964 – sold out for the blowoff, with 18,722 seeing Bruno defeat Von Erich solidly in a Texas Death Match.

· Von Erich, for the next year, had high profile time limit draws around the circuit, with 2 major faces: Johnny Valentine, and Bobo Brazil. He teamed for a while with Smasher Sloan, a midlevel heel, who would do the job when they lost.

· Then teamed with Gene Kiniski to win U.S. Tagteam Championship, in 2 straight falls, from Dr. Jerry and Crazy Luke Graham, another heel team,, on Washington, DC TV. Luke was “hurt” during the match; Kiniski and Von Erich isolated him, and took two straight falls from Luke, with Jerry never getting into the ring. Shortly after, also on Washington, DC TV, Von Erich two took straight falls in a solo match from Luke Graham, and Dr. Jerry announced after the match that he was sending Luke “back to the farm” for a rest (actually, he left the territory to head to the west coast).

· As champs, they headlined MSG losing via disqualification to Bruno Sammartino and Bill Watts in the 3rd fall, on January 29th, 1965. This match was the beginning of a Watts heel turn on Bruno.

The Grahams had never gotten a rematch; Dr. Jerry Graham had a clause in the contract that called for “The Graham Brothers”, not specifying first names. Kiniski and Von Erich defeated Jerry & Eddie Graham on Feb. 21, 1965, at MSG, in a rare 1 Fall match, to retain the titles. Same deal: they beat Eddie with Jerry never getting into the ring. Eddie had been in for a handful of WWWF appearances in the prior months.

Kiniski and Von Erich subsequently lost the belts to another
heel team, Bill Watts & Gorilla Monsoon. This was also in
Washington, DC, but as a “dark match”, not on television. The
result was announced to viewers, which was a rarity, but an
obvious necessity.

· Von Erich’s first farewell to the WWWF was putting over a new heel, Baron Mikel Scicluma. Scicluma pinned him in just 5:51, clean, at MSG on Dec. 13, 1965, to set up Scicluma for his run against Sammartino. Bruno noted on TV to announcer Ray Morgan that he was “shocked” to see Scicluma beat Von Erich, who had held Bruno to “an hour and a half draw”, in under 6 minutes.

1969

· Oct. 1, 1969 – wins on DQ over Sammartino at MSG.

· Oct. 27, 1969 – Bruno pins Waldo in the rematch.

· Jan. 29, 1970 – with Killer Kowalski, loses to International Tagteam Champions Tony Marino and Victor Rivera when the heels start fighting each other. Von Erich pinned Marino for the first fall; Marino pinned Waldo for the 2nd fall. Waldo blamed Kowalski for the loss; Kowalski blamed Waldo; they started slugging it out to the delight of the crowd.

Von Erich and Kowalski fought on March 9, 1970, in a heel match where Kowalski was cheered to the roof; Von Erich incredibly booed. The match was under 10 minutes, and had amazing heat, until a weak ending where both men tried to grab Von Erich’s riding crop and started a tug of war, and the ref called for a double dq.

1975

-- Von Erich returned for another run at Sammartino, although was a bit overshadowed by Spiros Arion, who was red hot as a heel, having turned on Bruno.

-- Von Erich beat Chief Jay Strongbow at MSG in 25 seconds, via countout, on April 14, 1975. Von Erich attacked Strongbow from behind before the bell, and threw him out of the ring. At the time, it was a rare loss for Strongbow.

-- Von Erich had two matches against Sammartino, getting a shallow count out win on May 19th at MSG; losing quickly in a rematch on June 16th, in just 4:12. For the rematch, Bruno had been legitimately injured, so the match was kept short. It was thus not a great match, but had amazing heat. This match is available currently on YouTube.

-- Von Erich subsequently teamed with Spiros Arion.

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