The Wrestling Classic

WWF Wrestlevision - The Wrestling Classic

Venue: Rosemont, Illinois

Date: 07/11/85

Attendance: 14,000

Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon & Jesse Ventura

 

Following on from the success of Wrestlemania the WWF presented The Wrestling Classic pay-per-view which was a 16 man single elimination tournament coupled with the marquee match of the show, Hulk Hogan defending the WWF Heavyweight Championship against arch rival Rowdy Roddy Piper.

 

 

Review

First round matches: Adrian Adonis beat Corporal Kirschner in a quick match which amounted to very little... The Dynamite Kid pinned Nikolai Volkoff in a comedy squash. The 'bout' went about ten seconds although there was no opening bell... Randy Savage beat Ivan Putski in a nothing match... Ricky Steamboat got by Davey Boy Smith in another quick bout which had a couple of minutes of good action. The finish however was terrible. Smith crotched himself on the ropes and the referee immediately ended the match declaring Davey unable to continue. The finish made Smith look pretty weak... The Junkyard Dog dispatched The Iron Sheik in a very basic affair... Moondog Spot progressed with a silly comedy win over Terry Funk by count out... Tito Santana pinned Don Muraco in an average match with a cheap finish. Muraco scored a three count but the referee immediately realised Santana's foot was on the rope. The official then allowed the match to continue without informing Muraco and Santana cradled him for the victory... Paul Orndorff defeated Bob Orton Jr in the best and longest match of the first round, although the finish was another poor one. Orton nailed Orndorff with his cast in full view of the official for a disqualification...

 

 

Quarter final matches: The Dynamite Kid's win over Adrian Adonis was decent even if the finish was unnecessarily tainted... Randy Savage beat Ricky Steamboat in a good match considering it was another rush job... The match between The Junkyard Dog and Moondog Spot was a farce. For some reason there was no referee so JYD counted his own fall and was allowed to advance in the tournament... Tito Santana and Paul Orndorff fought to a boring double count out in a match which should have been much better considering it went eight minutes... WWF Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan and Rowdy Roddy Piper had a respectable heated brawl with yet another lousy finish. Bob Orton Jr ran in to cause a disqualification and Hogan retained the championship... Semi final: Randy Savage and The Dynamite Kid had the best match of the night but it would have been much better had it been allocated more than five minutes. The finish was quite innovative for the time... Final: The Junkyard Dog defeated Randy Savage by count out in a pedestrian final bout with an anticlimactic finish. It was never announced what exactly JYD received for winning the tournament.

 

 

Overall

The Wrestling Classic was plagued by bad finishes and rushed matches. Three hours is just not enough time to squeeze in fifteen matches so they would have been better served presenting an eight man tournament and making the matches actually mean something. The time constraints however don't excuse the poor booking of most of the finishes. Out of the fifteen matches on the card there were only three clean finishes and two of them were by heels! It would also be remiss of me not to mention the ring. It was far too noisy to the point where almost every footstep could be heard and it certainly did not look like a WWF ring. The Wrestling Classic is only really worth checking out for historical purposes. The Wrestling Classic was the WWF’s first event available solely on pay-per-view which only had a limited availability in 1985. The event therefore drew just 52,000 buys.

 

Results

1 Adrian Adonis def Corp Kirchner (3:22) 1/2

2 The Dynamite Kid def Nikolai Volkoff (0:10) SQ

3 Randy Savage def Ivan Putski (2:47) 1/2

4 Ricky Steamboat def Davey Boy Smith (2:53) **

5 The Junk Yard Dog def The Iron Sheik (3:28) *

6 Moondog Spot def Terry Funk by count out (0:26) SQ

7 Tito Santana def Don Muraco (4:17) *1/2

8 Paul Orndorff def Bob Orton Jr by disqualification (6:30) **1/4

9 The Dynamite Kid def Adrian Adonis (5:29) **

10 Randy Savage def Ricky Steamboat (3:18) **1/4

11 The Junk Yard Dog def Moondog Spot (0:30) SQ

12 Tito Santana fought Paul Orndorff to a double count out (8:06) *

13 Hulk Hogan (c) def Rowdy Roddy Piper by disqualification to retain the WWF Heavyweight Title (7:14) **3/4

14 Randy Savage def The Dynamite Kid (4:52) **1/2

15 The Junk Yard Dog def Randy Savage by count out to win "The Wrestling Classic" (9:45) *1/4

 

Rating

19.50/75 = 26%