WWF Toronto, ON April 21, 1985

Posted on by

(Guest written by Matt)

WWF Old School
April 21, 1985
Maple Leaf Gardens
Toronto, Ontario

This episode of Old School wasn’t too bad. 2/3 matches were decent and it was a fun hour of wrestling. Jesse the Body commentated with some nobody for the first match, but then with Gorilla Monsoon for the other two matches and these two of course form the most iconic commentary team of all time. It was in the old Maple Leaf Gardens which was really dark but had a weird blue hue about it for some reason, kind of like a Smackdown episode. There were no mats outside the ring and the barricades were these weird orange cage like structures. The crowd in Toronto were hot into everything and it seems like it would have been awesome to have been in attendance. This card took place exactly three weeks after Wrestlemania 1 but seems to be now building for the future.

1) Bret Hart defeated George Wells by holding the tights at around 10 minutes.

This match was unfortunately pretty boring and won’t be included on any Best Of Bret Hart DVD sets. Bret was a newcomer since they barely knew who he was on commentary, was managed by Jimmy Hart (leading to Jesse asking if they were distant relatives), wore a plain black singlet and no sunglasses, and wrestled a basic Memphis heel style of mostly stalling and slow calculated offense. Wells was hyped as a CFL star but Jesse and the other commentator admitted to knowing nothing about Canadian football and with Jesse thinking he played for the Edmonton Roughriders. The match was mainly stalling and restholds, not very exciting at all. Bret held Wells in a hammerlock that seemed to take half the match. Another weird thing I noticed is Bret’a facial expressions. He constantly has his mouth wide open for some reason, looks retarded. In the end, Wells made a comeback but Bret rolled him over and held the tights for three. He then left in a cocky fashion with Jimmy.

2) Ricky Steamboat and Tito Santana defeated Greg Valentine and Brutus Beefcake after Tito made Greg submit to a figure four at around 15 minutes.

This was a great 80s tag team match. Valentine and Beefcake are also managed by Jimmy Hart at this point and are considered a makeshift team, not yet the Dream Team. Brutus is announced as being from Parts Unknown. Valentine is announced as the intercontinental champ, but he doesn’t have the belt. Tito and Ricky are both wearing weird blue jackets and tights that I’ve never seen before. Anyway, it was a good classic 80s style formula tag encounter with lots of great action. Both Ricky and Tito were worked over at certain points and there were two good guy comebacks with Tito eventually getting Greg in the figure four for the win in the midst of a pier six brawl where Ricky chased Brutus from the ring. A crazy brawl took place after the match.

3) H.T. Hulk Hogan defeated Paul Orndorff with a rollup after Orndorff messed up a knee off the ropes at around 10 minutes.

This was another good match as I really enjoy Hogan’s 80s matches, I think he worked hard to make them believeable in these days. And Orndorff was of course great. The match was more of a seesaw battle with both men getting a lot of offense in, compared to many of Hogan’s later formula matches. Orndorff beat on Hogan as a heel through the match, but after losing in a semi-fluke (no Hulking Up or anything), he ended up shaking Hogan’s hand and I guess officially turning good. Though I think you told me his true face turn didn’t happen until Saturday Night’s Main Event in the fall.