Bruno Sammartino 1976: The Winners

WE LOVE PRO WRESTLING!

The Valiant Brothers

(Luscious Johnny and Handsome Jimmy)

WWA Tag Team Champions (January - May 1974)

WWF Tag Team Champions ( May 1974 - May 1975)

NWA Georgia Tag Team Champions (July - September 1976)

NWA (San Francisco) World Tag Team Champions (Dec 1976 - Feb 1977)

NWA (Florida) US Tag Team Champions (January 1978)

WE LOVE PRO WRESTLING!

1976

Terry Funk - NWA World Heavyweight Champion (left)

Bob Backlund - Missouri Heavyweight Champion (right)

NWA Florida Tag Team Champions (1976)

Steve Keirn and Bob Backlund

NWA Florida Tag Team Champions 

1976

Defeated Bob Orton Jr. and Bob Roop for the titles and then dropped the belts to The Hollywood Blondes (Buddy Roberts and Jerry Brown)

Wrestling Magazine Cover of the Week

Inside Wrestling 

March 1976

Wrestling Magazine of the Day

WWWF Tag Team Champions (The Executioners)

The Executioners were a masked tag team consisting of Killer Kowalski and Big John Studd.   They won the World Wide Wrestling Federation Tag Team Titles on May 11th 1976 in Philadelphia by defeating the champions Louis Cerdan and Tony Parisi (below,who had held the belts 185 days).

The Executioners would hold the belts for 168 days, until November 26th 1976 when they were stripped by the WWWF for using a 3rd Executioner in a match.  This Execution #3 was later unmasked as Nikolai Volkoff.

The Executioners

WWWF Tag Team Champions

vs

Dominic Denucci and Jose Gonzalez

Madison Square Garden

NWA World Tag Team Champions (Flair and Valentine)

Ric Flair and Greg Valentine were a hated combination that managed to defeat the legendary Minnesota Wrecking Crew (Gene and Ole Anderson) twice for the NWA Tag Team Titles

Their first title reign started with a defeat of the Wrecking Crew on December 26th 1976 in Greensboro, NC and last 133 days until they lost the belts back to the the Anderson on May 8th 1977 (below) in a cage with special guest referee Wahoo McDaniel.  After losing the belts on a botch suplex by Flair they proceeded to beat up McDaniel and the Andersons until Paul Jones made the save.  Ole was stretchered out due to the bad suplex that "injured" his neck.

Valentine and Flair won the belts from the Andersons again for the titles on October 30th 1977, also in Greensboro, NC.  This reign lasted for 153 days until they were stripped of the belts due to continually ending their title matches in disqualifications (and Flair moved into the running for the NWA World Heavyweight Title),

Match of the Night (Terry Funk vs Jumbo Tsuruta)

NWA World Heavyweight Title

June 17th 1976

Tokyo Japan

(2 out of 3 falls)

Terry Funk

NWA World Heavyweight Champion

vs

Jumbo Tsuruta

Today in Wrestling History January 26th

1987 - At a WWF television taping in Tampa, Florida at the Sundome, The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart) defeat The British Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith) to win the WWF World Tag Team Championship. Manager Jimmy Hart knocked out Dynamite (who was injured and couldn't wrestle) with his megaphone before the match, and heel referee Danny Davis paid no attention to the Hart Foundation illegally double teaming Smith before counting the pin following a Hart Attack. This ended the Bulldogs' only WWF World Tag Team Title run, and was Bret Hart's first WWF championship of any kind.
This would air on tv Feb 7th 1987





1999 - Prior to an edition of Raw in Tucson, Arizona, WWF filmed an Empty Arena match in which Mankind pinned The Rock with a wooden palette on a forklift to win the WWF World Heavyweight Title.  The match was aired on January 31st as a "Halftime Heat" special, set up to air during halftime of the Superbowl. 





And Sadly today is the anniversary of the death of the legendary Andre The Giant in 1993.
Here is a great clip of Andre teaming with one of my very favorites, Dick the Bruiser in Indianapolis from 1976.