WWWF Madison Square Garden (6-30-1973)



WWWF Madison Square Garden was an event that took place in Manhattan, New York City on June 30, 1973 in the Classic Era Universe. It debuted in WWWF Madison Square Garden 6-30 in 1973.

History
The event that started the Classic Era of Professional Wrestling took place at Madison Square Garden in New York and aired live on HBO, marking the beginning of cable and premium channels airing pro wrestling events and signalling a time in which wrestling territories would look to do the same.

The Event
Vince McMahon, at the time 27 years old served as commentator for the television and closed circuit audience. At the time, HBO was less than a year into existence. Part of its plan to bring attention and subscribers was to broadcast major pro wrestling events across the United States, with the World Wide Wrestling Federation being one of the territories showcased.

The opening contest of the event and the Era saw Blackjack Lanza defeat Lee Wong after using McMahon's ringside microphone cord as a weapon, but only being warned instead of disqualified.

Other matches between this and the main event include Toru Tanaka, managed by the Grand Wizard of Wrestling defeat El Olympico, Gorilla Monsoon beat Lou Albano by countout, Victor Rivera defeat his NWA Hollywood rival of the time, Black Gordman and in a Best of 3 tag team bout, Jan Sheridan and Joyce Grable defeat Dottie Downs and Peggy Patterson two falls to one. This match serves as the first tag team, best of three, and women's match of the Era.

The Main Event of the card was George "the Animal" Steele challenging Pedro Morales for the WWWF Heavyweight Championship with Morales successfully retaining.

Post-main event bouts included "Chief" Jay Strongbow defeating Mr Fuji and Haystacks Calhoun defeating Moondog Mayne.

Trivial Matters
Blackjack Lanza won the first match and was also the first won by a "villain."

The Grand Wizard of Wrestling was the first manager to appear, though he would be escorted away from ringside at the start of the bout.

El Olympico, a masked competitor was made to wear an open faced mask due to Madison Square Garden's policy against anonymous competitors at the time. This policy would be reversed once Mil Mascaras arrived years later.

Gorilla Monsoon won the first match in which the audience cheered the outcome.

The rivalry between Rivera and Gordman had been raging since at least the start of the year in Los Angeles.

Vince McMahon bookends the Classic Era with his involvement here. At this event, he is the commentator and his microphone cord is used as a weapon by Blackjack Lanza, a black clad Texan who is prone to rule breaking. When the Era ends in 2001, McMahon is once again involved, providing a chair as a weapon for black clad Texan, Steve Austin to use. McMahon's voice begins the era and his actions years later end it.

Danaverse Connection
While professional wrestling's existence is acknowledged prior to June 30, 1973, the Madison Square Garden event being broadcast on HBO signaled a new era in its coverage. For HBO, this card aired as an edition of HBO All-Star Wrestling. This is also the beginning point for the Classic Era Universe that characters such as Wonder Womyn of the Blue Zone are fighting to preserve.

Information
HBO was less than a year into its existence whey they began airing HBO All-Star Wrestling. Soon after, Channel 17 in Atlanta would become WTBS aka TBS and become known as the SuperStation with much of its popularity with the cable and satellite audience being its Saturday Pro Wrestling shows. Other channels would join in, most notably USA Network who would form a partnership with the World Wrestling Federation, itself the former WWWF.