HBO SPECIAL BROADCAST of an exhibition contest promoted at Shea Stadium in Flushing Meadow Queens, NY. A Top Rank Production.
-WWWF from Shea Stadium on HBO 7/7/76 (taped 6/25/76)
Vince McMahon intro
Bruno Sammartino vs. Stan Hansen - WWWF World Championship match
Andre the Giant vs. Chuck Wepner - wrestler vs. boxer
Antonio Inoki vs. Muhammad Ali - wrestler vs. boxer
First match is for the WWWF championship. It is fought within a steel cage. Bruno Sammartino vs Stan Hansen who fails to continue to fight after 10 minutes 19 seconds of the bout. Vince McMahon and Antonino Rocca call the match.
Second contest is between New Jersey Heavyweight Champion, Chuck Wepner and undefeated Wrestling champion Andre the Giant who is victorious winning in the third round (1 minute & 15 Seconds). Vince McMahon and Antonino Rocca call the match.
Final attraction for those in attendance at Shea Stadium is viewing on a large screen an event that occurred live on June 26, 1976.
Attendees at Shea Stadium view (pay by view admission) on the big screen from Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan heavyweight champion of the world Muhammad Ali take on Japanese wrestling champion Antonio Inoki who has been staging exhibition fights against champions of various martial arts, in an attempt to show that pro wrestling is the dominant fighting discipline.
Broadcast at 12:30am on its final HBO TV CABLE re-run, July 7, 1976.
Rounds number 1, 4, 6, 7, 10, 13, & 15 are telecast.
The fight is a draw! Fans are upset as is Ali.
HBO signs off the air.
NOTE: While Bruno Sammartino vs Stan Hansen and Andre the Giant vs Chuck Wepner matches are uploaded to you tube it is shown not with the ringside commentary of Vince McMahon and Antonino Rocca.
NOTE: There are a few moments in the broadcast where audio speed is compromised for only a few seconds.
HBO is the oldest and longest continuously operating subscription television service in the United States. HBO pioneered modern pay television upon its launch on November 8, 1972.
November 27, 1972
THE FIRST WRESTLING MATCH TELEVISED ON HBO, PRIOR TO GOING NATIONAL IN SEPTEMBER 1975.
Time
8:30pm Wrestling Live from Madison Square Garden
Pedro Morales vs. Ray Stevens
Verne Gagne vs. Buddy Wolf
Black Gordman vs. Sonny King
Tony Garea vs. Chuck O'Connor
Mr. Fuji & Toru Tanaka vs. Gorilla Monsoon & Chief Jay Strongbow
It was the first television service to be directly transmitted and distributed to individual cable television systems, and was the conceptual blueprint for the "premium channel," pay television services sold to subscribers for an extra monthly fee that do not accept traditional advertising and present their programming without editing for objectionable material. It eventually became the first television channel in the world to begin transmitting via satellite—expanding the growing regional pay service, originally available to cable and multipoint distribution service (MDS) providers in the northern Mid-Atlantic and southern New England, into a national television network—in September 1975.
-WWWF from Shea Stadium on HBO 7/7/76 (taped 6/25/76)
Vince McMahon intro
Bruno Sammartino vs. Stan Hansen - WWWF World Championship match
Andre the Giant vs. Chuck Wepner - wrestler vs. boxer
Antonio Inoki vs. Muhammad Ali - wrestler vs. boxer
