AWA on ESPN Reviews (by Mike Campbell)

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AWA on ESPN
by Mike Campbell

AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN Classic

My bread and butter is usually the video review section, but when I saw this opportunity, I couldn't turn it away. I've recently jumped on the DVR bandwagon and nobody picked up the slack when Harrison bowed out. I ran the idea by Darth Csnoka and here I am, your new AWA on ESPN Classic recapper.

A quick word to those who might have certain expectations. Don't. There's no rhyme or reason (that I can determine) that ESPN Classic uses when they air this stuff. It's sometimes on twice a day, sometimes once, sometimes not at all, and it's on at various times (that's where DVR comes in handy). There's also no discernable organization to what episodes are shown. So if you like what you read about an angle, don't get too hyped about finding out what happened afterwards. Just do a google search or check on Wikipedia. Another lesson that I just learned is that is not always on when ESPN says it will be. I found that out when I went to watch the 11 pm and 12 AM airings from Friday night/Saturday morning and was instead treated to boxing that took up the first hour and most of the second.

Let's jump in the time machine and go back to 1988 in Las Vegas at the Showboat. We're not told when in ‘88, just the year. Larry Nelson shows us clips from last week when the Midnight Rockers wrestled the Nasty Boys. Marty and Saggs brawled in the ring, Shawn and Knobbs on the floor, and then the other two went the floor too. Knobbs climbed into the ring and Jannetty hit a high cross body press for the pin, but it turns out he was the illegal man. Larry tells us the Nasty Boys want a rematch and the Championship Committee~! is considering it. That means that the Rockers are the champions and that puts us between January and March, since the Rockers dropped the titles to Bad Company on 3/19/88.

WAHOO McDANIEL vs. SAMOAN JOE
No, I'm not making that up. That's seriously the name of the guy Wahoo's wrestling. It's obviously not the more famous Samoan wrestler named Joe. Wahoo and Joe trade chops, with Wahoo winning. Joe goes to the eyes and then staggers Wahoo with headbutts. Wahoo fights back with more chops and then hits a big chop to send Joe to the mat, and then pins him after an elbow drop.

THE HURRICANE KID/BILLY ANDERSON vs. PAUL DIAMOND/PAT TANAKA
This is a pretty effective squash for Bad Company. The really cool part is the first minute or so, Hurricane tries to take down Diamond with a headlock, and Diamond outwrestles him to escape and then puts the boots to him. It might not come across so well in written form, but it was totally bad ass! Tanaka does a bunch of eye-raking and stuff, just because he can. The announcers babble about Billy Anderson being so big that Bad Company might have trouble with him, but one kick from Tanaka floors him, and then he's finished a minute later with a sweet slingshot to DDT combo.

Back with Larry Nelson, and clips of last week when Sheik Adnan Al Kaisee attacked the claw hand of Baron Von Rashke. The Baron cuts a promo on the Sheik that you really can't understand, but it was so angry and hateful that it ruled like you wouldn't believe.

GREG GAGNE vs. THE DESTROYER SAMOAN
Three matches in and three Samoans (the second was Hurricane Kid) on the card, Verne must have cut a deal with Afa or something. Popular belief says that Greg sucks and Verne pushed him to the moon and everyone hated him. However, I gave Greg the benefit of the doubt and I'm glad that I did. Greg is clearly a better wrestler here, and the match looks fine when he sticks to that. He takes him to the mat and applies a cross armbreaker, which wasn't very common for wrestling in the U.S. circa 1988, and it's fine that Greg uses the Gagne dropkick to take him down. But Greg is just as often to be found trading shots with the big guy and he even throws him a couple of times, which just looks silly. Greg finishes him in short order with the sleeper. It was actually pretty fun to watch Greg use his wrestling skills to offset the Samoan's brawling and size, but then Supergreg showed up and killed it.

Lee Marshall interviews Curt Hennig at ringside so that Curt can gloat about being champion and nobody being able to beat him. Greg shows up and wants a shot, and Curt tells him he's not worthy. Greg tells him that he's not considered the Champion of the world by everyone. Greg is actually right about that, I'd guess that in ‘88 most fans considered Ric Flair or Hulk Hogan to be the real Champion of the World, but I think Greg implied that some fans might think that the real Champion was Greg Gagne. I don't know who he's talking about, but I bet they didn't actually watch wrestling

BOB ORTON vs. KEVIN COLLINS
Total squash by Randy's father. He attacks Collins right out of the gate and traps him the corner and knees the piss out of him. Then he holds him in a front headlock and alternates between cranking the neck and throwing more knees at him. This goes on for a few minutes and then Orton finishes him with a superplex. Collins still sells the neck, so Orton gives him a piledriver behind the ref's back after the bell.

Larry Nelson wanted to interview Soldat Unstinov and the Sheik, but only Soldat comes out. Nelson speculates that the Sheik is afraid of the Baron, but Soldat says that the Sheik isn't at the Showboat because he's too busy eating fine foods. He calls the Baron a coward and gets as far as "you're a German and you're just like the Americans" before Larry cuts him off and they go to commercial.

CURT HENNIG © vs. JERRY LAWLER (AWA World Heavyweight Title)
On the surface this doesn't look like much of a wrestling match. It's a lot of punching from Lawler and stalling from Hennig. You might think that's a bad thing, but you'd be wrong. The punches are from Lawler, so they look good and the match RULES because of them. Well, because of them, and Hennig's bumping and selling for them. Curt's stalling gets tiresome though, he goes to lock up and then changes his mind, or he takes one punch and rolls to the floor. It's great for getting the fans riled up, but it's not very exciting. Curt tries to play Lawler's game of punching and loses easily. They wind up on the floor and both get counted out, which saves Hennig's title, they keep fighting, and the best part happens when Hennig misses Lawler and punches the post, and then Lawler grabs the hand and slams it into the post again. Hennig buggers off to the back and Lee Marshall and Rod Tronguard bid us farewell and remind us to tune in next week.

--

No, I didn't give up on recapping after only one show. ESPN Classic can't seem to follow their own schedule and air the shows when they say they will. I'd be less frustrated if this was actually on ESPN following a real sporting event, since you never know how long it's going to last for. But this is a channel for stuff that's already happened, there's no excuse for such disorganization.

Set the Delorean for October 5, 1986 and rev it up to 88 MPH and head for the Showboat Sports Pavillion in beautiful Las Vegas, NV.

LARRY ZYBYZSKO vs. BUTCH COOPER
Once Larry quits stalling and trying to rile the crowd up, this is a fairly fun squash. Larry works over Cooper's arm with the Crossface Chickenwing and then follows up with a shoulder breaker. He works back to the hold a few times and then trades the shoulder breaker in for a regular bodyslam. Three slams and a piledriver finish off Cooper. If Larry got right down to business this would have been almost Goldberg-esque.

Larry Nelson congratulates Zybyzsko on his win and Zybyzsko tries to challenge Bockwinkel for a title match, but keeps stopping to tell someone in the crowd to shut their face. He actually gets on his knees and begs Stanley Blackburn to have the guts to sign the match. I don't know Blackburn, but I think Larry's methods would be more useful if it was Pat Patterson he was trying to persuade. Larry even offers to wrestle fifty Orangutans with one hand tied behind his back. If TNA decides to use that to decide the next challenger for the TNA Title, then we know what Russo's watching on his days off.

BRAD RHEINGANS vs. BILL TAB
I'm surprised that Verne never gave Brad any big push. Considering that he always seemed to think that the best *wrestler* should be the champion, which is proven by the long reigns by himself and Bockwinkel. You'd think that a former Olympian would fit the bill. I was expecting Brad to be all carny and stretch Tab within an inch of his life, but he didn't. Brad's idea of showing his mat skills seem to be constantly using a side headlock. He was occasionally flashy, such as his cartwheel when Bill dropped down. He also took a damn nice bump when Bill used a kitchen sink knee. Too bad the knee missed by a mile. All Tab is good for is showing his strength by bodyslamming Brad. Tab misses something off the ropes and then Brad finishes him with his diving shoulderblock that he calls "The Bullet".

Larry Nelson asks Rheingans what's in store for the future. Brad says that he's suffered a lot of setbacks due to the Sheik's Army and now he's got a new weapon for them. The Bullet!

Larry turns his attention to referee Scott LeDoux a former boxer learning to wrestle. Scott tells us that he's working out a lot and lifting the weights. Larry asks if he's gong to find a tag team partner and Scott tells him that he was didn't need any help when he was a boxer and he won't need it as a rassler. He plans on using the heart punch as a finisher.

Promo video for Silo Sam. He's 7'5" and weights 550 lbs, he's bigger than Andre. We get clips of him in Memphis in a handicap match, making Lawler and Dundee into his bitches. Then we see him working around the farm.

SHAWN MICHAELS/MARTY JANNETTY vs. EDDIE SWEAT/PABLO CRENSHAW
Jannetty's ribs are bandaged from the injuries sustained in the famous bloodbath they had with Buddy Rose and Doug Somers. Marty and Shawn try to target Eddie's arm with Marty splashing it, but he hurts his ribs (duh) and it lets Eddie tag out and Crenshaw starts punching Marty in the ribs. That's the only notable thing from the jobber team. The rest of it is All Midnight Rockers All The Time. They try a spot with Marty springing off Shawn's back and catching Eddie with a knee, but things go wrong. The Rockerplex that finishes off Eddie goes wrong as well when Shawn drops him too early. It actually would have been nice to see this go for a little longer with the jobbers beating on Marty's ribs for a bit and giving the fans a scare that they could actually lose.

Larry Nelson with the Midnight Rockers, they're still targeting Buddy Rose and Doug Somers. Shawn says that they don't shoot their mouths off (he sure changed his tune on that one), they back up their words with their actions. The champions started something they can't finish and the Rockers will be the next World Tag Team Champions. Marty says he's in a lot of pain but don't worry about it, because like Shawn said, they're going after the champions.

COLONEL DeBEERS vs. ROBERT BURROUGHS
Total squash for DeBeers, he outwrestles Burroughs with a headlock and then stomps and slams him over and over again, front piledriver gets the easy pin. Then the real fun comes when Lary Nelson has to interview him. It starts out sounding like Bob Backlund with some big words that really don't mean anything and him trying to sound very educated. Then he cuts to the chase, which is that he won't wrestle Scott Hall because he believes that he uses and abuses anabolic steroids! DeBeers was on the right track, he just had the wrong substance. DeBeers compares America to South Africa by saying America is weak like Hall and that why he uses anabolic steroids and that South Africa is strong like him and doesn't need them. He says he won't wrestle Hall until he takes a drug test, either a blood or urine test. He should have asked for a breathalyser.

For the main event, we go into the time machine again, to April 20th and WrestleRock '86 in Minneapolis in the MetroDome

GREG GAGNE/JIMMY SNUKA vs. KING KONG BRODY/THE BARBARIAN (Steel Cage Match)
This is fun to watch, but there really isn't a whole lot to actually write about. It's a lot of brawling, which makes sense with the cage stipulation. Brody was selling and bumping his ass off for Snuka and Greg, when Snuka did the double leap frog and then chop spot, Brody damn near soared across the ring. There was a really funny part when Brody hit Greg with a couple of big strikes and Greg got fired up and handed it back, and then Brody killed him with a big boot to the face. It was a bit odd seeing Brody sell so well for Greg, given the size disparity, but it does make sense in the context of their having a long feud and Greg really bringing the fight to him.

I really hate when the ref randomly enforces tags in cage matches, he was fine with Brody and Nord double teaming Snuka, but when Greg tries to help, he's holding him back. The finish, with Brody accidentally kicking Nord letting Snuka get the roll up was OK, but doesn't work well for a cage match, more fitting for a TV main event to build to a cage match. Of course, a few minutes earlier, Snuka had accidentally hit Greg, so it's nice to see them go full circle with it. But hey, I've recapped two episodes of this show so far and Greg Gagne hasn't sucked either time.

Right after Snuka's pin on Nord, we cut to the ending credits. That's all for now, we'll be back whenever ESPN Classic decides that they can pencil the show in!

--

Maybe I spoke too soon about ESPN Classic, AWA has managed to be on as scheduled two days in a row. We've even got some semblance of continuity here, we're still in Las Vegas at the Showboat and now it's October 12, 1986.

SCOTT HALL vs. TOM STONE
No word yet on whether Stanley Blackburn followed Colonel DeBeers' advice and had Hall tested for steroids. Ron Tronguard calls Hall a "big hunk of man" and I'll refrain from the obvious wisecrack. This actually isn't a squash, Hall gives Stone control for most of the match. Stone doesn't have much to do though. He keeps Hall grounded with headlocks and then chokes him every way he can think of. He uses his bare hands across his throat, he uses the ropes, his boot, and even the strap on his singlet. Stone gets too cocky and thinks he can have his way with Hall and starts to throw fists, and Hall answers with one his own. Hall does a big bodyslam, and finishes Stone with a bulldog.

Larry Nelson asks Hall about his participation in upcoming Battle Royals that are scheduled for the AWA's upcoming tour. Hall says he's been lucky in them before and hopes to continue to do so, because that's where the big money is. He and Curt Hennig are hoping to settle some scores in them with Doug Somers and Buddy Rose. Hall also hopes to get his hands on Colonel DeBeers as well. No comments about the Colonel's accusations though, guilty conscience perhaps?

ALEXIS SMIRNOFF/GORDIENKO vs. MIKE RICHARDS/FRANKIE DeFALCO
Russian heels were as common in the '80's as hair bands, but these guys are awesome! This is like watching an Andersons squash on TBS, they target Richards' arm and work it over until he submits. They're not overtly flashy with the holds, it's a lot of pro style armbars and hammerlocks, but their vicious edge is what makes them great. Time and time again, they put Richards in a hammerlock and the other will come off the top and boot in him the shoulder. DeFalco gets all of two minutes of ring time and Smirnoff drops him with a shoulderblock and then does a bodyslam and legdrop and he tags right back out. The Russian's keep working on Richards' arm and he gives it up. Considering that most Russian villains were either muscleheads like Nikita Koloff of cartoon characters like Nikolai Volkoff, this is a breath of fresh air.

SHAWN MICHAELS/MARTY JANNETTY vs. TONY LEONE/DENNIS STAMP
DENNIS STAMP GOT BOOKED! Stamp and Leone aren't exactly the type of wrestlers who can work the style that the Rockers work, so the Rockers just let them do their stuff for a while. Dennis wrestles a lot like Terry Funk, he seems proficient on the mat, but is able to bump and brawl as well. The match is basically the Rockers on the mat getting worked over, then one move to make a comeback and a double team and then a tag and rinse and repeat for about six minutes. Marty's ribs aren't taped up anymore, so the week off must have helped a bit. They hit a double superkick on Leone and then Shawn front suplexes Marty onto the prone Leone for the win.

Larry Nelson's task this week appears to be asking everyone about the upcoming Battle Royals. Shawn and Marty make it clear that they don't care about Battle Royals or getting a shot at Bockwinkel, they want Rose and Somers. Shawn tells them they don't want the belts they want their ass (he said it, not me).

Now we're backstage with Larry Nelson for a videotape of a live event in Wisconsin featuring an episode of "In This Corner" (apparently an interview segment) the guest is Larry Zybyzsko and he's with an attorney. Larry makes fun of his outfit and asks if he's a fan of the Midnight Rockers or if he's just leading a boring life. The attorney says life is exciting at the matches. Larry gets down to business and wants to know when he gets a shot at Bockwinkel, and he's told that he's not ranked high enough for a title shot and he'll get one when he qualifies. Larry tries to intimidate him, but he doesn't back down. He asks again and is given the same answer, and asks again and is given the same answer. Finally Larry just makes fun of his outfit again and leaves.

LARRY ZYBYZKSO vs. CURT HENNIG
Larry stalls, and stalls some more. He hits Hennig with a nice fireman's carry and stalls to celebrate. They lock up and Curt outwrestles him, and he stalls again. Larry tries to attack Hennig from behind when Mr. Go distracts Hennig, but it backfires and now we're finally going somewhere, it only took seven minutes! Hennig keeps Larry trapped in a headlock, showing him that he's able to control him. Larry escapes and walks back into it. Larry pulls the hair to escape and then they do cute sequence where Larry keeps dropping down, and Curt puts on the breaks and goes to the headlock. Larry outsmarts him and turns into a backdrop suplex. Curt outsmarts Larry a minute later when he drops his head too eary for a back drop and they start trading fists. They go to the floor and keep each other from reentering, and it ends in a DCOR.

Larry Nelson interviews Curt Hennig. He felt that this should have been a #1 Contender's match for a title shot and he proved to Larry Zybyzsko that Curt Hennig was no day off. Larry then asks him the million dollar question, how about the upcoming Battle Royal series? Curt thinks that the Battle Royals will now determine the next challenger and he's been training with Scott Hall (insert drinking joke here) and he'll be ready. And that's all for this week.

--

Our streak of shows in chronological order ends at two! At least it was longer than Gillberg's winning streak. We're now sometime in the second half of 1987, Curt Hennig is now AWA Champion having unseated Nick Bockwinkel in May. We're once again at the Showboat Sports Pavilion in Vegas, so I'm starting to wonder if this is where all the AWA TV tapings were held.

We're in the studio with Larry Nelson who promises us a great main event, so great that he won't even tell us what it is! He also hypes that this weeks "Mat Classic" will feature a two-ring Battle Royal, and with that out of the way we're sent to ringside with Rod Tronguard and Ray Stevens.

MITCH SNOW/ALAN WEST vs. BRIAN COSTELLO/FANKIE DeFALCO
OMG It's Mitch Snow from the Carolinas! If you've read Pure Dynamite you'll know how highly that Snow and Billington think of each other. If you haven't then all you need to know is that they didn't get along and Dynamite was his usual charming self. There isn't much to see here other than Snow and West being spunky babyfaces, lots of dropkicks and armdrags. There's a cute spot when Costello dodges West, but West just hits DeFalco and knocks him off the apron, and then Snow dropkicks Costello from behind. Snow pins DeFalco with an ugly sunset flip off the top.


DICK SLATER vs. JIM EVANS
Total squash by Slater. Just replace the spunky offense from Snow and West with Slater's surly can of the ass-whip that he opens up and it's the same match. It's a hoot to hear the announcers pimping Slater as coming from the WWF and coming to the AWA because he wanted to wrestle the best. Evans dares to try to get in some moves and Slater keeps thrashing him and finally ends it with an elbow from the second rope. Not exactly a thrilling finisher, and it would have helped if Slater hadn't already done about 20 elbows already.


Larry Nelson interviews DJ Peterson, JT Southern, and Southern's huge hair. Peterson vents about Curt Hennig using a chair in their AWA Title match and says that the AWA stands for the American Wrestling Association and using a chair isn't wrestling to him. Southern is upset that he made a lot of sacrifices in his quest to wear AWA Gold and Paul E. Dangerously and his phone cost them the tag titles against the Russians. If the Russians are the champions then we're between May and October of '87.

It's time for the Mat Classic, which is a two-ring Battle Royal from 1974, Larry Nelson and Ray Stevens do play by play. There are battle royals in two rings and the two winners wrestle to decide the ultimate winner. It's interesting to watch just from the time frame, but that's about it. I only recognize a few of the guys (Bockwinkel, Vachon, Koloff, Stevens, and Graham) and Nelson and Stevens don't even know everyone, because there are parts where they're not sure who was eliminated. Billy Graham appears to win, but they tell us after the clip that Pepper Gomez actually won.

TOMMY RICH vs. MIKE RICHARDS
Richards works a headlock for a bit to keep the fans bored, Rich wakes them up a bit with a dropkick and some armdrags and then he goes to a standard arm bar and starts his own headlocks to bore everyone again. Rich finally ends this with a Thesz press after far too long with far too little action.


ADRIAN ADONIS vs. PETE SANCHEZ
Paul E. Dangerously tells us that Adonis is Tommy Rich's favorite wrestler. OK then. This is another squash like the Slater match, Adonis guzzles him early and never lets up. He puts the boots to him when he's on the mat and almost kills him with a splash and the sleeper finishes it.


Larry Nelson with Paul E. Dangerously, and this is the highlight of the show! Dangerously gloats about Adonis and the Midnight Express attackingTommy Rich and talks about them going to a party in Hollywood afterwards and doing impressions of everyone who talked to them about it. Robin Leech, Billy Crystal, a Chinese guy from NYC and one of "Adrian's friends" (wink wink). Hilarious stuff.
It's time for the great main event that Larry Nelson wouldn't tell us about. It's a tournament match to crown the first AWA Television Champion, feel the excitement jack!

JERRY BLACKWELL vs. KEVIN KELLY
Well I can see why Larry didn't wanna tell us about this beforehand. Kevin Kelly isn't the one that Rock used to call hermie on a regular basis, he went on to fame in the WWF as Nailz. It's not a good match by any stretch, Kelly's talent lies in his posing and Blackwell moves well for his size, but it's just that, for his size, not in general. They do manage to be funny though, well Blackwell does by mocking Kelly. Kelly pushes Blackwell away from a lock up and poses. Blackwell then knocks Kelly to the floor and he poses. Kelly tries to offer the handshake and get a cheap shot, but Blackwell beats him to the kick in the midsection and he poses again. They start wrestling, although it's really just a lot of punching, and Nick Kiniski tries to interfere only for Blackwell to bring him into the ring and the ref calls for the bell. We're not informed if he disqualified them both (since Blackwell brought him into the ring) or just Kelly.

Back to the studio with Larry Nelson who announces the fan of the week, pimps an Elvis impersonator, and then bids us farewell for the week and reminds us to tune in next week to ESPN.

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Doc Brown has the Delorean ready, the flux capacitor is fluxing, and we're jumping up to 1990. That means three things: no more Larry Nelson, the megapush of The Destruction Crew, and the Team Challenge Series~! I don't know where we're coming from, but it doesn't look like the Showboat.

BRAD RHEINGANS vs. WT JONES
I'm surprised that Brad was still around this late into the AWA's lifespan. I wonder if he wrestled after the AWA folded? This is a fun exhibition of Rheingans' skills. There isn't much to be expected from Jones, he looks like your average musclehead, so Brad basically wrestles for two. It's fun to watch Brad outsmart him and catch him on the mat in a compromising position. He doesn't punish him on the mat though, he just takes him down to show Jones that he can, despite how much bigger Jones is. Brad's not a small guy either, Bischoff compares him to Larry Csnoka (!!!) in that he's big but with a low center of gravity. Jones tries to get rough and throw punches and Brads shows him he can do that too. Jones tries to use his power and Brad shows how strong he is. Despite his amateur credentials, the only holds that Brad bothers with are a side headlock and a front headlock that he rolls over and bridges up, it looks like an inverted Dragon sleeper. Jones finally seems to get something going, but he drops his head too early and Brad cradles him for the win. Fun match, I'm starting to dig Brad Rheingans.


COLONEL DeBEERS vs. MIKE BRAHAM
DeBeers' music is Welcome To the Jungle by Guns 'N' Fucking Roses, how can anyone boo him? Braham puts up a valiant effort. I'm kidding. DeBeers attacks at the bell with fists and boots and Braham never has a prayer. He gets in two punches to the gut and DeBeers just sucks them up, hits him in the gut and plants him with the reverse piledriver.

Eric Bischoff is standing by with the AWA World Tag Team Champions, Destruction Crew. If you haven't seen any of their promos, here's the basic outline:
- Bischoff asks Mike Enos a question
- Enos gets in a few words
- Wayne Bloom jumps in and says "Hold on a second Mike, I'll handle this one"
- Blooms cuts the promo
- Bischoff rebuts, again asking the question to Enos
- Enos gets in a few more words
- Bloom tells Enos he'll handle this one
- Bloom finishes the promo

Today's topic is Mike Enos' injured shoulder, and Bloom assures us that Enos is tough and he'll be just fine. Bischoff rebuts with the Iron man battle royal and the threat of the Lumberjacks. Bloom says that it's a conspiracy by the AWA to get rid of them, but it won't work because Flapjack Norton doesn't know if his partner is Yukon John Nord or his girlfriend, Aunt Jemima!

SGT SLAUGHTER vs. JOHN PISTULKA
Pistulka gets pimped as being a cocky rookie, but from the looks of it, he was trained by Larry Zybyzsko, because most of what he does it stall and try to not have to lock up with Sarge. We actually don't see them start wrestling, because the camera is focused on Ox Baker on the floor. Pistulka goes to the eyes and hits a back elbow to take down Sarge. He gets cocky and climbs up to the top rope, but Sarge clams him off. Slaughter cannon, Cobra Clutch, goodnight.

Ox Baker asks to be Sarge's manager and promises to make him AWA Champion. Sarge wants to think about it, does so, and turns him down. You know, Slaughter never did win the AWA Title, maybe he should have taken on Ox.

Clips of last week on ESPN, DJ Peterson challenged Larry Zybyzsko for the AWA World Title. Peterson gets a near fall with a gutwrench suplex and then the ref goes down, missing a small package where Peterson had him pinned for about a ten count. Peterson slugs at Larry in the corner and then Larry cradles him with feet on the ropes for the win.

DJ PETERSON vs. GEORGE ANDERSON
This is obviously a squash for DJ, but it's not just a run of the mill one like the Slaughter or DeBeers matches, it's got a purpose. It shows that Peterson is still gunning for Zybyzsko, he spends the whole match yelling for him. But he doesn't just thrash Anderson and end it. Anderson gets the better of him twice, first with an arm drag and then again with a hip toss, which shows that maybe the frustration from the loss is causing him to lose focus. Peterson doesn't get caught thrice though, when he takes over, Anderson doesn't have a prayer, Peterson clubs him in the back and then whips out the Ghetto Blaster! Peterson with a slam, suplex, shoulderbreaker, diving lariat, and a grounded Scorpion Deathlock ends it. It's short but it's very effective, it both shows Peterson's determination and shows that he just might have the skills to win the title, and that makes it worthwhile.


PSYCHO/KILLER vs. MIKE BRAHAM/STEVE BIRD
I hope Braham got double paid for working twice. Bird is a pretty big guy, so he holds his own with the Hangmen for a bit, and then tags in Braham to get killed. Watching the Hangmen work over Braham is like watching a cat play with a mouse before killing it, there are three or four spots that could have easily finished him. The shoulder breaker, the double neckbreaker, and the big DDT, but they let him live and finally end it with a Demolition Decapitation variant.


TEAM CHALLENGE SERIES: IRON MAN BATTLE ROYAL
This is more or less like a team version of a Royal Rumble. There are five men from each of the three teams, three men from each team start and every thirty seconds a new one enters until all 15 are in the ring. This certainly isn't booked as intricately as a Royal Rumble, so it's pretty run of the mill. There's no real struggle to eliminate anyone, Mike Enos eliminates Nikita Koloff with as much ease as Psycho had chucking Zumhofe out two seconds into the match. Almost all of Larry's Legends wind up entering and they work together to eliminate the various members of the Snipers and Blitzers, until The Trooper shows up and won't stay down, and then Flapjack Norton shows up and the two Blitzers eliminate all the Legends and get the win. In my days of having a Mark/Smark ratio of 70/30, when I was fifteen or so, I thought Scott Norton was the toughest guy in wrestling. He'd go out on Nitro or Thunder and beat guys down in seconds, I always wondered why he wasn't the World Champion. Now, seeing him as a smiling and happy lumberjack, my image of him is changed forever.

--

Eric Bischoff and a clean shaven Lee Marshall welcome us to AWA on ESPN, we're still in 1990, no telling as to when yet. Eric and Lee give us a preview of what to expect on this Monday afternoon. Jonnie Stewart, The Trooper, The Destruction Crew, and the main event is Magnificent Mimi challenging Candi Devine for the AWA Ladies Championship.

TOMMY JAMMER vs. RANDY GUST
This is over before it begins, which is a good thing. It's fine when it's just Jammer doing his stuff, like the big clothesline and the Ultimate Warrior Big Splash that he uses to win. But the three spots that they have to work together on, Gust's missed swing, the atomic drop and the powerslam all look awful, because they're done so slowly. Gust's swing doesn't look like it'd have hurt even if he did hit it, and the delay from Jammer grabbing him for the powerslam to when he actually does it is embarrassing.

JONNIE STEWART vs. SPIKE JONES
This is actually a fun little cat and mouse type of match, Stewart can't compare with the size or strenth of Jones, but he's a smarter wrestler and that's what makes the difference. Spike may catch him in a bearhug, but Stewart knows one of the two ways to get out (according to Lee Marshall) and claps him in the head (the other being to bury his hands in his ribs). Stewart is a bit cocky and shows off with a bodyslam and a nice near fall from an elbow drop. He also manages to suplex him, its ugly, but the fact that he did it is nice. Spike is able to back Stewart into the corner with his fists but stops to crowd play and gives Stewart a chance to reverse his whip into the other corner and Stewart pulls down the knee pad and finishes him with a knee to the gut.

Eric Bischoff with Buck Zumhofe, who's apparently feuding with Stewart. Buck is chopping up carrots into a large pot, he's got a surprise for Jonnie Stew-Rat, he's making Rat Stew! Yeah, Mad Dog Vachon building a Pine Box for Jerry "Fatwell" this isn't. Then, Baron Von Rashke comes over and compliments him on the Stew and suggest they also make Hangmen stew out of Killer and Psycho.

SGT SLAUGHTER vs. TOM BURTON
Marshall and Bischoff talk about Slaughter needing to regain his focus on wrestling after failing to win the AWA from Larry Zybyzsko twice. Seeing as the last episode featured Slaughter wanting a title shot, it's safe assume this one is at least a few weeks after that one. Burton would go on to some minor fame in Japan wrestling for UWFi. Slaughter backs Burton into the corner but breaks clean, he backs Burton again and Burton goes for the eyes to take control. Burton doesn't really do anything though, he just rakes Slaughter's eyes with the ropes and backs him into a corner and hits some forearm shots. Slaughter fights back with forearms and then whips Burton into the ropes and does a back body drop. Slaughter with the lariat and the Cobra Clutch. Burton's arm drops three times and it's all over. Slaughter was at Summerslam ‘90, so we're sometime before August of 1990.

Eric Bischoff standing by with the AWA World Tag Team Champions, Destruction Crew. Typical DC promo, the topic is rumors of Dissension within Larry's Legends between the DC and the Texas Hangmen and the new team of DJ Peterson and The Trooper. "Hold on a second Mike, I'll handle this one!" Bloom makes it clear that there's no problems within the team between the two teams. And they're not worries at all about Peterson and Trooper, they're good singles wrestlers, but they're not a team and they haven't beaten any teams to warrant a title shot. Enos actually tries to jump in at a couple points but Bloom insists that he'll handle it. I assume that all these promos were supposed to eventually lead to a split and feud.

MIKE ENOS/WAYNE BLOOM vs. TOM BENNETT/KENT CARLSON
Holy shit, the team that would go on to become the Beverly Brothers, and have epic feuds with the Bushwhackers, look for all the world like the next coming of the Road Warriors. They unload on Carlson with some pretty big moves for 1990, Enos' powerslam looked like a finisher in it's own right, but they keep going. Enos picks him up for a powerbomb and holds him there while Bloom comes off the top with an elbow, and then Enos finishes the powerbomb. Bloom does a backdrop suplex off the top and then they hit The Wrecking Ball (Doomsday Device) and the bell rings. I assumed the ref stopped the match, but he actually DQ's the champs. Why, you ask? Because the Wrecking Ball has been outlawed!

THE TROOPER vs. WT JONES
Okay, it's official, WT Jones is the worst worker ever. He can't even take a fricking back body drop correctly, it's not like Flair adjusting himself, you can tell he had no control over his body. Plus, he gets thrown into the corner and is supposed to move so Trooper misses the charge, but he moves before he charges, and makes Trooper look like a bumbling idiot. Trooper wins with the big pinch and the ref checks the arms and actually gives him five drops instead of the usual three.

CANDI DEVINE © vs. MAGNIFICENT MIMI (AWA Ladies Title)
Mimi was supposedly trained by Billy Robinson, which now makes her my favorite AWA ladies wrestler. This is a decent enough main event, the Billy Robinson influence isn't prevalent very much, only in some early chain-wrestling between them. They've got some decent spots, but a lot of this is just Devine clubbing Mimi on the back and taking Mimi down with snap mares. Their execution and timing is off too, especially with Mimi's vertical suplex and her failure to bump when Candi grabs her feet to take her down. One of their better moments was Candi's body scissors atomic drop and Mimi's counter into a cradle for a good near fall. Mimi also takes a few impressive bumps, especially the one when Candi dropped her, face first, when Candi held her ankles and she was holding the top rope. Mimi mounts a comeback after Candi misses something off the top, but a slingshot sends her over the top and the ref calls for the bell, saving the title.

--

We're in the studio with Larry Nelson, who promises us a great show for today. The main event is Bad Company against The Midnight Rockers. Larry then takes us back to last week, with Soldat Ustinov attacking Baron Von Rashke in the studio right in front of Nelson (who puts Don West to shame for ability to freak out). Ustinov breaks a board over his head and looks like he's about to cover him with the Soviet Flag it, but ESPN cuts to an ad for ESPN.com before he actually does it. CENSORSHIP! We go back to Ustinov bringing out the Sheik's newest weapon against the Baron, he's not named but I'm pretty sure it was Teijo Kahn. Ustinov breaks a board over Kahn's head and he doesn't flinch, Nelson's facial expression is priceless.

We're back at the Showboat, sometime in 1988. I'm not sure exactly when the Rockers left the AWA, but they first showed in the WWF around June I believe, and they lost the titles to Bad Company in March.

RICKY RICE vs. THE HURRICANE KID
At first this looks like a nice clean cut match, somewhat fast paced, with Rice and Kid doing the usual spunky offense, leap frogs, arm drags, etc. Then Kid gets more aggressive and takes over, he takes down Rice in a head scissors and then uses leg to keep sandwiching Rice's head. Then he starts to choke him, and then throws him to the floor. Kid keeps up the onslaught for a bit, and then Rice comes back with a dropkick and gets the surprise pin with a high cross body press.

Larry Nelson, holding the remnants of the board, standing by with Baron Von Rashke. They show the clip again of Ustinov breaking the board over Kahn's head. Baron isn't impressed, he breaks the remnants over his own head! Nelson looks disturbed! Baron tells them to bring whomever they can find, because he's got his own surprise. "One of you, two of you, three of you. The Claw is all you need to know!" I don't care how bad the matches are likely to be, this feud rules!

Edit after this was submitted: Someone was kind enough to put both parts on youtube (without the ESPN censor) and have also given us a date for this. March 6, 1988.

WAHOO McDANIEL/GREG GAGNE vs. CURT HENNIG/BOB ORTON
Rod Tronguard with some real deep insight here. "This isn't for the Championship of the world, but one day . . . it very well could be." How could Rod know that WCW would be booking tag matches for the World Title ten years down the road? Then he veers off into talking about the Midnight Rockers as the tag champions, so we're narrowed down between January and March. The match has this nice 'Wrestling vs. Brawling" theme to it, which leads to some nice stuff. Hennig and Orton get control by going to the eyes or using fists, but Greg and Wahoo use their wrestling skills to overcome it. One of their best moments comes when Hennig puts the boots to Wahoo and then puts on a front facelock, only for Wahoo to escape and put the champion into one of his own. Greg becomes face in peril to Orton and Hennig's brawling for a bit, and then makes his own comeback and puts Hennig in the Gagne sleeper, but Orton saves. Wahoo comes in to even the odds and the match breaks down, culminating in Orton throwing Greg over the top for the DQ. The match is over, but they're not done yet. Orton gives McDaniel a piledriver while Greg and Curt brawl on the floor. Greg gets the better and Curt hightails it, while Greg checks on Wahoo. It seems like they're building to a Greg/Hennig title match, it wouldn't have to hurt to put Greg over him here.

SHEIK ADNAN AL KAISSIE vs. KEVIN COLLINS
Hey, Sheik can actually wrestle, he just chooses not to. He mostly just chokes and rakes Collin's eyes, although he does take him to the mat and work over his leg for a bit, and then kicks him in the gut while he's down. Sheik uses an abdominal stretch, with holding the tights, to get the win. Tronguard tells us that it's called the Camel Clutch, but I think he's wrong. No follow up to the Baron angle though, we just go to break.

Larry Nelson isn't sure what the Baron's plan is for his war with the Sheik, but he thinks he should get together with Sgt Slaughter, since he hates everything the Sheik stands for. Then we cut to a match from Atlantic City, featuring the Sarge against Mike Bore. Not much different than the previous Slaughter matches that I've recapped here. Bore controls early, but then runs into the Slaugher Cannon and the Cobra clutch puts him away.

SHAWN MICHAELS/MARTY JANNETTY vs. PAUL DIAMOND/PAT TANAKA
Lee Marshall tells us that this is a tag team attraction, not a title match. This isn't given enough time to develop as well as it could have, which is one of the problems of being on TV. Bad Company tries like hell to get an illegal advantage, but it never works for them. The feeling out portion is highlighted the Rockers outwrestling Diamond at every turn, and their attempts to get an illegal advantage backfiring on them. First when the ref catches Diamond pulling the hair to get Shawn into their corner, and then when Diamond attacks Shawn from behind so they can double team, but Mary intervenes and evens the odds. It finally works when Tanaka trips Shawn from the floor to let them take over. They bait in Jannetty and then take turns dropping elbows on Michaels, and then Diamond uses his power to his advantage with a big breaker. Shawn looks to be mounting a comeback when he drops Tanaka with a couple of shoulderblocks, but Tanaka pops back up and takes him down with a body block of his own. Diamond misses a charge into the corner to allow the hot tag, and it breaks down as you'd expect. The ref goes down, Shawn rolls up Diamond and Tanaka hits him with a foreign object to give the heels the win.

Larry Nelson with the Rockers. Shawn can't talk, but Marty all fired up. The Rockers don't mind losing to a better team, but what Bad Company did doesn't make them a better team. They want them back in the ring, it can be in Vegas or anywhere else! That ends this edition of AWA Championship Wrestling, tune in next week!

--

We're in Las Vegas, NV at the Showboat on July 22, 1986.

CURT HENNIG vs. DON FARGO
I do believe Fargo is the less famous member of the Fabulous Fargos from Memphis. He's pretty scary looking here, covered in tats and jacked. He's good at making things look bleak for Curt, he puts Curt in the corner and starts unloading punches, and is surprised that Curt actually fights back with fists of his own. Curt brings the fight to Fargo by wrestling him and Fargo takes a powder. Curt tries to lock up and Fargo takes him down with a choke and it leads to a nice spot with Fargo trapping Curt in a headlock and staring into the camera, looking right out of a scary movie. Curt ducks a swing and hits Fargo with The Axe, his father's finisher, and then finishes him with a dropkick off the second rope

Larry Nelson congratulates Hennig on the win. Hennig states that it's a big day for the family, his sister got married and Larry "The Axe" in town! They bring out Larry and he tells Curt he's proud of him. Then they start talking about Colonel DeBeers costing Hennig and Scott Hall the AWA Tag Team Titles, well Larry Nelson mentions it, Curt just veers off into talking about cowboys and how you've got to have guts to be a champion and he's got them.

BORIS ZUKHOV vs. TIM PATTERSON
Hey, it's more fun with Russians! Like his fellow countrymen a few shows back, Zukhov's goal is to separate the shoulder form the body. Boris is coming of a loss to Bockwinkel and he takes it out on Patterson. He doesn't quite have the brutal edge that Gordienko and Smirnoff did, but he's good with using the boots and his Crossface armbar is nice. Patterson mucks it up a bit by fighting back as though he's not hurt, but Boris puts the kibosh on that in a hurry. Boris drops the arm work and levels him with a big lariat and something off the top (ref was in the way and he fell short) gets the win. I know Verne was all about guys with legit backgrounds, but I think he missed the boat with not putting the title onto Boris. I'd imagine that Boris as heel champion would draw fans hoping to see him dethroned.

Interview with Sheik Adnan Al Kaissie and his army. The Barbarian has been carrying a stretcher to and from the ring when he wrestles, because the Sheik and his superiors require that everyone who wrestles the Sheik's army must leave the ring on a stretcher. That's actually pretty bad ass. They babble on about nothing for a little longer, the only thing of note is that Zukhov wants another shot at Bockwinkel.

Larry Nelson explains that Nick Bockwinkel is the AWA Champion because Stan Hansen refused to wrestle him in Denver, CO. We then head to Oceanside, CA and what wound being Stan Hansen's last AWA Title defense.

STAN HANSEN © vs. JERRY BLACKWELL (AWA World Heavyweight Title)
This starts as a big brawl inside and outside the ring, Blackwell busts open Hansen with the posts, it's almost five minutes before Hansen can even get his gear off. They slow things down and give Hansen control when Blackwell misses a charge, and Stan kicks and punches for a bit. Blackwell uses his size and catches Hasnen in a bearhug to kill some time. The ref goes down and Blackwell hits his big splash, but nobody is there to count. Hansen takes off his boot and uses it bloody Blackwell. Another ref comes down and Hansen starts beating on him, and the first ref calls for the DQ.

Promo from Hansen. He actually calls out Bockwinkel and DARES him to come to Denver and go for the title. There's some irony!

BRAD RHEINGANS vs. ALI KAHN
As fun as this was, especially the way Brad worked over Kahn's arm, it's got a very stereotypical stink to it. Kahn, from Afghanistan, is portayed like a real bumbling idiot. Brad takes him down with ease and uses a hammerlock as genuine offense. Kahn only gets the upperhand through shady tactics like choking Brad, going to the eyes, and tying him up in the ropes. The only thing that Kahn does to Brad that's on the level is when he takes him over in a headlock, and he doesn't seem to know what to do with the hold, so he just lays there until Brad powers out. Again, it was fun to watch Brad work over Kahn's arm, especially after the way Kahn's stablemate, Zukhov had done something similar. The ref goes down, and Brad hits the Bullet, but there's nobody to count. The ref comes to in time to see Kahn use a foreign object and calls for the bell. Sheik and Kahn keep up their assault after the bell and that's all for this week.

--

AWA CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING ON ESPN CLASSIC
We're in Las Vegas at the Showboat and it's apparently May 28, 1987 according to a few clips from youtube. However, there's talk of the big battle royal series that comes in October, and May seems a bit too early to be looking that far ahead. So I don't know when in ‘87.

BUDDY LANDELL vs. ML WILLIAMS
The ring announcer makes a bit of a Freudian slip and announces Williams as being from "Atlantic City, New Jewsey." Buddy Landell apparently comes to the AWA with a big reputation, I'll just leave that one alone. Nothing much to see here, it's mostly Buddy working a chinlock and some forearm shots. Williams tries to mount a comeback after getting sent to the floor, but he misses a dropkick and Buddy crushes him with an elbow drop and a figure four gets the submission.

ADRIAN ADONIS vs. TONY LEONE
Another squash for Adrian. Dangerously distracts Leone and Adrian attacks from behind and Leone is as good as done. Adrian with a brutal DDT, but keeps the punishment coming. He attempts what looks like a slingshot suplex but screws it up, then he seems to try a one-legged slingshot, but that goes wrong too. Finally Adonis with the sleeper and the arm drops thrice. It's not over yet, Adonis won't let go and two jobbers come out to help, and Adonis beats them up. Tommy Rich comes out to help and Adonis and Dangerously back off.

CURT HENNIG vs. MIKE TOLOS
It's funny, Curt is probably most well-known for overselling and over the top bumping, but he's the exact opposite here. He's the one dishing out the punishment in the over the top manner. Hennig explodes on Tolos with a dropkick and then beales him all the way across the ring. He KO's him with The Axe, and then pins him with, what we now know as, the Perfect Plex.

GREG GAGNE vs. RICK GANTER
This actually has a sort of sideshow appeal to it, almost akin to something you'd expect to see from way back in the carny days of the business. It starts out like clean match, but then Ganter goes for the hair and then tries to cover his tracks by claiming that Greg did. Greg tries to let it go, but Ganter keeps on harping, so Greg gets fired up and hurls him across the ring. Ganter starts choking to halt the momentum and using fists, but Greg is only letting him to get him to drop his guard. When he does, Greg fires away with fists of his own, throws him into all four corners and the pins him after two dropkicks. Aside from the relative oddity of seeing someone use a dropkick as a finisher, this was actually kind of fun. For someone who was said to have never been much good, Greg sure has been consistent on these shows.

Larry Nelson with "Jammin" Mitch Snow (from the Carolinas) and he's excited for the Fall Battle Royal series and also for wrestling Larry Zybyzsko in the first round of the AWA TV Title Tournament. Madusa tells snow to take a hike and brings out Kevin Kelly and Nick Kiniski and Larry Nelson tells her she's hot in red leather (and he's right!). Kelly says that the NFL is on strike and all sorts of football teams want him to join them. Whatever.

DENNIS CONDREY/RANDY ROSE vs. DJ PETERSON/JT SOUTHERN
You know why the Original Midnight Express is mostly a footnote, while the Eaton/Lane version is legendary? Because Eaton and Lane wore matching gear, while Rose and Condrey didn't. It's a proven fact, look at all the great tag teams in history and they all wore matching gear. Instead Condrey has half-orange and half-red trunks while Rose has red ones. This takes a while to get going, but it also lays the groundwork for the story pretty early. Rose and Condrey can never seem to get anything going for themselves, even when they try to bend the rules a bit. Condrey will try to get Peterson in the corner so they can double team, but Peterson is able to fend them both off and escape. It happens several times throughout the first half. They appear to finally have something going when Rose is able to back Southern into a corner and unload on him, but Southern makes his own save.

It's not until Rose gets a knee to the back (which we're told is also something that's been bothering Peterson a lot) that the Midnights get something going, but it's a fun ride when they do. They keep working over Peterson's back, which is smart and Condrey throws in some fun bits, like making all four sides of the arena get a good look at Peterson in pain and then punch him in the face. Peterson tries to sneak through Rose's legs for the tag, but Randy drops down and blocks him with a front headlock. Peterson finally makes the tag, after ducking a double clothesline and hitting his own, and Southern puts Condrey in an abdominal stretch and Rose belts him with the phone for the DQ. I hadn't been keeping track since I started covering this stuff for 411, but I'd be surprised if there were more than a couple of TV episodes that had clean finishes.

--

It's September 23, 1986 and we're at the Showboat in Las Vegas.

Mr. GO vs. ROBERT BURROUGHS
Larry Nelson introduces Go as "The Masked Ninja From the Orient" which about as redundant as you can get. Aside from the four turtles and three kids from the 3 Ninjas movies, what Ninja's weren't masked nor from the Orient? Larry Zybyzsko distracts Burroughs and Go hits him with a shot to the throat and a few karate kicks and he stops to bow. This goes on for a bit, but nothing of note happens. Go does an in the ring verison of the Cactus Jack elbow drop, only from the second rope (in the middle of the ropes, not the corner) for the win.

Larry Nelson interview Zybyzsko and Go. Zybyzsko let Go loose in the ring to make a statement, which is that he wants Bockwinkel for a title shot. The AWA keeps putting people in his way, Greg Gagne, Scott LeDoux, and now Jimmy Snuka "A cannibal!" Larry says he'll let Go lose on everyone until he gets his destiny. He wants one of two things from Blackburn, a title shot or a lot of money in a lawsuit. You know, Larry's promos about this remind me a lot of Edge's 2004-05 promos about the World Title being his destiny.


SCOTT HALL vs. THOMAS PITMAN
Quick squash by Hall. Pitman does a headlock and Hall turns it into a back suplex. Hall hits a few forearm shots and then Pitman lands a couple. Hall reverses a whip into one of his own and hits a back body drop. Hall with a big lariat and Hall finishes with the bulldog.


BORIS ZUKHOV/ALI KHAN vs. BUTCH COOPER/PAT MEYER
This is actually quite the fun beating from the Sheik's boys, well mostly from Boris. Kahn is just about useless. The best things he does involve double teams with Boris, and all he really does is put his knee into the right spot so that Boris can either shove Meyer into it in the corner (which actually looked pretty cool) or just bend it so Boris can use it for a regular backbreaker. Kahn's strikes look like crap and he can't seem to work to save his life. He almost has trouble picking up Cooper for the "Inverted body vice" (Canadian backbreaker) that winds up getting the win. Tronguard mentioned something about the Sheik stealing Kahn from Verne Gagne. I don't even want to go there. Boris, however, is on like Donkey Kong. He doesn't waste any time or any movement. Everything he does is focused on Cooper and Meyer's backs, and he's as brutal as possible with it, whether it's the double backbreakers or the headbutts. I don't know if it's just the contrast from being paired off with a load like Kahn, but Boris seriously looks like another person that Verne could have done more with but missed out on.

Larry Nelson with the Shiek, Kahn, and Zukhov. Sheik wants to know when they get a tag title shot and Larry tells them that they've got to beat Greg Gagne, Jimmy Snuka, and the Midnight Rockers first. Boris yells about how in Russia they pick a body part and work it and make the Americans say they give up.


NICK BOCKWINKEL vs. PAUL GARNER
At the risk of sounding a bit cynical about someone who I honestly know very little about. I imagine this is what Verne Gagne thinks wrestling should be about. Despite the age and conditioning difference, Garner looks almost inept next to Bockwinkel. Garner can't do anything against Bockwinkel at all except for illegal tactics like pulling the hair, choking, brawling etc. And it only takes one move from Bockwinkel to regain control. Granted, Bockwinkel's drop toehold into a legbar is pretty swank. Bockwinkel finally has enough of Garner's brawling and hands it back to him, showing he can wrestle and fight, he drops him with a big lariat and then finishes him with a figure four.


SCOTT HALL vs. COLONEL DeBEERS
Two Scott Hall matches on one show, how did I get so lucky? This actually isn't bad at all. It starts out with Hall as a house of fire, and DeBeers bumping and selling is way over the top, even though Hall isn't doing anything more than throwing fists. DeBeers takes over and works on the left hand of Hall. It's not much more than filler, but it's fun filler and Hall puts it over just fine. He remembers to sell it after using it to punch DeBeers and when Hall catches DeBeers on the top and slams him down, he sells the hand afterwards. As I've come to expect, we end on a DQ, this the ref gets bumped and while Hall's helping him up, DeBeers knees him in the back and he crashes into the ref and the ref thinks Hall pushed him and gives the match to DeBeers.

Larry Nelson sympathizes with Hall's predicament and the lousy ref call. Hall cuts a promo that was probably pretty serious in '86, but almost 23 years later, with some modern perspective, it's actually pretty funny. Hall's mother used to say that what goes around comes around. What about life being like a box of chocolates? Hall also hears voices in his head (but no word if they council him, understand, and talk to him,) saying Colonel DeBeers over and over. It's also amusing to hear him called Soldier Boy, given DeBeers' racist gimmick. I wonder if DeBeers is a fan of Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em?

--

July 1st, 1986 and we're in Las Vegas, but we do a bit of traveling as well.

LARRY ZYBYZSKO vs. LARRY CLARK
This takes place on 5/17 in Hammond, IN (Larry Nelson gives us breaking news that Scott Hall and Curt Hennig just lost the AWA Tag Team Titles). This might the shortest Zybyzsko match ever. He doesn't stall! They lock up and Zybyzsko pulls the hair to keep in control, and then he explodes on Clark with a suplex, a spinning neckbreaker, and a piledriver for the win.

Larry Nelson with Larry Zybyzsko and Go. Larry is tried of being passed over, he wants some real competition, be it Stan Hansen or Nick Bockwinkel. Scott LeDoux doesn't count, because all he does is Pearl Harbor people, but nobody can Pearl Harbor someone like Go. That's not the most PC way to put it, but whatever. There's a pretty funny exchange between them. Go speaks in Japanese, Nelson turns to Zybyzsko and says "I don't know what he's saying" and Zybyzsko says "Well he's Japanese."

MARTY JANNETTY vs. ALEX KNIGHT
Back in Vegas for this. Knight attacks from behind and sends Jannetty to the floor, but Jannetty takes over when they brawl a little bit. Jannetty with a dive off the top to the floor and then sends it into the ring. They don't really have much to do, Jannetty gets a couple of nice near falls, from a powerslam and then a suplex into a powerslam. And there's a cute part where Knight offers a handshake, but Jannetty sees the cheap shot coming and manages to avoid it. Beyond that, this shows why Jannetty is better suited to tag matches where he lets the heels carry things. Jannetty wins with a high cross body press off the middle rope, the suplex powerslam deal was better.

Larry Nelson standing by with the Rockers. Marty says they've been winning a lot lately, both in single and tag team matches, and they've also got a couple of six man tags coming up. They want a shot at Buddy Rose and Doug Somers. Shawn says they're tired of the so-called lady Sherri Martel interfering and they've got a surprise for her.

Larry Nelson in the studio now, we're going to St. Cloud, MN for the next match.

KING KONG BRODY vs. PETE SANCHEZ
Larry tells us that this could make Sanchez a star. I somehow doubt that. Brody kicks him for a couple of minutes and finishes him with a big piledriver.
Back to the studio where Larry Nelson tells us that this next match has been shown on ESPN before, but there has been a huge demand from viewers to show it again. So we go back to Hammond, IN on 5/17. Scott Hall had been injured by Colonel DeBeers previous to this with a piledriver on the floor and was told not to wrestle, but he decided to gut it out anyway.

CURT HENNIG/SCOTT HALL © vs. BUDDY ROSE/DOUG SOMERS (AWA World Tag Team Titles)
From bell to bell this is pretty good, even with the stupid finish, and changing the titles via count out. Hennig sticks to wrestling, keeping both Somers and Rose at bay with a lot of armbars and arm drags. Early on, Rose catches Hennig with an elbow to the jaw and tags in Somers, who runs right into an arm drag. Hall is more the power wrestler, impressively slamming 271 lb Rose (who claims he only weighs 217). The heels finally get a chance to control, and thanks to Hennig bumping like only he can (he damn near flies across the ring when Rose chokes him with the rope and then yanks the rope back to throw him off) it comes off pretty nice, even if they aren't doing much, because Hennig makes it seem like they're killing him. Hot tag to Hall who cleans house until Colonel DeBeers shows up and distracts Hall, which gives Rose the opening to ram him into the post and get the juice flowing. Hall doesn't beat the count and new champions are crowned.

Larry Nelson standing by with the former champions and they're upset. Hennig wants Stanley Blackburn to review the tape and reverse the decision, Hall wants to get his hands on DeBeers.

Our closing segment today is Larry Zybyzsko's "In This Corner" with guest Scott Hall. We're shown a clip of the angle that started the DeBeers/Hall feud (would have been nice to see it before the title change). DeBeers was torturing jobber Jake Millman and Hall took exception and gave DeBeers his own medicine. DeBeers attacked Hall while he was helping Millman up and gave him his front piledriver on the floor. Zybyzsko is pretty funny during the interview proper, accusing Hall of blaming his own shortcomings on DeBeers and pointing out that Hall interfered in DeBeers' match and attacked him, so it's actually Hall's own fault. The guy's got a point. Larry Nelson jumps in, he's got a thing for cutting off heels it seems, and bids us farewell.

--

[CW .org .info .net]

from '86, that takes us to various times and arenas. I actually like these shows a lot better than the ones that are all from the Showboat. The different arenas have different looks to them and gives the show a feeling of variety. You can't really watch RAW and know just from the look of the place where they are.

EARTHQUAKE FERRIS vs. COLONEL DeBEERS
I think this is from California. Before the match Larry Nelson tells us about how popular Ferris is in his home area, and Ferris is introduced as being from San Francisco. If nothing else, watching this stuff is giving me a new appreciation for DeBeers. Nobody is going to confuse him with Curt Hennig when it comes to having to bounce like a pinball for someone, but he's pretty good with Ferris here. His exaggerated bumps when Ferris hits the shoulder block are perfect, and the way he goes sailing across the ring is hilarious. Not only that, but DeBeers adds a couple of smart spots, such as the flying snap mare when he can't take down Ferris with the shoulder blocks. The finish is a bit odd, if DeBeers can't pick up Ferris, then how can he roll him up with such ease, especially after taking a big powerslam and being saved by the ropes? But that's what we get, DeBeers cradles Ferris when he attempts another powerslam for the win, despite Ferris' foot being on the ropes.

Larry Nelson with DeBeers. DeBeers cuts another Backlund-like promo, the gist is that guys like Ferris and Scott Hall are big and strong, but they're not too bright, like most Americans. South Africans, like him, are also very smart. He'd love to wrestle Scott Hall, and says that after fifteen minutes, Hall would beg for the match to be stopped.

LARRY ZYBYZSKO vs. GUS TORRES
We're in Las Vegas on 3/11, this is the usual Zybyzsko match, they go to lock up and he decides he's not ready yet. They go to lock up again and he decides to yell at the fans. They finally do and Larry just goes to town and beats the tar out of him for a few minutes before drilling him with a piledriver.

The two Larrys in the ring for an interview. Zybyzsko is entertaining as always. He runs down the fans in a way that Rick Rude would make famous before taking his robe off, and the fans stand up to take exception and prove him right, one of them is even in the middle of smoking a cigarette. Then it turns into how Larry can't trust anyone except Go and can't get a match with Hansen, but referee Scot LeDoux wants him in a match.

CANDI DEVINE © vs. SHERRI MARTEL (AWA Ladies Title)
We're now in Oakland, CA, the same show as the Hansen/Blackwell match, although Larry Nelson told us that was in Oceanside. This isn't horrible or anything, they're not in the same league as the better SHIMMER workers, but this isn't bad. Sherri is pretty liberal with the shoulder tackle in the corner, and there's an amusing bit where Candi makes a comeback and culminates in a legdrop, which Sherri almost totally no-sells, a nice shot at the Hulkster, that was. The referee takes a couple of bumps, including a head scissors takedown from Sherri. Devine with a nice sunset flip out of the corner for two and Sherri rolls her up while she's arguing and grabs the ropes for three.

It's time for "In This Corner" with Larry Nelson and Larry Zybyzsko. Larry vents about Bockwinkel and how he didn't earn the title and it was just handed to him. Valid point, no? Then we show a music video of Bockwinkel, featuring clips against Lawler, Slaughter, Verne, Greg, and some others I don't recognize. Back to the studio and Bockwinkel joins the two Larrys. Zybyzsko accuses Bockwinkel of only getting the title because his nose is the brownest part of his body, and that he should be ashamed to get the title that way. Bockwinkel calls Zybyzsko a crybaby, Larry storms off, and Bockwinkel continues saying that he did earn the title by holding it for eight-and-a-half years before and that nobody in Denver complained about it. Pretty weak argument if you ask me.

Back to the Showboat, now it's 3/11/86. Jerry Blackwell was supposed to challenge Stan Hansen for the AWA Title, but he's got an injured ankle, so Curt Hennig takes his place. Hansen isn't thrilled about it, he accuses Blackwell of being afraid. He attacks Blackwell and Hennig makes the save.

STAN HANSEN © vs. CURT HENNIG (AWA World Heavyweight Title)
Why in the blue hell would a world title match only have a ten-minute time limit? This being a big brawl isn't much surprise, although it looks odd to see Curt holding his own with Hansen. But Hansen's stooging is good enough to overcome it and make it look like Curt has a chance. Curt controls early on, and Hansen reverses a whip into the corner that Hennig takes like Bret Hart, and gets control for a bit. Hansen gets a nice near fall from a piledriver and bodyslams Hennig onto a row of chars on the floor, and then yanks one out from under him. As the clock keeps ticking, Curt keeps surprising Hansen with counters for good near falls, such as the dropkick and the body press, and the backdrop suplex counter to Hansen's headlock. It's not so much the spots that makes them work as much as it is Hansen's selling of them the surprise with which Curt pulled them out. The time limit runs out though, but Hennig's time would come.

--

1987 from the University of Wisconsin (Cheese Wiz U?), we start in the studio with Larry Nelson who announces the fan of the week. They've changed the prize, instead of a Ninja Star Wars game, the FOTW now gets some autographed pictures and wrestling magazines. He promises us a great show this week including a special look at Mad Dog Vachon, in the form of a match between Verne Gagne and Vachon against Sheik Adnan Al Kaisee and Jerry Blackwell.

BILL JACK STRONG vs. RICK GANTNER
Strong looks like a dead ringer for the Ultimate Warrior, and he wrestles a lot like him too, lots of no selling to get over his power. Gantner gets control by going to the eyes and then using the turnbuckles, but Strong reverses a whip into the corner and hits a lariat. Strong with a wicked jumping DDT, and then picks him up for a bodyslam and finishes with a bridging backdrop.

Larry Nelson with Wahoo McDaniel. The main event is going to be Wahoo, Tommy Rich, and Jerry Blackwell against The Dangerous Alliance. Wahoo thinks his team has the advantage because of he and Rich's experience as a team and Blackwell's size advantage. We also get our first indication of when this is from. Wahoo mentions that the Express are the tag team champions, so we're between October and December of '87.

Wahoo leaves and Soldat Ustinov runs out and insists that he's the greatest Russian wrestler, so then the AWA should display a photo of Lenin, the greatest Russian leader. Larry insists that the AWA won't allow it.

JT SOUTHERN vs. SOLDAT USTINOV
Verne and Rod debate about what the JT stands for, I'm thinking Just Terrible. There's one nice sequence, when JT leap frogs over Soldat and takes a wild swing, Soldat ducks and picks up JT and gives him an atomic drop. The rest of this is boring, when Soldat has control, or ugly, when JT is on offense. JT can't seem to do anything except armdrags, and he's certainly no Ricky Steamboat. Soldat gets by with brawling and the announcers try to make it sound like he's working over the back area with his bodyslams and vertical suplex, but there's nothing discernable from Ustinov to show that he's actually singling it out, the way Boris Zukhov does in his squashes. Southern counters a suplex into a small package for the win.

Larry Nelson with Paul E. Dangerously, no impressions this time. Now that the Midnight Express are the World Tag Team Champions, he's been busy because everyone wants them to wrestle, he's taken offers from Japan, Europe, Africa, and South America. Even the fellow "bad guys" (his words) in the AWA want to challenge them. He mentions Kevin Kelly and Nick Kiniski in particular and points out how one of them can only flex and the other can only run his mouth about being Canada's greatest athlete. He says the Midnight Express will be happy to take them on.

VERNE GAGNE/MAD DOG VACHON vs. SHEIK ADNAN AL KAISEE/JERRY BLACKWELL
This is from "Super Sunday" on 4/24/83 (the same card as the Hogan/Bockwinkel near riot). This is an odd match to use as a feature of Vachon, it'd be more suitable as a showcase for Verne. All Vachon really does is bleed from the Sheik's use of various plunder (which Vachon throws into the ring) and prevent Blackwell from saving Sheik from Verne. It's Verne who's the star here, being able to take the fight to both Blackwell and Sheik without much trouble. Verne almost has it won with his sleeper on Blackwell and Sheik goes to use the cast on his arm as weapon to break the hold, but Vachon intervenes and hits Blackwell with it. Verne and Vachon rip off the Sheik's cast and work his arm over a bit, culminating with Vachon holding it in place for Verne to drop a knee on it (which breaks the arm and ended Sheik's wrestling career and caused him to start managing), and then Verne gets the pin.

Larry Nelson with Verne Gagne. Verne laments on the recent tragedy of Mad Dog being hit by a car and losing part of his left leg (his prosthetic would be used as a weapon during a Shawn Michaels/Kevin Nash match in 1996) and tells the story of meeting Mad Dog in 1948, and then how they became partners, and tells a road story about them being on a plane and Vachon opening the door to the plane and commenting on the beautiful night, while everyone else's lives were flashing before their eyes.

WAHOO McDANIEL/JERRY BLACKWELL/TOMMY RICH vs. ADRIAN ADONIS/DENNIS CONDREY/RANDY ROSE
Condrey and Rose are now AWA Tag Team Champions and are wearing matching gear. Coincidence? I think not! This isn't bad for a typical formula tag match, all three babyfaces control things early with Condrey, Wahoo chops, Rich is more technical with headlocks, arm drags, armbars, etc. and Blackwell uses his size. Blackwell's size also means he's not as fast, and the heels use that to get control, by keeping him trapped in their corner, and choking him with the tag rope and using Adonis (who's nearly the same size) to use his own weight to his team's advantage. There's a funny spot when Adonis actually bodyslams him, and sells his back. Blackwell makes a tag to Rich, and it seems like the hot tag, until a lariat from Condrey ends his run and then the heels start working him over in similar ways. Hot tag to Wahoo and the match breaks down, Rich impresses Verne by slamming Adonis off the top, and Wahoo with a small package to Rose for the win.

--

[CW .org .info .net]

mid March of 1988. There is some discussion of Badd Company winning the tag titles, which was on 3/19, but no exact date is given.

Larry Nelson and Lee Marshall welcome us to the show this week and Larry gets some insight from Lee about some of the roster. Lee says that Wahoo McDaniel is one of the all time greats, that people don't like the Nasty Boys, but have to respect them. When they talk about Curt Hennig Lee says "to be the man, you've gotta beat the man." The main event is Teijo Kahn against Baron Von Rashke, Baron says he's fine, but Lee isn't so sure. My wife happened to walk into the room at this point, saw Larry Nelson, and commented that she didn't know Santa worked for the AWA during the off-season.

RICKY RICE vs. PISTOL PETE
Ricky doesn't have anything other than babyface 101 offense, armdrags, hip toss, dropkick, etc. and all Pete seems to know how to do is to use the turnbuckle, so this gets boring quickly. Ricky wrestles cleanly and Pete takes a shortcut to the eyes and then uses the buckle. Rod Tronguard is so engaged that he talks about Badd Company winning the tag titles and how the ref made a bad call. Pete takes a back body drop bump a bit wrong, almost like he decided to try to turn at the last minute, and Rice finishes with a dropkick.

Larry Nelson gives a quick overview of the AWA on tour, mentioning two shows in South Carolina later in the month. He makes sure to mention that both Wahoo McDaniel and the Rock 'n' Roll Express will be on both shows.

Another videotaped promo from Curt Hennig with Madusa. Curt says that he knows Wahoo doesn't care about the belt, just about putting Hennig out of wrestling. He says he asked Madusa to be in his corner and she said yes. So that means she's going to be in his corner (thanks for clarifying that, Curt!). He asks what Madusa likes about him and she says his zest and sex appeal. OK then.

CURT HENNIG vs. GREG ROBERTSON
Madusa (and her Steven Adler hairstyle) comes out with Hennig, and Lee and Rod debate as to why she's with him. Lee speculates that Hennig suffers from delusions of adequacy. Curt takes Robertson to the mat and stretches him for a bit, and then puts him the corner and yells "you wanna be a wrestler, boy?" and slaps him. OK, that was awesome. This isn't much more than Hennig outwrestling Robertson and putting the hurt on him. They lock up and Hennig uses a top wristlock and segues into a hammerlock and a bit later he uses an abdominal stretch. He's clearly toying with him, he knows he can beat him, but he's not ready to yet. He gets ready after Robertson surprises him with a dropkick and sends him to the floor, Hennig gets whipped into the rope and Robertson charges into a boot and Curt finishes him quickly with the Perfect Plex.

Greg Gagne, who looks like he just finished spraying on his tan, introduces the Mat Classic for this week. It's from Winnipeg, Canada from 1985. The Road Warriors defending the AWA Tag Titles against the Fabulous Ones. And since Paul Ellering always interfered, the Fabs brought Da Crusher to watch their backs.

HAWK/ANIMAL © vs. STEVE KEIRN/STAN LANE (AWA Tag Team Titles)
There is far too little of this shown. We start with Hawk cranking a chinlock on Lane, and tagging Animal, who misses an elbow and it allows the hot tag. Keirn fights them both off with kicks and punches and then it breaks down. The Fabs seem to have this well at hand (so this must have been before the Road Warriors famous match with Larry Hennig and Da Crusher, where the veterans roughed them up for not selling), so Ellering grabs a chair and Crusher thwarts him, that's enough for the ref who calls for the bell.

WAHOO McDANIEL/RICKY MORTON vs. SOLDAT USTINOV/KRUSHER KRUGNOFF
The chryon spells it Krugnoff, but Lee and Rod call him Kruger (like Freddy), it's just a bad impersonation of Barry Darsow's gimmick in JCP. At least when JCP did it with Barry Darsow they him a Russian name, Khrushchev. Somehow, this almost goes to the full ten-minute time limit, despite very little happening. Krusher prances around looks somewhat menacing, which is all he's really good for.. Ricky actually cheats, he uses closed fists, and when the ref is putting out Ustinov he and Wahoo switch places and Ricky claps his hands to feign a tag. It looks like Ricky is in trouble when Ustinov bear hugs him, but Ricky claps to escape and tags. This ends after far too long, when Wahoo chops Kruger for the pin.

The Big K is back, and he gloats about Badd Company winning the tag titles. He told everyone last week that he told them how to do it and nobody believed him. And look who the champions are now. The show a clip of the ending, Badd Company runs Marty into the post to KO him. Tanaka holds back Shawn and Diamond gets the pin. Then he comments about the Baron/Sheik feud. He says he told Sheik about Ustinov and that's why Sheik brought him in, and then he told Ustinov about Kahn. He says the only way that Baron is going to get any peace is to retire. He finishes by saying that he could help the manager of the Minnesota Twins keep his job for another year.

BARON VON RASHKE vs. TEIJO KAHN
There's some comedy to start out, Baron works the arm and Kahn tries to pull the hair to escape. Baron is bald, so it doesn't work. Then, Baron grabs Kahn's little tail and pulls it to bring him back to the mat and keep the hold on. After that, Baron keeps working the arm for a bit, it's not really exciting, but it works. Then Kahn takes over and it all goes down the commode. Ustinov interferes and uses the flag, and Kahn doesn't do anything aside from chopping, choking, and the nerve hold. Baron makes the comeback and gets the claw, but the ref goes down and Usintov KO's Baron with the flag to give Kahn the win.

Larry Nelson standing by with Baron Von Rashke. Baron is very angry! Sheik and his men keep attacking from behind. He had Kahn beat, he had him THE CLAW~! And Ustinov hit him from behind. If they want a war, he'll give them one. He'll find a partner, he'll find two partners. One at a time, two at a time, three at a time! It sounds like Jake Roberts' story about sex on the road from Beyond The Mat. Larry cuts him off and says that the challenge has been issued and we're out of time for this week.


--

Larry Nelson and Lee Marshall welcome us to the show this week from ringside at the Showboat Sports Pavilion in Las Vegas, NV. We're going to have a great show this week and the main event is for the AWA World Tag Team Titles, the Midnight Rockers defend against Badd Company! If it's the title change, then we're at 3/19/88.

SOLDAT USTINOV vs. GREG ROBERTSON
Ustinov is seconded by Teijo Kahn (pronounced T. Joe Kahn by Tronguard and Marshall). Typical squash from Ustinov, he hits a couple of nice moves that would make decent finishers or near falls, especially the powerslam and even the running lariat, the Russian Sickle was already established, but he picks up Robertson to keep beating on him. He doesn't do much else though, he twists his neck a bit, throws him to the floor, and then won't let him back in the ring. He drapes him over the ropes and forearms him in the chest, which wasn't bad. Ustinov finally puts him away with the Inverted Body Vice.

Larry Nelson in the studio now, and he shows a clip of the angle where Ustinov attacked Baron during his promo and broke the board over his head and then covered him with the flag. Sadly, we don't see the follow up with Ustinov bringing out Kahn. Instead we get words from the Baron on it.

RICKY MORTON vs. DENNIS STAMP
DENNIS STAMP GOT BOO. . . . oh, wait, I already used that one. All joking aside, this is actually pretty good. Stamp wrestles the same way he did versus the Rockers, mostly keeping things on the ground with headlocks, but the difference here is that Ricky can actually play along and get the better of Stamp. Stamp switches tactics when he sees he's not going to beat Ricky that way and fights a little dirty, sneaking in a closed fist behind the ref's back and also choking and going to Ricky's eyes. There's one really nice moment when Stamp throws Ricky to the corner and Ricky gets a little height and almost hits the post, and Stamp's sell job of Ricky's dropkick is almost overdone, Ricky was caught off guard by Stamp's selling and stopped trying to do something else and just went for the pin. Stamp's dirty tactics get the better of him when he tries to ram Ricky into the post and Ricky blocks, rams Stamp into the turnbuckle and then hits a high cross body press for the pin.

Videotaped promo from Curt Hennig and Madusa, they'll be traveling the world together defending their titles, Hennig says that Greg Gagne will never get a shot and anyone who wants a title shot will have to earn it. I doubt the AWA Ladies Title meant much of anything at that point, but I do like the idea of the champions being allied.

GREG GAGNE vs. DARYL NICKLE
Hmmmm, I wonder if beating Daryl Nickle will be enough to earn Greg a title shot? I somehow doubt it. Nickle is "stocky" according to Tronguard (a k a he looked roided out of his mind, and he can't work to save his life. All he's good for his posing and screwing up spots. He almost trips and falls when Greg leap frogs over him and he actually takes himself to the mat when he's charging at Greg, they try to cover is by saying that Greg caught him with a right, but he didn't touch him. Greg toys with him for a minute with a step over toehold, which he escapes and then starts choking Greg. Greg reverses a whip to regain control. Nickle screws up a back body drop by almost landing on his feet. Greg gets the pin after a dropkick, and Nickle kicks out right at three, how hard is it to stay down?

Ricky Morton promo, the Rock ‘N' Roll Express are happy to be in the AWA, and are looking forward to the upcoming tour of the Carolinas. That's actually a pretty smart move on Verne's part. Ricky has to cut the interview short because he's got three chicks waiting for him.

It's time for the Mat Classic, we go back to 1981 at the famous Chicago Amphitheater.

BARON VON RASHKE vs. SHEIK ADNAN AL KAISEE
This doesn't have much merit as a match, but it's nice to show how over both of them were once upon a time. In the clip shown there are only a couple of wrestling moves that are even used. They claw at each other with fingernails, Baron keeps trying for the claw, Sheik uses a nerve hold for an extended time, Sheik goes to an abdominal stretch and Baron counters to the claw. Sheik gets the ropes, the ref intervenes, Sheik gets a foreign object and hits Baron for the win. Not exactly Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Terry Funk here, but the crowd heat is pretty impressive.
It's time for the Big K who will supposedly be giving the fans some inside info from outside the ring. He's told Badd Company how to beat the Midnight Rockers, and says that Greg Gagne is ranked #15 in the rankings. In any other promotion he'd be the champion, but not in the AWA. He needs to quit crying, his father was the same way, he'd whine when he had a tough opponent too.

It's time for the main event, that they've been hyping the whole show. Badd Company challenging The Midnight Rockers for the AWA Tag Team Titles. There's only one problem. THEY DON'T SHOW THE MATCH! Instead they show the same tag match from a show that I recapped a while back. That's pretty sloppy work on the AWA's part.

SHAWN MICHAELS/MARTY JANNETTY vs. PAUL DIAMOND/PAT TANAKA
Lee Marshall tells us that this is a tag team attraction, not a title match. This isn't given enough time to develop as well as it could have, which is one of the problems of being on TV. Bad Company tries like hell to get an illegal advantage, but it never works for them. The feeling out portion is highlighted the Rockers outwrestling Diamond at every turn, and their attempts to get an illegal advantage backfiring on them. First when the ref catches Diamond pulling the hair to get Shawn into their corner, and then when Diamond attacks Shawn from behind so they can double team, but Mary intervenes and evens the odds. It finally works when Tanaka trips Shawn from the floor to let them take over. They bait in Jannetty and then take turns dropping elbows on Michaels, and then Diamond uses his power to his advantage with a big breaker. Shawn looks to be mounting a comeback when he drops Tanaka with a couple of shoulderblocks, but Tanaka pops back up and takes him down with a body block of his own. Diamond misses a charge into the corner to allow the hot tag, and it breaks down as you'd expect. The ref goes down, Shawn rolls up Diamond and Tanaka hits him with a foreign object to give the heels the win.


--

[CW .org .info .net]

It's December 21, 1986 and we're at the Showboat Sports Pavilion in Las Vegas, NV.

SUPER NINJA vs. TOM STONE
I'm not sure if Super Ninja is the same as Go the Ninja nor am I sure exactly who it is. Aside from the Mortal Kombat poses and the superkick toward the end, Ninja isn't very Ninaj-like. He seems to like the nerve hold, and using simple straight punches instead of flashy kicks. He's got a pretty swank finisher, a double arm suplex, complete with bridge.

Larry Nelsons standing by with Zybyszko and the Ninja. Larry does the talking, he says that there's American Wrestler in America that's as good as the Ninja. Nelson asks what he's doing with him, and Zybyszko stumbles over his words for a bit and yells at the fans before getting on track. Bockwinkel has been ducking him and the Ninja is there to help Larry with his destiny.

GREG GAGNE vs.KEN GLOVER
Glover is about as stereotypical of a Memphis heel as you can get. Everytime Greg does anything, he bitches to the ref that Greg pulled his hair, pulled his tights, whatever he can, and it's not like Greg is doing much, they'll lock up and Greg will outwrestle him and catch him in a simple hammerlock hold. When Glover has control, he goes to the eyes, or takes a cheap shot to Greg's throat. Finally Gagne has enough and he GREGS UP! he hits a couple of punches and then starts to ram Glover into the turnbuckle. Greg with a back body drop and then sort of does a hiptoss it looked like Glover didn't seem to know what they were doing, so it was more like a hip roll. Greg with two dropkicks for the win.

We've apparently got some promo recycling going on. This is the same promo from a few shows back when Greg voiced regret over using the knee drop off the top, but didn't think the second dropkick got him good enough, and then veering into talk about Snuka and Blackwell. Weird.

LORD LITTLEBROOK/LITTLE TOKYO vs. COWBOY LANGE/LITTLE Mr. T
From WrestleRock '86 on 4/20 in Minneapolis. The comedy spots are a nice touch, like Littlebrook doing a jumping head scissors over the ropes to Lange, then T, and not realizing that he had Tokyo until it was too late. And then a bit later, Tokyo runs in to save Littlebrook when T is holding for Lange to hit, and T turns and Tokyo hits Littlebrook. Beyond that, there's nothing special, it looks like any other match, only with Little People. T stuns Tokyo with an Airplane spin and they both tag, Lange with a rolling sunset flip that gets the pin on Littlebrook.

Larry Nelson informs us that the next match will involve Sherri Martel, the AWA Ladies Champion. She's been wrestling literally all over the world. In Japan, and everywhere you could think of. I've thought of several other places. Was she in Iowa? Brazil? Hungry?

SHERRI MARTEL © vs. KILLER TOMATO (AWA Ladies Title)
Why hasn't Chikara done a character named Killer Tomato yet? Better yet, a tag team, "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!" Book it Quakenbush! Holy shit, this actually doesn't suck! KT works the arm with a hammerlock and Sherri trips her. Sherri gloats about it and KT grabs her arm and takes her down to the mat and puts on a cross arm breaker. Then she picks her up for an airplane spin and winds up taking her all the way over and dropping her. She did a Death Valley Driver! Then she does the airplane spin and chucks her right off and Sherri almost lands face first, the F-5! Sherri comes back with a roll up with tights, and then tries to slow her down on the mat, but KT escapes and does the Jeff Hardy spot where she spreads Sherri's legs and then leg drops her midsection. KT charges for something and Sherri drops her with a nice lariat, Sherri with a couple of kicks to the ribs and chest area, and finishes with a splash.

BRAD RHEINGANS vs. DON FARGO
Lord James Blears gave me the confirmation of what I was thinking the last time I saw Fargo. He is, in fact, the other half the Fabulous Fargos. According to Jim Cornette, he also once got shot by Ray Stevens. And lived with a motorcycle gang and was training them to wrestle by having them throw each other onto pavement, only he forgot to tell them that it was a work. This is about three minutes of wrestling crammed into what feels like aboutu three hundred. Fargo with LOOOOOOONG chinlock and sleeper segments. Brad makes a nice escape to one when he rolls through and throws off Fargo, but Don gets it back on and keeps it on. Brad finally escapes, hits a dropkick, shoulderblock, and finishes with the bullet.

COLONEL DeBEERS vs. MIKE RICHARDS
Nothing new here, it's the usual DeBeers squash. He attacks at the bell and toys with Richards a bit. Richard comes back with a kicks, and then DeBeers puts him away with the front piledriver.

Larry Nelson standing by with Colonel DeBeers. Larry tells him that Jimmy Snuka is coming back and wants a match with DeBeers. DeBeers says that he put Jimmy "Underachiever" Snuka out of wrestling for good. He pushed Snuka off the top rope for one reason, because he despised his color. Well so much for trying to beat around the bush regarding DeBeers character being a racist. Nelson tells him that Jerry Blackwell also wants a match with him. DeBeers isn't concerned with him either, he lacks the discipline to push away from a table and he's from a southern state and they lost their war. Unlike South Africa. Nelson cuts him off and we're done for this week.


--

It's December, 7 1986 and we're from the Showboat in Vegas.

ALEXIS SMIRNOFF/YURI GORDYENKO vs. SPIKE JONES/SONNY ROGERS
Not much fun this time around, the Russians don't bother with trying to break any bones, they just tool around until it's time to finish. Gordyenko and Jones do a nice bit on the mat with Jones trying to get away and Gordyenko keeping him in trouble. Spike uses surprises Smirnoff with a bear hug, and when the ref turns to stop Gordyenko from doing anything, Smirnoff goes to the eyes. Rogers tags in and is finished in short order with the double hotshot.

Larry Nelson with the Russians. Gordyenko accuses the referees of being biased against them, and the match makers of being biased and that's why they don't get any title shots. All the Americans wish they were Russians. Smirnoff says it best: "Yuri, it's unbelievable!"

JERRY BLACKWELL vs. PETE SANCHEZ
This is, literally, a squash for Blackwell. Sanchez tries to take him down with a couple of shoulderblocks, but has no luck. Blackwell is actually a bit heelish here, he rakes his face across the ropes, and after he gets a near fall from a powerslam, he picks up Sanchez so he can continue to dish out punishment. Blackwell finishes with a Samoa Drop.

Larry Nelson with Jerry Blackwell. Blackwell is done being Mr. Nice Guy, when he wasn't nice he kicked people's you know what! He's been sick, but now he's well and he's going back to kicking people's you know what! He's got a baby brother at home in Georgia and he's bringing him to Las Vegas.

SUPER NINJA vs. TOM STONE
We actually get a decent shot of his face, even with the mask on. It looks like it might be Hiro Matsuda. There isn't anything special here. Ninja stalls and does a lot of poses. He works the nerve hold, and surprises Stone with a boot when he charges into the corner, bridging double arm suplex finishes Stone.

Larry Nelson with Super Ninja and Larry Zybyszko. Nelson asks why the Ninja hangs out with Larry, Zybyszko tells them they have a lot in common, justice. Such as Bockwinkel hiring thugs to take out Zybyszko. The Ninja is there to help Larry win the World Title.

In addition to promos, we're also recycling matches. The next match is Greg Gagne vs. Tony Leone which I already recapped, it ends with Greg doing a knee drop off the top after two dropkicks.

Larry Nelson in the studio talking about the Jimmy Snuka vs. Colonel DeBeers feud. They air a clip of the piledriver angle. DeBeers pushes Snuka off the top and onto the floor (that's pretty bad ass in itself, there's no mats on the floor) and then does a piledriver on the floor. Snuka is gushing blood and a fan rushes to the front row with a chain ready to fight DeBeers. Then we get a Snuka promo, he tears of the neck brace and says he's healing just fine. Then he starts yelling about how much he hate DeBeers and Nelson interjects that DeBeers will probably wish he was suspended.

Larry Nelson and Curt Hennig introduce this weeks Mat Classic, and it' s a doozy, from way back in 1974, when Curt would have been a high school sophomore.

LARRY HENNIG vs. NIKOLAI VOLKOFF
Larry and Curt spend more time talking about Curt's instincts in the ring than they do paying attention to the match, and it's easy to see why. It's lot of clubbing forearms and trading punches. Volkoff gets Larry down and puts the boots to him at one point, which was nice, but there's really not many highlights to the match. Hennig seems to have it won when he hits The Axe, but Bobby Heenan interferes and Hennig gives him The Axe (with huge bump from Bobby).

CURT HENNIG vs. RICK GANTNER
Not exactly something worthy of being a main event. Gantner can't, or doesn't want, to do anything that requires wrestling. He complains to the ref, he bites, chokes, eye rakes, etc. He uses one actual hold, a headlock, which is only to give him a chance to rake Curt's eyes across the ropes. Hennig with a nice comback when he pushes off the headlock, hits a hip toss and then a nice dropkick, right on the jaw. Curt reverses a whip into the corner and stuns Gantner with a boot to the gut and then hits a knee lift, The Axe, and a dropkick off the top for the win.

Larry Nelson with Curt Hennig. Curt is in the best shape of life and he wants Nick Bockwinkel. He thinks that he's been overlooked, maybe due to Larry Zybyszko's politics or maybe Nick Bockwinkel's. He's been asking the Championship Committee~! about a title shot. 1986 is almost over and whoever the champion is better be ready for Curt Hennig!

--

It's March 11, 1986 in Las Vegas at the Showboat. The commentary is actually decent today, Rod Tronguard must have been sick, because Ken Resnick and Greg Gagne do it and they're eons better.

DOUG SOMERS vs. SEAN MICHAELS
No need to chastise me about the spelling, I'm going by the chryon. Michaels is a spry twenty years old here, thus the phrase "sexy boy" to describe him would be accurate, unlike nowadays in which he's referred to as a "sexy middle-aged man" in the Campbell household (the missus and I actually do a pretty mean duet of his theme song). This won't be much of a clue as to Shawn's future greatness, but it's a fun enough match on his own. Shawn holds his own for a bit and then Somers cheap shots him in the gut and takes control with two vicious slams and a hard chop in the corner. Shawn outsmarts Somers though and avoids a charge in the corner, and then hits a dropkick. Shawn finishes with a big splash off the top rope. Despite Ken Resnik's claims that Shawn's flying made him seem more fit for Ringling Bros or Barnum and Bailey, he really didn't fly that much.

Larry Nelson with Shawn Michaels. Larry congratulates Shawn on his win and asks him where he came up with his finisher, he thought Shawn was going to clear the ring. I guess Larry hadn't seen much of Jimmy Snuka at this point in time. Shawn says it's a great move because he can use all of his body weight and bring it down. Shawn's here in the AWA because it's got the best competition in wrestling (and I'm sure Verne paid better than Geigel did too) and he's gunning for Stan Hansen.

CURT HENNIG/MARTY JANNETTY vs. BORIS ZUKHOV/THE BARBARIAN
Wow, give this twenty minutes and half decent finish and this could actually be really neat. The genius of the match is the way that Curt and Marty stay alive, they both take some abuse, but they're usually able to avoid really big bumps and/or outsmart the heels to keep things going. Nord uses the big boot fairly liberally here, and rocks both babyfaces with a couple of big suplexes, but Curt is able to use his wrestling skills to take him down, and Jannetty uses his speed to keep his distance. The Sheik's interference winds up making the difference, the first time he trips Curt and it allows the heels to take over. The second time he gets involved, Jannetty goes after him and the ref sees the heels throw Hennig over the top and call the DQ.

LARRY ZYBYSZKO vs. LEON WHITE
Damn, this is almost like a 'where are they now?' version of this show. Zybyszko grips about Scott LeDoux being the ref because he's got a personal beef and it's a conflict of interest. You know, despite all his grumbling on these shows, he's always got a valid point. Usual stallfest from Larry, and then Vader makes him into his bitch. He gets a headlock and walks all the way around the ring, he sends him into all four corners, hits a big powerslam, and then a big elbow drop. Larry keeps trying to get away but Vader won't give him any chance to. Larry gets to the floor and they start to brawl, Larry rakes the eyes and gets in before the ten count, which Vader doesn't, giving him the count out win. Vader hits a big press slam afterwards to give the fans more of what they wanted.

Larry Nelson with Larry Zybyszko. Nelson wants to know how Larry can say LeDoux is biased after that decision? Larry tap dances by saying that LeDoux is biased and is only in the AWA because he's a washed up boxer. Then he goes off about how much better he is because he's got a brain and it's brains that win matches, like brawn like Leon White. But he stops to yell at the fans and the fans really don't do anything to make him look wrong. There's a bunch of them with lit cigarettes in hand, and missing some teeth. Not exactly a high-class looking crowd.

STAN HANSEN © vs. DAVID SAMMARTINO (AWA World Heavyweight Title)
This isn't bad for showing that Hansen could actually wrestle instead of just brawl, but that's about it. David tries to keep him grounded and on the mat, sometimes he comes with something nice, but it's usually long period of them just laying there. Hansen will get to his feet and try to braw, but David will take him down again. They wind up doing a 180 with Hansen keeping him on the mat, first with an armbar and then a full nelson, while David throws fists and knees. Hansen surprises him (and everyone) with a flying dropkick and the Western Lariat~! finishes him off.

Larry Nelson with Stan Hansen. Hansen admits that David was tough and that his dad would be proud but notes "but that's what I think about your dad!" (the camera didn't show what exactly he did). Then Larry notes how everyone wants a shot, Hansen says that's fine with him, they can all get in line. He's just happy that he won a match so that now he can buy his son John some new shoes. He also thinks that Hennig and Hall should worry about being tag team champions and leave him alone.


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[CW .org .info .net]

Before we begin, I'd be remiss in not bringing up Brock Lesnar's "heel turn" at UFC 100. I personally think Brock's Coors Light comment is being made too big a deal out of. I somehow doubt that the millions of people who watched it stopped and decided right them to throw out all their Bud Light and get some Coors, I can see why Bud Light might have been miffed. Dana White is sitting on a potential gold mine with Brock as UFC Champion. I say feed him a few tomato cans and find out how badly people will pay to see him knocked out.

It's March 25, 1986 and we're in the entertainment capital of the world, Las Vegas. We're veering into continuity again, with two shows airing from consecutive weeks.

BUDDY ROSE vs. JESSE HERNANDEZ
Why do the announcers keep screwing up Buddy's weight? He weighs 217, it's not that difficult to write down on the cards that they give Larry Nelson. This is more ga-ga and primping than is it is wrestling. Rose struts around the ring and does a few one handed pushups. Hernandez messes up Rose's hair and he has to run to the floor and have Sherri comb it. "Are we at a beauty salon or a wrestling match?" asks Verne Gagne. Once they get to business it's all Buddy, he hits a couple big chops, a back elbow, and quickly finishes off Jesse with a neckbreaker and DDT.

Larry Nelson with Buddy Rose, Doug Somers, and Sherri Martel. Larry asks about Rose's finisher and he says it's called "Hit the Jackpot." Then he asks about him actually weighing 217 and Rose does some more one handed pushups and challenges anyone else to. Larry replies "we're not professional athletes, we're not expected to." He turns to Sherri and asks her about the Ladies Title, and she just says Candi Devine doesn't deserve to be champion. Buddy and Doug also want to wrestle the Midnight Rockers.

COLONEL DeBEERS vs. BILLY ANDERSON
Wow. Lord James Blears looks he's trying to give Rod Tronguard a run for his money with stupid comments. First he makes a big production of explaining that DeBeers' hometown (Johannesburg) is also called Joeburg. Then he says "Colonel DeBeers is from South Africa, I know because I've talked to him" and then leaves it at that. Nothing special here, it's the usual DeBeers squash, he punishes Anderson on the mat and then brutalizes him with punches and kicks. DeBeers has a few chances to win, but he lets Anderson up or puts Anderson's foot on the rope. DeBeers actually does The Stroke more than ten years before it became Double J's finisher of choice, and then finishes with the front piledriver.

Larry Nelson standing by with Stan Hansen. Nelson says that Hansen has a grueling schedule ahead of him. He's gotta wrestle Leon White in two weeks, fly over to Japan for some title matches, and then fly back for "the greatest event of all time" WrestleRock ‘86. Hansen isn't worried at all, he just beat Bruno Sammartino, Jr. last week and he's not concerned about Leon White. He's got challengers going all the way up until June and the belt isn't going anywhere.

SHAWN MICHAELS/MARTY JANNETTY vs. ALEX NIGHT/HANS DeHESS
Shawn and Marty look good here, but this isn't the kind of match that will show what made them a great team. A lot of it is due to Night. I don't know if they just weren't strong enough or if he was sandbagging them, but they both seemed to struggle when they had to do anything to him, especially Shawn's vertical suplex. Marty and DeHess work a nice mat sequence, and you wouldn't expect Marty to be able to hold his own on the mat, but he does. The finish looks cool. Marty whips DeHess into the ropes and drops down and DeHess jumps over Marty and into a cross body press. Blears tries to draw a comparison between Shawn and Ghost Rider, but I don't follow it at all.

Larry Nelson with Nick Bockwinkel. Nick is all decked out in a nice suit. He's not as high fashion as Flair, but it's still nice. Nick says he's been to the top of the mountain three times and that number four is coming. Hansen has some tough challenges between now and then, but Hansen knows how to cut corners and Nick is confident that he'll be wrestling Hansen on the 20th. Larry tries to cut him off and Nick just gives him a dirty look and Larry apologizes. That's all it takes? I've been waiting for someone to get mad and deck him for cutting them off. Nick finishes by telling Hansen he'll see on him the 20th.

Verne Gagne and Ken Resnick talk about the upcoming WrestleRock ‘86 show and how it's going to feature a live concert from Waylon Jennings. Verne talks for a bit about how much he loves country music and that Jennings promised him that it'd be one of his best performances. Then we get to the good stuff, which is a clip from a show in St. Paul. It was supposed to be Sheik Adnan Al Kaisee against Brad Rheingans, but Sheik was replaced by a big masked man. The masked guy beats the cream cheese out of Brad and gets DQ'd. He tries to use a chair but Greg Gagne intervenes and unmasks him to be King Kong Brody. Brody gives Greg a piledriver on a chair and Verne runs him off.

This is the kind of stuff that shows that Verne really was out of touch. A giant like Brody being run off by Verne? It'd work in the ‘60's or ‘70's when Verne wasn't so past his prime, but not in ‘86. Now, Brody beating on Verne and Greg and Rheingans making the save, that makes sense.

CURT HENNIG/SCOTT HALL © vs. BORIS ZUKHOV/THE BARBARIAN (AWA Tag Team Titles)
Given the angle from last week with the Sheik's guys laying out Hennig and Marty, we've got the next logical step. This isn't too bad actually, it's nothing great, but it's not terrible. Hall and Barbarian play the power game, and Hennig plays face in peril, and he does quite the good job at it, even though the heels don't give him much to work with. Hot tag to Hall, who's a house of fire, until he and Barbarian lariat each other. Hennig tags back in and hits Barbarian with a great body press and the bell rings. The time limit looked to be up, but it was apparently done by the Sheik. The match continues with the heels in control, and Barbarian picks up Hennig in a backbreaker and Zukhov comes off the top and the ref calls for the DQ for hitting Hennig across the throat (even though the ref actually had his back turned).

Larry Nelson with the Tag Team Champions. Hennig puts over the Sheik's guys as the toughest team that he and Hall had ever faced. Then the topic goes to WrestleRock at their defense against the Long Riders. They'd apparently attacked Hennig and Hall with steel toe boots, and Stanley Blackburn made it clear that the Riders aren't to wear jeans or motorcycle boots, but they'll have to wear standard wrestling gear. That's all for this week!


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We're in Las Vegas at the Showboat on June 24, 1986.

COLONEL DeBEERS vs. DENNIS STAMP
It looks like I'm done making Dennis Stamp jokes, he actually impressed the hell out of me here. He wrestles a lot like Terry did in the ‘70's and how Dory, Jr. does, lots of stuff on the mat. But it actually worked quite well, he was great with catching DeBeers in wristlocks and armbars and keeping him at bay, if DeBeers would escape, he'd have the hold reapplied before long. The match wasn't going anywhere, but it was good filler and showed that Stamp has more to offer than just jobbing duties. DeBeers isn't too shabby himself, he takes control when Stamp has a wristlock on and DeBeers runs him throat first into the post, and he tries at first to use his usual roughhouse tactics, but even those aren't enough to keep Stamp down. DeBeers impressively pulls off a beautiful O'Connor roll, and snatches victory from defeat when Stamp catches his leg on a kick attempt and DeBeers hits an enzuigiri and then quickly hits the front piledriver.

Larry Nelson with Colonel DeBeers. Usual DeBeers rant about how South Africa is superior to the USA. He says Scott Hall is the perfect example of the America's finest (America's finest drunks?). He's got the body of a thoroughbred but a brain the size of a walnut.

CURT HENNIG vs. JAY YORK
York works over Curt's arm with a Kimura (keylock) early on, and Curt escapes with a hiptoss. York isn't deterred and then uses a Cobra Clutch, which Curt needs to use the ropes to escape. York changes up and goes more roughhouse with some punches, and Curt fires back with a big left hand with a nice audible smack. Curt goes after the arm with an elbow lock, but York goes to the eyes and Curt is blinded. York whips Curt into the corner but Curt gets on the second rope and hits a charging York with the dropkick for the win. The finish was a bit sudden, but the match was fun. So far things are looking up for this show.

Larry Nelson with Curt Hennig. Larry asks if Curt is concentrating on singles. Curt is for now because Col. DeBeers injured Scott Hall's neck, and he doesn't want to be in his shoes when Hall is back. As far as his goals, the priority now is regaining the tag team titles, because he'll be "danged" if he's going to stand by while Rose and Somers wear them.

It's time for In This Corner with Larry Zybyszko and Larry Nelson. The subject is the new AWA Tag Team Champions, Buddy Rose and Doug Somers. We start with a clip of the title change and then get their thoughts on it. Nelson says it's a travesty and Zybyszko says it's a great win. Sherri and Doug come out and Zybyszko wants Nelson to congratulate them and he's in shock of it, and finally gives an insincere congratulations to them. It sounds like a parent making their child say thank you or something to that effect. Nelson butts out and lets Zybyszko handle things. The new champions are enjoying themselves, Buddy Rose is in Hawaii while Sherri and Doug handle TV this week. Sherri has her eyes on the Ladies Title that was robbed from her in Winnipeg.

SHAWN MICHAELS/MARTY JANNETTY vs. BORIS ZUKHOV/THE BARBARIAN
The good match streak continues! This is a pretty straightforward formula tag match, Jannetty controls Zukhov early on with headlocks, and then when they both tag Barbarian gets some heat on Shawn, using his power to wear him down. Shawn takes over when Boris comes back in and rams him into the turnbuckle a few times (and Boris' selling is hilarious), they both tag again and it's Marty's turn to be worked over, which is primarily with a bearhug, first from Barbarian and then Zukhov. Despite the ref's warnings, Marty uses closed fists to escape the bearhug and tag. Then all hell breaks loose with all four, it looks like Shawn has it wrapped up, but Buddy Rose (not in Hawaii, it seems) pushes him off and he straddles the top and lets Boris get the pin.

Larry Nelson with the Midnight Rockers. They're none too pleased about the outcome, Marty says "No Guts" Buddy Rose is a more fitting name since they won't give them a title shot but will interfere in their matches. Hey, now, it was only Buddy, leave Doug out of this. Shawn (who nearly drops the F-Bomb) wants Buddy to get his "Fat Butt" and his partner out to the ring and give them a title shot right now! But we're out of time for this week.


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It's August 5, 1986 according to the graphic and we're coming to you from Las Vegas, NV at the Showboat Sports Pavilion. And, just to add something new to the recap, here's a listing of the current champions.

AWA World Champion: Nick Bockwinkel
AWA World Tag Team Champions: Buddy Rose and Doug Somers
AWA Light Heavyweight Champion: Vacant
AWA Ladies Champion: Sherri Martel

DOUG SOMERS vs. KURT GUNTHER
Gunther is from Germany, so he might be an awesome wrestler. I've seen three legit wrestlers from Germany, and two of them have been awesome (Horst Hoffman and Stephen Wright). We don't get much of a chance to find out, because other than a nice takedown, Gunther doesn't get in any offense. Doug puts the boots to him a bunch and also uses some extended headlocks (actually not the worst idea given the European style favors freaky matwork), and puts him away in short order with a vertical suplex, which Gunther does a great sell job of.

Next it's OAKLAND, CA and not Oceanside (that's for you, Tim) on 6/28/86 and Larry and Nelson and Larry Zybyszko stand by for In This Corner with Greg Gagne. Larry accuses Greg of sabotaging his World Title hunt so he can prove something to his father. Gagne says that Zybyszko is hiding behind the legend of Bruno Sammartino, Gagne's shooting on him! Larry starts to talk about how much better than Bruno when Nelson cuts him off to show a video. It's basically a highlight video of Greg Gagne, showing clips of matches with Zybyszko, Adonis, Ken Patera, and someone I don't recognize, but I wanna say is Bobby Duncam. It sends with Zybyzsko and Go attacking Greg and Earthquake Ferris. Larry says that he and Go only did it because he's tired of being discriminated against by the Championship Committee~! And that's why he's always got to deal with Scott LeDoux. Nelson cuts him off again and says we're out of time.

Still in Oakland and Larry Nelson is now with Donna Gagne, and wants her thoughts on Sherri Martel's title win over Candi Devine. Donna doesn't agree with Sherri's tactics, but the ref has the final say and that's how it is. Larry asks her about when she'll bring back ringside rumors. Donna says "next week" but she gives us one now. Sherri Martel's title win and her duties and manager of Rose and Somers have supposedly gotten her offers in Hollywood to take movie roles.

Another interview from Oakland, this time with Nick Bockwinkel. He's ready for his match with The Barbarian and he thinks the Championship Committee~! will be keeping a close eye on the match and that the winner of their match will undoubtedly get a shot at Stan Hansen.

I've said before that I like when they show clips from the various arenas and such, but there needs to be some sort of point to it. What's the purpose of showing us three interviews in a row if we're not going to show the actual matches? The Larry/Greg thing at least included the video of what happened, but nothing for Bockwinkel/Barbarian or Sherri/Candi.

JIMMY SNUKA vs. DON FARGO
Back to Vegas for this, Fargo tries to use his strength and willingness to bend the rules to get by for the most part, but he's no match for Snuka. Fargo goes to the hair to keep Snuka down with his wristlock, and then goes for a Full Nelson. Funny bit with Fargo saying that Snuka pulled his hair when he broke the hold. Fargo with a knuckle lock and Snuka wins that too. Then we go to a long chinlock , Snuka tries to escape, but Fargo gets it back on and it's another long one. Snuka fights out, hits a headbutt and a very ugly high cross body press (which they even replay in slow motion to show exactly how bad they goofed it up) for the win.

Larry Nelson with Jimmy Snuka. Jimmy says that he understands that Nick Bockwinkel is the Champion, and Jimmy can't get a title shot until he beats two members of the Sheik's army, who's names he doesn't know. "Baron?" Larry Nelson jumps in and tells them it's Boris Zukhov and The Barbarian. Jimmy says they're just two headaches and he's going to go as far as he can in the AWA and that's to the top.

LARRY ZYBYSZKO/Mr. GO vs. SHAWN MICHAELS/MARTY JANNETTY
Larry and Shawn, the big mouth of the ‘80's and the big mouth of the ‘90's. This is pretty good once Larry gets his stalling out of the way. There's a funny part when Shawn feigns punching Larry and then slaps him in the face. Shawn and Go work a nice bit with Shawn holding a wristlock and Go being unable to break it, they even go outside the ring and Shawn keeps the hold applied. Go finally breaks it with a chop and whip Shawn into the ropes, but Shawn comes right back with a dropkick. Marty plays face in peril, with Larry and Go doing a lot of choking and ramming him into the turnbuckle. Hot tag to Shawn who levels them both with superkicks and neither one goes down, they try to whip the heels into each other, but they reverse and the Rockers hit either other. Werid. The match breaks down with Marty trying like mad to get the pin on Larry, but he either kicks out or Go makes the save. The bell rings prematurely and they keep fighting, which confuses the crowd and there's zero heat for the next few near falls. The bell rings for real with the time limit up. They keep fighting and the Rockers run them off with a double dropkick to Go. That's all for this week.

--

No date is given, it's just listed as 1986. But it's mentioned that there was a great main event "one week ago" between the Midnight Rockers and Larry Zybyszko and Mr. Go, so it's safe to assume that it's August 12, 1986

CURRENT CHAMPIONS:
AWA World Heavyweight Champion: Nick Bockwinkel
AWA World Tag Team Champions: Buddy Rose and Doug Somers
AWA Ladies Champion: Sherri Martel
AWA Light Heavyweight Champion: vacant

NICK BOCKWINKEL vs. JAY YORK
York is referred to as "The Original Alaskan" for reasons that I don't quite understand. Unlike the Gantner match, this has a much more realistic looking approach. Bockwinkel is a better wrestler, so York tries to work around it by pulling the hair or using roughhouse tactics stay ahead. It works for awhile, but Nick gets fed up, and, in a funny moment he grabs York by the beard. The ref kicks Nick's arms to break the grip and York takes a swing at him. Nick sends York over the top for a forearm, and York tries to regain his momentum the same way when he gets into the ring, but misses a charge into the corner and Nick hits the Bockwinkel dropkick (Tronguard's name, not mine) and finishes with the sleeper hold.

Larry Nelson with Nick Bockwinkel. Nick thinks the way he was the title is a huge compliment, Stan Hansen was afraid to wrestle him and left the building! Nick is surprised with the reactions he gets from the crowd, but he appreciates it.

SHAWN MICHAELS/MARTY JANNETTY vs. DENNIS STAMP/ALEX KNIGHT
Matches like this are probably a part of why Shawn Michaels decided that when he became a top guy that he wouldn't lay down for anyone. Like the other tag match that he had against the Rockers, Knight (spelled Night the last time) totally sandbags them and Shawn doesn't take it this time around. The Stamp portions are fine, Stamp's technical style doesn't mesh well, but it's dumbed down enough for Shawn and Marty to keep up and look good doing it. But when Knight is in there it's ten times more interesting to watch with how he tries to screw things up, and how Shawn makes him pay for it. He starts by screwing up Shawn's vertical suplex and when Shawn tries to put him on his shoulders Knight falls backwards. Shawn muscles him back up, so he drops forwards and Shawn has to let him go. Shawn looks visibly pissed and starts putting the boots to him. Shawn makes sure to really stiff him on a superkick, and gives him a backdrop diver, Dr. Death style, before Marty finishes with a splash.

Larry Nelson with The Midnight Rockers. Shawn says that Buddy Rose said the only things between the Rockers and the champions was the Rockers having the guts to kick someone in the face, and Shawn just proved they had those guts. Marty says that if fear was snow, that Rose would be a blizzard. Bottom line is that they want the tag titles.

BRAD RHEINGANS vs. PETE SANCHEZ
We're not in Vegas for this match, it's never said where it is. It's the usual fun Brad match, he shows he can wrestle circles around Sanchez (literally), including a nice spot where he gets momentum built up and hits a high cross body press for two. He goes to a headlock and lets Pete work his way out so he can get offense, but Pete goes to the top and Brad slams him off. Brad finishes with the Bullet.

LARRY ZYBYSZKO/COLONEL DeBEERS/DOUG SOMERS vs. GREG GAGNE/CURT HENNIG/JIMMY SNUKA
DeBeers complains to Larry Nelson that signed to wrestle Scott Hall and not Jimmy Snuka. Larry tells him that Snuka is replacing Hall, and DeBeers says he doesn't wrestle anyone not 100% Caucasian. I'd guess this is probably the early stages of the build up to the piledriver angle. It's the usual Larry stalling demonstration to start, although it's not as long as usual. Larry and Greg lock up and Greg takes him down to the mat and outwrestles him. Larry complains to the ref about Greg using the tights. Greg tags in Snuka and Larry tags in DeBeers, who tags Somers after seeing Snuka. And we go to commercial.

Back from commercial and all three heel are working over Snuka in the corner, DeBeers even gets in and goes after him a little bit. Funny spot where DeBeers punches him in the head and hurts his hand (you know what they say about Samoans and hard heads, Snuka's not Samoan, but I guess that applies to Fijians too) and then tags out to Somers. Who apparently didn't get what DeBeers was doing because he unloads with right hands to the head without any problem. Snuka gets control, knocks Larry and DeBeers off the apron and tags in Greg, Greg is the usual house of fire until he misses a dropkick and it looks like more traditional southern tag. The three heels keep him in the corner and cut the ring in half, they switch behind the ref's back, and they keep the ref from seeing legal tags. Greg has a nice moment when Somers misses a charge and Greg hits a dropkick. He's not sure if Somers is stunned enough for him to tag and hesitates before he grabs him and does a knee lift, and then tags Snuka. Snuka hits a few chops and tags in Hennig, who explodes onto Somers and hits The Axe and a big dropkick for the win in a pretty damn fun main event.

Afterwards DeBeers tries to attack Snuka from behind, but Snuka no sells, and DeBeers runs off. So yeah, it's the early stages of the feud.


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Today's show is broadcast for the Omaha Civic Center in Omaha, NE. We're sometime in ‘86. At first I thought it was May because Nelson mentions DeBeers interfering in a Rose/Somers vs. Hall/Hennig tag titles match, which I assumed was the title change. But later on, it's said that Bockwinkel is champion, so it's sometime after June.

Current Champions:
AWA World Heavyweight Champion: Nick Bockwinkel
AWA World Tag Team Champions: Buddy Rose and Doug Somers
AWA Light Heavyweight Champion: Title Vacant
AWA Ladies Champion: Sherri Martel

COLONEL DeBEERS vs. PETE SANCHEZ
This the usual methodical DeBeers match, very slow and plodding without any real offense from Sanchez for DeBeers to bump and stooge for. DeBeers just punches and kicks, and uses the turnbuckle. Sanchez tries to come back with forearms, but DeBeers goes to the eyes. Sanchez starts throwing punches to finally get some momentum, but misses a flying body press, and DeBeers swoops in with the front piledriver for the win.

Larry Nelson with Colonel DeBeers. Larry asks him flat out why he interfered in the tag titles match last week, DeBeers retorts by asking why the U.S. interferes with South Africa. Not exactly apples and apples. DeBeers says he did it because Scott Hall is a coward and only has the guts to come to the ring because he uses anabolic steroids. This starts a chant for Hall that dies down quickly, which DeBeers says is proof that the fans really don't care for him. Larry says we're out of time, but DeBeers grabs the microphone because he wants to give some political views, but we go to commercial.

GREG GAGNE/JERRY BLACKWELL vs. CHRIS CURTIS/RICK RENSLOW
Renslow is referred to as "The #1 Alaskan" which might explain why Jay York is called the Original Alaskan, or maybe not. This match is sure boring though. Blackwell moves well for his size, but not well in general. Greg is decent here, although he and Curtis screw up a sequence early on, when Greg almost loses him on a monkey flip and then Greg falls down while doing the jumping head scissors and Curtis takes a back bump for no reason. Blackwell just throws his weight around, and when he's in trouble, the heels double team him in the corner. Blackwell gets worked over for a bit, Renslow does an elbow, and then Blackwell gets right up so that Renslow can try to whip him into the ropes and get blocked. Blackwell tags in Gagne who comes in all fired up and unloads on Curtis and hits the big dropkick. Greg tags Jerry back in for the big splash, and then tags Greg in, who hits a cross body press off the top for the win. Well, they sure killed Blackwell's splash dead as a finisher.

Larry Nelson with Gagne and Blackwell. Greg says he loves going to Omaha and the fans are great. He and Jerry have one thing in common, hating Sheik Adnan Al Kaisee. Greg talks about the Barbarian and how he and his dad trained him and the Sheik stole him. Then he says Ali Kahn is actually Rick Lince, who played football with Greg. Blackwell says that money talks and bullcrap walks and there's not enough money for the Sheik to stop Blackwell from coming after him. Blackwell has been working with Greg and he just might come off the top rope too.

BORIS ZUKHOV/THE BARBARIAN vs. RICK RENSLOW/EARTHQUAKE FERRIS
Renslow gets squashed twice in one night! Barbarian mauls Ferris to start, he knocks him silly with the big boot and impressively gets him up for a slam. He throws him to the floor and runs him down the aisle way and into the bleachers. Boris beats on him a bit too, and then Renslow tags in and hits a couple of moves on Boris before running into a boot in the corner. Tag to Barbarian and he finishes Renslow quickly with an elbow off the top.

Larry Nelson with The Sheik and his army. The Sheik wants his men to have shots at both the singles and tag titles. Barbarian cuts a funny promo about how short all the babyfaces are, like Hennig and Gagne, and then calls Nick Bockwinkel the Dick Clark of wrestling, because he's so old. Boris reiterates what the Sheik said about then wanting title shots, and also tells Hennig to get another partner because Scott Hall is a coward. Wow, this show is turning into a Scott Hall bashing session!

SHERRI MARTEL © vs. PRINCESS JASMIN (AWA Ladies Title)
Jasmin show promise early on, with the way he works over Sherri's arm, and her step over armbar was awesome, but that the highlight of things. Most of the match is Sherri in control with about as stereotypical woman's offense as you can get. Choking, hair pulling, etc. It was fun to watch Jasmin hand it back to her, but Sherri just regained control and kept Jasmin at bay. The only good thing out of Sherri was when she knocked Jasmin off the apron and wouldn't let her back in the ring. Jasmin finally got back and seemed to have control, until she slingshotted Sherri into the ref. When the ref was asking if she did it on purpose, Sherri snuck in with an ugly cradle and grabbed the ropes for the win.

Larry Nelson with Sherri Martel and Buddy Rose. Sherri and Buddy deny that she used the ropes, it doesn't matter what anyone thinks they saw, she won fair and square. Rose says that everyone complains that they cheat, but they win because they're better wrestlers, they're smarter and they're in better shape (almost sounds like they use the 3 I's). Buddy says Sherri won with a perfect cradle and anyone can be pinned with it, he'd love to have Brad Rheingans come out to demonstrate how a great wrestler can beat a mediocre one with a simple cradle. Pretty funny actually. That's all for this week.

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