411’s AWA on ESPN Clasic Report 03.07.08

411’s AWA On ESPN Classic Report

The end of the first week of shows in the AWA report, and it’s been a lot of fun so far. I’m looking forward to tackling the shows again next week, and I hope that you all don’t manage to forget me over the hiatus. Let’s get this thing on the road, shall we?

Fun With Comments

From mike:
“didnt marty actually cripple one of the dynamic dudes with the rocker dropper
when the dude tried to take it like a ddt?”

And the answer to that question came a little later in the comments, to save me a little bit of trouble.

From Craig:
“Mike, it wasn’t either member of the Dynamic Dudes that was crippled. It was a
jobber named Chuck Austin. If memory serves he successfully sued the WWE over
it”

Another question and answer sequence from Eddie Chicago and Eric…

From Eddie Chicago:
“Brody on my TV!

Did the awa ever run nord v brody??”

FromEric:
“Eddie Chicago:

No, Nord and Brody never wrestled each other while in the AWA. As they were
both in the same heel stable, they did occasionally team up – and did in a cage
match vs. G. Gagne/Snuka at 1986’s WrestleRock at the Metrodome in Minneapolis
(one of the AWA’s few forays into attempting a supercard PPV).

Would have been interesting to see the two of them battle one another, tho John
Nord was still pretty green at the time.”

The Nord/Brody vs. Gagne/Snuka match was the main event of an earlier edition of the AWA on EPSN Classic shows, and was a really good match. I’m not sure how a match between Nord and Brody would have turned out. Brody and Abdullah The Butcher had similar styles and had many entertaining and popular brawls all over the country. Whether Nord would have been able to step it up and match Brody in the violence level and not seemed like a direct rip-off would have been a huge challenge.

From Tiger Mask 69:
“When Brody was walking around with the chair, you could see some kids looking
VERY scared. We need more of that(badass scary brawling tough guys) in modern
mainstream wrestling.”

From jasonel:
“Amen on the lack of creepy/tough/scary heel wrestlers in todays world. I’m sure
alot of children nowdays are too scared to fall asleep at night thinking of
Kenny Dykstra, Chavo Guerrero, the Miz, and Santino Marella.”

Agreed. The only heel these days that could play the crazy gimmick a little more and make it mean something again would be Umaga, but that’s more of a foreign savage that doesn’t know better kind of gimmick. Nowadays, everyone wants to be a cool heel or a comedy heel or have some type of gimmick or catchphrase. That can be entertaining, but no one is willing to commit full-time to being a heel, or even more full-time to acting crazy the entire time they’re in front of the audience.

From Silo Sam:
“like you said, that show SUCKED. The jannetty match was a long boring squash.
I wonder if marty had a black eye because of the incident(which hall talks
about in his shoot interview) Where Marty gets a hotel room using Scott Hall’s
name and then trashes it. At the next show Hall starts beating the hell out of
Jannetty who’s sleeping on a table… I doubt it’s the same incident(after
all..black eyes are common in wrestling) but its an interesting thought. Its
interesting, but at this point in there careers it looked like jannetty would
be the breakout star more than shawn. better body, better on the mic…man hbk
must be a smoker becuase his voice is totally different now. Earthquake Ferris
was awful..but at least(like you said) the match was short. Hall cuts great
promos though even back in AWA. Hopefully the next show will be better….Where
was Silo Sam???”

I don’t know if that incident was the one that led to this black eye, but it’s an interesting story that I hadn’t heard before so thanks for that. It is interesting to see that where Michaels continued to grow and learn and want more, Jannetty seemed happy staying where he was and earning a decent, if unspectacular, living in wrestling. As for Silo Sam, I have no idea how regular he was on the AWA show, or if he even made another appearance, but I hope so because your commitment to being a fan of his deserves a little payoff.

From Joe K:
“Greg Gagne…the man looked as intimidating as your local elementary school
science teacher….after a vasectomy. But damn, that was a fine beatdown!”

It was a great beatdown, and the problem with Gagne’s look was both, the fact that he looked like a piece of cooked spaghetti in swim trunks, and that his facial expressions were very much lacking. He had all the technical ability in the world, but the look probably kept him from being even bigger in the AWA.

From brian:
“With all due respect…that show did NOT suck at all. As a matter of fact, they
did a great job of putting over certain rasslers, and furthering angles…BY
THE STANDARDS OF THAT TIME.
This was back when it was the NORM to showcase your stars with extended
squashes on TV. For better or worse, it made the fans more interested in them.
It made them seem more unbeatable.
When two or more guys who kicked everyones ass on TV met at any non-televised
venue, it created interest. This wasn’t something that anyone got to see any
other way. WHAT will happen when rassler A who crushes everyone, matches up
with rassler X, who crushes everyone? Unlike today, when you see many stars
lock up regularly on free TV, this was WISELY used as a selling point.
If one were to compare it to the modern day standards of building a feud and
“settling” it like two weeks later, then TODAY’S style actually lacks
suspense and is kind of boring.
Today’s norm in our society is “instant gratification.”
Honestly…that in itself ruins the aspect of suspense.
What a shame that appreciation for what was done back then seems to be lost.”

I agree that at the time the extended squash formula was the way to go, but the reason the show sucked was because the two extended squashes they showed on it were BORING. Jannetty seemed to not have the same fire he had later when he began tagging with Michaels, and the Russians were just kind of there. “We’re evil cause we’re from a foreign country, GRRRRRRR” That type of thing didn’t do it for me, even when I was younger watching these the first time around. I agree too that today’s style lacks suspense and that there needs to be a lot more focus put on slow builds in wrestling, something I think is slowly becoming a dying art.

From Teijho Kahn:
“I loved the AWA then and now, but I’m getting a little antsy for them to get
into ’87 and see heel Hennig and later Bad Company. These shows are starting to
remind me of WWECW, with the same four or five wrestlers like the Rockers, Hall
and Boris Zuchov on every show.”

Yeah, it can be somewhat disheartening to see the same guys on the show day in and day out, but I guess that Verne had his ideas on who were going to be his main guys and that was that. Plus with them not being shown in sequence, we could be missing the shows with other stars of the AWA from the time period.

From Guest #0097:
“The last three are kind of grouped together as they touch on the hot topic
of the past three days, which is whether I’m qualified to do this, or just
pathetic.”

Well, if you spend your time commenting on a minor flame war, then maybe you
are more the latter. It makes your column more bush league if anything else.”

I’m not so much commenting on the flame war, I’m merely looking at every comment that I get (for the most part, some of the longer ones can’t make it, of course), rather than just being self-congratulatory and looking at the positive ones.

From Electrichotdog:
“Scott Hall kinda resembles the Brawny paper towel lumber jack of the 80’s here,
not the yuppie version 90s one. The cool thing was right after this show ended
Cheap Seats showed ICW wrestling highlights….excellent.”

Yeah, Brawny would be a word to describe that look. And I agree that the Cheap Seats wrestling shows were good episodes, but I’m a big fan of that show as well, so I might be a little biased.

Big thanks too going out to Eric who had a huge comment with a ton of information that was a little too long to post, but I enjoyed it thoroughly, and to G-Walla, who commented on that comment. I love hearing what you guys think about the shows and it’s great to see all your comments.

AWA Championship Wrestling (Originally aired sometime in 1986)

Larry Nelson and Greg Gagne are your commentators for this episode and at this point all they are saying about the original broadcast date on the ESPN graphics is that it was sometime in 1986. Thanks for the help there guys.

Match One:
Larry Zbyszko w/Ninja Go vs. Larry Clark

As the match is set to get underway, Greg Gagne says that he just received word form the locker room and that the AWA Tag Team Championships have changed hands and that Buddy Rose and Doug Somers had upset Curt Hennig and Scott Hall to take the belts, possibly with the help of Col. DeBeers. That would put the broadcast of this show sometime after May 17, 1986, probably in the beginning of June, if I had to wager a guess.

Zbyszko hits a fireman’s carry and then goes back to stalling a little more. MAn, even against the D-level jobbers Zbyszko stalls. They lock up and Zbyszko moves to an armbar and pushes Clark against the ropes, hitting a spinning back kick to the gut instead of breaking clean. Clark goes to the outside and Zbyszko follows him out, throwing him back into the ring and hitting a snapmare into an eyerake. A BIG suplex from Zbyszko and he stops to jaw with the referee. Spinning neckbreaker from Zbyszko and he stops again to yell at the announcers. Another snapmare and a knee to the throat from Zbyszko and he hits the PILEDRIVER for the quick three count.

Winner: Larry Zbyszko (pinfall, piledriver)

Larry Nelson has a microphone and he’s outside the ring with Zbyszko, who says that he’s sick and tired and insulted by the competition in the AWA. He understands the fear of the stars because of his reputation but he wants the cream of the crop in the AWA. He feels like he wasted his time in the match with Clark and he feels like he’s ready and he’s had it with the injustices he’s had to suffer. Nelson asks if Zbyszko and Go might form a tag team to go after the new champs and Zbyszko turns that into an opportunity to bash Hennig and Hall and calls them both spudheads. Go starts jabbering in his foreign language and Zbyszko says that he’s going to do whatever it takes to be recognized as the number-one contender for the AWA Championship. Zbyszko translates as Go keeps jabbering away and then busts out the “twelve glorious years” chestnut as the interview closes out.

The graphic says that this action is from the July 1, 1986 broadcast now. Ron Trongard and Lord James Blears are your commentators.

Match Two:
Marty Jannetty w/Shawn Michaels vs. Alex Knight

Knight attacks Jannetty from behind while Jannetty gets out of his “rocking” gear, and he hammers and chops away at Jannetty before throwing him out to the floor. Knight follows but pays for it as Jannetty rams his head into the apron and then hits a double-axhandle from the top rope all the way to the floor. Jannetty’s back into the ring and he locks up with Knight again, with Knight whipping Jannetty off the ropes and they botch a shoulderblock spot. Jannetty with a couple of armdrags and Jnight wants to slow things down a little. A forearm from Jannetty and he gets Knight up for a bodyslam. He turns it into a powerslam and Knight does a cute little sell job of begging off while in the clutches of the move. Jannetty gets two off of the slam and then pushes Knight into the corner, whipping him across to the other corner and dropkicking him right out of the ring.

Knight tries a handshake when he gets back into the ring and Jannetty catches the boot when Knight tries to deep-six him. Jannetty drops a leg to the midsection of Knight and picks him up for a suplex into a front powerslam that gets another two count. Jannetty gets taken down by a single-leg from Knight and Knight goes to work on the knee of Jannetty. Stepover toehold now by Knight and he even gets a one count off of it. Jannetty reverses it into a front facelock and then whips Knight in and catches him with a flying reverse elbow. A two count off of that for Jannetty, but Knight gets his foot under the ropes. They trade some blows and Jannetty slams Knight into the turnbuckles, whipping him into the corner. Knight reverses and Jannetty climbs to the second rope and hits a twisting flying bodypress for the pin.

Winner: Marty Jannetty (pinfall, flying bodypress from the second rope)

Match Analysis: Wow, I don’t know who the Rockers pissed off, but they get another jobber that doesn’t know how to make the talent look good. This guy Knight was terrible and he bumped terribly. He honestly looked lost more than once and it really detracted from the match. Marty did the best he could to spoonfeed Knight through it, but even that could only go so far.

After the bout Jannetty is with Larry Nelson and Jannetty says that it doesn’t matter whether it’s singles or tags, the Rockers keep reeling off wins. He calls Somers and Rose “closet champions” and questions their manhood in not putting the belts up against the Rockers. Michaels says that the World Tag Championships are the ultimate goals and that once the Rockers finally get ahold of Rose and Somers that they’re going to take the belts. They bring up Sherri Martel and Jannetty says that they might have a surprise in their corner for Sherri Martel if they finally get their shots at the AWA titles.

Back from commercial in the interview area, Larry Nelson talks about King Kong Brody, and his absence from ESPN because he was suspended from Las Vegas which meant that he couldn’t be on TV. They have a match featuring Brody from St. Cloud, Minnesota and Nelson goes over what we’re going to see. Nelson says that anyone would have to have a lot of courage just to get in the ring with Brody. A-fucking-men, brother.

Match Three:
King Kong Brody w/Sheik Adnan El-Kaissie vs. Pete Sanchez

HERE COMES BRODY!! Interesting side story, for some of you who have wondered why he’s King Kong Brody in the AWA and Bruiser Brody everywhere else. The thinking is that with The Bruiser being such a big star in the Midwest and that being the AWA’s stomping grounds, they didn’t want to have Brody using the name and stealing some luster from it, so anytime he was in a territory that would have featured The Bruiser, he called himself King Kong Brody instead. Brody locks up with Sanchez and beats him down in the corner before laying the boots to him. Irish whip in and he feeds Sanchez a HUGE boot before whipping him out to the floor. HUSS HUSS HUSS HUSS. Brody out to the apron and he puts more boots down onto the head of Sanchez, keeping him down on the floor. Sheik sneaks up from behind and looks like he was going to attack Sanchez, but he just walks away. HUSS HUSS HUSS. Brody picks up Sanchez and drags him back into the ring by the hair, setting him up for the PILEDRIVER!! He holds Sanchez upside down for about twenty seconds to let all the blood rush to his head before dropping him to add to the pain.

Winner: King Kong Brody (pinfall, HUSS HUSS HUSS HUSS piledriver)

Match Analysis: Brody with the squasheroo. He wasn’t anywhere near as crazy as he should have been here, but it was still fun to see him doing his thing. Sanchez knew how to bump well, unlike the last guy, so this one was fun, even with it being as short as it was.

Again with Larry Nelson in the interview area and he’s talking about how they’re going to replay this next match due to overwhelming demand from the fans. You’ve got to love kayfabe. He talks about how this is the match that led to the AWA Tag Title change and how Col. DeBeers had injured Hall’s neck the week before this match happened. Nelson says that DeBeers made himself known in this match as well, and managed to factor into the finish, even if he didn’t do anything physically.

Match Three: AWA Tag Team Championships
Doug Somers and Buddy Rose vs. Scott Hall and Curt Hennig (c)

Rose and Somers come out to a Madonna song as their theme music. Good luck doing that today. Rose disputes the weight read by the ring announcer with his usual class and dignity. I love how methodically they’re getting to this match, with extra long ring announcements and a little staredown as the referee goes over the final instructions. There’s not enough of that in wrestling anymore, and it is a shame because here it serves to make the championship match look that much more important than a regular match.

The bell rings and Hennig and Rose are going to start out. Rose runs the ropes and gets backdropped by Hennig and he clears house, dropkicking both Rose and Somers out to the floor. Rose comes back into the ring and Rose grabs a headlock before they do a rope-running sequence with Hennig armdragging Rose over to the mat. Armbar by Hennig and I have to give it up to Rose for running the ropes as well as he did. Hennig cranks on the arm hard and Rose punches him in the gut before tagging off to Doug Somers. Somers meets the same fate as Rose with Henning hitting a couple of armdrags and working the armbar on Somers. He bring Somers to the corner and tags Scott hall, who whips Somers in and hits a big back elbow to the face. Rose tags in and stalls a little as the crowd starts stomping and clapping to get behind Hall. He hits a BIG bodyslam on Rose and another and gets a two count on Rose before Hall takes him back over with an armdrag. Another armbar and mre work on it by Hall and he tags off to Hennig who comes down off the second rope with a sledge to the arm of Rose.

Hennig takes Rose down to the mat and holds onto the armbar until Rose goes to the hair and tries an Irish whip. Hennig hits a shoulderblock and runs the ropes into a drop toehold from Rose. Hennig reverses it through some chain wrestling into a hammerlock, dropping the knee on the elbow of Rose. More hammerlock work from Hennig and Rose tries to regain his feet and make the tag, but he gets cut off. Rose finally makes the tag to Somers, but he gets taken right back down with another armdrag. Somers breaks it and whips Hennig into the corner, but misses the charge and hits his shoulder on the turnbuckle and ring post. Hennig tags in Hall who starts to go back to work on Somers’ arm, dropping elbows to the shoulder joint and cranking a standing armbar. Back to the hammerlock and Rose does a great comedy spot, getting onto the ropes to argue with the referee before falling and crotching himself.

Hall keeps on the hammerlock and rams Somers, shoulder-first, into the top turnbuckle. Hall goes back to the standing armbar and tags to Hennig, who works the arm again. Somers breaks it up with a knee to the stomach and tags out to Rose. Rose comes over with boots to the gut and Rose starts to choke Hennig, as we hear that Col. DeBeers has joined the announce team. He runs down the face team as Rose keeps working over Hennig with some chokes and Rose tags in to Somers who chokes Hennig and tags back out. Rose with some heel moves, stomping on Hennig and spitting at Scott Hall. Somers rams Hennig into Rose’s knee and tags him in, holding onto Hennig’s trunks to keep him from making the tag. Rose whips him in and Hennig reverses it into a sunset flip but Rose makes the ropes. They do the referee spot where he kicks Rose’s arms free and Hennig gets a two count from the sunset flip.

Rose tries for a bodyslam and gets small-packaged for another two count. An Irish whip into the ropes from Rose and Hennig leapfrogs him to make the tag to Hall. Hall with a big knee in the corner and a back bodydrop for Rose. Somers comes in and fares no better, catching a big right hand before exiting the ring again. Hall ties Rose up in the ring ropes and starts to boot him but Somers attacks him from behind. Hall whips Somers into Rose and starts to work over Rose in the corner with some punches. Irish whip from Hall he grabs a double choke on Rose. Sherri Martel hits the apron on the far side, which allows Col. DeBeers to interfere from the near side. He distracts Hall and Somers comes from behind to ram him into the turnbuckle and ringpost while Hall is on the apron. Hall is down on his stomach to the floor and the referee missed it and is counting Hall out. Hennig tries to help Hall back in before the ten count but he can’t and Rose and Somers are declared the winners. Referee Marty Miller gives the belts to Rose and Somers and it looks like the titles are going to change hands on a countout.

Winners: And NEW, AWA Tag Team Champions, Buddy Rose and Doug Somers (count out)

Match Analysis: An interesting match for historical purposes but it wasn’t exactly good. There was decent work from all four guys and some solid spots, but it seemed like a match that could have used about ten more minutes before the finish with DeBeers intefering. I’ve never heard of a title being changed on a count out either, but I guess it’s the AWA and like Jim Cornette always says, when something happens and you can’t figure out why, the answer is “it’s wrestling, and we say so”.

Post-match we see that hall is busted wide open and the crowd is livid, booing the decision and the new champions. Hall is on his knees looking woozy from the post shot, and Somers and Rose decide that it’s a wise move to hightail it out of there. Larry Nelson goes up to try to get an interview with Hennig and Hall to see what the heck is going on. He explains the situation and Hennig says that he doesn’t know how this decision could stand. He doesn’t think that it’s right and that someone is going to pay for what happened. Hall starts yelling at DeBeers and says that if he was trying to get noticed, it’s working. He says that all the hard work that he and Hennig have put in has been lost in three seconds. He says that he’ll meet DeBeers in the ring, the hallway or the parking lot. Hennig says that he and Hall are going to change something and start to kick some BUTT!

Back in the interview area Nelson says that no one has had a chance to speak with Hall in-depth since the incident but that he will be the guest of Larry Zbyszko in the “In This Corner” segment.

After the break, Nelson and Zbyszko are in the interview area, waiting for Scott Hall, and they talk about the controversy that’s surrounded Scott Hall lately. Zbyszko says that it is interesting to have Hall back on the show now that he may have learned a serious lesson about professional wrestling. Nelson figures that he probably did and then he moves on to the feud between Hall and DeBeers and we see a video clip from the beginning of it, where Hall saved Jake “the Milkman” Milliman from some post-match abuse at the hands of DeBeers. Hall beats up DeBeers a little bit and finishes with a HUGE legdrop and an airplane spin on the Col. Hall ends up putting DeBeers out to the floor and he rolls in with the cane and he PIMP CANES Hall in the back before going to the throat. DeBeers starts putting the boots to Hall outside and hits the front piledriver on Hall on the concrete floor.

Nelson says that it was despicable and Zbyszko agrees that what Scott Hall did was despicable. He thinks that Hall stuck his nose in DeBeers business and that Hall attacked him from behind when it was DeBeers’s legal right to be in the ring. He thinks that Hall deserved everything he got. We get the highlights from the end of the tag title match they just showed and we come back to see that Hall has joined Nelson and Zbyszko. He says that he’s not out here to cry about things that happened in the past and that anytime they get Rose and Somers in the ring, they’ll take the belts back. He turns his attention to DeBeers and that it’s time for DeBeers to pay for what he did. Zbyszko asks if he’s trying to blame the loss on DeBeers, and then gets Hall to admit that he is. Zbyszko talks circles around Hall a little more and Hall says that he’s an angry man and that Col. DeBeers seems like the best target for that anger. Zbyszko thinks that Hall has done too much weightlifting and eaten too much tuna fish, then points out that Hall was the one who stuck his nose into DeBeers’ business first. Zbyszko says that he’s sick of Hall’s whining and crying and that Hall is making a fool out of himself. We’re out of time and the segment ends with Hall and Zbyszko arguing and shoving Larry Nelson off of his stool.

That’s all for the show folks, look for the next episode to be up on Tuesday morning!

Final Thoughts

Two shorter squashes and ton of time on the tag team main event for the titles. This was actually a good show, as it was great to see the title change on TV, at a time when that was a rarity, and the squashes were a lot shorter which made them easier to handle. Zbyszko was still gold on the mike at this point in his career and it was wonderful to see him make Scott Hall look like a goof in the last segment. They’re doing a great job of interweaving feuds as you see that a guy like Hall has issues with the tag champs, he has issues with DeBeers, and he has issues with Zbyszko and during the show, all three of the stories were furthered one way or another. A thumbs slightly up episode, but if anyone is looking to write good week-to-week stories with lots of depth and lots of underlying chacters, they should pop on some of this AWA footage, cause it’s here in spades.