411’s AWA on ESPN Clasic Report 03.06.08

411’s AWA On ESPN Classic Report

We’re back and heading towards the end of week one of this little AWA experiment, and things are looking great. I’m having a ton of fun writing, a lot of folks seem to be enjoying checking the show out or reading the recap, and all is right with the world. Enough of my fancy talk, let’s get to….

Fun With Comments

From Johnny5Alive:
“I can’t wait for the Curt Henning DVD to come out!! Thanks for the ESPN updates!
(I just can’t make myself stay up until midnight for these shows!! Huzzah to you
good sir!!)”

I agree about the Hennig DVD set. I will be ALL over that one the day that it comes out. And no need to thank me for the Reports, Johnny. I’m enjoying doing them so much that it doesn’t even feel like work.

From G-Walla:
“You just don’t see stalling like that, anymore.

And why wasn’t Henning billed as being from the 10-90 Club, I’ll never know.
He can’t grow his hair out soon enough.”

No………-going to fix a sandwich and take a walk around the block-……..You certainly don’t…….-changing the tires on my car and doing a couple of crossword puzzles-…….see that kind of stalling……..-yelling at my mailman as he walks by and shaking my fist at traffic, calling every car a spudhead-……..in wrestling anymore. As for your reference, I’m going to turn it around on you and ask you a question, G. Being a Canadian growing up, and not being in with the cool crowd now, I have no idea what the 10/90 club is. Though I do think that Hennig’s hair does look pretty permalicious in these shows.

From psych:
“I LOVE watching AWA on ESPN, and I think your doing a hell of a job covering it
sir, but I wanted to point out that the Rocker’s match from the previous
episode was clearly not their fault as that “Sweat” jobber was
terrible and could hardly bump.”

Thanks for the support, and I loves me some AWA as well. In deference to your name for comments being the name of my favorite show, I went back and checked out the jobber in question. I’ll give you the fact that he took that last double-team move about as gracefully as a sack of shit, but Jannetty and Michaels looked off for the entire match, even when the other guy was in there. I guess it’ll have to be an agree to disagree situation.

From Joe Bass Jr.:
“With McMahon hoarding most of non-WWE wrestling, we aren’t likely in our
lifetime to see many wrestling classics!!”

Well, it sounds like there’s some Memphis stuff out there, and a lot of the Mid-South stuff that Vince doesn’t have control of. And ESPN can show these AWA shows as much as they want to, with owning the rerun rights, so I think that we’ll still get to see some classic wrestling here and there.

From Silo Sam:
“a pretty good show. Man, now i know that defalko has NEVER been in shape, haha.
The main event was good but Zbysko’s matches aren’t much in the way of work
rate. I can’t stand him which i guess is a credit to how good of a heel he
really is. I look forward to more Hall and Hennig(not henning!) matches. one
final note….WHERE WAS SILO SAM?”

You hit it all pretty much spot on, and in terms of where Silo Sam was, I have no earthly idea, but if anyone could lose a guy that size, I suppose it’d be Verne. The guy did send Hulk Hogan up the river.

From raisen:
“my ninja is quite voluptuous.”

If you mean that a large, stick-wielding, masked man could be called voluptuous, then I’d buy it. If not, I’d probably require some further explanation and not be saying any of it within earshot of said ninja.

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.

First, from Guest #4765:
” “you’re in your mid-20’s and you spend all your time watching professional
wrestling??? This is way more pathetic than I originally thought……..”
Amen.”

Then from frank:
“i know this is off topic, but id like to go on record by saying that guests have
no balls. pieces of shit like the idiot who wrote above me(probally for the last
3 days) love to hide behind the fact that they have no name, and they do that to
talk shit about everything. all i gotts say is MAN THE FUCK UP, and if you wanna
talk shit, tell us about who you are. ill guess that your a 27 year old,
mcdonalds grease trap cleaner, whos still living at home with your parents
while jacking off to pictures of david hasselhoff nightly.”

And finally from Harry:
” Can I point out that the people who come into these threads just to start crap
should really consider finding a life themselves…

Anyway, great write-up, Randy. I never saw any AWA (I’m only early 20’s myself)
but it’s nice to see where some of the stars of my intro to wrestling getting
their first major exposures…(Michaels, Hall, Hennig (if they’ve shown much of
him), and Jannetty). It’s good to see it getting the exposure to the younger
generation.”

Here’s to hoping that all the abuse and name-calling in the comments section can take a backseat, since it doesn’t really add anything to the 411 experience. I thank frank and Harry for their support and hope that it can be a non-issue in the future. As for getting exposure for these shows to a younger generation, I agree that it’s great to get to see these shows again with the historical context that twenty years is able to provide. It’s cool to see where folks came from, and where they’ve gone to. I’m also glad you’re getting to see some AWA finally Harry, as it was always a good show whenever I watched it back in the day.

Another solid batch of comments and I thank you all for the feedback, positive and negative, and it’s time to get to the next episode, so we’re off to the ring and Larry Nelson!!

AWA Championship Wrestling (Originally aired on February 23, 1986)

A step back almost an entire year from the previous episode, so it’ll be interesting to see where things are.

Roger Kent and Greg Gagne are your announcers for tonight’s show.

Match One:
Marty Jannetty vs. Chris Curtis

Jannetty with a HUGE shiner on his right eye as this one gets underway. They lock up a couple of times and they do some chain wrestling, ending off with a standing stalemate. Wow, I guess ECW didn’t invent that then. Another lock-up and Jannetty turns it into a hammerlock, with Curtis reversing it and Jannetty reversing that into a drop-toehold. Curtis gets the ropes and the hold is broken. Larry Nelson joins us on color and it turns out that Greg Gagne had business in the back that needed tending to, so he’s not going to be on commentary for tonight. Curtis gets a headlock and Jannetty whips him in off the ropes, and hits a backdrop after a criss-cross spot, then follows it with an armdrag. A laying armbar on Curtis from Jannetty and they talk about Edouard Carpentier on the commentary team, making them already infinitely better than Trongard and Blears already. Curtis tries to regain his feet and whips Jannetty off the ropes, with Curtis trying a hip toss which Jannetty reverses into a hip toss of his own, then into another armdrag.

Kent tells us the origins of the beal (hip toss) which is kind of cool, and that makes it 2-0 for Kent over Trongard. Jannetty rolls the armbar over into almost an MMA version of the move, Wow, Nelson is just as terrible on color as Kent is great on PBP. Curtis turns the armbar over for a two count, but Jannetty takes the control back and keeps working the armbar. Kent goes off on an old-man rant about having the best chicken he’s ever had at some restaurant in Jannetty’s hometown. Jannetty gets a dropkick as Curtis runs the ropes and he’s right back to the armdrag and armbar. Curtis slugs out of the armbar and starts in with the right hands to Jannetty’s head. Jannetty fires back with rights of his own, slings Curtis into the ropes and hits a reverse elbow before taking him over with snap mare for a one count. Jannetty goes back to the armbar and Curtis pushes him into the corner. Jannetty whips Curtis across to the other corner and locks the armbar back on.

Curtis punches out of it again with right hands and drops an elbow to the back of Jannetty’s head before taking him over with a snapmare of his own. Curtis drops a forearm from the ropes for a two count, and hits a chinlock. Jannetty gets out of it with some shots to the gut and charges off the ropes with a shoulderblock, before taking a knee to the gut from Curtis on the second attempt. Curtis goes back to the chinlock and uses the hair to keep Jannetty grounded. Curtis sends Jannetty into the ropes with an Irish whip, and Marty ducks a chop, hitting a sunset flip for two. Jannetty with an Irish whip and he hits the first flying dropkick before he ends up missing the second when Curtis holds onto the top rope. Curtis misses an elbow drop off the ropes, and Jannetty hits him with a suplex, following it up with a running shoulderblock and a high-cross body to get the pin.

Winner: Marty Jannetty (pinfall, high-cross bodyblock)

Match Analysis: Very much an extended squash.Jannetty got to showcase a lot of his moves, and he sold a little too when Curtis got his short bursts of offense. I think it probably ran a little long, even for the extended squash, since it looked like this one got almost ten minutes. Shave two or three minutes off of it and I might not have been so bored at the end.

After the commercial, Larry Nelson is in the ring with Marty Jannetty and he asks Marty about what’s coming up for Marty. Marty says that he loves the fans of the AWA and he talks about how he was a tag champion in the Midwest, and that he’s looking for a new partner to duplicate that success. I wonder who he could find? The crowd starts to stir and Jannetty makes his way from the ring when he sees who it is that’s on his way in. Here comes Larry Zbyszko, with someone in the crowd pegging him perfectly with some trash as he steps through the ropes. Tremendous! Nelson apologizes for something and says that he agrees that Zbysko should be shown respect. It turns out that this is Zbyszko’s first appearance back from a suspension and he starts railing already against AWA President Stanley Blackburn, the Gagnes, Nick Bockwinkel, and the peons in the crowd. He says that he thinks the people are fools and that no one can be as stupid as to think that what he did was wrong. He calls Bockwinkel a loser and that Zbyszko is 100% right. Nelson finds it hard to believe that they ever let him back in the AWA. Nelson also says that we’re out of time, drawing the ire of Zbyszko and causing poor Nelson to hit the bricks before Zbyszko bitchslaps him.

During the commercial break I see a Free Credit Report commercial. You know the ones, that jackass in the seafood restaurant. Well everytime I see it, all I can focus on is that they’re holding instruments, but not playing them. It reminds me of the Dynamic Dudes thing in WCW, where they came to the ring with skateboards, but because they never rode them they looked like toolbags. If you’re going to carry an instrument or a skateboard, perhaps you’d better know HOW TO USE THE FUCKING THING!!! Ahem..moving on.

We’re back and Larry Nelson can’t even get the introductions out of the way before there’s a real Pearl Harbor job (thanks Gorilla) and the match is underway.

Match Two:
Boris Zhukov and The Barbarian w/Sheik Adnan El-Kaissie vs. Chris Bassett and Spike Jones

As I said, Zhukov and Barbarian attack before the bell, clubbing away at both jobbers, before Barbarian sends one flying through the ropes to the floor. The heels double-team on someone who I’ll guess is Jones, and hit a double-clothesline off an Irish whip. Barbarian sends Jones outside and finally takes off his beaverskin vest. Gagne talks about how King Kong Brody trained the Barbarian and the main event of Brody vs. Blackwell, before saying that next week’s AWA show will be the premiere at the Showboat in Las Vegas. It’s great to start getting timeframes and points of reference for some of these bigger events in the AWA’s later history. Barbarian locks up with Jones and sends him into the corner off of a lock up. Barbarian lays the stomps in and tags to Zhukov, who does the same thing before starting to rake the eyes and drop some elbows. Zhukov tags in Barbarian then holds Jones so he can eat one of Barbarian’s big boots to the face. Jones tags out and in comes Bassett to earn his beating…erm..paycheck.

HUSS HUSS HUSS and they lock up, with Barbarian getting an Irish whip into a leapfrog and ending it with a BIG boot to the face of Bassett. Barbarian drops a huge knee for a two count and he stomps away at poor Bassett. Barbarian with a big slam and he tags out to Zhukov, who Irish whips Bassett in and hits a dropkick. More stomps from Zhukov and he starts to work the arm around the top rope. Kent and Gagne discuss Asian geography which sounds somewhat surreal, as Zhukov tags in the big Barbarian. Barbarian keeps stomping on the arm and lifts Bassett up for a HUGE slam. Bassett tags out and Jones comes in to eat a big boot. A slam out of the corner and Barbarian snarls and makes mean faces in celebration. HUSS HUSS HUSS and another big boot to the face of Jones. Barbarian rams Jones’ face into the boot of Zhukov and they double-team him in the corner. Zhukov with a snapmare into a neck crank and Zhukov clubs away at Jones’ chest with some forearms. Jones turns it around for a moment and gets a bearhug, but Barbarian puts a stop to that with a boot to the back.

They doubleteam Jones again and the Barbarian Irish whips him into the ropes for a DROPKICK. Big Nord getting some air and it loo…HUSS HUSS HUSS. Jones tries to club away at Barbarian, but he can’t do it and Barbarian puts him down with a flying shoulderblock off the ropes. A tag in to Zhukov who hits a knee to the gut and runs Jones throat-first into the top rope. MORE stomps from Zhukov and Jones ends up out on the floor. Smell the workrate, people. Jones has red welts all over his body from this beating and Zhukov catches him on the apron with some forearms to the back and chest, sending Jones back down to the floor. Jones finally crawls in through the bottom rope and takes over on Zhukov by going to the eyes, pounding away at Boris in the corner. He makes the mistake of tagging off to Bassett and Zhukov slams him as soon as he’s in the ring. Zhukov works the stomps again, seeming like Randy Orton with the chinlocks.

Zhukov clotheslines Jones on the top rope again and the heels double-team again, with Barbarian booting Bassett in the chin. Bassett rolls over and tags to Jones, but Barbarian hammers on him and hip tosses him across the ring. Tag to Zhukov and they keep clubbing away, landing a headbutt on Jones before going up to the second rope. Zhukov hits a clothesline for a two count as he picks Jones up before the three. Another tag to the Barbarian and they keep working over Jones in the corner before Barbarian hits him with a BIG slam. Barbarian drops a Brody-esque knee to the chest and then hits the HUSS HUSS HUSS legdrop for the three count.

Winners: Boris Zhukov and Barbarian (pinfall, legdrop)

Post-match, the heels keep on with the beating, stomping away at both jobbers, with Barbarian picking Bassett up and slamming him back-first against the ring post. Roger Kent sounds disgusted by this turn of events.

Match Analysis: Another REALLLLLLLLY long squash, and this one didn’t have someone like Jannetty in it to add in some highspots to keep it interesting. Lots and LOTS of kicky-punchy and power offense, which slowed this match down and made it seem twice as long as it already was. And boy, was it long. I think I need a drink or something.

Back from commercial with Barbarian and Zhukov in the ring with Sheik Adnan El-Kaissie and Larry Nelson calls what they did despicable. El-Kaissie says that it’s not his fault that his men had no competition and he challenges the tag team champions. Sheik says his army is ready and they’ll capture all the belts of Sheik will buy the AWA. Barbarian starts screaming into the microphone and claims that it’s a bunch of bull that they don’t have a title shot. Barbarian screams at Larry HUSS HUSS HUSS Nelson and we’re off to another commercial.

Match Three:
Earthquake Ferris vs. Scott Hall

Hall is one half of the AWA Tag Team Champions at this point, and we’re underway for the match. Hall has some leather fringe on his boots like moccasins, which adds to an interesting look he already has. They lock up and stalemate and then lock up again with Ferris shoving him away with a handful of hair. Another lock up and Hall gets a hip toss off of it, and a BIG dropkick sends Ferris to the outside. Ferris comes back in and they lock up again with Ferris securing a side headlock, cranking it in on Hall. Hall whips him in off the ropes and shoulderblocks Ferris but Ferris doesn’t budge. They do it again and on the third attempt, Hall gets a drop toehold into a leg lock. Hall kicks and knees away at the hamstrings and drops the leg right into the “inside of the thigh” of Ferris. Hall locks on a stepover toehold and Ferris kicks him away, following him in with a knee to the gut in the corner and a ton of forearms. Ferris whips Hall into the opposite corner and charges in, with what I presume would be a splash he calls the “Earthquake”, but Hall moves out of the way and Ferris slams into the corner. Hall comes off the second rope with an elbowdrop and gets the 1-2-3.

Winner: Scott Hall (pinfall, second rope elbowdrop)

Match Analysis: Finally a squash that didn’t take ten minutes to finish. This was only here so that Hall could have some interview time to update us on Curt Hennig, but at least it was passable. Hall really does seem to be on this show every damn night, and you can tell that Verne had big plans for him with all the focus he puts on him, week in and week out.

After the match, Hall gets some promo time and updates us on Curt Hennig’s condition. Apparently his neck is swollen two inches above size, and they have no idea what the injury is at this point. He gives Stan Hansen some credit for being big, bad, and a capable wrestler. Hall feels like he and Hennig are both capable wrestlers too and that his Momma and Daddy told him that anytime you’re faced with a bully like Hansen, if you stand face to face with them they’ll run. Hall gets angry and starts yelling, saying that Hansen took off running when Hall stood up to him. He claims that Hansen tried to cripple a man who is like a brother to him. He keps yelling and finishes with “HANSEN, ANYTIME, ANYPLACE!!!” as Nelson looks meek and afraid.

After the break, Donna joins us for some Ringside Rumors. No last name, just Donna. Kinda like Prince, and since he’s from Minnesota, it all connects in some weird six degrees of separation way. She congratulates Hall and Hennig for winning the AWA Tag Team titles from Jimmy Garvin and Steve Regal in Albequerque, New Mexico. She also congratulates Stan Hansen on his title win over Rick Martel in New Jersey. She warns the champs that there are new stars coming to the territory, like David Sammartino (oh joy), “Handsome” Marty Jannetty, and the new South African star, Col. DuBar. Umm Donna, that would be DeBeers…you might want to check your copy. She talks foreign objects and how Scott LeDoux, the newest AWA referee saying that the ring area looks like a Star Wars battle with UFO’s flying everywhere, specifically Precious’ spray can, Sheik with his chain, Stan Hansen with his cowbell (MORE COWBELL!!), and Larry Zbyszko and his “dumbchucks”, LeDoux’s words, not mine. She says that LeDoux vows that the next time he sees Zbyszko with them in the ring he’ll stick them up his ass. My words, not hers. That’s it for the Ringside Rumors, and Donna is probably more than happy that she can stop using her brain and go back to being vapid and looking “beautiful”.

Match Four: Main Event
King Kong Brody w/Sheik Adnan El Kaissie vs. Jerry Blackwell

Larry Nelson introduces this one as being a TV time limit which could be a REAL tip-off to the ending of the ma-HUSS HUSS HUSS HUSS-tch. God, I love Brody. Nelson introduces Blackwell and Brody attacks him with a boot to the gut, sending Larry scurrying like a rat. Blackwell and Brody slug away and Sheik Adnan El-Kaissie is in there too pounding away, and the Sheik holds on to Blackwell for Brody to hit him with a BIG boot to the face. Blackwell goes down and El-Kaissie holds Blackwell down to let Brody head outside to grab a chair. CHAIRSHOT to the back and the referee looks like he’s trying to get some order together. Gagne says he’s nervous everytime Brody is out there because of the injury he caused to Gagne, and Sheik is holding Blackwell’s leg against the mat. Brody doesn’t care and just keeps chairing Blackwell in his gigantic gut. Brody’s lucky he doesn’t lose that chair in all of that. Sheik heads out to the apron and starts stomping away at Blackwell some more, as the crowd starts to cheer, and here comes BUCK ZUMHOFFE!!! He’s got Leon White with him and referee Scott LeDoux. Gagne calls Brody a menace to society and Brody wanders ringside aimlessly, looking batshit crazy.

Wait a minute, he’s not wandering around…HE’S GOT GAGNE!! HE’S GOT GAGNE BY THE HAIR!! Brody flings him into the ring and Gagne fires back with rights and lefts! A big Irish whip puts Brody in the corner and Gagne follows him in with a forearm smash. Nobody puts Brody in a corner. Brody rakes Gagne’s eyes and whips him into the ropes but Gagne ducks it and hits Brody with more rights and chops and Brody goes back to the eyes. Another Irish whip from Brody and he misses the big boot, with Gagne scoring more kicks and chops and punches. The crowd is HOT for this. Gagne takes his cowboy boot off and starts FUCKING UP Brody and the Sheik with it. The people are SCREAMING and Gagne just keeps beating him in the head with the boot. Brody absorbs it all and whips Gagne in, FINALLY hitting the big boot. The Sheik is over and holds Gagne’s legs down so Brody can drop the leg on him. Brody with ANOTHER leg drop and here comes from the back…here COMES BLACKWELL!! Blackwell is waddling his way down to the ring. He clotheslines the Sheik down and starts going to town on Brody. Headbutts from Blackwell and Gagne is up with his cowboy boot in hand. Blackwell whips him in and Gagne with ANOTHER BOOT SHOT! A double Irish whip and Sheik and Brody knock heads and Brody is outside now with a chair, raging like a crackhead needing a fix. Gagne and Blackwell stand tall in the ring and here comes Larry Nelson.

Match Analysis: WHAT MATCH?? This was nothing but a massive brawl and it was tremendous. It was like watching Memphis television instead of the AWA. The people were SO hot for the entire angle, and this was Gagne’s big comeback to the ring after all of the time off due to the ankle injury Brody had caused him eight months back. Brody was the greatest crazy heel I ever saw, and seeing him makes me so happy to get to see him, but so sad to remember how things ended for him. A white-hot finish to a VERY mediocre show.

Nelson says that Sheik and Brody’s actions were uncalled for. Blackwell grabs the mike and asks if we’ve ever seen anything as disgusting in our lives. Um, Jerry, with all due respect, has anyone shown you a mirror? Blackwell says that if they come back out or if they come back anywhere that he’ll take Brody out. Blackwell gasses during the interview, wheezing and panting as he yells. Gagne gets the mike and tells Brody that if he wants to go, damn him, he’s not afraid of Brody, and he’ll take him on cause he’s MAD AS HELL AND HE’S NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!! Greg lets out a “Goddamn” that gets bleeped out and threatens Brody some more before Blackwell gets the mike back. He stumbles over his words and says that he and Greg Slagne are going to kick Brody and The Sheik’s asses. I guess he thought Gagne sounded a lot like lasagna and he was starting to get hungry. He says he hates Sheik with every ounce of his body. Wars have been started on less hate than that, I reckon. He threatens to kill Sheik and he says that Brody better remember hard that he and Gagne put a beating on him. He says he wants Brody in a cage and keeps jabbering before Nelson cuts him off to end the show

Final Thoughts

This show SUCKED and the only thing that redeemed it was the brilliantly done angle at the end. It could very well be that the angle seemed so great, only against the backdrop of a terrible show, but the crowd was crazy for it, and I assure you that if I could remember my reaction to this show when I saw it at age 6, I would have been marking HARD for Gagne beating the shit out of Brody with his boot. Thumbs down for this one because of how slow and boring the first 48 minutes were, but it’s kind of cool to see Jannetty wrestling as a single in his pre-Rocker days, and you owe it to yourself to check out the hot angle at the end of the show.