411’s AWA on ESPN Classic Report 07.04.08

411’s AWA On ESPN Classic Report

AWA Championship Wrestling

Larry Nelson is ringside at the Showboat with Herb Mills and they talk about the wrestling action we’ll see today. I don’t know who Herb Mills is, nor do I care, so I move on.

Match One:
Bryan Costello vs. Mitch Snow

And this is what I get for being mean to Herb Mills. He must be Jesus’ favorite singer or something. Snow gives a “Hang Loose” when he gets introduced, which makes me want to smack him. His nickname is “Jammin” which leads me to believe he’s probably a bottom that’s seen quite a bit of jamming in his day. Snow offers a handshake, Costello tells him to go fuck himself and they move on with Costello geting a side headlock on right out of the gate. Snow tries to power out but Costello grabs the hair to keep him locked into the hold. Snow finally shoots him off the ropes and they do a criss-cross with Snow doing shitty leapfrogs until he gets a reverse monkey flip that puts Costello onto his ass. Costello claims a pull of the tights and Snow would have to be a contortionist to have done that. Snow offers the handshake again and Costello tells him to go fuck his mother and we get another Snow shrug before he grabs a side headlock. Costello tries to get out with top wristlocks but Snow grabs the hair to avoid the reversals. They do the criss-cross again with Costello getting the leapfrog but when he tries for the reverse monkey flip, Snow just drops a fist between his eyes. Costello staggers into the corner and the pace slows down before they hit a lockup and Snow gets a side headlock takeover. Mike Tenay in the front row looks unimpressed. Snow cranks on the headlock and Costello gets a reversal into a two-count before getting to his feet, shooting Snow into the ropes. Shoulderblock from Snow and a hip toss follows, leading to a big bodyslam. Snow tries to go up to the second rope but Costello grabs him and hits a BELLY TO BACK SUPLEX!! GO BRYAN GO!! Costello drops an elbow and picks Snow up to punch him in the face. Costello with an Irish whip and Snow barely reverses it into a hideous knee to the gut. Right hands from Snow and he gets an Irish whip into a dropkick that he nearly whiffs on. Snow climbs to the top rope and backflips into the ring as Costello tries to shove him off and hits the JELLY DROP for the three-count.

Winner: Mitch Snow (pinfall, Jelly Drop)

Match Analysis: Snow sucks. The end.

Match Two:
Art Washington vs. Adrian Adonis w/ Paul E. Dangerously

Paul E. makes the introduction, calling Adrian, “the late Liberace’s favorite wrestler”. Tremendous. Adonis doesn’t even take the towel off of his neck to start wailing away on Washington, throwing him through the ropes to the floor and PAUL E HITS HIM WITH THE PHONE!! That was fantastic. Adonis slings Washington back into the ring over the top rope with his towel, hitting a kneelift before raking the back of Washington. He chokes Washington across the middle rope and follows that up with a running BUTT DROP onto Washington’s throat. Adonis kicks him again and rakes his chest before stomping on him again. Adonis chokes away on Washington and then hits an elbow to the side of the head before locking in Goodnight Irene!! Washington’s fading and he’s DONE!! The bell rings and Adonis won’t let go of the sleeper!! Dangerously is pleading with him and he FINALLY lets go, as Verne talks about how he doesn’t want any children trying to use that sleeperhold and that it’s a very dangerous move.

Winner: Adrian Adonis (submission, Goodnight Irene)

Match Analysis: Short and to the point. Adonis was trying to get over as a badass instead of a joke and it was fun to watch him go to work, even though this wasn’t a very good match. Dangerously must have been on about a dozen pots of coffee a day here though.

Larry Nelson’s with Kevin Kelly and his manager, Madusa Miceli and Larry talks to Madusa first, and she has $10,000 dollars in the bag for the arm-wrestling challenge. Madusa is a pretty terrible talker at this point, though it’s funny that Larry wants to talk about her clothes like a total queen. She smacks his hands away and says that her clothes were and are custom-designed just for her. Larry brings up Kelly’s old manager, Sherri Martel, though not by name, and Kelly calls her old news before he wants to talk about Tommy Rich. He says that people are looking at the best conditioned athlete in the world and gets in a decent line about slapping the doctor and taking a cab to the gym the day he was born, but he has a VERY annoying voice, so it only partially works. He tells Nelson to do some pull-ups on his arm or to take a couple of laps around his back before giving a few flexes to end the interview.

We come back from that break to see Nelson in the AWA studios looking rather crestfallen and speaking in hushed tones about the situation with Nick Bockwinkel. He talks about how Bockwinkel has been seriously injured and that no one knows when or if he’ll be back. He talks about the match between Curt Hennig and Bockwinkel in Minneapolis and that once Larry Zbyszko came to ringside, things went downhill from there, promising us footage of how Bockwinkel sustained the injury before throwing us to the end of that match.

Match Three: AWA World Heavyweight Championship
Nick Bockwinkel vs. Curt Hennig (c)

This is from the same batch of tapings the past couple of shows have been taken from, so I’m not sure why they haven’t shown this one since it would be, you know, a GOOD match. I digress. We’re joined in progress with Hennig holding Bockwinkel in a full nelson, realling cranking on it until Bockwinkel reverses it to one of his own. Hennig gets his feet on the top rope almost immediately and Bockwinkel breaks the hold, dropping him onto the mat on the back of his head. Hennig takes that as his cue to slip out under the bottom rope and he takes a breather on the floor, with the count getting all the way up to seven before he gets back into the ring. Lockup and Bockwinkel pushes Hennig into the corner with Hennig reversing and missing a right hand, punching the top turnbuckle and they separate and jaw a little. Bockwinkel pushes Hennig into the corner again, getting a couple of hard right hands to the gut before hip tossing Hennig out to the center of the ring. Hennig tries to take another break on the floor, but Bockwinkel ends up following him out, ramming his head into the apron before heading back into the ring. Bockwinkel’s back out to the apron for a running kick and Hennig SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOWLY makes his way back into the ring again.

He begs off a little bit and Bockwinkel plays along before taking Hennig down with a side headlock. They trade counters with Bockwinkel throwing headlock takeovers and Hennig getting headscissors, doing them in quick sequence until Hennig rolls out to the floor. Big pop from the crowd on that one and it was actually an exciting spot that someone should use today. Hennig’s back into the ring, pushing Bockwinkel into the ropes off of a lockup and getting some hard right hands and chops before Irish whipping Bockwinkel into the corner. HARD uppercut from Hennig puts Bockwinkel to a knee and Hennig kicks him in the head to put him on the mat before he chokes a little with the sole of his boot. Shoulderblocks in the corner from Hennig now and he Irish whips Bockwinkel into the corner again but Bockwinkel reverses it sending Hennig HARD into the buckles. Irish whip into the ropes and Bockwinkel follows it up with a knee to the gut and he gets a quick two-count before Hennig takes over with some right hands, kicking Bockwinkel to the floor. Hennig drags Bockwinkel back up onto the apron and hits him with a big right hand, but Bockwinkel fires back with shots of his own, including a shoulderblock, and he gets back into the ring to get a bodyslam on Hennig for a one-count.

Bockwinkel rams Hennig into the top turnbuckles a few times and Hennig is on Rubber-Legged Avenue. VICIOUS right hand from Bockwinkel gets him a two-count and he transitions to a headscissors, figure-fouring his legs around Hennig’s head and neck. Referee Gary “White Shoes” DeRusha continues to check the hold and check on Hennig and Hennig is holding on, finally breaking free and dropping a knee onto Bockwinkel’s knee. Bockwinkel moves out of the way of the second kneedrop though and starts following Hennig around, turning him upside down by kicking his legs out. Hennig staggers to the corner and eats more leg kicks until Bockwinkel drags him into the middle of the ring for the figure-four leglock. Hennig gets to the ropes though to break and after Bockwinkel drops his weight down onto Hennig’s knee he locks it in again. Hennig breaks free and rolls to the floor, dragging Bockwinkel across the apron for some hard forearm shots. Rod Trongard does a great job calling back to their one-hour classic match, talking about how Hennig had Bockwinkel in the figure-four as time expired as Hennig continues to hammer away, getting up onto the apron to stomp on Bockwinkel a couple of times.

Irish whip from Hennig and he punches Bockwinkel in the gut, picking him up off of that for a backbreaker that gets two. Hennig takes over, ramming Bockwinkel’s head into the top turnbuckle five or six times before starting to work over the kidneys with double-axehandles. He kicks Bockwinkel in the back and then Irish whips him over into the corner, following in with right hands. Irish whip again and this time Bockwinkel reverses with Hennig taking a Bret Bump and eating a hip toss. Bockwinkel continues to press with right hands and Irish whips Hennig into the opposite corner, kicking him in the gut and whipping him into the ropes for a back bodydrop. Bockwinkel gets a long two-count off of that and picks Hennig up for a BIG bodyslam that gets another VERY, VERY, long two-count. Bockwinkel grabs a side-headlock, Hennig shoots him into the ropes and they do the double-KO spot in the middle of the ring. They both stagger to their feet with Hennig getting a right hand into a STANDING DROPKICK!! He heads up to the top rope and Bockwinkel catches him, popping him with a right hand and crotching Hennig on the top rope. Irish whip into the corner by Bockwinkel and he follows it up with a hip toss and a big bodyslam for another two-count. Bockwinkel picks him up and he LOCKS IN THE ORIENTAL SLEEPER!!

Hennig low-bridges him into the top turnbuckle though and Bockwinkel Irish whips him into the ropes. Hennig ducks under a clothesline and HITS THE AXE!! Hennig picks him up for a right hand and then drops down to cover for a two-count. More right hands from Hennig and Hennig goes to the top rope again, but this time he moves out of the way of the dropkick, knocking down Gary DeRusha inadvertantly. DeRusha rolls to the floor and Bockwinkel has Hennig set up for a piledriver but HERE COMES LARRY ZBYSZKO!! ZBYSZKO TO THE BRAIN STEM WITH THE NUNCHUKS!!! Hennig positions Bockwinkel and ZBYSZKO GOES UP TO THE TOP ROPE AND SPIKES HIM DOWN WITH THE PILEDRIVER!!! Bockwinkel gets his hand raised as the bell rings, but the damage has already been done sadly.

Winner: Nick Bockwinkel (disqualification, Zbyszko-ference)

Match Analysis: A bit of a slower match than most of their usual work and there seemed to be some repeated spots, but it was still Hennig and Bockwinkel so how bad could it be? Hennig and Zbyszko got MOLTEN heat from the crowd for crippling Bockwinkel, it’s just a shame that they didn’t parlay that again. If they had pulled the same thing on someone from the current roster that would have been able to get their revenge on Hennig and Zbyszko, it could have been a VERY hot program on the top of the card. Another missed opportunity.

After a commercial, Larry Nelson has Curt Hennig with him, in possibly the ugliest sportcoat I’ve ever seen. Hennig talks about last week’s promo with Greg Gagne and how Gagne gave him the “Slap Heard ‘Round The World”. Hennig says that it doesn’t make Gagne a big man, it makes him a coward. He says that NO ONE slaps a man of his dignity and wrestling pride and gets away with it. Hennig makes a dated Paul Molitor reference and says that Gagne’s hitting streak is over too. He swears that Gagne’s slapping days are over and his wrestling days will be over too. Hennig calls himself the original man of mayhem and that wherever he steps into the ring, mayhem will follow. He gives Nick Bockwinkel as an example of what happens when you step to the champ and then runs through the list of challengers, saying if they want mayhem, they came to the right place. Curt was a money talker, through and through. That’s about all that needs to be said.

Match Four:
Nick Kiniski vs. Steve Olsonoski

Ring Announcer Mick Karch calls Olsonoski “The Polish Prince” which makes me giggle endlessly. So they have Hennig/Bockwinkel and THIS is how they choose to end the show? Ugh. The bell rings and both guys do some jobber stretches before they hit a lockup. Olsonoski pushes him away and we get a CLIP into Kiniski grabbing a side headlock. THANK YOU JEEBUS!! Olsonoski tries to get out of the headlock with a top wristlock but Kiniski grabs the hair to take him down. Kiniski pushes Olsonoski into the corner and kicks him in the gut before grabbing a straight armbar into a rolling takedown. Headscissors from Kiniski gets a one-count and Mike Tenay is again not impressed. Olsonoski breaks free of the headscissors and gets to a side headlock with Kiniski shooting him off into the ropes. Steve O gets a shoulderblock and then hops over a bodyslam attempt, getting a rollup on Kiniski for a LONG two-count. Olsonoski gets the crowd clapping behind him and Kiniski takes a powder to the floor to think things over. Back into the ring and Olsonoski gets a side headlock out of a lockup, holding onto it tightly as Kiniski tries to shoot him into the ropes. Kiniski goes over the top rope to try to break the hold and Olsonoski commits blasphemy, stealing Bockwinkel’s spot and pulling Kiniski back over the ropes before dropping him to the mat.

Olsonoski gets all fired up and Kiniski begs off in the corner before Steve O offers up a handshake. Hammerlock now from Steve O and Kiniski reverses with a drop toehold but Olsonoski reverses that with another hammerlock, dropping a couple of knees onto the elbow. Kiniski gets to his feet and Olsonoski turns the hammerlock into a standing arm-wringer, taking Kiniski over with it but they break the hold and get back to their feet. Olsonoski tries for the Greco-Roman Knucklelock and gets it but Kiniski pushes himself off the rops to put Olsonoski down. Kiniski holds him down for a two-count and Olsonoski breaks free from the hold with a scissors that makes Verne make possibly the weirdest noise I’ve ever heard him make. It was like a whimper that got cut off because his voice cracked. Disturbing. Steve O gets an Irish whip into the corner and slowly follows it up with another standing arm-wringer but Kiniski reverses that into an Irish whip into the ropes. Knee to the gut from Kiniski and he follows that with a bodyslam and a legdrop for a two-count! Kneelift from Kiniski into another Irish whip and he gets a punch to the gut before trying to lock Olsonoski into a Boston crab. Steve O grabs the bottom rope to break the hold but gets Irish whipped across into the corner and Kiniski follows him with a big clothesline before snap maring him over.

Reverse chinlock from Kiniski and the referee is checking if Steve O can continue or not. The crowd REALLY gets behind Steve-O but just as Steve O armdrags out of it, Kiniski locks it right back in, squashing the hope. Kiniski talks a little shit as he clamps on that chinlock and Steve O gets to his feet with the crowd behind him, getting a couple of elbows to the gut but Kiniski yanks the tights to get the chinlock back on. Kiniski picks him up for a slam but NO, HE DROPS STEVE O ACROSS THE TOP ROPE THROAT-FIRST!! Kiniski gets a couple of chops and punches to the throat before he locks that chinlock on again. Kiniski turns it into a choke and has to break it, with Steve O hitting some elbows to the stomach and a shoulderblock before getting a cross-bodyblock for a two-count. Kiniski ducks under a punch and takes Olsonoski down, dropping an elbow on him before choking him across the top rope. Flipping cradle from Kiniski gets two and he Irish whips Steve O into the corner but MISSES THE CHARGE!!! RIGHT HAND FROM STEVE O!! IRISH WHIP INTO A REVERSE ELBOW!! BIG BODYSLAM AND STEVE O IS UP TO THE SECOND ROPE!! HE WALKS THE ROPE ANNNDDD….misses the elbowdrop. Kiniski ties Steve O up in the ropes and works him over before trying to charge in but Olsonoski gets away from the ropes and Kiniski goes up and over. Kiniski gets back to the apron and SLINGSHOTS OLSONOSKI OVER THE TOP TO THE FLOOR!! Kiniski drops off the apron with an elbow and rams Olsonoski into the apron before he RAMS HIM INTO THE POST!! THERE’S THE BELL FOR THE DQ!!!

Winner: Steve Olsonoski (disqualification, ringpost shot)

Match Analysis: Kiniski is clinical, technical and boring as FUCK. Olsonoski is clinical, technical and slightly less boring. I’ll say it again. They could have ended the show with the Bockwinkel/Hennig finish and the hot promo from Hennig but instead they busted out with this crap. Yuck.

Final Thoughts

Outside of Bockwinkel/Hennig, this was the very definition of a throwaway show. As I said before, there were opportunities for the AWA to turn things around but they couldn’t see them. People hated Zbyszko and Hennig for putting Bockwinkel out of the sport, but they lost all the heat from that attack because there was no one to fight in the payoff. Booking 101 says that the heels need their comeuppance in the end, and there was no comeuppance for Hennig until Lawler and even then, it had nothing to do with the hot Bockwinkel angle. A real shame. Before I get too depressed, let’s get to the comments.

Fun With Comments

From OB1Jabroni:
“Greetings Harrison, missed the last couple shows, seems like a good thing however judging by the comment sections. This show blew again, the only good thing about it was the espn ticker at the bottom of the screen keeping my abreast of baseball scores. Happy 4th to ya and everyone reading “

Actually, I was watching the Olympic Trials stuff and the hockey news myself, so agreed to the happiness that at least the ticker was there.

From Dave:
“Gee, Scott Ledoux was talking about a surprising incident? Wait, you mean the incident he was talking about wasn’t that there was 15k people at an AWA event? To me that was the more surprising thing.

Oh, as for Greg Gagne. For one thing he’s wrong and Hogan actually did beat Bockwinkle.(But it’s some screwy nonsense that we expect from the AWA with a win in a no DQ match not counting.)

Anyway I know I run down the AWA alot but honestly Greg is not the worst case of nepotism I’ve ever seen in wrestling. That’d be Mike Von Erich. (Wow was small, couldn’t talk, couldn’t wrestle, didn’t like wrestling yet was pushed as the re-incarnation of David Von Erich.) I’m thinking the only reason people don’t run him down alot today is because he committed suicide. (Which alot of people think was because of being stuck in the wrestling business where he really didn’t fit and apparently knew it.)”

Yeah, Mike Von Erich had no business being in the ring, especially after he got fried by that infection that fucked up his brain. There was no reason for him to be in the ring and while he wasn’t the worst case of nepotism to me (that will always be Erik Watts), it was obvious that he didn’t need to be there. Good point about the LeDoux thing though, that was pretty damn funny.

From Brian:
“Randy,
Thank you SO much for the you tube footage!!!!!!!!!!

Nick Bockwinkel has to be among the most UNDER appreciated all time greats. Even his induction into the WWE hall of fame somehow didn’t seem to do him justice.

As for you…I think you ought to be an honorary member of Al Snow’s “J-O-B squad” for having to watch and report on the recent BRUTAL cards on the AWA classic shows. (Heh…CLASSIC???)
You are a true jobber and appreciated as such.
I rank you right up there with some of my other favorite AWA jobbers, such as:

Jake (The Milkman) Milliman

Tom Stone

George (Scrap Iron) Gadaski

and my all time favorite…
Kenny (Sod Buster) Jay!!!

Keep doing the J-O-B!!!!!!!!!
🙂 “

Not a problem, Brian. Glad to help and that you were able to check out the match. I appreciate the sentiment when you added me to the “Squad”, and I admit I am awed to be in company of such luminaries and legends like Gadaski and Jay, the Lawnmower Man.

From Adam:
“Let see…Zbyszko vs Stevens-Check…Zybszko vs Bockwinkel-check…Zybszko vs Gagne-check…alright done with the AWA; what’s next? “

The AWA death-rattle as far as I know. That should be a real treat.

From Fepic Ail!:
“According to my DirectTV scgedule, AWA is scheduled on Saturday with one episode at 1 PM, then some basketball games, then two more episodes from 6 – 8 pm, then boxing.
Doesn’t sound like much of a marathon.”

No, but I think they changed that after they’ve started pushing the AWA shows hard through the week. I checked out the first episode and it was a repeat from WAY back near the beginning in the 1986 shows, so we’ll see what the other two are. Still hoping for a bonus review at some point.

From KayFaber:
“I think I was hypnotized by the jiggling of Scott LeDoux’s man-boobs. Yep – Holmes, Spinks, Norton, they couldn’t put him out of the sport. But they beat him like a red-headed stepchild. Even MIKE WEAVER. Anyway, I guess LeDoux’s had a controversial run on the Minnesota State Boxing Commission, after being elected a county commissioner. What is it with Verne’s wrestlers running for office? (“The Big K” ran unsuccessfully, and then there was that Jesse fellow.)

“Saturday afternoon” episodes?? THANK YOU!!!! “

I’ve heard and read bits and pieces about LeDoux’s work in Minnesota, but don’t know too much about it, so if anyone is in that area or has more info, feel free to pass it on. And, YOU’RE WELCOME!!

Finally, from Scrotum Pole:
“hat’d be Mike Von Erich. (Wow was small, couldn’t talk, couldn’t wrestle, didn’t like wrestling yet was pushed as the re-incarnation of David Von Erich.Posted By: Dave (Guest) on July 04, 2008 at 03:44 PM

The Von Erich’s. I met Kevin Von Erich after a show in my high school gym when I was around 12. One of the nicest wrestlers I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, outside of Flair. Is it possible that WWE doesn’t own all the World Class footage and ESPN still does? For a while in Tulsa some 10 years ago a basic local channel aired old World Class and Memphis wrestling, and an hour of something called Wildside or something to that effect which showcased a young AJ Styles.

“Just an Idea”: I’m not sure about the rest of the commenters but I have a plethera(yes Efi), a plethera of pics with wrestlers when I was a kid. So how about a AWA Classic fan/wrestler pic of the week. As bad as my haircut was in those days I would be glad to start us off. Just an idea. Late.”

That sounds like it would be fun, though a lot of the AWA days took place before quality cameras so we’d have to see who else could submit, but I think that you’d have dibs on the first few weeks all on your own.

That does it for the comment box and for another week of AWA shows. if there is an extra show that can be seen on Saturday that hasn’t been reported on, I’ll go ahead and throw up a bonus report tomorrow. If not, I’ll see you all on Monday! Have a great rest of the weekend!