411’s AWA on ESPN Classic Report 07.28.08

411’s AWA On ESPN Classic Report

AWA Championship Wrestling

Larry Nelson welcomes us in and hopes we all had a great Christmas, going on about the Fan of the Week this week, who wrote the letter on Garfield paper. She’s either 12, or she’s 35 and never getting married. He gives us the show rundown and it doesn’t sound too terrible as we’ve got Curt Hennig and Wahoo McDaniel in an Indian strap match as our main event. Could be worse. He finishes up his business, then throws us to the ring for our first bout.

Match One:
Kevin Collins vs. Soldat Ustinov

Ustinov gives us all a rather rude gesture and the bell rings to get us underway. Ustinov throws Collins to the mat off of a lockup and lets out a yell before doing it again, complete with another banshee yell. Collins gets a top wristlock off of the third lockup but Ustinov just throws him off to the mat. Forearm smashes and a big chop from Ustinov and he rams Collins into the top turnbuckle. Irish whip in and Ustinov hits a shitty looking hip toss, covering Collins for two before picking him up and working a neck crank. Ustinov chokes Collins against the top rope and lays in some boots before picking Collins up and chopping him right back down to the mat. Another Irish whip and Ustinov catches him with a big boot before raking his eyes with the soles of his boots. Double-thrust chop to the throat by Ustinov and he follows that up with the RUSSIAN BACKBREAKER!!! Collins gives it up and Ustinov just flings him to the mat, yelling at the crowd, telling us all where to stick it, and dropping a couple more boots in on Collins after the bell.

Winner: Soldat Ustinov (submission, Russian backbreaker)

Match Analysis: Short and to the point, exactly the way Ustinov’s promos should have been. It was fun to see him somewhat debut his new RUSSIAN finisher, but other than that, this was just a regular old, run of the mill squasheroo. Moving on.

Match Two:
Mike Tolos vs. Greg Gagne

Gagne gets a quick go-behind and he and Tolos trade reversals as Rod Trongard welcomes shrill-ass Donna to the broadcast. Tolos gets a top wristlock off of a lockup but Gagne manages an armdrag takedown reversal. Tolos is right on him again though, locking in a full nelson, but again, Gagne reverses, dropping down and kicking Tolos off. Stepover toehold from Gagne now into an Indian deathlock and Tolos goes to the eyes out of desperation to break the hold, ramming Ggne into the top buckle. Gagne fires back with a kick to the gut and a big bodyslam before going back to the stepover toehold. Tolos goes to the eyes again and gets a couple of shots in before shoulderblocking Gagne down. Off the ropes and Tolos runs right into a drop toehold and leglock from Gagne. Donna is convinced that she taught Greg everything he knows and tells embarassing stories about Greg as a kid. Tolos goes to the eyes again and Irish whips Gagne into the corner, but misses a reverse elbow charge and Gagne rams him into the opposite turnbuckle before Irish whipping him in for a big back bodydrop. Gagne follows it up in his personal Five Moves of Doom with a couple of dropkicks and he slaps on the Gagne sleeper until the referee calls for the bell.

Winner: Greg Gagne (submission, Gagne sleeper)

Match Analysis: Greg Gagne’s matches are getting progressively more boring the more I watch these old AWA shows. He is being completely exposed as a guy who could do a few moves really well, could sell some of the “amateur wrestling” aspects, but couldn’t do much outside of the formula. Just a bland, heatless match and again, I’m starting to think I can have a Gagne template. For those asking, Greg’s Five Moves of Doom are the Indian deathlock, back bodydrop, flying headscissors, dropkick and Gagne sleeper. There will be AT LEAST four of them in every Gagne match and this one was no exception.

We’re back to Larry Nelson in the AWA studios and he talks about the house show circuit and then brings in Sheik Adnan El-Kaissie and Soldat Ustinov. Sheik talks about Nord The Barbarian and how he got the suspension lifted and thanks him for it, mentioning that Nord is nowhere to be found because he’s afraid of Ustinov. Sheik makes a challenge to the World Heavyweight Champion as well as a challenge for the Tag Championship as well. Ustinov calls Nord a coward then says they’ll destroy Curt Hennig or anyone to get what they want, while Sheik yelps in Arabic. The usual nonsense promo from these two, nothing terribly new in it.

Match Three:
Kevin Kelly w/Nick Kiniski vs. DJ Peterson w/Madusa Miceli

This one is apparently part of the convoluted AWA TV Title tournament, which means there will probably be a screwy finish. Peterson shoves Madusa to the ring while she pouts, still wearing the footie pajamas but with a nice shower cap thrown in now. She stomps and pouts some more in the corner as she rips off her shower cap. Rod Trongard notes that this is her last night of service for DJ Peterson and that after this match, her thirty days are up. Peterson and Kelly hit a lockup and Kelly takes advantage with a shot to the gut on the ropes. Kelly rams Peterson into the top turnbuckle and Irish whips him into the corner to follow it up. BIG bodyslam from Kelly and he talks a little shit on Peterson in the midst of the beating. Forearm shots from Kelly and an Irish whip in, but Peterson catches him with a kick to the face and both men are staggered. Kelly gets his wind first and takes Peterson down with a big forearm smash before working a bearhug, ramming Peterson back-first into the turnbuckles. Irish whip from Kelly and there’s a big reverse elbow that gets Kelly a two-count. Peterson catches Kelly by the legs and drops a leg to the “lower abdomen”, following that up with some forearm shots and a HUGE hip toss off the ropes for a two-count. Peterson moves to an armbar and cranks away on it, turning it into a hammerlock that puts Kelly face-down into the mat. Kelly gets to his feet and steps through the ropes to break the hold, but Peterson takes him right back over with an armdrag and goes right back to the armbar. Kelly gets the hair and pushes Peterson into the corner, hitting a hard forearm shot to the chest. Irish whip into the corner by Kelly, but Peterson reverses it and catches Kelly with an armdrag into another armbar. Kelly gets a knee to the gut to break the armbar and whips Peterson in for a WICKED clothesline. Kelly whips him into the ropes and they botch a spot and end up lowering their heads and ramming into each other. Kelly follows that up with a bodyslam, but Peterson rolls out of the way as Kelly tries an elbowdrop and Peterson gets a small package for two. Peterson with rights and lefts agaisnt the ropes and he whips Kelly in for the dropkick and he gets two off of that before he hits Kelly with a snap suplex. Peterson’s up to the second rope and there’s the TNT SHOULDERBLOCK!!! Madusa tries to get away on the outside and that distracts Peterson from getting the pin as he heads out to chase her around the ring. Nick Kiniski runs around to the other side and hands something to Kelly, just as Madusa rolls into the ring. Peterson has Madusa in the corner and Kelly WAFFLES him from behind with whatever it was he had in his hand and gets the three-count!!

Winner: Kevin Kelly (pinfall, foreign object shot)

Match Analysis: This one wasn’t terrible, but you knew there was going to be shenanigans as soon as you saw everyone at ringside. I will give the AWA credit for actually having a finish in a TV Title tournament match for once though. Again, nothing bad, nothing good, just kind of there to fill the time.

After the match, Kiniski goes to work on Peterson in the corner and Kiniski PILEDRIVES HIM!! He didn’t even take his ROBE off!! JT Southern and Pat Tanaka come into the ring now to defend their partner-in-zebra prints and they save Peterson from more damage at the hands of Kiniski and Kelly.

Larry Nelson’s in the studio, talking about how no one likes the actions of Kelly and Kiniski and then mentions that Madusa is back with Kelly and Kiniski before bringing in Kevin Kelly. Kelly says that he and Nick didn’t cheat and that he beat DJ Peterson by the rules. He talks about how 1988 is going to be the year of Mr. Magnificent. Kelly says there’s only one thing missing and that’s the AWA World Heavyweight Championship. He tells Curt Hennig to look over his shoulder because he’s coming after him. He wonders what to get Madusa for Christmas, whether it’ll be a diamond or a “fox coat”, before he does some lame Superstar Billy Graham rip-off for catchphrases. If he didn’t seem so wooden in the delivery they might come off a little better.

Larry Nelson’s STILL in the studio and he’s talking about the main event for today’s show. He talks about the strap match and brings in Curt Hennig and Hennig says he can do whatever he wants to do. He brings out the National Enquirer and talks about the top twenty syndicated shows in the country and talks about how All-Star Wrestling is ranked at #12 before bagging on Larry Nelson and his $60,000 salary. Nelson’s feigned indignance is hilarious. Hennig shuts up Nelson and his whining and mentions that the ratings for shows were done before he became AWA Champion. He says that now that he’s the champion, they’re going to be #1. He mentions the great wrestlers and says that when you’re as good as Curt Hennig, you can walk and talk however you want to and that things are going to stay this way for a long, long time.

Match Four: AWA World Heavyweight Championship STRAP MATCH
Wahoo McDaniel vs. Curt Hennig (c)

Hennig flinches on the apron when he hears mention of the strap and then kisses the belt before he even comes close to getting into the ring. Rod Trongard talks about how the strap match between McDaniel and Boris Zhukov led to Zhukov leaving the AWA altogether. That one was a Russian chain match, but I guess, they have to revise history wherever possible. They finally end up hooked up and Hennig is begging off immediately, taking a shot to the arm with the strap. Hennig dances away and tries to keep his distance but ends up taking another shot with the strap and getting dragged back into the ring by Wahoo. Wahoo gets Hennig in the corner and chokes him with the strap, dragging him out to the center of the ring, but Hennig goes to the eyes to break the choke. Wahoo has Hennig cornered again and Wahoo gets some straps in before Hennig kicks him in the gut and breaks the momentum. They hit a lockup and Hennig gets to the ropes, kicking McDaniel off of a break and raking the strap across his face. Wahoo comes back with a shot that puts Curt down onto his ass and they lockup again with Hennig getting a snap mare into some stomps to the forehead. Wahoo is busted open already and Hennig gets a choke with the strap before proudly exclaiming, “That’s what I think of Indians!” to the camera.

Right hands from Hennig now and he puts Wahoo to the mat, stomping away at him and working on the cut, stopping to yell at the crowd. Hennig ties him up and starts to drag Wahoo around the ring, touching two of the corners before he stomps at Wahoo and clotheslines him with the strap. Hennig gets a STRAP MARE and then just chokes the hell out of Wahoo with it before starting to drag him again. First corner for Curt, and there’s the second, but Wahoo KICKS HIM AWAY!! Right hands from Hennig again and Wahoo comes back with a right hand and chops of his own, raking the strap across Hennig’s forehead and snapping off more right hands. STRAP MARE FROM WAHOO!! Wahoo tries a vertical suplex but can’t get Hennig over and they trade rights on the mat. A BIG chop from Hennig puts Wahoo down and Wahoo comes back with a shot to the throat before he WHIPS HENNIG WITH THE STRAP!! Irish whip in and Wahoo clotheslines him with the strap!! Wahoo’s dragging Hennig around and he’s got one corner, he’s got two corners, he’s got THREE CORNERS…..but Hennig kicks him low to stop the momentum and keep Wahoo out of the fourth corner. Wahoo whips Hennig’s back again with the strap and Hennig pushes him into the corner, peppering him with rights and lefts before pulling him out with a SNAP SUPLEX!!

Hennig’s on his way to the corners, making it to the first corner, following it up with the second corner, but Wahoo kicks Hennig away before he can get to the third. Hennig slaps Wahoo in the face and they trade punches with Hennig coming out the better and putting Wahoo down. Henning up to the top rope but Wahoo jerks him off the top with the strap!!! Wahoo wraps Hennig up again and starts dragging him. Buckle number one, and there’s buckle number two! He’s at the third and has one more buckle to get to, Hennig’s fighting it off and HERE COMES ADRIAN ADONIS!! ADONIS HAS A KNIFE AND CUTS THE STRAP!!! HENNIG STARTS WAFFLING MCDANIEL WITH RIGHT HANDS AND HERE COMES GREG GAGNE!! RIGHT HANDS FROM GAGNE SEND HENNIG FLYING TO THE OUTSIDE!! Referee Gary DeRusha raises Wahoo McDaniel’s hand and says that because of the outside interference from Adonis, Wahoo is the winner. Hennig is getting looked at by the doctor at ringside because it appears he was cut by the knife that Adonis was wielding and he’s off to the back to get some medical attention. On the replay, you can see that Hennig’s hand was REALLY bleeding badly, so it must have been one hell of a gash with that knife.

Winner: Wahoo McDaniel (disqualification, Adonis-ference)

Match Analysis: This one was just starting to get going before they had the finish cut short (heh, see what I did there?), by Adonis and his butcher knife. For the life of me, I can’t understand why they wouldn’t just send him out with scissors or something. Adonis legitimately sliced Hennig with that knife and could have ended up cutting off fingers or something. Stupid, stupid idea, but then again this is the AWA where stupid ideas reign supreme. Thankfully Hennig ended up alright, but it was still retarded. Fun match while it lasted, but again it was the same basic strap match Wahoo would have with anyone, just made a little better by Curt.

Larry Nelson’s back with the rundown of the show and he says that Hennig has a SERIOUS cut on the hand from the main event and then reminds fans that the AWA will be on ESPN on New Year’s Eve, taking everyone right up to midnight. He thanks the Fan of the Week again and thanks everyone for joining the AWA before reminding us again about New Year’s Eve ’87!!

Final Thoughts

Meh. That’s about all that can be said about the show. Kelly/Peterson was alright, if not a little predictable and the Strap match main event was good, but not great. I’m not going to go with a full thumbs up on this one, but I’m firmly in the middle leaning up because there was nothing that was outright offensive on the show, which is something that I can’t always say about the AWA programs.

Fun With Comments

From Steve:
“After looking at the ESPN Media Zone website, I can safely assume that Tuesday’s AWA show will be the last of the 1987 shows we will be seeing on ESPN Classic. Looking at the ESPN Classic schedule listings, it looks like we will be going into 1990 at the end of July and throughout the month of August, so be on the lookout for the AWA’s final year on ESPN Classic. “

Oh, BABY!! This should be a real treat and I’m hoping that it’s going to be as big a disaster as I remember it being.

From Joe K. :
“Get the TiVo ready for Turkey on a Pole! “

I am on it and can’t wait to see it on YouTube!!

From DaFranchise:
“Man, I remember thinking Kevin Kelly was “kind of like Lex Luger” when I saw these broadcasts originally – I was 7 or 8, cut me some slack.

Anyway, I didn’t even recognize the guy when he was Nailz and remember thinking “What happened?” when I found out that they were one and the same.

After seeing Kelly again on these re-broadcasts, I realize…nothing happened. I was 8 years old and the guy was chiseled and I didn’t know any better.

Thanks for ruining childhood memories, AWA and ESPN. “

Yeah, there’s been a lot of that really. I’ve actually gotten a few e-mails from people to that extent, saying that seeing it now that they’re older, it’s a lot different and a lot worse than their golden memories. Don’t be too hard on yourself, it happens to everyone.

From Trashy:
“Milkman Mania will run wild!

And if you thought the scoring system was complicatedly non-existent in the TV title tourney, wait ’til they try and explain the team challenge series.”

Oh, I’m more than ready for the Team Challenge Series. This is going to be VERY exciting for me as I had pretty much stopped watching the AWA regularly at that point, so a lot of this is going to be new for me. I’m very nearly giddy!!

From Steve:
“Oh, and I forgot to mention this earlier, on Thursday’s show, during the “AWA’s 1987 Year in Review Part 2”, Larry Nelson mentioned a wrestler by the name of Paul “The Avalanche” Neu wrestling with the AWA in April 1987. He was better known for portraying a “White Rapper” gimmick in WCW in the early 90s with the name P.N. News. Yep, Mr. “Yo Baby, Yo Baby, Yo!” got his career started in the AWA. Unlike Leon “Vader” White, Neu didn’t really go anywhere.

And so April 1987 was when The Blaster’s “Wall Crash” happened. It’s too bad ESPN Classic didn’t show those early 1987 shows with P.N. News and The Blaster wrestling on them. It would have been very interesting to see those episodes, in my opinion. “

God, I had forgotten that PN had a little run in the AWA. Goes to show how much of an impact he had since I don’t think he had many TV matches. I too am still holding out hope that I get to see that Blaster segment and that I can have it on DVR for all eternity to watch and giggle at at my leisure.

From Dave:
“Did I hear one of the announcers say (during the second match) that one of the wrestlers fell 65 feet when body slammed? (I mean I know they’re supposed to stretch things a little and say 5 or 6 feet but that one was just out there.)

Oh, and am I the only one when they first said Alan West and thought they were talking about Batman? “

That was Rod Trongard and I believe a little later on he admitted that it just “seemed like it was 65 feet”, rather than a literal height.

From Nick Ditherington III:
” I was watching Memphis at the time Phil Hickerson “returned from the Orient” and “found Buddha”, transforming himself into P.Y. Chu-Hi. It was good goofy fun to see a big brawler like Hickerson mix in chops and the odd judo throw to the mix. I believe they even gave him a silly finisher name, like “Smiling Golden Dragon of the Four Winds” for a simple backbreaker or something like that. Announcer Lance Russell was gold at making fun of Chu-Hi during these segments.

Then the evil redneck contingent got serious, with The Stud Stable breaking Jeff Jarrett’s arm, running a racial angle with Brickhouse Brown and such. Robert Fuller bought all of the Stable gold watches, except for Brown, whom he gave a roll of toilet paper and a bottle of Crown Royal..next week they patched things up only for Fuller to celebrate Brown’s secondary title win by wheeling out a watermelon with birthday cake candles on it. “Gorgeous” Gary Young – complete with hair dyed red – was hilarious in the watermelon segment, chowing down and spitting seeds.

So with such “serious” angles going on, their comedic ally Chu-Hi and his manager Tojo were shipped off to the World Class/Texas side of the USWA.”

That makes sense about Chu-Hi, since there wasn’t really any way that he could have been considered anything but a comedy heel. I missed that portion of things, but it would have been fun to see Lance Russell busting Chu-Hi’s balls on commentary since I agree with your assessment about Russell being gold on the Memphis mic. He didn’t really translate to the NWA, but in Memphis his voice was just right for those wild brawls.

From Teijo Kahn:
“Steve’s right- here’s what’s listed for Thursday night’s show-
Wayne “The Train” Bloom vs. Baron Von Raschke; The Trooper vs. Mean Mike; Eight Man Elimination between teammates – Killer and Psycho/ The Hangmen/ Stewart and the Unknown Soldier/ Tommy Jammer and Paul “Hard Rock” Diamond. “

Oh sweet mother of GOD, that looks like a horrible line-up and I’m so excited. They teased me with crappy 1990 AWA before and then didn’t deliver, so I’m really hoping they manage to make it happen this time.

From piperfan01:
“Although I didn’t remember watching him from back in my childhood, I am gaining respect for the old guy bouncing on the trampoline from Beyond the Mat, Dennis Stamp. I have to say with shows like this he really is a rare highlight. I didn’t think I could be more bored with wrestlers than I was with watching Kevin Kelly and Nick Kiniski seperately, but when they put them together, its even worse. Seperate topic, how did Bill Dundee ever get over, he is right up there with Eric Embry as far as wrestlers I will never understand the love for.”

As much as it’s hard to say with how he came across in Beyond The Mat, he was actually really good at what he did as enhancement talent. As for being bored with Kelly and Kiniski, join the club, they really were pretty terrible, especially when to some of the great teams that the AWA had previously. With the Dundee and Embry situations, it was a big fish, small pond kind of deal and neither of them were able to come close to re-creating those successes on a national level.

Finally, from Rob:
“I have to admit, I laughed out loud at the end of this show when Soldat disappeared off screen and then suddenly reappeared with his picture of Lenin with this goofy look in his eyes. God bless Soldat.

Bobby Eaton must have been a miracle worker, because I still see absolutely nothing in Dennis Condrey, yet the Midnight Express was a pretty good unit before Dennis disappeared. Of course, they added Stan Lane and were instantly 10x better. “

Eaton was the MAN and I agree about Condrey being the weak link of both versions of the Original Midnight Express. Soldat and his goofy Russian expression was always tremendous to watch and I still feel like he could have done a ton of business as a Santino-esque comedy heel.

Well, that’s it for comments and that’s it for today’s AWA show. No UWF show this week as my DVR decided to not record the program like it was supposed to, but I’ll be back tomorrow with another edition of the AWA on ESPN Classic Report!!