Going Old School: AWA – Blood On The Sand

October 1986 may have been several years removed from the prime of the American Wrestling Association, but it wasn’t too late for the company to be turning out quality wrestling programming on it’s ESPN broadcasts. When Hulk Hogan left the AWA for the WWF in late 1983, Verne Gagne was faced with the realization that had himself some mighty competition. This realization led Gagne to essentially raid talent from the NWA territories that Vince McMahon was putting in the ground throughout 1984 and 1985. Some of the talent that was acquired included The Road Warriors and The Freebirds. By the time 1986 rolled around most of that major talent had left the AWA to return to the NWA under Jim Crocket. What was left of the AWA was a group of washed up veterans and a slew of unknown youngsters. This show was somewhat of a mystery to me as I watched it because it was not one single show, but likely two or three. It’s also mysterious because it has the look and feel of a commercial release. Having been an avid collector of wrestling videos since I was about 7 years old (1986), and having never seen this, you could consider this a great find. The important thing about this show is that it contains the two best AWA matches that I have ever seen, and it proves that the AWA still had it, even after things were swirling at the very lowest part of the toilet.

October 1986 from the Showboat Sports Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nevada in front of crowds of around 1,200 fans.

AWA – Blood On The Sand

The Host of the apparent commercial release is Eric Bischoff. The host of the event is Lord James Blears.

Brian Knobs vs. Leon “Bull Power” White

It’s amazing what would become of these two just 4 years later. Brian Knobs of course is recognizable to many of you as one half of the legendary tag team the Nasty Boys, but he is a far stretch from being the most important of these two. Leon “Bull Power” White would go on to main event in Japan, WCW and WWF over the next 10 years holding World Titles in New Japan and WCW. While his career may have sputtered to a rather unimpressive end, Leon White would become one of wrestling’s most recognized figures in the early 1990’s. You may know Leon “Bull Power” White under a different name. He was the man they called Vader. So, as you can see, historically there is some importance to this match as it was fairly early in Knobs’ career, but at the very beginning of Vader’s.

The match was your typical big match power match dominated almost entirely by White. I guess you could call something like this an extended squash. White showed many of the traits in the ring that he would later use as Vader. He was obviously green, but appeared quite comfortable in the ring for someone with so little experience. The commentators put over his football career in a fashion that Jim Ross would be proud of. The match ends following a power slam and Big Splash by White. After the match, White shows concern for the fallen Knobs as if he were yet to find his nasty side.

Winner: Leon “Bull Power” White
Match Rating: *½

Alexis Smirnoff & Yuri Gordyenko vs. Frankie DeFalko & Chris Bassett

What, you don’t recognize three of these names? Well, you probably shouldn’t because aside from Alexis Smirnoff, none of them mattered much in professional wrestling beyond Gordyenko’s teaming with Smirnoff. What, you’d like me to skip the intro’s to those three? Gladly. Alexis Smirnoff isn’t your most recognizable wrestler, even during this time, but he did have a long career and this was damn close to being the very end of it. Early in his career, while know as Mike “The Judge” Dubois, this Edouard Carpentier trained wrestler gained some experience in Quebec, Missouri, Georgia and the Mid-Atlantic territories before finding any real success. Success did come in 1977 in the form of Ivan Koloff, whom Smirnoff teamed with in the San Francisco area. He managed to win his first championship in April 1977 defeating Pat Patterson for the San Francisco version of the NWA U.S. Heavyweight Championship. This would be about the benchmark for Smirnoffs success, never venturing out of territorial wrestling until his brief run in the AWA. He never achieved any hardware greater than territorial championships.

The match did a great job of showcasing Smirnoff and showed what a classically trained mat technician he was. He worked a very Greco-Roman style similar to what many Russian Born wrestlers use. Since he was not Russian born, it makes it that much more impressive. He displays a good amount of quality mat work and psychology, but it’s all very much coming from Smirnoff alone as they other three can’t even hold his jock. The match ends with some odd double team move that looked so wrong that I’m clueless as to what it was supposed to be. Too bad Smirnoff wasn’t able to just carry these other two and leave Gordyenko out of the picture, or even better, the building. Match reviewers always talk about one guy carrying another, but this shows the difference between an average guy who would normally be carried, and three guys who had no clue what they were doing. Makes a guy like John Tenta look pretty great.

Winners: Alexis Smirnoff & Yuri Gordyenko
Match Rating: ¾*

AWA World Tag Team Championship: Buddy Rose & Doug Somers © vs. The Midnight Rockers

As I made clear in my introductions, this tape features the two best AWA matches I have ever seen. There may or may not be any better out there than these two and this is the first, so I guess you could call this the greatest AWA match of all time when it was over. Buddy Rose is of course the “Playboy” who earned his fame in Portland Wrestling in the legendary feud with Roddy Piper in 1979 and 1980. He is in my opinion one of the most underrated workers of all time, both in the ring and on the mic. I always felt that everything he did was gold. Hell, even the “blow away diet” (which would come after this period of his career) was great stuff, though a little childish for the times. The peak of Rose’s career is debatable because this run in AWA and the feud with Piper are both very important and I’d hate to choose between the two, but consider this a pinnacle in Rose’s career. Doug Somers is without question the least important man in the match, and this point in his career is leaps and bounds more important than anything he did later, which would be jobbing, jobbing and more jobbing. My theory is that Somers got to be Rose’s partner due to their similarities in appearance.

The Midnight Rockers are much more well known, but are both very early in their careers. The first is Shawn Michaels, who needs no introduction. He was about 2 years into his career at this point, coming off short stints in Mid-South, San Antonio, Central States and World Class. Marty Jannetty also needs little to no introduction as he became famous as Michael’s tag team partner in The Rockers and later as an Intercontinental Champion. Jannetty was just about as far along as Michaels was career wise having spent it all in Central States. Despite what many will tell you, Michaels and Jannetty did not start teaming as The Midnight Rockers in AWA. They actually began teaming together a year prior for Central States Wrestling.

Rose and Somers are with Sherri Martel. Damn if this isn’t a great cast of past and future talent, I don’t know what is. The match features an amazing catch-as-catch-can style that all four seem well accustomed to. Chaos ensues after Michaels & Rose had spent some time in the ring together. They are both so great at what they do. If this hadn’t have happened, this would be on my list of dream matches. Michaels gets opened up fairly early on and sells it like death, just fantastic. Somers attacks the injury inside the ring while Rose attacks from the outside. Michaels sells it all perfectly, yet tries to fit his way out. Imagine a cowboy lost in the desert crawling toward an oasis. AWESOME! Somers bites the forehead of Michaels. This intense beat down only stops once Michaels gets out of the ring. Oh how I long for this style of wrestling, when it stayed primarily in the ring. Classic heel control by Rose and Somers. Michaels eventually makes his way back in and gets to take controls of the match some. He sells the previous beating like a gunshot. FINALLY, after one of the hottest tags I’ve ever seen, Jannetty takes control.

Somers does an amazing job of selling Jannetty’s offense and gets opened up. Rose eventually takes control of the match which slows things down to a methodical pace. By this point Jannetty is just bleeding a gusher. Great psychology as Somers and Jannetty are doing a fantastic job of playing blood loss. Finally, Rose is opened up and we literally have four blood gushers on our hands. Incredibly bloody match. The match quickly becomes a brawl and everybody including the referee is down except Rose who used a chair for a gut buster . A second referee finally comes down while the four are brawling again and disqualifies both teams. Rose and Somers then attack multiple referees who try and pull Rose and Somers off the Midnight Rockers until several wrestlers such as Greg Gagne come to the ring to run Rose and Somers off. Complete Pandemonium and for my money, they greatest AWA match of all time. If there had been a decisive finish, it would have made a full rating.

Winner: NO CONTEST
Match Rating: ****¾

Rocky Stone vs. Greg Gagne

Anybody know who Rocky Stone is? Me neither, my guess is a jobber. Greg Gagne on the other hand is one of the AWA’s greatest talents. I’m not one of those guys who hates on Greg Gagne because he was pushed by his dad who owned the AWA. Gagne was incredibly talented but never became the superstar he should have because of his small size. This is late in Gagne’s career. He had spent his early career as half of the High Flyers, a very successful tag team in the AWA with his partner Jim Brunzell. As a singles wrestler, Gagne would basically just be a big name for the crowd to cheer, but his success was in tag team wrestling and in getting the crowd to cheer. Sadly, Greg Gagne would never hold the title his father clung to for most of his career.

Gagne starts the match off by working the arm. Gagne has great control of the match until he misses a dropkick. That’s actually rather sad considering Gagne was known for his tremendous ability to execute a dropkick. Stone controls the match from that point and it slows down to a crawl. Stone is just boring as all hell in the ring. Thank goodness it’s a short one because I’d be thinking about hitting fast forward and doing a half-assed job on this review. Gagne eventually gets Stone with a Lou Thesz press for the three count.

Winner: Greg Gagne
Match Rating: *

AWA Women’s Title: Sherri Martel © vs. Candi Devine

At this point, Sherri Martel (later known as Sensation Sherri, Queen Sherri and Sister Sherri) was a little known manager/wrestler who was more or less one of the best major women’s talents in the business. She had traded this title with Devine in 1985 and again in 1986. There was little of her career to speak of before her run in the AWA, and even though it is often looked over due to her fantastic and groundbreaking career as a manager in WWF and WCW, she was a tremendous asset to the AWA at this point in time. Candi Devine was also in the earliest part of her career at this point as well, but hers would not prove to be anywhere near as successful as Martel’s. In her 5 year run in the AWA would be far and away the most important part of her career as she would hold the AWA Women’s title 3 separate times before moving on to the Herb Abrams version of the UWF then fading into obscurity.

Sherri is wearing perhaps the worst wrestling outfit I have ever seen. You actually have to see the combination of pink and blue to believe it. Not even the 80’s were this bad. Well, maybe they were, but it’s outfits like this that are why the 80’s were so bad. This match was a huge dud, just pathetic. They spent most of the match stalling, then Candi attacks Sherri who escapes and they are both counted out. Yep, that’s it.

Winner: Double Countout
Match Rating: ¼*

Boris Zhukov, Alexis Smirnoff & Yuri Gordyenko vs. Leon White, Greg Gagne & Earthquake Ferris

Since I’ve already gone over a little history of four of these gentlemen previously in this review, I’ll direct you there. However there are two more competitors in this match that haven’t been mentioned. First is Earthquake Ferris who isn’t worth spending too much time on because he was a jobber who the AWA tried to push as a behemoth, but he just looked to friendly for the fans to believe it. The other is Boris Zhukov. Zhukov is one of those guys who got over primarily because he was saddled with a Russian gimmick. He was a good talent, and gained a level of fame that truly suits him. He started off in Jim Crocket Promotions as a part of Sgt. Slaughters Cobra Corps under the name of Jim Nelson. Obviously with a name so generic he would amount to nothing. Once the AWA got ahold of him he was rebranded as Boris Zhukov. He had a stretch of success lasting about 5 years that went from 1985-1990 and between both the AWA and WWF. Just prior to this period he had feuded with Rick Martel over the AWA title and had a long lasting natural feud with Sgt. Slaughter. Soon after this show, in 1987 he would win the AWA World Tag Team Champions, but would leave the AWA still the title holder. He would then go to the WWF to tag with Nicolai Volkoff as The Bolsheviks.

The Russians are with Sheik Adnan El Kasie(General Adnan from WWF in 1991). Gagne begins the match by toying with The Russians and tag in White (Vader). The crowd goes absolutely insane for White. I guess the signs were already there that this guy could be a star. Ferris is in with White and makes him look quite thin. The match was good when Gagne was in, lots of exchanges. Ferris just went for rest hold followed by rest hold. Completely useless in the ring sadly. Gagne is so fluid in his execution, something that I believe is a lost art. Wrestlers today focus so much on showmanship, they often lose the ability to execute a move smoothly. When Gordyenko controlled the match it was filled with rest holds. Smirnoff brawls when he’s in the ring and things get more interesting. He cuts the ring in half, which besides the Gagne control portions is the best thing about this match. White sells almost nothing in this match and the crowd loves it. See, sometimes it’s ok to no-sell, especially xenophobic Russian gimmicks. The match finally ends when Smirnoff pins Ferris after Zukov tripped Ferris during a…. gasp… Ferris Wheel. It needs to be made possible to communicate indifference through writing.

Winners: Boris Zhukov, Alexis Smirnoff & Yuri Gordyenko
Match Rating: *

Steel Cage Match: Buddy Rose & Doug Somers vs. The Midnight Rockers

Since I already wrote a little history on these four, I’ll skip to the match itself. This of course is the rematch of the previous match. This time it’s a blood feud, and not a title match. Rose and Somers and with Sherri again who looks exactly like she did for the rest of her managing career. During the ring entrance of the Rockers, Rose and Somers attempt to keep them out of the ring. Eventually they get in, but Rose and Somers run up the cage and try to escape but are caught. Michaels and Somers start. Great momentum to start. Once Jannetty and Rose get in, rose tries to stall. Great Psychology as the cage plays into the match in a psychological way as Rose finds it impossible to stall while being locked in. Brilliant, another lost art.

Michaels gets opened up very early while Somers and Rose use the cage well. Michaels is bleeding an absolute GUSHER!!! Announcers repeatedly say “galvanized steel” which cracks me the hell up. My understanding of the word is “protected” what a waste of breath this commentary is whenever that word is uttered. Michaels finalls turns things around after hitting a low blow on Rose, which is something almost unheard of from baby faces of the mid-1980’s. He gets the tag and Jannetty is in and has Rose pinned, but pulls him up to punish him some more. Rose gets busted open on the “galvanized steel”.

The crowd is simply off the hook for the Rockers. This sounds like 15,000 people, not 1,200. Michaels blood is literally EVERYWHERE! Eventually Michaels has Somers pinned but pulls him up and Somers hits him with a low blow (KARMA!). At this point there is a little sloppiness in execution from Michaels, but that could be attributed to blood loss. Rockers finally win the match following a battering ram on Somers. Just a spectacular match, only hurt by some limitations from the caged environment and Michaels sloppiness in the end. Easily the second best match I’ve ever seen in the AWA. These two teams would have many more matches together such as they did at Wrestle Rock ‘86, The Brawl in St. Paul and Superclash II (which was a six man without Rose‘s involvement). They also had a previous meeting at The Battle By The Bay. All of these are worth checking out, and I’ll be reviewing them all down the road.

Winners: The Midnight Rockers
Match Rating: ****1/2

The 411: This show gets a pretty high recommendation from yours truly. While you have to wade through a heck of a lot of crap to get to the good stuff, it’s worth it. To my knowledge only one of these matches is on the Shawn Michaels: From The Vault DVD that is currently available, so it’s recommended based on the fact that the match (which I believe to be the cage match) not included on that release may otherwise be difficult to come across. The AWA DVD has the Brawl In St. Paul cage match. So if you saw that one and enjoyed it, these two are even better than that gem of a match. Like I said, lots of crap, but worth it just for the cage match. After all the crap is short, so you’re looking at a tape with 2/3 being top notch stuff.

Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]