411’s AWA on ESPN Classic Report 03.20.08

411’s AWA On ESPN Classic Report

Can this hot streak continue? It all depends on how the show goes, but if the Rockers are in the main event again, I’d give it at least a 75% chance of being four in a row for classic AWA greatness. Let’s cross our fingers and get to the ring for tonight’s action, shall we?

AWA Championship Wrestling (Originally aired on August 5, 1986)

Ron Trongard and Lord James Blears are ringside, describing all of the hot and heavy wrestling action, and hopefully not saying anything too stupid.

Match One:
Doug Somers w/Sherri Martel vs. Kurt Gunther

I still laugh every time that Nelson calls Sherri Martel a “manageress”. Earthquake Ferris is the special referee for this one and we starts with a lockup and Somers falling to a front facelock into a big stomp to the chest. Somers cranks away at the neck of Gunther and drops a knee to the face before moving to the chinlock. Somers hits another stomp to the face and pushes Gunther against the ropes, chopping him hard before taking him over with a side headlock. He turns Gunther over into a near-choke and then stomps away again. Gunther grabs a bodylock and they end up against the ropes with Somers firing off right hands in succession. Somers hits a BIG suplex off the ropes, though Gunther went up like a sack of shit, and Ferris is down for a quicker count of the 1-2-3. Somers throws a few more stomps for good measure after the bell and the crowd doesn’t like it.

Winner: Doug Somers (pinfall, suplex)

Match Analysis: Way too short to mean anything. Somers looked rather put out to be dealing with this guy who didn’t look like he knew how to bump, so he kind of took it out on him and ended things rather quickly. Bring back jobbers like Tom Stone and send Gunther to the scrap heap.

We come back to the “In This Corner” segment, featuring Larry Zbyszko and his special guest, Greg Gagne. This should be gold. Zbyszko says that it’s great that Gagne is going to be on the show, talks about Scott LeDoux and then spins a wild conspiracy theory about Nick Bockwinkel. Delusion at it’s finest right there. Gagne joins Zybszko and Nelson and says that the only reason he’s out there at all is because he’s a professional unlike Zbyszko. OOOOOOH, sick burn!! Zbyszko says that Gagne is after Bockwinkel just as much and that he wants the title to prove to Verne that he’s just as good as him. Zbyszko says that no one is getting in his way, not Gagne, not Scott LeDoux, nobody. Gagne keeps bringing the heat saying that Zbyszko’s spent his entire career living in the shadow of Bruno Sammartino, then drops another burn saying that Zbyszko is an EPIC PHAIL!! Nelson steps in before they start giving each other purple nurples and sends us to a video package featuring Greg Gagne.

We get highlights of Gagne in the ring against various jobbers, as well as classic footage of matches he’s had against the likes of Larry Zbyszko and some great action from a match between Gagne and Adrian Adonis. It’s great to see all of this stuff, as Ken Patera, Jesse Ventura, and a cage match with Sheik Adnan El-Kaissie all roll through the package. Lots of high-flying from Gagne, with dropkicks and flying kneedrops from the top rope aplenty. We even get some tag-match action featuring Gagne and LeDoux vs. Zbyszko and Earthquake Ferris. After that match here comes one of Zbyszko’s ninjas!!! SALT TO THE EYES!!! LeDoux tastes the nunchuks and so does Gagne!! Gagne takes a hard shot to the back of the head with the nunchuks and that’s the end of the package.

Back to interview segment and Gagne says that it was embarassing for Zbyszko that he needed Ninja Go to help him, while Zbyszko plays an imaginary violin. TREMENDOUS!!! Zbyszko cuts Gagne off and goes off on a HUGE rant about the AWA Championship Committee screwing him by making Ferris his partner instead of Go, and then bags on Gagne for needing to prove something to his old man. Nelson ends up caught in the middle of Zbyszko and Gagne screaming at each other and Greg looks like he’s gonna backhand Zbyszko. Greg Gagne ain’t no bitch.

Back from the commercial break and Larry Nelson is with Donna asking why she hasn’t been doing her “Ringside Rumors” segment as of late. They begin talking about the AWA Women’s Championship match with Sherri Martel winning the title from Candi Devine and the disputed decision. No wonder I couldn’t peg Donna as a Gagne, she doesn’t sound anything like Greg or Verne. They both agree that Candi Devine should and will get a rematch in the future and the talk then turns to when Ringside Rumors is coming back and she says that next week there’ll be a new segment for everyone. Crowd seems to be chanting “Bullshit”, I’m sure because they have been teased with a new Donna Gagne segment for weeks and are sick of waiting to see her on TV again. She leaves us with one rumor, saying that since Martel has aligned herself with Rose and Somers, she’s getting offers from Hollywood to star opposite some very famous leading men. Nelson figures it will be tough, now that she’s the champion. I figure it will be tough, considering Sherri’s voice is grating enough to take down a ten-pound block of cheddar in about eight seconds flat.

After the break, we’re still ringside and Nelson is joined by Nick Bockwinkel now. He’s got a big match coming with The Barbarian, and Bockwinkel says that he’s a veteran and one of the senior members of the sport. He says he’s had the good fortune to stay in shape and learned how to bend the rules and cheat. He says that he won’t apologize for any of his actions in the past and that despite the Sheik wanting the World Heavyweight Championship more than anything, but Bockwinkel is going to be the one to stop him by beating Barbarian in their match.

Finally back to the ring for some wrestling action and it looks like it’s going to be….an interesting bout.

Match Two:
Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka vs. Don Fargo

Snuka and Fargo lock up and end up in the ropes immediately and Snuka gives him a clean break, but Fargo is complaining about the hair pull. Another lockup and Fargo gets an armbar, putting Snuka down to the mat with some hair pulling of his own, but Snuka gets up to his feet before going down again to a handful of hair. They separate and lockup again, with Fargo getting a cheapshot in the corner and Snuka firing back with a right hand of his own, sending Fargo strutting and scurrying back to the corner. They lockup once more and Fargo gets a go-behind into a full nelson, which Snuka breaks by flexing his back muscles, firing off some chops once he’s free of the hold. Fargo takes the low road and heads out to the floor, and Lord James Blears scares me talking about the quality and texture of Jimmy Snuka’s hair. Ewwwwww. So much for the announcers not saying anything stupid. Fargo heads back into the ring and they try the old test of strength, with Fargo getting the advantage early on, putting Snuka down to a knee in the middle of the ring. The crowd gets behind Snuka and he turns the tide, sending Fargo down to his back and into the ropes to break the hold. Fargo gets a chinlock off of another lockup and pulls that luxurious hair of Snuka’s to get him down to the mat. The crowd tries to will Snuka out of the chinlock again, but Fargo keeps cranking on the pressure. The announcers are speculating that it’s a version of a Japanese sleeper as the referee checks on Snuka to make sure he’s not passed out asleep. Snuka is NOT asleep though because he’s fighting it and getting back to his feet as the crowd rises and stomps and claps again. Snuka takes Fargo over to break the hold, but Fargo rushes over to throw that hold on again, stopping only to smash Snuka’s head into the top turnbuckle. Snuka ends up down on his knees and Fargo lets go of the hold to chop away at Snuka’s chest. Snuka decides he’s had enough, firing back with right hands of his own and a HUGE headbutt, followed by a big bodyslam in the center of the ring. Snuka off the second rope with a FISTDROP, lifting Fargo off the mat to deliver a backbreaker. Snuka heads up to the top and it’s DA SUPAFLY!!! 1-2-3, and it’s all OVER!! In all honesty, that was one of the sloppiest Superfly splashes I think I’ve ever seen, and the replay just makes it look worse as Snuka almost missed him entirely.

Winner: Jimmy Snuka (pinfall, Superfly splash)

Match Analysis: A really dead match that spent WAYYYY too much time in a chinlock. Fargo didn’t have the wind to be the guy that carried the offense and as such the match dragged a lot. A somewhat hot finish at the end and the crowd was REALLY into Snuka but it’s not enough to save this dud.

After the match and a short timeout, Snuka’s in the ring with Larry Nelson and he thanks the fans for all the support. He wants to tell the people that it means a lot to climb the ladder to get to the top and that Nick Bockwinkel is at the top and he’s going to keep that in mind. He turns his attention to the Sheik and says that there are a couple of Sheik’s men that he has to work past to get to the top, and Larry mentions Boris Zhukov and The Barbarian, and Snuka calls them two headaches. He says that he’s getting himself in the best shape that he can be and that he’s going to get to the top.

Match Three:
The Midnight Rockers vs. Larry Zbyszko and Ninja Go

Ohhhh MAN!! This should be awesome. A HUGE “Larry Sucks” chant from the crowd that the Rockers help to encourage. There’s a couple of stand-offs between the two teams and Zbyszko heads out to the apron to scream at someone in the front row. Probably yelling at some Vegas skank or something. Now he turns his attention to the referee, yelling at him while trying to remove his robe. Go heads to the floor and tries to come around on the Rockers from behind, but gets caught and instead bows to Michaels, prompting Michaels to bow back. HA!! Take that, Mr. NINJA-PANTS!! The crowd gets in on Zbyszko again, and he’s back out to the apron to jaw with the mouthbreathers. He puts the badmouth on Jannetty and then heads over to confer with Go before fianlly locking up with Jannetty. Trongard notices that it’s been about four minutes since a bell rang and yet there’s still no action one way or the other. That’s the true mark of a Larry Zbyszko match during this time period. The crowd chants at Zbyszko again and he figures it’s time to take a powder, claiming one of the fans has no teeth and that another looks like he beat up Willie Nelson. Zbyszko gets back into the ring and yells at the crowd a little more, working up a sweat just from talking shit.

They finally meet in the middle and Zbyszko gets a fireman’s carry into an armbar, grounding the high-flyer in Jannetty. Jannetty kips up and grabs a headlock, with Zbyszko firing him off the ropes. Jannetty with a shoulderblock, Zbyszko with a drop toehold, Jannetty with an armdrag takeover and the action has picked up a TON, leading Zbyszko to take another powder to the floor. Another lockup and Zbyszko gets an arm-wringer, but Jannetty reverses it into a takedown again, putting Zbyszko to the mat and forcing him to get a tag to the Ninja. Michaels tags in and they hook it up, with Michaels grabbing an arm-wringer, with Go kicking him away, and they stand-off in the middle of the ring. Another lockup and Go gets a hammerlock this time, cranking on the arm of Michaels until Shawn goes behind to reverse it, grabbing the arm-wringer again and yanking Go out of the ropes on numerous occasions to maintain the hold. Go hits the floor and Michaels heads out after him, holding the arm the entire way. Michaels starts hammering away with right hands to the arm on the floor and they roll back inside.

Go with a whip in and Michaels avoids a couple of ninja moves before flying over with a sunset flip attempt. Michaels gets a two count off of it and they botch an armdrag but cover it well with some chain wrestling, ending up with Go grabbing a front facelock on Michaels and tagging in Zbyszko. The “Larry Sucks” chant starts again and Zbyszko starts mouthing to the announcers. Michaels and Zbyszko square off and Zbyszko SLAPS Michaels in the face. They lockup in the corner and Michaels backs off far enough to paintbrush the SHIT out of Zbyszko. You got my money, BITCH? Zbyszko feels much shame and heads out to the floor to try to soothe his ego. Another lockup and Zbyszko pushes Michaels into the ropes, hitting a spinning back kick to the gut before running Michaels into the corner. Michaels reverses it and sends Zbyszko in for a Bret bump in the corner, really doing a number on the face of Zbyszko. Zbyszko is PISSED and heads over to tag in his Ninja. Michaels makes the switch with Jannetty and Go grabs a headlock, getting sent into the ropes with Jannetty trying a hip toss, but Go reverses it and sends Jannetty down to the mat instead.

Go grabs another side headlock and cranks away on Jannetty’s head until he’s forced to let it go in the corner. Zbyszko distracts the referee and Go hits Jannetty in the throat before ramming him into the turnbuckles. Go with an Irish whip into the corner but Jannetty reverses, charging in on the Ninja and taking a BIG boot to the face. Go takes over with another turnbuckle smash and an Irish whip, followed by a hard punch to the gut. Go with a backbreaker and he gets a two count off of that before tagging in Zbyszko. Zbyszko with some punches and he whips Jannetty in, connecting with a knee to the stomach before stopping to do a little disco dancing. After TWELVE GLORIOUS SECONDS of the Zbyszko School for Interpretive Dance’s master class, Zbyszko rams Jannetty into the turnbuckle and distracts the referee again to let Ninja Go do a little dirty work. Go chokes Jannetty against the middle rope and Michaels is LIVID on the other side of the ring. Zbyszko heads over and stomps Jannetty out to the floor and Go takes over again, ramming Jannetty into the post and HERE COMES MICHAELS!!

Michaels chases off Go and protects Jannetty until he can get back into the ring. Zbyszko grabs Jannetty with a big bodyslam and tags in the Ninja. Zbyszko holds a backbreaker and waits for Go to walk along the second rope to deliver a BIG elbowsmash that gets a two count before Michaels breaks up the pin attempt. Jannetty gets a right hand on Go, but that gets cut off as he eats a big kneelift to the face. Go brings in Zbyszko and they hit a double reverse elbow off the ropes, sending Jannetty sprawling to the mat and Zbyszko stays in the ring, going to the eyes with the soles of his boots. Jannetty with a right hand but Zbyszko cuts it off again. An Irish whip in and Jannetty catches Zbyszko with a knee as he ducks for the back bodydrop. Jannetty staggers over as Go comes in to stop him, Jannetty with the kick and it’s time for a HOT TAG TO MICHAELS!!

RIGHT HANDS TO GO!! SWEET CHIN MUSIC TO GO!! SWEET CHIN MUSIC TO ZBYSZKO!!! An Irish whip and a reverse elbow to Go gets a two count but Zbyszko breaks up the pin. A double Irish whip from the Rockers gets reversed and they end up running into each other. Michaels to the floor and Zbyszko and Go get a double clothesline on Jannetty as Ron Trongard tells us that there’s thirty seconds left in the match. Michaels catches Go’s leg and drags him to the outside as Zbyszko covers Jannetty for a 1-2….KICKOUT!! Michaels runs Go’s head into the ringside table and climbs the ropes from the outside, as Jannetty gets a suplex on Zbyszko from the inside. Michaels jumps off the top to the floor but misses Go, landing on his feet and chasing Go around the outside of the ring. Jannetty rolls up Zbyszko on the inside and gets a two count but Go breaks it up and apparently time is up and the bell rings. Jannetty and Zbyszko are still going to town, and I haven’t HEARD a bell ring, as Jannetty gets a sunset flip for a two count. Zbyszko Irish whips Jannetty in and he holds the top rope to avoid a dropkick from Zbyszko. ROLLUP BY JANNETTY!! 1-2….GO BREAKS IT UP!! DOUBLE DROPKICK FROM THE ROCKERS. Jannetty with the pin and the referee won’t count it because Go is the legal man.

Go suplexes Jannetty and gets a two count before running over to attack Michaels. Jannetty sneaks up behind Go for a rollup and gets another two count. They drag Jannetty over to their corner and attack his knee. Zbyszko tries to get a turnbuckle smash on Jannetty but it’s reversed and Zbyszko dines on the top buckle. Side headlock from Jannetty and he’s sent in to the ropes and they crack heads, ending up down on the mat. They both stagger to their feet and Jannetty Irish whips Zbyszko to the corner but there’s a reversal and Jannetty takes the buckle chest-first. Belly to back suplex from Zbyszko and he crawls over for a bodyslam but his back gives out and Jannetty ends up on top….1-2…GO MAKES THE SAVE!! THE BELL RINGS!! It’s all over but the fight is still on!!! Michaels and Go outside the ring, Jannetty and Zbyszko in the ring. MICHAELS RUNS GO INTO THE TABLE OUTSIDE!! Go turns the tide and chokes Michaels out with a ringside cable as Jannetty atomic drops Zbyszko in the ring!!! Zbyszko to the floor, double Irish whip to Ninja Go. ROCKER DOUBLE DROPKICK!! Go is out to the floor and we’re completely out of time as Zbyszko and Go head out to regroup and The Rockers celebrate in the ring.

Winners: None (time limit draw)

Match Analysis: It seems like a real pattern is forming with The Rockers and great main events. This was an awesome match and when you add the youth and overness of Jannetty and Michaels with the ring generalship and awesome heelishness of Zbyszko you get a TV main event that was WAY ahead of its time. Sadly, there wasn’t a finish, since a match of this quality deserved one, but that’s a minor quibble that barely takes away from the match itself.

Final Thoughts

A really weird show that was dragging for forty minutes until the main event picked up the pace at the end and saved it. The interviews were all good, and it’s nice to see Zbyszko and Bockwinkel get some time at the mike, but putting them all back to back to back like that REALLY killed the flow of the show. The main event saved things from being a complete disaster, but just barely. It’s a testament to just how good the main event was to keep this show from ending up on the scrap heap despite the first forty minutes featuring about five minutes of wrestling and twenty of commercials. Thumbs in the middle, leaning up for this one because of the hot main event and again, the AWA leaves me with a positive thought at the end which colors my thoughts on the entire program and makes the crap much more palatable.

Fun With Comments

From Silo Sam:
“wow, i have the first comments two days in a row…i truly have no life. pretty
ok show but the main event was HOT. Was it just me or was Jimmy Snuka getting a
mixed reaction from the crowd..i thought i heard boos. Jerry Blackwell is god
awful, but Hansen dragged an ok match out of it. I loves me some stan hansen.
He had mega heat which was awesome to see. Like you noted it, i loved how Hansen
blamed blackwell for taking his boot off. I underestimated rose and somers
in ring work when I first started watching AWA . In fact I’m becoming a big
fan of Doug Somers wrestling ability. The main event was fantastic. It
featured some great action like a double sunset flip(which i have never seen
before)…and possibly Shawn Michaels worst “sweet chin music”
ever….He did eventually get the hang of that move i guess”

The reaction to Snuka was a little lukewarm, I’ll give you that. Somers was definitely the worker of the team, but Rose was no slouch either, and both of them had the technical ability to get it done in the ring. I agree about Michaels tightening up the Sweet Chin Music to where it looked a lot better in later years, but I think that this was a case of his opponent just getting there too fast before Michaels’ foot came all the way up.

From soulpower:
“The Hansen-Blackwell brawl was much better than it had any right to be. Then
again, Hansen was involved so it shouldn’t surprise me. The main event was
simply awesome and who doesn’t enjoy seeing HBK and Hennig on the same team?

All in all, I would call this the best wrestling show of the week. And that
includes the likes of RAW and ECW.”

Yeah, I’m finding that I’m enjoying the AWA shows more than the current product, but that’s been the case for me for a long time now anyways. I much rather enjoy watching the old TV that has come out on WWE DVD and some of the stuff that I’ve collected over the years rather than the current TV product that feels the same week in and week out. I think part of my enjoyment is from the nostalgia of this being my hometown promotion growing up, but part of it is that it’s still REALLY good wrestling.

From Eric:
“I especially enjoyed this particular edition because it was edited from a live
ESPN show (the only one I remember) from the Kaiser Convention Center. It was
a two hour show, and there are other matches from this particular card. Let’s
see if we get some continuity and we get some of the other matches. The first
two matches on the show were the curtain jerkers of the actual card.

This episode? Good stuff. Just goes to show you how good the show could be if
the stupid finishes were kept to a minimum.”

Great information as always Eric, and thanks for taking the time to send it all through the comments. I always love getting to check in and see what you’ve come up with and it’s very helpful to see the contexts for certain events.

From Ryan:
“I really can’t stand when they play matches from other episodes during the show.
Since I tape these I don’t need multiple copies of Blackwell/Hansen (though it
is a fun match) and that damn Greg Gagne match.

Is there a reason they would show matches from other episodes on this show?”

I think that a lot of it is that we’re getting episodes out of context and out of order, so something that happened months previously ends up getting recapped on the very next episode. Either that or the guys that are putting the shows together for ESPN Classic are not very cognizant of what they’re doing.

From James:
“What I meant was…I know that the AWA used popular music when it was around.
But on 24/7 today, when they show programs that originally had it, they dub it
over with generic music. Yet on ESPN Classic, they don’t do that. I was
wondering what the difference was, as if these AWA shows were seen on 24/7
instead, they’d probably have the known tunes dubbed over with generic stuff.”

Sorry for the misunderstanding, but in this case I think that the guess would just have to be that it’s hit or miss. There have been times on 24/7 where the same music has been dubbed out of one show and left in another. Chalk it up to Jim Cornette’s semi-famous quote “It’s wrestling, and we say so!”

From Random Guy:
“Say Eric, most wrestling information sites list the dropkick as a signature
move of Abdullah The Butcher, but he did it proably in the 70’s”

The follow-up answer from Eric:
“Random Guy:

Foreign object.”

I thought the two words were going to “ghetto fork”, but I digress.

Finally from Infamous Male:
“These shows are absolutely fantastic. I’ve been a happy wrestling fan since
these shows started. I remember watching alot of these shows but also missing
many. They are excellent nostalgia trips. While wrestling has changed ALOT
since then, I notice 1 thing that has not. Shawn Micheals is STILL involved in
some of the best matches today as he was back then. Amazing.”

Shawn has always been an amazing talent and it’s great to get to see him still doing his thing and putting on wrestling clinics, twenty years after matches like these. I love getting to see these old shows too and I am having such a blast getting to recap them.

That does it for the comments and that does it for today’s AWA report! Thanks for reading and I’ll see you all tomorrow!!