411’s AWA on ESPN Classic Report 06.20.08

411’s AWA On ESPN Classic Report

AWA Championship Wrestling

Larry Nelson and Lee Mullet welcome us to the show from the fancy new SuperClash control center and they hype the action before sending us to the ring for the opening bout.

Match One:
Alan Reynolds vs. Col. DeBeers w/Diamond Dallas Page

Page does some threatening, stating that anyone that gets in the ring with DeBeers is leaving on a stretcher and he starts screaming at Sgt. Slaughter. Two of the Diamond Dolls come down to the ring with a “stretcher” but it really just looks more like one of those aluminum-framed lounge chairs you’d see next to a pool. Or a cot. DeBeers jumps Reynolds with some shots and whips him into the ropes for a big knee to the gut. DeBeers picks him up for a big slam and stomps on Reynolds before picking him up and punching him right in the face. Snap mare and another stomp from DeBeers and he rakes the boot across the face before trying a boot to the gut off of an Irish whip. Reynolds catches it but eats an enziguri to the back of the head and DeBeers just throws Reynolds into the corner by the hair. DeBeers to the top rope and he does his curbstomp kneedrop, driving Reynolds face into the mat. DeBeers picks him up at the two-count and then gets the pancake piledriver for the real finish. DeBeers covers him with a foot to the chest and Mullet gets all indignant, asking why DeBeers couldn’t have covered him like a professional. Of course, he’s an expert you know. When I think professionalism, Lee Marshall is the first name that pops into my head. They load Reynolds up onto the cot for a nice nap and take him to the back because it’s got to be hard to sleep under those harsh ring lights.

Winner: Col. DeBeers (pinfall, pancake piledriver)

Match Analysis: I still think that the stretcher gimmick could get over today if someone used it since it hasn’t been used in a long time. DeBeers had his usual squash and it was about the same match we’ve seen from him about a hundred times.

Match Two:
Ray Odyssey and Shawn Baxter vs. The Samoan Swat Team w/Buddy Roberts

I still can’t get past this music for the SST. I mean, are the opponents not supposed to worry and be happy that they’re getting their asses kicked? Are the SST not worrying about the damage they do to them and being happy that they’re laying beatings? Just confusing. Even Lee Mullet thinks it doesn’t make sense, and when Lee doesn’t get something it’s REALLY stupid. Baxter and Samu start things out with Samu trying for a forearm but Baxter ducking away. They get a lockup and Samu starts hammering away, whipping Baxter into the ropes and missing a clothesline. Baxter tries for a flying bodypress but gets caught and promptly deposited on the mat with a great deal of force. Baxter scurries over to the corner to make the tag and possibly re-apply a thick dousing of Aqua Net to his hair after that slam. Odyssey’s getting in the ring and he’s ALL FIRED U…oh, Samu just kicked him in the face. Big chop from Samu puts Odyssey down and he throws a dropkick that lands before dropping him with a HARD gut-wrench suplex. Tag to Fatu and they both work Odyssey over in the corner with right hands before Fatu pulls him out for a SNAP-SUPLEX!! Irish whip from Fatu into a big clothesline and Odyssey tries a couple of shots to the gut but Fatu hits a headbutt to put a stop to that shit. Fatu runs Odyssey over and rams him into Samu’s head and they tag, getting a double-headbutt before Samu chops him down. Irish whip and Samu gets a front kick with another Irish whip into a botch on his spinning hair slam deal. DDT from Samu and he forearms away at Odyssey before making a tag and hitting a double-clothesline. Fatu with a SNAP BELLY-TO-BACK SUPLEX that only gets a two-count before going to the nerve pinch. Odyssey tries some elbows but Fatu cuts him off with a big headbutt and a chop before he hits the tag and both SST’s get a double-thrust kick to the face. Samu deposits Odyssey on the top rope and gets a second-rope belly to back suplex before Fatu gets the tag and comes off the top rope with a HUGE splash for the 1-2-3!! They attack Baxter and throw him and Odyssey out of the ring before they do their celebrating.

Winners: The Samoan Swat Team (pinfall, Fatu splash)

Match Analysis: Fun to watch the SST just kind of maul a couple of jobbers, though for whatever reason, Baxter had a TON of support whenever he got introduced. I don’t know why they didn’t try to maybe do something with him because it sounded like the crowd was with him, but with his look, maybe it was for the best. As for the SST, they could have been huge if Vince had gotten ahold of them before the NWA did. By the time they hit the WWF they were a lot bigger and not the same team, but wrestling the style they did here in ’88 against the Harts and Strike Force would have been big money.

Match Three: AWA World Heavyweight Championship
Terry Adonis vs. Jerry Lawler (c)

Another repeat match, thank God for copy and paste.Lawler gets mobbed on his way to the ring and there’s four minutes left in this show, so this match should be quick. Lockup and Lawler pushes Adonis into the corner, giving him a clean break but Adonis gets in a cheapshot forearm. Lawler threatens him with a right hand and Adonis leans out through the ropes to avoid a beating. Another lockup and he pushes Adonis into the corner again, landing some good right hands before he catches Adonis with a combination that puts him on his ass. Big clothesline from Lawler and he follows it up with a delayed vertical suplex. Lawler’s on his way out to the top rope and he drops off the top with a big right hand, followed with a standing fistdrop and Lawler gets the three-count. I told you it’d be quick.

Winner: Jerry Lawler (pinfall, fistdrop)

Match Analysis: WAY too short to mean anything at all. Just there to put Lawler over heading into the end of the show before the PPV. Meh. I really hate repeat matches.

Match Four:
The Stud Stable (Robert Fuller and Jimmy Golden) w/Downtown Bruno and Sylvia vs. Brickhouse Brown and Bill Dundee

Sylvia’s got the kendo stick on the outside and it looks like Brown and Golden starting it out, switching go-behinds before Golden takes over with a couple of elbows. Brown whips Golden into the corner and gets a back bodydrop out of it before taking Golden down with a dropkick. In comes Fuller and he eats a dropkick as well, rolling to the outside while Brown gets down and funky. Dundee throws a few stomps in on Golden on the apron for good measure. Well that’s just not sporting at all. Golden and Fuller try to call timeout on the floor and then duck their heads under the bottom rope to break the count. Golden comes in and drops to his knees immediately, offering a handshake and an olive branch. Brown talks some smack but stops paying attention and Golden gets him in the gut and drags him over to the corner. Brown fights back and there’s a funny moment where Dundee gets set to come in but Brown is making his own save so Dundee just kind of raises his hands as if to say “Oh, you’re good, nevermind then.” and backs off. Brown fights off Fuller and Dundee grabs Golden and they hit double-atomic drops, sending The Stud Stable into each other. All four men in the ring, two each in opposite corners and the faces are working over the heels until Brown Irish whips Fuller across the ring, forcing him right into Golden.

All four men start mixing it up on the floor a little bit and then things settle down with Brown and Golden in the ring. Brown Irish whips Golden into the corner and makes the tag with Dundee getting a kick in the ribs before taking Golden down with an arm-wringer. Verne Gagne tries to covnince us that Crocodile Dundee was created similar to Bill Dundee, 5’8″ Australian wrestler in cowboy boots and long-ish, pink-ish tights. Yeah, that’s exactly what they had in mind when they wrote that movie. Golden takes over with a side headlock, gets shot into the ropes and after a bit of comedy rope-running, there’s a MALFUNCTION AT THE JUNCTION and Golden runs into Fuller. Fuller goes to the outside and Dundee gets a two-count on Golden in the ring before Golden tries to slow things down. Golden kicks Dundee in the gut and gets an arm-wringer in before Fuller starts cranking it over the top rope behind the referee’s back. Golden keeps working over the arm and hands off to Fuller to do it again. Dundee reverses it the third time though and Fuller works over Golden’s arm by mistake!! Dundee does a little strut and then leans out through the ropes to wave at Fuller. Fuller is PISSED and tries to get after him but the referee breaks it up. Golden begs off of Dundee and then goes to the eyes, throwing Dundee out to the floor where Bruno lays some stomps in and Sylvia kendo sticks him!!

Brown comes over to try to break up the mugging and does so before Golden grabs Dundeee and gets him back into the ring. Irish whip into the corner by Golden but Dundee hops onto the second-rope for a flying bodypress that gets two. Fuller tries to break up the pin but ends up dropping an elbow on Golden and there’s a tag to BRICKHOUSE! RIGHT HANDS FOR FULLER AND GOLDEN!! Dundee knocks Golden out of the ring to the floor and Brown hammers away on Fuller in the middle of the ring. DUNDEE HAS BRUNO!! He roughs him up a little then throws him into Golden before attacking Golden with right hands. Inside the ring, Fuller tries to Irish whip Brown in but Brown ducks a clothesline and gets a flying bodypress but there’s no referee!! Sylvia’s in and SHE’S CANING BROWN!! Sylvia goes all “Roots” on Brown with the cane for another few lashes and The Stud Stable tries a double-Irish whip to ram the faces together but they dosie-doh and there’s just a huge brawl in the ring. HERE COMES CACTUS JACK!!! HERE COMES JEFF JARRETT!! HERE COMES GARY YOUNG!! HERE COMES JIMMY VALIANT!! IT’S A WILD BRAWL!! The faces end up standing tall in the ring and dancing around, getting the crowd all riled up.

Winners: Bill Dundee and Brickhouse Brown (disqualification, Sylvia-ference)

Match Analysis: A pretty fun match though The Stud Stable was a little too comedic for my liking. I get that you have to show ass a little bit, but there’s a point where it goes from being comedy to making the heels look stupid and if you do that, no one will believe them when they’re trying to put the heat on the faces. Of course, since it was deep in the heart of Memphis territory, there was a wild brawl to end it off, like there seemed to be at the end of every big main event-level match there. Good work from everyone involved and a solid match.

Lee Mullet’s on the house mic with Bill Dundee and he’s not happy. Dundee says that they’re going to fight fire with fire and OH GOD VALIANT’S KISSING AN OLD MAN IN THE FRONT ROW!!! EEEEEEEEW!!! What the fuck is wrong with Jimmy Valiant? Dundee says that..I don’t even know what he’s saying anymore. I think I need shock therapy.

Match Five:
Badd Company (Pat Tanaka and Paul Diamond), The Rock and Roll RPM’s (Mike Davis and Tommy Lane) and Cactus Jack w/Diamond Dallas Page and Downtown Bruno vs. The Rock n’ Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson), The Top Guns (Ricky Rice and Jon Paul), and Jeff Jarrett

DDP does the introductions in a hideous pink, zebra-print tuxedo jacket with a bullwhip. Good lord, what a look. This should end up being a horrible match to try to recap because there’s going to be a TON of shit going down. Looks like it could be fun though. Ricky Rice and Cactus Jack start things out and there’s a lockup into a shove-off. Jack complains to the referee about something and then they lockup again with Rice reversing an arm-wringer into an armbar. Jack gets the hair and pushes Rice into the corner, working him over with some right hands before Rice reverses with three rights of his own. Irish whip by Rice and Jack reverses, “missing” the charge into the corner but still getting most of Rice when he forgets to move out of the way. Rice gets an armdrag takeover into an armbar and Rice tags in Jon Paul, who continues to work on the arm, dropping a leg onto it before tagging in Ricky Morton. Morton punches Jack in the face and hip tosses him over before tagging Gibson in.

Gibson gets a BIG dropkick off of an Irish whip and tags in Jarrett for a double-back bodydrop that gets a two-count. Jarrett with a deep armdrag takeover into an armbar but Jack breaks it up and bodyslams Jarrett before tagging in Tommy Lane. Lane whips Jarrett into the ropes and drops down, but Jarrett runs over him, right into the heel corner to take them all out with right hands!! Lane staggers into the wrong corner and eats another couple of punches from various face team guys before he finally tags in his partner, Mike Davis. Davis and Jarrett lockup and there’s a tag to Jon Paul, who takes over on Davis with a standing armbar. Davis goes to the eyes to break it and tags in Pat Tanaka but Paul recovers and armdrags Tanaka over into an armbar. Tag to Morton and he pops Tanaka in the face before Tanaka pushes him into the corner and gets some right hands of his own. Irish whip from Morton but Tanaka reverses it, sending Morton into the corner. Tanaka charges but takes a HUGE clothesline from Morton, giving it the 360 sell.

Morton tags in Gibson and he gets caught trying to kick Tanaka in the gut but recovers his balance for an enziguri that only gets a one-count before Paul Diamond kicks Gibson in the head from the outside. Gibson tags in Jarrett and he gets a big right hand on Tanaka before putting him into a side headlock. Tanaka reverses to one of his own, getting shot into the ropes where he hits a couple of shoulderblocks that put Jarrett down. Tanaka’s still running the ropes and Jarrett leapfrogs him before putting him down with a big right hand. Tanaka tags in Paul Diamond and Diamond knees Jarrett in the gut, RAMMING him into the turnbuckle. Diamond tries it again but Jarrett blocks it and gets a ten-count of turnbuckle smashes, sending Diamond into the face corner to eat a punch from each of the four guys on the apron. Jarrett with the tag to Gibson and Jarrett hits a big dropkick on his way out before Gibson scores with a DDT. He tries for a cover but it gets broken up before a one-count by one of the RPM’s.

Tag to Morton and he picks Diamond up for a vertical suplex that gets two before Diamond kicks out. Tag to Paul and he hits a hard right hand into Diamond’s ribs before grabbing a side headlock. Diamond forces him into the heel corner and tags in Tanaka but Paul leapfrogs Diamond as he’s running the ropes, sending Diamond crashing into Tanaka. Paul and Tanaka lock up and as Paul runs the ropes, Cactus Jack knees him in the back from the apron, putting him down. Tag to Mike Davis and he forearms Paul down, whipping him into the ropes for a HUGE back bodydrop. Tag to Lane and he gets a sidewalk slam on Paul, stomping away before he tags in Cactus Jack. Jack with some right hands and he Irish whips Paul in for a big reverse elbow for two before Jarrett makes the save. Tag to Diamond and he whips Paul into the ropes but Paul reverses into a sunset flip!! Tanaka has the referee distracted and by the time he turns around to make the count, he can only get a one-count.

Tag to Mike Davis and he stomps on Paul before tagging in Lane. Snap mare from Lane followed by a BIG legdrop and he tags in Tanaka for a THRUST KICK!! Cover and a two-count but Paul kicks out. Right hands from Tanaka and Paul’s firing back. Paul gets the best of it and puts Tanaka down. HOT TAG TO GIBSON!! RIGHT HANDS TO DIAMOND!! IRISH WHIP SENDS TANAKA INTO DIAMOND!! Gibson Irish whips Tanaka into the ropes and tries a dropkick but Tanaka hangs on and down goes Gibson. Tanaka with an Irish whip into a flying forearm. He tries for a pin but HERE COMES ALL TEN MEN!! They brawl in the ring for a moment before everyone bails and brawls except the two legal men. Gibson whips Tanaka into the ropes and Morton trips up Tanaka from the outside, allowing Gibson to get the three-count!!The face team bails before the heels know what the hell happened and the show cuts off with them celebrating at ringside about ten seconds after the final bell.

Winners: The Rock n’ Roll Express, The Top Guns and Jeff Jarrett (pinfall, Morton-ference)

Match Analysis: Actually a really good ten-man match and a hot main event that the crowd was really into. Sometimes ten-man’s can end up being a little boring because no one gets any time to do anything fun and while there were a ton of changes and tags, there was still exciting stuff going on the whole time which made it good. Again, since it’s Memphis there’s a wild brawl and shenanigans at the end, but in this match it made sense because of all the guys being out there and there only being one poor little ref. Good main event to end the show that got a lot of talent some exposure.

Final Thoughts

All in all, this was a pretty good show from the second half on. The tag match and the ten-man main were really entertaining and nothing from the first half of the show was outwardly terrible. Predictable yes (and in the case of Lawler/Adonis and out and out repeat), but bad no, so in the end the show gets a thumbs-up from me. If all of these guys could have ended up under the AWA banner after that SuperClash show, Verne would have had a ton of young talent to work with that could have turned things around. Guess he should have thought of that before stiffing everyone else on pay-offs.

Fun With Comments

From OB1Jabroni:
“Valiant runs a “wrestling school” just a few hours from my
house. Every Sunday noon to 4, you can train at his camp. A rundown
little shithole of a place, but I did buy his book which is a good
little read while I visited the place one afternoon.”

Haven’t read it, but I think I might sometime. I’ve been getting far too behind on my wrestling book consumption as I still have the Hart and Jericho books to get to as well, so I’ll add it to my list for a look-see. Just please tell me you got out of there without Valiant trying to kiss you.

From Scrotum Pole:
“The R n’ R’s must have hit the good stash in the back that
night.”

On the RNR Express, I grew up in Tulsa in the mid 80’s and the
Fantastics did ever thing RNR did and actually more spot on. They
even had, at my time the first ever barb wired cage match where they
teamed with Terry Taylor” AKA Red Rooster” against the
Sheepherders and Jack Victory and it was the SHIT! It even featured
Fulton, I think it was him diving off the top of the
“wooden/barb wire cage and deliver his elbow drop. Instant
Classic
God I love Blood Feuds.”

I’ve always been a huge fan of the old-school Southern blood feuds and to me one of, if not the best one ever was the Buzz Sawyer/Tommy Rich fued in Georgia in ’82/’83 I believe. I can vividly remember reading those brawls in the wrestling magazines a couple of years after and how it just captivated me. I would be a happy happy man if someone were ever to stumble across an old tape in a closet at some television studio that had that match on it. That’s the first feud I can ever remember and I would love seeing that match someday.

From Ballz:
“Who is the larger heavyweight — Greg Gagne, Colin Finerty, or
Downtown Bruno ?
And did Madusa ever wrestle Sheri Martel for any women’s title?”

Gagne, but not by a hell of a lot. I do not believe that Madusa and Sheri Martel were in the same promotion and active at the same time for a match between them to ever take place. If anyone knows out there, feel free to let me know.

From Guest. :
“You know, someone needs to make a clear hierarchy on the hardest
substances in the wrestling universe. What I have on the list:

Anyways, still amazing that the best talent of 3 promotions
consistently produces shows like this, barely better, and sometimes
worse than the AWA shows. Anyways, DeBeers was awesome as usual, and
someone needs to rip off the stretcher deal nowadays, but otherwise a
relative throw-away show, which is a shame.”

The Sheik and his loaded boot should be on that list too. As for the throw-away shows, if we’re heading to 1989, get ready for a lot of them to be coming because they’ll be fast and furious then.

From Jasper:
“I mark for Col. DeBeers”

I think everyone does on some level. It was a great character and got a ton of heat, no matter who he was in with.

Finally, from Brimstone34:
“Tonight on AWA Wrestling someone’s Grandpa vs someone you’ve never
heard of six or seven times. It sure is depressing to see how fast it
all slipped away from Verne.”

Yeah, that’s about what it felt like sometimes, though like I said, Verne had a ton of great talent when they did the branding but for whatever reason he stiffed them and then lost it all. Ah well, it’ll always be fun to think about what could have been.

That does it for the comments and that does it for the week’s worth of AWA shows. Sorry for the lateness, and I’ll see you all back here on Tuesday!