AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN Classic 07.06.09

AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN Classic

It’s September 23, 1986 and we’re at the Showboat in Las Vegas.

Mr. GO vs. ROBERT BURROUGHS
Larry Nelson introduces Go as “The Masked Ninja From the Orient” which about as redundant as you can get. Aside from the four turtles and three kids from the 3 Ninjas movies, what Ninja’s weren’t masked nor from the Orient? Larry Zybyzsko distracts Burroughs and Go hits him with a shot to the throat and a few karate kicks and he stops to bow. This goes on for a bit, but nothing of note happens. Go does an in the ring verison of the Cactus Jack elbow drop, only from the second rope (in the middle of the ropes, not the corner) for the win.

Larry Nelson interview Zybyzsko and Go. Zybyzsko let Go loose in the ring to make a statement, which is that he wants Bockwinkel for a title shot. The AWA keeps putting people in his way, Greg Gagne, Scott LeDoux, and now Jimmy Snuka “A cannibal!” Larry says he’ll let Go lose on everyone until he gets his destiny. He wants one of two things from Blackburn, a title shot or a lot of money in a lawsuit. You know, Larry’s promos about this remind me a lot of Edge’s 2004-05 promos about the World Title being his destiny.

SCOTT HALL vs. THOMAS PITMAN
Quick squash by Hall. Pitman does a headlock and Hall turns it into a back suplex. Hall hits a few forearm shots and then Pitman lands a couple. Hall reverses a whip into one of his own and hits a back body drop. Hall with a big lariat and Hall finishes with the bulldog.

BORIS ZUKHOV/ALI KHAN vs. BUTCH COOPER/PAT MEYER
This is actually quite the fun beating from the Sheik’s boys, well mostly from Boris. Kahn is just about useless. The best things he does involve double teams with Boris, and all he really does is put his knee into the right spot so that Boris can either shove Meyer into it in the corner (which actually looked pretty cool) or just bend it so Boris can use it for a regular backbreaker. Kahn’s strikes look like crap and he can’t seem to work to save his life. He almost has trouble picking up Cooper for the “Inverted body vice” (Canadian backbreaker) that winds up getting the win. Tronguard mentioned something about the Sheik stealing Kahn from Verne Gagne. I don’t even want to go there. Boris, however, is on like Donkey Kong. He doesn’t waste any time or any movement. Everything he does is focused on Cooper and Meyer’s backs, and he’s as brutal as possible with it, whether it’s the double backbreakers or the headbutts. I don’t know if it’s just the contrast from being paired off with a load like Kahn, but Boris seriously looks like another person that Verne could have done more with but missed out on.

Larry Nelson with the Shiek, Kahn, and Zukhov. Sheik wants to know when they get a tag title shot and Larry tells them that they’ve got to beat Greg Gagne, Jimmy Snuka, and the Midnight Rockers first. Boris yells about how in Russia they pick a body part and work it and make the Americans say they give up.

NICK BOCKWINKEL vs. PAUL GARNER
At the risk of sounding a bit cynical about someone who I honestly know very little about. I imagine this is what Verne Gagne thinks wrestling should be about. Despite the age and conditioning difference, Garner looks almost inept next to Bockwinkel. Garner can’t do anything against Bockwinkel at all except for illegal tactics like pulling the hair, choking, brawling etc. And it only takes one move from Bockwinkel to regain control. Granted, Bockwinkel’s drop toehold into a legbar is pretty swank. Bockwinkel finally has enough of Garner’s brawling and hands it back to him, showing he can wrestle and fight, he drops him with a big lariat and then finishes him with a figure four.

SCOTT HALL vs. COLONEL DeBEERS
Two Scott Hall matches on one show, how did I get so lucky? This actually isn’t bad at all. It starts out with Hall as a house of fire, and DeBeers bumping and selling is way over the top, even though Hall isn’t doing anything more than throwing fists. DeBeers takes over and works on the left hand of Hall. It’s not much more than filler, but it’s fun filler and Hall puts it over just fine. He remembers to sell it after using it to punch DeBeers and when Hall catches DeBeers on the top and slams him down, he sells the hand afterwards. As I’ve come to expect, we end on a DQ, this the ref gets bumped and while Hall’s helping him up, DeBeers knees him in the back and he crashes into the ref and the ref thinks Hall pushed him and gives the match to DeBeers.

Larry Nelson sympathizes with Hall’s predicament and the lousy ref call. Hall cuts a promo that was probably pretty serious in ’86, but almost 23 years later, with some modern perspective, it’s actually pretty funny. Hall’s mother used to say that what goes around comes around. What about life being like a box of chocolates? Hall also hears voices in his head (but no word if they council him, understand, and talk to him,) saying Colonel DeBeers over and over. It’s also amusing to hear him called Soldier Boy, given DeBeers’ racist gimmick. I wonder if DeBeers is a fan of Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em?