AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN Classic 07.08.09

AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN Classic

We appear to be working backwards, now it’s July 1st, 1986 and we’re in Las Vegas, but we do a bit of traveling as well.

LARRY ZYBYZSKO vs. LARRY CLARK
This takes place on 5/17 in Hammond, IN (Larry Nelson gives us breaking news that Scott Hall and Curt Hennig just lost the AWA Tag Team Titles). This might the shortest Zybyzsko match ever. He doesn’t stall! They lock up and Zybyzsko pulls the hair to keep in control, and then he explodes on Clark with a suplex, a spinning neckbreaker, and a piledriver for the win.

Larry Nelson with Larry Zybyzsko and Go. Larry is tried of being passed over, he wants some real competition, be it Stan Hansen or Nick Bockwinkel. Scott LeDoux doesn’t count, because all he does is Pearl Harbor people, but nobody can Pearl Harbor someone like Go. That’s not the most PC way to put it, but whatever. There’s a pretty funny exchange between them. Go speaks in Japanese, Nelson turns to Zybyzsko and says “I don’t know what he’s saying” and Zybyzsko says “Well he’s Japanese.”

MARTY JANNETTY vs. ALEX KNIGHT
Back in Vegas for this. Knight attacks from behind and sends Jannetty to the floor, but Jannetty takes over when they brawl a little bit. Jannetty with a dive off the top to the floor and then sends it into the ring. They don’t really have much to do, Jannetty gets a couple of nice near falls, from a powerslam and then a suplex into a powerslam. And there’s a cute part where Knight offers a handshake, but Jannetty sees the cheap shot coming and manages to avoid it. Beyond that, this shows why Jannetty is better suited to tag matches where he lets the heels carry things. Jannetty wins with a high cross body press off the middle rope, the suplex powerslam deal was better.

Larry Nelson standing by with the Rockers. Marty says they’ve been winning a lot lately, both in single and tag team matches, and they’ve also got a couple of six man tags coming up. They want a shot at Buddy Rose and Doug Somers. Shawn says they’re tired of the so-called lady Sherri Martel interfering and they’ve got a surprise for her.

Larry Nelson in the studio now, we’re going to St. Cloud, MN for the next match.

KING KONG BRODY vs. PETE SANCHEZ
Larry tells us that this could make Sanchez a star. I somehow doubt that. Brody kicks him for a couple of minutes and finishes him with a big piledriver.
Back to the studio where Larry Nelson tells us that this next match has been shown on ESPN before, but there has been a huge demand from viewers to show it again. So we go back to Hammond, IN on 5/17. Scott Hall had been injured by Colonel DeBeers previous to this with a piledriver on the floor and was told not to wrestle, but he decided to gut it out anyway.

CURT HENNIG/SCOTT HALL © vs. BUDDY ROSE/DOUG SOMERS (AWA World Tag Team Titles)
From bell to bell this is pretty good, even with the stupid finish, and changing the titles via count out. Hennig sticks to wrestling, keeping both Somers and Rose at bay with a lot of armbars and arm drags. Early on, Rose catches Hennig with an elbow to the jaw and tags in Somers, who runs right into an arm drag. Hall is more the power wrestler, impressively slamming 271 lb Rose (who claims he only weighs 217). The heels finally get a chance to control, and thanks to Hennig bumping like only he can (he damn near flies across the ring when Rose chokes him with the rope and then yanks the rope back to throw him off) it comes off pretty nice, even if they aren’t doing much, because Hennig makes it seem like they’re killing him. Hot tag to Hall who cleans house until Colonel DeBeers shows up and distracts Hall, which gives Rose the opening to ram him into the post and get the juice flowing. Hall doesn’t beat the count and new champions are crowned.

Larry Nelson standing by with the former champions and they’re upset. Hennig wants Stanley Blackburn to review the tape and reverse the decision, Hall wants to get his hands on DeBeers.

Our closing segment today is Larry Zybyzsko’s “In This Corner” with guest Scott Hall. We’re shown a clip of the angle that started the DeBeers/Hall feud (would have been nice to see it before the title change). DeBeers was torturing jobber Jake Millman and Hall took exception and gave DeBeers his own medicine. DeBeers attacked Hall while he was helping Millman up and gave him his front piledriver on the floor. Zybyzsko is pretty funny during the interview proper, accusing Hall of blaming his own shortcomings on DeBeers and pointing out that Hall interfered in DeBeers’ match and attacked him, so it’s actually Hall’s own fault. The guy’s got a point. Larry Nelson jumps in, he’s got a thing for cutting off heels it seems, and bids us farewell.