AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN Classic 07.11.09

AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN Classic

We’re sometime in 1987 from the University of Wisconsin (Cheese Wiz U?), we start in the studio with Larry Nelson who announces the fan of the week. They’ve changed the prize, instead of a Ninja Star Wars game, the FOTW now gets some autographed pictures and wrestling magazines. He promises us a great show this week including a special look at Mad Dog Vachon, in the form of a match between Verne Gagne and Vachon against Sheik Adnan Al Kaisee and Jerry Blackwell.

BILL JACK STRONG vs. RICK GANTNER
Strong looks like a dead ringer for the Ultimate Warrior, and he wrestles a lot like him too, lots of no selling to get over his power. Gantner gets control by going to the eyes and then using the turnbuckles, but Strong reverses a whip into the corner and hits a lariat. Strong with a wicked jumping DDT, and then picks him up for a bodyslam and finishes with a bridging backdrop.

Larry Nelson with Wahoo McDaniel. The main event is going to be Wahoo, Tommy Rich, and Jerry Blackwell against The Dangerous Alliance. Wahoo thinks his team has the advantage because of he and Rich’s experience as a team and Blackwell’s size advantage. We also get our first indication of when this is from. Wahoo mentions that the Express are the tag team champions, so we’re between October and December of ’87.

Wahoo leaves and Soldat Ustinov runs out and insists that he’s the greatest Russian wrestler, so then the AWA should display a photo of Lenin, the greatest Russian leader. Larry insists that the AWA won’t allow it.

JT SOUTHERN vs. SOLDAT USTINOV
Verne and Rod debate about what the JT stands for, I’m thinking Just Terrible. There’s one nice sequence, when JT leap frogs over Soldat and takes a wild swing, Soldat ducks and picks up JT and gives him an atomic drop. The rest of this is boring, when Soldat has control, or ugly, when JT is on offense. JT can’t seem to do anything except armdrags, and he’s certainly no Ricky Steamboat. Soldat gets by with brawling and the announcers try to make it sound like he’s working over the back area with his bodyslams and vertical suplex, but there’s nothing discernable from Ustinov to show that he’s actually singling it out, the way Boris Zukhov does in his squashes. Southern counters a suplex into a small package for the win.

Larry Nelson with Paul E. Dangerously, no impressions this time. Now that the Midnight Express are the World Tag Team Champions, he’s been busy because everyone wants them to wrestle, he’s taken offers from Japan, Europe, Africa, and South America. Even the fellow “bad guys” (his words) in the AWA want to challenge them. He mentions Kevin Kelly and Nick Kiniski in particular and points out how one of them can only flex and the other can only run his mouth about being Canada’s greatest athlete. He says the Midnight Express will be happy to take them on.

VERNE GAGNE/MAD DOG VACHON vs. SHEIK ADNAN AL KAISEE/JERRY BLACKWELL
This is from “Super Sunday” on 4/24/83 (the same card as the Hogan/Bockwinkel near riot). This is an odd match to use as a feature of Vachon, it’d be more suitable as a showcase for Verne. All Vachon really does is bleed from the Sheik’s use of various plunder (which Vachon throws into the ring) and prevent Blackwell from saving Sheik from Verne. It’s Verne who’s the star here, being able to take the fight to both Blackwell and Sheik without much trouble. Verne almost has it won with his sleeper on Blackwell and Sheik goes to use the cast on his arm as weapon to break the hold, but Vachon intervenes and hits Blackwell with it. Verne and Vachon rip off the Sheik’s cast and work his arm over a bit, culminating with Vachon holding it in place for Verne to drop a knee on it (which breaks the arm and ended Sheik’s wrestling career and caused him to start managing), and then Verne gets the pin.

Larry Nelson with Verne Gagne. Verne laments on the recent tragedy of Mad Dog being hit by a car and losing part of his left leg (his prosthetic would be used as a weapon during a Shawn Michaels/Kevin Nash match in 1996) and tells the story of meeting Mad Dog in 1948, and then how they became partners, and tells a road story about them being on a plane and Vachon opening the door to the plane and commenting on the beautiful night, while everyone else’s lives were flashing before their eyes.

WAHOO McDANIEL/JERRY BLACKWELL/TOMMY RICH vs. ADRIAN ADONIS/DENNIS CONDREY/RANDY ROSE
Condrey and Rose are now AWA Tag Team Champions and are wearing matching gear. Coincidence? I think not! This isn’t bad for a typical formula tag match, all three babyfaces control things early with Condrey, Wahoo chops, Rich is more technical with headlocks, arm drags, armbars, etc. and Blackwell uses his size. Blackwell’s size also means he’s not as fast, and the heels use that to get control, by keeping him trapped in their corner, and choking him with the tag rope and using Adonis (who’s nearly the same size) to use his own weight to his team’s advantage. There’s a funny spot when Adonis actually bodyslams him, and sells his back. Blackwell makes a tag to Rich, and it seems like the hot tag, until a lariat from Condrey ends his run and then the heels start working him over in similar ways. Hot tag to Wahoo and the match breaks down, Rich impresses Verne by slamming Adonis off the top, and Wahoo with a small package to Rose for the win.