AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN Classic 07.13.09

AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN Classic

We’re in Las Vegas, as usual, and it looks to be mid March of 1988. There is some discussion of Badd Company winning the tag titles, which was on 3/19, but no exact date is given.

Larry Nelson and Lee Marshall welcome us to the show this week and Larry gets some insight from Lee about some of the roster. Lee says that Wahoo McDaniel is one of the all time greats, that people don’t like the Nasty Boys, but have to respect them. When they talk about Curt Hennig Lee says “to be the man, you’ve gotta beat the man.” The main event is Teijo Kahn against Baron Von Rashke, Baron says he’s fine, but Lee isn’t so sure. My wife happened to walk into the room at this point, saw Larry Nelson, and commented that she didn’t know Santa worked for the AWA during the off-season.

RICKY RICE vs. PISTOL PETE
Ricky doesn’t have anything other than babyface 101 offense, armdrags, hip toss, dropkick, etc. and all Pete seems to know how to do is to use the turnbuckle, so this gets boring quickly. Ricky wrestles cleanly and Pete takes a shortcut to the eyes and then uses the buckle. Rod Tronguard is so engaged that he talks about Badd Company winning the tag titles and how the ref made a bad call. Pete takes a back body drop bump a bit wrong, almost like he decided to try to turn at the last minute, and Rice finishes with a dropkick.

Larry Nelson gives a quick overview of the AWA on tour, mentioning two shows in South Carolina later in the month. He makes sure to mention that both Wahoo McDaniel and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express will be on both shows.

Another videotaped promo from Curt Hennig with Madusa. Curt says that he knows Wahoo doesn’t care about the belt, just about putting Hennig out of wrestling. He says he asked Madusa to be in his corner and she said yes. So that means she’s going to be in his corner (thanks for clarifying that, Curt!). He asks what Madusa likes about him and she says his zest and sex appeal. OK then.

CURT HENNIG vs. GREG ROBERTSON
Madusa (and her Steven Adler hairstyle) comes out with Hennig, and Lee and Rod debate as to why she’s with him. Lee speculates that Hennig suffers from delusions of adequacy. Curt takes Robertson to the mat and stretches him for a bit, and then puts him the corner and yells “you wanna be a wrestler, boy?” and slaps him. OK, that was awesome. This isn’t much more than Hennig outwrestling Robertson and putting the hurt on him. They lock up and Hennig uses a top wristlock and segues into a hammerlock and a bit later he uses an abdominal stretch. He’s clearly toying with him, he knows he can beat him, but he’s not ready to yet. He gets ready after Robertson surprises him with a dropkick and sends him to the floor, Hennig gets whipped into the rope and Robertson charges into a boot and Curt finishes him quickly with the Perfect Plex.

Greg Gagne, who looks like he just finished spraying on his tan, introduces the Mat Classic for this week. It’s from Winnipeg, Canada from 1985. The Road Warriors defending the AWA Tag Titles against the Fabulous Ones. And since Paul Ellering always interfered, the Fabs brought Da Crusher to watch their backs.

HAWK/ANIMAL © vs. STEVE KEIRN/STAN LANE (AWA Tag Team Titles)
There is far too little of this shown. We start with Hawk cranking a chinlock on Lane, and tagging Animal, who misses an elbow and it allows the hot tag. Keirn fights them both off with kicks and punches and then it breaks down. The Fabs seem to have this well at hand (so this must have been before the Road Warriors famous match with Larry Hennig and Da Crusher, where the veterans roughed them up for not selling), so Ellering grabs a chair and Crusher thwarts him, that’s enough for the ref who calls for the bell.

WAHOO McDANIEL/RICKY MORTON vs. SOLDAT USTINOV/KRUSHER KRUGNOFF
The chryon spells it Krugnoff, but Lee and Rod call him Kruger (like Freddy), it’s just a bad impersonation of Barry Darsow’s gimmick in JCP. At least when JCP did it with Barry Darsow they him a Russian name, Khrushchev. Somehow, this almost goes to the full ten-minute time limit, despite very little happening. Krusher prances around looks somewhat menacing, which is all he’s really good for.. Ricky actually cheats, he uses closed fists, and when the ref is putting out Ustinov he and Wahoo switch places and Ricky claps his hands to feign a tag. It looks like Ricky is in trouble when Ustinov bear hugs him, but Ricky claps to escape and tags. This ends after far too long, when Wahoo chops Kruger for the pin.

The Big K is back, and he gloats about Badd Company winning the tag titles. He told everyone last week that he told them how to do it and nobody believed him. And look who the champions are now. The show a clip of the ending, Badd Company runs Marty into the post to KO him. Tanaka holds back Shawn and Diamond gets the pin. Then he comments about the Baron/Sheik feud. He says he told Sheik about Ustinov and that’s why Sheik brought him in, and then he told Ustinov about Kahn. He says the only way that Baron is going to get any peace is to retire. He finishes by saying that he could help the manager of the Minnesota Twins keep his job for another year.

BARON VON RASHKE vs. TEIJO KAHN
There’s some comedy to start out, Baron works the arm and Kahn tries to pull the hair to escape. Baron is bald, so it doesn’t work. Then, Baron grabs Kahn’s little tail and pulls it to bring him back to the mat and keep the hold on. After that, Baron keeps working the arm for a bit, it’s not really exciting, but it works. Then Kahn takes over and it all goes down the commode. Ustinov interferes and uses the flag, and Kahn doesn’t do anything aside from chopping, choking, and the nerve hold. Baron makes the comeback and gets the claw, but the ref goes down and Usintov KO’s Baron with the flag to give Kahn the win.

Larry Nelson standing by with Baron Von Rashke. Baron is very angry! Sheik and his men keep attacking from behind. He had Kahn beat, he had him THE CLAW~! And Ustinov hit him from behind. If they want a war, he’ll give them one. He’ll find a partner, he’ll find two partners. One at a time, two at a time, three at a time! It sounds like Jake Roberts’ story about sex on the road from Beyond The Mat. Larry cuts him off and says that the challenge has been issued and we’re out of time for this week.