AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN Classic 07.14.09

AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN Classic

Larry Nelson and Lee Marshall welcome us to the show this week from ringside at the Showboat Sports Pavilion in Las Vegas, NV. We’re going to have a great show this week and the main event is for the AWA World Tag Team Titles, the Midnight Rockers defend against Badd Company! If it’s the title change, then we’re at 3/19/88.

SOLDAT USTINOV vs. GREG ROBERTSON
Ustinov is seconded by Teijo Kahn (pronounced T. Joe Kahn by Tronguard and Marshall). Typical squash from Ustinov, he hits a couple of nice moves that would make decent finishers or near falls, especially the powerslam and even the running lariat, the Russian Sickle was already established, but he picks up Robertson to keep beating on him. He doesn’t do much else though, he twists his neck a bit, throws him to the floor, and then won’t let him back in the ring. He drapes him over the ropes and forearms him in the chest, which wasn’t bad. Ustinov finally puts him away with the Inverted Body Vice.

Larry Nelson in the studio now, and he shows a clip of the angle where Ustinov attacked Baron during his promo and broke the board over his head and then covered him with the flag. Sadly, we don’t see the follow up with Ustinov bringing out Kahn. Instead we get words from the Baron on it.

RICKY MORTON vs. DENNIS STAMP
DENNIS STAMP GOT BOO. . . . oh, wait, I already used that one. All joking aside, this is actually pretty good. Stamp wrestles the same way he did versus the Rockers, mostly keeping things on the ground with headlocks, but the difference here is that Ricky can actually play along and get the better of Stamp. Stamp switches tactics when he sees he’s not going to beat Ricky that way and fights a little dirty, sneaking in a closed fist behind the ref’s back and also choking and going to Ricky’s eyes. There’s one really nice moment when Stamp throws Ricky to the corner and Ricky gets a little height and almost hits the post, and Stamp’s sell job of Ricky’s dropkick is almost overdone, Ricky was caught off guard by Stamp’s selling and stopped trying to do something else and just went for the pin. Stamp’s dirty tactics get the better of him when he tries to ram Ricky into the post and Ricky blocks, rams Stamp into the turnbuckle and then hits a high cross body press for the pin.

Videotaped promo from Curt Hennig and Madusa, they’ll be traveling the world together defending their titles, Hennig says that Greg Gagne will never get a shot and anyone who wants a title shot will have to earn it. I doubt the AWA Ladies Title meant much of anything at that point, but I do like the idea of the champions being allied.

GREG GAGNE vs. DARYL NICKLE
Hmmmm, I wonder if beating Daryl Nickle will be enough to earn Greg a title shot? I somehow doubt it. Nickle is “stocky” according to Tronguard (a k a he looked roided out of his mind, and he can’t work to save his life. All he’s good for his posing and screwing up spots. He almost trips and falls when Greg leap frogs over him and he actually takes himself to the mat when he’s charging at Greg, they try to cover is by saying that Greg caught him with a right, but he didn’t touch him. Greg toys with him for a minute with a step over toehold, which he escapes and then starts choking Greg. Greg reverses a whip to regain control. Nickle screws up a back body drop by almost landing on his feet. Greg gets the pin after a dropkick, and Nickle kicks out right at three, how hard is it to stay down?

Ricky Morton promo, the Rock ‘N’ Roll Express are happy to be in the AWA, and are looking forward to the upcoming tour of the Carolinas. That’s actually a pretty smart move on Verne’s part. Ricky has to cut the interview short because he’s got three chicks waiting for him.

It’s time for the Mat Classic, we go back to 1981 at the famous Chicago Amphitheater.

BARON VON RASHKE vs. SHEIK ADNAN AL KAISEE
This doesn’t have much merit as a match, but it’s nice to show how over both of them were once upon a time. In the clip shown there are only a couple of wrestling moves that are even used. They claw at each other with fingernails, Baron keeps trying for the claw, Sheik uses a nerve hold for an extended time, Sheik goes to an abdominal stretch and Baron counters to the claw. Sheik gets the ropes, the ref intervenes, Sheik gets a foreign object and hits Baron for the win. Not exactly Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Terry Funk here, but the crowd heat is pretty impressive.
It’s time for the Big K who will supposedly be giving the fans some inside info from outside the ring. He’s told Badd Company how to beat the Midnight Rockers, and says that Greg Gagne is ranked #15 in the rankings. In any other promotion he’d be the champion, but not in the AWA. He needs to quit crying, his father was the same way, he’d whine when he had a tough opponent too.

It’s time for the main event, that they’ve been hyping the whole show. Badd Company challenging The Midnight Rockers for the AWA Tag Team Titles. There’s only one problem. THEY DON’T SHOW THE MATCH! Instead they show the same tag match from a show that I recapped a while back. That’s pretty sloppy work on the AWA’s part.

SHAWN MICHAELS/MARTY JANNETTY vs. PAUL DIAMOND/PAT TANAKA
Lee Marshall tells us that this is a tag team attraction, not a title match. This isn’t given enough time to develop as well as it could have, which is one of the problems of being on TV. Bad Company tries like hell to get an illegal advantage, but it never works for them. The feeling out portion is highlighted the Rockers outwrestling Diamond at every turn, and their attempts to get an illegal advantage backfiring on them. First when the ref catches Diamond pulling the hair to get Shawn into their corner, and then when Diamond attacks Shawn from behind so they can double team, but Mary intervenes and evens the odds. It finally works when Tanaka trips Shawn from the floor to let them take over. They bait in Jannetty and then take turns dropping elbows on Michaels, and then Diamond uses his power to his advantage with a big breaker. Shawn looks to be mounting a comeback when he drops Tanaka with a couple of shoulderblocks, but Tanaka pops back up and takes him down with a body block of his own. Diamond misses a charge into the corner to allow the hot tag, and it breaks down as you’d expect. The ref goes down, Shawn rolls up Diamond and Tanaka hits him with a foreign object to give the heels the win.