wrestling / TV Reports

AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN Classic 07.18.09

July 18, 2009 | Posted by Mike Campbell


AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN Classic

Before we begin, I’d be remiss in not bringing up Brock Lesnar’s “heel turn” at UFC 100. I personally think Brock’s Coors Light comment is being made too big a deal out of. I somehow doubt that the millions of people who watched it stopped and decided right them to throw out all their Bud Light and get some Coors, I can see why Bud Light might have been miffed. Dana White is sitting on a potential gold mine with Brock as UFC Champion. I say feed him a few tomato cans and find out how badly people will pay to see him knocked out.

It’s March 25, 1986 and we’re in the entertainment capital of the world, Las Vegas. We’re veering into continuity again, with two shows airing from consecutive weeks.

BUDDY ROSE vs. JESSE HERNANDEZ
Why do the announcers keep screwing up Buddy’s weight? He weighs 217, it’s not that difficult to write down on the cards that they give Larry Nelson. This is more ga-ga and primping than is it is wrestling. Rose struts around the ring and does a few one handed pushups. Hernandez messes up Rose’s hair and he has to run to the floor and have Sherri comb it. “Are we at a beauty salon or a wrestling match?” asks Verne Gagne. Once they get to business it’s all Buddy, he hits a couple big chops, a back elbow, and quickly finishes off Jesse with a neckbreaker and DDT.

Larry Nelson with Buddy Rose, Doug Somers, and Sherri Martel. Larry asks about Rose’s finisher and he says it’s called “Hit the Jackpot.” Then he asks about him actually weighing 217 and Rose does some more one handed pushups and challenges anyone else to. Larry replies “we’re not professional athletes, we’re not expected to.” He turns to Sherri and asks her about the Ladies Title, and she just says Candi Devine doesn’t deserve to be champion. Buddy and Doug also want to wrestle the Midnight Rockers.

COLONEL DeBEERS vs. BILLY ANDERSON
Wow. Lord James Blears looks he’s trying to give Rod Tronguard a run for his money with stupid comments. First he makes a big production of explaining that DeBeers’ hometown (Johannesburg) is also called Joeburg. Then he says “Colonel DeBeers is from South Africa, I know because I’ve talked to him” and then leaves it at that. Nothing special here, it’s the usual DeBeers squash, he punishes Anderson on the mat and then brutalizes him with punches and kicks. DeBeers has a few chances to win, but he lets Anderson up or puts Anderson’s foot on the rope. DeBeers actually does The Stroke more than ten years before it became Double J’s finisher of choice, and then finishes with the front piledriver.

Larry Nelson standing by with Stan Hansen. Nelson says that Hansen has a grueling schedule ahead of him. He’s gotta wrestle Leon White in two weeks, fly over to Japan for some title matches, and then fly back for “the greatest event of all time” WrestleRock ‘86. Hansen isn’t worried at all, he just beat Bruno Sammartino, Jr. last week and he’s not concerned about Leon White. He’s got challengers going all the way up until June and the belt isn’t going anywhere.

SHAWN MICHAELS/MARTY JANNETTY vs. ALEX NIGHT/HANS DeHESS
Shawn and Marty look good here, but this isn’t the kind of match that will show what made them a great team. A lot of it is due to Night. I don’t know if they just weren’t strong enough or if he was sandbagging them, but they both seemed to struggle when they had to do anything to him, especially Shawn’s vertical suplex. Marty and DeHess work a nice mat sequence, and you wouldn’t expect Marty to be able to hold his own on the mat, but he does. The finish looks cool. Marty whips DeHess into the ropes and drops down and DeHess jumps over Marty and into a cross body press. Blears tries to draw a comparison between Shawn and Ghost Rider, but I don’t follow it at all.

Larry Nelson with Nick Bockwinkel. Nick is all decked out in a nice suit. He’s not as high fashion as Flair, but it’s still nice. Nick says he’s been to the top of the mountain three times and that number four is coming. Hansen has some tough challenges between now and then, but Hansen knows how to cut corners and Nick is confident that he’ll be wrestling Hansen on the 20th. Larry tries to cut him off and Nick just gives him a dirty look and Larry apologizes. That’s all it takes? I’ve been waiting for someone to get mad and deck him for cutting them off. Nick finishes by telling Hansen he’ll see on him the 20th.

Verne Gagne and Ken Resnick talk about the upcoming WrestleRock ‘86 show and how it’s going to feature a live concert from Waylon Jennings. Verne talks for a bit about how much he loves country music and that Jennings promised him that it’d be one of his best performances. Then we get to the good stuff, which is a clip from a show in St. Paul. It was supposed to be Sheik Adnan Al Kaisee against Brad Rheingans, but Sheik was replaced by a big masked man. The masked guy beats the cream cheese out of Brad and gets DQ’d. He tries to use a chair but Greg Gagne intervenes and unmasks him to be King Kong Brody. Brody gives Greg a piledriver on a chair and Verne runs him off.

This is the kind of stuff that shows that Verne really was out of touch. A giant like Brody being run off by Verne? It’d work in the ‘60’s or ‘70’s when Verne wasn’t so past his prime, but not in ‘86. Now, Brody beating on Verne and Greg and Rheingans making the save, that makes sense.

CURT HENNIG/SCOTT HALL © vs. BORIS ZUKHOV/THE BARBARIAN (AWA Tag Team Titles)
Given the angle from last week with the Sheik’s guys laying out Hennig and Marty, we’ve got the next logical step. This isn’t too bad actually, it’s nothing great, but it’s not terrible. Hall and Barbarian play the power game, and Hennig plays face in peril, and he does quite the good job at it, even though the heels don’t give him much to work with. Hot tag to Hall, who’s a house of fire, until he and Barbarian lariat each other. Hennig tags back in and hits Barbarian with a great body press and the bell rings. The time limit looked to be up, but it was apparently done by the Sheik. The match continues with the heels in control, and Barbarian picks up Hennig in a backbreaker and Zukhov comes off the top and the ref calls for the DQ for hitting Hennig across the throat (even though the ref actually had his back turned).

Larry Nelson with the Tag Team Champions. Hennig puts over the Sheik’s guys as the toughest team that he and Hall had ever faced. Then the topic goes to WrestleRock at their defense against the Long Riders. They’d apparently attacked Hennig and Hall with steel toe boots, and Stanley Blackburn made it clear that the Riders aren’t to wear jeans or motorcycle boots, but they’ll have to wear standard wrestling gear. That’s all for this week!

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