AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN Classic 8.04.09

AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN Classic

There’s no date listed for the show, just the year 1986. Eventually, we find out that it’s from February, two weeks after Hennig and Hall won the tag titles from Garvin and Regal. We’re apparently in Oshkosh, WI based on a sign in the crowd that says Oshkosh Loves AWA.

Current Champions:
AWA World Heavyweight Champion: Stan Hansen
AWA World Tag Team Champions: Curt Hennig and Scott Hall
AWA America’s Champion: Sgt Slaughter
AWA Ladies Champion: Candi Devine
AWA Light Heavyweight Champion: Buck Zumhofe

Larry Nelson runs down the card for today, which includes Marty Jannetty in action, as well as a big six man tag featuring Sgt Slaughter, Curt Hennig, and Jerry Blackwell against three members of Sheik Adnan Al Kaisee’s army as the main event. There’s also big news, King Kong Brody’s suspension has been lifted and he’ll be in action next week

MARTY JANNETTY vs. JAKE MILLIMAN
This is a fun little match to make Jannetty seem like someone to keep an eye on. He’s fairly flashy for the time period and promotion, he cartwheels out of an arm wringer form Milliman and then turns the tables with his own armbar, Milliman tries several times, but isn’t able to get out of the hold, Jannetty is always able to roll through. Milliman surprises him with a shot to the gut and goes to a chinlock. Milliman whips Jannetty into the corner, but Jannetty jumps onto the second rope and hits a blind cross body press for the win. The ending was messed up a bit, it looked like Marty lost his footing. It accomplished its goal of making Marty look like something special, so no complaints.

Larry Nelson with Sheik Adnan Al Kaisee. Larry wants to know if Sheik had anything to do with Brody’s suspension being lifted. The Sheik confirms it and gloats that everyone thought he’d left the AWA, but he’s back and he’s formed a fierce army. The Barbarian has spent a year training with Brody, and people often think that he is Brody. Barbarian says that Sheik told him that the Arab people want the championship belt and he’s going to get it for them. I’m not calling him a liar, but I doubt that the Arab people care about any of the AWA’s titles in the long run.

LEON WHITE vs. CHRIS CURTIS
Aside from the novelty of seeing the future Vader so young, thin, and agile, there’s not much to see here. Vader runs the ropes a lot and it’s weird to see him busting out a sunset flip. Beyond that it’s a lot of headlocks and shoulder tackles. Vader seems to have him beat with a big elbow drop and then a big leg drop, and finally finishes him with the powerslam.

Larry Nelson with Larry Zybyszko. Zybyszko is on suspension for attacking Nick Bockwinkel and Greg Gagne with a pair of nunchucks. Larry says he did it because Bockwinkel and the Gagnes bring in hired thugs like Scott LeDoux to keep him down. Nelson retorts that Larry used a “deadly weapon” and Larry fires back with that their actions are a deadly weapon to his bank account. He’s already got his attorney’s working on getting the suspension lifted.

SCOTT HALL vs. DOUG SOMERS
Ironic that Hall is wrestling half of the team that would take the tag titles off of him and Curt. This is as much of an exercise in how green Hall is, as it is of how much better Somers is. Hall’s strength is his obvious advantage, and it’s fine for him to use that, but he doesn’t have much to do with it beyond shoulder tackles and the big bodyslam. As impressive as it is to watch him throw around Somers it’s negated by the notion that it’s apparent that Hall can’t do anything else. Somers gets to show what he can do when Hall misses a big elbow drop, and Somers smartly goes to work on the arm, he pulls it over the ropes and works an armbar. Hall starts to come back with fists, and Somers goes to the eyes, and impressively takes the fight to Hall with his fists. Somers gets caught on the rope and gets slammed off and Hall finishes with the bulldog.

Larry Nelson with Hennig and Hall. Larry congratulates them on their recent tag title win in Albuquerque, NM. Hall says it feels great, and all those long hours in the gym paid off. That’s probably nothing compared to all the hours he spent in the bar. Hennig says they’re excited about being champions, but they know it’s one thing to win them, and another to defend them. There’s a lot of teams gunning for them, but he and Hall will be fighting champions.

SGT SLAUGHTER/CURT HENNIG/JERRY BLACKWELL vs. BORIS ZUKHOV/THE BARBARIAN/THE MONGOLIAN STOMPER
This only goes about ten or so minutes, and it really needed a lot more time. It looks like they’re laying the groundwork to go for awhile, with the typical tag match formula, but they rush the heel control segment and go straight to the hot tag, and breakdown of things. Slaughter works over Boris to start, and then Blackwell has some fun with Stomper. Slaughter gets in trouble when he eats a kick for Boris and gets rammed into the post and opened up. The heels work him over for a bit, and then it’s Hennig’s turn to get worked over, but he starts trading shots with Barbarian and makes the tag to Blackwell. All six brawl, Sheik interferes, and the ref calls for the bell and disqualifies the heels.

Larry Nelson with Slaughter, Blackwell, and Hennig. Blackwell is skeptical that Brody will be here next week, but he hopes he is because he wants to fight him again, and kick the Sheik’s ass! Hennig says that the Sheik is against the USA and that’s all that it takes to make him want to war with him. Sarge says that he knows what the Sheik is like and he know what has to be done about him. Larry cuts him off to say we’re out of time and that Sarge needs to have his cut looked at.