AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN Classic 8.11.09

AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN Classic

It’s April 8, 1986, which tells us that the previous show was from April 1st. The main event is Stan Hansen against Leon White, which Hansen was alluding to in his promo from the week before.

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 Light Heavyweight Champion: Buck Zumhofe
AWA Ladies Champion: Candi Devine

CURT HENNIG/SCOTT HALL vs. HARRY HENDERSON/EARTHQUAKE FERRIS
Verne is an unintentional riot on commentary, going on and on about how Henderson looks. He’s dressed like some sort of punk rocker with rainbow hair. Or, for a more modern description, he looks like a backyard wrestler who’s made somewhat of a name for themselves and gets a spot in the IWA-MS King of the Deathmatch tournament. Hennig and Hall bump Henderson all over the place, Hall with big bodyslams and a high back body drop, and Hennig stiffs him pretty good with a running dropkick. Ferris tags and they just tool around, since Ferris is useless and they can’t do anything to him because of his size. Henderson back in for more abuse, and he takes another beating, and gets pinned after an Irish Whip from Hall into a dropkick off the second rope from Hennig.

Larry Nelson with Hall and Hennig. Larry tells them that they wanted the Long Riders at WrestleRock’ 86 and they’ve got them. Hall says that everyone wants to cheap shot them, the Long Riders with steel toe boots, and the Sheik’s army and all their cheating and he knows why. Because he and Hennig are such a good team, and only getting better. They’ve been working out and “Curt’s teaching me how to wrestle.” I swear on Aaron Hubbard’s life, Hall actually said that! Hennig jumps in and says they’ve been working hard and only getting better, they’re going to be champions for a long time!

BUDDY ROSE vs. BILL ANDERSON
Buddy must have been working out, he’s down to 215 lbs now. Typical squash here, for the most part. Buddy whips Anderson into the corners with as much force as he can, and then starts dropping elbows on his back. Buddy gets several chances to win, but opts to pull up Anderson to dish out more punishment. It almost costs him, when Anderson throws him to the floor, but when Buddy gets back in, he catches Anderson dropping his head too early hits the jackpot for the win.

Larry Nelson with Buddy Rose. Larry congratulates him on the win and asks about the Midnight Rockers. Buddy comments that he’s a great wrestler and he’s undefeated. Sherri is also undefeated and is a former Ladies Champion (figure that one out). Sherri says that she wants a rematch with Candi Devine because the referee are biased, and that Buddy also deserves a belt. Buddy doesn’t care about the Midnight Rockers, they’re too young to stay up until Midnight.

Larry Nelson in the studio and introduces a clip of the match that created the cage match at WrestleRock. I’ve actually gone over this before, but since these are shown out of order, here’s a brief summary. Brad Rheingans wrestled one of Sheik’s masked men, who attacked him before the bell, Greg Gagne made the save and unmasked him as King Kong Brody. Brody beat down Greg and hit a big piledriver, leading to Verne making the save.

Now we interview Greg Gagne with news that Jerry Blackwell was injured by Brody and can’t make it to WrestleRock. Everyone asked Greg what he was gonna do, and even his wife told him not to get in the cage. But Greg is getting in the cage anyway! (Greg was obviously not really married then) And Greg has a new partner, Jimmy Snuka.

STAN HANSEN © vs. LEON WHITE (AWA World Heavyweight Title)
This isn’t the most exciting or interesting match, but it works in its own way. Leon knows not to trade shots with Hansen, so he keeps the pace slow and wrestle Hansen by keeping him trapped in a headlock though. Hansen will find ways to escape, but Leon will get the hold back on. Where it works is that Leon is great at putting over how much pressure he’s trying to put into the headlock and how it’s slowly tiring him out. Hansen finally escapes and starts working on Leon’s arm and hand, which also works in the context of Hansen trying to keep Leon from using the hold, and Hansen is very fun with his dickish offense, he’s bend the wrist back, and drop knees on the arm while having it trapped. Hansen takes him to the floor and starts to bash it into the steps, guardrail and post. They start brawling and almost get counted out. Back in and Leon looks to have things in control with tackles, but he misses a charge into the post and the lariat ends it. In some funny revisionist trivia, Blears says that he thinks Leon is a few years away from being a World Champion. Big Van Vader won the IWGP Heavyweight Title on 4/24/86, so he was on the money. Vader was also almost four years away from having his eye popped out, during a match with . . . Stan Hansen.

Larry Nelson with Stan Hansen. Hansen wants to know who’s next, is Bockwinkel next? Yes, Bockwinkel vs. Hansen on 4/20. Hansen says he knows that Nick is probably reading his dictionary trying to find a word to describe him. Hansen isn’t the toughest guy in the world but he never quits. He’s off to lick his wounds and enjoy the fat paycheck he just earned. He tells Bockwinkel he’ll see him in St. Paul.