wrestling / TV Reports

AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN Classic 8.12.09

August 12, 2009 | Posted by Mike Campbell


AWA Championship Wrestling on ESPN Classic

The build to WrestleRock’86 continues, so I’m assuming it’s now April 15, 1986

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

KING KONG BRODY/THE BARBARIAN vs. STEEL GLADIATOR/JESSE HERNANDEZ
Am I the only one who thinks that Steel Gladiator sounds like a bad comic book superhero? He looks like DOA era Brian Lee, only about six inches shorter. This is just a massacre for the Sheik’s boys, they rough up the “competition” in the ring, and then it spills to the floor and they get disqualified when Brody bodyslams Hernandez on the concrete.

BRAD RHEINGANS vs. PISTOL PETE
I’m a fan of Rheingans, but these jobber matches are getting awfully repetitive. Brad dominates early on, including his cool neckbreaker, and also several sweet takedowns, almost like a judo hip throw, only Brad takes him down over the ankle. Pete gets control with a thumb to the eye, and then rakes Brad across the back, and then starts with the nerve hold. Pete uses this hold for five painfully boring minutes, Brad escapes with a dropkick, but Pete gets it back on. Brad finally escapes again and finishes Pete with an atomic drop followed with gut wrench suplex.

Larry Nelson with Brad Rheingans. Brad underestimated his opponent tonight, because he’s got Boris Zukhov on his mind. Boris has been running his mouth about putting Brad out of wrestling, but he didn’t. And next week, when Brad gets him in the ring, all of the Sheik’s money won’t do him any good, and Brad will put him out of wrestling.

It’s time for In This Corner with Larry N. and Larry Z. Zybyszko says he’ll back in action soon because his legal team is getting his suspension lifted. This week’s guests are the Midnight Rockers, I’ll just include the video, because it was one of the least entertaining In This Corner segments that I’ve seen.

Now it’s time for the AWA Mat Classic, and we go back to 1973 “A very long time ago” Larry Nelson helpfully explains.

RAY STEVENS vs. RED BASTIEN
What’s shown of this looks pretty fun, but this is hacked up more than one of Leatherface’s victims. Red takes to the air a lot, with some flying head scissors and jumping headlocks, while Ray is content to brawl and try to keep him grounded. They wind up brawling on the floor and Ray beats the count for the win. What was shown was fun, but if they can only squeeze in these short clips, then they should either give them more time or just not show them at all.

DOUG SOMERS vs. MIKE ROTUNDA
What the hell is Mike Rotunda doing here? And why are Larry and Greg also pimping Barry Windham? I thought they both went back to Florida after leaving WWF. This is fairly fun, although it drags in places. Mike is easily a better wrestler than Doug, and he’s good at showing it, but he really needed to do something other than a headlock. He doesn’t have to steal Brad’s amateur stuff, but at least do something more. Granted, Mike was very good about working the hold and not just using it as filler, but some variety would have been nice. Doug gets a nice escape with a backdrop suplex, and then again with a punch to the gut, and he starts working over Mike’s midsection. But it’s all too brief, Doug hits him in the gut to escape the hold, and then a gut buster, but then he’s more content to just stomp him. Mike’s juice (from the post is nice) and it gives Doug’s punching a little more focus, but Doug’s casual punching gets old fast. The finish with Mike landing on top of Doug when he tries the suplex is nice, especially since the suplex was already established as Doug’s finisher, and it’s the perfect way to play up how good a wrestler Mike is.

NULL

article topics

Mike Campbell

Comments are closed.