411's AWA on ESPN Classic Report 03.24.08

Posted by Randy Harrison on 03.25.2008

Squash matches ABOUND, jobbers continue to screw up the most basic of spots and Sherri Martel CHEATS TO WIN in the main event. Thank god, Sherri Martel was in the main event.


411's AWA On ESPN Classic Report


The AWA is BACK on ESPN Classic, and I took a sneak peek at the match listing and I don't exactly have high hopes for this one. Maybe this show will be like one of those #14 vs. #3 upsets in the NCAA Tournament and surprise me by being a lot better than it looks on paper. I can hope right? Let's get to the ring!!



AWA Championship Wrestling (Originally aired on )


We're in Omaha, Nebraska, and the ring announcer is most certainly NOT Larry Nelson for this one, as it's a guy in a full-on 70's ruffled shirt tuxedo, with cumberbund and gigantic bow-tie. That's awesome. Ron Trongard and Lord James Blears are your announcers as always.


Match One:
Col. DeBeers vs. Pete Sanchez

It's rather funny to see them clip in footage of fans from the Showboat in Las Vegas to make these fans seem a bit more animated. The audio on the announcers is terrible at the beginning and it's really hard to hear them for the first few moments. DeBeers gets a headlock takeover off of a lockup and then stomps at the head of Sanchez. Arm-wringer from DeBeers and he takes Sanchez over with a rollign armlock and stomps him again. DeBeers works Sanchez over in the corner and then starts in again with the arm-wringer, taking him over to the mat. Trongard makes me laugh just a little with a somewhat racially insensitive statement saying that with aparthied and everything that DeBeers has "no time whatsoever....for the black man". I don't know why that made me laugh, but he just made it sound so glib. I guess that's wrestling in the 80's for you. Sanchez reverses the arm-wringer but eats a knee to the gut and a turnbuckle smash to the head, before DeBeers drops another big stomp. Off the ropes and another boot to the head from DeBeers leads to a snapmare and more stomping away. Sanchez tries to make a comeback with right hands to the gut but DeBeers cuts that shit off quick, going right to the eyes. Another turnbuckle smash from DeBeers and he starts choking Sanchez across the top rope, slinging him off and doing more damage with his boots. He covers for a one count but pulls Sanchez up off the mat. An Irish whip from DeBeers leads to a big knee and Sanchez is back down on the mat. Sanchez fires off a couple of forearm shots off the ropes, but DeBeers ducks the third one and boots Sanchez in the stomach for such insolence. BIG clothesline from DeBeers and it's time for the pancake piledriver for the 1-2-3.

Winner: Col. DeBeers (pinfall, pancake piledriver)

Match Analysis: The usual DeBeers squash, which is to say that he actually sold a little while he was doing it, which not a lot of the name guys in the AWA did at the time. He didn't have to do much selling in this one though, since he pretty much dominated it. A good bit of heat on him though from the crowd in Omaha, since they HATED his guts. I guess that's the sign of a good heel, even one that plays the race card to get the heat. It's better to have heat for a bad reason than to have dead silence when you're wrestling.

We get a little helpful graphic on the way out, saying that The Barbarian, Scott Hall, Col. DeBeers and Larry Zbyszko are the top four challengers for the AWA Championship, by decree of Stanley Blackburn.


HERE'S Larry Nelson now, and he's in the ring with Col. DeBeers, with Nelson asking why he interfered in the match that cost Scott Hall and Curt Hennig the AWA Tag Team Championships. DeBeers asks why people meddle in the affairs of South Africa. DeBeers twirls his mustache and claims that Scott Hall has to take steroids to get up the courage to step in the ring with him. It shows a lack of self-confidence and athletic ability according to DeBeers and he yells at the crowd, claiming that the Omaha newspaper is a liberal rag that has led them down the wrong path. Nelson tells DeBeers that they're out of time and he's PISSED because he hasn't even gotten to his political views. They cut him off mid-rant, which is a shame cause it's been a long time since I've heard a hate-filled diatribe that would make me laugh. At least he wasn't spouting racial slurs in this one so I could watch it and not feel uncomfortable.


Match Two:
Greg Gagne and Jerry Blackwell vs. Chris Curtis and Rick Renslow

I remember meeting Renslow when I was really young and JESUS, that outfit is still impressive to this day. He really looks like an Alaskan, which I guess figures since he was introduced as "the number-one Alaskan". Blackwell shakes hands with everyone in the front row, which is kind of disturbing since it makes all of his arm-flesh jiggle away. It seems that Gagne's partner was supposed to be Jimmy Snuka, but his plane has been delayed which leads to us seeing Gagne and Blackwell teaming up. Gagne starts things out with Chris Curtis and they do some go-behinds and chain wrestling to start things out and Curtis starts to yell at the crowd. Curtis takes over with a headlock and Gagne runs him into the ropes, eating a shoulderblock, but turning the tide and getting a nice reverse monkey flip out of the exchange and HOLY MOTHER OF GOD, did they botch that headscissors spot badly. Gagne fell about on his head and Curtis took a back bump off of it. YUCK. Curtis drops a knee on Gagne and tries for a reverse chinlock but Gagne takes him over, holding him down until Curtis makes the ropes. A little extra stomp from Gagne on the way to a break and a tag is made to Renslow. Gagne gets a hammerlock off of a lockup and tags in Blackwell, who shows his technical prowess by yankingo on Renslow's beard. A double noggin-knocker in the corner and he moves Renslow to the ropes, crushing his chest with a hard forerarm shot. Renslow's had enough and tags Curtis back in and he immediately begins begging Blackwell for a handshake. Blackwell crushes Curtis' hand with the handshake and then headbutts his hand before grabbign a side headlock. He tags in Gagne and he takes Curtis over with a side headlock takeover. Curtis rolls him over for a couple of two counts, but Gagne keeps ahold of that headlock. Renslow comes in from the other side and stomps on Gagne to break the hold and Curtis goes over to make the tag. Gagne plays a little possum and starts unloading as soon as Renslow hits the ring, taking over with right hands and chops, as well as a couple of BIG bodyslams. A tag to Blackwell and Renslow does some begging too before eating a bunch of Blackwell headbutts. Renslow tags in Curtis and Curtis takes over with an elbow in the corner and some COMEDIC CHOKING! The heels do a little cheating and double-team Blackwell while the referee is distracted and the tag goes to Renslow, who works Blackwell over in the corner. More referee distracting and cheating from the heels and Renslow starts stomping away at Blackwell, but the blows are having no effect. Blackwell takes over with right hands on Renslow and a HUGE chop on Curtis. More right hands on Renslow and Renslow goes to the eyes to stop the comeback. Tag to Curtis and he comes in with a kick to the gut before trying a snapmare. Fat chance, Mr. Curtis, literally. Curtis decides on a front facelock instead and turns that into a reverse chinlock. Curtis off the ropes with a big elbowdrop and he hits a standing elbow on Blackwell. Blackwell blocks an Irish whip and another then makes a hot tag to Gagne, who hits a back bodydrop on Curtis and a BIG chop on Renslow, putting them both down. Gagne Irish whips Curtis in for the big dropkick and tags in Blackwell again, who Irish whips Curtis in for a big clothesline and hits the HUGE splash. He doesn't cover and instead tags over to Gagne and he hits a flying bodypress from the top rope to get the pinfall.

Winners: Greg Gagne and Jerry Blackwell (pinfall, flying bodypress from the top rope)

Match Analysis: This one wasn't very good for a multitude of reasons, like Blackwell's general lack of the ability to move, Curtis' lack of the ability to take the simplest of moves without botching it terribly, and Gagne's severe lack of babyface charisma. It would have barely been decent without the botches, but when you add those in, the match turns into a real disappointment. I kinda wish Snuka's flight had made it now.


Back from the break, Larry Nelson has Gagne and Blackwell with him and they share a handshake as Gagne thanks all the fans for coming out to Omaha and he kisses the crowd's ass a little. He talks about how they both have a lot in common as they both hate the Sheik's Army, they both want a shot at Nick Bockwinkel and both want a shot at Rose and Somers. He turns the attention to the Sheik and talks about Nord the Barbarian and talks about how the Sheik is stealing guys that Gagne has trained, using Barbarian and Ali Kahn's real names. SHOOT...GAGNE'S SHOOTING IN OMAHA!!! He says that Sheik sold them all out for a lot of money and Gagne says that there's going to be scores to settle. Blackwell gets his chance to talk now and he says that there's not enough money in the Arab world to pay Blackwell off to keep him from getting to the Sheik's men. Blackwell says that he and Gagne will get together and fight for the USA as long as there's a breath in their bodies. He also threatens that Gagne might be teaching him that top rope flying bodypress and that next time he might come off the top instead of Gagne. I don't think that ever happened because it's twenty years later and the planet still exists, so I think that Jerry thought better of that idea.


After another commercial break it's time for mayhem as the Sheik is down with Barbarian and Zhukov!!


Match Three:
Nord The Barbarian and Boris Zhukov w/Sheik Adnan El-Kaissie vs. Rick Renslow and Earthquake Ferris

Barbarian rams Renslow into the ringpost on the outside before the match even starts, leaving Earthquake Ferris in the ring all by his lonesome. We hear that Nick Bockwinkel has joined Trongard on commentary, and Barbarian and Ferris start out proper. They hit a lockup and Barbarian pushes Ferris back into the corner, giving him a clean break. Ferris gets a headlock off of another lockup and Barbarian shoots him in, leading to a couple of stalemate shoulderblocks. The third time is the charm for Barbarian though as he boots Ferris square in the face and puts him on his ass. Barbarian tries to slam Ferris but can't get him up and they brawl against the ropes before Barbarian whips him in and gets a big clothesline. Ferris is out to the floor and Barbarian has him by the hair, dragging him over to the bleachers and ramming him head-first into it as Barbarian comes back to the ring. Ferris staggers his way back to the ring and they hit another lockup, with Barbarian getting the BIG slam on Ferris, dropping a big knee to follow. Barbarian tags in Zhukov and he rams Ferris into the corner before hitting forearms. Ferris reverses an Irish whip though, and follows Zhukov into the corner with a BIG Earthquake splash!! ANOTHER splash and Ferrs makes a tag in to Renslow and he lifts Zhukov up for a couple of big slams and a hiptoss takeover. Renslow whips Zhukov into the corner and follows with a charge, but eats the boot and goes down. Zhukov rams him into the boot of the Barbarian and makes the tag, choking Renslow against the top rope. Barbarian hits a big atomic drop on Renslow and another one and a belly to back suplex this time before ramming Renslow's head into the turnbuckle. A tag to Zhukov and he Irish whips Renslow in for a clothesline that gets a two count. BIG headbutt from Zhukov and he tags Barbarian back in who hits a HUGE bodyslam before going to the second rope. HUSS HUSS HUSS elbowdrop from the second rope hits and he lays across Renslow like he's about to take a nap and gets the three count.

Winners: Nord The Barbarian and Boris Zhukov (pinfall, HUSS HUSS HUSS elbowdrop)

Match Analysis: The heels dominated this one from beginning to end and it was just a showcase for all of their offense. It wasn't even an extended squash, since that would mean that the face team would have had to have gotten some offense. This was just one long beating, and after a while it got a little boring. Plus seeing Rick Renslow twice in one show was once too often for my tastes.

After the match, Larry Nelson has words with Zhukov and Barbarian, along with the Sheik and Sheik starts out saying that he's very proud of his men and he issues a challenge to the AWA Tag Team Champions and to the AWA Championship, and to Greg Gagne and Jimmy Snuka. That's a lot of challenging. Barbarian says that Sheik always has something up his sleeve and that no one's been able to do anything about it. He calls Gagne, Hennig and Hall midgets and then tops that one, saying that Nick Bockwinkel is the "Dick Clark of Wrestling". He claims that Bockwinkel is older than the hills and then drops to his knees, saying that there's no one big enough for him to fight standing up. Zhukov threatens the Rockers and says that they want the tag team titles while Barbarian distrubingly plays with Zhukov's ponytail dealie. That made me shudder a little just to see it. Zhukov calls Greg Gagne a pencil-necked geek and Scott Hall a coward. Sheik rambles a little more and Barbarian starts taking back bumps behind them for no apparent reason. That's awesome.


After a short commercial interlude, we're back in Omaha and it's time for the ladies to hit the ring, including Sherri Martel coming to the ring to the opening of "Material Girl" from Madonna, in a move that I'm sure would have cost Verne a ton of money if anyone had cared about the AWA on a larger scale at this point.


Match Four: AWA Women's Championship
Princess Jasmin vs. Sherri Martel (c) w/ Buddy Rose

I have to admit that's a pretty impressive belt that Martel has for being the women's champ. It's like a mix between a real championship belt and the belt from Rocky IV, with the red, white and blue strap. The bell rings and we're underway with the ladies locking up and Martel getting a side headlock takeover, which Jasmin reverses into a headscissors immediately. Either Jasmin's makeup came off on Martel's white singlet, or her boob is bleeding. I'm guessing on the former in this instance and hoping I'm right. Standing armbar by Jasmin and she takes Martel down to the mat, holding on to the arm. Martel to her feet and it turns into an arm-wringer and Jasmin takes her down again, cranking on a straight armbar, almost MMA-style. Martel finally gets free of it, rolling up the body of Jasmin, moving from a side headlock to a front facelock and referee Gary DeRusha ends up underneath them when they both fall on him. Martel blames Jasmin for that and Jasmin heads over to talk a little shit to Rose in Martel's corner. Right hands from Jasmin and Martel is down, though she's back up to get some snap mares by the hair and Jasmin takes her into the ropes. Martel is getting checked on by Rose and finally makes it back into the ring, with Jasmin getting another right hand off of a lockup in the corner. Jasmin stomps away at her in the corner and Martel has had enough, throwing Jasmin through the ropes to the floor, right in front of Trongard and Blears. Martel rams her off the apron as Jasmin tries to make her way back to the ring, while Rose just stands and watches smugly. Martel with forearms to the gut and one to the head that put Jasmin back down on the floor off the apron. Jasmin is still out on the floor, trying to recover, before finally rolling back into the ring, with Martel ending up right on top of her. Jasmin with right hands to the stomach though and a BIG headbutt puts Martel down. Another headbutt and Jasmin gets a catapaults putting Martel onto her stomach with the first one and into DeRusha with the second one. Martel on the apron and she gets slung back in by Jasmin, into a HUGE back bodydrop. Jasmin yanks Martel up by the hair and lays in a big chop, but Martel kicks her off with a boot to the gut. Martel goes to the eyes and scratches away at them, but Jasmin fires right back with more punches that put Martel out to the floor. A HUGE slap from Jasmin sends Martel sprawling over the announce table and into the lap of Larry Nelson, who looks appalled at seeing a woman in his lap. Jasmin gets Martel by the hair and throws her back into the ring, but Martel gets her in the stomach again with a big shot, rolling Jasmin up and grabbing the second rope to hold her down for the pinfall.

Winner: Sherri Martel (pinfall, rope-assisted rollup)

Match Analysis: The best match of the night, mainly because it wasn't a total squash, and actually featured some back and forth action. Jasmin held her own against Martel and even held the advantage on a few occasions until Martel ended up getting the win via the heelish cheating. A good match on a show that really needed one, and it's always a treat to see Martel working in the ring in this time period, as she was really one of the best.


Martel is in the ring with Rose and she's talking to Larry Nelson, saying that it doesn't matter what anyone else says, she won fair and square and that it was the referee's decision. Nelson turns to Buddy Rose and he wonders why everything has to be controversial and says that they don't need to use the ropes. They use knowledge, experience, muscles and everything else to win and Martel says that she's going to stay the women's champion no matter what it takes, so we can all shove it. She denies grabbing the ropes on the rollup and looks indignantly at Nelson. Rose KNOWS she didn't grab the ropes and says that it was a textbook cradle. He says that they're both professional wrestlers and that they know how to use wrestling holds to their advantage. Larry Nelson gives them both credit, I assume to avoid a beating, and we're out of time for another edition of the AWA!!



Final Thoughts

Not a good show at all. The squashes were boring, there was no Zbyszko, no Curt Hennig, no Midnight Rockers and the best match was the main event for the women's title. That's not to say that the women can't have great matches, but this show was really lacking in the areas of good wrestling, and obnoxious heel interviews. Sherri tried her best to save it with both at the end of the show, but it just wasn't enough. Thumbs down on this one for me, and here's to hoping that tomorrow's show is at least a little bit better. Now we move on to the fun of the column, since this show was a real dud, the COMMENTS!!



Fun With Comments

From Silo Sam:
"well...in retrospect Somers let Gunther off easy compared to the beating
Michaels gave Alex Knight. That match was rough. I swear that the finish was
supposed to be the rockers front suplex splash on knight(as they've finished
people in the past with that) It got interesting after that because it felt
like stamp and knight were tagging back and forth every time the rockers
knocked them down to kinda delayed the finish. it really hurt the flow of the
match. Seemed like a case of the "veteran jobbers"(more so knight
than stamp) not wanting to put over the young guys so easily. Well, he got
some stiff shots, a stiff superkick and a rough BACK DROP DRIVER! for his
troubles. Add to that the fact that I will remember him as the jobber that
didn't want to put over Shawn Michaels...Quite a claim to fame. I wish you
would give Brad Rheingans a break. Is it his fault that the only trunks he can
find with red, white, and blue is that of the french flag? Is it his fault that
he has the charisma of a wet noodle?..well, yes.. He SUCKS. I want to like
him, I want him to be good, I root for him...but, Its just not there. Its a
shame. Main event was good..as most of them have been lately. Although, I
gotta tell ya..I wish it was Hall instead of Snuka. I'm not really a Snuka fan
but, ah..what can you do. good match. Anyone else catch some of the UWF
marathon today?"

The AWA certainly seemed to be the place where the jobber punishments were handed out in the ring instead of behind the curtain. Knight seemed like he was really sandbagging it and he paid for it in the end, which is probably the right thing to do, since he was in no position to make the contracted talent look bad, but did so anyways. I have to say that as much as I try, I can't get into Rheingans at all, and he will almost always be a big old bucket of suck for me. I didn't get a chance to see any of the UWF marathon, but I've seen all the episodes that ESPN Classic ran anyhow during the first run of those shows, so I get the feeling I didn't miss much.


From jbgs2:
"I never watched ESPNC until I saw that they were playing all these old shows.
Nostalgia time. I had heard of the UWF but never saw any of the shows. They
don't really give you any timelines until about the 3:00 or 3:30 show, and then
it's only briefly, I kind of guessed 89' or 90' because Col. Debeers comes out
to Welcome to the Jungle. Alot of the guys are either just starting out or on
the decline. B Brian Blair, Danny Spivey, a young Mick Foley, Debeers, Orndorff
after his arm atrophied from his neck injury, Steve Williams appear to be the
major names. The shows start out like they are held in a casino room, but they
say they are in LA. They then have later shows from Fla. and Bob Orton is the
champ at that point. Prior to that there is no mention of any title belts. They
say they are going to have a TV champ tourney but I haven't gone that far with
the shows yet."

That was the mark of the UWF shows, either guys that were starting out like Foley, or all of the older washed out guys like you mentioned. It sounds a little like the AWA, but at least in the AWA, the washed out older guys were mostly jobbers while in the UWF, their older guys were the top talent.


From guest:
"I wish I could have watched the UWF marathon. I didn't know it was on until the
last 5 min of the last show. I work with Mike Williams who was a jobber on some
of the shows. I would have been cool to see him back then. Who knows, maybe
they'll do it again next week."

That's cool that you end up working with someone who did some work in the business. As for next week, I think that they change the marathon every Saturday, so unless there is some outrageous demand for the UWF, it will probably be something different next week.


From Maffew:
"Dennis "I'm not booked" Stamp did actually wrestle then? Wow. He's
still a whiner."

So it seems.


From Infamous Male:
"I never understood why Nick Bockwinkle was just handed over the AWA World
Heavyweight Championship when Stan Hansen was stripped of it. Verne Gagne was
the personification of old school & is many said he was a cheap ass. Some
sort of tournament to crown a new champion would have at least sold some
tickets & given the new champion some credibility. Not that Bockwinkle
didn't, he most definitely did. But I thought the both Bockwinkle & the
belt took a hit with the decision. I could understand if it was a second or
third tier belt, but the World Heavyweight Championship Title Belt? With names
like Bockwinkle, Snuka, Zbyszko, Hennig, Hall, Gagne, Debeers, Micheals,
Jannetty, etc., you could have at least had a decent tournament. Even if
Bockwinkle won it in the end it would have sold some tickets & not hurt the
belt & the champion. Dumb move Verne."

I guess the reasoning is that Bockwinkel was the number one contender and that he was already scheduled to win the title so they'd might as well just give it to him. I think that Verne thought that a period of time with no champion on top would have been more damaging to his business than to just hand the belt to the next guy that was supposed to get it. Hindsight is 20/20 and all, but at the time I guess it made sense. Bockwinkel deserved to be the champion though, so there's no qualms from me about who Verne gave it to.


From Guest:
"I've already emailed ESPN to thank them for re-airing these shows, and I
encourage all of you to do the same, to at least let them know we're watching.
This is the first wrestling I've watched on tv since the last Nitro aired.

On another note, Boris Zhukov is still very active on the indy scene, wrestling
a lot of shows in the soutwest Virginia area with Jimmy Valiant. Valiant's in
retirement, but is promoting his mammoth autobiography and helping to promote
shows for some of his former students. For those of you who don't know,
"The Boogie-Woogie Man" has a wrestling school in Shawsville,
Virginia."

He is indeed very active on the independent scene, and as a reader named Paul, who I think may be the guest in question here, helpfully e-mailed me over the weekend, he's still doing the Boris Zhukov schtick, in full Russian regalia. Check it out!



Well, it's good to see him active, though if that Hammer and Sickle goes any lower under his...stomach, it might end up on the back of his singlet soon. Thanks for the comment and the mail!


Finally from Eric:
"When Bockwinkel was given the title belt by forfeit in 1986 it wasn't the first
time that happened. When Verne Gagne retired as heavyweight champion,
Bockwinkel was awarded the belt that time as well. It's nothing against Nick as
a champion, because he was very articulate in his interviews and was very
methodical in the ring - especially when he was a heel - that did make him a
respectable individual to hold the belt.

For those complaining about the squash matches, that's the way they still did
it through the 80s until the advent of the PPV as the main money draw. The
formula was short matches, spotlight the talent, do the interview segments to
move storylines along and SELL TICKETS. This is just a variation of Csonka's
thoughts about giving away PPV caliber matches on free TV. Also, there wasn't
this huge obsession with ratings as there is nowadays. Obviously ESPN was
satisfied with the AWA programming enough to keep them in decent timeslots for
nearly six years. That's not bad for a national sports network to do that.
Then again, ESPN then isn't the ESPN now either.

The one thing you'll see that's different when comparing the AWA to the UWF: at
least, even with the occasional fuckup, you still had a fairly well booked
match. I couldn't watch so many hours of the other show - combine the low
budget, the jobbers who couldn't job very well, and a horrible announcer in
Herb Abrams (I'll take Rod Trongard any day of the week by comparison)

And Randy....you think Brad Rheingans is boring? Watch most of the
UWFers....and Rheingans is the Rock by comparison! ;-) Remember, Rheingans was
a trainer and an assistant coach in the Olympics - and I'll bet if you dig deep
enough you'd have found him still in that coaching position when Kurt Angle was
still an amateur. Yes, he was as bland as oatmeal, but Brad knew all the
basics, and was usually the one making sure 'most' of the jobbers and new
talent knew what to do in the ring. Someone else worked on interview style,
because he didn't do too much of that. He wasn't supposed to.

I didn't mind the mash-up main event so much due to the crowd being so into it.
That's the thing that holds my interest, especially on the old shows. You'll
see this in programming that came out of World Class and Crockett as well. If
the crowd is really HOT for the match, it does wonders for the interest level
for those watching at home. And that was the whole point...

...you wanted to make sure your product looked good so people would pay for
tickets to the house shows and buy those t-shirts, etc. That was their bread
and butter. Don't give too much away. Juuuuust enough to make you excited to
go to your local arena.

As far as the main event goes, Greg Gagne was never really a good singles
wrestler. His forte` was tag team wrestling. But put him in with a partner or
two and you could generally get good effort out of him. I think some of it had
to do with the fact that he was never the wrestler his father was. He was a
football player in college, not a pro wrestler.

At the time I wasn't too enamored with some of the wrestlers featured on the
old AWA shows, but comparing them to some of the half-assed efforts and rigidly
booked storylines (Katie Vick anyone?), the old-school stuff was very underrated
and looks pretty good nowadays.

Ah, nostalgia....you know?

And I'm out..."

I agree with most everything that you said and if there was one thing that Verne knew how to do really well, it was draw hot crowds and full houses in all the AWA arenas up until the late-80's when he seemed to just lose it all at once when the business passed him by. The old-school stuff is always going to be good, and it's no coincidence that a lot of the best storylines that have been running recently have been slow builds and nods to old-school booking, rather than the CRASH TV crap that seemed to be all over the late-90's shows. If they'd just get serious and book wrestling like wrestling again, with the dramatic elements coming in from the action and the interviews and things, rather than all of the other boo-hoo stuff, they'd probably have a lot better shows.


That does it for me and another edition of the AWA on ESPN Classic, and I'll look forward to seeing you all back here again tomorrow everybody!!