411's AWA on ESPN Classic Report 04.23.08

Posted by Randy Harrison on 04.24.2008

It's a week before SuperClash III and the AWA puts on a go-home show that should have just stayed home. Or been taken out behind the barn and shot, your pick...


411's AWA On ESPN Classic Report


Last time out was a real disaster with most of the worst matches from SuperClash III making it onto the broadcast. I'm begging for another Showboat show at this point, so let's see what we get.


AWA Championship Wrestling (Originally aired on...)

Larry Nelson and that shithead Lee Marshall are sitting in the AWA studios and this looks like it's a show that's going to be in full hype mode for SuperClash III. We get video of the AWA International Television Title controversy between Greg Gagne and Ronnie Garvin and how neither man is the champion and that it will play to Gagne's advantage that Garvin won't have the chance to get disqualified or go to a draw to save his title, since it's not even his!!! A somewhat decent point, but I can't take these two seriously with their horrible tuxedos and Marshall's mullet/mustache combination. I will point out a hidden highlight though that Nelson's bowtie is red and Marshall's is blue, making them match both the set in the studio, and the AWA color scheme. CONTINUITY!!! Larry Nelson succeeds in making the word fearless seem gay by saying that he and Marshall will fearlessly pick the winners of the matches, while waggling his head back and forth like he's on Maury trying to figure out who his baby daddy is. He freaks out that we need to order SuperClash III and then sends us to the ring.


Match One:
Jimmy Valiant vs. Tommy Rich

Jimmy's kissing babies on the way to ringside and I don't know about you, but I wouldn't let my kids anywhere near Grandpa Mushrooms. I will say that he only looks seventy here so that's a plus for him. This looks to be taped at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis and was probably part of the CWA's weekly show. Rich stomps the hell out Valiant as he rolls into the ring and then chokes him a little before picking him up and clotheslining Valiant down, mocking him and pissing off the crowd. The announce team is Lee Marshall and Diamond Dallas Page and it might not be long before I've muted the television. I'm just saying. Rich chokes out Valiant on the mat and he shoves the referee out of the way to drop a fist into Valiant's face. More choking as Valiant twitches on the mat. SOMEONE GET GRANDPA HIS PILLS!!! RIGHT HANDS FROM VALIANT AND HE SENDS REFEREE NUMBER TWO OUT OF THE WAY!!! Here come wrestlers from the back and RICH IS HAMMERING AWAY!!! VALIANT FIRING BACK WITH RIGHT HANDS AND A BACK BODYDROP!! Rich bails out of the ring to a chorus of boos and they're still slugging away at each other on the outside. Valiant flails away while the faces try to drag him away like he's going to a crooked 'senior living community' and he slams Rich into the post to bust him open. Valiant has a chair in the ring and Rich punches the falsies out of his mouth while the babyfaces hold Valiant down. Rich is in the ring doing the fired-up babyface routine. Uh, Tommy? You're the heel remember? Valiant comes back into the ring and there goes Rich, bailing to the outside and heading off to the back. Marshall threatens that we'll see this issue settled at SuperClash III. To quote Tony Schiavone "that'll put asses in the seats".

Winner: None (double disqualification)

Match Analysis: A match that didn't even get started. Thankfully, since the brawl was weak at best and terrible at worst. Thankfully they didn't pay off this feud at SuperClash and kept Valiant to a short squash match against Wayne Bloom. Not a good way to start the show though.


After the break Larry Nelson is in the SuperClash control center (another set Verne? You'd might as well spend the money if you don't have it huh? Not like they'll forclose and put you out of business or anything right? Oh...uh...) and he's with Jerry Lawler, the AWA World Heavyweight Champion. Lawler talks about how he wishes he could be a fly on the wall in the Von Erich home because his family has had such a streak of bad luck and that there must be a ton of pressure on him to succeed. He even says that he has a source that has told him that Von Erich wakes up at night with the sweats. I'm thinking that has more to do with the drugs than the match with you King. Lawler assures Von Erich that he's going to let his family down again and then promises him that he's going to lose. Lawler's one hell of a talker, I'll give him that.

We get to see Larry Nelson and Marshall in the studios making their picks. Both guys like the Guerreros in their six-man match and in the Jarrett/Embry match for the Texas Light Heavyweight Title, Nelson likes Jarrett while Marshall is picking Embry. OOOH, DISSENSION IN THE RANKS!!! TUXEDO MATCH BETWEEN THESE TWO IDIOTS!! BOOK IT!!! Marshall and Nelson both pick DeBeers in the boot camp match, with Nelson saying that he's making the pick because DeBeers will "out-sneaky" the Sarge. Jesus. They make a pick on the POWW Lingerie Battle Royal with Nelson sounding like a pervy old man at the prospect of some female (half-) nudity. Marshall picks someone named The Terrorist while Nelson says he doesn't care as long as no one goes over the top rope and they get stripped instead. Marshall laughs, but I'm sure that after the segment was done he was calling the police. Where's Chris Hansen when you need him? After that uncomfortableness we cut to a ladies tag match already in progress.


Match Two:
Wendi Richter and Mimi vs. Medusa Micelli and Sylvia

Richter puts Micelli in the tree of woe and stomps at her a little before turning to Sylvia to give her a little taste. Micelli breaks free and attacks Richter from behind, slinging her off the ropes into the middle of the ring before she locks on a front facelock and kicks at Richter's partner. Belly to back suplex for a two-ish count but Richter gets the shoulder up before three. Richter gets a near pin and we hear the bell for some reason as Micelli goes after the referee, shoving him around before she heads out to the apron. The heel team takes off and Micelli tells Richter to kiss her ass. I'm guessing they did the double-pin spot off of that suplex but it looked terrible and honestly nobody knew what the hell was going on.

Winners: Wendi Richter and Mimi (pinfall, horribly botched double pinfall sequence)

Match Analysis: Barely a minute's worth of action, so there's no way to decide whether it was any good or not, but I will say that in 1988 Medusa was hot. I don't know what happened, but back then she was a good-looking woman.

Back to the studio with more of Nelson's pervertedness, which he apologizes for. Marshall laughs uncomfortably and tries to calm Nelson down before they send it back to Memphis for more action.


Match Three:
The Top Guns vs. The Beast and The Hangman

The Guns looks a lot like any other knock-off of The Rock and Roll Express, although they look like they're meant to replace The Midnight Rockers more than anyone. This is the original Top Guns with Ricky Rice and Jon Paul, so Derrick Dukes was still a couple of weeks away from his chance. Paul locks up with The Beast and takes him down with a shoulderblock before hip-tossing him over and armdragging him into an armbar. Rice comes off the second rope with a double sledge and he tries an armbar but Beast pushes him into the corner with a handful of hair and just starts wailing on him. Forearm shot and Beast whips him across to the other corner but Rice hops to the second rope and hits a flying bodypress for a two-count. Rice to the armbar and he tags in Paul again and they continue to work the armbar over. Beast rakes at the eyes and tags in Hangman, who gets armdragged right over into an armbar. Irish whip in and Paul gets a shoulderblock and a leapfrog before hitting a HUGE clothesline. Tag in to Rice and he takes Hangman down, dropping a leg on the arm before Hangman can turn it around and make the tag. I have to mention Hangman's ring attire which is a full-legged wrestling singlet with a red bandana around his neck and jeans that have the entire back torn off, except for an ass-floss piece to keep them on him. I guess the bandana means that he's a bottom. Beast gets Irish-whipped in and dropkicked by Rice and Rice tags in Paul for a huge flying splash that he calls the "Dive Bomber"

Winners: The Top Guns (pinfall, "Dive Bomber" splash)

Match Analysis: The Top Guns were terrible and the heel team was even worse. You could tell that Verne was grasping at straws at this point, trying to find anyone with a shred of talent to help carry the brand. The Guns weren't that talent though and it showed how green they were in this match. This is starting to get intolerable.


Back to the AWA studios and they're going to send us to Bill Apter, the senior editor of Pro Wrestling Illustrated as he's going to speak to the Guerrero Brothers. The audio for this segment is TERRIBLE with a high-pitched whine underlying the entire thing. Apter asks about Bad Company and the Hector says that any combination of the Guerreros can beat Bad Company at any time, so all they have to do is step in the ring. Apter talks about how great they are as a team and that people say that they can't handle themselves as singles wrestlers. Mando calls bullshit and says that they were trained seperately but have decided to band together as a family now, so they can handle themselves in singles, tag, six-man matches or whatever else comes at them. Mando threatens that there is a fourth guy coming. Chavo says that every dog has his day and that as long as Diamond Dallas stays out of the way, Bad Company will lose. He even talks about how The Guerreros have won tag-team championships as singles. I don't even know what to say to that one. He says that it's a matter of time and that it doesn't matter what the combination is and Chavo talks about Eddie coming up, as well as mentioning that he has a son coming up in wrestling too. Apter cuts off the interview there and thanks the Guerreros for their time. It was kinda cool to see Apter use his "see you at the matches" catchphrase and a neat twist to call the interview a "Press Conference", since that was the name of the interview column in the PWI magazine back in the day. Back to the AWA studio and Marshall says that if you can only pick one PPV show, all the magazines say that SuperClash III is the way to go.


After the break, Marshall and Nelson talk about previous the previous SuperClash shows with Marshall outright lying and saying that SuperClash II sold out San Francisco when the house was a little over 2,000 paid. They then send us back to SuperClash I for the mat classic at Comiskey Park between Boris Zhukov and Sgt. Slaughter.


Match Four:
Sgt. Slaughter vs. Boris Zhukov

We join this one in progress with Zhukov working over Slaughter on the infield grass and Slaughter slowly making his way to his feet. Zhukov hits a running kneelift on the apron that sends Slaughter back into the ring and then headlocks him to rake his eyes across the top rope. Slaughter gets rammed into the top turnbuckle and then gets choked across the top rope by Zhukov. Boris picks him up and drops him throat-first on the top rope before Zhukov wrenches on a chinlock and hits some hard forearm shots. Zhukov pulls Slaughter down for a two-count and then hits a swinging neckbreaker for another two-count. Zhukov rakes at the face and then goes to a headlock before stomping away on Slaughter. They're right in front of Larry Nelson's announce table and he's waving his hands at them to go away like he's shooing off a bee. Zhukov rams Slaughter into the table and throws him over it as Zhukov tries to piledrive Slaughter on the grass. Slaughter backdrops Zhukov and crawls back into the ring as Zhukov climbs up onto the apron and up onto the top rope. Slaughter catches him and slams him hard across the ring before Irish whipping him in for a reverse elbow. Another Irish whip and Slaughter gets a dropkick before Irish whipping Zhukov into the corner for a backdrop. Here comes the big clothesline but ZHUKOV PULLS THE REFEREE INTO THE WAY. Slaughter tries to help the ref to his feet as Zhukov loads up an elbowpad with a foreign object according to Nelson. Wouldn't it just be a regular old object since Zhukov is already foreign? It just seems redundant is all. Slaughter catches Zhukov wth some right hands and Irish whips him into the corner but Zhukov gets an elbow up as Slaughter charges in and catches him with that loaded pad. Slaughter goes down and commences a blatant bladejob while crawling on his stomach in the middle of the ring. Zhukov pounds away on Slaughter before biting at the cut and ramming him into the turnbuckles and then the post. The referee calls for the bell as Zhukov continues to pound on Slaughter. Slaughter gets all fired up and makes a big comeback chasing Zhukov arond before Boris bails to the infield. Slaughter throws him back into the ring but Zhukov just high-tails it the other way and heads for the dugouts and safety.

Winner: Sgt. Slaughter (disqualification)

Match Analysis: Finally a decent match, but again it's much too short to mean anything and Slaughter might as well have just bladed himself while standing up in the corner shouting "I'm BLADING OVER HERE!!!" because it was just that obvious. This was one of the blow-off matches at SuperClash I, but Zhukov and Slaughter would continue to feud for at least a couple of years after this. Kind of telling when the best match on the show is from three years before though isn't it?

Nelson is in the SuperClash control center and talks about how Sheik Adnan El-Kaissie is back for SuperClash III!! The Sheik speaks in Arabic then says that everyoen would like to know where the Sheik has been. He's been trying to negotiate peace between Iraq and Iran and he says that he's formed an alliance with The Iron Sheik and Sheik comes in and says that Iraq and Iran have made peace before Sheik says that he is in the AW...WA for one reason, then he says that Jerry Lawler, Greg Gagne, and Sgt. Slaughter have all been talking about him, but he's in the AWA for the championship belt. Shiek poses while El-Kaissie does his schtick and they're out of time.


Back from commercial and Buddy Roberts is in the SuperClash control center, screaming at Michael Hayes and telling him that the Samoan Swat Team are going to come to SuperClash and that there will be no doubt in the fans' minds who the champions are going to be. This leads to Nelson and Marshall debating the match between the SST and Michael Hayes and Steve Cox for the World Class Tag Team Titles. Marshall goes with the Hayes team and Nelson goes with the SST because of Buddy Roberts and his potential interference. They move on to the Gagne/Garvin match and Marshall says that it's a toss-up and they talk about the accomplishments of Garvin before Nelson picks Gagne. In the strap match Marshall says that he's sure that they'll cut each other to ribbons before picking Wahoo McDaniel and Nelson doesn't pick anyone. Marshall goes to the next match and says that he picks the Rock and Roll Express in that tag match while Nelson picks The Stud Stable because of Sylvia on the outside. It's time to get to the ring and see The Stud Stable in action.


Match Five:
The Stud Stable (Jimmy Golden and Robert Fuller) vs. The Green Jobbers

I have no idea who the other team is so I just made up a name for them. I doubt it will matter much since they looks like they're goign to take the pin anyhow. Golden is in the ring to start the match and he hip-tosses his man over before stomping at the knee. Fuller joins in on the abuse from the outside and gets a couple of cheapshots in before Golden drags him back in and gets a spinning toehold. Tag in to Fuller and he drops down onto the leg of the jobber. Fuller distracts the referee to let Golden have a whack at some illegal action and Sylvia whacks the kendo stick against the kid's knee. Tag to Golden and he works a single-leg crab and he gets the submission with that one.

Winners: The Stud Stable (submission, single-leg crab)

Match Analysis: Short and awful, just like the rest of the matches on the show so far. At least there was a little psychology with the leg. I mean as much psychology as there can be in a two minute match. At least the jobber on the apron got a payoff for standing there and not taking a beating. So there's something good to come out of this match.

After the match Larry Nelson's in the SuperClash control center with The Rock and Roll Express and they have some words for The Stud Stable as Gibson says that the winner of the match gets a shot at Bad Company and Morton says that they've been the four-time tag team champions and that if they have to use The Stud Stable as a steppingstone then that's what they'll do. He says that they're like solid gold, rock and roll and that they're the best tag team in the world today.


Another commercial break sees us getting to talk to Iceman "King" Parsons and he's excited for SuperClash, saying that if Brickhouse Brown doesn't show up he'd understand, saying that Brown couldn't bust a grape if he landed on it head-first before calling him a roodie-poo. We move back to Memphis and Diamond Dallas Page is in the ring, introducing Bad Company to the people. He runs down Memphis a little before bringing out his team. It's not a bad entrance actually as they have a couple of skanks with them in bikinis and they come out to a decent rock song, though I can't place which song it is.


Match Six: AWA Tag Team Championship Match
Badd Company vs. The Rock and Roll RPM's

The RPM's start out quick, sending Diamond to the floor before hitting a HUGE double-backdrop on Tanaka. Lane slams Tanaka's head into the turnbuckle before he takes a big clothesline. Double-pancake from the RPM's and they're on fire in the early going. Davis is in the ring now with a right hand and he tags Lane back in who hits a big side slam before tagging Davis back in. davis whips Tanaka in for another HIGH back-bodydrop and the tag goes to Lane who gets a huge slam and a legdrop before tagging in Davis. Davis tags in Lane and he pushes Tanaka into the corner, Irish whipping him across and Tanaka tries the second-rope cross bodyblock but Lane ducks it and Tanaka hits the deck. Tag to Davis and he hits a knee to the midsection before tagging Lane in for a big vertical suplex. Lane hits the ropes but Diamond gets a boot to the back before getting the hot tag and going to town on Lane with right hands. Diamond slams Lane's head into the top turnbuckle and then hits the second rope for some mounted punches. Front suplex from Diamond and he sends Lane over the top rope while the referee is distracted, allowing Tanaka to do a little work on the floor. Davis comes over to stop that and Diamond picks up Lane for a big slam in the ring before tagging in Tanaka. Tanaka with an Irish whip into a big cross-bodyblock and he tags Diamond back in who hits some right hands on Lane before goading Davis into the ring. As the ref is distracted Badd Company hits the World's Greatest Tag Team spot where Tanaka leapfrogs over Diamond, landing on Lane who is strung out on the top rope. Tanaka goes for a pin and gets a long two-count before Badd Company hits a double-backdrop on Lane and Diamond gets another two-count. Diamond Irish whips Lane into the corner but misses the charge and crotches himself on the middle turnbuckle. Lane gets the tag to Davis and he works over Diamond and Tanaka before the RPM's hit a backdrop into a power bomb double-team move. Lane goes for the pin but Tanaka just punches him in the back of the head. Lane clotheslines Tanaka down and the RPM's maintain the advantage with Davis locking an abdominal stretch in on Diamond but Tanaka hits a crescent kick to the chin and Diamond gets the hook of the leg for the three-count and the crowd goes wild! I guess it's hard to get them to boo for them when they were faces in Memphis previously.

Winners: Badd Company (pinfall, Tanaka crescent kick)

Match Analysis: A weird match in that Badd Company was supposed to be the heel team but they ended up getting cheered because they used to be faces in Memphis and the RPM's just sucked everywhere they went. Not that they were bad wrestlers, just that they were such a bad rip-off of all the other rock and roll teams that they were doomed to fail. A decent enough tag match, but again it needed about five more minutes to even come close to being good. Funny again to see Lee Marshall refuse to call either of the RPM's by name because he doesn't know which is which though.


Badd Company works over the RPM's after the bell and it's a brawl between all four men and the RPM's get a double-clothesline to put Badd Company out to the floor. They leave with the hot bikini chicks and the RPM's get to stand in the ring with Downtown Bruno. I'll let you guess who comes out the winner there. Back to SuperClash control and Larry Nelson is with Kerry Von Erich, the WCCW World Champion. Von Erich says that while he was down, the people of Chicago have always been behind him to help him get back up. He talks about how neither he or Lawler have the "real" world title because that will only come once their match has been decided. He says that he's in the best shape of his life and that he's been training harder than ever. He says that there's only one world and there will be one world champion and that he's going to be that champion. Nelson talks about all of the promotions that will recognize the title and Von Erich says that he's more ready than he's ever been in his life and he says that he's coming for Lawler's belt and we're out!!


Final Thoughts

And they wonder why they got a miniscule buyrate. This was the go-home show that was supposed to get people to order the PPV and it was horrible. Tons of short matches and lots of really pointless yammering from Nelson and Marshall leads me to call this one a MASSIVE thumbs down. Possibly the worst AWA show yet out of all of them that I've seen and reported on to this point, and that's saying something. Before my TV goes out the window, let's get to the comments.


Fun With Comments


First up it's a batch on SuperClash ring announcer Gary Michael Capetta;


From soulpower:
"Gary Michael Capetta... Is this the same guy that worked for ROH doing backstage
interviews?"


From GregGagneSucks:
"Yeah that's the same guy. He's got a GREAT book out (forgot the name) that tells
all about his time in AWA,WWF,NWA. Great stories where you can really see how
frickin' CLUELESS the Gagnes really were.(Damn,now I have to call my brother up
to get that book back). Last year on WWE 24/7 they showed the debut episode of
AWA on ESPN. It had Jim Garvin,The Freebirds,The Road Warriors and oh yeah a
GAGM (god-awful Greg match). I hope ESPN starts replaying some of this older
stuff too. Michael Hayes' promos were almost as good as Zybyskos."


From Joe K.:
"The Capetta book was called Bodyslams and it is a great read, if not just for
the story of Buzz Sawyer fucking Mark Calloway out of $3000 by saying he would
train him and then skipping town.

But wow, from The Rockers to Derrick Dukes and Ricky Rice! what a fall! Last
nights show looked more like the old UWF shows than any other AWA show they've
played so far."

The Capetta book was a really good book and I agree about hoping that they show some older-AWA stuff and yeah, the fall from The Rockers to The Top Guns was pretty damn huge. Again, Verne was desperate at this point and trying anything to stop the bleeding.


From Eric:
"Hey Randy. Sorry for being away...I'm normally good for the long responses, but
a) haven't watched a lot of the AWA stuff overnight, and b) quite a bit of it
was underwhelming, you know?

This one's special for me because it was pretty much the last gasp of the AWA
in Chicago when SuperClash III rolled into town. It was a combination of the
AWA, Memphis, and World Class – all three promotions struggling against Vince
and the WWF at the time. Even the NWA had been coming to town on and off
throughout the year, so this was sad in a way too. They did this show at the
University of Illinois-Chicago Pavillion, which was a fairly new facility in
Chicago at the time, but was a good 7K seats short of the old Rosemont Horizon
(now the Allstate Arena) at the time. The WWF had pretty much taken over the
Horizon and was selling out. The AWA was pushed to the smaller arena on the
Chicago campus. It seated about 11,000, and the NWA and Watts-booked UWF had
run some shows there between 1986 and the time of this show.

You'd have thought with the multitude of names combined you'd have gotten a
filled arena. Nope. From what I remember they got under 1,200 into the area.
There's a reason the arena was very dark except for the ring lights. The arena
was empty. This is one big reason why I believe that TNA, when they come to
Chicago sooner or later, will continue the small arena routine. That's what
ROH does here now; they book 1,500 max gyms (because that's what they are –
glorified gymnasiums) and put maybe a thousand in the house, and it looks
filled. Remember, even a small house, if filled, will look good. SuperClash
III didn't look good, and it was a disappointment to me personally.

I couldn't even tell you who was booking the AWA by the late 1980s. I'm
presuming it was Greg Gagne and maybe Ray Stevens by this time. I'm presuming
that Eric Bischoff was assisting in the booking as well.

The Guerreros match was the actual opening match of the card, and the RPMs were
in Memphis under Lawlor at the time. They'd bounced back and forth between
Memphis and Crockett in the Carolinas at the time, and were generally mid-card
at best with Crockett. The Guerreros could have brought in some of the
Hispanic fans in Chicago. No dice. The Guerreros were in good form that
night, but you could almost envision what was going to happen in time.

The Greg Gagne/Ronnie Garvin match was exactly how it played out on
TV....boring. No offense to anyone else, but they'd played Garvin as a former
NWA World champion, of course....but honestly I would have had more fun
watching Garvin 'brother' Jimmy work a match with Gagne by this point, but
Garvin was a Freebird in the NWA and he's bailed on the promoion almost four
years earlier.

Kind of makes you wonder what could have been.

The Rock 'n' Roll Express/Stud Stable match, believe it or not, was the LAST
match on the card...AFTER the Jerry Lawler/Kerry Von Erich 'main event loss
because of bleeding' fiasco> People were already leaving the arena by this
time...so envision a HORRIBLY empty arena by this point. You could have just
chucked the final match, but they'd already paid Morton, Gibson, Fuller, and
Golden by this point (or maybe they hadn't, knowing Verne Gagne) The match was
ok, but they'd fought better battles in Memphis, obviously.

It was actually fine to see matches from this card, because there were some
good names (obviously not the caliber of the WWF at the time) in a young Jeff
Jarrett, Eric Embry, Iceman Parsons, Brickhouse Brown, Col. DeBeers, Sarge (in
a return that would last until the promotion folded), DDP (notice how young he
was?), Badd Company (one of the last 'created' tag teams the AWA
had...including the Destruction Crew (Enos and Wayne Bloom – they'd become the
Beverly Brothers in time).

It's just sad looking back on that timeframe. Chicago wrestling would die soon
afterwards; there'd be only one more AWA card – another horribly nasty
attendance figure, I'd estimate 1,000 if that – and that would be it.

Chicago wrestling hasn't been the same since. Let's hope that TNA and ROH can
bring some of that swagger we were used to."

It is sad to think about how far Chicago has seemingly fallen off the radar when you think about how hot that city was for wrestling even into the late-70's and early-80's. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the AWA killed off the city since there have been tons of shows with hot crowds since then, but it really hasn't been the same since the AWA flopped. You were spot on about the rest of it too, as usual, and I thank you for taking the time, Eric!


From Frozen:
"I can't wait until they show Kerry vs. Jerry, which I believe is scheduled for
either later this week or next week. When a coked-up Kerry cut his arm before
the match started, due to playing with his razor blade, you just knew that luck
was not on Verne's side that night."

A really good match that I'm hoping to get a chance to recap, since it was one of my favorites when I was younger. And the writing was on the wall for Verne at this point, but he'd still take another couple of years before he'd read it.


From G-Walla:
"I think you're right about the dip in quality putting me to sleep.

I was initially excited about this show, if just for the fact it wasn't the
Showboat. And then I saw Cactus and a trio of Guerrerros. Then a blur of
boring unitl seeing Slaughter and DeBeers. Sadly, that match was lackluster,
too. Boo!

Of course, it was kinda trippy seeing the Iranian and Iraqi standing
side-by-side at the end. Wrestling really brings the world together."

Yeah, it's getting tough to recap when the shows are terrible and I'm usually checking them out after they've aired or the next day, so I can only imagine how interminable it would be to do it while the show was actually on.


From GregGagneSucks:
"Badd Company became Orient Express(Paul Diamond under a mask) in the WWF"

Indeed they were, but that was only after Tanaka and Sato had been the Orient Express for awhile and Sato had left the company. They brought Diamond in under the hood as "Kato" and kept running for a while afterwards. So Jaime Noble wasn't the first after all.


From Guest#6637:
" "Sure tonight's show was god-awful"

Just like your writing."

Well, love me or hate me, every hit contributes to me becoming further entrenched on the site so thanks for helping me stay employed. Be sure to check it out and hate me every day if you feel like you need to.


From A King:
"I remember reading that the reason for the countout ending to the Garvin/Gagne
match was because Garvin refused to do the job for Greg since he was on his way
to the WWF."

I seem to remember the same thing and it makes sense since Garvin wouldn't want to look weak on his way up to New York. It still doesn't make sense as to why you would book someone who isn't going to job into a title match on PPV, but I guess that was Verne.


From AndresV:
"A decent show. First of all, "Maniac" Mike Davis of the RPMs had the
short hair. Always will remember his 90's stint in Global with the Bungee
match. Interesting seeing Ronnie Garvin losing a title for the 2nd year in a
row at the UIC Pavilion. I was at Starrcade '87 (held in the same building)
when Garvin dropped the NWA title to Ric Flair. Woooooo! Also interesting that
a few years later Sgt Slaughter would do his heel turn in the WWF by associating
himself with El-Kaissie and the Iron Sheik (as Gen. Adnan & Col. Mustafa)."

Yeah, it was kind of fun to see Slaughter on the same side as the Sheiks after all his wars with them in the AWA were done. I figured out eventually which RPM was which through a little research and it turns out that my guess as to who was who was actually right. Garvin had bad luck at that UIC Pavilion for sure, but he probably shouldn't have had the NWA title to begin with, so he really should have only lost one title match there.


Finally from Arnold_OldSchool:
"IIRC Garvin was already signed by the WWF (and may have made house shows) by the
time this was on PPV

I think Iron Shiek had already prepped his NWA contract before he appeared here"

Like the other SuperClash shows, all the guys were either trying to get signed elsewhere or had already signed elsewhere before the show. I seem to recall Sheik being a few months off from his NWA appearances so I think he might have made the stop in between with the AWA to do a favor for Verne to thank him for breaking him into the business. Don't quote me on it, but it seems like the most plausible scenario.


That does it for comments and that does it for this report. Thanks for checking it out everyone and after that horrible show I need a drink. Yeah it's only 10am, but when a show is that bad I can make exceptions. See you tomorrow!!