411's AWA on ESPN Classic Report 04.30.08

Posted by Randy Harrison on 05.01.2008

We're finally back at the Showboat and our main event is The Midnight Rockers vs. The Midnight Express!! I know what you're thinking and no, not THAT Midnight Express. It's still a good match though, so click the link....please. I beg of you. Larry is threatening me with a phone book. PLEASE!!!


411's AWA On ESPN Classic Report


The episodes surrounding SuperClash have all ended up sucking fairly badly, so if this is another one of those, we can expect it to be probably not very good. Let's see what they've decided to give me today...-sigh-.


AWA Championship Wrestling (Originally aired on...)

Larry Nelson's in the AWA studios, in front of a bunch of trophies and belts and he's ready to take us out to the matches, but first he introduces us to the AWA Fan of the Week, or in this case Fan(s) of the Week, the Cashdollar Family from Cleveland, Ohio. That doesn't sound made up at all. He tells us about a ruling on a match-up between The Midnight Rockers and Midnight Express for the AWA Tag Team Championship, then sends us out to the Showboat for our first bout.

Rod Trongard is at ringside this week with Ray Stevens, and it's nice to finally get to see him back on the microphone as he's resoundingly more professional and easy on the ears than that schmuck, Lee Marshall.


Match One:
Van Van Horne and Jake Milliman vs. Nick Kiniski and Kevin Kelly w/Madusa Miceli

Kiniski and Kelly come to the ring with "Bad to the Bone" blaring over the loud speakers and Kelly looks RATHER different than he did during the Nailz period. Kelly and Milliman start out and it's funny to see poor Jake only come up to Kelly's nipples or so. Milliman gets a top wristlock off of a lockup and Kelly sends him crashing to the mat before calling for a test of strength. Milliman backs away from it and then tries to rev up the crowd, falling onto his back and bumping for nothing before tagging in Van "The Van" Van Van, er, Van Horne. Kelly reasserts his test of strength demand and takes Van Horne into into his corner, roughing him up before tagging in Kiniski who gets a BIG bodyslam before choking Van Horne against the top rope. He runs Van Horne into Kelly's knee in the corner and tags in the future Nailz and they get a double-reverse elbow on poor Van, before Kelly goes to the eyes. This leads to Milliman trying to get into the ring and then before you know it Kiniski in on the outside, working over Van Horne on the apron before the referee can turn back around. The referee finally notices and sends Kiniski on his way but Kelly doesn't mind, Irish whipping Van Horne into the ropes and hitting him with a hard forearm shot to the face. Tag in to Kiniski and he drops Van Horne down with THE PILEDRIVER!! 1-2-3 and it's all over!!!

Winners: Kevin Kelly and Nick Kiniski (pinfall, piledriver)

Match Analysis: Steamed squash here. Miceli looked good as per usual, and it was interesting to see Kelly about forty pounds lighter and with more hair, but other than that there wasn't much going on here. Somewhat generic heel offense and really generic babyface jobbers. Yawn.

After the match, Kelly and Kiniski put Van Horne out to the floor with some boots so they can celebrate in THEIR ring. According to the AWA Notebook, the top tag teams are (in order), The Midnight Express, The Rockers, Kiniski and Kelly and The Nasty Boys.


Match Two:
Ricky Rice and Steve O vs. The Samoan Destroyer and Dennis Stamp

Wait, TWO jobber teams? Am I in a parallel universe or something? The Samoan starts working over both faces in the corner but gets taken over on by Steve O and takes a big bodyslam for his troubles. Donna is on color commentary and her voice is seeming extra shrill tonight. It must be the fact that I didn't sleep at all or something. O tags in Rice and Rice hits a jumping legdrop before Irish whipping his man in for a big clothesline. Tag in to O and the Samoan hits a shot to the gut and tags in Stamp for them to slam O's back against the turnbuckles. Irish whip into the ropes and Stamp grazes O with a knee to the gut before ramming O into the turnbuckle and Irish whipping him across to the other corner. Stamp works over O in the corner but O manages to noggin-knock the heels and hits a nice dropkick before making the tag to Rice. Bodyslam by Rice and a BIG vertical suplex gets a long two-count. The Samoan comes in and breaks it up before RIce gets a front facelock and Steve O gets a tag into the ring for a two-count off of a roll-up. O to the front facelock and he gets cocky and tries to take out the Samoan, but it ends up backfiring and the Samoan gets the tag in and Irish whips O into the ropes, hitting a reverse chop to the face/throat. Another Irish whip and a weak-ass clothesline knocks O down, but he misses a diving headbutt to follow it up and both teams make exchanges. Stamp and Rice in the ring now and Rice gets an Irish whip into the corner, following it up with two FUCKED UP attempts at a monkey flip before he finally gets it and tags in his partner, with O and Rice hitting a double-reverse elbow before O does another Irish whip and gets a high back-bodydrop. Another tag in to Rice and he Irish whips Stamp in, almost messing up a dropkick before hitting another one to make up for it and he comes off the ropes with a cross-bodyblock for the pinfall!!

Winners: Steve O and Ricky Rice (pinfall, Rice cross-bodyblock)

Match Analysis: Four jobbers, one of whom is about as green as you could imagine, equals a bad, bad match. It wasn't completely worthless, as it was funny to watch Rice blowing things left and right, but it wasn't any good in the sense of being...good. So take that for what it is.


Match Three:
Billy Jack Strong vs. Tom Stone

Strong is probably best known for his run as Steve DiSalvo in Stampede for Stu Hart, or as Steve Strong in the Montreal territory in the early-80's. He looks like he could pass for The Ultimate Warrior's brother here and Stone locks in a full nelson but Strong just breaks it and flexes, impressing all the women in the crowd. I'm sure if there was sand around he would have just kicked it into Stone's face. They hit a lockup after Strong motions for Stone to come on and Stone hits a forearm across the chest in the corner and then begs off when it has no effect. Strong bullrushes him and hits a couple of HARD shots before hip-tossing Stone across to the opposite corner. He clotheslines Stone hard against the ropes and Stone doesn't quite make it all the way over to the floor, begging off in the corner. He gets a shot to the gut and some forearms to the back of Strong before trying for a bodyslam and failing miserably. Strong reverses it to a HARD slam of his own and he hits a big clothesline before pushing Stone into the corner. Stone goes to the eyes and starts choking Strong across the top rope before rubbing his eyes against the rope. Turnbuckle smashes by Stone and all he's doing is pissing Strong off. Strong Irish whips him in and pancakes his ass onto the mat before another Irish whip is followed with a HUGE shoulderblock. Strong picks him up for a standing side slam and picks him up again, shoving Stone into the corner for the mounted punches into a DDT off the second rope. Strong picks him up again and hits A TOMBSTONE PILEDRIVER!! Count to a hundred ref, it's ALLLLLLL OVER!!!

Winner: Billy Jack Strong (pinfall, tombstone piledriver)

Match Analysis: Wild to see a tombstone piledriver a couple of years before the debut of The Undertaker, and Stone sold well as usual, but Strong just looked like he was a little clumsy at points. Whether it's being green, or just not having a natural talent for the wrestling business, it resulted in a couple of bad spots, including that DDT off the second rope that looked like it missed completely. Good for getting Strong over in one of his first matches in the company, but also bad in that it exposed his limited workrate.

A replay shows how much that DDT missed by, with Stone's head being almost a foot above the canvas at the time of impact. Oops. The AWA Notebook is back with the Top Five Most Popular Wrestlers. Greg Gagne is number one, The Rockers at two, Wahoo is third, Strong is fourth and Alan West rounds out the top five. A very close sixth was Larry Nelson, but when it was determined that he's only wrestled in the finest bathhouses in the US, he was removed from consideration.


After the commercial Bill Apter is in the AWA studios and it's Press Conference time with Wahoo McDaniel. Apter talks about how McDaniel recently said that beating Curt Hennig in a strap match was more important to him than if he had beat him for the title, and McDaniel goes through the whole story of how Hennig got cut with the strap and that he won the match, but not the way he really wanted to. He calls himself the King of the Strap Match and McDaniel says that no one is going to last too long with him when they're at the end of an eight-foot strap. Apter asks McDaniel about Paul E. Dangerously and McDaniel calls him a mouthpiece and says that it makes it hard knowing that he's on the outside, which makes it three against two. He calls Paul E. an intelligent individual and says that without him The Midnight Express wouldn't be where they are today. McDaniel talks about how Billy Jack Strong is from Indian descent and could be the perfect partner and that he's training him to be a partner for a run at the AWA Tag Team Championship. Nothing much of note is said here really.


Match Four:
Soldat Ustinov vs. Dennis Stamp

Oh joy, two Dennis Stamp matches on one show. I should be so lucky. Soldat yells at the crowd before he locks horns with Stamp, shoving him into the corner and yelling. Another lockup and another shove-off, into the ropes this time to send Stamp sprawling. Stamp with a duck under into a hammerlock but Ustinov breaks it with a reverse elbow and hits a BIG slam, following it up with an elbowdrop that gets two before Ustinov breaks the count. Ustinov hammers away, running Stamp all the way across the ring to slam him into the turnbuckle. Irish whip into the corner and Ustinov misses a charge, and Stamp Irish whips him in, hitting a back-bodydrop. Stamp Irish whips Ustinov into the corner and then charges in, eating a tasty Russian boot, right in the mush. Ustinov takes the pinfall and gets the three-count. Off of a transition move. Then he SPITS ON STAMP!! MOTHER RUSSIA!!!

Winner: Soldat Ustinov (pinfall, big boot)

Match Analysis: Thank god it was short, cause man did it suck. I think it's just my personal distaste for having to type the name Ustinov that makes me not like the man, but he's not a very good wrestler either so it's not all on me.

The AWA Notebook is back again with the Top Five Most Hated Wrestlers! "Cool" Curt Hennig is number one, followed by Paul E., Soldat Ustinov, Adrian Adonis and Bob Orton rounding out the top five.


After the break, Larry Nelson is in the AWA studios and he sets up the match between The Rockers and The Original Midnight Express for the AWA Tag Team Championship and Nelson goes on about how great the match was and how exciting it was.


Match Five: AWA Tag Team Championship
The Midnight Rockers vs. The Original Midnight Express w/Paul E. Dangerously

Paul E. grabs the microphone from the ring announcer and introduces his charges on his own. This would be after The Rockers had had their ill-fated first run in the WWF, which Nelson kayfabed away earlier by saying that they had been suspended in the state of Nevada. This was also at at time where they were working Memphis and the AWA, being heels in Memphis and huge babyfaces in the AWA. For those of you not familiar with The Original Midnight Express, the first incarnation of the Midnight Express featured Dennis Condrey, Randy Rose and Norvell Austin, with Austin dropping out and a tag team of Condrey and Rose being formed. This was well before Condrey and Eaton and later Eaton and Lane would make the Midnight Express name famous. After Condrey left the NWA in 1987, he disappeared for a brief period before resurrecting the Original Midnight Express name with his first partner Randy Rose and manager Paul E. Dangerously. History lesson over, match time, folks!!

Michaels and Condrey start things out and the crowd is WAY behind the Rockers, chanting "Paul E. sucks" over and over again. Michaels threatens Paul E. on the outside and the stalling by the heels continues. We finally hit the lockup and Michaels gets Condrey pushed against the ropes, threatening a right hand but finally giving up a clean break. Another lockup and Michaels pushes Condrey into the corner, mounting him for punches before putting Condrey out through the ropes with another right hand. Jannetty gets an atomic drop on Condrey on the floor, ducking a right hand from Rose and adding another atomic drop for Rose!! So much for coming to your partner's aid. Condrey tries to get over the effects of the atomic drop once he gets back into the ring, dancing and wiggling like he's getting a wedgie out. Rose and Condrey head outside to console Dangerously over the chanting and the Rockers grab the championship belts from the announce table, trying them on for size in the middle of the ring. The Midnights come ROARING back to the ring and Condrey is back in with Michaels.

Condrey gets a kneelift and attempts an Irish whip into the corner, but it gets reversed and Jannetty hits a running clothesline on the apron to put him down and send him back to his own corner for a bit of a conference with Rose. Condrey bitches to the referee about the clothesline and then stalls some more as Dangerously paces around ringside. Condrey with another kneelift and The Midnights try to do the same thing to Michaels, but he reverses the whip and Rose clotheslines Condrey down to the mat again. Condrey's out to the floor and the three heels are hatching some sort of diabolical plan on the floor. Rose tries to come in but the referee catches it and Condrey gets brought back in to make an official tag. The Rockers switch too and Rose gets a standing armbar on Jannetty before Jannetty springs off the top rope, armdragging Rose over and then getting a hip toss, sending Rose into the corner, begging for a time-out. Rose and Jannetty hit another lockup and Jannetty tags in Michaels who takes Rose over with a side headlock.

Rose shoots Michaels into the ropes and Condrey lowbridges him, putting him out to the floor, and Condrey follows it up with a backbreaker on the concrete floor before ramming Michaels' kidneys into the apron. Rose with a vertical suplex to bring Michaels back into the ring and he gets a two-count off of that. Irish whip by Rose and Michaels ducks under the first clothesline but EATS the second, spinning him inside out. Another long two-count from Rose on that exchange and he tags in Condrey who comes in and stomps away at Michaels befor picking him up and hitting a BIG backbreaker, covering for two. Reverse chinlock from Condrey now and Michaels tries to lift Condrey up but takes a shot to the head for his troubles. Tag in to Rose and he gets a side slam on Michaels for another long two-count before moving to a reverse chinlock of his own.

Michaels fights back out of it and gets a shoulderblock off the ropes to put Rose down and Michaels runs off the ropes but takes a NASTY knee to the gut, before Condrey tags in for a two-count. Short right hand from Condrey lands and he does a little dance of pride in front of Dangerously before turning around into a HARD Michaels right hand. Michaels can't get the tag but Condrey does and Rose slams Michaels down, following that with a Vader splash for two before Jannetty breaks up the pin attempt. Back to the chinlock and Michaels almost fights out of it but gets taken down with a drop toehold and Rose is able to tag in Condrey. Abdominal stretch from Condrey and while Jannetty is distracting the referee, Rose comes off the top with a punch to the ribs. A tag in to Dennis Condrey and he MEASURES a right hand that puts Michaels onto his ass, while Rose clotheslines Michaels across the top rope. Standing elbow from Condrey and he tags in Rose for a double-clothesline but Michaels ducks under it and knocks down Condrey AND Rose. Michaels crawls.....crawls.....HOT TAG TO JANNETTY!! SHIT JUST GOT REAL!! RIGHT HANDS TO ROSE AND CONDREY!! BIG SLAM ON CONDREY!! ONE FOR ROSE!! DOUBLE-NOGGIN KNOCKER!! INSIDE CRADLE BY JANNETTY ON CONDREY!! ONLY TWO!!

All four men in the ring, hammering away and Condrey gets a snap suplex on Michaels that ends up knocking down referee Marty Miller. Rose rams Michaels into the top turnbuckle and Jannetty somehow ends up lying on his back, on top of Condrey and Miller counts him down for the three count!! The bell is rung and we have new TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS!!! Another referee is down and he raises the hand of The Midnight Rockers as well!!

Winners: The Midnight Rockers (pinfall, Jannetty's weird laying pin thing)

Match Analysis: This one started out REALLY slow, and actually kind of boring, with The Midnights doing a ton of stalling but not doing it nearly as entertaining as Larry Zbyszko's stalling tactics. The ending got really hot and Michaels did a great job of selling the beating before finally making the hot tag, so in the end it turned out to be a really good match, but the beginning was almost enough to lose me, and that's not a good thing.


Larry Nelson is in the studio and says that The Midnight Rockers have won the match and that they're the new AWA Tag Team Champions before running down the card that we saw and he says that there's a lot more action, just like this coming up next week. He pimps the Co-Fans of the Week again before saying that the Major League of Professional Wrestling, the AWA will be back next week!!



Final Thoughts

The main event started out really bland but got cooking towards the end, so that ended up alright. Everything before it though was pretty rough, so I'd say that it's a thumbs in the middle for me on this one. Cool to see another title change on these shows, but the nothing that happened for the first 3/4 of the show kind of takes away from that excitement. Cool to see Steve DiSalvo again though to rekindle my memories of Stampede Wrestling. Comments await!!


Fun With Comments


From Frozen:
"*****Me: "Um, Verne? They're called feet, everyone has two of
them."*****

Oh yeah? Kerry Von Erich might dispute that."

Indeed. That one made me laugh out loud, so thank you for that.


From awafan:
"I've watched just about everyone of these episodes and my question is simple.
What happened to the AWA in 1987??? They go from promoting WrestleRock '86 to
hyping Superclash 3?? The shows run from 1986 then jump ahead to 1988. Why is
that?? I remember on the AWA DVD that Verne said that Superclash flopped
because the WWF was running a PPV event around that time so viewers had to
choose between the 2 plus with Starcade coming up he had no viewers. My
question is what Event did the WWF run at that time?? My only thought would be
either Survivor Series, late November or the Horrible "No Holds
Barred" Movie/Match. Any help."

I'm not sure why they've gone ahead and skipped past 1987 like they have, but my hope is that they'll go back to eventually because there was some good stuff there, while the 1988 shows have been fairly terrible. As for the second part, the only thing I can think of is that he was referring to Surivor Series being at the end of November and Starrcade being at the end of December, with SuperClash III sandwiched between them.


From Scrotum Pole:
"Ron Garvin could of used a valet or some dickish heel manager. I always thought
that was what was missing from his title reign in NWA when he feuded with
Flair. He should have never been the babyface. The dude just looked like he
walked off of a navy battleship and kicked a couple of local hippies ass."

I don't think anything would have saved Garvin, because as much as he was a solid hand, by the time the mid to late 80's rolled around he was pretty much past his prime. He had negative charisma and no real moves to appeal to the crowd that was starting to enjoy the higher-flying moves.


From G-Walla:
"Since this show sucked hard, and I missed the first match, I'll add a tidbit
about terrible names to the Ken Raper conversation.

I work with a guy with a worse name, he's named Robin Rape. I asked if he had
a sister named Pillage N. Plunder.

It's alright. He goes by "Butch"

I'm going to cross my fingers for tonights show, but I won't hold my breath."

That's possibly the most unfortunate name I have EVER heard. And yeah, Butch makes it MUCH better. I'd rather be Butch Rape, if I had a choice. Poor guy. By the way, kudos on the Pillage N. Plunder line, that's a classic.


From Joe K. :
"Someone film it now...Old School 2 starring Larry Nelson! It could be a direct
to DVD masterpeice!"

Disturbing and wrong, yet it would EASILY get my money. Outstanding, and the comedic possibilities would be endless.


From Tiger Mask 69:
""Beauty and the Beast = I assume is the tag team that included Terry
Garvin/Simms, correct?"

=====================

Actually, I think Beast was a wrestler name-a Mark Gullen.I only remember this
because there was a profile on Garvin in PWI that had a brief career history on
him. I actually enjoyed Garvin's fiery, gutsy, underdog babyface run in GWF."

Simms/Garvin was Beauty, and I honestly have no idea who Beast was. I do remember Garvin's run in the GWF, but again he was pretty much passed the time that he was an effective worker which is too bad cause he would have had a better run if he could have worked well.

From OB1Jabroni:
"It was kewl to see early Steiner, the rest of the show blew however. I did
enjoy the Sherri Martel video. She was hot back then, however I do have a
slight MILF complex so it might just be me"

Your secret is safe with me.


From ButchReedMark:
"I work with a guy with a worse name, he's named Robin Rape. I asked if he had
a sister named Pillage N. Plunder.

It's alright. He goes by "Butch" - G-Walla.


I WAS trying to stay inconspicuous."

Your secret is safe with me.


From Joe Bass Jr. :
"Randy Orton's "gay" foot stomp is hi riping off Ron Garvin..Gee Orton
could've riped off from someone better.."

Yes, it's the Garvin Stomp that is now set to be renamed the Orton Stomp. The principle behind it is cool and I kind of like how it works the nerves and pressure points, but I think that it's probably not going to get over because at that time it was "REAL" wrestling, and these days no one really cares about pressure points and nerve holds anymore.

Finally from JLAJRC:
"Any chance of you reviewing a "Cheap Seats" episode just one time as a
bonus? Doesn't even have to be a wrestling related one."

There's a definite possibility and I could have even done it for this one, but I'm a little pressed for time on this episode. Looking at the guide, tonight's episode is The Running of the Bulls, which has endless comedic potential, so tonight may just be your lucky night JLA. Stay tuned and come back tomorrow because I have a sneaking suspicion I might just give Cheap Seats a once over!


That does it for today's AWA report, thanks for stopping by everyone, and I'm off to check out The Wide World of Sports on Cheap Seats and finish the rest of the MMA news report! See you tomorrow, peeps!