411's AWA on ESPN Classic Report 07.23.08

Posted by Randy Harrison on 07.24.2008

Five matches on the show and not a good one in the damn bunch. Sometimes this show is more chore than privilege...


411's AWA On ESPN Classic Report





AWA Championship Wrestling

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas for the AWA and they've got out their wreaths and all of the bells and whistles for the Holiday season. Larry says he has a lot to talk about and that they're going to cover 1987 in a four-part series, saying that this year it's going to be January, February, and March of '87 being covered. He pushes the Fan of the Week business and then moves on to talk about the Women's Title tournament, as well as the TV Title Tournament, with a main event of Nick Kiniski vs. Greg Gagne. I think that could finally be enough to push me over the edge. He talks about the first match of the card then throws us to it, already in progress.


Match One:
DJ Peterson vs. Kevin Kelly w/Madusa Miceli

There are stips for this one and it goes like this. If Peterson wins, he owns Madusa for thirty days, if Kelly wins, Peterson is gone from the AWA permanently. We join the action with Kelly working over Peterson in the corner and then whipping him across, but Peterson reverses the whip and catches Kelly with an armdrag takeover into an armbar. Peterson is in "Johnny Boots and Tights" mode, with no real discernible look. He drops down with Kelly's arm and then goes to a reverse hammerlock. Kelly pushes him into the ropes and then hits a knee to the gut on the break, flinging Peterson out to the floor. Peterson digs a shoulder into Kelly's gut and slingshots over the top for the sunset flip, but Kelly just hauls off and pops Peterson in the face, like a bitch. Kelly picks him up an hits a BIG vertical suplex before he lays some stomps in on Peterson's back. Bodyslam from Kelly and he misses the big elbowsmash, though I'm not surprised since he ran up to drop it like a Special Olympian. He whips Peterson into the ropes but gets kicked in the face and Peterson follows it with a shot to the gut while Kelly tries for a double-axehandle. Right hands from Peterson and he goes fo a whip of his own, putting Kelly down with a back bodydrop, following that with a running clothesline for a two-count. Irish whip into a BIG dropkick from Peterson and he sets him up for another whip and another dropki...Kelly holds onto the ropes and Peterson crashes to the mat. Kelly goes for the big powerslam now and DOWN GOES THE REFEREE!! Kelly counts the pinfall himself and boots referee Gary DeRusha before he picks Peterson up again for another big slam. Peterson holds onto the ropes but Madusa is on the apron, hitting his hands with her shoe. Peterson lets go of the ropes but the momentum sends him backwards on top of Kelly and here's the referee!! 1-2-3!!! Peterson gets Madusa for thirty days!!! Nick Kiniski hits the ring and tries to argue the decision and Alan West comes out to serve as back-up for DJ and DJ's got a hold of Madusa on the outside!! He cavemans her up onto his shoulder and Rod Trongard seems a little too excited at the prospect of Peterson giving Madusa a spanking.

Winner: DJ Peterson (pinfall, Madusa-ference)

Match Analysis: A hot finish for this one and the crowd loved it, but it was a case of Green and Greener. Both guys were terrible in the ring and it showed but because of the angle around it the fans ate it up. The sadder statement is at the end of the match when the lights came up and you could see that the house was barely half-full for their Thanksgiving spectacular. The beginning of the end I tell you.

Larry Nelson talks about the end of the match and how next week we'll get our first look at The Adventures of DJ and Madusa. He also promises that Kevin Kelly is pissed and out for revenge.


Match Two: AWA Tag Team Championship
Mike Starr and Sonny Rogers vs. The ORIGINAL Midnight Express w/Paul E. Dangerously (c)

Starr and Rose get this one underway and Starr has the pasty jobber complexion down cold. Rose offers up a handshake but Starr doesn't take it so he takes Starr down with a drop toehold and then scrubs his face on the mat before tagging in Condrey. Condrey just stomps the fuck out of Starr and then pushes him into the corner to force the tag to Rogers. Drop toehold from Condrey now and he picks Rogers up for a big bodyslam before whipping him into the ropes for a reverse elbow. Big slam from Rose and he hits the Vader Splash for a two-count, moving from that to a snap mare and a reverse chinlock. Tag to Condrey and he drops Rogers with an elbow to the back of his head before scrubbing HIS face into the mat. Condrey rides Rogers and amateur wrestles him into a pinning combination but only gets two. He hits a big backbreaker on Rogers and stomps away at him before ramming him into the buckle and tagging in Rose. Rose clotheslines Rogers against the top rope and tags in Condrey and he just FUCKING WAFFLES Rogers with a clothesline that gets the three-count.

Winners: The ORIGINAL Midnight Express (pinfall, Condrey clothesline)

Match Analysis: At least they kept it short enough to have The Midnights look strong over the jobbers. They're building them up as killers for the Midnight Rockers return to the AWA and this one definitely did its job. By the way, Starr was possibly the jobbiest looking jobber I've ever seen and I'm almost offended that he didn't take the pin.

Larry Nelson talks about 1987 and how big a year it's been for the AWA and that there are big things expected for 1988. In comes Kevin Kelly and he freaks out and says that he's going to break Peterson in half next time and that the referee had better learn how to count to three. Curt Hennig follows in and sweet JESUS, those sunglasses are getting bigger every week. He looks like he's going to be Hennig says he's in wrestling for one reason and that's to hold the heavyweight championship of the world. He talks about the new year and new wrestlers and that he's everything all the other wrestlers wish they could be. He calls himself the greatest, then promises to be champion all the way through 1988.


Match Three:
Mike Tolos vs. Wahoo McDaniel

Sadly, Tolos has lost his snazzy Greek shirt that could have put him over big time, but he is rocking a fedora though, so it's not all bad. Granted he has a vest on as well, which makes him look a little fruity. Some grandma in the crowd looks ALL KINDS of hot and bothered over Wahoo making an appearance, which is both understandable considering his age, and disgusting considering how wrinkly the old lady is. That will haunt me for months. They circle and Wahoo pushes Tolos into the corner off of a lockup before getting a go-behind and taking Tolos down with an amateur move. He just kind of cuddles on Tolos on the mat for a minute and Tolos rolls over to the ropes for the break. Tolos gives Wahoo a clean break in the corner and then Wahoo reciprocates with a clean break off of the ropes. Wahoo decides he's had enough of this clean break shit and chops the hell out of Tolos in the corner and they trade shots with Wahoo coming out on top (did you really have to question who was going to win that struggle?). Snap mare from Wahoo into a reverse chinlock and he moves to a neck crank which Tolos helpfully sells like he's dying. Tomahawk chop from Wahoo and he shoves Tolos into the corner for shoulderblocks to the gut. Another chop and another snap mare into another neck crank. Wahoo is really exhausting the moves tonight. Another tomahawk chop and he gets two but picks Tolos up in a bit of a dickish move. Here comes the Irish whip and here comes the HUGE CHOP into a short elbowdrop and there's the three-count.

Winner: Wahoo McDaniel (pinfall, big chop)

Match Analysis: The same match Wahoo has all the time, except even more repetitive as he did spots over and over. I know I harp on that a lot but if he's got four minutes, he shouldn't be repeating whole sequences of moves and trying to put it over as "psychology".

Back to Larry Nelson in the AWA studios again and he brings in Greg Gagne to talk about the main event with Nick Kiniski. Gagne says that there are a few guys that are close to the fifty point barrier and that he's hoping to be one of the two that gets there. He puts over how tough Kiniski is and his amateur credentials before Larry Nelson asks about the AWA Women's Title tournament. Gagne brings up the DJ Peterson incident and then puts over how good the women's match will be tonight. Gagne puts over a couple of guys at ESPN and then he turns his attention to Curt Hennig and the heavyweight championship, saying that both are high on his list for 1988.


Match Four:
Greg Robertson vs. Adrian Adonis w/Paul E. Dangerously

I will say that you can tell who the AWA was going to push and how thin their talent was, considering you see the same guys week in and week out. Granted, all the weekly shows back then did the same thing but in the AWA it was seemingly the same six guys over and over again. Adonis talks to the referee about his robe and OH GOD, HE PEARL HARBORS ROBERTSON!! Adonis just works him over in the corner with knees, chops and fingernail rakes. Adonis finally gets the robe off and pounds on Robertson some more before he hits a HUGE slam!! He bounces off the ropes and hits an even HUGER SPLASH!!! Services for Mr. Robertson will be held in the Showboat Pavilion parking structure, as soon as they can spatula his ass off the canvas.

Winner: Adrian Adonis (pinfall, big splash)

Match Analysis: Short, meaningless and squashy. Next.


Larry Nelson talks about how next week we're going to get to see Adrian Adonis vs. Tommy Rich and then he brings in Paul E. Dangerously to talk about that situation and the TV Title tournament. Paul E. says that everything in the AWA revolves around himself and then lays out that the Midnight Rockers are coming back on Christmas Day because they want a piece of the Midnight Express and the AWA Tag Team Championship. He says that Tommy Rich won't be wearing the TV Title in 1988 because he's going to make sure that Adrian keeps him from making it to the finals, let alone winning the belt. SO HELP HIM, TOMMY RICH IS GOING OUT FOR GOOD!!!


Larry Nelson goes to the year in review and we cover January, February and March, including the Col. DeBeers/Jimmy Snuka episode, as well as the wars between The Midnight Rockers and Rose and Somers. Larry Nelson talks about how it was the bloodiest fued in wrestling history before we throw it to the end of their famous match from the Showboat that was on Shawn Michaels' first DVD set. He talks about the match between all four men and the match in Bloomington where the Rockers had their last shot at the titles with Larry Nelson in their corner. I believe this one was on the AWA DVD set but I could be wrong. Anyhow, the Rockers get the pin and win the belts. Of course, after all that chase, they got to keep them for three whole months before losing them to the Russians, which made the whole chase seem a little pointless but I digress. Nelson moves on to talk about Hennig/Bockwinkel from New Year's Eve '86 and how that carried over into 1987, showing the end of that classic bout, as well as the rematch from the Showboat. That's the one that had Bockwinkel putting Hennig in the sleeper and Hennig pulling Bockwinkel over the top rope as the finish. That was also the one the drove Hennig off the deep end I do believe. Nelson brings up the next match from Hennig and Bockwinkel but that that match is going to have to wait until next week's segment, as will Mr. Saito, Sgt. Slaughter and Leon White. I'm tingly with anticipation.


Match Five:
Nick Kiniski vs. Greg Gagne

There is a smattering of boos in with the cheers when Gagne is introduced, which always makes me laugh. The bell rings and we're underway with Gagne chasing Kiniski around before pushing him into the corner off of a lockup. Side headlock from Kiniski and Gagne shoots him off into the ropes, trying for a hip toss but Kiniski blocks it. Gagne goes up and grabs a headscissors, taking Kiniski over and following it up with an armdrag takedown that sends Kiniski out to the floor. Top wristlock from Kiniski as he gets back into the ring and he takes Gagne down into a straight armbar, moving from that to a short-arm scissors. Gagne reverses it into a roll-up for two but Kiniski pulls the hair and regains the advantage. They work the same reversal spot a couple of times until the referee catches Kiniski and makes him break the hold. Gagne gets all fired up and threatens Kiniski with clenched fists until Kiniski bails to the floor. Back in the ring and they trade hammerlocks and reversals until Kiniski makes the ropes and breaks the hold. Gagne with an armdrag takedown into an armbar and Kiniski screams and sells before whipping Gagne into the ropes for a shoulderblock. Leapfrog from Gagne into a reverse monkey flip and he takes Kiniski back over with another armdrag into the armbar again. Another shot into the ropes and Gagne gets the shoulderblock this time but eats a BIG knee to the gut from Kiniski. Backbreaker from Kiniski now and he covers to only get a one-count before whipping Gagne into the ropes for a CANADIAN BEARHUG!! SQUEEZE HIM LIKE THEY TAUGHT YOU IN THUNDER BAY!!! Gagne breaks free for a moment but Kiniski whips him into the corner and catches him in the bearhug again. Gagne gets the underhooks and hip tosses Kiniski over but Kiniski takes over again and gets the abdominal stretch with two minutes left, grabbing a handful of tights to get some extra leverage. Gagne hip tosses Kiniski to break the hold and takes a big slam from Kiniski but manages to roll out of the way of an elbowdrop and both men are down with a minute left. They hit the ropes and it's a double-shoulderblock that puts BOTH MEN DOWN!! Kiniski goes for a slam and Gagne gets a small package for two before whipping Kiniski in for the big backdrop! Dropkick from Gagne and he gets a two-count again and hits a HARD kneelift on Kiniski just as the bell rings to signal the time limit expiring.

Winner: None (time limit draw)

Match Analysis: I saw the draw coming a mile away when it was going to be Gagne and Kiniski because they're both such technical marvels. It's funny that even when you hear who's going to be on a show with these AWA shows, you have an idea of how the match is going to finish before it even starts. Nothing wrong with this match, just nothing spectacular about it. The beginning of a good twenty-minute match, with the only problem being that we don't get the hot ending, just the slow beginning.



Final Thoughts

Ugh. A chore of a show to sit through. All squashes or shorter finishes of matches all the way up to the bland main event. I think that bland is actually being nice to it in that technically it was good, but in entertainment value it was the shits. Terrible show all the way around and thumbs down from me, if you even had to ask. Let's hit the comments.



Fun With Comments


From piperfan01:
"I still have nightmares of the Minotaur in WCW,(those contact lenses freaked me out) imagine my horror when I saw him last night on AWA. Imagine me laughing when I saw him portray an indian protoge of Wahoo. Keep up the good work! "

I have the same deal with Rey Rey's contacts. Not to the same fearful extent, they just look really weird when he has them in. I agree that it was pretty laughable that they were trying to push him as being the next great Indian star. To his credit though, as least he had a look. Wahoo would go from this guy to Chief Jay Strongbow Jr. so you can imagine his disappointment in the whole thing.


From PMullin1987:
"I never expected the six man to be as good as it was, in spite of the dead crowd it really delivered for me. Its a testament to how great a worker Adrian really was that even at his size he was still very athletic and very capable of entertaining stuff. While Blackwell and Wahoo were really handicapped by this point, they were guys the crowd had been invested in for a good portion of time and they needed them to bring interest to matches and then they could allow guys like Adrian, Rich, and the Midnights to carry the matches.

I also thought I'd add in that I just finished "Adventures in Larryland," Zbyszko's autobiography, and it was damn good. For long time readers of the column and old AWA fans, I'll give one thing away, there were three different guys who portrayed Larry's ninjas. The first was Mr. Go, who was a small Japanese guy who Larry isn't sure of where he ended up. The second ninja was a 6'5 280 pound Japanese guy named Harold who Larry really liked. Harold had a mad crush on one of Larry's friends, so he set him up with her...Sherri Martel. Larry said Harold lost about 50 pounds because Sherri made him so nervous. The third ninja? The only Polish ninja ever in existance, Larry's good buddy Steve "O" Olsonoski.

Good show. Hopefully we get some Larry or Curt on the next one though. "

Thanks for the info on Larry's book. It's another one that's definitely on my must-read list and thanks for the info on the ninjas. I remember reading somewhere that the last one was Steve O, but I hadn't much on the first two, so that's awesome. Moving to the match, I was shocked at how decent that match was, considering that, like you said, Wahoo and Blackwell were WELL past their expiration dates. Adonis, Condrey and Rose all knew how to cover those things well though and the match looked decent.


From Teijo Kahn:
"That six-man was shown last week, though since I think you missed that show, it's all good."

I still have Wednesday's show to get to and hopefully Thursday's if I can find the footage somewhere, but thanks for the information. I at least know that one of those shows got ten minutes shorter to recap!


From Guest. :
"Tonight's 6-man would've been better had we not seen it last week during your hiatus. I think Verne, while wanting to give Lawler a favor, didn't want two heels going at it just yet, so he did the switch-off in Memphis, then the Midnights had a fine little tag match where they beat Lawler and Dundee, though I think those two did have a legitimate defense under their belts before dropping them.

Otherwise, ok show, 87 is finally starting to morph into 88, as the shows post-Bockwinkle were real bad until they got a talented group of bad wrestlers. "

I agree about Verne wanting to do Lawler a favor to try to woo him into the co-promote and I guess winning the titles like that would have helped pop business a little. I missed the match between them and the Midnights, but I'm hoping to catch it before the end of the week this week. And yes, we're steaming headlong into 1988, which a lot of has been covered already, so here's hoping they skip it and go right to the stench that was 1989.


From t-money:
"One thing that must be mentioned is the fact that the AWA can't decide if Wahoo's name is "McDaniel or McDanielS" each time he's on the show it's different... announcers, other wrestlers, and even the on screen graphics all take turns getting it wrong. One of the biggest "stars" of the company and they can't even get his name right, how embarassing.

Can you imagine if any other company did this?? Imagine if in WCW Tony Schiavone intermittently called Ric Flair, Ric Flairs "

I know that WWF Champion Hulk Horgan wouldn't have stood for it for a second, I'll tell you that much. A lot of the problems like that seemingly stem from Verne using a different production crew for every show. Rather than having a crew he took with him, every taping used local crews and I guess with their varying degrees of knowledge in television and the wrestling business, mistakes were expected.


From Scrotum Pole:
"Is the AWA version of the Midnight Express the same one that Cornette brought into WWF(E)?

And on Adonis, the way he works so stiff(I know it was more common in the 80's) but did he ever have an altercation with another wrestler either in the ring or backstage? Just by his look and size, I could see some green newbie thinking Adonis was a fat puss and taking offense to his style and Adonis basically cracking him over the head with his bottle of White Diamonds perfume by Liz Taylor.

Late "

No, the Midnight Express that Cornette brought into the WWF was essentially a huge rip-off team with Bart Gunn and Bob Holly. A real stinker of a team too. I mean they were both tag team guys but they just didn't mesh very well together and it all fell apart rather quickly, along with the rest of the NWA invasion deal. As for Adonis and a confrontation, the answer is below.


From JLAJRC:
"Do you know anything about the Ninja Star Wars game Larry kept pimping on the show? You would think for something he talked about frequently they would actually show the thing once in awhile.

What a great coincidence that they talk about Mad Dog Vachon accident on this episode, while on WWE 24/7 they are showing the "In Your House: Good Friends, Better Enemies" PPV which had Vachon sitting in the front row but having his prosthetic leg ripped off to be used as a weapon during the Diesel/Shawn Michaels match. "

I agree that it's a fun coincidence about the match with Vachon's prosthetic leg being aired now. That's one of my favorite matches from that timeframe and I'll have to check it out again sometime. As to the Ninja Star Wars game, the faithful readers tackle that one below.


From guest:
"JT Southern was part of the Memphis scene and was well liked.It's hard to know what the crowd liked. Then what makes it funnier is the shots of the crowd taken during the match. They usually make sure they go to crowd so they miss the finisher or take a shot of people that look like they are waiting for their bus. "

JT Southern was well-liked but he was god-awful. I agree that it's hard to tell what the crowd liked because he wasn't necessarily handsome, he wasn't necessarily gifted in the ring, he wasn't necessarily the best built guy. He was just kind of there and had a bit of a bland personality. I guess it's one of those things where someone comes along that looks a little different and he'll get cheered to the moon, just for being something that isn't the normal day-to-day. The shots of the crowd in these shows are pretty funny, especially when you can clearly tell they're editing in footage from old shows.


From Boomerang:
"Welcome back, Mr. Randy. I enjoy your musings -- keep up the good work!

I was FFing through the 6-man match last week, but had to stop when I saw Adonis pick up Blackwell. WOW!!

About the nun in the first row of the crowd -- looked like a dude to me. There must have been a frat party that night.

Lastly, did a Midnight Express ever work in the WWF? I can recall Stan Lane wrestling some (as well as doing a fair bit of announcing -- Mr. Kennedy has nothing on Lane's voice), but did Bobby Eaton ever work for Vince? "

The closest a version of the Midnight Express ever came to working the WWF was as you said, Stan doing the announcing, and as I said, the shitty knock-off version. Bobby Eaton is one of the few guys that can hang his hat on saying he never worked for Vince McMahon, though I'm sure by now he's probably got a legends deal going. It was fun to see Lane and Pritchard as The Heavenly Bodies though, and it's a shame that that version of the team didn't get a good run in the WWF.


From Guest. :
"Ninja Star Wars: This was Bischoff's first exposure with the AWA, where I think him and a friend came up with a game dealing with throwing little ninja shuirukens at each other, hence Ninja Star Wars. Cause Verne liked to help out the locals, they got some pub on the AWA. "

That seems to be about the extent of it as far as I can tell. Eric got his way in and had them pimp out his game, which he apparently had WAY too many of if I recall correctly.


Finally, from PMullin1987:
"In response to Scrotum Pole, the late Adrian had one notorious scuffle with Danny Spivey in the WWF backstage. Adrian instigated it and according to every wrestler interviewed who was present Spivey gave him quite the beating. "

I believe I remember reading about that one in Hogan's book and that if they hadn't pulled Spivey off of him, he'd have probably killed Adonis. Then again, this is Hulk Hogan talking and seeing as he slammed 900-pound Andre in front of 250,000 people at WrestleMania III with Jesus himself counting the pin, I'd take the "killing" portion of that with a grain of salt.


That's it for the comments and there were a lot of great ones in there so keep them coming! See you all tomorrow and catch you later for the UWF show by the end of the day..I promise!!!