411's AWA on ESPN Classic Report 08.12.08

Posted by Randy Harrison on 08.13.2008

Moving all of your furniture so your house can get sprayed for spiders SUCKS....


411's AWA On ESPN Classic Report





AWA Championship Wrestling


Match One:
Spike Jones vs. Yukon John Nord w/Scott Norton

Todd Becker, the jobber, is the referee for this particular match, which is a little different scenario than it would be with Steve Olsonoski, who refereed while he was inactive as a wrestler. Nord and Norton do their little chopping, shoulderblocking ritual and their little ear-rubbing thing and JONES ATTACKS NORD FROM BEHIND!! Forearms to the back and Jones hammers him with right hands to the gut, but Nord fires back with some shots of his own. Irish whip by Nord and IT'S BEAVER SHOT TIME!! Nord catches Jones by the hair and throws him out to the floor, following him out and it's ANOTHER BEAVER SHOT!! Nord howls to the crowd and SLAMS JONES ON THE CONCRETE FLOOR!! Nord rolls Jones back into the ring and stomps on his head, Irish whipping him into the ropes for a BIG shoulderblock.HOOOOOOOWWWWLLLLLING LEGDROP!!! It's all over folks, and there's the 1-2-3!!

Winner: Yukon John Nord (pinfall, howling legdrop)

Match Analysis: Nord hammers a jobber. The end.

Bischoff has Nord at ringside and Nord says tells the story about the pancakes again and tries to get over the "Flapjack" Norton nickname again. Nord says that he got the nickname for being the toughest man alive and eating the most pancakes than anyone alive. I'm not sure what the first one has to do with the nickname, but whatever. Norton says that they're the biggest and strongest tag-teams in the AWA today and he says that they're stronger, bigger and meaner than life. Norton and Nord chop the SHIT out of each other, saying "We don't care, and we're not scared" over and over on each chop.


Match Two:
Jim Evans vs. Johnnie Stewart

Ralph Strangis tries to get over his Zsa Zsa joke again about Stewart's robe, which is the same robe that it has been for EVERY other match. Stewart starts out quick with an arm-wringer into a takeover, following that with a legdrop on the arm and an armbar. Irish whip by Stewart into a reverse elbow that puts Evans onto his ass. Big bodyslam from Stewart into an elbowdrop and he lays across Evans for a two-count. Elbows and a turnbuckle smash by Stewart and they trade some weak chops against the ropes before Evans gets an Irish whip into the corner. If you don't know what's coming next, you haven't watched a lot of AWA. Evans misses the charge and eats buckle. Stewart adjusts his kneepad, with Marshall and Strangis suggesting it's a loaded kneepad, and he whips Evans in for a knee to the chest. There's the cover and there's the three-count, so I guess it probably was loaded.

Winner: Johnnie Stewart (pinfall, loaded knee)

Match Analysis: The same match that we saw from Stewart when he got disqualified, just with him winning. That's about the only difference really. The loaded kneepad is kind of a fun thing from an angle perspective, but really, that whole idea of loading a mask or a boot or an elbowpad was kind of passe. Surprise, surprise, that makes it nearly a fresh idea in the AWA.

Stewart drops down and poses a little before he jumps over the top rope to exit the ring. Ralph and Lee get all indignant on the replay when Stewart turns the brace, and we've got Bischoff with Johnnie Stewart at ringside. Bischoff asks what Stewart would spend his TCS winnings on and Stewart says that he'd choose some good-looking women from TWA. He brings up the AWA Light Heavyweight Championship and that after he goes through some punks, he'll have the belt. Don't call him Johnnie, don't call him "spoiled brat", just call him CHAMP!!


Team Challenge Series report time and Lee Marshall talks about how busy Nikita Koloff has been in the TCS, as a wild card pick for Sarge's Snipers. We hear about last week's TCS match where Koloff's opponent swore he'd beat Koloff in four minutes. Koloff beat him, not surprisingly and we see that Baron's Blitzers are on top, but thanks to the two points from Nikita Koloff, Sarge's Snipers have moved into second place. Lee talks about the unease with Larry's Legends about their third place showing so far and that as the TCS winds down, the team is in a slump with no wins in five weeks.


Match Three:
Rick McCord and DJ Peterson vs. The Tokyo Bullets

Those look like the whitest Japanese wrestlers this side of Jamie-san. Holy merciful Christ, McCord looks like a preacher at a gay Las Vegas wedding chapel with a white tuxedo jacket complete with tails, gold lame bow tie, bleached blond mustache and no shirt. McCord and the Blue bullet start out and Blue pushes McCord into the corner and hammers him int he gut, trying for an Irish whip but McCord reverses it and hits a back bodydrop into an armdrag takeover. Legdrop on the arm and an armbar by McCord and Blue tags in Black bullet. Hip toss by McCord on Black and a tag to Peterson. Peterson goes to the short ribs for a punch and then takes Black over with a gut-wrench suplex for a two-count. Another suplex gets missed and Peterson hits a BIG release German suplex before tagging in McCord. Irish whip into a double-back bodydrop and McCord follows it up with an elbowdrop and a dropkick as we cut to the crowd to see a masked man in the front row. McCord follows up the dropkick with an Irish whip but Blue saves Black and holds him back to make McCord miss the dropkick. Tag from Black to Blue and they whip McCord into the ropes for a double-shoulderblock! Blue picks him up and tags Black back in and there's a shot to the ribs followed by Black snap maring him over. Black misses with the elbowdrop and there's the tag to Peterson. Irish whip from Peterson and he tries a kick in the gut but Black blocks it. Enziguri by Peterson and Black takes a somersault bump off of it. Another Irish whip and Peterson hits a BIG powerslam, tagging in McCord for a FLYING BODYPRESS OFF THE TOP ROPE!! McCord gets the pinfall and the three-count!

Winners: Rick McCord and DJ Peterson (pinfall, flying bodypress)

Match Analysis: Once you get past McCord's Rock n' Roll Express rip-off outfit, he's actually a pretty decent worker. You can tell that these two have had experience tagging before because they were pretty fluid in their tags and had a sense of where the other would be. As for the Bullets...well I guess their masks matched. There's something positive for them to focus on moving forward.

McCord and Peterson stop by Eric Bischoff's section of floor for a chat and DJ says that McCord has been wrestling for about ten years and that he's got experience. He says that he should be bitter about all the things that The Destruction Crew has done to him, but that he's happy because now he has his old partner back. McCord talks about winning the Central States Tag Championship with Peterson and says that he's in the AWA for one reason, and that he's going to help "Dave". He promises that The Crew better be ready for the fight of their lives.


Eric Bischoff welcomes us back and runs through the end of last week's main event with The Trooper and Larry Zbyszko for the AWA World Heavyweight Championship. We pick it up in the last three minutes and get the entire finish of the match, including Trooper's post-match interview.


Match Four: AWA World Heavyweight Championship
Brad Rheingans vs. Larry Zbsyzko (c)

Zbyszko goes through his exhaustive stalling that he's made famous, while Marshall goes on about Zbyszko's amateur wrestling experience. Zbyszko hits the apron for a timeout and then looks disgusted by the chant coming from the spudheads at ringside. He finally makes his way into the ring and backs off of a lockup attempt, yelling at the crowd and then hitting the floor AGAIN! He gets on the house mic and says that he doesn't suck. Zbyszko's back in the ring and they finally hit a lockup with Rheingans pushing Zbyszko into the ropes and giving him a clean break. Zbyszko hits his usual fireman's carry opener, but Rheingans gets a headscissors to reverse, holding it until Zbyszko makes the ropes. Zbyszko gets to his feet and immediately complains about a hairpull. Another lockup and Rheingans pushes Zbyszko into the ropes and grabs a headlock. Zbyszko shoots him off and eats a shoulderblock, but follows that up with a hip toss on Rheingans. Rheingans follows THAT with a kick out that knocks Zbyszko onto his pompous ass and it's right back to the side headlock with a takeover. Zbyszko grabs a handful of tights and brings Rheingans over for a couple of two-counts but referee Gary DeRusha sees the tights being pulled and breaks up the pin attempt. Zbyszko shoots Rheingans into the ropes and tries for a back bodydrop but Rheingans gets around him and scores with an amateur wrestling roll-up that gets a two-count!!

Zbyszko hops back to his feet but Rheingans takes him right back down with a side headlock, leading to Zbyszko pulling the tights to get another pin attempt and DeRusha actually counts three, but Rheingans got his shoulder up so the match goes on. Zbyszko shoots Rheingans off into the ropes and eats a shoulderblock but drops down on the next one and sends Rheingans through the ropes to the floor. Rheingans up to the apron and he hits Zbyszko with a shoulderblock and gets a SUNSET FLIP OVER THE TOP ROPE!! 1-2...NOOOOO, Zbyszko kicks out!! Zbyszko shoots Rheingans into the ropes and it's a double-shoulderblock that puts both men down. They're back to their feet but Zbyszko hits a spinning back kick and puts Rheingans back down. Right hands from Zbyszko and he chokes Rheingans across the top rope for good measure. Belly to back suplex from Zbyszko and he gets a long, long two-count off of that one before he chokes Rheingans against the middle rope. Rheingans buries a right hand into Zbyszko's gut and another and Rheingans hits a belly to back suplex of his own!! Rheingans rolls him over and gets a long two-count but Zbyszko gets up first, hitting a HUGE vertical suplex. Zbyszko with the cover and another two-count and he goes to the reverse chinlock to soften Rheingans up a little more.

Rheingans powers to his feet and tries to break the hold, but Zbyszko pulls the hair and drags him back down to the mat. Zbyszko gets a couple of two-counts off of the hold and screams at DeRusha to ring the bell, but it's not happening and Rheingans gets back to his feet! Elbows to the gut from Rheingans and Zbyszko WAFFLES him with a pair of right hands that drop Rheingans. He picks Rheingans up and locks in the ABDOMINAL STRECH OF MILD DISCOMFORT!! Zbyszko pulls the tights behind the referee's back but it's to no avail as Rheingans has REVERSED THE STRETCH!! Zbyszko fights out of it and hip tosses Rheingans over for a long two-count before going back to the chinlock, using the bottom rope for additional leverage. Zbyszko almost puts Rheingans out and it's comical to hear him yelling at the timekeeper's table to "RING THE BELL!!!", almost pleading with them to do it. Rheingans gets back to his feet and elbows out of the hold again, raking Zbyszko's eyes to a pop from the crowd. TURNBUCKLE SMASH ON ZBYSZKO!! HIP TOSS!! CLOTHESLINE!! Zbyszko's bouncing around the ring like he's got spring-loaded underwear on and Rheingans rakes Zbyszko's eyes with his boots!! Gut-wrench suplex from Rheingans and he gets the pinfall for the 1-2...NOOO ZBYSZKO KICKS OUT!! Rheingans Irish whips Zbyszko into the corner but MISSES THE CHARGE!! ZBYSZKO WITH THE CRADLE!! FEET ON THE ROPES!! 1-2-3!!! THE BELT IS GOING BACK TO LARRYLAND, BITCHES!!

Winner: Larry Zbyszko (pinfall, rope-assisted cradle)

Match Analysis: Not a bad little match and probably better than the match with Zbyszko and Trooper, just because Rheingans could work and knew psychology pretty well. Zbyszko could have had this match with virtually anyone that was left in the AWA and gotten it over to varying degrees. How good the match would be was more based on his opponent's skill level rather than his. He's clearly the top guy and pretty much all the AWA has left at this point.

Bischoff has Brad Rheingans with him and Larry Zbyszko's still jawing at Rheingans at ringside. Rheingans says that nothing is settled and that the only place Larryland exists is in between Zbyszko's ears. Rheingans is PISSED off over the loss. Imagine how much more pissed he'll be when he sees that Zbyszko had his feet on the ropes.

Bischoff talks about the finish of the match and lays out the next show which will feature The Destruction Crew, Nikita Koloff, The Trooper and much, much more. Bisch thanks us all for watching and asks us all to come back next week and that's the show. If he knew how many of his checks were going to bounce, I bet he'd be begging.



Final Thoughts

Not the best show that the AWA could have come up with, but certainly not the worst. The main event was a little better and the jobber matches seemed to have a little bit more oomph to them. I'm not at all suggesting that it was somehow a good show, but it was bearable, which is a lot when it comes to the AWA in June of 1990. Things are getting pretty close to being through actually, since the promotion fell into inactivity beginning in the fall of 1990. The shows kept running on ESPN, but the AWA essentially fell into a slow death crawl in the fall, including Zbyszko leaving for WCW. Still not good though, so it's going to be a two-jugger. I'm pretty much expecting two-juggers to be the standard from here on in.



Fun With Comments


From piperfan01:
"When I saw Magnum vs Nikita, I got excited, but then I saw Jamie Magnum and I became limp again. how the AWA got Nikita, i'll never know, but I still enjoy watching him to this day. By the way Kayfabe commentaries has a new DVD out that talks to Nikita and Magnum(not Jamie) about their feud. They did a simular one with Valentine and Santana that was very very interesting. Johnnie Stewart on the other hand is not interesting, if there was anyone that I would like to see get squashed its him. Can we get him in a handicap match with Flapjack Norton and Nord, throw in the Texas Hangmen as well. Eh, while we are at it let DeBeers squash him as well, thats how much I dislike him. I would rather watch 3 Boris Zukhoff matches...In a row! But like you said, at least it's not the UWF... "

It sounds like KC is putting out some good stuff with their guest booker series and now these feud ones. I would be interested to see the Magnum/Nikita one since I didn't get a lot of NWA stuff back then. I like your idea for squashing the boring ones, but we'd have to make sure that Greg Gagne came out of retirement to catch his beating too!


From Steve:
"I think Bischoff's "Let's get to the ring for the announcements" is the new "Down to ringside to Rod Trongard and Lord James Blears" in the fact that Bischoff said his phrase before the matches took place, and Larry Nelson said his phrase before the matches started.

I noticed when the bell rang for the Carlson/DeBeers match that there were kids walking away from the arena. I guess they were tired of seeing weekly Col. DeBeers squashes for the past 4 years that DeBeers has been with the AWA.

Here's an interesting thing that I noticed on Friday's show: On commentary, Ralph talked about The Trooper saying that he believed in "Saying no to drugs". Well, look who has been appearing on all of these specials on drugs & pro wrestling. Yep, it's The Trooper himself, Del Wilkes, because he took steroids for many years. At least he's being a role model now, since he doesn't do drugs anymore and he's telling other pro wrestlers to learn from his mistakes."

Yeah, it's good to see that Wilkes is able to take his experience and possibly turn it into something positive, rather than carrying on and railing against everyone like most bitter, ex-pro wrestlers tend to do. As for Bischoff, I'm sure that he just didn't realize he was saying the same thing over and over, which is ok. Or he did know he was saying it over and over, and it was REALLY annoying and kind of prick-ish of him.


From Guest. :
"Got to love Verne with the topical humor, like "Bart Whimpson" or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Spudheads. Although, come to think of it, it might've actually been topical in 1990, so he's got Vince Russo beat there. I'm also stealing Scrotum's bit here, but

"He says that instead of Larryland, Zbyszko was headed for Dreamland. I didn't even know that Dusty had a park."

just caused me to burst out laughing. My brother looked at me just weird after that. Anyways, promos saved this show, as Verne has gone from relying on the Midnight Rockers to relying on Curt Hennig to relying on Badd Company to relying on Larry Zbyszko to make shows entertaining. I love Larry, but he's no Hennig, he's no Rockers. Badd Company..... eh, they put on better matches, but Zbyszko's promos outclass them, even/especially with DDP as their mouthpiece. The main event just screamed more than usual "This is all we have, please buy house show tickets to see this so we can live." "

Pretty much everything screamed that for the AWA at that point, since I'm sure they were pretty much living show to show. I agree that Larry can't hold a candle to half of the talent that the AWA had during their run, but he was pretty much the best thing going and in 1986 was probably one of the most over heels they had and one of the best in all of wrestling. As for pop culture in the AWA, I'm pretty sure that Verne had never watched television, even his own show, based on how many things slipped through that seem inexcusable, so I'm sure that it was either Greg or one of the Gagne grandkids keeping Verne in the loop. I'm also glad that you enjoy my stuff and glad that you got a kick out of that one. I admit that I giggled a little as I typed it out.


From Bill_TX:
"For some reason, what I found
funniest about this show was Enos'
dopey smile while Bloom was talking.
Did ghl always look mildly stoned
like that? Anyway, horrible show
and great review!! "

Thanks for the compliment and yes, it was a horrible, horrible show.


From Robert Tivari:
"Do you think there is any chance that we'll see WCCW after this AWA run finishes? I know McMahon owns the WCCW footage, but he also owns the AWA footage as well. ESPN has the rebroadcast rights to the AWA shows, so wouldn't ESPN also have the rebroadcast rights to the Legends of WCCW series as well? "

It's tricky, but I suppose anything is possible. If ESPN decides to exercise their re-broadcast rights, I would love for them to show that WCCW stuff. I didn't get to see hardly any of it on the first go-round and had to rely on Apter mags to get my fix of Texas goodness.


From Rob:
"What was the deal with Wayne Bloom always cutting off Mike Enos? It always seemed weird and should have led to Enos turning on his partner.

Jonnie Stewart - the love child of Chris Candido and Billy Joe Travis. That was a nice elbow he dropped from the top rope, but everything else about him was as generic as it can get.

I find it amazing that the AWA could draw the number of people that it did in 1990. Watching this show has become more of an endurance test than anything else."

I always noticed that too. I'm not sure if it was to sow the seeds for a face turn, but it certainly got Bloom attention as a loud, obnoxious asshole. The elbow Stewart dropped looked good in full-speed, but on the replay it really looked like he barely made contact. Yes, watching this show has become a test of wills, but the AWA will not break me. I AM UNBREAKABLE!!


From Jasper:
"I had totally forgotten about Johnnie Stewart until tonight's show. Now I was I could keep forgetting him. He looks like Chris Candido with down-syndrome.

Wow, the Russina Sickle was much more impressive when I was 8 years old.

Col. Debeers is the one of the only thing that keeps me watchin the show. For some reason I enjoy watchin him squash jobbers and I think his "cowardly heel" act is something that is missing now-a-days. Plus points for the badass stache.

Larry Z reminds me alot of a friend of mine. So much its pretty creepy. "

DeBeers mustache was always an instant winner for me. Pretty much any move looks more impressive when you're eight, but I would say that for clotheslines, I always liked Koloff's, as well as Stan Hansen's LARIATTTTOOOOOOO. In later years, JBL's Clothesline From Hell has always looked crazy and stiff as all hell. I don't blame you for forgetting Stewart, he's pretty forgettable.


From MemphisHeel:
"Jonnie Stewart was decent, easily the best of the last crop of stars Gagne tried to create.

Anyone know the name of his entrance theme? "

That would be Pump Up The Jam, by Technotronic, some dance outfit from the late 80's and early 90's. Pretty much one-hit wonder territory if I remember correctly.


Finally, from Dave:
"This is so weird. I mean I make all these cracks about horrendous ideas Verne has.(You know, the lousy puns I make.) Then it turns out we get something like "Bart Wimpson" which had to come straight from Verne and it's so horrid I could have written it in a comment. It makes my head spin.

Anyway what was the deal with the Hangman match? That jobber got right up from the first Hangman Elbow like it was nothing but then remember to stay down after the second.(And why would you show the first in the replay, to prove to people your post production is garbage?)

Of course Larry is still good at his craft and carried the Trooper to a decent match.(Man, if there was any question if he's on the roids look at all the freaking backne on him.) Of course it's pretty pathetic how far down hill the promotion has slipped at this point.(Did anybody else notice when Nikita was leaving after the win they accidently showed that front section of the audience that was almost empty.)

Actually the weirdest part of this whole AWA thing is that the first time I saw that commercial for the vacuum cleaner they always show I thought the pitch guy was Verne.(Yes, I'm serious this time. Hey it makes sense since if it was him he could have said just like my AWA this vacuum really sucks.) "

Verne pitching vacuum cleaners is enough to make me laugh for days, so thank you for that visual. The only thing that would be funnier would be picturing him selling them at county fairs or things of that nature, like some smarmy huckster. I did in fact notice that they accidentally showed the camera side and that there was like six people there. I guess that's what happens when you move everyone to hard camera to make it look like your promotion isn't dying.


The comments are through and so is the show, so I'll see you all tomorrow for another dose of the AWA, and probably some UWF action as well since there's still an hour of that stuff that I haven't gotten to yet.