411's AWA on ESPN Classic Report 08.29.08

Posted by Randy Harrison on 09.01.2008

This is the end....my only friend, the end....


411's AWA On ESPN Classic Report





AWA Championship Wrestling

The Three Amigos welcome us to the show and Lee calls it the most exciting and historic day in professional wrestling history, completely disregarding that little Wrestlemania VI show that was a few months before this. Hulk Who? Ultimate Huh? Never heard of them, THIS is where the real history is!! And of course, from this momentous occasion we go to Eric Bischoff with an update on Buck Zumhoffe's condition after his altercation with Johnnie Stewart. Apparently he got stitched up and he's doing well, but the emotional wounds apparently won't be as easy to heal. Marshall builds up the main event, the Survival Battle Royal to determine the winner of the Team Challenge Series. Verne talks about how everyone is up for it and talks about it feeling like the Super Bowl, The World Series and The Masters all rolled into one. Lee picks DeBeers' Diamondcutters to win it all, while Eric thinks that Baron's Blitzers are going to go wire-to-wire to pick up the win and the million bucks. Verne says that he's happy that he's able to pick Larry's Legends, since he feels like they're the dark horse pick. We see the standings and Baron's Blitzers are in the lead with 48 points, Larry's Legends are next with 47 points and DeBeers' Diamondcutters are last with 45 points, though it's anyone's money at this point.


Match One:
Tom Bennett and Pete Pistulka vs. Steve Berg and Tony Denucci

Yep, this is the best way to start out the "most historic night in professional wrestling history". Four jobbers. Denucci and Bennett start things out and Bennett hits a knee to the gut and follows with a bodyslam. Missed elbowdrop by Bennett and Denucci takes him over with an armdrag into a standing arm-wringer. Tag to Berg and he comes off the second rope with an elbow to the arm, continuing with the standing arm-wringer, taking Bennett down and dropping a leg on the arm. Tag to Denucci and he comes off the second rope with the same move and drops a pair of knees into the bicep of Bennett. Tag to Berg and AGAIN they hit the second rope elbow to the arm, though this time Bennett rakes the eyes and kicks Berg in the ass before making the tag. Pistulka in now and ramming Berg into the top turnbuckle before he hammers away with forearms. He rakes Berg's eyes across the top rope and tags Bennett back in for some shots to the kidneys. Berg fights back and takes Bennett down with a big clothesline. He tags in Denucci and Denucci comes at both men with flying dropkicks! Pistulka tries to attack Denucci from behind and all four men are in the ring now, brawling away in opposite corners and it's MALFUNCTION AT THE JUNCTION time for the heels!!! Berg with a HUGE powerslam and Denucci comes off the top rope with a ROCKET LAUNCHER FOR THE THREE-COUNT!!

Winners: Steve Berg and Tony Denucci (pinfall, Rocket Launcher)

Match Analysis: Berg and Denucci could have grown into something, but at this point it was a four-way jobber bonanza and no one cared. It shows how incredibly thin the roster was in that they couldn't have had people in the main event, as well as a couple of stars outside of it. Sad, sad, sad.

Eric Bischoff has Col. DeBeers in the back and he asks if he didn't tell the truth when he promised that they would turn things around when he took over the team. He claims to have taken a band of misfits and nobodies and turned them into a well-trained unit. He says that his goal is to ensure that his team ends the Challenge as #1 and that they gain the $1 million dollars.


Eric Bischoff welcomes us back and we get to see the end of the AWA World Tag Team Championship match that saw The Trooper and DJ Peterson unseat The Destruction Crew for the title belts. From there, he brings in The Destruction Crew and they freak out at Bischoff saying "former" champions. Bloom cuts Enos off and asks how Bischoff's vision is and points out that he was the legal man and that Peterson pinned the illegal man. Bloom asks where the justice that Trooper is always talking about is and that there's been a grave injustice in the AWA. Bloom objects and claims it as an injustice, saying that next time that Peterson and Trooper get in their way, they'll shove something down their throats. Bloom rightly points out that if they had beaten the wrong man, Peterson and Trooper would be whining about it. He says that they're talking rematch and once they've had their rematch, Peterson and Trooper will never want to get in the ring with them again.


Match Two: AWA World Heavyweight Championship
Jamie Magnum vs. Larry Zbyszko (c)

Zbyszko circles and feints in and out before backing away from Magnum and jawing with the crowd. Lee Marshall and Verne Gagne talk up how great the Zbyszko/Race match was from a few shows back and talk about how they hope to see a rematch again in the very near future. Zbyszko lays the badmouth on Magnum and Magnum tries to get the crowd behind him with a "Larry Sucks" chant starting up. Lockup and Magnum pushes Zbyszko into the ropes, giving him a clean break and then clamping on a side headlock. Zbyszko tries to shoot Magnum off into the ropes, but Magnum holds onto the headlock until Zbyszko hits him with a belly to back suplex. Bodyslam from Zbyszko and he drops for a pin, getting a two-count before picking him up for another slam. Zbyszko picks Magnum up and DROPS HIM WITH A PILEDRIVER!! There's the pinfall and there's the 1-2-3!!

Winner: Larry Zbyszko (pinfall, piledriver)

Match Analysis: A quick one, like most of Zbyszko's TV matches were at this point, and he looked dominating like usual. There's not much else that needs to be said, though it's kind of disappointing that this is the last televised appearance of the AWA World Heavyweight Championship.

Bischoff is in the back with Baron Von Raschke and he goes WAY overboard on the sports references before bringing in the Baron. Baron says that there's a madman who wants to rule the world in Iraq and that in the AWA there are two madmen who want to rule the wrestling world. He says that DeBeers and Zbyszko are like Saddam Hussien, rattling their sabers and making noise, threatening the world of wrestling with huff and puff. He says that they're willing to use treachery and trickery to get what they want, but he's been talking to his Blitzers team and they're going to step into the ring and win the big prize. Von Raschke says that the madmen, Zbyszko, DeBeers and Hussien, are all going to go down.


Lee Marshall checks in with the final Team Challenge Series update and he talks about the last "Behind The 8 Ball" match with the craziness of Johnnie Stewart attacking his teammate Buck Zumhoffe. We get a shot of the standings again and Lee brings up the Survival Battle Royal one more time. Apparently, we are going to take another look at that "Behind The 8 Ball" match again after the break, along with comments from Larry's Legends captain Larry Zbyszko.


Back from the commercial and we indeed again get to see the end of the "Behind The 8 Ball" match, including the Stewart attack and Hughes winning the match. That's still a high-quality bladejob from Zumhoffe in the quantity. Not so much in the quality as it was fairly blatantly done, but he got great color off of it. They're REALLLY trying to stretch to fill the hour of time as they take another commercial break after the end of that highlight package.


We're back with Larry Zbyszko commenting on the end of the Team Challenge Series. Zbyszko claims that there might not be a tomorrow and goes into the Iraq and Middle East situation, saying that if the United States were so tough, we'd keep all of our soldiers here and just use our nukes to turn Iraq into a grease spot on the map. Bischoff asks what the point is and Zbyszko says that there are no games played in Larryland and that the ones that play games like Sting and Vince McMahon Jr.'s Anabolic Warrior run into the men's room when they see him in the airport. Zbyszko says that $1 million dollars is the motivator and that before Armageddon creeps up on everyone, Larry's Legends are going to win the Team Challenge Series and they're going to do it the American way. He promises to lie, cheat and steal, but no matter what, the million is coming to Larryland, SO HELP HIM GOD!!! Solid promo work from Zbyszko as always, though he kind of got off track a little in the middle of it.


Match Three: Team Challenge Series Match: Survival Battle Royal
Larry's Legends vs. DeBeers' Diamondcutters vs. Baron's Blitzers

Lee Marshall is in the ring, explaining the rules of the Survival battle royal. Every thirty seconds, a new member of one of the teams will enter the ring and that the match will start with Brad Rheingans (Baron's Blitzers), Col. DeBeers (DeBeers' Diamondcutters) and Hangman Killer (Larry's Legends) and that the way it's decided is pinfall, submission and over the top rope. Whoever wins this match will win the Team Challenge Series and the $1 million dollars for their team. DeBeers hammers away at Rheingans against the ropes and Rheingans throws DeBeers right over the top rope. Irish whip with Killer beating on Rheingans against the top turnbuckle. The Russian Brute is the next man in the ring and Rheingans goes to the stomahc and head of Killer, hitting a belly to back suplex as Brute hits the ring. Brute charges with a clothesline that Killer ducks and Brute levels Rheingans. Rheingans was supposed to go over the top rope but stalls out halfway over and Brute and Killer have to give him a nudge the rest of the way. Brute hammers knees in the corner on Killer and Killer comes back with punches as we see Curtis Hughes in the ring now.

Much punching and kicking ensues between all three men and Brute and Killer double-team on Hughes until Hughes ducks a clothesline. Brute was supposed to go over the top off of that, but he had a bit of Rheingans in him and gets caught up before falling back into the ring. Hughes kicks at Killer and headbutts him befre throwing him out to the floor. Wayne Bloom from The Destruction Crew is next and there's more punching and hammering from the heels and Hughes clotheslines the Brute out of the ring. DJ Peterson is in the ring now and he tries to slam Bloom over the top, but Bloom hits the apron and Peterson flies out to the floor. Johnnie Stewart in the ring now and Hughes holds Bloom for a punch, but Bloom ducks and Stewart punches Hughes out over the top rope. Bloom works over Stewart with punches and knees as we hear Mike Enos is the next man in the ring. They double up on Stewart and throw him over the top before they take a break, waiting for the next man. The bell rings and here comes The TROOPER!! Double-clothesline from the Crew misses and Trooper hits a big double-clothesline of his own!! Left hands for Bloom and Enos, but the numbers game is too much and they take over on Trooper.

Here comes Unknown Soldier and he looks suspiciously like Col. DeBeers. As he makes his way to the ring, Trooper eliminates both members of the Destruction Crew and as Trooper celebrates, DeBeers eliminates him. The bell rings again and it appears as if Jake Milliman is supposed to be the next man in for the Legends team and he gets in there with the "Unknown Soldier". DeBeers works him over with punches and tries to put Milliman over the top rope, but he holds on. Right hands from DeBeers and he rams Milliman's head into the top turnbuckle, following it with an elbow to the top of Milliman's head. Big bodyslam by DeBeers and he just steps on Milliman's throat, picking him up for another big bodyslam. As Milliman falls he grabs at the mask and rips it off, revealing it to be DeBeers under the hood. DeBeers charges at Milliman and The Milkman ducks it, sending DeBeers over the top to the floor!! It's...it's all over!! LARRY'S LEGENDS ARE THE WINNERS OF THE TEAM CHALLENGE SERIES!!

Winner: Jake Milliman (Larry's Legends Win Team Challenge Series)

Match Analysis: Kind of a whimpering way to send out both the Team Challenge Series, as well as the AWA as a whole. The intervals were random, the stars were non-existent and the finish was pretty much visible from the parking lot as soon as DeBeers came back into the ring with the mask on.

Zbyszko celebrates and appears to be trying to push Milliman out of the way and shove him to the back. The Destruction Crew and The Texas Hangmen all claim that they won the match while shoving Milliman out of the way and Zbyszko insists that everyone is going to get a fair share of the money. He shouts that they're ALL GOING TO LARRYLAND!! Zbyszko thanks The Hangmen, he thanks The Crew and he thanks himself for being such a genius as they still keep Milliman from getting a word in edgewise. Lee Marshall gets into the ring and brings Verne Gagne in for the presentation of the check. Marshall talks about a year ago and sitting in Verne's office talking abou the beginning of the TCS. Verne brings up all the great matches from the TCS and says that he can't believe that it's been a whole year of exciting action. Bloom is fantastic here, cutting Verne off and telling him to sign the damn check. The legal counsel for the AWA is introduced and he presents the check to Larry Zbyszko on behalf of the American Wrestling Association, Joe Blanchard and the AWA Championship Committee. Zbyszko says "Thanks a million" and says that everyone is getting an equal share. Bloom says that he's going to a deserted island with a ton of ladies. Larry busts out the "ex-wife and her boyfriend in a car accident" line again and says that THIS IS LARRYLAND!!

The Three Musketeers talk about the end of the Team Challenge Series and they talk about how Milliman did the job numerous times throughout the season and that he was the man that won the money for Larry's Legends. Verne talks about how much fun the Team Challenge Series was and Lee Marshall starts to break down the success of the Legends team. Bischoff brings up that The Crew losing their tag team titles could have been a big motivator for them and the show closes out with Verne saying that this past year was probably the most fun he's ever had in professional wrestling. Nothing like ending your thirty-five year run in professional wrestling with blatant lying.


Final Thoughts

The same thing that you've come to expect from the AWA as there was no talent, poor pacing of the show to try to stretch matches to fill the time, and a main event that was too chaotic to be any good. I almost wish that I had gotten a show so bad that it got the full four jugs, just to put a bullet into the brain of the promotion with style, but they didn't get that bad. The show wasn't terrible, just bland and lifeless, which is to be expected from a promotion on it's deathbed.





Fun With Comments


From Fuzey:
"Other than a FEW stars, man did AWA suck balls!! "

Pretty much. The end was pretty painful. All the way up to '88 or so, it was a really good show and then it just all fell apart in a hurry.


From The Kid:
"I for one am happy that were back in 1990 just in time to see the exciting conclusion of the Team Challenge Series. Sarcasm aside, as long as The Rock and Roller Buck Zumhoffe is on the show you should use the line-of-coke rating system. I mean how fitting was it that he was in the Behind the 8 Ball Match? Moving on. If I have to see another Destruction Crew promo with Wayne "Let me handle this one Mike" Bloom cutting off Enos and hogging the microphone I'm gonna throw my remote through my tv set. Why can't he let Enos say a sentence, just once? Is it part of the plan or did Enos get pissed when he got cut off? I guess they were try to hide poor mic skills by having Bloom do all the talking. But it's the same format every promo and it's getting old. "

It was the build for what I presume was an eventual break-up for the Crew with Enos as the huge babyface. I do agree that Zumhoffe and cocaine references go hand in glove. That much is certain. Enos was fairly terrible on the mic, and this was a way to get Bloom to do all of their talking, while booking long-term as well. Shame it never got paid off, and I really think that someone should steal the angle and run it to the end these days, either in WWE, TNA, or even ROH, where a longer-term storyline like that would work really well.


From Guest:
"I've been trying all day to get the classic CD(Verne Gagne Sings Queen) and I can't find it. I looked on E-bay, guess I'll try Amazon. "

I'd suggest the 99 cent CD bin at your nearest goodwill, gas station or car wash. That'd be your best bet to attempt to find it. I've heard Verne really rocks shit out on "Radio Ga-Ga".


From Guest. :
"I think Enos' promo skills were horrible, so they did the Bloom interruption. They used to do this back in the day, even with faces (Rheiggans I think was the example I saw) where he'd be interviewed for a promo, it'd be interrupted, then he wouldn't have time to go to his promo and he'd have a sad my puppy died look on his face. Bloom's arrogance was the cover thinking about it more.

The best part of the show though was Zumhoffe's promo, where he said he'd do a whole hell of a lot for $50. That was hilarious. Almost as hilarious was Bart Whimpson Stewrat hiding out the whole match, being accidentally knocked out by his partner, then beating the hell out of him. And the story on Stewart going back to play college football was the one I was going to say on the finals from a week or so back. DeBeers' reaction was also classic, though I was hoping the Diamondcutters (hey, Hidden Highlight, DDP as a former manager) would lose so DeBeers could put the whole blame on Hughes, but sadly the TCS was coming to a conclusion.

And on the TCS, you know, I get Turkey on a Pole, I get the Football match, I get the Pink Room living on in infamy. But really, I've read a lot on stuff about how Behind the 8-Ball was another example of the TCS failing, and really, the matches weren't so bad. You compare the rules to TNA or WWE matches, and its relatively simple (even if there were some inconsistencies, like the not-legal men being knocked out of the ring and being eliminated, but that's another story). In the end, my mantra was true, Verne Gagne was the most progressive booker in the annals of wrestling history. And boy did he suck at it. Later. "

I agree about the Zumhoffe $50 dollar line. That brought up about a million images of Buck behind dumpsters and in alleys and none of them were good. I agree that most of the matches in the TCS weren't terrible. Everyone tends to remember the horribly bad ones like the Turkey and Football matches, but in honesty, the matches where it was just straight wrestling weren't bad at all. Boring, but not bad. You've won me over to your mantra, and I agree with you about Verne being both the most progressive and worst booker of all times during that period.


From l AA rry nelson:
"Is it just me, or is it when you see Buck Zumhoffe for the 1st time the last thing you think is Rock & Roller?

Also, why do they have him constantly playing the late 50's - 60's rock and roll out of his boom box? It was 1990! They couldnt have hooked him up with some Motley Crue, Posion, or Bon Jovi? Hell...not even some Winger at least?"

I think that they kept Buck as a Rock n' Roller with the Oldies so that he could still be viewed as being harmless to the kiddies. I think that Verne figured the parents would freak if Zumhoffe came out in leather pants and a codpiece, rocking out to RATT or something like that.


From Joe (So Cal):
"Randy, i've enjoyed reading your reviews of these classic/awful shows the past few months...
can't wait to see your comments on the 8/26 show, the Trooper jumps over the top rope to end the match.
not as bad as the Mimi/Candi botched clothesline, but still pretty awful...
bring on 1985!!! "

Yes, I'm hoping that the 1985 shows are up next, as those are about the only ones that haven't been covered in-depth and I enjoy the rhythm of doing five shows a week. Having to take gaps due to repeats would be a pain.


From Sturge:
"Nice on camera blade job by Zumhoffe. Has anyone ever bladed for a lightweight/cruiserweight title before? "

I'm sure there have been a few, but none that I can think of off of the top of my head.


From Anita Hummer:
"Is Buck Zumehoff still alive ???? "

Buck is still alive and kicking, and would have been around 40 at the time of the last set of AWA tapings. He's still active and promoting in the Minnesota and Dakotas area, even stepping into the ring on occasion to continue his active career.


From Robert Tivari:
"Wow, they've REALLY started blacking out the crowds. At first they just kind of made it look dark so you wouldn't notice all the empty seats. Now, you can't even see anything beyond the first 2 or 3 rows.

I liked how they explained Slaughters disappearance from the company as going AWOL, rather than the real reason of maybe he was just tired of feuding with Bart Wimpson and the Russian Brute and wanted to work for a better company where he could face the likes of Hogan and Warrior. I know I've mentioned this before, but it still amazes me how one man (Slaughter) can go from feuding with guys who should have been (and were) left in the wrestling graveyard when the AWA folded to guys that were on the very top of the pro-wrestling pecking order seemingly overnight.

Oh, and I caught that little slow motion crowd shot. What the hell was that? "

It was funny that even in 1990, Verne still tried to kayfabe everything away. Yes, it's funny that a lot of the top guys that Verne had would go on to varying levels of success elsewhere, and yet when they were all under the AWA banner, the place tanked. The crowd shot was the same reason that they cut to crowd shots from the mid-80's at various points. They were trying to make people think that they still had big crowds and lots of fans, but no one believed it.


Now, we grab the comments from the 08.26.08 edition of the report! Firstly, from Eric:
"Well, I don't know if you've noticed or not - at the very end Verne Gagne managed to pull in multiple workers from Chicago's WIndy City Wrestling promotion. Let's count them shall we? The Texas Hangmen. The Tokyo Bullets. Johnnie Stewart. Larry Cameron. Sonny Rogers (who did a lot of jobbing but made some waves, so to speak, in Chicago.). Tony DeNucci. All graduates of the 'original' WCCW.

WCCW was founded by "Super Maxx" Sam DeCero, who got his start with Dick the Bruiser's old WWA promotion in Indianapolis in the late 1970s. DeCero still runs the wrestling school, and their taped programs run on Chicago public access cable. It's hard to find, but DeCero is still keeping the school alive.

Seen Christopher Daniels aka Curry Man lately? Know where he got his start? Windy City. Windy City also pulled some of the last AWA 'names' from time to time to the old International Amphitheatre. Paul Heyman popped into Chicago from time to time...usually with the Original Midnight Express in tow. Buddy Rose and Doug Somers made appearances. "Mr. Electricity" Steve Regal made some appearances. AWA jobber Rockin' Randy wasn't as much of a jobber in Windy City.

There was a lot of cross promoting right near the end of the AWA....and it was interesting to see some of DeCero's guys getting some TV time. When the AWA finally folded, Chicago fans could occasionally see an old AWA favorite or two pop in for a TV taping.

Not going to comment on those last days, but amusingly enough, if the AWA had just gone back to being a regional promotion at this point they might have survived. Both WWF and the NWA/WCW were able to pass them by. Gagne couldn't compete with the big dogs no matter how hard he tried.

When Gagne's own son-in-law, Larry Zbyszko, took off again, you just knew the end was near. Verne couldn't call anymore favors to his old workers (see Harley Race and Buck Zumhofe) anymore.

And it's a shame...

And I'm out. "

As always, an absolute ton of information, so thank for that Eric. I agree with your assessment that if Verne had fallen back into a regional promotion and re-loaded, he would have been able to keep going, possibly even stacking up enough talent to get another run at the big two once he had gotten things in order. File it under "What if?", I suppose.


From Dave:
"Well really Buck didn't have to worry about being sued. I mean can you imagine Vince and Hulkster watching that? They were probably laughing their asses off at how much of joke it was and they must have known the AWA had a mere weeks to go. Seriously, they probably said stuff like "Wow, couldn't they afford Randy Hogan for that spot?" (How's that for a reference from 20+ years ago?) Anyway I think mentioned how badly botched the end of the LH championship match was. (As I've said, Jonnie clearly kicked out, another instance where it was so obvious that even Verne commented about it.) Of course I've mentioned how screwy things were at the time.(Go read on wikipedia about Buck and they mention it. Too bad if Verne could plan anything losing a guy like Jonnie wouldn't have been a problem since he would have realized he was terrible much earlier.)
As for Larry Cameron, true it looked like they would have pushed him to the moon. You know, right after saying all guys in the WWF and WCW were just body builders. Sad thing is that the guy actually died of a heart attack in 93 and the age of 41.(Just another wrestler dying young in the sport.) "

I'm pretty sure that Vince would have sued just out of spite alone. He wanted to rule with an iron fist and would have done anything to ensure he came out on top, even if that meant suing a rival and essentially stepping on their throats while they were down. It is sad to remember Cameron, and sadder still to remember that he suffered the fatal heart attack while in the ring in Germany.


From Chris:
"Did anyone else notice the belt they used for the Light-Heavyweight Championship? It was the AWA TV Title belt

This belt certainly makes the rounds. They used it as the Women's Title Belt on a show that aired last week, and Larry Zbyszko even used it as the AWA World Title when he won the battle royal for the belt (Lawler kept the original one).

The funny thing to remember is that they used one of the AWA World Tag Team Title Belts as the TV Title when they were running a few shows in Tennessee before SuperClash III. Ron Garvin wore the Tag Team belt, and one of the announcers even commented on Garvin having a brand new belt! Unreal.

I guess when Poppa Verne refuses to pay you, you grab anything you can that has value! "

Verne was notorious for doing that and I've pointed it out on numerous occasions. I guess those belts were expensive and Verne couldn't afford to have new ones made all the time, so he just kind of made do with what he had. It all kind of adds to the bush-league look of the promotion though, which is exactly what he was trying to avoid.


Finally, from greg:
"was wondering does anyone know the oringal air dates for these shows in 1990 "

I actually don't have the original airdates, so if anyone out there has them, feel free to send them in or post them so I can pass them along.


That does it for this special holiday edition of the report! Be sure to join me back here tomorrow for the first show of the new week, presumably going back to 1985 as the 1990 shows have apparently ended their run.


THE COUNTDOWN...45 Days Until The Assault Begins...