411's AWA on ESPN Classic Report 09.01.08

Posted by Randy Harrison on 09.02.2008

Silly me, I thought the worst of the AWA was over....


411's AWA On ESPN Classic Report





AWA Championship Wrestling

Bischoff and Marshall welcome us to the show and I believe that I spoke far too soon in saying that they would be going back to the good shows in the mid-80's because this is still a 1990 show, as I guess they're filling in the gaps that they've missed, meaning I'm still screwed for a while yet. Bischoff claims that all the hot young ladies are here to see Tommy Jammer, and the rest of the card features guys like Yukon John Nord, The Texas Hangmen and a main event between Larry Zbyszko and Nikita Koloff.


Match One:
Jamie Magnum vs. DJ Peterson

Good grief, that is possibly the ugliest jacket I've ever seen on Donna this week. It looks like she ripped the curtain off of the stage at a strip club and turned it into a coat. Peterson gets a single-leg pickup into a stepover toehold and he drops back into a straight leglock off of it. Peterson to his feet and he buries a legdrop into Magnum's stomach before nailing a hamstring pull. Modified version of an STF from Peterson now and he transitions that into another leglock as Magnum manages to crawl to the ropes. Magnum gets to his feet and goes to the eyes, taking Peterson over with a big bodyslam but he misses the follow-up elbowdrop. Peterson with a big vertical suplex and he heads up to the top rope for a FLYING CLOTHESLINE!! Peterson locks in the Scorpion Deathlock and all that's left is for Magnum to give it up, which he does rather quickly.

Winner: DJ Peterson (submission, Scorpion Deathlock)

Match Analysis: Peterson must have been fairly high at this point as he was counting 1-2-3 as he had the legs wrapped up in the Scorpion. Lots of legwork from Peterson, that actually got paid off with the finish, which was nice to see.


Match Two:
Tom Stone vs. Tommy Jammer

Stone attacks Jammer before the bell and Jammer fights it off, getting a couple of legsweep takedowns before headbutting Stone nearly in the balls. Jammer moves to a toehold and hits a legdrop on Stone's knee, turning it into a stepover toehold. Stone kicks Jammer away and Jammer again gets a single-leg takedown into another leglock for a two-count. Another kick-out and another legsweep into a seated leglock and Stone rakes the eyes to get free of the hold. Stone with a BIG chop and he rams Jammer into the turnbuckle. Another attempt at it and Jammer blocks it, sending Stone into the buckle and then ramming him into the other corner for ten shots to the buckle with the crowd counting along. Jammer slams Stone's head into the mat, picks him up and does it again, jumping while he does it to add more force. Jammer with an Irish whip into the ABDOMINAL STRETCH OF SOMEWHAT MILD DISCOMFORT AND AGGRAVATION!!! Stone makes it look like death and screams a little before giving it up!!

Winner: Tommy Jammer (submission, abdominal stretch)

Match Analysis: Even a quality jobber like Stone can't mask all of Jammer's green. It was an alright match, but you could see spots where Stone was kind of spoon-feeding it to him to make sure he looked strong. Better work from Stone than Jammer in this one actually, and I still can't buy that finish, no matter how hard they try to make me.


Match Three:
The Anhiliator vs. Yukon John Nord

I'm not sure who The Anhiliator is, but he looks a little bit like WT Jones. It's not, but they have very similar looks. Anhiliator tries for a bodyslam, pushing Nord into the ropes, and he actually gives Nord a clean break. Nord hammers away with some forearms to the back and ties the Anhiliator in the ropes, running off the other ropes for a BEAVER SHOT TO THE FACE!! Irish whip into a shoulderblock and Anhiliator gets to his feet pissed off!! He bounces off the ropes and Nord just takes him over with a big hip toss, kicking him in the gut and hammering away, whipping Anhiliator into the corner. Anhiliator reverses it and charges in and Anhiliator EATS MORE BEAVER!! Nord up to the second rope and he hits a HUGE guillotine legdrop that leads right into the 1-2-3!!

Winner: Yukon John Nord (pinfall, guillotine legdrop)

Match Analysis: All I could think of while watching this one was if The Anhiliator was going to work his way up the D squash ladder to take on The Eradicator in a match to determine the champion of the universe. Nothing to see here, just the usual stiff beating from Nord.


Match Four:
Tony Leone and The Cobra vs. The Texas Hangmen

Psycho starts things out with Leone and Leone actually gets an armdrag out of the gate, moving to a top wristlock. They try to claim that it's Killer in the ring, but I've seen their body types enough and I know when it's Psycho in the ring and that's Psycho. Leone whips Psycho into the ropes and tries a charge in but Psycho feeds him a big boot and stomps away in the corner, choking with a boot across the throat before tagging Killer. Psycho holds Leone by the feet across the top rope and Killer comes off the second rope with a double-axehandle to the back, clotheslining Leone across the top rope. Running powerslam from Killer and he comes off the ropes with an elbowdrop that gets him a two-count. Irish whip into the ropes and a reverse elbow hits for Killer, leading to a tag to Psycho. He hits Leone with a seated bulldog move that gets him a two-count and as Leone scrambles around, he gets through Psycho's legs and into the corner for a tag to Cobra. Cobra with a side headlock and Psycho shoots him off into the ropes, allowing Killer to knee him in the back from the apron. Tag to Killer and he hits a shot to the ribs, following that up with a spinning neckbreaker into an elbowdrop for a two-count. Tag to Psycho and he hammers Cobra's ribs with headbutts before the tag comes to Killer and it's the HANGMAN'S ELBOW!!! It's all over but the medical bills, folks!!

Winners: The Texas Hangmen (pinfall, Hangman's elbow)

Match Analysis: The usual from the Hangmen and the only annoying thing I have to point out is the announcers and their constant ignorance as to which Hangman is which. It's rather easy to figure it out, yet they still try to make it much more confusing than it needs to be, which is a bit of a pain in the ass.


Lee Marshall and Eric Bischoff talk about the timeline between Nikita Koloff and Larry Zbyszko and we see highlights from the previous matches between the two men that have led to this two out of three falls main event. We see the first match with Zbyszko trying every dirty trick in the book before just waffling Koloff with the belt to get himself disqualified. Koloff cuts a promo at ringside and says that when they step into the ring next time, with all the support of the people, he's going to walk out with the title around his waist. Zbyszko hasn't seen the last of Nikita Koloff!! Bischoff says that he's favoring Koloff because the title is not on the line. Marshall says that he thinks that Zbyszko has the edge and that Koloff could beat the hell out of Zbyszko but he won't win the belt. I love how they sell it as Zbyszko has already been introduced and that we're meeting the "challenger" when this is clearly from February of 1990 and Zbyszko was in that weird "lost the belt to Mr. Saito" phase.


Match Five:Two out of Three Falls
Nikita Koloff vs. Larry Zbyszko

Koloff hits the ring and CHARGES ZBYSZKO!! Zbyszko bails to the floor and Donna tries to get the hell out of there too. Zbyszko tries to sneak up on Koloff, but Koloff catches him and hammers him with some right hands in the corner, sending Zbyszko to the mat with a HUGE hip toss. Right hand puts Zbyszko into the ropes, all tangled up and Koloff whips him into the ropes for a big reverse elbow before he throws Zbyszko to the floor. Koloff follows him out and pounds on Zbyszko with a right hand before RAMMING HIM INTO THE RINGSIDE TABLE! ZBYSZKO HIT THE BELL!! It's hilarious to hear Lee Marshall talking about how the only way that Zbyszko would sign this match is if it was "non-title". Koloff rams Zbyszko into the barricade at ringside before sending him head-first into the apron. Forearm to the back and he sends Zbyszko into the ring, but Larry recovers and catches Koloff with a knee as he tries to get back into the ring. Koloff's back down to the floor and Zbyszko is out after him!! ZBYSZKO SENDS KOLOFF INTO THE BELL ON THE TABLE!! Zbyszko starts choking Koloff with the cord from the house microphone and tries to drag Koloff into the ring by a front facelock. We find out that Bob Lurtsema is the referee after the brawl on the outside and he inserts himself, almost on cue, and pulls Zbyszko off of Koloff as he chokes the big Russian against the bottom rope. Zbyszko slaps Lurtsema's hand away and starts to work Koloff over with knees in the corner before choking him across the middle rope. Koloff fires back with a kick tot he gut and they trade right hands before Zbyszko tries to ram Koloff into the top turnbuckle. Koloff stops short and sends Zbyszko into the buckle hard before mounting him in the corner for RIGHT HANDS!!! Koloff with an Irish whip into the corner and he follows that with a big reverse elbow that gets two before Zbyszko gets a foot onto the ropes. Snap mare from Koloff and a big elbowdrop to follow that gets Koloff a one-count. Irish whip into the ropes and Koloff ducks down for a back bodrydrop but Zbyszko ducks under and gets him with a roll-up and Zbyszko has a handful of tights and GETS THE THREE-COUNT!! Zbyszko is up 1-0!!!

Zbyszko is out on the floor and STILL complaining, even though he took the fall. He finally makes his way up to the apron and Koloff is telling him to get into the ring. He finally gets back into the ring and Koloff takes over with some turnbuckle smashes before whipping Zbyszko into the ropes for a FLYING SHOULDER TACKLE!! Zbyszko goes down and catches Koloff with a double-leg pickup in the corner, getting a pinfall attempt with his feet on the ropes!! Lurtsema counts two a couple of times and then sees Zbyszko's foot on the ropes and breaks up the pin. Koloff back to his feet with right hands, but Zbyszko catches him in the gut with a spinning back kick. Zbyszko follows it with a snap mare and gets another two-count before laying some stomps in and yelling at the front row. BIG BACKBREAKER by Zbyszko and he gets another long two-count off of that before moving to the reverse chinlock. Zbyszko cranks away at Koloff's head and yells at the front row again before yelling to Lurtsema that it's not a chokehold. Lurtsema checks the arm and it goes down twice with Zbyszko SCREAMING at the timekeeper to ring the bell, but Koloff gets back to his feet and hits some elbows to the gut to break the hold. Zbyszko tries for a spinning neckbreaker but Koloff reverses to a backslide!! Lurtsema is down for a quick 1-2-3 and we're tied at one fall apiece!!! ZBYSZKO SHOVES LURTSEMA ON THE FAST COUNT!!! Koloff is bent over, foaming at the mouth from the reverse chinlock as they take the break between falls.

Zbyszko attacks during the break, hammering on Koloff in the corner and choking away at him. Lurtsema tries to pull Zbyszko off the choke by the HAIR!! Hard chop from Zbyszko and he goes back to the choke, with Lurtsema trying to pull him off again. Lurtsema throws Zbyszko to the mat with a handful of hair and KOLOFF CHARGES OUT WITH A RUSSIAN SICKLE!! QUICK COUNT!! KOLOFF WINS THE FALL AND THE MATCH!! Zbyszko is sitting in the ring and he is in disbelief. Lurtsema goes to the outside and raises Koloff's hand as Zbyszko slowly makes his way from the ring. Marshall again puts over that it was "non-title", sounding like a jackass.

Winner: Nikita Koloff (pinfall, Russian sickle)

Match Analysis: This was actually a pretty good little match and while I don't necessarily advocate making a match two out of three falls and then giving it a little over ten minutes, it worked in this case. Zbyszko screaming for them to ring the bell before Koloff recovered in the chinlock was classic Zbyszko and probably the best part of the match.


We come back from a break with Zbyszko holding the belt and looking like he's just been in the ring (which I have to admit is a fun little touch of continuity), and he's railing about Benchwarmer Bob. He says that it was the biggest rip-off since the Black Sox and the Saito scandal in February, which is funny that he mentions it in the promo given the timeline of everything. He claims that the AWA World Heavyweight Championship is what guys like Lurtsema and Koloff are willing to cheat to screw him out of. He calls himself the "Living Legend" and says that he's the man challenging all the other champions and they're all scared of him. Zbyszko says that Lurtsema should be hung after that travesty of justice and he says that everyone is motivated by the graet force called GREED! He says that everyone wants and wants and he wants his title belt and he's going to do everything he can to keep it, THE AMERICAN WAY!! He's going to lie, cheat and steal to keep his belt and everyone will love him because he's the heavyweight champion of the WORLD!! Great delusional promo from Zbyszko, made even greater by the fact that it's about a match that had taken place probably months before.



Final Thoughts

Bleah. It was all matches because obviously they couldn't really do a lot of angles or interviews on matches that had already happened months before, but they really could have chosen some better matches. The first four squashes were all pretty boring and the only interesting match was the two out of three falls bout I'd already seen. This one was fairly tough to get through and I needed plenty of happy juice.





Fun With Comments


From FUZEY:
"Verne should have sold out to Vince in the mid-eighties. This is the worst wrestling on TV."

If he would have been able to keep Hogan, he probably could have. Vince was essentially going to buy the whole promotion to get Hulk, and a few other scattered guys of course. Once Vince decided that Verne had too much shit going on to sell out, he just started taking guys and slowly crushing Verne out of business.


From The Scootman:
"Did I miss the "Turkey On A Pole" match. If the 1990 shows are done, then when did it air. I don't even remember you recapping the pink room episodes. It's not even on YouTube. I must have my turkey fix!!!!!! "

The pink room and the Turkey match was from around the beginning of the Team Challenge Series in November of 1989, which is a year that they haven't really touched on yet on the ESPN Classic shows. There's a good chance that once we get through the rest of this 1990 crap, they might go back to that year since that's really the only year they haven't shown any shows from.


From Guest. :
"As the TCS comes to an end, I think I realized a fatal flaw with Verne's promotion of it. Well outside that he was grasping at straws, but beside that. The faces were the ones who were ahead the entire time. Verne was so concerned with making the crowd go home happy that you had the face group (the Blitzers) leading for most of the time, and then either the heel group (Legends) or the face/heel group (the SniperCutters) competing to not be last. Hence, when the TCS came, it was the Legends and the Cutters showing grit, heart, and determination to come back and punk out the faces. Obviously this was the end and Verne knew it, but the heels having to come from behind to steal it from the faces just seemed like backwards booking.

Anyways, was on a Bockwinkel kick yesterday, so I was watching a bunch of his old matches and promos. One of them was with Bill Apter on one of the AWA shows, circa 1989 or so. He squashed the rumor on that show he would be coming out of retirement, and then talked about two men who he saw as the future of the AWA: Jonnie Stewart, and Derrik Dukes. Well, there's a strike permanently against Nicky for that one. "

Very solid point about Verne and his flaw in booking the promotion. I agree that he was overly concerned with the crowd going home happy, to the point of shooting the booking in the foot to do it. If the faces go over and over and over and the heels look like fools, no one is going to want to see it when it comes time for the big pay-off. Verne had it right until a couple of years after Hulk left. Then for whatever reason from about '87 on, he started booking in reverse and the wheels just fell off completely. As for Bockwinkel, I'll cut him some slack as I'm sure he was just towing the company line and didn't feel too strongly about either Stewart or Dukes. I mean, he's NICK BOCKWINKEL!!


From JLAJRC:
"With the way Zbyszko and Baron talked about Iraq, you would think they were running for office. A Zbyszko/Rasche ticket would be interesting.

I'm sorta upset we didn't see the "Turkey on a Pole" match. Ever since RD inducted it on Wrestlecrap I've wanted to see it. "

A Zbyszko/Baron ticket would have been the greatest debate season for elections in the history of the United States. I agree about the Turkey match, but as I said before, there's still a pretty good chance that we'll get to see it.


From yomamma:
"i could not help but to break out the AWA dvd that the WWE put out after watching the episodes that i would Tivo. all in all, this was one messed up ride. i feel bad for Vern Gagne and he seemed like good people. to add to that, vince has no right to be p/o'd at bishoff. after all, bishoff tried to do to Vince, what Vince did to the AWA: he stole thier talent.....think about it! Bishoff only did what he did because he saw someone else do it first. WAKE UP PEOPLE: competition is good for business and it makes for some damn good TV! "

That's the thing with the wrestling business though. Whatever you do to help your company survive is the "right thing to do". If anyone else does it though, it's the shittiest thing anyone could ever imagine. It ties into the whole selective memory/revisionist history mentality that permeates wrestling, even today.


From Dave:
"Well first off did anybody else notice in that tag match they won by jumping off the top rope on a prone opponent.(Wasn't that illegal? I mean I thought I saw "The Talentless" Johnny Stewart get DQ'ed for it.) Well that given all the history we've seen since this stuff whenever they say "Steve Berg" I get this image in my head of a guy who swears, gives the finger, and does the JackHammer.
Anyway as for the Unkown Soldier thing it did seem a little stupid they took a second before they identified him. I mean the only time I've seen it where it was more obvious who was under the masks was Doom. (Well ok, in that case you weren't supposed to know who they were. Of course it would have helped if WCW didn't only have 2 absolutely huge, super muscular black guys in the entire league which kind of limited the possibilities.)
Randy, I'm glad you brought up that Zybzko line about the ex-wife line. Personally I thought it was a great one, of course I can empathize with that point of view. BTW, was I the only one that was expecting him to say they were going to divide it evenly and that they'd each get $200,000? I did find it hilarious they basically pretended that Jake didn't even exist.(Everybody was totally in character.)
I've got to agree with the other poster though. The screwed up by making the Blitzers win all the time for the early going. (They should have made it closer so there was some actual tension) It was so ham handed that they had to give the other teams free points to make it close so the final battle royal decided things.
Anyway bad news Randy, at least according to my Tivo. Next week is apparently repeats.(Assuming it's right of course.) That means at least for part of this if they show episodes they skipped from 86-90 they're going to be spliced in with everything else.
It is amazing how far they slipped and how fast.(But if course guys at the AWA like Bockwinkle thought Stewart and Dukes were hot properties they were doomed. I guess their only chance would have been to keep Paul E. Dangerously and let him book the league. Maybe we could have gotten the EWA by 1990.) "

Great stuff here, Dave. The main thing I will touch on is the Doom/Unknown Soldier thing. I think that they were trying to do the whole "nudge nudge, wink wink" thing with DeBeers, but then realized that the people that were watching the AWA program wouldn't be able to get the subtlety. When they figured that out, they just went with the sledgehammer to drive the point home. I did like the Doom one though because as you said, they played it like they didn't know for sure who it was, though all of the announcers acted like they had an idea.


From The Adamantium Elbow:
"Actually I rather enjoy watching the old AWA shows even better than current WWE. At least there the show is about the wrestlers and not GMs, CEOs, Grand Poobahs, High Muckety Mucks, etc. always sticking their two cents in.

As for Bloom always cutting off Enos I always figured it was done more to make Bloom look like an obnoxious prick rather than covering Enos' mic skills or perceived lack thereof. "

That's an interesting point to make about the show being mainly about the wrestlers. It's a real throwback at this point in time to see a show like that, but at the point that the shows were actually happening, everything was moving away from the show being about the wrestlers, which put Verne behind the times. I agree about the whole Bloom/Enos thing though, that he was basically being a dick to talk over Enos. Enos could talk alright, and you could hear when he started most times that it sounded like it'd be decent, but Bloom would cut him off. I say it again, someone needs to steal that angle and work it today.


From Greg:
"I don't think The Russian Brute sold one thing during that Battle Royal. Man was he terrible. I did kinda mark out when Jake won the Battle Royal. A Horowitz-esque moment. "

Jake actually had a good run out of that Team Challenge Series and I agree that it was a Horowitz-style moment and a lot of fun to see him come out on top after years of being hammered on. I liked the fact that he was shoved to the side after his big win and still treated like a jobber by everyone, including his own team captain, during the check presentation.


Finally, from rdfox:
"Sorry, Randy, but it's not over, after all. After another 1990 episode appeared on Monday night, I went to check Wikipedia to figure out just how much longer we'd be looking at the Bitter End, thinking, "It can't be more than four or five more episodes, right?"

According to them, Verne kept on running shows until fall 1990, Larry Z. didn't leave for WCW until December 12, bankruptcy wasn't filed until 1991, and Verne managed to put on one last show in May '91, headlined by the Baron and Wahoo McDaniel vs. the Destruction Crew.

More to the point, they mentioned that he managed to keep running shows in his syndication and ESPN timeslots through the end of 1991, by rerunning old matches. So we've apparently got enough shows left before ESPN finally canned it to go through the end of the year! "

Ugh. If there are matches I haven't seen on a show, I'll generally do the show and then copy and paste the other matches in, but if it's a show with matches that I've already seen, just in a different order, then you can expect me to skip it.


That's it for the comments and that's it for today's show. I'll be back tomorrow, barring a repeat show, with more of the best of the worst from the AWA as the vultures are definitely circling at this point!!


THE COUNTDOWN...44 Days Until The Assault Begins...