Best of the AWA Page 2
- Cage match: Jesse Ventura & Adrian Adonis v. Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell. The match wasn’t SO good that we needed to see the rematch. Jesse and Greg are both bleeding as we pick things up. Brunzell is getting a tag and and few two counts on Adonis result. Dropkick misses and Brunzell goes into the cage and blades pretty blatantly. Brunzell takes more beats (but no skullcracker, sadly) before hitting his dropkick and tagging Gagne in. He hits his own dropkicks and the GAGNE SLEEPER OF DOOM, but Ventura nails him with brass knucks and Adonis goes to the top of the cage for whatever. It misses and Gagne gets the pin. Another decent one, although the lack of a skullcracker knocks ¼* off. **1/4
- Mean Gene interviews Mad Dog Vachon, who is busy constructing a coffin for Jerry Blackwell. Now THAT’S getting your point across. He succinctly explains how Blackwell put him out of the business for 2 ½ years and now he wants to kill him. See, now this is the sort of to-the-point interview that’s lacking in wrestling today.
- Blackwell retorts later (KILLER KEN RESNICK! WHOO-HOO!) by breaking a 2 x 12 with the sheer power contained in his gigantic gut, and then headbutting a six-inch spike through a piece of plywood. You just don’t SEE stuff like this anymore.
- Death match: Mad Dog Vachon v. Jerry Blackwell. Vachon is more well known these days as "the guy who was at ringside and had his artificial leg used as a weapon by Shawn Michaels and Diesel". Vachon bitchslaps Blackwell until he falls, then knocks him out of the ring and rams him into the ringpost, drawing blood. A chair to the head opens it up further. Crowd pops huge for it. Back in, and Vachon hammers and bites away. Running rope straddle (think Kevin Nash) gets two. He runs into a boot, giving Blackwell a chance to ascend the turnbuckles and go for the FAT GUY OUTTA CONTROL FLYING SPLASH OF DOOM, but it misses and Vachon hits a kneedrop for the pin. Blackwell makes it to his feet to beat the count, but then the force of gravity says "Hey, no so fast…" and he falls on his ass again to take the loss. Pretty intense brawl. **1/2
- MIDGET MADNESS! MIDGET MAYHEM! MIDGET DEMENTIA! Hey, guess what, I don’t recap midget matches (not counting Tazz) so if you care, get the PPV. As a note for any Gagnes reading this, two things to ponder for your next show: 1) Matches where people are chanting "boring" are not the best choices for a "best of" show, and; 2) You probably should have put the World title on Hulk Hogan in 1983.
- Interview with Da Crusher. He relates stories from his youth, most of which involve the "s’loons" and beating people up. It meanders on (and on…) for about 10 minutes before he gets to the point, about wanting revenge on Lord Alfred Hayes.
- 20-Man battle royale: We start about 15 minutes in, with Hogan, Andre, Bobby Duncam, Greg Gagne, Jim Brunzell, Bobby Heenan, Ken Patera, Adrian Adonis, Sheik Adnan El-Kaisse, Nick Bockwinkel and Jerry Blackwell accounted for. The High Flyers are both tossed quickly. The heels gang up on Hogan and Andre, but can’t get it done. Andre tosses Blackwell, Adnan and Duncam, then goes after Heenan. Bobby flees over the top, eliminating himself, and Andre follows, also eliminating himself. That leaves Bockwinkel and Patera alone with Hogan, and if you don’t know how THAT ends up, even in 1982, you have no business reading this report. Big heel beatdown follows Hogan’s win, and Andre makes the save.
- A young, hairy, and pale Hogan challenges the entire Heenan family to a match against him and Andre.
- Hulk Hogan & Andre the Giant v. Bobby Heenan, Bobby Duncam, Nick Bockwinkel and Ken Patera. Quick history lesson: Heenan is of course the Brain, Duncam is the father of the late Bobby Duncam Jr., and Ken Patera went on to be arrested for assaulting various police officers in the mid-80s and spent time in prison as a result, thus destroying his career. I don’t know what happened to Hogan. We pick it up as a big brawl erupts and Andre absolutely beats the crap out of poor Heenan. Hogan comes in and MURDERS Bockwinkel, setting up the title match that actually comes at the end of this show. He misses a blind charge and gets caught in the heel corner, and they work on his arm. Wow. Hot tag to Andre, and it’s a massacre. If the heels would bump for Big Show even HALF as much as they do for Andre here, he’d be way more over. Hogan back in with the big boot and legdrop of doom, but it only gets two (!?!) on Duncam. So Andre adds his own, slams Hogan on top of Duncam, and that’s enough for the pin. About as bad as you’d expect. *
- Quick clip of a battle royale shows some vague animosity between Hogan and Andre in 1983, which Greg Gagne then has the chutzpah to say was used by "another promoter" to put 90,000 people in the Silverdome "a few years later". That’s right, kids, Wrestlemania III was the success it was because of VERNE GAGNE, and don’t you forget it.
- NWA World title: Ric Flair v. Magnum T.A. And what’s an AWA retrospective without an NWA World title match? This is from the first Superclash, during the period when Gagne and the Crockett empire were working together in the mid-80s to prevent mutally assured destruction. Not that it ended up helping either one in the end, but the thought was there. This is an AWESOME 28 minute match tragically clipped down to less than 5. We pick things up with Magnum trapped in the figure-four, which he escapes, and cradles Flair for two. Slugfest in the corner is won by Magnum. Brawl outside sees Flair hit the post and blade. Back in, TA pummels him for two. Wrestling sequence ends with a backslide from TA for two. Magnum hits the BELLY TO BELLY OF DOOM, bumping the ref in the process. It gets two. I just wanna note that Larry Nelson is the worst announcer, ever. Too many reasons to list here, but trust me. Reversal sequence leads to a rollup for two from Magnum, then Flair yanks the tights and rolls them over for the pin to retain. Even what little we saw was pretty great. ***
- Wrestler v. Boxer: Larry Zbyszko v. Scott LeDoux. This is the culmination of a long, stupid storyline between Larry and AWA referee (and ex-crappy boxer) LeDoux. This is from the AWA’s quasi-historic WrestleRock show. Both men are wearing karate gloves, thus making it inherantly stupid from the get-go. And they show the WHOLE MATCH. Round one: Larry executes his best move, the seven-minute stall, and waits it out. Round two: More stalling. Larry gets a cheapshot and punches him down until the end of the round. Round three: More punishment from Larry. Round four: LeDoux mounts the comeback and kicks Larry’s ass all over the ring, but the bell rings as he knocks him out cold. Round five: Larry brawls with him outside and gets DQ’d. The whole thing ran about 15 minutes and was a total waste, considering that no one explained the storyline in case newer fans were watching.
- Verne Gagne & Mad Dog Vachon v. Sheik Adnan El-Kaissie & Jerry Blackwell. The main problem with show summed up in one sentence: Verne gives a big anecdote about the circumstances behind his teaming with Mad Dog, but they show a video package before this match which completely contradicts everything he said. Further, Gagne introduces this match by leading us to believe it was he and Vachon against Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens. Furthermore, what the hell is the point of even showing this match? Everyone in it is LONG retired and/or dead, it had no significant impact on the wrestling world aside from being Verne’s 15th or so "final retirement match", and it’s a horrid match to boot. The heels cheat and beat on Vachon, who bleeds. Blackwell powerslams him for two. Vachon makes the tag to Verne, and the heels cower in fear. Yeah, if a 60-year old, flabby, bald former champion came after me, I’d be running, too, especially if I weighed 500 pounds like Blackwell did. Do you people understand now why everyone is constantly taking shots at WCW and what it’s going to inevitably lead to? No good can come of Hogan and Flair constantly hanging on until they look like Verne Gagne did in his later years. Blackwell powerslams Verne for two, but the big fat splash misses and Gagne hooks the crappy sleeper. Big brawl leads to the Sheik accidentally hitting Blackwell with his cast, and the match totally breaks down. Gagne comes off the second rope onto Sheik’s injured arm and gets the pin. Bleh. ½*
- Tribute to former AWA wrestlers.
- Tribute to dead former AWA wrestlers.
- Tribute to former AWA interviews. Stan Hansen’s "I’m not in it for the women, I’ve got a fat wife and nine kids to feed" interview still cracks me up every time, though.
- Various highspots are shown.
- Main event, AWA World title: Nick Bockwinkel v. Hulk Hogan. This is the "riot match". It’s Hogan’s first shot at the title, and the situation mirrors another one that occurred last week on RAW. We cut to Hogan escaping from a sleeper, bumping the ref in the process. Hogan dumps Nick over the top rope, then revives the ref, suplexes Bockwinkel back in, and drops the big leg for the pin and the AWA title. Geez, that was pretty brutally clipped. The crowds goes INSANE, then we suddenly cut to about 5 minutes later as the decision is reversed (he threw Bockwinkel over the top), and then we cut to another few minutes later as Hogan gives his post-match interview and steals the title belt. That editing job doesn’t do the match justice – in the full version, when Stanley Blackburn comes out to reverse the decision, the crowd nearly RIOTS. I’m serious, it’s as bad as Hogan’s heel turn in 96 – garbage literally filled the ring and several people tried to charge the ring. Hogan ends up beating up Bockwinkel and Heenan to calm the crowd down a bit, but it was pretty scary for a while. Verne Gagne, however, failed to the huge hint that was staring him right in the face, and allowed Hogan to walk away to the WWF soon after and conquer the world from there. Oh well, everyone pretty much got what they deserved from that deal.
The Bottom Line: The show started okay, but then completely lost all it’s direction. Had I been doing it, I would have thrown some *truly* historic stuff on there, like the Hansen-Martel boston crab fiasco, the Hennig-Bockwinkel title switch, the Rockers v. Rose/Somers bloodbath, maybe some classic Scott Hall stuff…you know, just a general selection of things so as to say "Look, here’s some of the biggest stars of today and WE made them!". Instead, we got "Look, here’s some of the biggest stars of 30 years ago trying to put a match together at 50 years old!" Hey, nostalgia is fine, but this show could have been SO much more than was delivered, and I think it’s kind of a shame, that’s all.
But it was only $19.95 so whatever.
Not recommended unless you’re a longtime AWA fan like me who actually remembers the storylines for these matches without needing, say, someone to actually introduce them properly. Or if you really like the Gagnes. Either way.