AWA SuperClash III

[King Kamala]

Put this on this morning after shovelling. Started watching it for the first time. Well, I skipped the Lingerie Battle Royal and hype segments for that cause my girlfriend was in the room (I deserve all the Oh Really reactions in the world for that, I'm usually a completist.)

Good parts: It's fun to see a young Cactus Jack (who takes a backdrop on the concrete floor), DDP (well, he was already 32 at this point, which is how old I am now. I wish I had his hair though), and Madusa. Also literal underaged Jeff Jarrett? Also fun to see the other Guerrero Brothers not as old dudes. Bischoff said Eddie seconded them and there was a geeky guy who took their ring jackets that I could see someone dumbly confusing for Eddie but I don't think he was there?

Bad: Man, as soon as the show starts and I see Lee Marshall is lead PBP guy, I know this card will be NOT GREAT! This card has a few people way before their prime and a few people way past their prime and a lot of people nobody ever gave a hoot about that I'm surprised ever got a PPV check. Col DeBeers, Ricky Rice & Derek Dukes...egads. Just the whole vibe and energy of the card just screamed regional wrestling. THIS is the best that the non WWF/WCW PPVs could put forward as competition. Just them talking about "Texas Vs Tennessee" rivalries feels very bush league compared to a December 1988 WWF or WCW show. No one except JR and Verne Gagne wants pro wrestling to be comparable to college football. Crowd energy feels like it has the same vibe as when you're at a crappy house show where no one gives a fuck.

Swoop down and save me, Sting Kerry Von Erich.

 

[BruiserBrody]

Memphis kept the Texas vs Memphis angle going on cable TV for years after this.

There were free agents floating around that could have maybe sparked something of interest, but Verne no longer had the budget and Jarrett was only worried about his 2 markets and paying everyone by Lawler peanuts. Guys like Terry Funk, Abby, Scott Hall, Brian Pillman, Austin Idol, Jimmy Garvin (he was working indies after being written off JCP TV), JYD, Muraco, Gordy, Bob Armstrong, really fat Buddy Rose, The Wild Eyed Southern Boys, etc. Even Bigelow was a free agent in the weeks leading up to this show and he was a proven draw in Memphis.

I just watched an AWA show from 88 and was surprised to see the Top Guns doing their Rockers knock off gimmick on the same show as the Rockers headlining.

The show probably should have happened in Memphis.

Kamala with DDP's hair would be Adorable Adrian Adonis, no?

---

I'll add some notes from the WON in the AM. I got to get ready for the coal mines.

 

[King Kamala]

The Texas Vs Memphis storyline led into WCCW becoming USWA Dallas, right, @BruiserBrody ?

Picking this up again. The Wahoo McDaniel Vs Manny Fernandez strap match is like your grandpa violently fighting your least favorite uncle.

Now Wahoo literally threatening to shoot Manny Fernandez.

I had never seen Stanley Blackburn before but somehow he looks exactly like I imagined he would in my mind. Did Verne find him at his moose lodge?

 

[BruiserBrody]

(Mostly) Off the top of my head here's the bigger name guys not on the PPV and not signed by WCW/WWF:

Terry Funk, Abby, Scott Hall, Brian Pillman, Austin Idol, Jimmy Garvin (he was working indies after being written off JCP TV), JYD, Muraco, Gordy, Bob Armstrong, really fat Buddy Rose, The Wild Eyed Southern Boys, etc. Even Bigelow

Dan Spivey, Sid Vicious (Jarrett's CWA champ in early December!) , Billy Jack Haynes, Buzz Sawyer, Matt Bourne, Yokozuna, Tama, Steve Keirn, Akio Sato, British Bulldogs, Blackjack Mulligan, John Nord, Big Steel Man, Dutch Mantel, Bill Dundee, Buddy Landel, Dick Slater, Kamala, Tom Pritchard, Tony Anthony, Eddy Guerrero, Art Barr, Doug Furnas, Scott Steiner, Wendell Cooley, Kabuki, John Tenta, Chris Adams, Jim Brunzell, Brian Blair, Great Muta, Bob Orton Jr, Curtis Hughes, Teijo Khan, Soldat Ustinov, Nasty Boyz, Butch Reed, the Grappler, Tom Zenk, Ken Patera, Brad Rheinghans, Jerry Blackwell, Jimmy Snuka, Ricky Steamboat and Roddy Piper.

 

[BruiserBrody]

A few hot shotting ideas from that list:

Hayes and Steve Cox are attacked by the Samoan Swat Team. As the babyfaces make a comeback, the massive Kokina Maximus arrives and bulldozes them. Kokoina makes his in ring debut 2 weeks later. After a quick squash, Terry Gordy storms in to get him some for what Kokina did to his Freebird bro. This sets up a six man at the PPV.

--
Jim Brunzell, fresh off his WWF run, makes his surprise return and he and Gagne battle Adnan's goons one more time for old grudges.

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Here's one that's out there a bit: Masa Chono (working Central States) is hyped up in a vignette by his trainer/mentor Lou Thesz. Chono gets a few tepid TV wins, until he comes out one week with Mr. Saito instead of Thesz. Saito gives him a mean streak as they team. Saito brags up his Olympic past, causing Brad Rheinghans and Ken Patera to step in as America's former Olympians. The Patera/Saito arrest can play a role in it too.

---
Thesz and Gagne I believe had long standing natural heat from each being top guys in the 50s, so Thesz was never coming in. Brunzell sued Verne for Remco toy money, so he was also unlikely to appear.
---

Between the Sheets 2 weeks ago covered how Memphis TV was not even bothering to push the PPV 2 weeks before it was to happen. Lawler plugged it on his own personal show however.

 

[BruiserBrody]

The New Japan/All Japan alignments always seem to be an undercurrent when u dig into why some guys went here vs there and whatnot.
One of those cases for me has always been the Great Muta. Muta was wasting away in Florida and Texas in dead promotions, meanwhile the AWA was using Ninja gimmicks with Ninja Go (an actual Japanese wrestler) and later Steve O under the gimmick. Verne was still aligned with Baba until at least early 1987, so Muta was off limits. With Fujinami being around, though it seems Muta could have been on this card.

Sid being flaky about wanting to stay close to home (Muh softball!), was probably a good guess as to why he didn't make an AWA run when Verne was throwing quite a few talentless roid monkeys on TV throughout 86-88. (Maxx Bros, Billy Jack Strong, even the Nightstalker aka Adam Bomb got a gig in 1990.)

Scott Steiner, with his look and college pedigree, also seems like a natural fit for Verne to push. Off hand I believe his lone AWA TV match was being squashed by Ronnie Garvin in the lead up to this PPV.

Garvin being on the show is pretty interesting as well as he had already signed with Vince, but was holding the AWA TV title AND the WWC heavyweight title. (Was the TV title actually "held up" here??? to protect the AWA in case Garvin no showed? ) Garvin dropped the WWC title to Carlos Colon right after this show.

Jerry Blackwell was Verne's last real draw, but he started his own promotion in the south and only showed up in the AWA one more time (a random 1989 TV match teaming with the Fultons IIRC). Blackwell was around in late 87 yet as I recall him and Hennig working World title matches. Anyway, this show seems like a good excuse to throw him in the mix again, maybe with his old pal Sarge against Debeers, Khan and Soldat Ustinov? Or Debeers and Sheiky baby, who actually appeared on the PPV, fresh off his latest WWF firing.

 

[King Kamala]

Yeah. Iron Sheik did a post match run in during the Slaughter-DeBeers match and everyone was like “The Iron Sheik!? What the hell!?” Which is fitting since it may have been his only appearance in AWA during this time appearance.

The SID and Steiner in AWA notions are nice but you are assuming Verne wanted to pay anyone under the age of 40 in 1988.

This show is actually not quite as horrible as I expected work rate wise but thing that stood out is how many horrible finishes there were. Even Ronnie Garvin, who was leaving the GD company, couldn’t put over the promoter’s son clean. That says it all.

 

[BruiserBrody]

Stuff from my WON notes:

AWA gave away 3000 free tickets and still only got 1700 people to show up.

Lawler was to give an interview during the PPV but he was busy arguing over a finish to the main event and missed the spot. They had Bill Apter introduce him again later.

Tommy Rich was supposed to work Boogie Woogie Man but no showed after his AWA TV check never came from weeks earlier.

Only a few weeks after unifying the titles, Lawler took the charm of the unification off the title as he did a tainted job for Dutch Mantel as Ricky Morton played heel.

The Financial News Network wanted to back a sequel to SuperClash III headed by Jerry Jarrett in April, but wanted the AWA involved and Jarrett refused. This pretty much was a deal breaker for the backers and it didn’t happen as a result.

Buddy Rose was fired in April of 1987 along with Debeers for working an Indy show in Colorado. The Col. obviously returned, but Rose never did.
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A few extra LOL AWA items:
They were planning a tour of Europe in the Spring of 1988, while drawing hundreds to sold shows in High Schools in the US.

Ricky Morton quit the AWA in July after the attempt to draw fans in the Carolinas with Wahoo, Manny, and the Rock and Rolls bombed. Robert Gibson made the rest of his dates with Groovy Greg as his partner.

The AWA booked Jerry Lawler (their champ mind you) to face Curt Hennig in July, the same night Lawler was booked to work Von Erich in WCCW. As things played out Hennig headed to the WWF and Lawler made the WCCW date.

In August Meltzer reported Verne wanted to book the Metrodome with ZZ Top for WrestleRock: The PPV (scheduled for November).

In August Eddie Gilbert told Meltz that he and Bam Bam Bigelow were heading to the AWA...but Eddie was just BSing.

Verne was telling people in August that he was going to sign up a lot of NWA talent as JCP was going belly up.

In early November JODIE FOSTER showed up on AWA TV to plug her new movie the Accused. Nothing wrestling related was said.

The Top Guns quit the AWA in November, ditto Soldat and Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!! The Guns agreed to work the PPV.

In September, Ted Turner apparently indicated he wanted the AWA and other groups to work matches on his TV wrasslin'.

*Interesting to note that while Turner was working out the details to buy JCP, JCP was seeking to buy WCCW, Fritz tried to meet them in the middle and just find a way to get Flair booked on his shows. On the other side, JCP wants Kerry to come in as another hot babyface. (WCCW was sold to Jarrett by late October).
* Ole Anderson and Jim Barnett went to Turner and tried to tell him to save his millions and just give them the TBS TV slots for a new promotion.

BONUS AWA LOL: In October 1987, JT Southern threw a dropkick during a battle royal so Verne fired him.

 

[BruiserBrody]

Yeah. Iron Sheik did a post match run in during the Slaughter-DeBeers match and everyone was like “The Iron Sheik!? What the hell!?” Which is fitting since it may have been his only appearance in AWA during this time appearance.

The SID and Steiner in AWA notions are nice but you are assuming Verne wanted to pay anyone under the age of 40 in 1988.

This show is actually not quite as horrible as I expected work rate wise but thing that stood out is how many horrible finishes there were. Even Ronnie Garvin, who was leaving the GD company, couldn’t put over the promoter’s son clean. That says it all.

Did u notice Mike Enos as a ref?

 

[Mental Lee ILL]

Why didn't Verne Gange let Kerry Von Erich become the Unified World Heavyweight Champion over Jerry Lawler?

 

[BruiserBrody]

Why didn't Verne Gange let Kerry Von Erich become the Unified World Heavyweight Champion over Jerry Lawler?

Jerry Jarrett bought WCCW, but only 60 percent, Kevin and Kerry each had 20 percent. Fritz was swimming in debt so the Von Erichs had no real bargaining power.

In May 87, it was reported Dallas Cowboys owner Bum Bright bought WCCW, but then it was said it was only a marketing and syndication deal. This pissed off WCCW's syndicator and they went to WCCW minority owner Ken Mantel and gave him the TV deal to start "Wild West Wrestling". Bright then backed out and Fritz had to grovel to keep his original syndicator.
THEN Bright came back into the picture and Fritz sued his original syndicator and was paid 200K+ for the past year of TVs, but opened up another issue as both the syndicator and Fritz claimed to own the WCCW footage.
Mantel had previously (May 86) convinced Fritz to drop out of the NWA, in what was believed to be a backdoor deal with Bill Watts to soften up the WCCW for a UWF invasion in Dallas. "Mysteriously" Mantel left Fritz for Watts soon after. This lead to Iceman Parsons, OMG, Missy Hyatt, Akbar, the Freebirds, Chris Adams, Missing Link, Sunshine, and Kamala leaving WCCW for the UWF.

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Verne had no money, and I doubt a one legged and drugged up Kerry was going to be of a lot of interest anyway.
Hennig was being paid 1500 a week to be AWA champ BTW. Curt had agreed to jump to the WWF in late 86 but Larry Hennig negotiated a contract for Curt to get the title and a guarantee.

Meanwhile, back in Nov 88 here's Jarrett's new payout system for his WCCW guys: 15 bucks for jobbers on TV, No pay if u win on TV, and 30 dollars for everyone as the baseline for a house show.

 

[alkeiper]

I feel like it didn't matter what caliber stars Verne got for the show. It looked minor league and everyone suffered being associated with it. I watched Alex Rodriguez play a rehab game at AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. It still felt like a minor league game. If even Hulk Hogan shows up at Superclash, it's still going to feel like a minor league promotion.

 

[Mental Lee ILL]

Speaking of SuperClash 3, does anyone know the name of the woman that did the national anthem with the cool saxaphone rift at the begining of the show?

EDIT:Nevermind. I was actually thinking about AWA Wrestlerock 1986.

 

[BruiserBrody]

I feel like it didn't matter what caliber stars Verne got for the show. It looked minor league and everyone suffered being associated with it. I watched Alex Rodriguez play a rehab game at AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. It still felt like a minor league game. If even Hulk Hogan shows up at Superclash, it's still going to feel like a minor league promotion.

Verne sprung for a lighted entrance and dry ice at one 1989 taping by gum!

 

[BruiserBrody]

"Kamala's Random AWA Bullshit" thread:

Verne teases coming out of retirement for 1988 at a spry 62. I haven't seen this since I was a kid, but honestly only remember the Apter mag coverage. Here Verne tries to leap over the ropes and into the ring, only to fall down.

Greg cuts a pretty horrid promo at the end of the tape. This does not make my stanning of him any easier.

Did I use the kids lingo right?

 

[King Kamala]

Verne was on the card at WrestleRock, right? I don't see how him coming out of retirement again two years later would be that much more absurd.

@BruiserBrody , do you think Greg Gagne's legacy is hurt most by the fact that most visible era of his career was his goofy waning years (I'M GREG GAGNE AND I'M IN A RAGE!)? Or do you think it was because he was a square peg in round hole in the glamorous Rock N Wrestling Era? Or a combination? From all accounts, he was a very solid worker in the late '70s and early '80s but that stuff wasn't seen a lot outside of upper Midwest.

 

[BruiserBrody]

Verne was on the card at WrestleRock, right? I don't see how him coming out of retirement again two years later would be that much more absurd.

@BruiserBrody , do you think Greg Gagne's legacy is hurt most by the fact that most visible era of his career was his goofy waning years (I'M GREG GAGNE AND I'M IN A RAGE!)? Or do you think it was because he was a square peg in round hole in the glamorous Rock N Wrestling Era? Or a combination? From all accounts, he was a very solid worker in the late '70s and early '80s but that stuff wasn't seen a lot outside of upper Midwest.

He was slightly older by the time most people saw him (85) and his workrate pretty boy partner Jim Brunzell left 2 months before the ESPN deal was signed. Something as simple as Corny and the Midnight Express going to the AWA at the beginning of the ESPN deal and having some bangers with the Hi Flyers on TV might have changed some minds. The Hi Flyers moving on to Somers and Rose next would have given them another few months of good TV matches.

What happened instead of Gagne used Brody to write him out of the ring for a while for a legit injury, and then Greg worked with Nick Bockwinkle in a longish feud that kept evolving as both men lost their partners and had to add new wrinkles to the equation.

The Slaughter "Rambo" Greg stuff came in the summer weeks after Brunzell left, so instead of revving up into a bunch of good matches with the old men (Ray Stevens/Bockwinkel) and his brother in law Larry Z, Greg cosplayed as Rambo with a belly shirt.

I honestly have no idea if Hennig wore the Camo gimmick too or if that was just a call for the AWA Remco toys to give him some flavor as he and Groovy Greg teamed.

The Bockwinkel blow off was basically SuperClash, and then Gagne got mixed up with Super heavies like Brody, Nord, etc for his next major angle and it really exemplified his small frame.


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As far as Wrestlerock, I am always tickled by the clips of Verne doing a house show run and attacking Brody while wearing a sweater to fend off the Minnesota February chill. Brody no selling Verne's call for a backdrop and just running into him is amusing too.

Verne says at Wrestlerock that he's done, but he went back on the road a few weeks later for at least 2 more matches. Six man bouts in Denver and Green Bay. According to those in attendance (In GB IIRC) Verne was playing around a bit by falling backward and grabbing the ropes to stop himself as he waited in the corner. He slipped while doing this and tumbled to the floor.

 

[BruiserBrody]

Kamala, in honor of your long term love of lousy wrestling, can I get u to watch this and make some snarky comments????

Wrestling for a Cure: AWA Benefit Show 8/26/1985 – CXF | Culture Crossfire | culturecrossfire.com

culturecrossfire.com

Edit: The comments on the youtube link are kind of amazing.

 

[King Kamala]

I might watch it on the basis of NEW ENGLAND MAN Hall of Famer Eddie Andelman "doing" PBP.

 

[King Kamala]

83 Weeks on Verne Gagne is uploaded, @BruiserBrody .

Curious to see how Conrad sets up a long, annoying anti Meltzer rant from Bischoff in this one.

 

[Baby Shoes]

Hopefully as subtly as he plugs how you can save money on your home and car through Geico

 

[BruiserBrody]

83 Weeks on Verne Gagne is uploaded, @BruiserBrody .

Curious to see how Conrad sets up a long, annoying anti Meltzer rant from Bischoff in this one.

Bischoff is gushing over most aspects of his time there, which is nice to hear from the AWA for a change.

I have no idea why he thinks Jesse Ventura was there in 1987-89 and that Eric somehow saw an argument between Jesse and Verne over how a promo was cut.
Eric also mentioned Rick Rude learning promos from Verne, when he didn't train w/ Verne or do any shots I know of as a rookie or beyond.
Rude was an Eddie Sharkey trainee. Sharkey was the guy who shot up Verne's office for trying to sleep with his wife.

Wrestling With Sin: 196

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