Cackling Co Pilot Kamala
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Definition of @BruiserBrody bait.
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Brody and Friends talk about the AWA (Brody has no friends)
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BruiserBrody
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2/18/89 – Marshfield, WI
Cage Match:
Wahoo McDaniel defeated Manny Fernandez
AWA Champion Larry Zbyszko vs. Ken Patera
AWA Tag Team Champions Badd Company Pat Tanaka & Paul Diamond defeated Greg Gagne & Tom Zenk
Brad Rheingans defeated Wayne Bloom
Tommy Jammer defeated Mike Enos
Counter argument: Wahoo and Manny's angle was in July and they just kept dragging it on and on since it put the booker in the main event.
Larry was back in the AWA for all of 3 weeks at this point.
Ken was fresh to AWA TV, but was last seen in WWF doing jobs for months on end.
Zenk was just brought back as part of the January reset after the Memphis talent all bailed after the PPV.
Brad was also freshly back as he had left Verne in 87 to work WWF/outlaws.
Bloom and Enos were jobbers until the Jan 20th TV. All TV from late Dec until then was SuperClash matches.
The tag title match was likely a real banger.
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Terry Funk worked a shot in California of all places for the AWA. It had to be a favor to the Guerreros or something. Plus Eddy is there. Oh Verne, what could have been!
I'm pretty sure Dusty taped interviews for Verne for the World title battle royal TV taping and wound up no showing(?)
1/26/89 – San Bernardino, CA
Sgt. Slaughter defeated Colonel DeBeers
AWA Tag Team Champions Badd Company Pat Tanaka & Paul Diamond defeated Mando Guerrero & Eddie Guerrero
Manny Fernandez defeated Wahoo McDaniel via count out
Greg Gagne defeated Terry Funk
AWA Women’s Champion Wendi Richter defeated Susan Sexton
Reported Attendance: 400
snuffbox
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I guess I'd much rather see (and maybe meet) a wrestler out of the limelight than never at all. I thought it was cool when I was a kid in the 1990s getting to see Patera at an armory and Greg Valentine at a county fair. I thought it was cool when I got to meet Stan Hansen at a hof event in 2018 even though he hadn't been on television in decades at that point.
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BruiserBrody
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That's definitely a different argument than "Would this draw in _______". Point conceded.
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala
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It’s exciting to see people who have been on National TV on a regular basis in person, no matter how long ago (or how badly) their time on TV ended. Especially in a smaller venue. Simple as that.
Even to this day and in my mid thirties, it’s exciting when I see a guy like Gangrel on an indie show.
(Cringing realizing that the equivalent of Gangrel on a late era AWA show would have been someone from the ‘50S!)
@BruiserBrody : so maybe they should’ve brought Verne back in ‘88?
Even to this day and in my mid thirties, it’s exciting when I see a guy like Gangrel on an indie show.
(Cringing realizing that the equivalent of Gangrel on a late era AWA show would have been someone from the ‘50S!)
@BruiserBrody : so maybe they should’ve brought Verne back in ‘88?
BruiserBrody
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I thought Sheik changed his name in like 1980 during the Hostage crisis? He worked as Hossein Arab in WWWF in 79 (winning the 1st ever battle royal in MSG history IIRC)
What the heck?
alkeiper
Welcoming our new insect overlords
Wrestlingdata.com has Vaziri using Iron Sheik before Hussein Arab appeared. I’m guessing either Vaziri tried a new name and it didn’t work, or in some territories he had to avoid confusion with the Original Sheik.
BruiserBrody
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Photo taken by a 240 pound Polish rat in a motel in Sheboygan.
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala
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BruiserBrody
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- Messages
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BruiserBrody
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- 3,166
- Points
- 293
I popped so big for Romy Gosz that I missed another possible connection. One of my dad's best friends was a Indian named Billy Olm. They were blood brothers of the old school finger slicing variety.
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala
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This Coliseum fits 7,600 for a wrestling so that’s a pretty bad house even by ‘89-‘90 AWA standards.
BruiserBrody
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12/6/89 – Toronto, Ontario, Canada @ the Exhibition Place
AWA Champion Larry Zbyzsko defeated Sgt. Slaughter via DQ
Candi Devine defeated Judy Martin to win AWA Woman’s Title
Paul Diamond defeated Jonnie Stewart
Ricky Johnson defeated Dan Johnson
Indestructible Machine defeated Ned Tyson
Nick DeCarlo defeated Jason Sterling
Reported Attendance: 200
Hilariously, in AWA fashion the card was full of subs for matches that didn't happen. A shit show to the end.
JHawk
Thank You, Fuck You, Bye!
The top two matches don't look bad (even though 1989 Slaughter was washed, I still liked him then) but that undercard wouldn't get booked on a shindie today.
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala
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TIL Backlund era WWF jobber Nick DeCarlo was still active in 1989.
JHawk
Thank You, Fuck You, Bye!
According to Cagematch, DeCarlo had three matches in 1990 as local talent on WCW shows in Canada.
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala
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Cackling Co Pilot Kamala
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I am afraid @BruiserBrody can’t handle this much grief at once.
BruiserBrody
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Chop's AWA TV #33 Championship Wrestling 8/27/90
Lee Marshall and Verne host. Verne predicts Curtis Hughes will one day be world champion. Gagne is disappointed that the Trooper is going for the tag belts as he prefers him to focus on his singles career. Eric Bischoff does a talking head piece where he promises us Rapey Zumhoffe vs Johnnie Stewart coming to ESPN in 2 weeks. Then they go to Verne and Marshall who say the match is next week. Awesome.
. Johnnie Stewart vs WT Jones The jobber gets a ton of offense on Stewart as Verne and Lee talk about how Stewart is struggling with a true heavyweight opponent. Way to put the “star” over. Stewart tries to hit a “flying knee”, which he throws almost like a dropkick/crossbody style move and not like the Booty Man’s version. Verne calls the finish a crossbody and Marshall says Stewart hit the knee to the chin. Verne asks for a replay and the knee hits Jones in the arm. The announcers basically have to admit it was not hit properly. Amazing stuff. Marshall starts to sign off the segment but then Stewart walks over to Bischoff, who is now waiting on the floor for a promo.Stewart cuts a Jim Cornette spoiled rich kid promo and steals Ric Flair’s famous line about beating the MAN.
Curtis Hughes vs Jamie Magnum They talk about Hughes playing for the Cowboys. This leads to talk about NFL players who became wrestlers, which leads to talk of Gus Sonnenburg in the 20s, amongst others. Hughes was using dropkicks and other much more explosive moves than he did as the Bodyguard gimmick. Hughes wins with the torture rack.
DJ Peterson & Trooper Interview. Both men are heavily juiced, which makes the Trooper’s DEA hat more funny than it should be. They shit on the Destruction Crew.
Col. DeBeers is shown from some other TV taping. He announces Sarge is AWOL and now Debeers is now the leader of the “Diamondbacks”. Sarge’s last AWA TV match vs Spike Jones is not listed on either Cagematch or wrestlingdata, but we can assume it was part of the June 1st taping I guess.
Col. DeBeers vs Tom Bennett Same squash Col always has. Meh.
AWA tag champs Destruction Crew vs Trooper & DJ Peterson
Cagematch has Jim Brunzell working an AWA shot at a spot show around this point, so I kind of wish he and Greg would have done one more match and closed the promotion as tag champs. I suppose when this was taped that the END wasn’t official though.
Bloom stooges for the Trooper and makes the opening minutes quite fun.
Trooper spends a good amount of time as the face in peril. Verne babbles on about how AWA fans hate the glitz of other leagues and love the wrestling. As the promotion tapes TV in front of 200 people and has spent the last year filling the TV with gimmick matches to try and hot shot interest.
Pederson gets the hot(?) tag and goes ape on both heels. Trooper comes in and all four men brawl. The faces are tossed into one another. The heels double team Pederson as the ref can’t do shit. The heels go for the Doomsday Device. Trooper manages to shake the ropes and Bloom falls off. Enos is cradled and we have NEW CHAMPS! The crowd actually goes wild. Babies are thrown in the air.
The ref has to confirm with Bischoff that it is actually a title change since all the AWA knows how to book is screwjob finishes and fake title switches.
Verne calls the faces well conditioned about 13 times as we close the show. Now Marshall says Stewart vs Rapist is happening in 2 weeks. So apparently next week is postponed? WTF did they have to air at 4 pm eastern on a Monday in early September? MLB?
2 or 3 episodes to go….hopefully this uploader delivers!!
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala
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JHawk
Thank You, Fuck You, Bye!
The last AWA card in Winnipeg circa 1989.
BruiserBrody
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Groovy Greg and Ringside Ralph show us highlights of the AWA tag titles switch from ESPN. Gagne talks about his tag title win in the 70s without mentioning Brunzell.
Tommy Jammer vs Pistol Pete Pistulka
Pistol Pete is tall and awkward in his strikes. He’s wearing what looks like football pants. Gagne refers to Jammer as a veteran. He was an up and comer 3 months ago! Gagne talks about “Sarge’s Snipers” being part of the TCS even though Debeers has already taken over on TV that aired. Jammer wins with a bulldog and splash in a disjointed semi squash.
Baron Von Rashke cuts a generic promo about his team needing to win. He mentions rumors of Sarge going AWOL.
Gagne talks about Sarge being despondent in the locker room over his team blowing it time and time again.
Col. DeBeers Interview. I think this is different than the one aired last time but the effect is the same, Sarge is gone and Debeers is voted in as new leader, even Curtis Hughes allegedly voted for the racist to be leader.
TCS update…they still have Sarge listed as a team captain.
Larry Cameron was found by Larry Z in the stock yards of Chicago, and he cuts a rambling promo about the TCS money and kicking butts.
Texas Hangmen vs Steve Berg & Tony DeNucci
I guess it just hit me that the Hangman come down in a very similar leather and stud mask that Demolition had at the time. Maybe this was a new look? Eh.
Steve Berg apparently played for the 49ers. I can’t find any info on that off hand. Steve Deberg being a 49er QB mucks up the results.
The Hangmen have new masks. The faces are treated as future talents and not jabronis, so they get a fair bit of offense. The Hangmen use a Demolition Decapitation sort of finish….but it is a DQ because top rope attacks are apparently illegal in the AWA. GROAN. Bill Watts approves.
Col. DeBeers gets a second promo. He suggests Sarge is fighting in the middle east war…but is likely hiding. Debeers will lead the team to success.
Col. DeBeers vs DJ Peterson vs Larry Cameron (Meat grinders match) Team Challenge Series
Cameron has no music, which makes the small audience’s silence pretty deafening. There are a bunch of convoluted rules to this match that I am not quite grasping. They all flip quarters, which was probably their pay off for the night. DJ loses the flips and has to work Debeers for 2 mins, if he fails to win he has to work Cameron for 2 mins and if he fails to win that, then he has to face both men at once.
DJ does not have his tag title belt as who knows what order they taped this shit.
DJ and Debeers have a back and forth, however Cameron distracts DJ which allows the Colonel to roll him up for a 3 count at the 90 second mark. This is not the finish as apparently this only awards Debeers and Cameron 2 points and the timer keeps going for the 2 min opening round. Debeers tries for his piledriver finish, but DJ back drops him to the floor, which under these rules earns DJ 2 points. Peterson tries to get a pin before the time runs out.
Cameron pounds away on DJ in round 2 as Gagne compares Cameron to Mad Dog Vachon inexplicably. DJ hangs on for most of the 2 min round, but Debeers trips him at the end and Cameron gets a pin as time runs out. This means round 3 will be 2 on 1. Gagne calls Debeers" team “Sarge’s Snipers” yet. For god sakes Greg you are running and possibly booking this shit, at least try and get your stuff over.
DJ hangs tough against both heels. All the men flop in a heap over the top rope as Gagne screams about points and then corrects himself on who scored what. I have no idea what the heck is going on.
The on screen timer runs out. Ring announcer Donna Gagne is still doing a 10 second count down as Greg screams the match is over. DJ tosses Cameron over the top rope and the ref seems to indicate that is a “fall” or whatever.
The heels win via points and I lose by trying to track what the hell I just watched.
We see a replay and that explains the finish. As all 3 men flopped over the top rope DJ hit first, thus the heels got the points. That's actually not a bad finish layout, but the execution of the camera work and announcers failed during the live airing.
Col. DeBeers & Larry Cameron do a promo. Debeers cuts a promo that may have been in another language. He does put over his beloved Apartheid. Cameron does not mind the racism as he’s here for the money.
Apparently we have at least 2 more TV shows and maybe another with the TCS battle royal left in the tank based on what Gagne and Ralph plug.
Texas Hangmen are focused on the TCS as they growl through a promo.
. Larry Zbyszko let's us know that his team will unite to win the big one. .
BruiserBrody
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Nord part 2 dropped. He says the WWF wanted him to try out for Suburban Commando. He lost out to Taker.
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He had Nord the Barbarian trademarked and he wanted to work for Vince as that name, but was told no.
He then was given the Viking gimmick, but WWF found out "somebody in Japan" (Tony Halme?) owned it so he became the Berzerker. Nord wasn't ever really into it.
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He had Nord the Barbarian trademarked and he wanted to work for Vince as that name, but was told no.
He then was given the Viking gimmick, but WWF found out "somebody in Japan" (Tony Halme?) owned it so he became the Berzerker. Nord wasn't ever really into it.
Cackling Co Pilot Kamala
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Did he address watching the door while Nailz choked out Vince?
BruiserBrody
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They kept it to AWA talk, but promised he'd be back to tell that story.
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Nord is a trip to listen to overall, as he shits on himself and has a wacky sense of humor overall. (He has a whole bit about how the Robbinsdale wrestlers all have weird nipples)
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I enjoyed him talking about how the Greg Gagne was kind of a prick as Gagne was running the house shows. Verne is given less shit than normal, although Nord tells a funny story about how Verne gave Boris Zhukov hell over his giant head. "Your a freak! A real freak!"
"Boris probably quit the AWA just to avoid Verne's comments"
BruiserBrody
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This stuff will never not melt my brain.
Oshkosh is roughly 45 mins - hour from Green Bay. Appleton is right next door to it.
Hogan's selling out the big arenas, but Verne is still doing the "buttermilk" run to quote Corny.
Hornswoggle now runs his Indy out of Oshkosh IIRC and the town finally built a hockey arena or sports complex in the more recent past, so in 1983 a high school gym was probably the best option.
Verne really should have expanded. Bruiser was covering parts of the midwest, but was running with guys too old for even the AWA (Moose Cholak, Bobo, etc and knock off gimmicks.) Bruiser had just come off a working agreement with Jarrett that ended because Jarrett was pushing Kamala hard and Bruiser squashed him in a heavily promoted card.
Ole was taking GA into Ohio, but Verne could have put his old student in his place, with the guy Ole claimed couldn't be booked properly in GA (Hogan) due to his limitations.
Verne had west coast towns to that he could have expanded on. Don't head north if you care about Don Owens, but maybe run South until you start to impede on the 5 or 6 territories trying to get that Texas wrasslin' money.
Then again, if the travel is now a burden, Verne's attitude and the bitter midwest cold is now a bigger issue, so the money better be worth it.
alkeiper
Welcoming our new insect overlords
I happened to watch Wrestlefest '93 yesterday. Nord and Undertaker had a match that I frankly quite enjoyed.