The SmarK 24/7 Rant for Champions of the AWA

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The SmarK 24/7 Rant for Champions of the AWA

– I can’t remember if I ever saw this one when they were doing the lame AWA "best of" stuff on PPV years back, but it’s short so what the heck. The connection with the Gold theme is pretty obvious.

– Hosted by Gene Okerlund, so it’s obviously part of that series.

Madusa v. Sherri Martel. From May of 1987. Sherri would have been champion at this point, but this isn’t a title match. Madusa’s hair is teased beyond belief here. Madusa overpowers Sherri to start and Sherri runs away and seeks refuge with Kevin Kelly. Back in, Madusa takes her down with an armbar. Sherri reverses and works on a headscissors, but Madusa pounds the arm and takes her down for two. Madusa cranks on the arm and pounds away on the ropes, then grabs a headlock. A really bad dropkick gets two. Madusa was clearly super-green at this point. Sherri knees her out of the corner and follows with a small package for two. Weak clothesline gets two. Sherri rams her into the corner for two. Jackknife cradle gets two, but Madusa suddenly no-sells and comes back with a slam for two. Sherri goes low and it’s a draw at 7:35. That’s a pretty short draw. Madusa was just brutal here, but Sherri held it together well enough. *1/2 Sherri never lost the title, giving it up to jump to the WWF and leaving Madusa to win it in a bogus tournament months later.

AWA World tag titles: Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens v. Crusher & Bruiser. From June of 1973 in Chicago according to the graphic, but if it’s the title change then it’s June of 1975 in actuality, and it’s film footage rather than the usual videotape. Dick the Bruiser holds Stevens in a neck vice and goes to a surfboard, and Bockwinkel comes in and gets abused in the corner. Crusher gets caught in the corner, however, and double-teamed, and the tape starts jumping forward with clumsy edits. Crusher stomps on Bockwinkel’s stomach and applies a stomach claw to win the first fall. Greg Gagne, on commentary, goes on about how the champions had held the belts for "three years" at that point, which makes no sense because if it WAS 1973 then they would have just won it in January. If it’s 75 then they’ve been champions for 10 months at this point, which is impressive but hardly the length claimed by the Gagnes here. Anyway, Crusher stomps on Bockwinkel in the second fall and pounds him down for two. It’s a donnybrook in the heel corner and Crusher starts bleeding as we jump forward again. Crusher runs into a cheapshot from Stevens and Bockwinkel pins him to win the second fall. Third fall sees Crusher bleeding all over the place, but he rams the champions’ heads together and tags Bruiser back in. Bruiser whips Bockwinkel into a punch from Crusher, then they ram the champions together and Bruiser gets two on Stevens. The champs try to run, but Bruiser hauls Stevens back in and then tosses him before slugging away on the cut. Back in, Crusher and Bruiser double-team him, but Bockwinkel hits Bruiser with brass knuckles and Stevens pins him to retain at 12:41 aired. I’m not a big Crusher/Bruiser fan. *1/2

AWA World tag title: The Road Warriors v. Jimmy Garvin & Steve Regal. Regal and Garvin work Hawk over in the corner, but Hawk no-sells it and tosses them. Over to Animal, who overpowers Regal and no-sells his offense. Animal grabs a headlock, and Regal can’t escape. Over to Hawk, but Regal rakes the eyes multiple times and walks into an elbow. Hawk slugs away and adds a kneelift, but Garvin tags in and chokes Hawk out with the tag rope. Hawk fires back with knees and puts Garvin down with a powerslam, but Regal comes in and prevents a tag. Regal slugs away, but Hawk no-sells it, forcing the heels to double-team again and allowing Garvin to use the tag rope again. Hawk slugs back on Garvin and makes the hot tag to Animal, who comes in with a shoulderblock for two. Clothesline gets two. It’s BONZO GONZO and Hawk puts Regal down with a big boot and gets two. The Freebirds hit the ring and Hawk leaves to deal with them while Animal powerslams Garvin and clotheslines Regal, but when he goes for a slam on Garvin, Michael Hayes nails him off the top rope and Garvin falls on top for the pin and the titles at 9:37. Even in losing the titles and leaving the promotion they still wouldn’t let anyone else look like anything but total jobbers. *

AWA World title: Nick Bockwinkel v. Buck Zumhoffe There’s not really much rhyme or reason to these choices. This is from the All-Star Wrestling TV show in 1979. Bockwinkel controls with a headscissors on the mat, holding him there by using the hair. Buck fights out, so Bockwinkel forearms him in the gut. Buck gets fired up and works the arm, but Bockwinkel rams him into the turnbuckle and pounds him with knees. Buck fights back, but puts his head down and gets caught with a knee by Bockwinkel. Nick drops a knee from the middle rope and finishes with a piledriver at 5:55. And we care about this match, why? *

AWA World title: Rick Martel v. Stan Hansen. They don’t even spell Hansen’s name right here, as they’ve got it as "Hanson". JIP with Stan holding an abdominal stretch before Martel dumps him to escape. Small package gets two for Martel, but Hansen stomps him down again and puts him in the boston crab, bracing his head against the turnbuckles to prevent Rick from breaking out, thus winning the AWA World title at 2:00 shown. This was considered controversial at the time, but really it’s perfectly legal.

And we finish with a roll call of tag team champions and World champions, as they omit several of them.

This was pretty awful, nuff said.