Ralphie’s Retro Recap – AWA Championship Wrestling

Reviews, Shows, Top Story, TV Shows

AWA Championship Wrestling – The Road to SuperClash III
Airdate 11/29/2011 ESPN Classic (Original Airdate c. December 1988)

So, ESPN Classic airs these shows in no particular order and at no particular time. I just have my DVR set to “Record All” and from time to time a new one will show up in my queue.

A little background here: AWA Championship Wrestling used to air on ESPN, first on Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. and then on afternoons at 3 p.m. As the level of success they were enjoying decreased, so did the star power and the production values. They were decidedly #3 in a three-dog fight with WWF and NWA/WCW pretty much from the ‘80s wrestling boom until they faded away in 1991 or so. So, let’s get to it…

Opening credits (complete with synth music and graphics that might have been done on a Video Toaster, but not really that bad compared to similar shows in that era)

Usually there’s a opening segment to these shows from AWA Studios or wherever from longtime AWA guy Larry Marshall, but here we get things going right to the ring with commentary from Lee Marshall and Ray “Crippler” Stevens. Marshall you may know from WCW or even GLOW. Stevens (whose nickname will probably never be used again in my lifetime thanks to a certain Canadian wrestler’s later use of it and his ultimate fate) was sort of a big deal in the Midwest back in the day and perennial challenger to various world titles in the 60s and 70s (picture a gruff Pat Patterson). They appear to be dubbed in but are portending to be “ringside, live from Nashville, Tennessee.”
I should point out that this was during the working agreement/talent exchange/last ditch effort to stay in business between the Minneapolis-based AWA, Memphis-based CWA, and Dallas-based World Class promotions, all of whom had enjoyed sustained periods of regional success at one point, but the writing was clearly on the wall by this point.
The graphic in the corner can pin this down as no more specific as “1988,” but I can tell you based on my knowledge and a quick trip to Wikipedia that this is in late November or early December of that year, and they are in the big build-up to SuperClash III, a joint PPV venture between the three promotions and a ladies wrestling group (maybe GLOW, maybe POWW, I’m not sure, and really, who cares?).
If you’re wondering what happened to SuperClash I and II don’t ask. Well, okay, real quick…SuperClash I actually drew over 20,000 fans to Comiskey Park in Chicago and was a another joint venture, this one between the AWA and NWA, a collective anti-WWF initiative called Pro Wrestling USA, and actually featured a Ric Flair-Magnum T.A. NWA title match and a Rick Martel-Stan Hansen match for the AWA belt. To give you an idea of how successful that was, SuperClash II, an AWA only show, drew 2,000 fans to a place called the Cow Palace, and is notable only for Curt Hennig’s AWA title victory over Nick Bockwinkle.
Now, SuperClash III was a PPV set to feature a unification match between AWA World Champion Jerry “The King” Lawler and Kerry Von Erich, the WCCW World Champion. Lawler, incidentally, after 25 years of coming up just short of taking the AWA or NWA title on several occasions won the belt from the aforementioned Hennig on his way out the door headed for the WWF and fame as Mr. Perfect. I was in attendance for that match, and I assure you there was more genuine emotion in the Mid-South Coliseum that night than at the last five Wrestlemanias combined. Anyway, that’s the then-upcoming SuperClash III main event. I mention it now so that I can mention it later in context…On with the show!

The opening match brings a smile to my face. It’s the heel team of “Gorgeous” Gary Young (who sounds like, looks like and wrestles like a “lost member” of the Midnight Express or Fabulous Ones) and a very slim (for him anyway) Mick Foley, wrestling as Cactus Jack, versus Memphis-area fan favorite Billy Joe Travis (Jeff Jarrett’s original tag team partner and from whom Jarrett stole the Country Singer/smash guitars over people’s head gimmick) and a very young Scott Steiner, with a full-on power mullet. That’s probably the main reason I watch these shows. The nostalgia factor is through the roof.

A quick note: the ring features a large “Renegade” smokeless tobacco logo. Some background here: Renegade “sponsored” (that is, paid for a new mat canvas) the Renegade “$100,000″ Toughman Challenge on CWA programming in the months prior to this, which leads me to think that this is a CWA show being packaged as an AWA show to get a “See? We ARE a national promotion” kind of vibe going. The “tournament,” with arbitrary scoring and no real bracket, was won by Scott, beating “The Tennessee Stud” Robert Fuller in the finals. Scott would soon be headed to the NWA to be in his brother Rick’s corner for his big TV Title match with Mike Rotunda at Starrcade ’88. Young and Jack were a tag-team of note in World Class who then left for Memphis, only to be thrown into the mix during the whole working agreement thing.

Match #1: Cactus Jack & Gary Young vs. Billy Joe Travis & Scott Steiner
Pretty scientific match, highlighted by Scott firing of suplexes and Jack bumping like a madman. Tags are eventually made, bringing in the other wrestlers. Young does the cowardly heel but eventually cheats to gain an advantage. Everyone is really crisp on their timing. The camera catches heel manager Downtown Bruno (aka Harvey Whippleman) at ringside in a bit of foreshadowing, as the commentators run down the amateur background of Steiner at Michigan and the professional accomplishments of referee Frank Morrell, who Foley would later call the worst referee ever in his first autobiography.
So, just as Steiner gets back in the ring and is tossing Cactus around like a rag doll, the referee gets distracted by Bruno, who has handed Young a boot. While Steiner has Jack in a pinning predicament, Young sneaks in and nails Scott, allowing Cactus to score the cheap win. The crowd boos and the heels celebrate. On a grading scale, I’d give it a B+ for quality, maybe bumping it up to an A- for the chance to see two major stars in their early days.

Commercial Break

We’re back, and we seem to have changed either camera positions or locations, but Lee Marshall now really is at ringside and has been joined on commentary by Jerry “The King” Lawler. Lawler touts the fans in his home state as “the best around” as the next match begins.

Mike Enos is already in the ring looking jobberiffic. Enos would go on to form the Destruction Crew with Wayne Bloom and have a run with the AWA tag belts when there really wasn’t anyone else left to hold them. They then morphed into the masked Minnesota Wrecking Crew in WCW and finally became the Beverly Brothers in the WWF. On a personal note, I hated them in every incarnation. His opponent, headed to ringside is Teijo Khan.

Now, this I find hilarious: For some reason, Khan’s first name is spelled “TiJioe,” which makes no sense, but on some of these shows it’s spelled “T. Joe,” I kid you not. Also, he is accompanied by Soldat Ustinov, a typical Soviet heel, who had at one time held the AWA World Tag-Team belts with Boris Zukhov, until Zukhov left (while still holding the titles) to form the Bolsheviks with Nikolai Volkoff in the WWF. More useless trivia: Khan played “Hannibal the Cannibal” (No, not that one) one of the baddies in that wrestling cinematic classic, “Body Slam” starring Roddy Piper.

Match #2 Mike Enos vs. “TiJioe” Khan w/ Soldat Ustinov
Typical heel beat-down here, while Lawler takes the opportunity alternate between pimping the upcoming PPV and doing his stand-up comedy rountine. “You know, Lee, Teijo Khan is so ugly, his parents used to sit him in the corner and feed him with a slingshot.” …um, okay.
Enos gets some token offense while Lawler calls out the WWF and NWA for not allowing their champs to defend their titles against anyone outside their organizations. I’ll back him up on the WWF claim, but the NWA champ, usually Race or Flair, went all over the place defending their title…and I’m pretty sure Backlund and Superstar Graham had “unification matches” against Flair that ended in DQ’s or something. Granted that was beginning to stop around this time, but Lawler himself wrestled Flair as late as 1985, and in 1986 the AWA champ Rick Martell and NWA champ had a “unification” match that ended in a double-DQ or something during the Pro Wrestling USA experiment.
So, back to the match, as Khan regains the edge via a nice lariat and finishes with an uppercut to a prone Enos. Ustinov, who played no role in the match, climbs in and waves the old Hammer and Sickle flag to promote the enduring legacy of the USSR…I bet he feels stupid now (but maybe not, since he was actually a guy named Jim from Minnesota). Grade-wise, I’d put it at a C-.
Now, things take a weird turn, as NOW we’re in the AWA Studios with production quality that makes early ECW stuff look like the WWE today. Instead of Larry Marshall, though, it’s Greg Gagne, looking like Al Gore with his “super-serial” face and tone. He’s promoting the big “one of a kind” main event of SuperClash III, which leads directly to…

Match #3 Jerry Lawler vs. Kerry Von Erich
Yep, it’s the Main Event to the upcoming pay-per-view, for free! Now, not only are they putting this match on ESPN for free just a few weeks, maybe even days, before they expect people to pay for it (which they largely didn’t), they are holding the match in Tennessee – where probably 50-75 percent of the people who might actually order the show – reside.
We’re joined in progress, but still pretty early on, from the look of things. Lawler is the face here, despite Von Erich having absolutely no idea how to be a bad guy and Lawler not doing anything virtuous and being sort-of dickish, but we are in Tennessee here. And Kerry does get some cheers from the decent-sized crowd.
Just a quick aside: the ringside camera man is quite conspicuous in asking random fans to jump up and act excited so the production crew can cut to them and show how pumped they are. Ha! Anyhoo…
Kerry looks great here. I’m not sure where he was at the time on the whole, drugs/motorcycle wreck/losing a foot timeline, but it was before he went to the WWF and obviously before his suicide.
Lawler wins a test of strength (Ha!) and does the Fargo strut (another bit Jarrett stole). Kerry suddenly seems to realize that was stupid and powers up to take advantage. Lawler rallies but holds off on lowering the strap. If you didn’t already know, that was Lawler’s way of “Hulking up” and likely where Kurt Angle got it, since Kurt cut his teeth in Memphis..
The commentators talk about football, geography, wrestling history and anything else but the match itself, at least until Lawler begins to unload with the right hands. Marshall then remembers that Von Erich is also known for his fisticuffs via the dreaded Discus Punch. And sure enough, Kerry has had enough of this sportsmanship crap and fires of a few discus punches. They trade blows, which the crowd seems to enjoy, and then Lawler lays Von Erich out. He then goes up top for the dreaded fist drop, but Kerry pops up and catches him coming off with the Iron Claw!
This leads to a submission/pinning predicament while Marshall and Stevens go over the Von Erich family history (minus all the death). Lawler finally breaks the hold, and DOWN COMES THE STRAP!!!
The two begin to trade blows until referee Jerry Calhoun tries to break it up, and as you would expect, he gets a knuckle sandwich for his effort, drawing a double disqualification.

But wait!!!

Kerry says he “didn’t come all the way from Texas for no disqualification.” The “Modern Day Warrior” says he is not leaving the ring until we have a winner. All parties agree and we’re back at it. It’s back to punch-trading again for a minute or two, until a series of Irish whip reversals leads to the second referee, Morrell, getting smashed in the corner. Von Erich gains the advantage and hits a piledriver just as Morrell recovers in time to count the pin, giving Von Erich the pin and the titles! Someone even throws a yellow rose into the ring as the crowd pops for the title change.

But wait!!!

Calhoun, the original referee, saw the piledriver, and everyone knows the piledriver is illegal in the State of Tennessee (well, everyone except Von Erich, I guess).
The confusion begins to set in. Lawler gets on the house mic and asks for clarification on the DQ. He then astutely points out that according to World Class rules, “the title changes hands on a DQ” and claims both belts. Von Erich retorts that “in Texas, we don’t have no sissy rules about ‘no piledrivers.'” The announcers go into an explanation about different rules in different territories and whether or not the referee adequately explained “Tennessee State Athletic Commission” rules to both wrestlers beforehand that actually serves as a pretty believable out for the match. I guess this will all be settled once and for all at SuperClash III!

But wait!!!

A couple of things: 1) I take back my earlier gripe. This actually DID set up the PPV match pretty well. And I think they had a couple of other matches in Memphis and Dallas like this to get people excited. 2) This match was actually much better than the ultimate blow-off at SuperClash, where Von Erich bled like a stuck pig and the match was stopped by the referee while Lawler was in the middle of trying to submit to the Iron Claw, giving Lawler both belts, which would go on to make him the first USWA Unified World Champion. Match grade: A.

Commercial Break

You would think that would have been the Main Event, but no, here comes local boy Alan Reynolds out to no reaction. His opponent, one year removed from his completely forgettable reign as NWA World Champion, “Hands of Stone” Ron Garvin. Most of you probably know the story, but Flair wanted to drop the NWA belt and regain it at Starrcade, but no one in the main event scene wanted to be part of that crappy deal (where was Tommy Rich?), so Garvin won the belt from Flair and then lost it about a month later at Starrcade, and I don’t think he ever defended it. But I digress…

Match #4: Alan Reynolds vs. Ron Garvin
Garvin is immediately on the offensive, as Lawler returns to ringside for commentary. Ok, maybe they just changed the match order for TV for some reason. Anyway, Garvin’s NWA title reign is mentioned, as Marshall asks “the King” about possibly defending the belt against Garvin down the road. I don’t think that ever happened. Garvin, by the way, is the reigning AWA International TV Title holder, a belt that was created by AWA owner Verne Gagne for his son Greg after repeated failed attempts at getting anyone to buy into Greg as AWA World Title material. I don’t think Garvin ever lost the belt before the AWA folded, but I could be wrong.
Garvin does the “Garvin stomp” and finishes Reynolds with the right hand. He follows with an arrogant cover that I’m fairly sure consisted of him making no contact whatsoever with the fallen Reynolds. Match grade was a D at best. Lawler touts his punch as better than Garvin’s as we head to a…

Commercial Break

We’re back and HOLY CRAP, it’s the Rock N Roll Express! This was after their peak in the NWA but before they got hard to watch. I wonder how they stayed out of the WWF in the 80s and early 90s? By the time they did show up, as part of the poorly-received NWA Invasion angle with Jim Cornette and Jeff Jarrett, it was just sad. Their opponents, already in the ring, don’t even get an introduction, so I’m not giving them one either. Just an aside: Ever notice how these pretty-boy teams (which I believe were called “blow-jobs” by Bill Watts) always had one blond and one dark-haired member? My sister once saw the Nasty Boys and asked “What the hell happened to the Rock N Roll Express?”

Match #5: The Rock N Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) vs. Keith Eric & The Hangman
Eric was a local TV jobber. The Hangman could literally be anyone. No shock here, as the crowd loves the Express, who honestly look sooooooo dated in their David Lee Roth and Judas Priest t-shirts and I don’t recognize the hair metal rock tune they approach the ring to, which is odd, because hair metal was kind of my thing at the time..
Pretty decent match following the typical Rock N Rollers format, as Morton gets beat up, makes the hot tag to Gibson, and they finish with the double dropkick. Nothing offensive, as Morton and Gibson could still go, but never in doubt. Match grade is about a C-, I guess.

Commercial Break

Now, it’s time for the match everyone came to see, the one that must have put dozens and dozens of asses in seats all across the country in 1988:

Match #6: Sgt. Slaughter vs. Soldat Ustinov
This is like the “Rocky IV” of wrestling. If they had shown a montage of Sarge training this could have drawn millions. Instead, they do a cut-away promo of Slaughter completely dismissing this match in favor of challenging the evil South African pro-Apartheid Col. DeBeers…man, the gimmicks on this show would NOT work today. Ustinov has brought “TiJioe” to ringside with him, and you can probably see where this is going.
Anyway, a pretty slow match-up, completely lacking in any technical wrestling. It’s punch-punch-stall-rest hold-punch-stall-repeat. Sarge looks pretty used up here, even though he’s still about three years away from his pro-Iraq heel turn and WWF title reign that led to the “epic” Sgt. Slaughter-Hulk Hogan match at Wrestlemania VII.
I’ve read where Slaughter was quite a worker at one point, but I’ve never seen it. The gimmick, however, was great for the time, and Sarge could probably serve as a mentor/mouthpiece for someone today with a patriotic “War on Terror”-era character.
After about three hours of “action,” Sarge gets the Cobra Clutch, drawing in Khan for the run-in and the DQ. Slaughter fights back against the dastardly foreign heels, sending them scurrying. He grabs the house mic, and…cuts another promo against Col. DeBeers. I believe that massive feud was still going strong in 1991, when the two were opposing captains in the legendary Team Challenge Series, some of which took place in a studio completely devoid of a live audience.

Summary Opinion:
Hey, it’s the AWA! What did you expect? Although I do enjoy the old-school shows and seeing guys like Lawler and the Rock N Roll Express more or less in their prime and young guys like Steiner and Foley getting started. Again, I do wish ESPN Classic would show these in chronological order so I could better recall the storylines. The next episode in my DVR queue was from 1990, featuring AWA World Champion Larry Zybyzko and Nikita Koloff as the big stars, with up-and-comers the Trooper (who went on to become the Patriot) and “Not the Rockers” Tommy Jammer and Ricky Rice. Anyway, it is what it is, and six matches, with three of them worth at least watching, not a bad way to spend an hour.

Where are they now?

Cactus Jack – Mick went on to have a successful run in WCW before heading to ECW and Japan, becoming the “Hardcore Legend.” He made his way to the WWF, where he was a multiple-time title holder, including a 3-time WWF Champ. You know, if you’re reading this, you probably already know all about Foley. Let’s move on.

Gary Young – Remained a fixture on the regional scene before showing up in the short-lived but fun Global Wrestling Federation. After that…who knows? The dude doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page.

Scott Steiner – On his way to being the “Big Bad Booty Daddy” and “big Poppa Pump,” Scott had a great run with brother Rick, and I have heard on more than one occasion that he was seen as heir to Ric Flair’s NWA throne before an arm injury took him out and forced him to change his style. He still went on to become WCW champ in the promotion’s last days. He’s currently a part of TNA.

Billy Travis – Another guy who made a career on the regional circuit, living off the prestige of having been on the national scene for a while. He was still active in the southern promotions when he died of a heart attack at the age of 41.

Mike Enos – After the Beverly Brothers split, Mike worked as a jobber before returning to WCW in 1995 or so as the Mauler. Incidentally, Enos was in the ring wrestling when Scott Hall “invaded” WCW on the way to forming the NWO. He was also in the semi-finals of a tournament to crown new WCW Tag Champs when his partner Bobby Duncam, Jr. died of a drug overdose. Enos retired from regular competition in 2000.

Teijo Khan – Parlayed his middling wrestling career into a middling acting career. Wikipedia says he retired in 1994. I can neither confirm nor deny this.

Jerry Lawler – Was stripped of the AWA title for missing defenses in the Minnesota area, but Lawler remained “USWA World Unified Champion” and took that belt everywhere, trading it back and forth some 3 million times. He also spent time in the WWF and feuded with Bret Hart and others before taking over announcing duties on RAW. He still competes in the ring occasionally despite being 60 years old, and even got a WWE title match against the Miz.
Kerry von Erich – Like a country song or a Lifetime TV special gone wrong, Kerry and the rest of the Von Erich clan are gone via suicide or other circumstances. Only Kevin remains and is probably hiding from the Angel of Death in a cabin somewhere in Texas. Kerry did have a run with the Intercontinental title after this and had previously enjoyed an NWA title reign in the mid ‘80s. He committed suicide in 1993, aged 33.

Alan Reynolds – Unless he went on to become an “Irish footballer” or “supply side economist,” Alan Reynolds may very well be in a cave with D.B. Cooper somewhere (his later career was as undistinguished as one would expect, is what I’m saying).

Ron Garvin – Ronnie had a brief run in the WWF after this, doing little of note except a feud with Greg Valentine. He still wrestles in the Mid-Atlantic area from time to time, and apparently owns a few car dealerships, so good for him,

Keith Eric – Who?

The Hangman – Now, I don’t know who this particular Hangman is, but not long after this, there was a Hangmen tag-team. Maybe one of those guys was this guy, but I really have no way of knowing. Don’t even bother trying to Google him.

The Rock N Roll Express – They were really pretty much had already had their day in the sun as superstars by this point, but they traveled around, hitting Memphis, Smoky Mountain Wrestling, and even back to WCW where they split, and did little of note as singles wrestlers. Then there was the NWA “Invasion” angle in the WWF and even made a few appearances with TNA around 2003. They still team up from time to time when Ricky Morton isn’t in jail for non-payment of his child support.

Sgt. Slaughter – Like I mentioned above, Slaughter went on to have a big run with the WWF Title as an Iraqi sympathizer, beating the Ultimate Warrior (with a little help from Randy Savage) for the belt before dropping it to Hogan at Wrestlemania VII. He eventually had a face turn, but retired from full-time competition shortly afterward. He had some on-screen time as an authority figure on Raw during the Attitude Era, and still works occasionally under a Legends deal with WWE. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004.

Soldat Ustinov – Like many Soviet wrestlers, Soldat found himself a Commie without a cause after the end of the Cold War, after leaving the AWA in 1991 or so, he apparently fell off the face of the earth. He will be missed.

A lifelong self-admitted geek and nerd, Ralph has passed on his love of comic books, movies and pro wrestling to his children. In his day job, he writes for a newspaper in the Memphis area and plays volleyball and softball. He is almost as smart and as funny as he thinks he is.