I can’t sleep; might as well write about wrestling!
1. My main interest in this show is seeing guys in know from the WWF/E and WCW before they were stars. I’m too much of a modern fan to really care about squash matches involving Col. DeBeers and D.J. Peterson.
2. With 1 in mind; Scott Hall as a sincere babyface who doesn’t try to talk like Scarface? With a huge moustache? That freaks me right out.
3. On a similar note, it’s interesting to see Hennig go from the generic face mold that apparently every young guy in AWA was cast in to proto Mr. Perfect after he won the belt from Bockwinkle. Also, it’s telling to see how much he was carrying the whole company on his back during his run as champ, making a match with Wahoo Friggin’ McDaniel compelling. They never quite recovered from his jumping to WWF, did they?
4. 20+ years later, and the Rockers could be one of the most entertaining teams in the business if they were plucked out of time and dumped in any promotion. They were that fluid. Imagining a match between them and the Machine Guns of that Murderous, Car Producing city today causes me endless glee, because they are definitely part of a lineage of awesome baby face pretty boy teams who can work.
5. This may be the dirty sports entertainment fan in me, but the general in ring style of guys applying holds for five minutes before the finish in so many of these squashes? It bores the hell out of me. I grew up on WWF style, though, so that explains it right there.
6. Magnificent Mimi is my latest in a long line of crushes on female wrestlers. Which is just weird on so many levels. But here we are. At least she’s not dead. That would have been really creepy. She apparently posed with the AWA Women’s belt in Playboy, which is something I remember being bandied about for Candice’s spread before they realized that meant she’d have to beat Trish for it back when all she could do in the ring was the Go Daddy Dance. So, uh, history always repeats itself when it comes to female wrestlers I find attractive and their nude spreads? Vince can claim the idea as his anyway, since he owns all the old AWA stuff.
7. Based solely on years of Scott Keith ripping on him, I generally fast forward through all of Greg Gagne’s matches. I feel vaguely wrong, but I don’t think I’m missing a whole lot. We can bitch about HHH benefiting from nepotism all we want now, but at least he can go, looks like a star, and earned a spot before he knocked up the boss’s daughter. Gagne’s big move was a dropkick and he was so nerdy and slight that he makes Colin Delaney look like John Cena. If I ran a wrestling promotion and my kid was that lame, my kid could only wish I loved him enough to keep pushing him if he was as lame as Greg.
8. I like Ron Trongard’s voice. He and Larry Zybysko (who I grew up hearing as an announcer in WCW) were a solid face/heel team. The rest of the commentary teams kinda suck, though, even if Lee Marshall is better by comparison than he was during his run as a total joke in WCW.
9. It’s always weird to see a spot I associate with a modern performer performed in the ’80s. Such is the case with Bad Company’s finisher, which I’d only ever seen Benjamin and Haas pull off before.
10. During the sad latter days of the show and the promotion, when AWA, and World Class/USWA/Lawler’s Memphis gang formed an alliance to fight off that evil Vince McMahon and his progress, Cactus Jack and his partner went over some jobber named Scott Steiner. No, seriously. A singles match today could probably still be awesome if Mick were in the mood to bump his considerable ass off. The promos would certainly rule.
11. They serialized their supercard, Superclash, over the course of like a month. I genuinely lost interest some time in the middle of that whole thing. But you will never see anything like that on any modern day wrestling show. Well, unless ROH does that when they finally get their asses in gear, meet me half way, and get on the boob tube. That video wire crap ain’t cuttin’ it, boys
12. With black hair, Adrian Adonis looks like Samoa Joe would if he really let himself go.
13. Col. DeBeers has two things going for him, from my perspective; that wicked ‘stache and a proto pedigree finisher. Well, and at least he’s a different flavor of evil racist than I’m used to.
14. I had no idea Jimmy Snuka, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express, and Paul Heyman and his Midnight Express spent time in AWA. I’m not really a fan of any of theirs except Paul, so it’s not surprising, but that is a thought.
15. Are ever gonna see the infamous turkey on a pole in an empty arena match immortalized by Wrestlecrap, or do I need to youtube that already? I’m honestly wondering when ESPN pulled the plug. I guess I need to google that, too. This stupid dead promotion is more trouble than it’s worth; no wonder no one around here ever talks about it.
