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Repost: AWA Superclash 85

The SmarK 24/7 Rant for AWA SuperClash '85 (September 28 1985)

(As per the Flair v. Magnum discussion in the previous question, here’s the one major show where the did face off in ‘85, reposted for fun.) 

- For some reason the full show didn't appear on Sasktel until yesterday's update, so I've been holding off until now. But I've been dying to see the full show for years now, so this is continued evidence of the awesomeness of the people who program this channel. The concept is that all the major non-WWF promotions are working together to beat the WWF, but since they can't agree on ordering a cup of coffee, let alone running a show, things don't work out. But it was quite the attempt. The most awesome story I've heard about this mess is that David Crockett, acting as the agent for the NWA, spent most of the time signing up AWA stars for his brother. Now those are some balls.

- Taped from Chicago, IL, in the sadly empty baseball stadium. It drew about 20,000, but it would have been better served in an arena.

- Hosted by Larry Nelson

AWA Light heavyweight title: Steve Regal v. Brad Rheingans

I didn't even know they had a light heavyweight title, frankly. Larry Nelson notes that Rheingans was having trouble making the 220 pound weight limit. Maybe he should try the Gina Carano method and weigh in naked. Brad works on a hammerlock to start and Regal makes the ropes, so Rheingans goes with a headlock instead. Regal escapes, so Brad monkey-flips him and starts working on the arm. Rheingans misses a dropkick, however, and Regal stomps him and takes over. Regal is all punch, kick, punch, kick for two and hits the chinlock. And that goes on forever, as the fans quickly lose patience. Regal slams him, but misses an elbow, allowing Rheingans to make the comeback. Backdrop out of the corner gets two. Atomic drop gets two, but Jimmy Garvin acts as a distraction and Regal gets the cheap rollup to finish at 9:11. Not exactly a hot match to get the crowd pumped up. *1/2

AWA Women's title: Candy Devine v. Sherri Martell

Big stall to start as the ref wants to check Sherri over and she's offended by it. Obviously it's a chilly night in Chicago, as well. Devine takes her down with a pair of armdrags, but Sherri goes to work on the arm. Devine reverses it, but Sherri makes the ropes and then slugs her down. Sherri throws boots and then runs away to stall, but Devine slingshots her back in and goes to a boston crab. Sherri reverses out for two, but Candi reverses that for two. Sherri takes her down again and drops a leg, and a small package gets two. Slam gets two. Candi gets dumped (onto the pitcher's mound!) and Sherri keeps kneeing her off the apron, but Candi finally catches the leg and wraps it around the post. Slam on the grass follows. You know, if they did more shows in stadiums with natural turf, they might reduce injuries a lot because at least bumping onto grass and dirt doesn't wreck your body like concrete does. Back in the ring, Candi goes back to working on the arm (uh, what happened to the leg you just targeted?) but Sherri rolls into a headlock to counter. And the match drags on as Sherri works her over with cheapshots and adds a backdrop. Candi comes back with a sunset flip for two, but Sherri clotheslines her and goes up with a flying splash to finish at 11:22, winning the title for the first time. The match had no flow or story, with one woman working on an arm for a while and then the other taking over without building to anything. Plus it was way too long. *

Asian (?) Six Man titles: Giant Baba, Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta v. Harley Race, Scott Irwin & Bill Irwin

OK, I KNOW there weren’t any AWA six-man belts, so I don't know what they're pulling out of their ass for this one. Tenryu pounds on Scott to start and hiptosses him into a dropkick, so he quickly tags out to Harley Race. Holy crap, Tenryu v. Race would be a hell of a match around this time. Jumbo comes in and gets caught in the heel corner right away, as Wild Bill boots him down and adds a back elbow for two. Baba comes in and chops Race into a legsweep, which gets two. The Long Riders come back on Tenryu as the crowd makes the heels into the faces for some reason, but Tenryu chops away on Race and adds the enzuigiri for two. Shoulderbreaker and piledriver get two. The Irwins get a double team elbow for two. Bill drops a dramatic knee for two. Backdrop and it's over to Scott Hog Irwin again, but Tenryu makes the hot tag to Jumbo, who rams the Irwins' heads together. Baba whips Bill out of the ring, and back in a slam from Tenryu gets two. But the Long Riders take over again and Irwin drops an elbow for two, but a brawl erupts and Baba boots Bill down for the pin at 10:51. This was really weird, aside from the fact that I have no idea what the hell the "Asian six-man titles" are supposed to be, as they were doing the standard face-in-peril formula but the crowd was cheering for the heels, totally throwing off the dynamic of the match. Bill Irwin was the highlight here, showing crazy energy. **

World midget title: Little Tokyo v. Little Mr. T.

Boy, that gimmick isn't dated at all. Tokyo runs away and gets slingshotted back in, then goes to work on the arm to come back. Tokyo throws chops, but T slugs him down in response. Tokyo pounds away and T no-sells it and makes the super-midget comeback, with a headbutt getting two. T goes to work on the arm, but Tokyo boots him down and adds a floatover suplex for two. T goes to the chinlock, but Tokyo uses the Mohawk to reverse out, and gets a backdrop for two. Weird spot as everyone stops and points to the sky for no reason, which I guess was midget psychology or something because Tokyo tries it and gets slugged down by T. They do a test of strength and T stomps the bare feet of Little Tokyo. Tokyo slugs away in the corner, but T comes back with the butt-butt. Tokyo backdrops and adds a double chop for the pin at 9:28 to retain. They pretty much played it straight here. **

Mexican title: Mil Mascaras v. Buddy Roberts

Joined in progress for some reason. Mascaras takes Buddy down with a headscissors and monkey-flips him into a full-nelson, then blocks Buddy's counter and retains the hold. Roberts makes the ropes, so Mil drops him on his head and then goes to the armbar. Buddy goes to the eyes and chokes him out on the ropes, then goes up with an elbow and a low blow for two. They slug it out and Buddy misses a blind charge, getting himself tied up in the ropes. Mil with a suplex and the flying forearm, but a blind charge hits Buddy's boot. Mil comes back with a backdrop and finishes with a high cross at 6:10. This was fine. **1/4 Buddy winning the Mexican title and doing vignettes in Tijuana to celebrate would have been awesome.

World Class Texas title: Kerry Von Erich v. Jimmy Garvin

Kerry wins the lockup and does a little strutting, then follows with a pair of dropkicks that send Garvin running. Back in, Kerry adds an atomic drop into the discus punch, and that gets two. Garvin comes back with a cheapshot and Garvin slugs away in the corner and drops an elbow, but it misses. Kerry misses a kneedrop and they get into a slugfest, which leads to an abdominal stretch from Kerry. Garvin escapes and takes him to the mat with a chinlock. Kerry escapes, but gets distracted on the floor by Precious, which allows Garvin to knock him off the apron and then drag him in for a trip over the top again. Back in, Kerry fakes him out and then comes back with a neckbreaker, but Garvin blocks the Iron Claw. Kerry tries a charge and hits the post as a result, but Garvin goes up and falls on his crotch, allowing Kerry to get the weak pin at 6:36. Kerry was just crazy over here and this felt like it should have been better than it was, but I'm thinking that about a lot of the matches on this show. **

Nick Bockwinkel, Ray Stevens & Larry Zbyszko v. Curt Hennig, Scott Hall & Greg Gagne

Scott Hall with tassles = MONEY. Greg Gagne in camo outfit with torn shirt = OPPOSITE OF MONEY. Like seriously, Greg is supposed to look tough in that ridiculous getup? Special announcer Jack Brickhouse rambles forever and then forgets to announce the heel team. Hennig starts with Bockwinkel and they exchange armdrags, but Nick gets a pair of slams. Hennig comes back with his own, and Bockwinkel brings Larry in. And we're suddenly clipped to Hennig getting an armdrag. That was a rather abrupt edit. Curt controls with armdrags and brings Hall in, and he holds an armbar and then runs interference so Greg can get a cheapshot in. Greg comes in and works the arm himself, then takes him down with a flying headscissors before going back to Hennig. Larry backdrops out of a headlock, and Bockwinkel takes over for the heels, putting Hennig down with a knee. Stevens and Zbyszko take turns choking Hennig out in the corner, and then they toss him for a slam on the grass from Larry. Back in, Larry gets the abdominal stretch, and after a false tag Hennig gets dragged back to the heel corner for more abuse. Hennig fights back, but Bockwinkel necksnaps him and cuts off the tag. Hennig gets a bodypress for two, but can't make the tag, and they collide for the double KO. Hot tag to Greg Gagne, the one guy I wouldn't want in my corner with a major match on the line, and the match is breaking loose in Tulsa! The heels collide and Hall powerslams Stevens for the pin at 12:21. Ray didn't even tag into the match! That's gotta suck for him. This was the formula stripped down so simple that even the AWA couldn't fuck it up. ***

AWA World tag titles: The Road Warriors v. The Freebirds

This is the famous match where the Freebirds have painted their faces with the Confederate flag. Hawk beats on Terry Gordy to start, and that quickly brings Hayes into things. He too gets pounded, as Hawk messes up his hair and makeup in the corner! Some things are just going too far. Back to Gordy as he tries with Animal, and Gordy tries for the power approach, which gets him whipped into the corner and beat up again. The Warriors double-team him and Gordy tags out again, so Hayes tries a headlock for lack of anything better to do. He tries a sunset flip, but gets punched out and pinballed in the Warrior corner. Hayes tries to tag out to Gordy, but it takes some convincing to get him back in there. Gordy pounds on Hawk in the corner, and gets Hawk to charge him, which results in Hawk hitting the post. Gordy suplex follows and Hayes comes in to press things, but Hawk is done selling again and elbows Hayes down. Hayes gets a sideslam for two and they double-team Hawk with an elbow, setting up a piledriver from Gordy. Hawk only does a half no-sell of it, so he must not have met Jerry Lawler yet. However, Hawk fights back on both Freebirds, but can't tag. Hayes clotheslines him down again and goes up, you just know that's not going to accomplish anything. And indeed Hawk slams him off. Gordy comes back in and collides with Hawk, and both are out. Hot tag Animal and he beats on Gordy and gets the powerslam for two. It's BONZO GONZO and even Buddy Roberts and Paul Ellering are brawling, but heel miscommunication results in Gordy getting press-slammed by Animal. Hayes nails him off top, however, and Gordy covers for the pin and apparently the titles at 10:12. However, this being the AWA where no title change went unreviewed for weeks on end, Verne Gagne comes out and reverses the decision. Dude, that's bullshit -- Hayes wasn't legal, but at worst it should have only drawn a warning from the ref. The Freebirds were clearly screwed out of a clean win and the AWA tag team titles there. And it takes a lot to make me sympathize with Michael Hayes. **1/4

NWA World Six-Man titles: Ivan Koloff, Nikita Koloff & Khrusher Khruschev v. Crusher, Bruiser & Baron Von Raschke

Big brawl to start and Crusher ends up as the legal man over in the Russian corner, but brings Khrusher over to the face side where Baron grabs a headlock. Nikita comes in and no-sells the shit out of Baron's stuff, then overpowers him, looking like a star with a capital S. Baron decides to retaliate with the claw, but Nikita backs off and lets Ivan have a go. Baron backdrops him and pounds away, and Dick the Bruiser comes in and lives up to his name. Ivan is already bleeding and Bruiser pounds him in the corner, and we get the test of strength. Ivan cheats to win that one and we get Crusher v. Khrusher. That proves less epic than expected, and Baron gets caught in the heel corner, but manages to tag Crusher back in. Crusher works on Ivan's leg and Baron sets up for the claw, while Crusher and Bruiser keep the other Russians from interfering. The camera follows them, and returns to the ring as Ivan somehow pins Baron to retain at 8:58. Larry Nelson is no help, either, as he's watching the monitor and not the ring. Kind of messy but pretty fun. **

America's title: Sgt. Slaughter v. Boris Zhukov

Boris attacks to start, but Slaughter slugs him into the corner and whips him into the post. He grabs a flag and plays bullfighter with Zhukov, then slugs Boris down. However, as Slaughter's contract stipulates, he takes his nightly bump into the post (and goes flying over the top for good measure), allowing Zhukov to take control. Back in, Zhukov rams him into the corner and adds a neckbreaker for two. He stomps away in the corner and they brawl on the floor, but Zhukov is unable to piledrive him on the ground. Back in, Sarge slams him off the top to make the comeback, and backdrops him out of the corner. He sets up for the Slaughter cannon, but hits the ref by accident. Boris loads up his elbowpad with an international object and puts Slaughter down, drawing blood, then shoves the ref for the lame DQ at 8:40. Just when it's going somewhere, they cut to the finish? *1/2

$10,000 Bodyslam challenge: Jerry Blackwell v. Kamala

Kamala pounds on Blackwell while Wally Karbo holds up the cheque at ringside for the camera. See, video evidence that Verne DID pay someone for this show! Thank you, I'm here all week. Anyway, Kamala continues his array of chops, but Blackwell slugs back and clotheslines him. They try to bodyslam each other and get nowhere, so Kamala splashes him for one. He goes to the nerve hold, but Blackwell fights up and gets the avalanche, and the slam to win it at 6:39. Pretty awful. 1/2*

AWA World title: Rick Martel v. Stan Hansen

Hansen comes out swinging and tosses Martel, and they fight so much that the ref initially calls for the bell and then changes his mind and restarts it. Into the ring, Martel wins a slugfest and gets a sunset flip for two, then dodges a charging Stan and slams him. Hansen chokes him out and they take it to the field again, as Hansen nails him with chairs until the ref calls for the bell again at 3:08. Barely even a match. 1/2* Then things get a little crazy as they brawl into the dugout until Verne Gagne pulls them apart to end it.

NWA World title: Ric Flair v. Magnum TA

Yup, the one time this match actually headlined a major show and it wasn't even for Crockett. Magnum works on the arm to start and holds a hammerlock, then wins a wristlock battle and powers him into the corner. Flair begs off to recover, and chops Magnum down. TA reverses him out of the corner with a backdrop, however, which gets two. He goes to work on the arm again, but Flair dumps him to escape. TA is pissed now, though, and slugs away in the corner before missing a dropkick. Don't fight angry! Flair drops a knee on him and gets a butterfly suplex for two. He goes to the abdominal stretch and then whips Magnum into the corner, then snapmares him into another kneedrop. That misses and Magnum pops up with a figure-four, however. Flair pulls himself to the ropes and Magnum drags him back out for another go, but Flair fights him off and goes low. Magnum keeps fighting with a suplex for two, and then a slick backslide gets two. Magnum fires away in the corner, but Flair goes to the eyes and tosses him, and they brawl on the turf. Flair sends the shoulder into the post and chops it , but Magnum manages a sunset flip back into the ring. Flair slugs him to block that and goes back to work on the arm with a hammerlock and his good friend the ropes. Flair cranks on the arm with a standing armbar, then takes him to the corner for a few chops before going back to the ropes for more cheating. Flair slugs away, but Magnum catches him in a sleeper. He releases after some great desperation selling by Flair, but a splash attempt hits knee. They slug it out and Flair swoops right in with a kneecrusher and goes into the figure-four without missing a beat. Magnum turns it over and Flair releases to try again, but Magnum reverses for two. They slug it out again and Magnum wallops him, and we get a Flair Flip to put him on the floor. Larry Nelson says "And that's gonna do it!" but the lack of a bell would seem to indicate that it's not a DQ. Does he even WATCH wrestling? Flair meets the post and starts bleeding, and Magnum goes after it back in the ring. Flair Flops and Magnum gets two off it. He backdrops Flair out of the corner for two, and they go into the pinfall reversal sequence. Backslide gets two for Magnum and he hits the belly to belly to seemingly finish, but the ref gets knocked down and it only gets two. Magnum rolls him up, but Flair grabs the tights and reverses to finish at 25:46. OK, why didn't this one make more comps? Because it's pretty great. Magnum was fired up like crazy here and they did the standard "Flair v. Unbeatable Power Wrestler" formula to great effect. Had they headlined Starrcade '86 with this as planned, it would have been epic. ****

Unfortunately, the show is a major letdown overall, with really only one good match and a whole lot of mediocre ones. Not worth your three and a half hours, but track down the main event and give it a look, for sure.

Comments

  1. "Rambo" Greg Gagne set new standards for boring promos.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Remember when 13 matches seemed like a lot? Now we get about that much on each episode of RAW.


    I had a question about Magnum TA. If he never gets in the car accident, what type of career do you think he would've had? Top 20 of all-time? Or just a solid career with a good fanbase like Steamboat?

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  3. So a digital version of this show is clearly ready to go, but not avaialble on the Network.


    But, if you really want to watch Magnum/Flair, I'm pretty sure that's on the history of the world title DVD, or the second Flair DVD.

    ReplyDelete
  4. MikeyMike, WitnessJuly 26, 2014 at 11:27 AM

    Pure Wrestlecrap!

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  5. as Brandon
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    ReplyDelete
  6. Adam "Colorado" CurryJuly 26, 2014 at 11:29 AM

    TJ: I want to bang an identical twin, then ask the other one "Hey, when I was dicking down your sister, did you get off too?"


    Jesus, I need help...

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  7. This looks like an example of a card where the finishes were such that no one would go over due to interpromotional politics.

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  8. Adam "Colorado" CurryJuly 26, 2014 at 11:33 AM

    Supercalsh III was even worse.

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  9. Wins the title at Starrcade '86 of course and then loses it back to Ric sometime in 87.


    He then settles into a foil for guys on the cusp like Lex Luger & Barry Windham. Vince hires him in late '89 and pushes him hard but he cant quite recapture the old magic ala Texas Tornado. Goes back to WCW for one last brief Nikita Koloff type run in 92/93 before calling it a career probably due to injuries and big insurance payouts.

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  10. No kidding. We got a really good Lawler/Kerry match, but everything else was horrid, including Lee Marshall on commentary. ESPN Classic actually re-ran that event a few times back when they were showing AWA tapes, and while the main event is probably about ****, the rest of the matches probably don't add up to that rating when combined together. It was THAT bad.

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  11. 'Cut The Crap' was the worst.

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  12. Being a fly on the wall backstage would have been incredible that day no doubt, but there's not that many fuck finishes on this card at least by AWA standards.


    The Road Warriors/Freebirds is basically a classic reverse Dusty finish and the AWA title match getting cut short due to time restraints i'd guess?

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  13. I think you're thinking of conjoined twins.

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  14. Adam "Colorado" CurryJuly 26, 2014 at 12:00 PM

    No, that would be gross, even I have my limits. And the proper term is "Siamese twins".

    ReplyDelete
  15. Adam "Colorado" CurryJuly 26, 2014 at 12:01 PM

    And even the **** match had one of top five worst finishes ever.

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  16. I heard Flair vs. Magnum wasn't the plan for Starrcade '86. The alleged top matches were going to be:

    World Title vs. Career: Flair vs. Garvin
    Steel Cage "I Quit" U.S. Title: Magnum vs. Nikita
    First Blood TV Title: Dusty vs. Blanchard
    Steel Cage Tag Team Title: Rock & Roll Express vs. Arn & Ole Anderson

    If Magnum doesn't have his wreck, I assume he wins the NWA Title during the 1987 Great American Bash, then drops the title back to Flair at Starrcade '87. In 1988, Magnum feuds with Windham over the U.S. Title, then feuds with Luger in 1989. By 1991, Magnum winds up in the WWF.

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  17. I see hardly any matches that are inter promotional. Other than maybe the six man tag title match.

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  18. Proper as in more old-fashioned and racially offensive? I like your style, Yankee.

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  19. On the other side you can be lucky if a PPV has more than 5 or 6 matches...

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  20. Word is Magnum would challenge Nikita for the U.S. title in a "I Quit" Steel Match at Starrcade '86, while Flair defended the World title against Rin Garvin in a title vs. career match.

    My best guess is Magnum wins the World title during the 1987 Great American Bash but drops it to Flair at Starrcade '87.

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  21. If you ever meet one of the Bella's, you can always ask them who feels bigger?

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  22. It's because they think EVERY GODDAMN MATCH needs a video package explaining the feud. Guess what? They don't! We didn't need a video package from Jericho/Wyatt. Just maybe a promo from Jericho.

    Frankly, same with the main event. Also they have a half-hour pregame show. Do all that stuff there. Ppvs should be match-match-match-match-match.

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  23. Martel/Hansen and Blackwell/Kamala are crazy underrated. The AWA title brawl may have been short for a major show but it was an AWESOME fight.

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  24. A man after my own heart.

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  25. And, hillbillies preferred to be called "sons of the soil", but it ain't gonna happen.

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  26. The strap match and the opening 6-man are just fine. Slaughter/DeBeers was half of a good match but ended right when it got going (though the ending with a South African, an Iraqi, and an Iranian all teaming up made for the most gloriously ridiculous Axis of Evil ever).

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  27. Rick Martel doesn't get anywhere near the credit he deserves. The guy was a fantastic all around talent.

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  28. Up until around the time he turned heel, he was basically on Steamboat's level. That's pretty high praise. And you don't normally think of Martel doing hate-filled brawls, but we got that here. Keeping up with Stan Hansen is also pretty high praise.

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  29. People used to talk like Magnum would've been on Hogan or Flairs level. I never quite saw it; I think you summed it up about right.

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  30. It's a real shame we never got a Martel vs Hogan match. I always thought there styles would have blended perfectly. They would have had the crowd in the palm of their hands. The heat would have been off the charts. The Model blinding someone with his Arrogance perfume would have been a perfectly angle to have used with Hogan. Would have been some really crisp stuff.

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  31. Adam "Colorado" CurryJuly 26, 2014 at 2:01 PM

    Where is Siam, it's Thailand or Cambodia or some shit, right?


    Don't ever call me a Yankee again, I fucking despise the Yankees.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Adam "Colorado" CurryJuly 26, 2014 at 2:05 PM

    I know two twins, but I can't really test it with them. They just graduated high school, and look like they're 13. And I know their cousin, and she'll rip my spine out if I even try.

    ReplyDelete

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