AWA All-Star Wrestling – January 8, 1984: A Nice Big Ending Angle
AWA All-Star Wrestling
Date: January 8, 1984
Location: KMSP-TV Studios, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Commentator: Ron Trongard
It’s another one of these as I have a pretty good pile of them to go through, mostly in chronological order. I don’t really remember much from last week’s show other than a blooper and a long midcard match with a guy named Milkman. This show wasn’t awful though so maybe this will be good. Let’s get to it.
No blooper to open this week as we go straight to the opening video.
Rooster Griffin vs. Greg Gagne
They fight for control and go to the mat quickly as Rooster cheats a lot. After nearly breaking Rooster’s neck on a leapfrog, a pair of dropkicks beats Rooster.
Rating: D. Somehow that took four minutes. Gagne was the boss’ son and really not that good. Therefore he was pushed forever and almost made world champion in 1988. Now he wasn’t as bad as he’s made out to be, but he’s the guy that wouldn’t be there unless his daddy owned the place.
But the AWA shirt!
The High Fliers say they’re ready for the Sheik’s men soon. Sheik’s arm is all healed so it’s time to take him out. Talking isn’t the High Fliers’ strong suit.
Craig Carson vs. Steve Regal
No not that Regal. Regal is the heel here and Carson is a jobber. Carson throws him around and Regal complains a lot. We’re into the familiar AWA style (granted most 80s promotions did this) of waiting around for a long time for the pin. Regal wins with a vertical suplex of all things. This is 2/3 falls. Ok then.
However instead of going to the second fall, we go to a Nick Bockwinkel interview. He has a clip of Blackjack Mulligan who says he’s coming to Minnesota. He’s a mercenary and will come after his partner Lanza later. Bobby Heenan has called him and Mulligan is replacing Blackwell in the match we had set up last week.
Bockwinkel praises Mulligan and says he’s not used to being seen as a 245 pound weakling but that’s what it’s going to look like when he hooks up with Mulligan. Crusher and Mad Dog say they don’t care about how big their opponent is because they’ll chop him down to the size of a midget.
I don’t think we’re getting the second fall. Here’s another promo from Billy Robinson and Brad Rhengians who get Saito and Ventura at the same upcoming show. They think they can win.
Rock N Roll Buck Zumhofe says he’s ready for Regal and he’ll win with the power of rock n roll.
Apparently we don’t get the second or third fall.
Rating: D. The match was nothing of note but I’m really confused as to why they talked about how that was just the first fall and specifically said it was two out of three. First of all it was pretty much a squash so it’s not like a second fall really would have changed much, at least not based on what we saw. The match was boring on top of all that.
Black Panther vs. Ken Patera
Patera is a world tag champion and is a Sheik here. He’s blonde and works over the shoulder of the Panther and we’re in Squashville here. Backbreaker gets two as does an elbow. A suplex ends this. Is that a special move in the AWA or something?
See this shirt? Buy it.
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Here’s Verne Gagne to talk about the big tag match coming up. He also talks about the new head coach at the University of Minnesota. Blackjack Lanza pops up to talk about how he wants to beat up Heenan.
Baron Von Raschke/Kenny Jay vs. Masa Saito/Jesse Ventura
Baron is a replacement for some guy that had travel issues. Saito breaks a board with his head pre match. Jay vs. Saito to start but it’s off to Jesse very quickly. Same with the Baron but Saito chops him down. Off to Jay who gets caught in the Tree of Woe by Jesse. He gets stomped for awhile until Baron comes in and hammers on everyone. Jay is still stuck upside down. There’s the Claw on Jesse as Jay is finally down. And it’s a double DQ so it doesn’t matter. It’s too short to rate but it’s more of a brawl than a match.
Saito and Ventura destroy both guys post match. Jim Brunzell finally makes the save but takes the salt to the eyes. Greg Gagne makes the real save and chases both guys off. After it takes forever to get them to leave, here’s promoter Wally Karbo who says Saito won’t keep getting away with this. Ventura and Saito come in and Karbo leaves. He says that wasn’t their fault and that they’ll do their thing. The High Fliers come in and say they want Ventura and Saito to end this. The whole angle took like ten minutes.
Overall Rating: C-. Better show this week, mystery second fall aside. The ending angle was something fun as we had a violent ending that sets up future matches and a big feud between the Far East West Connection and the High Fliers. The rest of the show was pretty worthless though.
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