He was older than most rookies, he had a distinctive look, he was AWESOME in developmental, he came up about the same time as Orton and Cena and for my money was the best prospect of those three in his first year on WWE TV. He had a horrible gimmick but made it both memorable and pretty entertaining. He is……Rico.

Continental Championship Wrestling
Date: January 4, 1986
Location: Boutwell Auditorium, Birmingham, Alabama
Commentator: Gordon Solie

Back to that Alabama based company since I have more time to kill before No Mercy finishes downloading. I don’t know anything about this company at this time but in previous episodes I’ve seen Yokozuna and Masahiro Chono pop in so who knows what might be here tonight. Let’s get to it.

For those of you confused, this is the CWF before it changed names.

We open with Gordon Solie who brings in Ronnie West, the troubleshooting referee of the NWA. The US Junior Heavyweight Title has been stripped or something. He says if anyone wants to sponsor the show, give him a call. That doesn’t sound good.

Tommy Rich/Johnny Rich vs. Larry Clark/The Inferno

Johnny and Clark start things off. Gordon again tries to pitch the idea of using CCW as a fundraiser. I know a lot of smaller companies do that, but having it lead off the show isn’t a good thing. The Riches hammer down everyone but the Nightmares run in and break things up. They tar and feather Johnny. This was an angle, not a match.

The Nightmares are very happy about what they did.

The Riches say watch your backs Nightmares.

Jason Walker vs. Adrian Street

Adrian Street is from the Adrian Adonis/Rico family of wrestlers if you get my drift. Street is Southeastern Heavyweight Champion, which I think is the top title in this company. Street prances around to play mind games. He takes Walker to the mat and it turns into a technical match. Miss Linda, Adrian’s manager, chokes a bit as Adrian drops elbows. A knee to the ribs and a splash end this.

Rating: D+. Dull match and I’m not sure why they did the finishing sequence twice. Anyway, Street was an interesting kind of character as no one had seen someone like him in a long time. The effeminate character is one that’s almost always going to work because wrestling is such a masculine sport and wrestling fans are kind of scared of anything different.

Post match Walker attacks Street when Norville Austin comes in to beat on him also. Lady Maxine (Mad Maxine from WWF) comes in to cancel out Miss Linda. Austin would win the title two days later.

Austin and Maxine say that’s just the beginning. We get some clips of a match where Street beat up women or something like that. It’s really hard to make out the audio.

Street and Linda talk about an upcoming house show. Austin and Maxine reply by saying they’ll be ready. I think it’s a mixed tag.

Tim Horner will face someone for the Junior Heavyweight Title at Night of Champions.

Tim Horner vs. Paul Brown

Apparently the guy Horner will be facing is named Ken Timbs. Horner takes him to the mat and then grabs a top wristlock to control. Brown comes back with brawling tactics and gets a small package for two. O’Connor Roll gets two for Horner. A victory roll gets him the pin.

Rating: D. How was that a six and a half minute match? This program is reaching new levels of boring as I can’t bring myself to care about it at all. Horner was a guy that was ok for the most part so in a company like this, he was a big deal. He wouldn’t win the title at Night of Champions but he’d win it soon thereafter.

The Bullet says he’s sorry the Flame is gone because he didn’t get to beat him up enough. Some other masked guy named Mr. Olympia has been trying to steal Bullet’s mask. They tried to take Bullet’s mask but Brad Armstrong came in to help. The mask came off but Brad covered his face with a towel. There was another brawl with Tennessee Stud involved too. Olympia vs. Bullet for Night of Champions.

Roberto Soto and Boomer Lynch have a match for the Alabama Title and talk about their match. It’ll be big you see.

Gordon plugs some homebuilding company.

TV Title: Robert Fuller vs. Brad Armstrong

Fuller is champion and is more famous as Colonel Robert Parker. The title hadn’t been around for about five years but Fuller reactivated it for all of a month. Fuller is your standard “I’m pretty” character. Armstrong knocks him to the floor quickly and Fuller stalls a lot. Back into the ring and it’s off to an armbar by Armstrong. Fuller comes back and uses a variety of slams as I look for blunt instruments to hit myself with. Armstrong dropkicks him down and out to the floor. Some of Fuller’s friends come out and apparently TV time is up and the title is held up until next week.

Rating: F. The biggest move in a 4 minute match was a dropkick. You figure out the rest.

Fuller yells a lot.

Armstrong and Bullet yell a lot too.

Olympia starts yelling and we’re out of time.

Overall Rating: F. WOW this was boring. I watched the shows from 1988 of this company and they were bad. They were uninteresting, they weren’t that good and they were poorly put together. They look like masterpieces compared to this though. This show was just not interesting in the slightest and the production was awful. Usually I give a show two runs to see if I’ll keep it up or not but I’m done with this already. Just incredibly boring.

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CWA Championship Wrestling
Date: January 3, 1981
Location: WMC-TV Studios, Memphis, Tennessee
Commentator: Lance Russell

Much like with Power Hour, if I don’t like this one then I’m dropping the whole series. If nothing else it’ll make my list a lot smaller. Anyway we’re in 1981 now and not a lot has probably changed. To give you an idea of how much I enjoyed last week’s show, I don’t remember anything about it for the most part other than a few flashes, and I only reviewed it a few days ago. Let’s get to it.

There’s going to be a retrospective on Jerry Lawler later today.

Tom Maley vs. David Oswald

They go to the mat and it’s a technical exhibition to start. Maley is a rookie here and Oswald is the bigger guy. Back to more mat stuff. Oswald is the heel here it seems. This is a very different style and looks more like an amateur or MMA style here. There hasn’t been a single strike in almost four minutes. Maley keeps taking him down but stands up so Oswald can get in some forearm shots. Maley comes back with forearms of his own but they collide and both guys are down. Oswald hits a knee lift and drops an elbow for the pin.

Rating: C. This was different than almost anything you’ll ever see. It certainly wasn’t bad or boring but it’s really not something that you’re going to want to see. The crowd didn’t seem all that interested but Memphis crowds are always an odd bunch. It wasn’t bad though and was nice to see for something different.

We get a clip from Lawler vs. Dundee, hair vs. hair. Lawler keeps beating on Dundee in the corner until the match is stopped because Dundee can’t continue. Dundee begs them to let it keep going and actually gets his way. Lawler pounds on him again and the beating gets even worse. Dundee hits something like a headbutt…and we cut to another match between them. Make that a highlight reel of them. I want to know who won the hair match.

We get some magic words though: Tupelo Concession Stand Brawl. Video of it later.

House show ads. Lawler has a match with Dream Machine and if he wins, he gets five minutes with Hart. Lawler has been out for eleven months with a broken leg. Nothing will stop him from getting his hands on Hart though.

Here’s a clip from Lawler vs. Dream Machine. Machine says something before the match but I couldn’t understand a word of it. There are stipulations to this but Machine stops the announcement to yell some more. Ok so it’s a handicap match with Bobby Eaton/Jimmy Hart vs. Tony Charles. So Lawler and Machine aren’t in the match but are seconds? This is hard to follow.

If Tony loses he gets his hair cut. If he wins, Eaton and Hart are gone. Lawler and Dream Machine get into it on the floor and there’s no match. Little trivia note for you here: Eaton has brown hair here. Scratch that: the match happens but we don’t get to see it. This is getting annoying.

Angel/Tony Russo vs. Carl Fergie/Tommy Russo

This is 2/3 falls again. Russo and Tommy start things off. Very slow to start as it’s off to Fergie. I think he and Gilbert are the faces here. They work over Russo’s arm and it’s back to Gilbert. Russo brings in Angel for all of 8 seconds and it’s back to Russo. We’re three minutes into this and nothing of note has happened. Cross body gets two for Gilbert. Fergie hits an elbow to the face and drops another one for the first fall on Russo.

Apparently we’re going to get the rest of the match later. For now though, OFF TO TUPELO!!! Ok so this one needs some backstory. We have Bill Dundee and Lawler teaming up against Larry Latham (Moondog Spot) and Wayne Ferris (Honky Tonk Man), collectively known as the Blonde Bombers. The Bombers cheated like CRAZY to win the tag titles. The show looked like it was ending but as they faded to black you heard Russell saying stay with this because there’s a big brawl going on. The brawl went down to the concession stand, and this is what followed.

The Blondes are all busted open and they beat on each other with EVERYTHING. Mustard goes flying and they’re filming from the stairs. This is totally serious stuff in case that wasn’t clear. Everyone is bleeding. Lawler destroys Ferris while Dundee is stomped on. Jerry Jarrett comes in and finally gets Dundee away for a second. Also this isn’t one of those fake WCW concession stands. This is the real concession stand where the fans are buying food. The Blondes run so Lawler and Dundee chase them but the Blondes come back and destroy Jarrett, stripping his clothes off. They’re FINALLY pulled off to end this.

I won’t go into details on the whole history of this (if you’re interested in why this was booked and why Jerry Jarrett is one of the smartest men ever in wrestling, look up Jim Cornette’s commentary called “The Slippery Slope of Hardcore Wrestling.” It’s incredibly interesting and well worth the read, as is almost anything Cornette writes) but the main idea is that this is pretty much the birth of modern hardcore wrestling.

The key difference though: it was believable. This wasn’t something that you saw every day (first time ever for the most part) and EVERYONE talked about it. It saved the territory and worked because it was treated as a huge deal. This is something you’ll still hear about from time to time and you’ll occasionally see tributes to it even today. This is incredibly historic stuff and possibly the most famous moment in southern wrestling.

We get a clip of the rematch (one of many) with the crowd being noticeably larger. That’s the idea and it worked like a miracle.

House show plugs.

Oh yeah we have to go back and finish that tag match. Fergie and Russo start us off but it’s off to the monster named Angel very quickly. Fergie fights off an abdominal claw and it’s Gilbert’s turn to get beaten down. Back to Russo as the beating continues. Russo (who looks like Mario from the Super Mario Brothers Super Show, and yes I know who played him) chokes away but it’s back to Angel. There’s the hot tag to Fergie who misses an elbow and gets pinned by Angel to tie it up.

Before the third fall, here are MORE Lawler highlights, this time of him getting beaten up by Harley Race and beating up Nick Bockwinkel. We see him losing to Jack Brisco after a one hour fight. Also some of the matches with Jackie Fargo (the guy that made Lawler), possibly the one where he won the name King.

The third fall is finally joined in progress with Angel pounding on Gilbert. Everything breaks down for a bit as Gilbert hooks Angel in an abdominal stretch….and the time limit runs out.

Rating: D. This was about as different of a match as you’ll ever find. I really don’t get the point in having it all cut up like this. It took almost 40 minutes to get through a ten minute match because of all the Lawler stuff. The problem otherwise was that this was a really boring match with nothing interesting to it at all, which is the problem with most of the matches on these shows.

Dream Machine isn’t worried about Lawler.

Russell wraps things up.

Overall Rating: C+. Given that Lawler is coming back, I think I have to keep watching this. The Tupelo Brawl scene is more than enough to bring me back, even though it’s part of a clip show. Still though, fun show and the Brawl footage is great. The wrestling here was certainly different, but it wasn’t all that great. Lawler coming back will completely change the show though so I’ll keep watching this for now.

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Simple question.For me it’s Hogan.  That long shot of him coming to the ring for the biggest match of all time is the stuff that makes legends.

Mid-South Championship Wrestling
Date: January 13, 1984
Location: Irish McNeil Boys Club, Shreveport, Louisiana
Commentators: Jim Ross, Bill Watts

What is with all this 1984 I’m watching lately? Anyway, this is Mid-South which is one of the major territories I haven’t touched on yet. It was based around Oklahoma, east Texas and Louisiana and was run by Cowboy Bill Watts. They’re known for having great in ring stuff but being light on angles, so if that’s your style this might be what you’re looking for. I haven’t seen much of their stuff either so let’s get to it.

JR and Billy welcome us to the card. Last week the Russians ran their mouths and challenged whoever wanted some to come fight them. They wanted JYD and Magnum (probably the biggest stars in the company) but they weren’t ready to wrestle. Terry Taylor came out and yelled at Crusher Darsow, the Russian sympathizer. Volkoff jumped Taylor and this became a match. Taylor won with a sunset flip in like 30 seconds.

Terry Taylor vs. Doug Vines

This is Taylor’s second match in the territory so he’s brand new. Terry hits a monkey flip, a dropkick and an armdrag to set up an armbar. Small package wins it quick.

The Russians run in but JYD and Duggan make the save.

Junkyard Dog/Jim Duggan vs. Larry Higgens/Jeff Sword

JYD is the North American Champion, which is the top title in Mid-South. Dog starts with let’s say Higgens. A headbutt puts Jeff down and he runs away from a scream by Duggan. Duggan knocks him into the corner and Sword comes in. JYD hits Sword in the head a bit and Duggan slams him. The referee is Karl Fergie who had a match on a show I recently did. I love little things like that. Three Point Headbutt from Duggan gets the pin. Total squash.

The Russians attack post match but the power of AMERICA cleans house.

Paul Garner/Don Ralston vs. Magnum TA/Mr. Wrestling II

Magnum and Wrestling are tag champions. Magnum and Garner start us off…..and here’s Jim Cornette. He gets in the ring and makes fun of the champs as the Midnight Express runs in through the crowd and knocks out Wrestling with a blackjack. The Express lay out Magnum as Cornette pours some liquid on his back. They pull out a pillow and tar and feather Magnum. Ok that’s AWESOME. I remember hearing about this in Cornette’s shoot and it resulted in the Express almost being killed on multiple instances. This was a comedy spot in Memphis but here, it’s DEAD serious.

Midnight Express vs. Lanny Poffo/George Weingroff

Dig that From Lexington, Kentucky! This is Eaton and Condrey. Condrey and Poffo start us off. Eaton has brown hair here which is so strange to see. Poffo throws them both around to start and Condrey is in trouble. Back to Eaton who has a little bit better luck. We get into a much more standard Express match with the double teaming blocking a tag. The Express destroys Weingroff for awhile and a double team move (elbow/belly to back drop combination) gets the pin.

Rating: D+. Not much here but it was a squash so what were you expecting? The Express at least had a little change of pace in their squashes as they started off slow because they were adjusting to their opponents. It’s not much but at least it breaks the formula that you always get in these things.

Wrestling II and Magnum say they’ll pluck the Express.

Jim Neidhart vs. Tom Lentz

Neidhart goes right after Lentz and the dominance begins. A Samoan drop ends this quick.

Steve Williams vs. Crusher Darsow

I think this is the main event. Watts sums up the match very quickly: Williams hates Russians. Watts, ever the AMERICAN rants about how the Russians winning means annihilation. Crusher hooks a quick chinlock and holds onto that for a good while. Doc finally gets up and hits a bunch of three point stance shoulders. Volkoff comes out and slips something to Darsow. A shot to the head with it gets the pin.

Rating: F. What a boring match. We had a four minute long match here and about two and a half of that was the chinlock. Who goes to a chinlock that early in the match anyway? Doc was a lot more interesting when he was running over people rather than laying on the mat. Darsow would go on to become Smash in Demolition.

Butch Reed vs. Rick Rood

Yes, that Rood. He’s VERY young here and looks nothing like himself. Reed is a former champion here so what do you expect out of this? Reed throws him around a lot but Rood makes a comeback with very little time left in the show. Butch takes him down again and we hear about a new team coming called the Rock N Roll Express. Reed hooks a facelock with about two minutes to go in the show. He finally wins with a delayed gorilla press.

Rating: D. It’s always cool to see someone like Rude out there where you have no idea what’s coming from him in the next few years. Reed was a guy that had everything going for him and then more or less disappeared after Doom broke up. The match was just a squash but Rude would get a push soon after this I think.

Overall Rating: C. I liked this show. It flew by which is good and there was a big angle going on in it. The Express had been here only a short time but they’ve now established themselves as monster heels. This was a good show and I’m looking forward to seeing more from this company.

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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.

Buy the AWA Magazine!

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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CWA Championship Wrestling
Date: December 27, 1980
Location: WMC-TV Studios, Memphis, Tennessee
Commentators: Lance Russell, Dave Brown

This is back in Memphis but in the early days. The company was founded in 1977 so it hasn’t been around a terribly long time here. I have no idea what to expect from this but I’m sure Jerry Lawler will be involved somewhere. This is the first of about seven shows I have from here so let’s get to it.

The announcers (whatever their names are) tell us about the matches. One of them is Lance Russell.

Angel vs. David Price

Angel is managed by Jimmy Hart. He’s a bald guy who looks like George Steele but with smoother skin and bigger muscles. The arena is tiny, maybe holding 200 people. Angle pounds him down and you can hear Hart coaching him in the days before the Megaphone. Angle almost kicks him to the floor but Price hooks the rope with his feet. Price manages to roll him over and we get some mat work. I didn’t expect that.

Price is thrown to the floor but is quickly back in. Angel really likes to hit him in the back with forearms. Even Jimmy is saying this is a workout for him. Hart also doesn’t have glasses. Back to the apron for more stomping. Angel lets go of some covers and Price grabs a worthless hammerlock. Angel finally ends this with a Claw.

Rating: D. Boring match here as Angel liked pounding him on the back way too much. I’ve never heard of him but he was big, mean and bald headed so you really don’t need much else, especially not back in the old days. The announcers sounded really bored with this and rightfully so.

Gypsy Joe/David Oswald vs. Bill Dundee/Tommy Rich

This is 2/3 falls. Rich and Joe start things off and Joe is taken to the mat quickly. Off to Dundee and then Oswald. Back to Rich who would be NWA Champion in about tour months. A dropkick by Rich gets two. Off to a chinlock for a few seconds and it’s back to Dundee pounding on Joe. Dundee is really popular here, even drawing a chant from the small crowd. Oswald gets in a cheap shot and Joe takes over.

Dundee gets in a dropkick for two as David saves. Off to Oswald who gets two on a backdrop. Joe comes in but walks into a sunset flip for the first fall. After a break we get a promo from Rich and Dundee who are tag team champions and have a loser leaves town match coming up. Tommy also gets Jimmy Valiant in a street fight on the same show. He says he can get just as crazy as Valiant can and it’ll be a late Christmas present for him. That was a good promo.

Dundee pounds on Joe some more and a dropkick gets two. Everything breaks down for a few seconds and Joe takes over with a chinlock. Back to Oswald who sounds like a duck. Oswals breaks up a tag and brings in Joe for a chinlock. We get into a long Ricky Morton sequence years before anyone knew who Ricky Morton was. Joe chokes Dundee and Oswald gets two off a slam.

Joe knocks Dundee down again and it’s off to a nerve hold. Everything breaks down and Rich still can’t get the tag. This match is going a lot longer than I was expecting it to do. Out of NOWHERE Dundee grabs a small package on Joe. Rich comes in to take out Oswald again and Dundee gets the second pin of the match.

Rating: C-. It’s not a bad match but I really don’t get why this needed to be two straight falls. Dundee took a good beating here and the match was pretty fun. This was a lot like a tag team formula match but they didn’t have the hot tag aspect to it yet. That hurts things but it’s 1980 to be fair.

Tony Charles vs. Pat Hutchinson

I have no idea who either of these guys are, nor who is who. These are junior heavyweights I think. Hutchinson is in blue. Got it. They go to the mat where Charles controls with headlocks and arm holds. We cut to a Dundee and Rich talking about a charity drive or something. The match is still going on and the drive is for Tony Charles apparently. Charles hooks a Boston Crab but doesn’t turn it over. He hits a backbreaker and then a full Crab but Hutchinson makes the rope. Hutchinson tries to get into an amateur match which fails as well. Charles hits a bad dropkick for the pin.

Rating: D+. Not a very entertaining match and they spent most of the time talking about the charity drive. I still don’t know why Charles needs the money or anything but I think it’s supposed to be something serious. Nothing to see here and the announcers talk about the match like it was something really interesting.

Dream Machine vs. Carl Fergie

This is from some other show, I believe in the Mid-South Coliseum. Machine is a big masked heel. Hart is the manager and pokes Fergie in the ribs with what appeared to be a cane. Machine takes him down and wins with a standard armbar. Total squash which allegedly went 5:00 so there much have been a lot of clipping.

Dream Machine won’t let go post match. A few guys come in for the save (including Rick Morton and Koko Ware) but it’s back to the arm when they’re dispatched. Lawler finally comes in and really cleans house.

Dream Machine (with a THICK southern/country accent) runs down Lawler and all of the faces here. Imagine Dusty Rhodes talking fast with a high pitched voice. Jimmy calls out Lawler and counts to ten. Lawler doesn’t answer it and Russell says that everyone knows he’s not here this week.

More house show stuff.

Koko Ware/Tom Meley vs. Tojo Yamamoto/Jimmy Valiant

This is actually an iron man tag match as they say it’s whoever has the most falls when we’re out of TV time wins. Koko is TV Champion at this point and starts with Valiant. Valiant loudly complains of hair pulling then pulls Koko’s hair to pull over. That’s heel psychology for you. Koko and Tojo are both really short. The heels double team Koko a lot and chop him even more.

A slam gets two for Valiant. Tojo tags out and literally is on the apron for 2 seconds before coming back in to chop Koko down for the first fall. We take a break and come back with Koko cleaning house to start the second fall. Finally off to Meley who charges at Valiant which goes badly for him. Elbow drop by Valiant makes it 2-0. Apparently that’s it.

Rating: D. This was a squash. Meley was nothing of note at all and got destroyed the whole time. I have no idea what the point was in having Koko getting beaten down that much and then lose clean but whatever. Tojo would become a big top heel in this company for years and would pop up in the late 80s in WCCW as well.

Valiant runs his mouth about Tommy Rich.

Overall Rating: D. This is a show I really don’t see myself watching much more. I’ll watch one more episode of it and if it’s not a lot better, I’m done. This style just isn’t for me and while I get that it was insanely popular for a long time, that doesn’t mean it works well over thirty years later. Not awful, but really not something I want to spend 9 hours watching all that I have of.

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With Santino being in the Chamber last night I figured this was a good time for another one of these.

When did the idea of being a comedy character become such an evil thing? Most of the people I read stuff from are clamoring for Santino to get a big serious push and maybe even win MITB. In the words of South Park, are you high or just really stupid? The LAST thing Santino needs is a serious push.

Now, for those of you that are going straight to the comments because you’re too angry at me already, this is the part I’ll be referring you to later. There’s nothing wrong with Santino getting more TV time and winning some matches. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. However, him beating a top level heel on his own or winning a title or being near a PPV title match one on one is lunacy.

Here’s the thing: some people belong as comedy characters. Why? Because comedy characters are a good thing. They bring levity to the show and offer a little breathing room in between the heavy lifting. Think about it like this: the Divas are there to give you a break right? Which would you prefer: a Santino comedy match or a second Divas match? “But KB! The fans are cheering for Santino so he should get pushed harder!” That’s the statement you’ll often hear and it’s stupid. Here’s why.

Santino is a funny guy. I can live with that although I don’t always agree with it. Let’s look at the TNA version of Santino: Eric Young. Young has been a serious character before and look what happened: it bombed. They put him with Hall and Nash and he still couldn’t get over as a serious guy. The fans rejected him so he went back to comedy and had his most successful time ever. Santino’s best times have come when he’s a comedy guy, be it as a face or a heel.

That’s because Santino has something unique about him: his comedic abilities. The fans for some reason want him to stop doing this though and get a serious push. I think the idea is that if you push him harder, he can still keep the comedy aspect. The problem is that it won’t work that way. If you push a face against serious heels, you’re running two risks. If you put the comedy guy over them, the heels look weak which is a rampant problem already in WWE. If you push the comedy guy as a serious guy, he’s just another guy and the specialness is gone.

That’s the big issue with this: if you push Santino as a serious guy, why would the fans cheer him? They cheer the comedy. If you take that away, the luster is going to wear off Santino quickly. You also really don’t want say Wade Barrett losing to a hiptoss, a saluting headbutt and the Cobra, as Barrett could be a top heel on Smackdown if pushed right. This has been tried before, which brings me to this.

Back in 2004, we found out that Eric Bischoff had a special nephew named Eugene. He debuted as a comedy guy, imitating stuff he’d grown up watching on TV. Eugene exploded on the WWE and was probably the most popular guy on Raw for a little while. Then he became involved in the HHH vs. Chris Benoit feud, costing HHH the title and resulting in a match between HHH and Eugene at Summerslam.

What followed was one of the harshest crowd reactions ever, as Eugene did his stuff and was booed out of the building. The fans didn’t want to see a character like him facing one of the top heels. They wanted HHH to face a real top face, not a converted comedy guy. That would hold true today as well I think. Eugene was never the same and his push was over. Why risk the same thing happening today?

Finally, I want to get into the idea that being a comedy character for life is such a bad thing. There are a bunch of characters that have never been booked seriously and have had very successful careers. Think of guys like Hillbilly Jim, Road Dogg, or probably the biggest of all: Jim Duggan. Santino probably has had a more successful career than Duggan but Duggan is a legend that still got a solid reaction at the Rumble this year. He was never booked in any really serious way and was more or less a lovable idiot that got over huge and was probably the second biggest face in the company for awhile.

This is what it boils down to: Santino is already over as a comedy guy. Now people want to change that because of reasons I don’t get. If you want him to be on TV more often and maybe get some more wins that’s fine, but if you do that you’re running the risk of breaking something that’s already working. It rarely works on other TV shows and it hasn’t worked well in the past in the WWE, but what do I know about stuff? I actually think Cena shouldn’t turn heel so I have no idea what I’m talking about right?

AWA All-Star Wrestling
Date: January 1, 1984
Location: WFBT Studios, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Commentator: Ron Trongard

This is I think the flagship show of the AWA. Since it’s getting kind of hard to find some of the requests I’ve gotten, I figured I’d work on this huge backlog of shows I’ve found while I download copies of others. I don’t know very much about this company at all so I’ll be guessing on a lot of it as we go. Let’s get to it.

We open with Gene Okerlund who has Jesse Ventura with him. Jesse has promised us a major announcement that is going to knock wrestling both forward and backward. Two years ago he was in Japan and saw a guy that he wanted to start tagging with. It’s not Adrian Adonis but rather someone who compliments Jesse perfectly. It’s Mr. Saito. Saito gives Jesse a kimono. Saito hits a board with his head but it doesn’t break. He does it again and the board still doesn’t break. Everyone cracks up laughing and I think that was a blooper.

Here’s Gene again who brings in Verne Gagne. He talks about how this is the season for amateur wrestling. Verne congratulates all of them for their hard work and dedication. Back to the pro ranks though, he’s glad Schultz (I presume Dave) has been suspended. Rule breakers are going to get cracked down on a lot more in 1984.

Opening sequence.

Rocky Stone vs. Jim Brunzell

Brunzell is half of the High Fliers and takes Stone down with an armbar. Off to a headscissors but Stone gets to the ropes. The referee’s nickname is Sodbuster. I can’t say I’ve heard that one before. Stone grabs a front facelock but Brunzell knocks him into the corner and works on the leg. Pick a body part dude. A high knee sets up the dropkick for the pin.

Rating: D+. That dropkick is awesome but the match was boring up to that point. Brunzell was in a team with the owner’s son so you know that he was getting pushed strong. The match was dull as Brunzell couldn’t pick what he wanted to work on so he worked on everything, then finished with the dropkick. Boring but it’s a squash so it doesn’t matter much.

Gene runs down a card and talks about how Bockwinkel needs a partner. Heenan, Bockwinkel’s manager, has been asking old Heenan Family members to be Nick’s partner. Heenan and Bockwinkle, the world champion, come in and deny that. They won’t announce who their partner is. We’ll find out by the end of the show.

Buddy Lane vs. Mr. Saito

Lane takes him to the mat but Saito gets us easily. Saito takes him down now and works over the arm. He chops Lane in the corner and dropkicks him down (kind of). Saito tries a Boston Crab but Lane blocks it. Instead he tries a cradle but Lane keeps getting his shoulder up. That goes on for about 30 seconds and they get back up. Saito punches him near the throat and chops him down again. Saito Suplex ends this.

Rating: D. This was another odd match as Lane got in a lot more offense than you would expect as well as blocking a lot of Saito’s stuff. It wasn’t horrible I guess but it was a different kind of squash and I’m not sure if I mean that in a good way or not. Still though, it wasn’t bad.

We get the Jesse/Saito thing again but this time he breaks the board. That’s awesome that we got a blooper.

Jake Milliman vs. Buck Zumhofe

Milliman is nicknamed Milkman and is kind of the AWA’s version of the Brooklyn Brawler. Buck is Light Heavyweight Champion and this is 2/3 falls. And now Jingle Bell Rock is playing. Buck is nicknamed Rock N Roll so maybe that’s why? He hooks a quick stepover toehold and then shifts to the arm. I don’t think the title is on the line here. Zumhofe hooks some armdrags and back into the armbar.

Milliman manages a knee to the ribs and hooks a chinlock for his first offense. Buck fights up and works on the arm again. A dropkick takes Milliman down and a second one does as well. A cross body (called a flying body slam) gives Zumhofe the first fall. We take a break and come back with the second fall. The fans chant for Milliman who is the heel I think as Buck works on the arm.

Now for a change of pace, Buck works on the arm. Good to see them mixing things up in a match that has no apparent reason for being two out of three falls. Milliman gets two off something like a DDT. A slam gets two for Buck. Jake hits a flying forearm to take over but Zumhofe slams him off the top and wins with a Vader Bomb.

Rating: D+. Boring match and I have no idea why it was two out of three. Milliman got squashed twice in a row when once certainly would have given us the same result. Also, why not make this for the title if it’s going to be a squash? Either way, dull stuff but not terrible I guess.

Buy the AWA shirt! It’s $10 which is a lot better than the $39.99 for the Austin jersey in 1998.

The High Fliers say Saito is strong. They say they’ll be patient about getting their titles back.

Zumhofe says happy new year while having Auld Lang Syne playing on his boombox.

House show rundown. Bockwinkel comes in to announce his partner as Jerry Blackwell. He’s half of the tag champions and injured both Mad Dog Vachon and the Crusher, the two guys they’re teaming against.

AWA World Title: Mad Dog Vachon vs. Nick Bockwinkel

This is from Christmas Night and we’re joined in progress with Bockwinkel in trouble. I think they said there are five minutes left in the time limit. A backdrop gets two for Mad Dog. Vachon has dominated this according to Trongard. Bockwinkel avoids a charge in the corner and both guys are down. Nick tries the piledriver but Vachon reverses. Vachon puts him down but pulls him up at two. There’s a piledriver by Mad Dog for the pin and the title! That came out of nowhere. Not enough shown to properly rate it but it was your usual main event style ending, although the pin comes out of nowhere.

Heenan and Bockwinkel jump Mad Dog’s friend Crusher post match until Crusher gets a chair and pops them both with it. And never mind as Bockwinkel is disqualified for something so there’s no title change. This was a weekly thing in the AWA, including twice taking the title back from Hogan, which is why he bolted.

Vachon says he’ll hurt Blackwell. Crusher comes in and calls Blackwell fat.

Overall Rating: C-. The show isn’t really bad and at just an hour, it’s not like this is a chore to sit through. The in ring work is far weaker than the talking parts though, which set up future stuff as well as catch us up on what’s been happening. Not a terrible show or anything, but it’s not something I would regularly watch I don’t think.

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USWA Wrestling Challenge
Date: September 2, 1989
Location: Sportatorium, Dallas, Texas
Commentators: Marc Lowrance, Frank Duschek

This is the final show in this time period that I have for the moment. After this we have to jump ahead to December unless I get my hands on some more episodes. The main event tonight is a grudge match between P.Y. Chu-Hi and Chris Adams over Chu-Hi and Tojo Yamamoto attacking Adams’ wife. Let’s get to it.

We open with a clip of last week’s show with Cactus losing to Embry in 9 seconds.

Jarrett and Borne, the tag champions, talk about getting ready mentally to face whomever is challenging them that week.

Billy Joe Travis vs. Dog of War

No idea who Dog of War is. Travis is a smaller guy and Dog is a big monster that looks about as smart as a mailbox. Travis dominates for the most part and we hear that Dog is one of the new recruits to Devastation Inc. WELL OF COURSE HE IS! There isn’t a heel in the company that isn’t! Young and Akbar come out to distract Travis and Dog takes over again. Eric Embry comes out to leads cheers for Travis, as does Pringle. Travis comes back and wins with a Vader Bomb.

Rating: D+. Not much of a match here but the crowd coming alive for Embry was a cool tihng to see. He was on fire at this point and could get anything over. The match was nothing of note but it was only supposed to be a backdrop for the cheering battle between Devastation Inc and Eric, which is fine.

The Punisher, a masked guy who is ripped, says that there’s $100,000 from Akbar to whomever takes out Embry. He says he’ll be coming to take out all of the pretty boys in the USWA. In about a year he would be in the WWF out of a mask and called The Undertaker.

Akbar says Devastation Inc just needs some time to regroup. Young is with him and I keep forgetting to mention this: Young is as much of a Rick Rude ripoff as you can get without getting slapped with a copyright lawsuit. Young basicaly threatens all of the faces in the company and says Devastation will be coming for them.

Jerry Lawler says the caliber of talent has gone way downhill since the USWA has replaced WCCW. Namely Eric Embry, who isn’t championship material.

P.Y. Chu-Hi vs. Chris Adams

The Japanese guys do their ceremonial stuff including the salt. Adams goes straight at him and drills the referee about 10 seconds in. He gets the kendo stick and everyone gets blasted. Gary Young runs in for the save. Adams gets beaten down 3-1 until Borne and Embry make the save.

Percy Pringle says Lawler has defended everywhere except in Dallas. For some reason he’s shunning Eric Embry so Eric will come looking for Lawler.

We get a video of coming attractions, as in people coming to the USWA. They had an open door policy, meaning people would come in for however long they wanted and then leave. Some of the people are the Rock N Roll Express, Master of Pain (Undertaker), Ronnie P. Gossett IV (fat guy), Bill Dundee, The Wildside (tag team), Dustin Rhodes (20 at this point), Black Bart/Dirty White Boy (WHY DOES THIS GUY FOLLOW ME THIS MUCH???), Dutch Mantel and The Blackbirds (tag team).

Akbar says Devastation Inc is on top of the company.

Kerry Von Eric vs. Taurus Bulba

Nothing really going on to start. They circle each other some more until Kerry gets in the first offense, punching Bulba down. They go to the floor and apparently this is falls count anywhere. Bulba hits his signature headbutt for two because the referee wasn’t in position. They brawl out the door but come back in before a camera goes to follow them. Back in the ring and Bulba takes over with chops and headbutts.

We take a break and come back with them on the floor and Kerry hitting him with a chair. Von Erich loads up the Claw but Bulba pokes him in the eye. Bulba headbutts the post by mistake but he doesn’t go down. Another Claw attempt is countered and Bulba grabs one of his own. Kerry goes down but the fans chant him back up. Bulba takes him right back down….AND GETS THE PIN WITH THE CLAW ON KERRY VON ERICH!!! IN DALLAS!!!

Rating: B. This was a pretty awesome brawl and my eyes actually popped open at the ending. This just did not happen in the Sportatorium which is a big part of why this was so shocking. The people were stunned as were the announcers and myself. The ending was pretty much clean on top of that, which makes this even better. Great brawl too.

Kerry stops struggling until some friends make the save. He has to be taped up. Kerry is taken out on a stretcher. After a break we see him being taken to the back again, as in they replay it including the commentary.

Overall Rating: B-. I can’t complain much about this show as it worked a lot better than the previous two. The lack of the main event that was announced was annoying but the Von Erich stuff was really interesting and I was legitimately surprised. That doesn’t happen often so it’s a nice thing to see. Best show so far but unfortunately I have to jump to December now.

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