AWA SuperClash III

Legacy Review

AWA SuperClash III

December 13, 1988 from the UIC Pavilion in Chicago

Commentary: Lee Marshal and a rotating cast at color

In many ways this show represents the last gasp of most of the remaining territories to try to stay relevant as the national wrestling landscape continued to be dominated by the WWF and NWA flagship Jim Crockett Promotions (soon to be WCW). AWA entered a cross promotion deal with the Jerry Jarrett/Jerry Lawler Memphis territory CWA, as well as WCCW, the famous major Texas territory, home of the Von Erichs and birthplace of the Fabulous Freebirds, based in the Dallas Sportatorium. This would also be the only AWA show to be shown on traditional PPV. This is also taking place in the same building Crockett ran Starrcade in the previous year. That show drew 8,000 despite being well out of their traditional home territory. Even though this is not too far from the AWA's Minnesota base, they've got less than 2,000 here tonight. At least they turned the house lights down this time to try to hide it.

We actually have an intro for this show. It's nothing special but at least it's something. And a couple of quick things to note before diving in: the AWA had finally allowed their wrestling style to get out of the '70s and modernize a bit so there won't be matches that are 75% guys working arm holds and a body slam is a high impact move tonight thank goodness. They've also cleaned up the presentation by dispensing with the elaborate referee instructions before every match. Just watching these shows for reviews I'd gotten to the point I could mime the hair pull and no closed fists gestures along with the ref in real time.

Chavo, Hector & Mando Guerrero def The Rock N Roll RPMs & Cactus Jack in 6:35- Mick Foley is in his early career tour of the territories before signing with WCW full time in '91 and had yet to fully develop his bump padding. The RNR RPMs are basically heel Rock N Roll Express wannabes. Since the actual RNR Express were booked on this show, they're just introduced as the RPMs. Hector starts out with Davis and rolls around like the Gobbeldy Gooker. Weird that. He gets the RPMs to run into each other as the lucha stuff comes out. Mando outwrestles Jack. Jack outbrawls Mando. They go outside and Foley takes a bump on the floor just because. No pads out there either. The Guerreros take turns on Jack's knee, but give him an opening and he tags out. Chavo Classic gives Lane the flying headscissors. Crossbody on both RPMs by Chavo. More lucha triple teams and there's a giant dogpile in the middle of the ring. The heels go out to regroup. Reset with Jack and Chavo. Chavo gets worked over in the heel corner before rolling away to tag. Hector dropkicks everyone. Everyone in the pool! The RPMs blow a double team, the camera work completely misses a couple of Guerrero dives to the floor, and Chavo moonsaults Lane for the pin. Serviceable trios stuff, but a huge clash of styles. **

 

WCCW World Light Heavyweight Championship: Eric Embry def Jeff Jarrett (c) in 4:13- This is indeed *the* Jeff Jarrett, a couple of years into his hall of fame career. He and Embry had been trading this title back and forth every couple of weeks since October. Embry's graphic calls him "Flamboyant", but flamboyant is spelt wrong. He's not British and this isn't a word they put a u in anyway. He also looks like he's stretching the definition of light heavyweight. Start with quick hammerlock tradeoffs and a standoff. Then the same with arm wringers. Then they do the hiptoss blocks and counters. Embry gets an armdrag and clothesline. Jarrett ducks another clothesline and hits his own. Embry dodges a dive and Jarrett crashes and burns all the way to the floor. He hit his arm on the way down and Embry immediately goes to work on it. Jarrett gets a boot up in the corner with a nice flop sell from Embry. My favorite. Missile dropkick from Jarrett off the second rope, but he landed on his bad arm. Jarrett rolls through some quick pin attempts. Embry counters a sunset flip, stacks Jarrett up and gets the pin. Good for the time they got. With more time I could see them coming out with a pretty good match. I wonder if Jarrett hurt his shoulder for real and they cut the match short for that. *3/4

 

Jimmy Valiant def Wayne Bloom in :24- Oh joy, they got Jimmy Valiant out for this show. Yes, the same Jimmy Valiant that stunk up the joint in the early Starrcades. I know, he's a hall of famer, he had a good career, but he was way past it at this point. Bloom is fresh out of training, and would later team with Mike Enos (who's reffing on this show) as The Destruction Crew. After AWA's closure they moved to the WWF as The Beverly Brothers. Bloom jumps Valiant from behind. Valiant shrugs it off, hits some stiff looking forearms, a back elbow and elbow drop for the pin. I'm pretty sure Bloom kicked out before 3 too, wonder if he thought they were going longer. NR

Want to know the scary thing? Valiant would actually win the "unified" USWA World title from Jerry Lawler a couple of times in 1990. More on that title later.

 

WCCW Texas Heavyweight Championship: Iceman King Parsons (c) def Brickhouse Brown in 5:41- These guys' entrance gear is so similar they might as well be a tag team. Parsons' hair has to be seen to be believed. It's Road Warrior Hawk with pigtails. Parsons does some strutting. Shoving, with Parsons taking a dive. A Brown dropkick sends Parsons to the floor. Shoulderblocks. Brown counters a backdrop by twisting Parsons into a very convoluted backslide for 2. Parsons powders again. Is Brown wearing duct tape as wrist tape? That's what it looks like while he's holding a headlock in a close up shot. Brown wildly comes off the ropes and Parsons hits an ugly jumping knee. Parsons suplex for 2. Brown rolls under and hits a crossbody for 2. Parson punches for 2. Brown backdrops out of a piledriver and punches away. Parsons begs off. Flying forearm! Parsons gets a foot on the rope. Brown thinks he won. Parsons gets some international knucks out of his tights, nails Brown, and pins him. Not a lot happening here. 3/4*

 

Mixed Tag Team Match for Both the AWA World Tag Team and AWA World Women's Championships: Wendi Richter (Women's c) & The Top Guns def Badd Company (Tag Team c) & Madusa Miceli (w/Diamond Dallas Page) in 5:43- So the assumption going in is whichever team wins walks away with all the belts, right? Yeah, welcome to AWA. During intros DDP cuts a promo, showing he was always a natural on the mic. The wrestling skills (specifically a PhD in match layouts) would come much later. Badd Company are Pat Tanaka and Paul Diamond, best known as the superior v2.0 of the Orient Express in WWF (with very not Asian Diamond under a mask as Kato). As soon as intros are done we're off and running with all six brawling. They take forever to get set up, then all the heels get whipped into each other. Dukes hits a flying tackle over the top rope. Double backdrop on Tanaka, followed by a Tanaka 360 sell of a clothesline. The women argue on the apron. Diamond gives Dukes a knee to the back from the apron to send him in peril. Double underhook suplex on Dukes. Madusa slaps Dukes. I think. From the camera angle I couldn't tell if she even made contact or not. Dukes dodges and Diamond goes crashing nads first in the corner. Tags and the women are in. Madusa snaps Richter over the top rope and hits a suplex. Richter knocks Tanaka off the apron and misses a dropkick. She powerbombs Madusa, which is the cue for everyone to run in again. Chaos erupts. Tanaka superkicks Richter, then they do the spot again and superkicks Madusa. Did Richter forget to move the first time? Richter pins Madusa. Capetta announces the Top Guns as the tag champs, they're given the belts and leave with them. *

Madusa cuts a promo and she's pissed at everyone. She takes swings at Badd Company and DDP kicks her out of the stable. DDP wonders where the tag belts are. It turns out, the rules of the match were actually whoever gets the pin gets the title they're eligible for. Since only the women were involved in the decision, Badd Company are still the tag champs. None of that is explained on this show, it all comes out on TV later. These are the kinds of things that it's a good idea to explain before the match begins.

Kerry Von Erich cuts his famous "there's only one Eiffel Tower, there's only one Mona Lisa, how can there be two world champions?" promo. Clearly he's not a fan of the brand split.

And actually, per the classic Doctor Who story City of Death, there's actually seven Mona Lisas. So there.

 

Vacant AWA International Television Championship: Greg Gagne def Ron Garvin by countout in 5:52- Both guys have held this short lived title, and it's vacant now because Stanley Blackburn did what he loved most- held the title up after a controversial finish. Find someone that loves you the way Stanley Blackburn loved holding up titles. Chicago does not like Gagne at all. Hard to get over in Chicago when you're only there due to nepotism. Personally I always thought Gagne looked more like a flooring inspector than a wrestler (and yes that is a reference, if anyone knows what it is drop it in the comments). And look, Gagne wasn't completely awful. He was a fine babyface tag wrestler, but even a secondary singles title was scraping his ceiling. Long lockup and buckle shot exchange. Gagne chops and hits a backdrop for 2. Garvin headbutts and blocks a sunset flip. Slugfest. Garvin resorts to choking and biting to try to get the crowd to turn on him. He's a pro. Small package for 2. Garvin catches a Gagne crossbody, and both guys sloooooooooooooooooooooowly teeter on the ropes and finally tumble over. Brawl on the floor. Garvin gets posted and counted out. Since the title was vacant that's enough for Gagne to win it. Word is Garvin didn't want to lose clean because he was on the way to the WWF, and doing the title vacation was due to AWA not being sure if he'd show up or not. Not only did Garvin show up, he gave it his all and spent Gagne's whole postmatch promo arguing the decision. I'd call that above and beyond. 1/2*

Street Fight Lingerie Battle Royale- They've been hyping this match like crazy all night, having promos from the women involved after almost every match so far. This is brought to you by POWW, the Powerful Women of Wrestling (which should actually be PWOW but whatever). POWW was founded by David McLane, who was also behind the creation of GLOW, the famous '80s women's promotion that was recently the subject of a successful Netflix series. And a damn good one that had a lot of love letters to this art of pro wrestling we all love, even if it got way too Vegas for me in season 3. I'm still mad COVID killed season 4. Listening to McLane on commentary there's no way he wasn't a direct inspiration for the character of Bash Howard. This all started because the Terrorist tore up Brandi Mae's "prized" blue jeans and she wants revenge. What, was that her only pair or something? Among the participants is POWW champion Nina, who will be known later to WWF audiences as Ivory. Like the women's battle royale at the last Superclash there's really not a lot to say about this one. The rules are over the top rope, or strip your opponent down to her underwear, which is where the "lingerie" part comes in. Some clothes are torn off but not enough to make it PG-13 at worst, and no one is eliminated that way. We do get to see some *ahem* pretty good angles of Terrorist though. There's definitely some corpsing going on out there as the match progresses. As the storyline dictates, Terrorist and Mae are the last two in. As they try to fight at one point they completely break down into laughter while tearing at each other's clothes. There's a "take it off" chant from the crowd which is interpreted by commentary as support for Mae. Terrorist chokes Mae with her hose, flips her over the top and kicks her off the apron to win. No revenge today. DUD

Marshall is at ringside with a copy of the year end edition of PWI and Bill Apter, here to present the Inspirational Wrestler of the Year award to Jerry Lawler. Lawler doesn't show up. How inspirational. Marshall vamps and Apter says he'll take the award to the back to him. Word is Lawler, Von Erich and officials from both promotions were even at this late hour huddled together negotiating how their match was going to end. And this is why Vince wasn't worried. "These guys couldn't agree on how to order a cup of coffee".

Sgt. Slaughter sort of explains the rules of a Boot Camp match (there are no rules and bring whatever you want to the ring), then says "If you don't like the sight of pain then go to the refrigerator right now and do what you gotta do". Er, OK?

Boot Camp Match: Sgt. Slaughter def Col. DeBeers (w/Diamond Dallas Page) in 5:42- As soon as Slaughter hits the ring it's on. He beats DeBeers with his riding crop. DeBeers takes a (I'm pretty sure unintentional) bump on Slaughter's helmet. He takes his belt off and chokes Slaughter with it. We hear a lot of boos that I'm not entirely sure are on the up and up. USA chants fuel a Slaughter comeback. He tosses DeBeers over the top *gasp horror* oh wait it's no DQ. I've never seen a promotion take that moronic rule more seriously than the AWA. While DeBeers gets posted DDP takes the helmet. DeBeers hits Slaughter with one of the poles holding up the rope barrier that's this show's idea of a barricade. DDP hands DeBeers the helmet. He puts it on and headbutts Slaughter. They try a double team and DDP gets taken out. Slaughter clothesline (or the "Slaughter canon" according to Marshall). Now Slaughter puts the helmet on and headbutts DeBeers with it. Amazing sell by DeBeers on the last one. Cobra clutch! DeBeers holds on for a while to kill time, but the bell rings for him submitting or passing out just as Sheik Kassie runs in. Good thing they didn't call it a DQ or I would have lost my shit like Jim Cornette. He's followed by THE IRON SHEIK! I'm pretty sure this is his first appearance back in the AWA. The heels beat Slaughter down until the Guerreros come in and run them off. Horrible match. 1/4*

Everyone, it's OK. Bill Apter found Lawler and gave him his Most Inspirational Wrestler award. You can relax now.

WCCW World Tag Team Championship: The Samoan SWAT Team (c) (w/Buddy Roberts) def Michael PS Hayes & Steve Cox in 7:53- This is from a little talked about period in WCCW when Hayes was a face and feuding against the rest of his Freebird partners. Little remembered journeyman Cox is along for the ride. Hayes and Fatu open up with a slugfest. Cox does some arm work. Samu runs in and Cox just ignores him. Hayes takes Samu out. Cox dodges a Fatu dive and hits an armdrag. Fatu gets Cox in the heel corner, but Cox dodges and Fatu whacks Samu. Twice. Roberts has to calm Samu down. Samu pulls the top rope down and Cox tumbles to the floor. Announce table shot! Cox gets faceplanted in the ring. SST double team. Samu hot shots Cox. Double clothesline and hot tag to Hayes. Donnybrook! Cox tosses Fatu to the floor and hits him with a plancha! Hayes DDT on Samu! The ref is distracted. Roberts runs in, whacks Hayes, and Samu covers for the pin. That was a good first 5 minutes of a 15-20 minute match. Too bad they had to condense the rest of it into the last 3 minutes. The SST left WCCW literally weeks after this show while still champions to go to Jim Crockett. Hayes would soon follow, teaming up with longtime associate Jimmy Garvin as a newly minted official Freebird. **3/4

After the bell Hayes lays in the ring forever selling the foreign object shot and we get a ton of replays. Judging by what the crowd's reacting to there's something Chicago happening up there somewhere.

Indian Strap Match: Wahoo McDaniel def Manny Fernandez in 7:48- These guys are very familiar to NWA fans, though Fernandez was mostly a face there. Fernandez desecrated Wahoo's headdress to set this off. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Tatsumi Fujinami is here! He's introduced as "Dragon" Fujinami. This is quite the sea change for AWA as they had worked with All Japan for a long time, until the Stan Hansen incident. Fernandez grabs the mic and runs Fujinami down. Fujinami grabs Fernandez and Wahoo whips him with the strap. After that we get the usual "I don't want to put the strap on" heel stalling. Once they do it's pretty much every Wahoo strap match ever. Wahoo gets strap shots in. Fernandez comes back once he figures out how to use the strap. Both guys bleed. Marshall says "the referee would be well in his rights to stop the match and he probably should". Oh please. This is a typical night in mid-'80s NWA. Fernandez gets up to 3 turnbuckles then for some dumbass reason gets up on the top rope. Wahoo pulls him down, ties him up, gets to 3, then Fernandez pushes him back into the fourth to lose. After the bell the fight continues with Fujinami diving in to help Wahoo again. *1/4

Wahoo walks away and has to be told by the ring attendants to come back for his postmatch interview. He says they'll never settle their issue, not with a strap, "maybe with a gun in my hand". Then he says he doesn't want to beat Fernandez in a match, "I want him dead". Well, you can't get any clearer than that.

Verne Gagne and Stanley Blackburn fret over the last match and say that it should have been stopped due to the blood. Foreshadowing!

Unification Match: AWA World Heavyweight Champion Jerry "The King" Lawler def WCCW World Heavyweight Champion Kerry Von Erich in 18:53- Once again on an AWA show, the main event is not the main event. Lawler dethroned Curt Hennig in May, just in time for Hennig to go to the WWF, and became a touring champion like the NWA World champion was, defending the title in the other territories allied with AWA. He and Von Erich already had quite a few matches against each other in the six months or so leading up to this. The crowd is all Von Erich even though Lawler had mainly been a face since winning the title. Von Erich fiddles with his arm under his robe during introductions. Lockup and corner shoving. Lawler quickly grabs Von Erich's arm and hits it over the turnbuckle, busting it open. Apparently Von Erich had accidentally cut his arm messing with his blade either in the back or in the ring during intros, and this was their way to cover for it. More lockup stalemates. Von Erich beats Lawler to the punch, literally, on a corner break. Lawler rolls out. Marshall goes into a speech about how both guys have beaten Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Randy Savage. I'm sorry, I can't let that pass. Yes, Lawler wrestled Savage a bunch when Savage was in Memphis pre-WWF. Lawler wrestled Flair a few times in Memphis and won once. By countout. Lawler wrestled Hogan twice in 1981, before Hogan was HOGAN, one double countout and one Lawler win by DQ. So for Lawler, the claim is factually accurate, barely, but morally indefensible. Now, we all know Von Erich beat Flair for the NWA World title in '84 to give WCCW some shine. As of this match Von Erich had never been in the ring with either Savage or Hogan. OK, rant over, back to the match. Wild clothesline from Von Erich that looks like it hit Lawler in the head. He keeps checking on his arm. A couple more Von Erich clotheslines and Lawler's frustrated. Von Erich roll up for 2. He wants a test of strength. Lawler accepts and, no shock, loses. But he uses it to get a leg takedown. He misses a fist drop and turns into a Von Erich discus punch. Cover for 2. Von Erich is still having issues with that cut on his arm. Lawler ambushes him while he's checking it. Von Erich gets punched over the top to the floor. Now commentary says it's "no DQ". Another discus punch from the apron coming back in. Von Erich does a slingshot splash but Lawler gets his knees up. Piledriver! Von Erich pops right back up! Another discus punch for 2. Lawler blocks the Iron Claw. He dodges a Von Erich kneedrop. Snap mare and cover. Von Erich's kickout pushes Lawler into the air and he lands on top of the ref! Von Erich piledriver! He covers but the ref is out. Finally he crawls over to count and Lawler kicks out. They go to the floor. Lawler dodges and Von Erich punches the post. As they get back in Lawler goes into hits tights for the world famous hidden knucks and nails Von Erich with them. Von Erich is now officially busted open, gushing from his forehead as well as his arm. Lawler fist drop off the second rope. He goes for another. Von Erich grabs him in midair with the Claw on his gut! Lawler fights it. Von Erich switches the Claw to his head. The ref splits between asking Lawler and checking Von Erich's cut. Lawler gets a foot on the rope. Von Erich drags him to the middle of the ring and puts the claw back on. Lawler fights back up. He dodges in the corner and Von Erich goes crashing into the buckles. Slugfest. Von Erich has blood everywhere. There's so much on Lawler it looks like he's bleeding too but it's all Von Erich's. Lawler continues to retrieve and hide his foreign object for more damage on the cut. He does a little cocky floating around before laying in more punches. Von Erich punches back. Simultaneous punch and both guys are down. The Claw is back on! Lawler barely gets his shoulder up at 2. The ref keeps checking on both guys and calls for the bell. He stopped the match due to Von Erich's blood loss, determining he can't continue even though he had Lawler down and almost out. That is not a popular decision in Chicago. Von Erich is irate and leaves with both belts. Up until the dumb finish the match was pretty good even if the action was simple. It was a masterclass in Jerry Lawler psychology. ***1/2

 

After the match Von Erich protests to Gagne and Blackburn. They tell him it was for your own good son and shut up. Surprised Von Erich didn't try to argue the fix was in like Russian figure skating judges considering it was all AWA people running the show.

OK, so we all know by now that the title matches in AWA are only part of the story right? Right. Here's the rest. This show was such a bomb that Gagne claimed he didn't have the money to pay some wrestlers what had been agreed on, including Lawler. In response, Lawler took the AWA belt and went home to Memphis, breaking off the partnership. After that he and Jerry Jarrett bought WCCW, merging it with CWA and creating the new promotion USWA, a partnership that would have its own troubles in the near future. Lawler continued to call himself the unified champion even though they had no relationship with AWA anymore. On the AWA side, they stripped Lawler of the title, buried him on TV, accepted the fait accompli that they wouldn't get the belt back and commissioned a new one (with money they very likely couldn't afford), and put it on Larry Zbyszko. As for Von Erich, he stayed with the new USWA for a bit before moving to the WWF in mid-'90.

The Rock N Roll Express and Stud Stable (w/Miss Sylvia) double DQ in 7:03- Talk about the spot of death following that match. The Express were huge draws in the deep south, but I don't know why the promoters thought that would hold true for Chicago as well. The Stud Stable was a major heel stable in Memphis, represented here by Robert Fuller and Jimmy Golden. Fuller is most known for his run as the manager Col. Robert Parker in mid-'90s WCW, where he reformed the Stud Stable for a time. Golden came in during that period as Buckhouse Buck. Morton and Golden start. Morton speeds around and the Express clear the ring. Back in with a Morton facelock as "boring" chants bounce around the arena. He and Golden do the bridge up spot. Everyone gets in again and the heels are run into each other. Gibson and Fuller criss cross. Fuller's running is something else. Gibson goes to the floor and Sylvia hits him with the kendo stick she's been carrying. Short Gibson in peril run with a bear hug, more kendo shots, and an abdominal stretch. Gibson counters a backdrop and tags. Morton cleans house with the Express hitting a double dropkick. All four guys keep fighting and the ref throws the match out. Put this in the midcard where it belongs, with a finish, and it might have been OK. *1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: It's not the worst show AWA put on. It's probably the best one for casual viewing as, like I said at the top, they'd finally modernized some in the ring. It was also a financial bomb, having the lowest PPV buyrate in history for a wrestling show to that point. If nothing else this show is essential viewing for anyone interested in the history and death of the territories.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-