AWA WrestleRock

Legacy Review

AWA WrestleRock

April 20, 1986 from the Metrodome in Minneapolis, MN (home stadium of the Twins and Vikings)

Commentary: Ron Trongard

This was AWA's big signature show for 1986, hyped for months on TV and held in the good old Baggie Dome. It's coming off the heels of a couple of other big shows: Wrestlemania 2 was a few weeks prior, and the NWA/JCP held the first Crockett Cup tag team tournament in the New Orleans Silverdome Superdome just the night before. It would also turn out to be their last large stadium show as they continued to fall behind the WWF and NWA as wrestling went national. Future WCW stalwart Gary Michael Capetta is the ring announcer, I'd honestly forgotten he ever worked for AWA.

Brad Rheingans def Boris Zukhov (w/Sheik Adnan Al-Kassey) in 8:31- Typical red blooded American vs evil Soviet here, with the added grudge match spice of Zukhov and the Sheik hurting Rheingans' knee a few months prior. Rheingans does a little Soviet flag desecration before the bell before coming out hot. Well, as hot as the AWA's stuck in the '70s style would allow. After some waistlock switches Zukhov gets kicky. Gut stomp. Whip knee to the gut. There's lots of ringside activity with AWA officials moving all over the place, which is a bit distracting. Zukhov drops Rheingans over the top rope. Ugly clothesline for 2. Back suplex for 2. Rheingans activates comeback mode with punches and hits a backdrop. He starts working Zukhov's knee, including apron and post shots. Zukhov says screw your knee work and starts hitting shoulderblocks. Rheingans catches him running with a flash powerslam for the pin. Eh. It started slow but got OKish by the end. *3/4

 

Midget Match: Little Mr. T and Cowboy Lang def Little Tokyo and Lord Littlebrook in 10:01- A local TV morning talk show host is working as guest ref, Gary Lumpkin I think is his name. Capetta brutally Lillian Botches the intro, staying Little Tokyo was from Chicago before catching himself. Tokyo and Lang start. Lang quickly gets caught in the heel corner and spends the first part of the match little face in peril. He gets a tag after a fireman's carry takedown and T cleans house. Everyone gets in and the heels get their double teams mixed up with Littlebrook cranking Tokyo's head. Reset. T hooks Littlebrook in a full nelson. Tokyo comes in and accidentally hits Littlebrook instead. More arguing on the heel side. They work a little criss cross with the ref caught in the middle and dodging his way out. T airplane spins Tokyo. Everyone's in the pool again and the faces do a little rowboating. The ref gets in the middle and they all pile on top of him, leading to official warnings for both teams. Lang rolls Littlebrook around with a rolling cradle and gets him down for a 3 count. Mostly inoffensive. *1/2

 

Colonel DeBeers def Wahoo McDaniel by DQ in 5:03- DeBeers is very dedicated to his mustache twirl. Wahoo chops out of an arm wringer, works a test of strength into a takedown, and out matwrestles DeBeers. Corner slugfest with both guys ignoring the ref. Wahoo gets tossed outside and there's another chop exchange. Wahoo hits a back kick that really looked like a low blow. He tosses DeBeers over the top rope and the ref calls for the horrible rule DQ. They keep fighting after the bell. Next. 1/2*

 

Buddy Rose and Doug Somers (w/Sherri Martel) def The Midnight Rockers in 12:03- For some reason this match has been cut out of the official version of the show on the Network, but I was able to find a (crappy) copy of it on Youtube. Good thing too, I really wanted to see this as it's the Rockers' first major match. Janetty and Rose start. The whole gag with Rose and Somers is they're fat, seemingly out of shape guys that think they're ripped (but in reality are also better athletes than you'd think looking at them, which only makes the gag work better). There's a whole contest at the start of the match where Rose tries to impress Janetty by doing one handed push-ups and a kip up. Janetty responds in kind. Shawn tags in and challenges Rose to backflip off the top rope. Rose goes up.....wobbles.......not happening. He tries again and Shawn shakes the rope. Rose is crotched! Somers comes in and now we're wrestling. Amusing stuff. Nothing wrong with some comedy in wrestling if you do it right (see New Japan), and that was right. Shawn armdrags Somers all over the ring. Rose shows some good speed with Shawn but also ends up on the wrong end of an armdrag. Janetty flips out of a hiptoss and slams Somers. Janetty dodges in the corner and Rose posts his shoulder. Classic Rocker double arm wringer. Rose does a cartwheel to flip the script on Shawn. Janetty responds with a cartwheel and strut of his own. Janetty gets caught in the heel corner, but ducks and Rose punches Somers! Shawn blocks a hiptoss, flips over and hits his own. More classic Rocker double teams as they've been on offense the whole match. Finally Rose gets a double leg takedown on Shawn, slingshots him into his corner and Somers forearms him! The heels finally get some offensive traction. They choke Shawn with the tag rope. Rose diving back elbow for 2. Suplex for 2. Shawn blocks and reverses another suplex. Tags. Janetty backdrop and back elbow on Somers for 2. Powerslam. The ref counts 3, but Rose got Somers' foot on the rope in time and it's waved off. DONNYBROOK! Rockers double atomic drop on Rose and double backdrop on Somers. Janetty goes up top. Rose pushes him off and Somers covers for 3. Damn fun match, probably the best thing on the show. Why in the hell was it cut out? Somers and Rose won, and kept up with the Rockers every step, but the Rockers came out looking great, showing off some athletic wrestling of the future. ***1/4

 

Tiger Mask def Buck Zumhofe in 10:55- This is Tiger Mask II, AKA All Japan and NOAH star Mitsuharu Misawa (for those that don't know, the current Tiger Mask in New Japan is Tiger Mask IV). It's not announced but Tiger Mask is also the reigning NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion. As usual, I'll get out of the way that Zumhofe has been convicted multiple times for sexual misconduct with a minor and is currently serving more or less a life sentence so feel free to skip ahead if you want to. Code of Honor handshake to start. Tiger Mask takes the first exchange. Zumhofe escapes and hooks in an arm wringer. More reversals lead to a standoff. Zumhofe gets a leg takedown out of a hammerlock and works the leg a bit, hooking in a stepover toe hold and a Boston crab. Tiger Mask powers out. Dropkick for 2. More arm work and hammerlock exchanges. They crank up a bit of speed and Tiger Mask hits a crossbody for 2. Suplex for 2. Zumhofe gets a knee up in the corner and tries to take the mask off. Tiger Mask hits a spinning back kick. Zumhofe hooks in an abdominal stretch. Tiger Mask hiptosses him to the floor. Running plancha! That's so far out of the normal AWA style the crowd has no idea how to react to it. Zumhofe barely beats the count back in. Tiger Mask slips out of a slam and hits a back suplex. A somersault senton off the top rope finishes it. Tiger Mask carried this to something watchable. **1/4

 

Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda def The Fabulous Ones in 14:01- This is essentially one last ride for the old US Express after leaving the WWF, though they couldn't use that name as WWF owned it. They are mentioned as being former WWF tag champs though. Both Windham and Rotunda would soon be singles stars in Jim Crockett NWA territory. The Fabulous Ones are future Midnight Express member Stan Lane and Steve Keirn, best known for his early '90s WWF run as Skinner. He was also an important part of the pre-NXT developmental territory FCW. Lane and Windham start with some standoffs, staredowns and shoving. They crank it up and Windham counters a monkey flip attempt. Quick tag work by the faces. Windham hits a couple of deep armdrags. Keirn takes a walk to regroup. Rotunda cranks a headlock for a bit. Keirn leapfrogs, but Windham punches him out of midair. Express double dropkick. Keirn dodges and Rotunda goes chest first into the corner. Lane breaks out the martial arts kicks as Rotunda goes face in peril. Windham comes in to protest and Rotunda gets tossed over the top rope. He sunset flips back in but Keirn punches out. Front facelock by Keirn and they do the "ref didn't see the tag" spot. Lane hits a swinging neckbreaker minus some swing. Rotunda dodges an elbow drop and tags. Windham cleans house. Powerslam on Lane for 2. Keirn hits him from behind. The heels work Windham over as he now goes in peril. Both a Windham sunset flip and small package are missed by a distracted ref. The heels keep working the clearly idiot ref to work Windham over. Midring collision. Hot tag 2 to Rotunda. He gives Lane the old airplane spin. Keirn trips him midspin, and Lane falls on top of Rotunda for 2. Lane sets up a piledriver. Windham takes advantage of the ref being distracted yet again to hit Lane with an elbow off the top rope, and even though he's not legal he covers and the ref counts 3. Good, well executed basic tag formula with a smart finish of Windham using the heels' ref distraction tactics against them. ***

 

Giant Baba def Bulldog Bob Brown in 8:28- Baba, the founder of All Japan, was a hugely popular star in both Japan and the US, but was getting older and breaking down in the ring. At this stage he's in kind of that El Gigante/Great Khali limited tall guy class. Brown was a Canadian most known for working the US Central States territory. After the inital lockup gamesmanship Brown hits the brakes after a whip into the ropes. Baba no sells a chop. I think. It's hard to tell with him. Baba chops back. Brown tries a leg takedown but no dice. Baba does a rolling arm takedown and slaps on a headscissors. Brown gets some rope cheap shots and chokes Baba. I think Baba is selling now. I think. You almost need a microscope to see it. Baba hits a head chop. Knucklelock with Baba kicks. He steps over Brown. Brown eye rakes and bites but misses a legdrop. Baba does a Russian leg sweep and hits a big boot for the pin. 1/4*

 

Harley Race and Rick Martel double countout in 17:34- This is billed as a dream match between two former champions. Race, of course, was the legendary then-record 7 time NWA world champ and wrestling's biggest star of the '70s outside Bruno Sammartino, while Martel's near 600 day AWA world title run had been ended by Stan Hansen just before New Year's '86. Fast Martel hiptoss/armdrag start and he goes to work on the arm as per AWA rules. Race pushes out and hits a high knee followed by kneedrops. There's a long test of strength spot and the crowd starts getting noticeably restless with someone shouting "BORING". They must have heard him because they almost immediately hit the ropes and Martel hits a crossbody for 2. And right back to the ARMBAR. Race gets a headbutt on a rope break. Powerslam for 2. Martel slips out of a suplex and slaps on a sleeper. Race runs him into the top turnbuckle. Swinging neckbreaker. He goes up top but Martel slams him off. Slugfest. Race with back suplex. Martel dodges a falling headbutt, and hits his signature backbreaker/slingshot splash combo for a 2 count. Race hits a piledriver and falling headbutt. Martel kicks out. Race dodges a springboard crossbody. Martel reverses a corner whip and Race flips over the corner to the floor. Martel suplexes him back in. Race hits a shoulderbreaker. Another neckbreaker. Martel with a back suplex. They collide near the ropes and Race goes 360 over to the floor. Back in Martel backdrops out of another piledriver attempt. Gutwrench suplex for 2. Race small package for 2. After a dropkick and cover Race gets his feet on the ropes. Martel takes the opening to target Race's knee. Race gets back up with a bear hug, then turns it into a belly to belly suplex for 2. Martel reverses a suplex but Race gets his knees up on a splash attempt. Near the ropes Martel lifts Race and both guys tumble outside. They brawl on the floor and both get counted out. Lame. The match came in fits and starts but there was some pretty good stuff happening there. If someone in the back had put their foot down and said someone was winning it would have been a lot better. Both guys would be in WWF before the end of the year. **3/4

 

10 Woman Battle Royale- The participants are AWA Women's champ Candi Divine, her bitter rival Sherri Martel (Sensational Sherri), a very young Luna Vachon and, to be frank, a bunch of space fillers. There's nothing worth recapping here, it's a bunch of weak, dull brawling. It's so bland even Trongard runs out of things to say and doesn't even keep track of who's being eliminated. At four left Martel dumps Divine, then sneaks out of the ring and blindsides Debbie Combs after Combs thought she won to win a $50,000 check. That's like half of AWA's payroll. DUD

 

AWA America's Championship: Sgt. Slaughter (c) def Kamala (w/Skandor Akbar) by DQ in 9:54- Larry Nelson joins commentary to finally give us a second voice. What was he stuck in traffic the first half of the show or something? Kamala gives us the "I'm hungry" belly pat and we're off. Pectoral punches by Kamala that Slaughter sells like a truck hit him. He gets fired up and Kamala hides in the corner. Kind of sort of avalanche by Kamala. He hits a face down Slaughter with a big splash then wants the ref to count. Silly savage. Slaughter takes a corner whip by flying over the top rope. Kamala locks in the dreaded Armpit Pinch of I Hope You Put On Deodorant +1. After a couple of near falls Slaughter fights out. Akbar hands Kamala an international object and he whacks Slaughter with it, then puts on a Greco Roman throat hold. A Slaughter comeback is cut off by another shot with the object. Finally Slaughter has enough and fires up in the corner. Dropkick. He slams Kamala to a huge pop. Back elbow and clothesline for 2. Cobra clutch. Akbar gets on the apron, things get messy and the ref calls for the bell, giving Slaughter the match by DQ. After the bell Slaughter fights the heels off. Woof. 1/4*

 

AWA World Tag Team Championship: Scott Hall and Curt Hennig (c) def The Long Riders in 12:59- Before the match Hall is presented a trophy for winning a poll for most popular wrestler by the readers of "Pro Wrestling Report". Never heard of it but it must be based in Tampa. Hall and Scott Irwin start. The faces make a huge show of cranking headlocks. Hennig runs into a Scott back elbow, but Bill Iwrin walks into a dropkick. Deep armdrags. They have a bit of a chase around the ring as it's all champs early. Hall outpowers Bill. Hennig gets a blind tag and ambushes Bill. Hennig/Bill slugfest and extended back and forth. Bill tries to use tights for a leverage pin. They speed it up and Hennig chases Bill off again. Hennig is really looking like something special if he'd be fully let loose. And as soon as I say that Hennig takes a test of strength, flips Bill over and floats over for a 2 count, all while never breaking the knucklelock. The Irwins start pounding Hennig down to get a face in peril segment in. Classic 360 Hennig sell of a clothesline that commentary about comes out of their shoes for. The Irwins work the ref and double team. Bill misses a splash off the second rope and Hennig gets the hot tag. Hall cleans house. DONNYBROOK! Hennig gets tossed over the top, but bounces right back up to the top rope, hits a missile dropkick, and that gets the pin. After the bell the Irwins attack them with their supposedly loaded boots. Serviceable. **1/4

 

Mixed Rules Match: Scott LeDoux def Larry Zbyszko (w/Ninja Go) by DQ in 12:19- LeDoux was a former heavyweight boxer with a 33-13-4 career record, and had faced many of the great heavyweight boxers of the era even if he did lose to most of them. He was also famous for knocking off Howard Cosell's toupee on live TV after thinking he'd just lost a fixed fight that was booked by Don King. He's from Minnesota which is probably why Verne Gagne got him into the AWA, but he'd only wrestle a handful of matches over the course of '86 and '87. The rules for this are a bit muddled: it's 10 2 minute rounds, both guys are wearing martial arts gloves but can also do wrestling moves, and it's said in passing that they can win by pin or knockout. Larry "The Ax" Hennig is the special guest ref. Round one, LeDoux gets on a full nelson and pops Zbyszko with a straight left. Zbyszko, stop me if you've heard this before, stalls. He gets a leg takedown and LeDoux fights off him turning it into a pin as the round ends. Round two, Zbyszko hits a reverse kick. LeDoux gets elbow in the corner. Zbyszko gets an armdrag and dominates the rest of the round. LeDoux got a thumb in the eye somewhere in there. Round three is all Zbyszko. Round four, it looks like LeDoux's eye got fixed as he dodges a kick and goes nuts on Zbyszko with buckle shots. A hard right floors Zbyszko right as the bell rings to end the round. Round five, both guys tumble through the ropes and brawl on the floor. LeDoux takes a post shot and Hennig calls for the bell, DQ'ing Zbyszko. Another dumb finish, but I was wanting this to be over about halfway through the first round so whatever. 1/2*

 

AWA World Heavyweight Championship: Nick Bockwinkel def Stan Hansen (c) by DQ in 10:43- This is going on now because there's three cage matches on the show and back then it was a huge project to both set the cage up and tear it down. Nelson tries to get an interview with Hansen on his entrance but Hansen takes him out! Bockwinkel has Hansen's whip. Nelson makes it back to the booth, he's OK. Should have done a stretcher job, that would have been hilarious. They play cat and mouse all through the intros, clearly wanting to tear into each other. As soon as the bell rings it's on. Hansen pounds away in the ring and on the floor. Bockwinkel counters a backdrop. The first part of the match it looks like they have some minor issues getting on the same page. Could be just Hansen's wildness and infamous nearsightedness. Bockwinkel works a hammerlock. Hansen gets a slam and kneedrop for 2. Bockwinkel sunset flip for 2. He keeps on working Hansen's arm but without losing any of the match's intensity. Hansen counters with a headscissors. Bockwinkel sleeper! Hansen gets to the ropes. When he does they tumble outside and Bockwinkel takes a stair shot. Slugfest back in. Hansen drops Bockwinkel on the top rope. Bockwinkel reverses a suplex for 2. After a little fumbling he hits a backdrop for 2. The ref gets knocked down. Bockwinkel hits a crossbody and piledriver but there's no ref. Hansen dumps Bockwinkel over the top rope, which of course the ref got back up just in time to see and calls for the DQ. A screwy finish in an AWA World title match on a major show? I know, I know, I'm as shocked as you are. It was a nicely intense brawl up to that point though. Bockwinkel was one of those guys that could do anything and match any style. **1/2

Funny story to follow up on the world title: at a show in June Hansen was told that he was dropping the title to Bockwinkel. Now Hansen's first loyalty was to All Japan, so he got on the phone with Giant Baba (no word on what time it was in Tokyo) and checked with him to make sure it was OK. But as it turns out Baba already had challengers booked for Hansen in Japan, and told him not to drop the title. Hansen said OK and promptly left the arena with the belt, not to be seen again. AWA stripped him and Bockwinkel won the vacant title (using a tag belt in temporary place of the real one), but Hansen defended the AWA belt in Japan as advertised AWA World title matches. After AWA threatened to sue Hansen allegedly ran over the belt with his truck and mailed it back to them. Obviously Hansen was persona non grata in AWA after this, and AWA's relationship with All Japan was also strained and would end soon after. So all in all, maybe for once they should have had a clean finish and title change on a major show?

 

Steel Cage Match: Greg Gagne and "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka def Nord The Barbarian and King Kong Brody in 12:12- HUSS! HUSS! Yes, Nord is the future Berzerker. Brody is Bruiser Brody, but he can't use the Bruiser name in Minneapolis because there's already a famous Bruiser there. Snuka is making his AWA debut, replacing a "seriously injured" Jerry Blackwell. If the faces win, Verne Gagne gets the Sheik in the cage. Gagne and Brody start. Huge Brody chop. Gagne fires back but runs into a boot. Nord runs into a Snuka chop. Snuka and Brody have a shoulderblock standoff, with Brody hitting a big boot after. Snuka cranks up the crazy leapfrogs and hits a chop. I think Blackwell for Snuka was a slight upgrade. Snuka fist off the second rope for 2. Gagne uses the cage to come off the middle of the top rope. He runs the heels into each other but gets double teamed after. Gagne takes the first cage shot and is bleeding. Commentary says it's gushing but anyone wrestling in the NWA at the time is laughing at the puny amount of blood. Brody hits a piledriver. Snuka breaks the pin up. After a whip reversal Nord runs into the cage and Gagne tags out. Brody takes a cage shot. Snuka headbutt off the top. Nord breaks the pin up. Snuka gets double teamed. Everyone in the pool! The heels get whipped into each other. Double suplex on Brody. Gagne holds Nord for a Snuka headbutt off the top, but Nord dodges and Gagne gets it. Now Nord holds Snuka, but he dodges and Brody dropkicks Nord. Snuka covers and gets the pin. Pretty fun cage match wildness. ***1/4

 

Steel Cage Match: Verne Gagne def Sheik Adnan El Kassey in 3:54- Sheik doesn't want to get in the cage. Gagne convinces him by ramming his head into the outside of the cage and tossing him in. Sheik is bleeding more than anyone in the last match. Not much to say about this one. Gagne gets his revenge beatdown, Sheik gets some token offense, Gagne reverses a slam into a Paul Smackage for the win. After the match Gagne says that was his last ride, which was partially true. It was his last televised match, but he did team with his son in a couple of 6 man tags in June. 3/4*

 

Steel Cage Match: The Road Warriors (w/Paul Ellering) def Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin in 7:18- Even though this pairing were the Fabulous Freebirds in the NWA and WCW in the late '80s and early '90s, Garvin isn't officially a member of the group yet. The Freebirds had cost the Roadies the tag titles to Garvin and Steve Regal and they've been feuding ever since. The Roadies caught the redeye from New Orleans after winning the Crockett Cup the night before to kick off their mega push in the NWA and this would end up being their last AWA match. Hayes hits Hawk with a quick piledriver that Hawk shockingly no sells, then follows up with a dropkick and flying tackle. Hayes gets thrown into the cage and busted open. Well, slightly cut open. Hawk press slam. Hayes gets to his corner but Garvin walks away from a tag. Hawk and Hayes get on the top rope and slug it out. A Hawk headbutt sends Hayes to the mat. Hayes gets over again and tags Garvin's stomach before he can get away again. Hawk gives Garvin a Canadian backbreaker and Animal powerslams him for 2. Now Hayes walks away from a Garvin tag. Garvin manages to get Animal down with a shot to the gut and of course now Hayes will tag in. Animal hits him with a back elbow. Hawk bites at Hayes' cut. Garvin hits shoulders to Hawk's gut. Hayes hooks on the figure four. Hawk reverses it, then reverses a suplex. Tags. Everyone in! Hayes gets some knucks out of his trunks, but Garvin takes the shot and Animal covers for the pin. Not bad for the time they got, and the fact the LOD were on a quick turnaround in a very busy weekend. *3/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: The tag line for this show should be "throw shit at the wall and see what sticks". At 16 matches and over four hours, coupled with AWA's wrestling style that was already becoming dinosaur-like in the mid '80s, it's a *very* long show that I couldn't imagine getting through in one sitting (I certainly didn't). Trim out all the extraneous fat and there's a moderately decent core of a show in here. Not great, but decent.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-