khawk20

I had the same investment and enjoyment in the Rose/Somers stuff that I did with the High Flyers vs. East/West Connection in 1981, maybe more because it really was something to hang onto in the time frame it happened in, with the talent loss becoming more of an issue. That feud felt very AWA-ish to me, and I applauded it and did my best to convince my wrestling friends to invest time in watching it. It isn't unfortunate that so much of that feud finished as high as it did, it deserved it, and it also validates AWA wrestling from a time when everyone basically shit all over the AWA in general. My AWA memories are consistent from the late 70's through to the end in that it was the AWA and I immersed myself in it, no matter how high or low it got. My tightest connection would be from the earlier part of the 80's, partly because it was the only wrestling I could see weekly along with Montreal (at some points). The more there was to watch, the thinner your investment would get (in a natural way) simply because there were other things to pay attention to. The AWA was always the primary point of interest for me, regardless of how much wrestling I was watching...and I had a C-Band satellite, so there was TONS of wrestling to choose from every day. Good times... My connection with most of the matches on this set runs pretty deep, probably deeper than most, and that makes me remember the matches differently as I lived through all the backstories and builds of the matches. Some angles resonated better than others, and it led to a greater anticipation and enjoyment of the matches born from them, even if the matches weren't that good. Best example I can think of right now is the Brody-Blackwell Lights out match from 10/20/84. Not a match highly regarded on the set, but it was such an incredible moment for an AWA fan to see Blackwell hug Greg Gagne at the end of it that the mark it left on my (and others) fandom makes it an absolute must-see match. I think you can only get those sort of connections if you watched it unfold live, which is good and bad...bad for ranking a match in this sort of format, if that makes sense. ....and FWIW Regal losing the title to Buck was actually a decently big moment when it happened. I shit you not.

I can help you out with this if you're ever inclined to watch an epic Blackwell comp. I did a Blackwell in the AWA 1980-85 set some time ago. Not making the podcast was just bad luck, unfortunately.

I think if there were more complete or near-complete matches from the earlier 80's there would be more. A lot of JIP arena matches were cut out of the process because there was less than half shown, and some of it was obviously good stuff. the first High Flyers-Strike Force matchup is a good example, where we got the last 7 minutes out of a 29 minute match.

I'll post my thoughts for sure on everything for sure.

I'll post my notes and other thoughts when I get a chance to listen to the show. I will say that I've seen the results and not much in the top 25 surprised me. Ditto with the bottom 10. It was nice to follow the process and thought of everyone over the last year and change and to see appreciation for the AWA grow over that time.

Winnipeg was about as big a loss that could have happened to the AWA at that point, in terms of losing a consistently drawing market that hadn't experienced the attendance downturn that other formerly stable cities had. AWA was already experiencing problems drawing in the Twin Cities and in Chicago, while Winnipeg had stayed steady and had even seen a upturn in the few months proceeding the WWF taking over there. An underrated facet of the AWA dying off was the move of their TV to Las Vegas. The re-vamped TV was necessary for the ESPN show, but by moving away from the focal point of the promotion being in Minny and St. Paul, they basically conceded their home base to Vince which, in hindsight, left them with nowhere to really turn back to once Vegas was used up. The cards were on the table by the time they finished up in Vegas, but moving back to Minnesota for their World Title battleroyal (an attempt of sorts to re-establish a home base where they could at least exist on a much smaller scale), and then drawing only 800-ish to the Civic Center for it was a sign that the home-town flavour the AWA had provided for 30 years was all but gone. 3rd-rate talent is bad, but continuity in an area where the AWA had that much tenure might have allowed for the fans to put up with it until things rebounded. Breaking the continuity of Minny as the home base prevented that from ever having a chance to happen.

So this was posted on the S & W board. Not sure if it's been put up here before.

I'd maybe count their foray into New York and the surrounding region with Pro Wrestling USA as it ended up being mostly AWA wrestlers...their mysterious foray into Alaska of all places might have lasted long enough to count, too. Indianapolis in 1984 might be worth counting as well, they tried establishing a monthly show to be part of their loop but it didn't draw well at all.

Yes...this whole series I have become a HUGE fan of since your write-ups...I dug through my stuff and found most of it....great stuff.....horribly underrated and not talked about feud. Martel-Tama and Bret-Steamboat are two of my favourite matches.

psst....Boston Garden, not Toronto

Nick Bockwinkel was the complete package as a wrestler in my eyes, so he gets my vote. I am biased as I grew up watching Bock. Buddy I saw much later, and I appreciate his work and have developed an even greater appreciation for his mat skills due to the reviews he gets on this site. One of the great misses of 1986 was that Nick Bockwinkel vs. Buddy Rose, to my knowledge, never got made as a singles match in the AWA. Even a TV main event throw-away match, non-title if necessary, would have been great fun.

Did he beat anyone notable as Dingo Warrior in WCCW?

At least once at MSG, IIRC.

This obviously has to be credited to larger asses. Classic tofu chipmunk, and in his first post to boot.

That cage match remains one of my favourites as well. Part of the dynamic of that match is the "Surprise" factor. I did not think for one second that Tito would be getting the title back, be it in that match or another...his time had passed as IC Champ, IMO. The end, with Tito all the way outside and kicking the cage back into Greg's face was stunning to me...I was trying to figure out how they could possibly screw Tito out of the belt when he was a quick drop away from winning it. And then...they didn't screw him, he won it. The "Valentine freefall" after the cage door hits him is one of my favourite moments in any match, because it solidifies the idea that Tito is actually going to win this thing. Excellent match all around ,one I can watch again and again.

Mad Dog Vachon, in his day, was not to be messed with.