khawk20

My take: AWA @ Rosemont, IL – Rosemont Horizon – January 10, 1986 (13,000) Steel Cage Match: Crusher Blackwell & The Road Warriors d. The Fabulous Freebirds Cage matches always drew better than usual numbers in the AWA, and this one was no different. AWA @ Chicago, IL – International Amphitheater – February 23, 1986 (7,000) AWA World Heavyweight Title: Stan Hansen © battled Sgt. Slaughter to a no contest Slaughter's first match in Chicago vs. Hansen, people would not have bought Slaughter winning the title on his first crack there, IMO. Road Warriors vs. Irwins would have been a huge let-down after the Freebirds blow-off cage match. AWA @ Rosemont, IL – Rosemont Horizon – March 23, 1986 (5,500) The Road Warriors d. Nord the Barbarian & Boris Zuhkov by DQ AWA World Heavyweight Title: Stan Hansen © d. Rick Martel by countout Nord and Boris was a decent team but Boris was a midcard guy in the fan's eyes so that wouldn;t have been a "drawing" matchup. Martel getting a rematch against Hansen has some intrigue, but I think the fans were tired of Martel by this point and most probably didn't see him regaining the title...and, like the Slaughter match, not in their first rematch in the city. AWA @ Rosemont, IL – Rosemont Horizon – April 27, 1986 (1,800) Brad Rheingans d. Col. DeBeers by DQ The Midnight Rockers d. Buddy Rose & Doug Somers Sherri Martel d. Candi Divine by DQ AWA World Tag Titles: Scott Hall & Curt Hennig © d. Bill Irwin & Ryuma Go Catch Wrestling Rules: Larry Zbyszko d. Scott LeDoux Bruiser Brody, Nord the Barbarian, & Boris Zuhkov d. Greg Gagne, Mike Rotundo, & Leon White AWA World Heavyweight Title: Nick Bockwinkel d. Stan Hansen © by DQ Bockwinkel challenging Hansen would also have been a let-down. a Martel or Slaughter rematch with a stip would have done much better. The rest of the card are mostly names that became prominent in the territory later on (Ryuma Go, Rose & Somers, Rockers, White), but would have had a "Who???" quality to them that might have hurt attendance. The April card, if you were needing to skip one of that bunch, is the obvious choice going by where everyone on it was in their development and placement in the tiering of stars. I assume Go is replacing Scott Irwin and Rotondo and White **may** be subs for the LOD, going back to the LOD vs. Nord and Boris matches. IF they annoucned the replacements ahead of time, it wouldn't have helped sales much. Plus people probably thought Brody would no-show.

I can get behind this but from the same kayfabe perspective, it's like a gimmick match where pinfalls don't count but the guys start covering each other later in the match anyways due to exhaustion/punishment. It's automatic, as is the kick-out attempt. In theory, they wouldn't be able to stop themselves from kicking out, so it looks funny when they don't so early on.

The AWA had some really fun ones in the early 80's. Everyone used to be in the ring for about 15 minutes before the first elimination happened. and you would get some spots during that time frame. I enjoyed most of them as whole matches.

The problem with Texas Death Matches for me has always been that the pinfalls come too easy. Good point. If someone scores the first pin at, say, the ten-minute mark, instead of the 2 minute mark, the match would proably fall into place so much easier.

Nope.

I can't see this card drawing anything but flies, and only then if their regular garbage source was unavailable.

...and that, after watching Heenan in other Weasel Suit matches through the years, comes off really unfunny to me. It's pretty much the same schtick, but Warrior using a sleeper (random) through Heenan not putting a real effort forward once he's in the suit doesn't come off well at all to me.

I have always put Warrior-Heenan as an attempt at "ha-ha" funny, and Gagne-Heenan as a "glorious comeuppance" circumstance. Just my take, however. I never found Warrior-Heenan very funny either, but I think that's what they were going for. It's hard for it to be considered anything other than an attempt at laughs without an opponent that Heenan could actually find a way to beat on the other end of the Weasel Suit Challenge. Warrior was not that opponent...Gagne was. As such, there are two completely different vibes to the matches.

Try to find the Greg Gagne vs. Bobby Heenan Weasel Suit match from 1980 instead. It's a different laughing at the heel vibe, one of "He finally got what's coming to him" as opposed to the Warrior-Heenan "Ha what an idiot" laughter. The match itself is fairly dramatic, which makes it a good example of how to be both funny and serious in a match as there is. Bobby Heenan was sooooooooo loathed in the AWA. I think fans laughed to surpress the urge to strangle him. EDIT: It's on Disc 12 of the DVDVR AWA set, under the "Heenan" tag. I think you got the set if memory serves. (For that matter, the Heenan-Warrior match might be on the Brickhithouse set (guessing, without looking it up), which I believe I read you saying you picked up as well, if you can't find it online).

If their European tours were infrequent or non-existent before the 91 and 92 tours, I would hesitate to give them much credit...it would have been more the fans being attracted to the event more than the individuals, getting into "the WWF experience" as a whole, anxious to see "The #1 wrestling group!!!" (or insert whatever other WWF hype they spread from 83-present here). If Europe was a more regular stop in the years preceding it, then that might be a different story.

What I meant is that I found Brunzell's stories and tone genuine, as you noted somewhat in your final analysis of the shoot. His stories didn't feel like he was "burying" anyone, IMO, these seem to be real recollections of the events in his mind and there isn't an "over-the-top" feel to the presentation. "Buried", in my mind, conjures up images of those guys that go on and on with "so-and-so was a cocksucker and I hate him and he was an asshole....etc.". Hawk in the Road Warriors shoot way back when is the best example I can think of, going off on Vince McMahon every chance he got during the course of the proceedings. Feinstein blows as an interviewer, of course, but we're all used to it by now.

I avoid HTM shoots now because I just think he's a total scumbag. I'm not into shoots for that whole "hear him SHOOT on X" gimmick. That's a pathetic scene and HTM epitomises it. The best shoots by far I've seen or heard have been the ones with Bill Watts. You'd probably like Jim Brunzell's shoot.

Depends on what the reasons were for Rotonda being let go/quitting each time, I suppose. If there was acrimony, it's a bit more curious. If it was just regular business, then it probably isn't an unusual thing.

Got a personal favourite?

Probably on a wall in your guest bedroom or tool shed, where she will no doubt relegate you once she sees you had it framed and intend to put it up.

It indeed may have floated over people's heads...like balloons...lots and lots of balloons.

If this is referring to the crowd seeming very quiet during this bout, it's the way the show was taped more than anything else. None of the matches sound like there's more than a few hundred people watching it in my eyes. Good chance the crowd was actually very loud and into this bout, as well as most of the other ones.

It was prevalent in the 70's as well.

I can see a Hogan-Bockwinkel cage match in April of 1984. Problem would have been, they would have billed it as a title match and nobody would have remembered that cage bouts were non-title until Hogan had won, at which point the belt would have went back to Bockwinkel and the fans would have burned the building down. Really, if Hogan had somehow still been there in 1984, he would have probably faced Bock in the cage, but Bock wouldn't have been champ anymore so it would strictly been a revenge spot. This is from the non-Vince world of revisionist booking, of course...

That was Larry Holmes attacking Trevor Berbick. It still gets replayed on Sports highlight top-tens pretty often.

Found this on the S & W Board. The guy who posted it IDed the big guy as "Big Bulldozer Ben" somehow. It looks like it might be The Great Antonio doing a Hillbilly gimmick to me. Thoughts? http://nicoviewer.net/sm17511559

Been watching BrickHithouse's WWF set a lot lately. Johnny Rodz....talk about a frustrating guy. "The Unpredictable One" certainly earns his nickname, but in two different ways. On offense, he can come up with some pretty creative, seemingly off-the-cuff stuff. But selling? Shit, he's way more miss than hit. I'd like to get my hands on some Java Ruuk footage to see if he was always like that, or if he just developed that selling style being a WWF mid-range job guy for so long. He's a frustrating guy to watch, I want to like him more than I do...and I do like him...but I just can't.

Holy LOL.... "There's 3 things you can never do to me: Give me a black eye, give me a fat lip, or give me a job. 'Dat Road Warrior Animal talks about wetting my lips and sticking me to a mural, I sho' like to see him try!"--Tony Atlas, interviewed by Ken Resnick regarding his upcoming match in Winnipeg on 9/20/84 vs. the Road Warriors.