khawk20

I bought Poffo as an effeminate heel manager for Mr. Perfect far more than I bought him as the repackaged Genius in-ring performer. I think it was just too many years of watching him getting his ass kicked by everyone getting even the slightest push in the WWF...and as well as he did The Genius, I was more like "Why, why, WHY did they not give him this gimmick right off the bat?"

Zurkov being poached is one thing, but the most telling poach in terms of "Holy Shit!" to me was Brad Rheingans. Verne wasn't so bad at creating and moving talent upwards, the problem by then was he could only move them up *so* far given the scope of the AWA from 87-onward. Badd Company, the Nasty Boys, and even Kokina Maximus (aka Yokozuna) later on are all examples of Verne bringing in newer and lesser-known talent, seeing them grow as performers, and having to leave to expand their experience and star power. The bigger problem was these developing talents were often elevated faster than they would have been if the overall talent pool was deeper. The metamorphasis of Curt Hennig from 1984-87 is a good example of a performer given time to grow and being elevated when he was ready to carry the ball. Unfortunately, Hennig eventually had to leave to grow his star power, too...the field he was carrying the ball on was a lot shorter than in the WWF or WCW.

Maybe Hawk and Animal refused to use "The Road Warriors" so they could retain rights to the name later on if things didn't work out in the WWF for them and they moved on.

Keep 'em crossed. the AWA footage is in the same boat as the TV mostly seems without promos, and my understanding is that promo reels were done separately and sent out for the various markets along with the weekly tv. If they have the promo reels for the AWA, they aren't using them as the recent tv's that have appeared (most recently 7/25/81) have no promos. ...and that sucks, because the majority of the best stuff from AWA TV was the promos. 7/25/81 is all squash matches, and even an huge AWA fan like me saw that show and asked "what's the point?" Hopefully the WWE does Mid South's stuff differently, but there was a lot more name vs. name action on Mid South TV that I would guess they might not feel a need to dress it up with additional promos and such.

In any event they were pretty small crowds.

Going by your info from being there, they had more people there than it looked like on TV, IMO.

THey were down to the TV Taping being their only show in a month sometimes, so it's not like they even had a choice to do the tapings on multiple shows. You can seen the de-evolution of the AWA in those Rochester TV Taping crowds. The first one or two has a decent crowd and it's reflected by the lighting, noise level, and to a point the performance of the wrestlers. By the last one or two tapings before the doors were closed, there were so few people there that literally everything except for the ring and the area immediately outside the ring was blacked out. There might have been 50 people there watching.

I got these when they first got put up on beejmi's board. there is a shit-ton of stuff there. Grab it while you can.

One positive for it is that it came up on an Amazon search for Billy Robinson's book last night. That bodes well for those interested in the topic to notice it and perhaps buy it.

I think he was in for one taping, which by then they would stretch out for several weeks of TV.

Very few people if any had 45-inch TV's back in 1985. A 27 inch tube tv was proably the norm for your average family. 36 inch tube tvs were considered "big". Having said that, I can't imagine watching the action on a 45-inch screen in a big arena if you wren't within the first 10 rows, tops. I imagine a lot of venues with the same setup had complaints and refund requests.

I listened to the AWA section last night. There were a couple of times that the remembrance of a match or angle was right-on, but the person remembering it shook it off to themselves like "no, that can't be right...". Bockwinkel piledriving Verne on the concrete in 1985 is the first one I think of...that actually happened just like it was remembered on the show, at StarCage 85 in St. Paul. I found that sort of funny.

Tidbit regarding Lawler vs. Martel: Earlier in 1985 (March-ish as I recall), Lawler did not think Martel would draw in Memphis in a title match vs himself, so they did an AWA promo with Nick where he had regained the title in Vancouver in a disputed decision that was being looked at by the "AWA Championship Committee". In the meantime, Bockwinkel was being recognized as the Champion, so it was Bock that was coming in to defend the title against Lawler. I'm not exactly sure if Lawler drew the conclusion that Martel would not draw from advanced sales for their upcoming title defense or if it was just a feeling he had. ...The AWA was running shows in Vancouver at that time so that part of it was at least plausible. The promo Bock did with I think Ken Resnick was filmed I believe in Winnipeg, though.

Third match???

Remember they also started with "The Baron" (Baron Von Raschke) as their face manager. Very surreal.

Who was the first of these, in your opinion? Group has to have a namesake.

It'd be better if he no-sold the 25 Burning Hammers, then got pinned on an old-fashioned bodyslam or backdrop immediately after no selling the last one, in a "well, shit, I should probably try something different now since the Burning Hammer isn't working" moment.

Blackjack Lanza & Bobby Duncum (AWA Tag Champions) vs. Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell (July 7, 1977, Winnipeg, Title change) Mad Dog Vachon vs. Edouard Carpentier (2/3 falls, Grand Prix, Montreal forum, 1973-ish)

Nick Bockwinkel (AWA Champion) vs. Verne Gagne (2-10-79, Chicago). Aired on on of the Japan Classics shows. Verne Gagne (AWA Champion) vs. Billy Robinson (2 bouts, September 1974 in Chicago and 11/20/74 in Japan).

Thanks. I have the Philly match, and enjoyed watching it.