khawk20

Makes me wonder why more guys just didn't learn the Dory Funk (Billy Robinson, too) forearm shiver/uppercut instead. Always looks good, and more realistic than even a decent punch, imo.

Stubbs is a mid-range player on these discs, but there's a fair bit of him. Condrey and Rose were a helluva heel team here, boy... 3081-83 SECW TV Spring 1981 (3 discs) VG Disc 1: Stan Lane vs. Robert Gibson, Interviews with Paul Orndorff, Randy Rose, Dennis Condrey, Robert Gibson, more, Orndorff/Norvell Austin vs. Mr. Saito/The Shadow, Randy Rose vs. Jerry Stubbs, Jimmy Golden vs. Ray Harris, Brad Armstrong Vs. Stan Lane, Ron Bass vs. Robert Gibson, Condrey/Rose vs. Austin/Orndorff (Arena tape), Orndorff/Stubbs vs. The Superstar/Joe Turner, Southern Streefight Battleroyal (Arena highlights), Jimmy Golden unmasks Tennessee Stud (Arena film), Rose/Condrey vs. Charles Otem/Brad Armstrong (Bob Armstrong run-in), Les Thornton (World Jr. Champion) vs. Jerry Stubbs (Arena film), Stubbs vs. Lane. Disc 2: Robert Gibson vs. Ted Allen, Condrey/Rose/Saito attack Orndorff/Armstrong (during arm-wrestling contest), Norvell Austin vs. Jerry Brown, Roy Welch/Ray Harris vs. Ron Bass/The Super Pro, Mongolian Stomper (Southeastern Champ) vs, Charlie Cook, Rose/Condrey vs. Ken Lucas/Ray Harris, Ron Bass vs. Roy Welch, Condrey Vs. Welch, Stubbs vs. Driver, Stan Lane vs. Robert Gibson (Arena film), Turner vs. Orndorff, Ron Fuller vs. Jimmy Golden (arena film), plus a ton of interviews. Disc 3: Saito vs. Orndorff (arena film), Rose/Condrey vs. Stubbs/Harris, Lane vs. Brad Armstrong, Ron Bass vs. Bob Owens, Rose/Condrey vs. Armstrongs (Cage, Arena film), The Shadow/Brad Armstrong vs. Turner/Superstar, Saito/Lane vs. Burrhead Jones/Ted Allen, Stubbs/Lucas vs. Don Carson/Ron Maxwell, Ron Bass Vs. Ken Lucas (arena film), Ron Fuller vs. Ron Bass/Jimmy Golden (hdcp), Arena Film of Condrey/Rose vs. Shadow/Brad Armstrong tag tourney finals, Brad Armstrong/Shadow vs. Stan Lane/Mr. Saito, Stubbs vs. Superstar, Ladies match, Golden/Bass vs. Ron Fuller (cage, arena film), Ken Lucas sleeperhold demonstration, Plus tons of interviews.

Additonal tidbit: Jesse did what I *think* is his first commentating gig as a colour guy for the local Minnesota Toughman contests that spawned Kevin "Nailz" Walcholz. It would have been lat 83-early 84.

How old is that piece?

11/15/86, if I'm remembering right.

I think Greg Gagne fits in this part of your category, so I'll nominate him. Solid wrestler who gets the neopotism tag hung around his neck at times unfairly. People can't grasp that he didn't look overly out-of-place in the 70's and early 80's. He was a believable contender for the AWA title against Bockwinkel in the late 70's. Too many people have only seen his work post 1985 and their knowledge of him starts with "Rambo" Greg Gagne. That's a damn shame. I am hoping that some of his pre-1985 work makes the AWA 80's set when all is said and done to give people a broader sampling of his work.

Mr. Saito wins the AWA title from Larry Zbyszko, 2/10/90, Japan. Zbyszko regains the title, 4/90, St. Paul (end portion only exists). Those were the last hurrah for the AWA title and both are decent enough, IMO. The Final Surivior Battleroyal for the Team Challenge Series might also rate here if you want to preserve the last bit of the AWA's existence. The promotion basically closed after that card in Rochester as I recall. If you just want the "best" bouts, however, skip this one.

The TV for the period between Heenan and Hayes was great. the next month was the Crusher-Bockwinkel cage match in St. Paul (clips have been shown on AWA 24/7 specials), and during the introductions Hayes lays a beating on Heenan which is why he isn't around during that cage match to interfere. You also had Heenan and Super Destroyer Mark II together (Heenan stole him from Hayes previously), and Super Destroyer III trying to get back together with Hayes to take on those two in various combinations (some 6-man stuff with Crusher, in tag matches, etc.). Add Bockwinkel feuding with Crusher into that mix and it was really fun. So many Heenan interviews better than the ones available on the AWA out there seem lost to time...it's sad. You could easily have had a whole disc with Heenan promos from the AWA attached to this and it would have been gold....providing the footage survived, of course.

I have not seen the doc yet. The match list is the primary reason I didn't rush out to buy it...I have all of them, unfortunately. The real crime is that there isn't much if any WWA stuff (pre-AWA heenan) on it from what I can gather reading about it. Many old timers wil tell you that Heenan in the old WWA was spectacular and it might have been his best work. As a companion to this, I recommend my own "Heenan in the AWA" 2-disc set. It's been around for a long time and shouldn't be hard to pick up in a dollar shill around the boards (I have it too, of course, but not at a dollar a disc, lol). I need to redo/update it at some point, but it's been revealing to a lot of people that don't know much about his AWA time. Anyone that wants me to send them the matchlist drop me a PM with your e-mail and I'll send it along or C and P it into another PM. (Sorry for slight bit of off-topic, but Heenan is by far my favourite manager of all time so I tend to ramble about him when I have a chance.... )

One of the best examples of a team that casual fans of the time period just loved. I had a lot of casual-watch friends that thought they were hillarious and marked out whenever they came on. I liked them.

Think they had one at the Cap Center in the same time frame, which is probably the one you have on vhs.

That's where I first saw it, too.

No, pretty sure it was the Fabs that the Roadies wouldn't lose the belts to. By the time the Birds were in the picture, the Fabs were gone when the Birds arrived. Plus why would the Roadies agree to drop the belts via super-screwjob to Garvin and Regal, and not the Birds with the same finish? Doesn't make sense.

As I remember, it was the Fabulous Ones, not the Freebirds.

I recall reading about the AWA/WWF Winnipeg thing on Kayfabe memories some time ago. Story goes that Verne sold the Winnipeg office to Blackjack Lanza (and possibly Nick Bockwinkel), and Lanza turned around and made a deal to turn their TV space over to Vince and stopped running arena shows. Once that happened, Vince took over Winnipeg Arena and the AWA was basically out. The Sports Network in Canada, who used the Winnipeg AWA matches for their own TSN Wrestling show once weekly, ran matches from the first WWF card there on two or three of their shows, but then stopped. I heard that might have been because Vince wanted to give them generic WWF TV to use instead of first-run arena matches, but I might be wrong on that. I would need to find the discussion on KM to repeat the story more accurately, but that's the gist of it. Wally Karbo retired in that time frame as well, so whatever pieces he had in Winnipeg and who they went to probably factored into that...The AWA ran one of their shows in late 1985 as a "Wally Karbo retirement show". TSN Wrestling used Calgary for it's shows after that, though I'm not sure of the time frame (if it was immediately after the WWF left, I mean). It was always a curiousity for me too, as the AWA in Winnipeg was on a huge upswing when they stopped running there. Their November 85, December 85, and January 1986 shows had the best attendance for them in months. then, nothing. Hope that helps some. EDIT: That Winnipeg card you listed in the above post is the one TSN used matches from on the switchover. I have the one match I noted below on tape: WWF @ Winnipeg, Manitoba - Arena - March 17, 1986 (6,820) The Killer Bees defeated The Hart Foundation Attendance at this card is about equal to the last card the AWA ran in January of 1986. Afterwards, when the WWF became more sporadic in their visits, the number halved as I recall.

This isn't in circulation from way back when, if it was taped. It hasn't hit 24/7, or the web or any dvd release. John When the Backlund-Valentine 60 minute draw showed up a few years ago, it gave me hope that all those MSG cards are probably taped and in the vault, just never aired for whatever reason. I'd really like to see the Backlund-Adonis rematch from February 1982, The first Snuka-Backlund MSG bout where Backlund got stretchered out, and Backlund-Orton from later that summer. None of those cards appear to have aired either, but I think they are probably in the vault. Funny those are all 1982 cards.

All of these Easter Tag tourneys really seemed to be the death knell of the AWA in the towns they ran.