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AWA All-Star Wrestling for the weekend of August 26th “Polish Power” Ivan Putski vs. “The Polish Prince” Ed Wiskowski Wiskowski came out guns a-blazing and unleashed a furious offense on Putski. The beloved powerhouse from Krakow was taken aback by this aggression, but he fought back gamely, matching the Prince blow for blow. The match finally went out of control when Wiskowski pulled a set of brass knuckles out of his tights and slugged Putski with them right in front of the ref, who had no choice but to end the match and give it to Putski by DQ. The two huge Polish stars continued brawling long after the match officially ended until the AWA officials had to separate them. Samu vs. Rocky Brewer Samu gave one of his most impressive performances for the audience, dazzling with high speed offense and easily dominating Brewer before finishing him off with the Flying Samoan Splash. Eric Embry vs. Jeff Sword This was a grim and gritty brawl, with Eric Embry, who has had not much trouble with any of his opponents on TV so far, taken to the limit by the hairiest member of the Minnesota Heartbreakers. There were a number of moments where it looked like Sword just might pull of the victory, but when he ducked his head in an attempt at a back body drop, Embry took immediate advantage and grabbed him for an over the shoulder neckbreaker. One piledriver later and Embry got the three count. But that wasn’t enough for Embry, who had apparently taken offense at how much effort he had to put into beating Sword and picked him up for a second piledriver. His Heartbreakers partners, Tom Stanton and Rocky Brewer, came to try to rescue him, but ran straight into a boot to the testicles from Buck Robley and Cal Manson. Embry looked he might actually end Sword’s career with a third piledriver, but Samu charged in from the back, tore through Robley and Manson and knocked Embry from the ring with a thrust kick. As Embry and his Army comrades beat a retreat, Stanton, Brewer and a still groggy Sword each gave Samu a grudging handshake before the two sides parted ways. (After the commercial break, the camera comes up on Mean Gene Okerlund in the middle of the ring) Mean Gene : Folks, my guests tonight are none other than “Polish Power” himself, Ivan Putski, and “The Man Who Made Milwaukee Famous” , Da Crusher! (The crowd cheers as Putski, still showing the marks from his earlier fight with Ed Wiskowski, and Crusher, lugging a large keg along with a stack of three plastic cups, walked to the ring. However they gave gasp of surprised when they saw they were accompanied by Prof. Toru Tanaka who was bringing with him a large bottle of sake and his ceremonial salt bucket. ) Mean Gene : Crusher, wow, even given the events of the show in Milwaukee, I must say I am surprised to see you here with Prof. Toru Tanaka. Crusher : Mean Gene, if you had told me a month ago I would be side by side wit dis guy, I would have said you was nuts! But when I saw this guy take a stand and refuse to let somebody else give him a win he didn’t get himself, I knew dat dis was my kinda guy! Da Perfesser here has given me some lumps, and I’ve given ‘em back, but we understand each other, and I’d be proud to have a guy like this watch my back anyday. Tanaka : That’s right, Crusher. He and I have fought, but we have fought like Samurai Warriors! We have fought with honor! Mean Gene : But Professor, you kept trying to hit him with a handful of salt. Tanaka : Honorable salt! But the Sheikh and Zukhov, they kept trying to steal the win. There is no honor in a chain. From now on, I fight my way! With my friends, Mr. Putski and Mr. Crusher. (In the background, Crusher was getting three cups full of beer from the keg while Putski watched impassively.) Mean Gene : Crusher, what on earth is going on back there? Crusher : Just a little something da Perfesser and I came up wit. You pour the beer. Then you add in the sake and salt. (Tanaka pours sake into all three cups of beer and adds a sprinkle of salt) Then you knock it back. (Crusher and Tanaka both down the contents of a cup) Then you do a bit of dis! Hai! (Crusher then gives Tanaka a hard smack across the chest with a knife edge chop. Tanaka then gives one back to Crusher.) And dat’s what you call a Nagasaki Boilermaker! A drink for men! Mean Gene : (under his breath) Sounds revolting. Crusher : What was dat, Gene? Mean Gene : Err, I said, it sounds delicious! Crusher : Glad ta hear it, Gene! (grasping him firmly by the shoulder and thrusting the cup into his hands) Help yourself! Mean Gene : Umm, thank you but no, I am on duty. Crusher : (gripping him even tighter by the shoulder) Since when has dat ever stopped you? Down da hatch! (Gene gives a pained expression but downs the contents of the cup. He then proceeds to cough, splutter and turn green.) Crusher : Ha ha! From now on, Gene, you can call the three of us the Sake and Old Milwaukee Connection! Gene : (trying to recover) Ivan Putski, not drinking tonight? Putski : (quietly) Not tonight , Gene. Gene : Well, uh, you had quite the fight earlier with Ed Wiskowski. What gives? Putski : I don’t know what Wiskowski’s problem with me is. I came out for a wrestling match, and he decided to make it a brawl. Well, Wiskowski, I can brawl with the best of them. You call yourself the Prince? You think you are actually better than me? Well, Wiskowski, the next time we meet, you better watch your step, because I am fixing to drop the Hammer on you! Jimmy Garvin vs. Javier Cruz Once again, Garvin announced before the match that, since Cruz was slightly above the weight limit, this would be a non-title match. Cruz fought as hard as if the belt had been on the line, but the turning point came when his partner in the Latin Lovers, Vinnie Valentino, came to ringside and tried to chat up Garvin’s bikini clad valets. When Garvin turned and shouted at Valentino, Cruz caught him in a schoolboy cradle and got the flash pin. Garvin was livid and threw a tantrum as his valets tried to calm him down. Moose Cholak vs. One Man Gang Cholak put up a valiant effort, giving the Gang one of his toughest fights on TV since he arrived in the AWA. It came to a peak when he whipped Gang into the corner and charged in for a big Avalanche, only for Gang to duck out of the way to send Cholak crashing hard, chest first, into the turnbuckle. Gang then nailed Cholak with a lariat before pinning him with a running splash. After the end of the match, Col. Buck Robley came marching to the ring along with Maj. Cal Manson and the Wild Bills. Robley got the ringside mic and addressed Cholak. Robley : Moose, you see what guys like us are up against. This new generation have no respect like old hands like us. They think they can just shove us aside. Punks like Samu, The Road Warriors … they think there is no place for us veterans in the AWA. Well, there is a place for you in the Army! Just take my hand, and you and I will show these young snots what we are made of. Cholak seemed to consider it for a second, then looked at Robley’s hand like it was a decaying squirrel carcass. Cholak : Robley, I wouldn’t sign up with you and your goons if you were the last slimeball on the face of the earth! Robley was incensed and slapped Cholak hard across the face. Cholak grabbed Robley by the throat and started to throttle him, but Manson and the Bills swiftly attacked him and started to beat him down. Then who should come running to the ring, swinging chairs, but the Road Warriors? After they ran off the Army, they helped up Cholak and assisted him to the back of the arena and into the locker room. Rick Martel & Da Crusher vs. Sheikh Adnan Kaissey & Boris Zukhov Martel and Crusher consistently got the better of Kaissey and Zukhov, swiftly tagging in and out and befuddling them with Crusher’s fisticuffs and Martel’s technical expertise. Martel scored the victory with the flying cross body on Zukhov, but all four men will soon have to face each other for the AWA Canadian Title, and only one can come out the winner.

Huzzah! Did the Dog win $500?

AWA TV should be posted within the next couple of days or so, here is the lineup. Ivan Putski vs. Ed Wiskowski : Polish Power vs. The Polish Prince Samu vs. Rocky Brewer Eric Embry vs. Jeff Sword Jimmy Garvin vs. Javier Cruz Moose Cholak vs. One Man Gang Rick Martel & Da Crusher vs. Sheikh Adnan Kaissie & Boris Zukhov Plus interview with Ivan Putski & Da Crusher

Dirty Dutch vs. Bullet Bob : The Battle Rages On. Love love loving it.

That's cool, JvK, always good to read your stuff.

Cold dead fingers etc.

Although, if he were available, I wouldn't want to poach him from a southern territory, he would make a great match for Col. Buck Robley's Army.

Disappoints me too, would love to have him tearing it up in a Southern promotion. Hickerson rules. I first became aware of him during PY Chu Hi in the magazines and thought he was a joke, old fat guy with a dumb gimmick (I was young and stupid). When I actually got to see his matches (included as PY Chu Hi) , I was blown away.

Pretty sure he is out of action until 1985.

Hey, folks, your old pal, Wally Karbo here. Special announcement time so gather 'round. Thanks to the booming business we have been experiencing here at the good ole AWA, we will be making a change to our schedules. Instead of doing bi-weekly TV tapings of 2 shows for the subsequent 2 weekends, we are tickled pink to announce that we are moving up to weekly TV tapings, effective this evening, Wednesday, August 24th at the St. Paul Civic Center. This will allow us to bring the hottest AWA action right to our fans as quickly as possible. This is Wally Karbo saying, Toodly doo.

Great show, absolutely love the main.

I had been thinking of keeping Hogan away from the smaller market shows but then I loved the thought of the finish of this show in a small venue that opens with all of the Army once again destroying Zumhofe and ending with this huge World Title streetfight. I like the idea that there is somebody with their own video camera in the crowd grabbing this for posterity.

AWA in Milton, WI, August 21st The Wild Bills, Lord Humongous & Eric Embry vs. Bill Rathke, Bill Cody, Mike Vachon & Buck Zumhofe Col. Buck Robley's Army won after a double spike piledriver on Zumhofe by Embry and the Wild Bills followed by a falling headbutt by Humongous Ivan Putski vs. Ed Wiskowski Putski won by DQ after Wiskowski hit him in the head with a chair in front of the ref Boris Zukhov vs. Da Crusher Crusher won with a running Bolo punch Iceman Parsons & Samu vs. The Minnesota Hearbreakers (Rocky Brewer & Tom Stanton) Parsons & Samu won after a top rope Flying Samoan Splash by Samu on Stanton AWA World Title match : Hulk Hogan © vs. One Man Gang After a lengthy brawl, Hogan won the match by countout

AWA in Waukesha, WI, August 20th Moose Cholak vs. Rocky Brewer Cholak won after a Big Splash Ivan Putski vs. Ed Wiskowski Wiskowski won after hitting Putski with a set of brass knucks when the ref was distracted Eric Embry vs. Buck Zumhofe Eric Embry won after three over the shoulder neckbreakers followed by a piledriver Boris Zukhov vs. Mr. Olympia Olympia won after hitting a flying dropkick AWA World Tag Title match : The Wild Bills © vs. Iceman Parsons & Samu The Wild Bills won when they hit Samu with a double lariat Ken Patera vs. Da Crusher Patera won with his feet on the ropes after a shoulderbreaker

The Love Missile is the Latin Lovers' tag finisher, where Cruz elevates his opponent in a bearhug and Valentino comes off the top rope with a flying dropkick. I will get into the Tanaka angle more in future television, but in short, Tanaka had taken the fall in a number of previous matches due to Kaissie and his crew interfering and it going wrong. Now he had a chance to cleanly put away his rival Da Crusher, but the Sheikh just has to get involved. Basically, he got sick of the Sheikh sticking his nose into his business.

AWA at The Mecca, Milwaukee, Friday, August 19th Moose Cholak vs. Buck Zumhofe Moose Cholak won after three straight Big Splashes The Latin Lovers vs. The Minnesota Heartbreakers (Jeff Sword & Rocky Brewer) The Latin Lovers won after Valentino hit the Love Missile on Brewer Eric Embry vs. Samu Embry won with the cradle suplex. After the match, he hit a piledriver on Samu, and the badly shaken up “Flying Samoan” had to be helped from the ring. Jimmy Garvin vs. Iceman Parsons This was again supposed to be for the AWA Light Heavyweight Title, but before the match, Jimmy Garvin got on the mic and said that Parsons weight had actually gone up and since he was even further away from the Title’s weight limit, this once again would be a non-title match. The incensed Parsons seemed even more determined to defeat Garvin, but Garvin always seemed to just barely wriggle out of danger when it seemed like the Iceman had him dead to rights. In the end, Garvin grabbed a fistful of tights in a rollup to almost get the three count … only for Parsons to counter with a rollup of his own to get the victory. The moment the ref’s hand hit the matt for the third time, Ed Wiskowski slid into the ring and he and Garvin to beat down on Parsons. Iceman’s good friend Samu was still hurt from his earlier match, so it looked like there would be no rescue for Parsons, but Ivan Putski, who is scheduled for matches with Wiskowski at some upcoming house shows, came to his aide and ran off the villains. The Wild Bills & Lord Humongous vs. The Road Warriors & ? The Wild Bills & Humongous came to the ring accompanied by their manager, Col. Buck Robley, and his second in command, Maj. Cal Manson. It turns out, the Road Warriors mystery partner was … nobody. Word drifted back that the rest of the locker room, offended by the Road Warriors earlier remarks disparaging the veteran wrestlers and claiming they didn’t need help from anyone, had refused to a man to give any help to the muscular tag team. Undaunted, the Road Warriors got on the mic and said that they would take on all three men by themselves if they had to. In what wound up being a handicap match, the Road Warriors put in a valiant effort, but the deck seemed to stacked against them , with Robley and Manson interfering any time the ref’s back was turned. It seemed like the Roadies might just pull off the victory when Animal caught Humongous in a huge powerslam, but Robley came in off the top rope with a kneedrop on Animal’s back to cause a DQ. After the match, Robley’s Army continued to kick the daylights out of Animal until Hawk came in wildly swinging a chair, clearing the ring and teeing off on any of the Army who tried to get back in. Figuring that they had done enough damage for now, the Army headed back to the locker room, laughing at the Road Warriors as they left. 8 Man Tag Match : Hulk Hogan, Mr. Olympia, Da Crusher & Ivan Putski vs. Ken Patera, One Man Gang, Boris Zukhov & Toru Tanaka with special guest referee Eddie Mekka As predicted , Mekka had his hands full trying to keep order in this match, with it being a rarity for there to be only two men in the ring at any given time. Kaissie’s men were determined to keep Hogan in the ring for as long as possible and do as much damage as they could to set him up in a future title shot. Hogan, for his part, was equally determined to get back in the ring to make Patera and Gang pay some dues. After taking a hefty beating from the side of the villains, Hogan knocked Tanaka off his feet with a shoulder tackle and made the hot tag to Da Crusher. At this point the match broke down, with all 8 men fighting in the ring and at ringside. Tanaka seemed to get the better of Da Crusher and had him set up for a thrust kick to the jaw, only for Sheikh Kaissie to beat him to the punch by coming off the top rope with an elbow smash to Crusher’s head. Kaissie pointed at the downed Crusher and told Tanaka to make the pin, but instead Tanaka was livid that Kaissie had interfered and knocked him back with a knife edge chop. This proved to be a long enough distraction for Putski to come in and blindside Tanaka with the Polish Hammer, following up with a cover. Mekka, seeing Putski covering Tanaka and possibly wanting the match to finally be over and done with, rushed over and made the count. After the match, Kaissie started screaming at Tanaka for not taking the win and for attacking him, but Tanaka stood his ground and yelled back at him. Tanaka had finally had enough and gave Kaissie a thrust kick to the jaw. This let to immediate retaliation by Kaissie’s men, but Crusher, who had seen Tanaka make his stand, led the charge to rescue the Japanese veteran. When Kaissie and his men had cleared off, Crusher and Hogan held up the arms of Putski, Mekka and Tanaka, to the cheers of the crowd.

TV for the weekend of August 19 : AWA All-Star Wrestling The matches are interspersed with promos for the big show at the Mecca in Milwaukee. Ivan Putski vs. Prof. Toru Tanaka Tanaka is just coming off a big feud with Putski’s good friend , Da Crusher, and these two have had some intense matchups in house shows, so it was no surprise that this was a knock-down, drag-out fight that ultimately got completely out of control, with Tanaka clobbering Putski in the head with the salt bucket resulting in a DQ decision. These two continued brawling after the bell until Putski knocked out of the ring with the Polish Hammer. Ken Patera vs. Buck Zumhofe Patera seemed determined to literally break Zumhofe in half , hitting every single back breaker variation on him until finally strapping him across his shoulders in the Human Torture Rack while the ref counted three drops of the arm on the unconscious Zumhofe. The Latin Lovers (Vinnie Valentino & Javier Cruz) vs. “Gorgeous” Jimmy Garvin & “The Polish Prince” Ed Wiskowski The Latin Lovers came to the ring trailing along several bikini clad Bootie Babes, while Garvin & Wiskowski were accompanied by their own crew of scantily clad lovelies. This seemed to be a big distraction for Valentino , who spent much of his time trying to chat up Garvin’s girls and showboating in an attempt to impress them. This ended up costing him, as he was so pleased with himself after a spectacular leapfrog to avoid the oncoming Garvin, that he failed to see that Garvin had tagged in Wiskowski, who proceeded to flatten Valentino with a huge lariat for the pin. Post-match, Valentino continued to try to connect with Garvin’s ladies, as an indignant Garvin hurriedly ushered them away from the ring. Eric Embry vs. Mike Vachon Embry has yet to be pinned since arriving in the AWA, and didn’t really come close to it in this match as he easily dispatched the second generation wrestler, hitting the over the shoulder neckbreaker followed by a piledriver for the pin. Lord Humongous vs. Iceman Parsons This contest was the toughest singles match Humongous had yet since arriving in the AWA, raging back and forth with Parsons making a concerted effort to remove Humongous’ hockey mask. He was ultimately able to get it off, but the moment he had, Buck Robley came off the top rope with an elbow smash on Parsons, forcing the ref to call for a DQ. As Robley and Lord Humongous continued to beat down Parsons, his good friend Samu rushed to the ring to even the odds. This prompted the Wild Bills to come to the ring, which in turn led to the Road Warriors to charge in to get a shot at the Bills. The moment the Road Warriors entered the ring, Parsons and Samu immediately bailed , giving a disgusted look over their shoulders as the Warriors brawled with all four men until the AWA officials cleared the ring. AWA World Title Match : Hulk Hogan © vs. Boris Zukhov Hogan came out by himself to the ring and soaked up the huge cheers from the crowd. Zukhov came out accompanied not only by his manager, Sheikh Adnan Kaissie, but also Ken Patera, One Man Gang and Toru Tanaka , his partners in the upcoming 8 man tag in Milwaukee. Hogan, being no fool, signaled to the locker room and out came his own partners : Mr. Olympia , Da Crusher and Ivan Putski. Both teams stood at ringside as Hogan and Zukhov slugged it out, and it would come as a surprise to no one that once Hogan got a decisive advantage over the big Russian, One Man Gang entered the ring and attacked him, leading to all 8 men engaging in a chaotic brawl and a double DQ finish. Eddie Mekka certainly has his work cut out for him trying to keep these huge men in line in the Milwaukee main event.

Yeah, I have no shortage of guys lined up to face off with Hulk but Hogan will be seeing a lot of Patera for the next long while

The weekend TV and the Milwaukee show should be posted this weekend, here is the lineup of the TV show Friday, August 19 : AWA All-Star Wrestling Ivan Putski vs. Prof Toru Tanaka Ken Patera vs. Buck Zumhofe The Latin Lovers vs. Jimmy Garvin & Ed Wiskowski Eric Embry vs. Mike Vachon Lord. Humongous vs. Iceman Parsons AWA World Title Match : Hulk Hogan © vs. Boris Zukhov

I remember watching Mike Masters in Portland footage and that was exactly what I was thinking, that he was doing the Chris Masters gimmick ahead of its time.

Friday, August 26 : Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg, Manitoba Moose Cholak vs. Mike Vachon Eric Embry vs. Buck Zumhofe "Polish Power" Ivan Putski vs. "The Polish Prince" Ed Wiskowski AWA World Tag Title Match : The Wild Bills © vs. Icman Parsons & Samu Jimmy Garvin vs. Vinnie Valentino Four Corners Match for the first AWA Canadian title : Da Crusher vs. Sheikh Adnan Kaissie vs. Rick Martel vs. Boris Zukhov AWA World Title Match : Hulk Hogan © vs. Ken Patera

Hogan had some kick ass brawls as World Champ pre-Rock 'n' Wrestling. Some big changes coming up for Garvin's stable, some obvious, some more surprising.

The money the AWA saved by putting Eric Embry up in the cheapest possible spot in the trailer park will be well spent situating Precious in the nicest possible hotel.

Yeah, he's still in, just going through some difficulties. He is still participating in things like the September draft.

Hmmm, looks like Coliseum Home Video started in 1985, not sure if there were significant videos before then.