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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.

Wild stuff, great set of shows.

AWA at the Brown County Veteran's Memorial Arena, Green Bay, WI, August 16th Moose Cholak vs. Bill Cody Moose Cholak won with the Big Splash Samu vs. Bill Rathke Samu won with the top rope Flying Samoan Splash Iceman Parsons vs. Eric Embry Eric Embry won after Parsons went for the top rope Rumper Stumper but was shoved off the top rope by Jimmy Garvin while Buck Robley distracted the ref, followed by an over the shoulder neckbreaker by Embry Latin Lovers vs. Jimmy Garvin & Ed Wiskowski Garvin & Wiskowski won by DQ when Iceman Parsons entered the ring and attacked Garvin Ivan Putski vs. Prof. Toru Tanaka Putski won with the Polish Hammer AWA Tag Title Match : The Wild Bills © vs. The Road Warriors Double DQ when both teams would not stop brawling in the middle of the ring Texas Tornado Triple-Chain 6 Man Tag Match : Hulk Hogan, Mr. Olympia & Da Crusher vs. Ken Patera, One Man Gang & Boris Zukhov In a crazy and bloody match, Hogan, Olympia & Crusher won when Crusher his a chain assisted Bolo Punch on Zukhov

Wait, what? Did the draft order skip down to the bottom? I thought JHawk was next. TravJ - PASS RocketCrypt Beast - PASS JHawk dawho5 - PASS goc Cross Face Grimmas Jesse Ewiak Wahoos Leg JerryVonKramer Flyin Brian LowBlowPodcast El Boricua peachchaos Boon KrisZ

AWA in Sheboygan, WI, August 14th Col. Buck Robley vs. Buck Zumhofe Robley beat Zumhofe after 2 piledrivers. The Road Warriors vs. The Minnesota Heartbreakers (Rocky Brewer & Tom Stanton) The Road Warriors won in 12 seconds after Animal hit a powerslam on Brewer. Eric Embry vs. Bill Cody Embry beat Cody with the cradle suplex Ivan Putski vs. Bill Rathke Putski beat Rathke with the Polish Hammer Ed Wiskowski vs. Samu Wiskowski beat Samu with the face first piledriver after he rolled out of the way of a top rope splash Ken Patera, One Man Gang & Boris Zukhov vs. Hulk Hogan, Mr. Olympia & Da Crusher This match went to a 30 minute time limit draw after wild match that saw all 6 men bleed

It might have been a bit surprising that the Road Warriors didn't win the titles straight off, but that was mostly based around two things : 1) I didn't want both of my main titles held by super dominant champs right at the start, and 2) to reflect that, at this point, Hogan is already somewhat established while the Warriors are just starting to make their mark. This angle and the chase for the belts is my version of them being schooled and taught humility by the veteran wrestlers.