This Week In AWA

[Boon]

Sunday 9th October

 

Gordon Solie welcomes everyone to a new series airing weekly on WTBS. Solie announces that this new program highlighting wrestlers from all across the AWA will feature many of the stars of the AWA's group in Texas, Southwest Championship Wrestling. On today's program there will be a video package of the events that lead up to the finals of the Southwest Tag Team Tournament that took place on July 31st at The HemisFair Arena.

A video montage is played of clips from the 7/16, 7/23 & 7/30 airings of Southwest Championship Wrestling featuring The Fabulous Ones comments about winning the tournament and also Tully Blanchard hinting around at who is partner would be. The video montage ends with the surprise appearance of David Von Erich at the end of the 7/30 episode and he and Tully's attack on The Fabulous Ones that left Steve Keirn bleeding on the floor of The Junction.

Gordon Solie talks about how the alliance between Tully Blanchard and David Von Erich shocked the wrestling world and how they found themselves in the finals of the Southwest Tag Team Title tournament after defeating Bret Hart & Davey Boy Smith from Calgary's Stampede and then, with help from Killer Khan, were able to defeat The Rougeau brothers from the IWA in Montreal in the semi-finals. Gordon then talks about the vicious attack the Wild Bills inflicted on The Fabulous Ones in the first round of the tournament that led to Steve Keirn having a huge bandage on his head for the tournament final and then plays the tape of the full match from The HemisFair Arena.

The Finals of the Southwest Tag Team Title Tournament from July 31st are shown in full with David Von Erich trapping a bloody Steve Keirn in the Iron Claw and Keirn passing out from the pain and a loss of blood and having his shoulders pinned to the mat in 13:01 to crown Tully and David the new Southwest Tag Team Champions

Gordon talks about how Tully and David are two of the best young wrestlers in all of Texas and how their pairing is monumental due to them both being the sons of rival promoters in Texas. Gordon says that they are well aware of their own power and shows one last video clips, this time of Tully & David's promo celebrating their victory.

The promo from the 8/6 airing of Southwest Championship Wrestling is shown with Tully & David holding the Southwest Tag Team titles and bragging about their victory over The Fabulous Ones. Tully ends the interview by dubbing he and David: The Texas Dynasty.

Gordon says that they two men have certainly lived up their name of The Texas Dynasty in the months that have passed since winning the Southwest Tag Team Titles. Gordon says next week on this program he will be highlighting more of the ongoing feud between The Fabulous Ones and The Texas Dynasty and over the next few weeks hopes to have fans all over the WTBS viewing area familiar with the many great wrestlers who have made Southwest Championship Wrestling their home.

=== Run down of this weeks action in the AWA ===

We return with Gordon says now he will be looking at one of Georgia and Alabama's biggest stars and current Southeastern Heavyweight Champion "Bullet" Bob Armstrong. But hes been having issues with "Dirty" Dutch Mantell as of late. And it all started back in July when Dutch made his debut.

 

Brad Armstrong defeats Ted Allen after a Side Russian Leg Sweep and the pinful for the win in 4 minutes. After the match Brad joins his father with Jim Cornette where the “Bullet” talks about his chances against Harley Race on Monday night and Brad challenges Dutch Mantell to a rematch after pinning him this week in Birmingham in a tag team match. Dutch comes out and says he will accept the rematch on one condition, he gets a Southeastern Heavyweight Title match soon. “Bullet” says he’s a fighting champion and a double champion by Monday evening, so it’s on, but only if he beats Brad.

Gordon says that Brad Armstrong overcame Dutch that monday in Birmingham, but that wasnt the last the Armstrong family heard from Dutch, as we will see here.

[qoute]*CLIPPED* Brad Armstrong and "Dirty" Dutch Mantell went to a no contest when Mantell bloodied and beat Brad Armstrong, the match went about 15 minutes before Dutchr tied Brad up in the ropes and began beating him with a chair. Mantell continued to beat Brad to a bloody pulp and was relentless in his attack until Southeastern Heavyweight Champion "Bullet Bob Armstrong ran to the ring to save his son. "Dirty" Dutch rolled out of the ring to avoid a raging "Bullet". Brad is untied from the ropes and seen to by the Birmingham Medical staff in attendance. In wild scenes where many fans try and get to Dutch as he leaves the ring, he has to be escorted and more importantly protected to the back by the local police officers from the fury of the Birmingham fans, the Boutwell Auditorium is hot tonight.

These actions from Dutch lead to managing to get himself a Southeastern Title Match.

 

"Dirty" Dutch Mantell defeated Southeastern Heavyweight Champion "Bullet" Bob Armstrong in 22 minutes in an all out brawl that went all round the area. The emotion of what happened last week to Bob's son Brad to the hands of Dutch ultimately cost "Bullet" the title. Armstrong seemed to have Dutch beat several times and refused to pin Dutch and to give him more punishment. Only for Dutch to weather the storm and hit a low blow on "Bullet" behind the referee's back and covering him for the victory and the title. The crowd were hot for Mantell winning with several fans throwing trash into the ring and one gentlemen even jumping the railing before security restrained him.

Next week will will cover the end of the feud between these two fierce rivals. After the break we will be showing the full match from when Hulk Hogan won the AWA World Heavyweight Title.

=== Run down of this weeks action in The AWA ===

 

“The Incredible” Hulk Hogan vs. “Gorgeous” Jimmy Garvin

Garvin made his way to the ring accompanied by Ed Wiskowski. Hogan walked slowly to the ring, clearly hurt from the earlier beating he had taken but with a determined look in his eye. Hogan put up a valiant effort but his earlier injuries and the constant interference by Wiskowski made it hard for him to get his offence out of first gear. The crow let out a cheer, though, when Jay Youngblood, clearly having had enough of the Polish Prince, came to ringside and dragged Wiskowski away by his hair. With the playing field now leveled, Hogan dug deep down inside and rallied against the sneaky Garvin. Garvin tried every dirty trick he could think of against Hogan , but no dice. He finally pulled a set of brass knuckles out of his trunks and looked to knock Hogan out with them, only for Hogan to catch his fist, snatch the knucks from him, throw them out of the ring and hit a crushing vertical suplex on him. He followed that with the big leg drop and the three count, winning the match and becoming the new AWA World Heavyweight Champion. The crowd exploded and Youngblood, Olympia, Parsons and Samu all rushed to the ring to congratulate the new champ, as Hogan held both the stars & stripes and the title belt over his head to celebrate his victory and Independence Day.

We return to Gordon Solie who thanks the fans for joining them and hope they will return next week with more action form around the AWA.

=== Show Ends ===

[goc]

Pretty cool clip show here. I could imagine this being a fun watch for someone who hadn't been able to see all of this stuff of their local TV. I like seeing my top feud get some national TV time along with the Dutch/Bullet feud and the AWA World Champ also getting some shine.

[dawho5]

Good idea for a start to the weekly "around the AWA" show. Get everyone started at the beginning and work from there.

[Boon]

Sunday 16th October

Gordon welcomes everyone to another week of your American Wrestling Association recap show, This Week In AWA. Last week we showed you highlights of some of the top feuds in the AWA, today we will be wrapping those up and next week we will be bring you action from this coming weeks action from all your favorite towns and arenas in the AWA. Lets pick up the "Dirty" Dutch Mantell and "Bullet" Bob Armstrong feud that has happened in Southeastern Championship Wrestling. Due to the violence between the two, both Dutch and Bullet had to alternate each week for TV appearances. In this time we were introduced to Bob son Scott Armstrong. Lets show how this all broke down.

 

We’re back with “Dirty” Dutch Mantell and Josh Stroud in the ring for today’s main event. The match goes for about 5 minutes, 4 minutes more than it needed too only for Mantell to spend a lot of time just toying with Stroud before finally putting him away with a Shoulder Breaker and the pinful. We go back to Charlie Platt and Rick Stewart who run though todays results and this Mondays card in Birmingham, when we see Dutch Mantell dragging a member of the TV studio crew into the ring, Platt and Stewart are trying to work out what is going on, it soon comes apparent that Dutch has Scott Armstrong who is a WTVY studio employee but more importantly is Bob Armstrong’s son. Dutch asks if Scott wants to be a professional wrestler like his dad. Scott nods but struggles as Dutch is still holding him by the hair. Dutch goes on to say that Scott’s dad Bob isn’t a legend, but is a coward. He’d happily take Scott under his wing if he wanted to have a champion as a role model rather than a loser. Scott who is visible scared agrees just so Dutch will let go, Dutch does let go while Scott checks over himself. Mantell then goes on to say he’d be ashamed to call Scott and Brad his sons and clothes lines Scott who goes straight to the ground. As medical staff run out to check on Scott, Dutch leaves the ring.

Two Weeks Later

 

First match of the show sees “Rookie” Scott Armstrong up against Tony Falk. In an even contest Scott manages to get the victory around the 4 minute mark when the rookie hits a Superkick followed by the 3 count. After the match Scott comes to talk with Charlie and Rick around his father’s disappointment at losing the Southeastern Heavyweight Title, he tells Platt and Stewart that although his dad is barred from TV, he would like to get a message to Dutch Mantell and The Flame via phone and would it be okay to call him. Charlie Platt says that’s fine and pulls out a phone from under the announcers table and Scott calls his dad, Scott starts talking to his dad and relays his thoughts about The Flame and Dutch Mantell. Suddenly from the back “Dirty” Dutch Mantell runs out and jumps Scott from behind. Dutch picks up the phone and says hello to “Bullet” Bob and tells him he’s going to look after his boy while he isnt here and he can hear for himself just in case he’s in doubt. Dutch drags Scott into the ring and calls out The Flame and tells him that this is his present for helping him out. The Flame comes out and starts to attack Scott, saying he hates the Armstrong’s and continues to beat him down. “Dirty” Dutch goes back to the phone, goes to speak in it but its gone dead, he laughs and walks off, with The Flame as 5 referees have escorted him from the ring to stop the attack.

Which lead to this later on in the show...

 

We return with the ringside area finally being cleared of the 6 men brawling leaving NWA World Champion Harley Race in the ring after his victory, then out comes from behind the melee Southeastern Heavyweight Champion and NWA World Champion Number 1 Contender “Dirty” Dutch Mantell and The Flame. Both men get in the ring either side of Race and attack the World Champion. Clearly Mantell wants to weaken Race before his World Title match. Charlie Platt informs us that while this is happening in the ring, there is a commotion in the parking lot. A camera finally gets outside and it’s the Studd Stable and The Rich’s with Larry Hamilton brawling in the parking lot. When a cars speeds around the corner, pulls up and out comes………… ”BULLET” BOB ARMSTRONG. Armstrong makes his way to the studio door and Charlie Platt tells the camera to follow him as he’s not meant to be here. Armstrong makes his way towards the ring where Mantell and The Flame are still brawling with Harley Race, who trying to put up a fight. Flame and Mantell haven’t caught Armstrong in there in eye line yet, Armstrong picks up the pace and charges the ring and is a house of fire attacking both Mantell and Flame. We now have the unlikely alliance of Harley Race and Bob Armstrong fighting on the same side. Charlie Platt informs us that we are running out of time with a 2 on 2 brawl happening in the ring.

The feud ended, which also saw "Dirty" Dutch being barred from Southeastern for 90 days.

 

"Bullet" Bob Armstrong defeated Southeastern Heavyweight Champion Dutch Mantell in a Loser Leaves Town for 90 days Cage Match where the Southeastern Heavyweight Title was on the line. The Flame was handcuffed to returning Brad Armstrong on the outside. "Bullet" Bob got the win following a Jaw Breaker on Dutch at the 15 minute mark, following a bloody brawl, following the pin. After the match Brad and Scott joined there father in the ring to celebrate. Then from the back two unknown wrestlers dressed similar to The Flame get in the ring along with The Flame while Dutch rolls out. The Flame and the unknown men attack the Armstrong's, some wrestlers come from the back to try and break up this attack but it looks as if "Dirty" Dutch lives up to his name and has locked the cage door. The attack continues until someone breaks the lock and the 3 attackers climb out of the cage and flee to the back while the Armstrong's are beaten down.

=== Run down of this weeks action in the AWA ===

Gordon Solie says now we are going to take a look at part 2 of the series of highlights from the very intense rivalry that has been taking place in San Antonio's Southwest Championship Wrestling between The Fabulous Ones and the men who now have both the AWA Southwest Tag Team Titles and the National Tag Titles, Tully Blanchard & David Von Erich. He reminds everyone how things ended on last week's highlights with Tully & David winning the vacant Southwest Tag Team Titles in the tournament final against The Fabs and their interview the next week proclaiming themselves The Texas Dynasty. "Now let's take a look at the rematch between these two teams that took place the very next week."

A few short clips are played of the match between The Fabulous Ones and The Texas Dynasty from 8/7/83 at The HemisFair Arena ending in a female fan jumping the rail and spraying mace into the eyes of Steve Keirn, allowing Tully Blanchard to roll him up for the victory to retain the Southwest Tag Team Titles

Gordon talks about how it turned out that woman was not just an ordinary fan and in fact was the former girlfriend of Jimmy Garvin and current girlfriend of David Von Erich a woman known to wrestling fans as "Sunshine"

Next there are clips shown of The Texas Dynasty's interview from the 8/13 airing of Southwest Championship Wrestling introducing Sunshine and the subsequent interview from The Fabulous Ones on the same episode challenging The Texas Dynasty and Killer Khan to a 6 man tag match and Tully's response at the very end of the show

Gordon talks about the relationship between Killer Khan and Tully Blanchard and how Tully used Khan to run so many of his adversaries out of Southwest Championship Wrestling like Rick McGraw, Scott Casey and Bob Sweetan. Gordon says we'll take a look at some of those incidents next week but for now let's take a look at highlights of that 6 man tag between The Texas Dynasty and Killer Khan and The Fabulous Ones and their mystery partner who turned out to be 'Hacksaw' Jim Duggan.

Clips are shown from the 8/14 main event between The Fabs & Duggan vs. The Dynasty & Killer Khan. The clips show how dominant The Fabs & Duggan turned out to be as a team and how the match ended with The Texas Dynasty and Killer Khan conceding the match via countout and running back to the locker room

Gordon talks about how that not only set up a one on one confrontation between Jim Duggan and Killer Khan that we'll see next week but how it may have influenced The Texas Dynasty to deny The Fabulous Ones another rematch for the Southwest Tag Team Titles. Gordon talks about how The Fabs received a World Tag Team Title match from Stanley Blackburn due to Tully & David refusing to wrestle them and both taking a short break from the Southwest area. Gordon gives a brief run down of the history between The Fabulous Ones and the AWA World Tag Team Champions, The Wild Bills before showing clips of the AWA World Tag Team Title match.

A few brief clips of the 9/4/83 World Tag Team Title match is shown between The Fabulous Ones and The Wild Bills that ended in a DQ victory for The Fabs after David Von Erich ran into the ring and attacked them with his Southwest Tag Team Title.

Gordon talks about how that led to another match between the two teams that ended in yet another DQ win for The Fabulous Ones that left them without gold. That however, led to one more confrontation in which Stanley Blackburn decreed that if The Texas Dynasty lost by DQ or countout they would also lose the Southwest Tag Team Titles.

Clips are shown of the 9/18 match between The Fabulous Ones and The Texas Dynasty where The Fabs were finally victorious in their quest to win the Southwest Tag Team Titles.

Gordon mentions that this moment of glory was short lived however as the next week The Texas Dynasty were able to win back the belts with the help of Mr. Saito

Only the ending of the 9/25/83 match is shown from where referee Jack Howe was knocked out and Mr. Saito came in and hit the Saito Suplex on Steve Keirn that allowed Tully to pin him and win back the Southwest Tag Team Titles

Gordon says that now after weeks of The Fabulous Ones having to jump through hurdles to get their rematch with The Texas Dynasty, they finally have it. This very night at The HemisFair Arena in San Antonio, The Fabulous Ones will challenge The Texas Dynasty in a Street Fight for both the AWA Southwest Tag Team Titles AND the National Tag Team Titles. Gordon says he'll inform the fans next week of the outcome of that match and we'll also be taking a special look at Killer Khan's reign of terror in Southwest Championship Wrestling over the summer and the man who ended it.

=== Run down of this weeks action in the AWA ===

We are back with Gordon who introduces this weeks main event which is the finals of the AWA World Tag Team Title match back in July.

 

World Tag Title Tournaments – Finals

Match 8 : The Road Warriors vs. The Wild Bills for the vacant AWA World Tag Team titles

The Road Warriors got a bye straight to the finals, courtesy of Kaissie & Zukhov and the Zambuie Express knocking each other out of the tournament, and they took advantage of it by charging to the ring to take on the Wild Bills the moment the last match ended. The Bills still had plenty of fight in them, but the Road Warriors would not give them a single moment to breath, hammering them with a hurricane of high impact offense. The match proceeded to take a strange turn, however, when who should come to ringside but Col. Buck Robley, followed by Maj. Cal Manson and … Eric Embry? Since when does he work here? The three men jawed at ringside with the ref while the Road Warriors taunted them as they pounded on the Bills. Things got even more bizarre, though, when, while the ref and the Road Warriors were distracted by the three interlopers at ringside, a large, muscular man clad in black gear and a sinister white hockey mask rushed to the ring area .

As the ref tried to shoo away the Colonel and his companions, the masked man jumped in the ring and staggered Animal with a hard, mask-assisted headbutt to the face, setting him up to be leveled by a nasty lariat by Irwin. He gave another headbutt to Hawk for good measure and clothesline him out of the ring before leaping to ringside himself. When the referee finally turned back, all he saw was Billy Jack hit a piledriver on Animal and counted the pinfall. Your new AWA World Tag Team Champions, the Wild Bills.

But that wasn’t enough for this dastardly new ensemble, as Robley brought a folded metal chair into the ring and Embry set Hawk up over it before he, Manson and the masked man gave a sickening double-spike piledriver onto the chair. The crowd howled for their blood, but five of the six men simply stood over the crumpled bodies of the mighty Road Warriors, turned to face Buck Robley and all five of them slowly gave him a military salute. Robley waited for a moment and then returned the salute. All six of them marched to the ring as security tried to keep the rabid fans away from them.

We return to Gordon Solie who thanks the fans for joining them and hope they will return next week with more action form around the AWA.

=== Show Ends ===

[dawho5]

Good catch-up effort on some of the major feuds in the different AWA affiliated promotions. Really liking this highlight show so far.

[Super Stan]

I like these shows. An interesting read which as GOC said, would allow viewers see some things not on their local TV.

[Boon]

Sunday 23th October

Gordon starts off this week's Southwest Championship Wrestling highlights by congratulating The Fabulous Ones on their win over The Texas Dynasty in the Texas Tornado Street Fight which makes them now the AWA Southwest and National Tag Team Champions. He says this week they are defending those championships in a 'Last Dance' Steel Cage match with The Texas Dynasty that will mark the last time the two teams will face off in the year of 1983. Gordon says he'll let the fans know next week who was victorious in that Cage match but this week he's going to be talking about Killer Khan's reign of terror over Texas this past summer and the man who was able to stop it: 'Hacksaw' Jim Duggan. Gordon says before we take a look at Killer Khan however we'll hear the words of Tully Blanchard that preceded the arrival of the Monster from Mongolia

Tully's promo from the 7/9 edition of Southwest Championship Wrestling is shown with Tully saying if he wasn't going to be given better competition he would force some to be found by getting rid of the "old, tired and weak" that he was sick of facing

Gordon says some of the actions of Killer Khan were too brutal to be shown here on television so he'll only be able to show a few choice highlights.

A montage of clips is shown of Killer Khan's time in Southwest Championship Wrestling to the song of 'Death Rides a Horse' by Ennio Morricone. The clips include his attacks on Eric Embry & Rick McGraw that put them out of Southwest and a few short highlights of his Texas Death Match with Scott Casey and the Mongolian Stretcher match with Bob Sweetan.

Gordon says hope was almost lost for the fans of Southwest Championship Wrestling as they saw so many of their heroes carried out of the arenas, never to be seen again. However unbeknownst to them, help was on it's way in the form of the 6'3, 300 pound man known as 'Hacksaw' Jim Duggan

Clips of 6 man tag from 8/14 between The Fabulous Ones & Jim Duggan vs. The Texas Dynasty & Killer Khan are re-shown with more being included than on last week's show. The clips of that match are then preceded by Tully's promo from 8/20 challenging Jim Duggan to face Killer Khan in a "Coward's Way Out" match.

Gordon explains the rules of a Coward's Way Out match which meant no pinfalls, no submissions, no DQs and no countouts, the only way to win the match was to have your opponent literally run back to the locker room and concede the match.

Clips of the 8/21 Coward's Way Out match are shown with the highlight being 'Hacksaw' Jim Duggan blocking the Death Blow that put out so many of Southwest's old guard and then stomping on that cast covered thumb until the cast came off and then Killer Khan running back to the locker room rather than get back in the ring with Duggan after being hit with a Spear that sent him flying through the ropes

Gordon says that was the last time that Killer Khan has been seen in Texas and since then Jim Duggan has made quite a mark on Southwest Championship Wrestling, including making quite an enemy in the form of Sheik Adnan al-Kaissie. Gordon says he'll talk more about that issue on a future edition of 'This Week in the AWA' but next week he'll be looking at the partnership turned bitter rivalry that developed between Jose Lothario and one of the hottest young stars on the rise in the world of professional wrestling, El Gran Apollo.

=== Run down of this weeks action in The AWA ===

We return with Gordon Solie who says we are now going to a special 3-on-2 Southeastern Tag Team Titles match from this past monday in Birmingham Alabama.

 

Southeastern Tag Team Champions The Heavenly Bodies (Bobby Eaton & Tom Pritchard) and Jim Cornette defeat Ricky Gibson And Tim Horner in a special 3-on-2 handicap match when Jim Cornette pinned Ricky Gibson in 12 minutes. Jim Cornette spent the entire match standing on the apron avoiding getting involved only to be tagged in by mistake and Gibson and Horner finally get there hands on Cornette. The end came when Horner and Gibson had dominated the match and looked as if they were going to get the win, only for a tall man in a black suit, hat and sunglasses comes to the ring and hits a Side Walk Slam on Gibson behind the referees back who was dealing with Horner fighting both Eaton and Pritchard on the outside. The mystery man then picks up Cornette and places him on top of the motionless Gibson for the referee to count the 3 for the Heavenly Bodies to retain the titles. The mystery man dressed in a suit, puts Cornette over his shoulder and carries him to the back.

And for those of you that saw Southeastern Championship Wrestling last night on WTBS, you will know the rematch has been signed for tomorrow evening in Birmingham, but this time in a steel cage match so there will be no outside interference from Cornette and the man we now know as Big Bubba Lynch.

=== Run down of this weeks action in The AWA ===

We now have a match that happened just two nights ago at the Mecca in Milwaukee on an AWA show, in a match that has been coming for months.

 

AWA World Tag Title Cage Match : The Wild Bills © vs. The Road Warriors

Robley and Manson were back out again to back up their charges, the Wild Bills, while the Warriors were joined by their ally, Moose Cholak, and their mascot, Eddie Mekka. The cage was intended to keep outside interference to a minimum, but that didn’t stop them from trying. For all that the Wild Bills had been no strangers to taking short cuts (such as deliberately getting DQed) to keep a hold of their belts, they certainly knew how to fight when cornered. The Warriors brought the full might of their power offence to the Bills, but the Bills fought back in kind, determined not to relinquish their belts without giving everything they’ve got. First Cal Manson tried to get something in the cage but was tackled to the ground by Moose Cholak. Then Buck Robley tried to climb up the outside of the cage, only for Eddie Mekka to grab ahold of his leg and refuse to let him go. No matter how hard Robley kicked at him, Mekka would not relinquish his grip on the Colonel. Inside the cage, Animal was finally able to elevate Irwin to set him up for the flying clothesline by Hawk. Animal was able to hold back Billy Jack from interfering and Hawk was able to get the pinfall and finally bring the AWA tag titles to the Road Warriors.

=== Show Ends ===

[goc]

I'm digging this and how it's given me an outlet to up the profile of my top acts like Duggan, The Fabs & the now fractured Texas Dynasty. Eventually I might actually get the national audience "caught up" enough that I can start sending in current stuff but want to get El Gran Apollo some national shine with a Jose Lothario feud package before I get there.

[dawho5]

I like that both organizations have weekly highlight shows that put the spotlight on some great feuds that a lot of people would eat up, but just wouldn't be able to see otherwise. Seems like it would have changed the way wrestling worked in a lot of ways though. It would be much harder to bring people in in a different role somewhere else after a dastardly heel run that got national TV.