Just watched an AWA episode on ESPN Classic...

[#1-norm-fan]

There was a random match between Col. DeBeers and Nick Bockwinkle that was about a million times better than any match on WWE TV today. Every movie from the beginning of the match on was sold throughout and by the end (It went to a 15 minute draw) you got a genuine feeling that every little punch, every little rest hold, everything from the opening minutes had shown an effect.

Why the FUCK is this such a hard concept to understand??? :mad:

P.S. Col. DeBeers was awesome. :(

[Nicky Fives]

Kiddies don't want something that makes sense... they want to see superhero Cena no-sell moves and submit guys to a half-assed version of a real move, or pin him with a "Super-effective" finisher

[St. Jimmy]

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_LZ1H0fj8tDA/SHCD8PQUQ5I/AAAAAAAAAEI/rGfOWi08HV0/s400/cena_2.jpg

[IC Champion]

AWA was terrible.

[dablackguy]

I think it was like a month or 2 ago i turned on AWA late on night and saw Scott Hall wrestling - he looked like the Marlboro man

I laughed hard. The point is I agree, there's some endearing quality to it.

[#1-norm-fan]

AWA was terrible.

Regardless...

[IC Champion]

Regardless...

LOL.

[Testicle]

Selling is a lost art.

[Testicle]

Now we get 'X-division' wrestlers hitting each other with 1000 moves a minute and acting like nothing happened, times have changed.

[Gertner]

If DeBeers would have been in the WWF during that era he would have been the top heel.

[Stealth-Icon]

I watched AWA all the time as a kid and was glad when I found the classics on ESPN. Eric Bischoff as interviewer...lol

[#1-norm-fan]

If DeBeers would have been in the WWF during that era he would have been the top heel.

He was so ahead of his time it was crazy.

[Seth82]

I'm old enough to remember the original AWA albeit when it was in bad shape around '88 til '90

But I still like to watch the old re-runs on ESPN Classic every once in awhile

I have a bunch of them taped

Funny to see Eric Bischoff on those later shows and who woulda thought in 1989 this guy would go on to be president of WCW


1986 was their last good yr with the big supercard Wrestlerock at the Metrodome in Minneapolis

plus they had Superfly Jimmy Snuka!

Here's the card for WrestleRock

Event: AWA WrestleRock
Date: April 20, 1986
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Arena: The MetroDome
Attendence: 22,000

Brad Rheingans pinned Boris Zuhkov....Little Mr. T and Cowboy Lang defeated Lord Littlebrook and Little Tokyo....Col DeBeers defeated Wahoo McDaniel by Disqualification....Doug Somers and Buddy Rose defeated The Midnight Rockers (Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels) when Somers pinned Jannetty....Tiger Mask (Mitsuharu Misawa) pinned Buck Zumhoffe....Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda defeated The Fabulous Ones (Steve Kiern and Stan Lane) when Windham pinned Lane....Giant Baba pinned Bob Brown....Rick Martel and Harley Race (16:00) fought to a Double Count Out....Battle Royal: Sherri Martel won a "battle royal." Also in the match were: Debbie Combs, Candi Divine, Rose Divine, Joyce Grable, Kat LeRoux, Despina Montagas, Misty Blue Simmes, and Luna Vachon....AWA America's Heavyweight Title Match: Sgt Slaughter defeated Kamala by Disqualification....AWA World Tag Team Title Match: Curt Hennig and Scott Hall defeated Bill and Scott Irwin when Hall pinned Bill to retain the tag team titles....Boxing Match: Scott LeDoux defeated Larry Zbysko by Disqualification in a "boxing" match....AWA World Heavyweight Title Match: Stan Hansen defeated Nick Bockwinkle (10:00) by Disqualification to retain the title....Steel Cage Match: The Road Warriors (Hawk and Animal) defeated The Freebirds (Jimmy Garvin and Michael Hayes) (7:00) in a "steel cage" match when Animal pinned Garvin....Steel Cage Match: Jimmy Snuka and Greg Gagne defeated Nord the Barbarian and Bruiser Brody in a "steel cage" match when Snuka pinned Nord....Steel Cage Match: Verne Gagne pinned Adnan Al-Kassie in a "steel cage" match.

[Jordan]

That card is a fucking mess. Dragon Gate USA just did a three hour show with six matches!

[Gertner]

Pretty good talent in the card. That's how all mega shows were in those days. Check out the amount of matches in WM1 through 5.

[Seth82]

Yup Starrcades were just as long at that time as well

also here's another great supercard held the year prior when AWA was working alongside with NWA to try and derail Vince's WWF which was unstoppable at that time

The 1985 event was held at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois on September 28, 1985.

Steve Regal defeated Brad Rheingans to retain the AWA Light Heavyweight Championship
Little Tokyo defeated Little Mr. T to retain the NWA World Midget's Championship
Sherri Martel defeated Candy Divine to win the AWA World Women's Championship
Mil Máscaras defeated Buddy Roberts to retain the IWA Heavyweight Championship
Jumbo Tsuruta, Giant Baba, & Genichiro Tenryu defeated Harley Race, Bill Irwin & Scott Irwin
Kerry Von Erich defeated Jimmy Garvin to retain the WCCW Texas Championship
Krusher Khruschev, Ivan Koloff and Nikita Koloff defeated Crusher, Dick the Bruiser and Baron Von Raschke to retain the NWA World Six-Man Tag Team Championship
Sgt. Slaughter defeated Boris Zukhov by disqualification to retain the AWA America's Championship
Jerry Blackwell defeated Kamala in a $10,000 "bodyslam" match
Greg Gagne, Scott Hall and Curt Hennig defeated Ray Stevens, Nick Bockwinkel and Larry Zbyszko
The Road Warriors (Hawk and Animal) defeated The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy) via disqualification to retain the AWA World Tag Team Championship. The Fabulous Freebirds had actually won by pinfall, due to illegal interference by Michael Hayes; however Verne Gagne intervened and by virtue of the instant replay rule gave back the victory and the titles to the Road Warriors
Rick Martel fought Stan Hansen to a double disqualification to retain the AWA World Heavyweight Championship
Ric Flair defeated Magnum T.A. to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship

[Gertner]

Love how Greg Gagne piggbacked onto anything that was over.

AWA always had solid tag teams, from the Road Warriors, to the Midnight Rockers to possbily the most under-rated tag team ever: Badd Company. Even the Destruction Crew were pretty awesome during the AWA's last stand.

[Seth82]

Yeah Destruction Crew were pretty cool during the dying days of AWA

and can you imagine if Greg were to become champion of AWA

That woulda killed the territory even faster

Here he was a middle aged guy in his early 40's at that time and Verne tried to make him look unstoppable against a monster like Bruiser Brody

[Gertner]

Despite Verne being so out of it, at least he was smart enough to not make Greg champion.

Greg was great though in tag matches. The High Flyers with Brunzell was a solid team. Even in the late eighties, Greg was in some great tag matches. He was a solid "face in peril"

[Shadow]

The AWA stuff that I've seen is like...1000 times better then anything else I've seen in today's times. The selling, the commentary, everything. Just alot better.

Of course that's just my opinion so who knows how much it counts.

[USAUSA1]

That because times change again. People want things to be simple and more real(UFC is an example,I know there's a "close" thread for this argument). It's also the reason a low budget MMA promotion can outdraw TNA in ppv buyrates and attendance. AWA on ESPN still is fake but it look simple compare to WWE and TNA. This is 2009

I'm glad they not canceling AWA like they did with the UWF.