The Spectacular Legacy of the AWA

This review is basically the matches that come as bonus footage on the WWE's AWA set from about 10 years ago. The match listing looks pretty interesting, but sadly most of the matches are clipped to shit, with only the last three appearing in full. It's pretty disappointing, but the three full matches are all good-great, and there's some fun to be had within the clipped bouts

 

High Flyers vs Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens

This was a fun match, worked at a pretty frantic pace throughout. Loved how vicious the heels were from the opening bell, which sets the theme for the match: Bockwinkel and Stevens would cheat at every opportunity they could.  The High Flyers have to rely on their pace to control things, and there is a lovely sequence where Stevens catches a Gagne dropkick and turns it into a giant swing, only for Gagne to use the momentum to flip Stevens over with his legs. The end sees Gagne lock in a sleeper, only for Bobby Heenan to distract the ref to allow Stevens and Bockwinkel to double-team Gagne. The ref gets so fed up with Heenan that he decks him, and the heels attack the ref and continue to destroy Gagne. It takes the intervention of Larry Hennig to end the onslaught.

Verne Gagne vs Baron von Raschke

This is clipped in places, but remains pretty easy to follow. Gagne was 48 here, but still was quite sprightly and moved quickly throughout. As a Fritz von Erich fan, I dug the tension of Raschke powering up from the mat to lock the Iron Claw on Gagne. I loved Raschke trying to hit Gagne, who ducked and dived to evade the blows and locked in a nice looking armbar. Gagne used his speed again to avoid more blows and lock in a sleeper. The end sees Raschke try a back suplex, only for Gagne to get his feet on the top rope and power backwards, landing on top for the pin. It was a slightly more awkward version of the Hart/Piper ending, but this was still fun.

Pat Patterson & Ray Stevens vs Billy Robinson & Frankie Hill

The story here saw Robinson stepping in as partner to Hill, whose partner hadn’t shown. Stevens and Patterson take control with a sneak attack, but Robinson takes over and slingshots Patterson into Stevens. A big backbreaker on Patterson sees him pick up the first fall.

Something that becomes apparent in the second fall is that Hill is pretty useless. Most of the time he’s in sees him on defence, always sacrificing the advantage. In contrast, Robinson looks terrific throughout here. He does some fun looking arm work, but it always manages to look vicious, like he’s doing real damage to the arm. Things like going for an Irish whip, but holding onto the arm to yank them back into the middle of the ring. He also holds Stevens in a front hammerlock which he then rams into the mat with a rolling armbar. Love it. Stevens and Patterson take some big bumps for him, as he’s always one step ahead of them. Stevens hits a top rope  knee drop to Robinson’s back while he’s got Patterson covered, earning a DQ and giving the match to Hill and Robinson. They brutalise Robinson post match, and I thought this was a lot of fun.

Verne Gagne & Mad Dog Vachon vs Jesse Ventura & Adrian Adonis

This is JIP. I liked Gagne showing a tougher side, going for eye rakes on the heels, but this match is a whole load of nothing, running barely 5 minutes of face offence before it dissolves into a brawl and gets thrown out

Verne Gagne vs Nick Bockwinkel

This was billed as Gagne’s last match, defending the heavyweight title. We’re again JIP with a ref bump. Gagne was looking significantly older than in the Vachon match and, while he was still moving around well, he looks too old to be a credible champion at this point. Bock hits a piledriver for two. Gagne locks in a sleeper, but Bockwinkel reverses it and looks to have the match won. Gagne tries to break free before eventually hitting a desperation back-suplex for the win. 5 mins aired, but it seemed fine.

High Flyer vs Jesse Ventura & Adrian Adonis

We’re heavily in JIP territory now, as this is another 5 min clip job. Ventura really took awkward bumps, too exaggerated for a guy his size. I dug Brunzell in this match, you can sense his hatred for the opposition with the aggression of his attacks. He can’t even resist when Ventura is stuck in the Flyers’ corner, choking him behind the referee’s back. I also liked Adonis when he got in, laying into Gagne with some nice clubbing blows, and hitting a decent looking bulldog. He also takes some nice bumps, flying into the turnbuckles on a failed second bulldog. Everything breaks down and a spike piledriver on Gagne is enough for the win. Would have liked to have seen more. 

Nick Bockwinkel vs Hulk Hogan

Another match clipped to the final five minutes. Again, what we saw was quite fun, and Hogan was ridiculously over. The countalong when he rams Bock into the turnbuckles 10 times is really loud. Hogan hits the big boot and legdrop, but Bobby Heenan hits him with a foreign object over the ref’s head as he goes for the cover. Hogan is cut open, but manages to grab the object when Heenan tries to throw it to Bockwinkel, and nails Bock for the win and title. A caption at the bottom informs that Hogan was stripped of the title a week later for using the foreign object.

Jesse Ventura vs Baron von Raschke

Not that I suspect this match will be much cop, but this feels like a waste of time due to how little of the match is shown. Of the 7 minutes run time, 2 mins is an interview with Ventura, 1.5 mins is the introductions, including Ventura taking off his earrings for 30 seconds, then we clip to a Ventura armbar for a minute. The Baron makes the comeback, claws Ventura to the outside and we get a double-countout. Dreadful.

Hulk Hogan vs Mr Saito

This is billed as a handicap match with Mr Hatori on the DVD, but this is clearly a singles match. We come in to find Hogan in control of Saito, before the interference of David Schultz leads to a ref bump. Hatori throws salt in Hogan’s eyes, and Schultz works him over with Saito for the DQ. Afterwards, Hogan beats both men up. Waste of time.

The Legion of Doom vs The Crusher, Larry Hennig & Curt Hennig

Our final JIP bout. The LOD consists of the Road Warriors and Paul Ellering. Larry Hennig makes the hot tag to Curt, but he soon gets worked over by the Warriors. Big back suplex by Hawk and some real strength by Animal to hold Hennig up for three backbreakers. Ellering is tagged in, but is the weak link of the team, as Hawk has to save him on a rollup before Henning is able to tag out. Crusher rolls over Ellering, Hennig throws both Warriors to the floor before hitting a move the camera misses for the win. Looked fun. 

The Midnight Rockers vs Doug Somers & Buddy Rose

This is a cage match, with pinfall and submission rules only. The Rockers totally dominate the heels for the first part of the match, busting both men open early on. I loved how they teamed up to whip Somers into the cage with real velocity. Rose smartly eye-rakes Jannetty as he gestures for a noggin-knocker, but the Rockers are so fired up that Marty is soon back in control. Jannetty starts picking up the heels on pins to inflict more punishment. It gets to the point where Somers is only able to get control on Michaels with a desperation headbutt to the groin, rising up from his knees. Even then Michaels looks fired up, and Rose has to repeatedly ram Michaels into the cage to wear him down. Michaels starts to bleed, so Rose focuses his attention on Shawn’s head with a DDT. Loved Rose and Somers focusing on Michaels’ cut, biting and punching at the head. Somers lifts Shawn from the mat on a pin, but this backfires as Michaels starts to fight him from the mat and is able to make the hot tag. Jannetty ends up fighting with Rose on top of the cage, and wins, sending Rose crashing to the mat. Jannetty follows this with a crossbody from the top onto Somers for the win. Really great match, a proper brutal, bloodsoaked war.

 

Curt Hennig vs Nick Bockwinkel

Man, this is a really great match with a really shaky finish. Bockwinkel is defending the AWA title here. Loved all the matwork at the start. It really felt like both guys were earning the holds they put on, and had some awesome little touches like Bock twice reversing a headlock to a headscissors, but Hennig tucking in his head the third time, leaving Bock stuck in the hold. Hennig misses a corner charge, and hurtles to the outside, hurting his arm. Bockwinkel focuses on this injury, and works the arm beautifully. I like how he constantly changes position when in holds, working the limb and making it harder for Hennig to reverse. He also lays into the injury with some nice meaty blows. Hennig attacks Bock’s knee to escape, and now this gives him a bodypart to focus on. I love how Bockwinkel sells the figure four, first by panicking when he realises Hennig is locking it in, then by biting his fingers to try and divert the pain when it is locked in. Similarly, I loved Hennig trying to grab Bock’s arm to prevent him making the ropes. Everything just feels so logical. Hennig starts to build momentum, getting close falls off a sunset flip, a rollup and a crossbody, but each time Bockwinkel is able to escape. Hennig hits the Axe to the head, but Bockwinkel makes the ropes. A piledriver is followed by a dropkick, but Bockwinkel is able to survive. Both go down, and a ringside Larry Zbyszko slips Hennig a roll of dimes. Really subtly too, before Henning hits Bockwinkel to win the title. Afterwards, however, there’s all manner of controversy as the title gets held up, pending a review of the video. A really unsatisfying ending to a terrific bout.

Jerry Lawler vs Kerry von Erich

This match, however, manages an even worse ending. This is a unification match for Lawler’s AWA and Kerry’s WCCW titles, and you can see throughout the backstage politics interfering in an otherwise fun match. Von Erich manages to cut his arm as he takes off his rope, so Lawler drops it over the top rope right away to at least give a reason for it to be bleeding. The early stages of this bout see Von Erich in control, with Lawler’s comebacks very short lived. Lawler is great at selling the shock of his missed punches, and I loved his smugness as a Von Erich splash is met with knees. It’s this smugness that makes Von Erich overwhelming him more effective, as Lawler realises he’s in big trouble. Von Erich even no sells a piledriver and, after an unaware Lawler has finished parading round, levels the King with a discus punch. When Lawler does get a pin attempt, Von Erich is healthy enough to press Lawler onto the ref. This is followed by Kerry hitting a piledriver with no ref to count, covering Lawler for 10-15 seconds, obviously to save face for Von Erich when he loses. Lawler has to resort to a foreign object in his tights to take control, busting Kerry open. He’s still too confident though, and Von Erich catch him with a claw to the midsection as he goes for the 2^nd rope fistdrop. Kerry moves the claw to the head, as the ref starts checking his bleeding, telegraphing the shitty finish. Kerry is firmly in control, but Lawler uses repeated hidden weapon shots to turn the tide before peppering him with blows, including some lovely showboating. Both go down from double blows, and Von Erich locks on the claw in the middle of the ring. It looks like he’s totally in control, so of course that’s the point where the ref stops the bout for Von Erich’s blood loss. Just the worst “protect the loser” ending that makes both men look bad, and the ref look like a total idiot. Having the “winner” passed out on the mat with the “loser” on his feet pissed off helped nobody. Aside from that, the match was really fun, with Lawler’s smug heel mannerisms really telling the story.