AWA Championship Wrestling 5/9/1987

AWA Championship Wrestling 5/9/1987

Ron Trongard and Russ Francis are on commentary.

Larry Nelson welcomes us to the show. He salutes a fan named Vicki Anderson from Scotland and calls her the fan of the week. Larry talks about how you can become a fan of the week then talks about the second place prize being a Ninja Star Wars game. A ninja then walks in and scares Larry.

Curt Hennig vs Jerry Saganovich

 

That's Jerry Saggs. He's a lot lighter and younger here but still has the mohawk. He's also got tights with stars on the side.

They lock up and break. They trade armlocks and JS ropebreaks.  JS waistlock takedowns him. Curt gets his back and gets off. Curt takes him down and hammerlocks him. JS back elbows him then side headlocks him. 

JS shoulders him over then knee lifts him twice. JS hits corner spears and Curt has to get a breather. Curt pulls his hair and hits chops in the corner. Curt then slaps him and drops him with a knee lift.

Curt punches him in the gut. JS eye rakes him then back elbows him for 2. JS slams him for 2. Curt knees him in the gut several times then chops him. Curt hits a nice dropkick then nukes him with a stiff lariat. Curt perfectplexes him and pins him.

Thoughts: It was a longer one-sided match. The camera's missed some shots here and weren't that good on this one. Jerry didn't show that much here and needed to hit some better knees to the gut. Curt had a nice dropkick and a nasty nasty lariat here. Curt won as expected.

The top AWA contenders are: 

1) Curt Henning

2) "Superfly" Snuka

3) Colonel Debeers

4) Super Ninja

5) Mr. Magnificent

They shill some upcoming shows. 

Ron Trongard interviews Larry Zbyszko. They talk about the controversial AWA Title match at Superclash 2 between Nick Bockwinkel and Curt Hennig. Larry says there was no controversy. He says the ref said Nick lost and said Nick lost 1-2-3. He says Stanley Blackburn is more concerned about why he had 50 cents in his pocket. Larry says Nick got beat. He said Ray Stevens accused him and Curt and then Blackburn held up the title. Larry says he's the #1 contender. He says he doesn't care if he faces Nick or Curt, 1987 is his year. Larry says he's been sidestepped and will hold on until Bockwinkel is not the champ anymore. 

Mr. Saito and Super Ninja vs Nacho Barrera and Jake "The Milkman" Milliman

Larry Zbyszko interrupts intros. He says he will make sure Bockwinkel and Gagne run into the three musketeers soon. He says if they think this will be forgotten, they don't know him.

Nacho waistlocks Saito then is taken down from behind. Saito armdrags him then does an armbar. Ninja is tagged in and stomps Nacho. Jake gets in and takes shots from Ninja. Ninja elbows him in the neck. Saito chokes Jake on the ropes from the apron. 

Ninja facelocks Jake and headlocks him. Saito boots Jake. Jake slips through the legs then Nacho gets in. Saito double chops Nacho then lariats him. Saito sharpshooters Nacho and submits him.

Thoughts: It was all squash and not that interesting. There wasn't much here but various strikes and chokes from the heels.  

The top AWA tag teams are:

1) Super Ninja and Mr. Saito

2) Mr. Magnificent and Buddy Rose

3) Boris Zhukov and The Blaster

4) Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens

5) DJ Peterson and Curt Hennig

Trongard interviews Jerry Blackwell. He talks about his win at Superclash II. Jerry is asked about the Bockwinkel/Hennig title match. Jerry says if you put a roll of coins in your hand, it makes it like a rock. He says Ray Stevens hit Curt with a whole roll of coins. He says he'd like to have a chance at whoever the champ is. He says he will watch some wrestling in Georgia and doesn't think Larry can beat Curt or Nick. 

Nick Bockwinkel vs Pete Sanchez

Pete nails Nick from behind and clubs on him. Nick's head is banged off the buckles. Pete chokes him on the ropes then stomps him from behind. Pete stomps him in the corner. Nick punches him in the head and sends him out. Pete's head is banged off the buckles.

Nick punches Pete and bangs his head off the buckles. Nick back body drops him. Nick slams him. Nick hits another slam. Nick then figure fours him and submits him.

Thoughts: I was surprised at how much Pete got in here. It wasn't much but punches and stomps here with Nick winning as expected.  

Larry Nelson shows us clips of: 

AWA Women's Title - Sherri Martel (c) vs Despina Montagas

We join this in progress. Sherri throws Des out to the floor. Sherri bangs her head off the apron and drops her with a punch on the floor. Sherri chokes her in the ring then jack knifes her for a 2 count. Sherri drops on Des' neck. Sherri clotheslines her then Des lariats her out of the corner.

Des hits snapmares and sends Sherri out. Buddy Rose checks on Sherri. Sherri is on the apron and is thrown in then Des throws her down by the head. Des drives her down by the head again for 2.  Sherri low blows her and catapults her over the top for the DQ. Des wins the match but not the title.

Thoughts: Des didn't have the greatest offense but she did sell and did show some fire. Sherri bumped around as she so famously does and I marked out for her low blowing Des.

The Midnight Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty) vs Brian Knobs and Mike Richards

Only one "b" in Knobbs' name here today. The Rockers are the current AWA tag champs. Larry Nelson has Rockers glasses on. Nick Bockwinkel is on commentary for this.

Knobbs and SM go at it. SM is held on the ropes, Knobbs misses and knocks Mike off the apron. SM flips off of Knobbs in the corner and hip throws him. MJ dropkicks Knobbs out.

Knobbs wristlocks MJ then MJ does a seated flip off the top to reverse it. MJ armlocks Knobbs. MJ snapmares him then SM slingshot stomps Knobbs. MJ jumps off of SM's back and hip attacks Knobbs.

Knobbs back elbows MJ. Mike stomps on MJ and chinlocks him. MJ hammerlocks him and drops knees on the arm. MJ drops down and Mike runs into an SM dropkick for 2. Mike back elbows SM then knee lifts him. SM leapfrogs him then backslides him for 2. 

Mike eye rakes SM and chops him. SM chops back then hits a big lariat on Mike. MJ flying back elbows Mike. MJ drops down and SM hits a top rope crossbody on Mike to win.

Thoughts: It was a good squash from The Rockers. They flew around with creative offense that they didn't usually do and the jobbers were just along for the ride. The Rockers looked so far above anyone else on this show.

We get more hype for some house shows.

Ron Trongard interviews Nick Bockwinkel and Stanley Blackburn after SuperClash II. Nick says he's settled down and is amazed at Larry Z encouraging Curt Hennig. He says Larry does nothing to encourage anyone. He says Curt was given something from Larry and his lights went out. Nick says he needs to wait for the championship committee. He says he has to sit back and wait like everyone else for the decision.

Blackburn says the decision isn't entirely in his hands, but the committee. He says he only votes in case of a tie. He says they will look over it and make their decision in the next few days. Ron then says we will know who the champ is then.

We go to break and Ron closes the show. He says the controversy from the title match rages on. He says many people believe Larry loaded Curt's hand with a roll of coins. He says Curt then punched Nick and knocked him on his back. He says Curt then covered him for a 3 count. He says we will have to wait for Blackburn to make the decision.

Overall thoughts: This was all about the outcome of the Superclash II title match along with some squashes. There wasn't anything too interesting going on wrestling wise though The Midnight Rockers looked really good. If you can handle squashes it was fine but there's no real reason to seek this one out.