The American Wrestling Association 1986

[Miami Vice]

The big show was great even though Henning didn't walk away with the strap. Lets hope that Kerry can keep his nose away from the *dust*. I'm hoping for a prolonged Hall/Henning Tag Title reign.

Edited November 27, 2004 by Miami Vice

[ChuBalso]

Updated flurry coming today.

[mets4ever11]

This has been really fun to read so far, I'm looking forward to the next update

[Miami Vice]

Jav, could you give us a full roster for your promotion please?

[ChuBalso]

AWA Wrestling

On ESPN

Time: 4pm – 5pm ET

Date: 6/19/86

Hosts: Lee Marshall & Dr. Slick

-by Dave Schmeltzer

AWA on ESPN opened up on with Lee Marshall putting Greg Gagne over big time, for his big win over Scott Hall last week. He also touched on Hall’s less then respectful comments towards Larry ‘The Ax Hennig’, and promised that Curt Hennig would be on TV, tonight, to address everything. Feature matches this week were the AWA debut of Eric Embry, Bad Company’s Pat Tanaka vs. Buddy Rose, and Sgt. Slaughter vs. Larry Zbysco! As the Bigelow’s were heading into the ring, Lee Marshall said that since Joe Blanchard was now an interviewer, he had no idea who his new broadcast partner was, other than that his name was Dr. Slick. At this point, that skinny black man, who was on TV, during the first half of last week’s show, made his way to the broadcast table….

Marshall: “ Are you Dr. Slick?”

Slick: “ That’s right, Larry! I am Dr. Slick…aptly named because I’m Sliiiiiiccckkk, in everything I do! Right heaa, from da Minneapolis hospital of Slickness! Yeah, baby!”

Marshall: “ Well, ok…this will certainly be interesting! Welcome aboard! Lets get to the ring, where Lou Albano’s & Sherri Martel’s Big Bad Bulls, are ready for action!”

Slick: “ Yeaaah! They is big n’ bad, alright!”

Dr. Slick, from the 'Hospital of Slickness'

Is now the colour commentator of AWA on ESPN

- The Big Bad Challenge -

The Big Bad Bulls (Big Van & Big Bam Bigelow) d. Jerry Lynn & Johnnie Stewart w/ Lou Albano & Sherri Martell

Marshall & Dr. Slick put over the Bigelow’s huge, citing that they placed the Midnight Rockers in the hospital, since Night Of The Champions. Slick mentioned that that’s why he doesn’t commit himself to one woman. So, he’s a ladies man, too. Marshall promised comments from the Midnight Rockers next week, from their hospital in downtown Minneapolis. Both Bigelows looked quite impressive, mostly because their opponents were less than half their size. Final moments of the match came after the Bigelow Bash, a double turnbuckle avalanche by both men, onto Stewart. After the match, Larry Nelson, made his way into the ring, to get a word with the Bigelows.

Overall: 65

Crowd: 46

Match: 85

Nelson addressed Sherri, first – asking her of her reasons from calling in Lou Albano & The Bigelows after the young heartthrob team of the Rockers.

Martel: “ Heartthrob! Heartthrob!! No!! They’re little stuck-up brats! I gave my everything to them—And what did they do? They turned their back on me!!! They ---”

Nelson: “ They wanted nothing to do with you Sherri! They know about your track record! They made it clear that they wanted absolutely nothing to do with the likes of --”

Albano: “ Hey, Hey, you’d better watch it right there Larry Nelson! Because that’s what got the Rockers in trouble in the first place! You see, you treat this lady with respect! That ain’t no way to treat a lady, baby! So Sherri called on me, the Guiding Light, to find the BIGGEST! BADDEST tag team I could find to take out those little brats! And I did just that! Look at these men! [*Crowd Booes*] And now, right here, tonight, baby! Yea, baby! Imma gonna show you how powerful these men are, baby!”

With that, Albano went outside the ring, and brought a small box into the ring. First, he gave a piece of wood to Big Bam Bigelow. After holding it up for a while, Big Bam smashed the piece into two pieces off of his head, which awed the crowd. The crowd now looked at Big Bam’s tattooed head in a different light. Next, Sherri pulled a piece of Iron out of the box that she gave to Big Van Bigelow. Big Van, then bent this piece of iron, awing the crowd once again. After this exhibition was done, Nelson acted as if he’d seen a ghost. To end the interview, Sherri screamed into the mic;

“ So Rockers!! You’d better not ever come back!! Cos if you do, MY BIGELOWS are going to rip you apart, just like they did to the wood and iron!! Jannetty, you’re the Iron! Michaels, you’re the Wood! And you’ll both be destroyed!!”

She and Albano laughed all the way to the back, with the Bigelows. Really good segment for them, pushing them as true powerhouses – And further widening the (obvious) size difference between them and the Midnight Rockers. 75%

Captain Lou Albano gained 3 points of overness from this segment. Bam Bigelow gained 1 point of overness from this segment.

-ADVERTS/HOUSE SHOW ANNOUNCEMENTS-

Wayne Bloom d. Ken Patera

Another win for Bloom, except unlike last week’s match, this one he looked to have had to earn it. See-saw match here, until the very last moments of the match, where Bloom cradled Patera with a handful of tights. Slick put over Bloom,

“Now, there’s a man who wiiiiiillllllll go a looooongggg way hea in the AWA! Dats a smart, smart, smart man! And Patera just paid!”

Match lagged on just a bit, as Bloom posed in what seemed to be intervals of 30 seconds.

Overall: 47

Crowd: 42

Match: 53

Ken Patera didn't really sell very much, which hurt the match rating.

- Eric Embry’s Piledriver -

Eric Embry d. ‘Outlaw’ Ron Bass

Eric Embry had a small backstage interview with Blanchard, putting over his Piledriver. Embry looked good in his debut, as he seemed to have a small following in the crowd. Marshall cited Embry’s past accomplishments in the Texas territories. Very smart of the AWA and Marshall to link Embry to another Texan, the current popular AWA Champion, Kerry Von Erich. Embry nailed Bass with the Piledriver at 6:53.

Overall: 53

Crowd: 45

Match: 61

-ADVERTS/HOUSE SHOW ADVERTS

- Larry Zbysco vows to win the AWA Title once Again -

Coming out of the break, Larry Nelson was in the squared circle, and brought at Larry Zbysco. Larry had a lot to say.

Nelson: “…and if anyone was close to winning that AWA Title, it was you, who actually lost to Von Erich, the tournament winner, during the semi-finals!”

Zbysco: “ Lemme tell ya something Nelson, I had Von Erich beat! I had him defeated! I had him a bloody mess!! Blood was pouring – POURING, out of his head!!

At 11:30, Zbysco began to set Von Erich up for a superplex. The announcers pushed the idea that if he landed this move, it would be over – lots of stalling here to build heat; Blood was POURING from Von Erich’s head at this point. Zbysco, heavily fatigued, really took some time climbing to the second turnbuckle, and getting set up for the move. Just as he was about to perform the move, Von Erich began to fight back. After a few punches to the head, Zbysco was kicked off the turnbuckle, landing on that ‘bad’ shoulder that had been worked on. DaRusha checked Von Erich’s head, again, as he started to stagger around the ring, with the fans behind him every step of the way.

[Dingle]

Another great update Javy and great show write-up, is it me? or is there no full roster?

[ChuBalso]

No full roster, which is why I gave the top 5 lists in the beginning of the diary.

In those days, all that really mattered were the top 5-6 wrestlers. Half of the roster were jobbers. We're all familiar now with the main guys....

Of course, however, I will give a full roster following the next 'Big Event', with updates on overness etc.

[Dingle]

good good, rosters are usually helpful to me, so i can see the heels and faces and stuff without reading through all the shows, cause i was never an AWA follower being i wasnt alive back then nor watching wrestling

[KCC]

Another good show Jav. Hopefully you'll go down the Zybysko-Von Erich road .

[TGC]

Closed and moved to Archives.