Best of the AWA 4 Page 2
- Cage match: Nick Bockwinkel v. Da Crusher. Joined in Progress as Crusher bleeds and mounts a comeback. They both bleed from the cage shots, then Crusher hits a stomp to Bockwinkel’s face off the second rope. Okay, OUCH. Bockwinkel cheats to come back and they fight on the top rope. Bockwinkel gets rammed to the top of the cage and topples off, and Crusher gets the pin. Not much shown. Call it *
- Hulk Hogan v. Adrian Adonis. JIP again as Adonis smashes a chair over Hogan’s back for two. Inverted atomic drop gets two. Hulk does his thing and Adonis runs away, so Hogan chases him back in and ties him up in the ropes. Adonis escapes and finds an international object, knocks Hogan out, and gets two. Hulk no-sells, drops the leg, and gets the pin. Standard stuff. ½*
- Michael Hayes insults all of Milwaukee to build up a match with Jerry Blackwell, and Blackwell responds, and I’m curious to see the match, so of course we don’t hear anything else about it.
- We get words from some guy named "Nature Boy" Roger Kirby, who I’ve never seen or heard of before, and I used to watch a LOT of AWA. What a terrific use of time.
- Main event: Ray Stevens & Nick Bockwinkel v. Billy Robinson & Red Bastien. The story here is that the tag champs (Stevens & Bockwinkel) are ducking Robinson & Bastien, until finally AWA promoter Wally Karbo corners the champs with an open contract on TV one week and forces them to defend the titles. Robinson & Bastien quickly dominate the champs with some nice stuff, but Robinson gets caught in the corner. Bastien quickly tagged back into keep control for the faces, and Bockwinkel stalls for time. He wants a test of strength, which leads to Robinson doing a nifty wristlock sequence. Bastien comes in and hammers on Stevens. Robinson gets a butterfly suplex for two after a nifty front legsweep. Man, Robinson was something else. Robinson takes a bad fall and ends up on the floor, giving the heels a chance to inflict punishment. Robinson fights back, but the champs hang on like leeches and won’t let him out. Double-KO allows the hot tag to Bastien, and he’s a house afire. An atomic drop to Stevens gets the pin for the first fall. Second fall: Robinson kicks Bockwinkels ass, for a few two-counts. Red slingshots Bockwinkel into a Robinson forearm on the apron, a few times. Man, this stuff is WAY ahead of it’s time. Bastien ends my curiosity from the first AWA Classics rant by hitting…wait for it…the DREADED SKULLCRACKER! It turns out to be a front piledriver (aka DDP’s pancake). Ah well, sometimes the imagination is better than the actual thing. Chaos ensues and the champs cheat again, and Robinson is face-in-peril. The champs basically tee off on him. Robinson’s selling is awesome. Robinson escapes a piledriver with a kick to the face, and Bastien comes in, softens Bockwinkel up, and Robinson finishes him with the one-handed backbreaker (picture the Bossman slam, except dropping him on the knee) to capture the tag titles! Man, that was a GREAT match for 1973. **** Probably not for all tastes, though.
- After the match, Wally Karbo reveals that it was a non-title match because the tag titles can only be defended in a one-hour time limit match, and this was just TV time remaining. Red & Billy take it amazingly well, laughing it off because they got the satisfaction of beating the champs. Bockwinkel and Stevens cut an indignant promo in response, which would lead one to believe that a pretty good blowoff would result, except of course WE DON’T SEE IT.
The Bottom Line: Okay, so Viewer’s Choice was advertising AWA Classics Volume 2, listed as a 2.5 hour show, for which I was charged $24.95. I got AWA Classics Volume 4, which is a 45-minute show followed by 2 hours of dead air, for which I was STILL charged $24.95. A call to Shaw Cable the next day resulted in a refund, thankfully, but I’m still missing volumes 2 & 3 now.
At any rate, outside of revealing how awesome Billy Robinson was, there’s really nothing of interest on this show and I have nothing else to say about it.
Recommendation to avoid.