AWA in Chicago 11-23-88 Hansen vs Doc for the Triple Crown

[Chitohausen]

THE AMERICAN WRESTLING ASSOCIATION

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1988

ROSEMONT HORIZON IN CHICAGO, ILLINOIS





JACKIE FULTON battles THE SUPER ASSASSIN to a 15-minute time limit DRAW.


YOUNG LIONS CUP:
OWEN HART beats DAVE FINLAY. Owen takes the lead in the tournament when he wins this hard-fought battle over the brawler from Belfast. Owen catches Finlay with a sunset flip from the top rope to gain the pinfall.


THE CAN-AM EXPRESS: TOM ZENK & PHIL LAFLEUR defeat THE PLAYBOYS: TOM PRITCHARD & JIMMY DEL RAY (w/ Diamond Dallas Page). Both teams are preparing for the upcoming $20,000 tag team tournament on Christmas night in St. Paul. The Can-Ams win a tough one when Lafleur catches Del Ray right on the chin with a thrust kick.

After the Can-Ams get their hands raised, Diamond Dallas Page confronts them. As they argue with Page, the Playboys attack them from behind. Pritchard tosses Lafleur out of the ring, then Pritchard and Del Ray hit a double flapjack on Zenk, and then DDP joins them in stomping Zenk until several referees swarm the ring and force them away.


GARY ALBRIGHT battles BIG VAN VADER to a DOUBLE COUNT-OUT. Albright may be green, but after all his success in the amateur ranks, he has made a smooth transition into the pro game, thanks in part to being taken under the wing of the former World’s champion Steve Williams. Albright goes toe to toe with the monster from the Rockies in this wild bout. After spending nearly 12 minutes beating the stuffing out of each other, these two eventually take the fight to the floor, and don’t make it back inside the ring before the referee counts to 10, and as a result, both are counted out. That doesn’t seem to matter to them, as they continue to brawl around ringside, eventually battling down the aisle and out of sight.


PAUL ORNDORFF (w/ Jimmy Hart) beats “JUMPIN” JIM BRUNZELL. Brunzell, formerly one-half of the High Flyers team in the late 70s and early 80s, is back in the AWA, and the fans immediately get behind the former tag team champion. The match is fairly even for the most part, with neither man really getting a solid advantage. Late in the match, Brunzell has the upper hand, but when a dropkick sends Orndorff into the corner, Jimmy Hart hands him something. As Brunzell grabs Orndorff, the former America’s champion hits Brunzell in the throat with the object that Hart handed him. Brunzell drops to the mat, holding his throat and gasping for air. Orndorff quickly tosses the object back to Jimmy Hart as the referee checks on Brunzell. Orndorff then moves the referee out of the way, pulls Brunzell up, and drops him on his head with a Piledriver! Three seconds later, Orndorff is victorious.


AWA World Tag Team champions BRET HART & JIM NEIDHART (w/ Jimmy Hart) beat SGT. SLAUGHTER & TERRY TAYLOR. A clash of the champions here, as the World Tag champs defend the belts against the AWA America’s champion Slaughter and the TV champion Taylor! The match goes back and forth, with both teams enjoying plenty of offence. The champions isolate Taylor in their half of the ring, and use quick tags and plenty of double-teaming to wear him down.

Taylor takes a horrendous beating, but won’t stay down, and the fans cheer him on, as he finally fights his way back to his corner and tags Slaughter. However, Jim Neidhart distracted the referee, and he didn’t see the tag, forcing Slaughter back to the corner! This gives the champions the opportunity for some more double-teaming. Slaughter has seen enough, he climbs back into the ring, charges past the referee, and tears into Bret and Neidhart!

All four men brawl in the ring, with Slaughter tossing Neidhart out of the ring, then following him to the floor. This leaves Bret and Taylor, the legal men, in the ring. Bret gains the upper hand on the weakened TV champ, and delivers a Russian legsweep, then an elbowdrop off the second rope. Bret covers Taylor, while Neidhart keeps Slaughter from getting back into the ring, and Bret gets the 3-count on the TV champion!


Triple Crown champion STAN HANSEN battles STEVE “DR. DEATH” WILLIAMS to a NO CONTEST. Williams has been looking for another shot at the title since he lost the unification match to Hansen at “Super Sunday”, and he looks to make the most of it. Williams tears into Hansen as soon as the bell sounds, which seems to catch the champion off guard, as usually he’s the one going on the offensive early. These two battle tooth and nail for more than 25 minutes, but when the fight moves to the floor, Big Van Vader arrives at ringside, and attacks Williams from behind!

Vader pummels Williams, then whips him towards Hansen, who delivers a vicious Lariat! Gary Albright rushes down the aisle and pounces on Vader and Hansen, throwing punches at both with reckless abandon!

Vader and Hansen quickly turn the tables on Albright, and roll him back into the ring. As Hansen runs the ropes for a Lariat on Albright, Williams trips him from the floor. Williams slowly climbs back into the ring, where he and Albright brawl with Hansen and Vader, until the ring fills with officials and other wrestlers who break up the wild brawl.

[tlyne]

Another hard hitting main event. I always like Albright, even though I didn’t see a lot of him. I like Slaughter and Taylor together. I look forward to each AWA show.

[Chitohausen]

Nov 30, 2017 0:59:23 GMT tlyne said:

I always like Albright, even though I didn’t see a lot of him.

Me too.  Most of what I've seen of him has been UWFi matches on Youtube, but he seemed like he would be a good fit with Williams, Hansen and Vader in the main event scene.  My hope is to have Williams and Albright as kinda like my version of Bruiser and Crusher, two guys who can wrestle when need be, but would much rather just go out there and brawl.

[thecommish]

Albright was really good in the ring. His downfall was that he had the literal opposite of charisma. But if put with a manager to do his talking, he'd have had success in the US. No doubt this match versus Vader would have been really good.

You can't go wrong with Hansen v Doc on top.