AWA TV 12-29-88 1988 Year in Review!
Jan 2, 2018 14:46:48 GMT
Post by Chitohausen on Jan 2, 2018 14:46:48 GMT
AWA “PRO WRESTLING USA”
Airdate: Friday, December 29, 1988
Broadcast nationwide on Superstation WGN
Taped December 25, 1988 at the Civic Center in St. Paul, Minnesota
“From coast to coast, border to border, and continent to continent, this is the AWA, the major leagues of professional wrestling!”
Rod Trongard opens the show, and welcomes his co-host Diamond Dallas Page.
Trongard and Page are ringside in an empty St. Paul Civic Center. Trongard says that this week, they’re going to take a look back at 1988 and some of the major happenings of the past 12 months!
Trongard says they’ll start things off with a look at the most dominant wrestler to compete in the AWA, not only this past year, but maybe in the entire history of the AWA! The current Triple Crown champion, Stan Hansen!
We see footage of Hansen and King Kong Brody arriving in the AWA, and immediately making a name for themselves, as they steamroll everyone they get in the ring with.
From there, we see highlights of them winning the AWA World Tag Team titles, before a miscommunication led to them losing the belts to the British Bulldogs.
That led to a brief feud between them, then a singles run for Hansen.
Page says that the AWA wasn’t the only place that Hansen was enjoying incredible success.
We see highlights of Hansen winning the PWF World title and the NWA United National titles from Genichiro Tenryu in Nagano, Japan in July.
Trongard mentions that’s Hansen’s fourth reign as PWF champion, and his first as United National champion.
Highlights are then shown of the first two AWA World title matches between champion Steve Williams and Hansen, both ending without a decisive winner.
Trongard says that led up to the unification match and the creation of the Triple Crown championship on “Super Sunday”, October 8 in St. Paul.
VTR: Williams vs Hansen, title vs title, 10/8/88, JIP:
Late in the match, Williams has the upper hand, but as he pulls Hansen to his feet, Stan drives a knee into Doc’s gut, then tosses him through the ropes and to the floor. While Hansen distracts the referee, Vader pulls Williams up to his feet . . . and then delivers a monstrous clothesline! Vader then tosses Williams back into the ring.
Williams is dazed, and is slow getting back to his feet, but Hansen waits, biding his time, and as Williams gets up, Hansen charges at him, and delivers the LARIAT!!!
Williams already suffered the huge clothesline from Vader on the outside, and now the Lariat puts him flat on his back on the mat. Hansen covers him, the referee gets into position and starts his count . . .
ONE!
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TWO!!
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THREE!!!
Stan Hansen has pinned Steve Williams! Stan Hansen unifies the three belts, and is the very first TRIPLE CROWN CHAMPION!!!
END VTR
Trongard says that we haven’t seen the last of “Dr. Death”, though. Doc and his protégé, former amateur star Gary Albright, have battled Hansen and Vader in tag team matches all across the country in recent months, and they’ve got plenty more matches signed for the new year!
Page says that they can’t forget what happened a few weeks ago, that fossil Dick the Loser stuck his nose in Hansen and Vader’s business, and nearly got himself crippled for his trouble!
Trongard says that it was a cowardly two on one attack by Hansen and Vader on a retired wrestler, but thankfully Williams and Albright were around to make the save!
VTR: Pro Wrestling USA, 12/15/88:
Bruiser says he’s happy to be back in the AWA, and to see all these fans again.
Trongard says that the Bruiser will be on hand at some upcoming AWA events around the state of Indiana, particularly a show coming up on December 21 at the Fairgrounds Coliseum in Indianapolis, where he’ll be the special troubleshooting referee for a match between Sgt. Slaughter and Terry Taylor against Paul Orndorff and Kamala.
Bruiser starts to respond, when Triple Crown champion Stan Hansen and Big Van Vader make their way out!
Hansen tells Bruiser to get lost, that it’s their interview time now, and nobody wants to listen to the Bruiser. He says that, back when Bruiser was wrestling, Dick had a habit of disappearing any time Hansen arrived in a territory that he was in, and suggests that Bruiser do the same thing now, before he gets hurt.
Bruiser goes toe to toe with Hansen, and says that Hansen’s just a loudmouth bum, and back when he was wrestling, he could’ve whupped Hansen with one hand tied behind his back!
Hansen blows a gasket, and starts throwing punches, but the Bruiser won’t back down and gets in some shots of his own, until Vader attacks him from behind.
Vader and Hansen pummel Dick the Bruiser, with Trongard trying in vain to get some order restored.
Vader pulls Bruiser up, and whips him towards Hansen, who hits a devastating Lariat!
Steve Williams and Gary Albright arrive on the scene, chairs in hand, and chase Hansen and Vader off.
END VTR
Trongard and Page then talk about the young talent in the AWA, as some of the top young stars of the sport have made their way to Minneapolis, and are on their way to becoming the superstars of the future!
We see short clips of Owen Hart, Tiger Mask, Fuji Yamada, Wild Pegasus, Johnny Smith and David Finlay in action.
They talk about the Young Lions Cup, a round-robin tournament that took place over the past few months, to showcase these young wrestlers. The finals took place on Christmas night in St. Paul, as Owen Hart and Tiger Mask squared off.
VTR: Tiger Mask vs Hart, 12/25/88, JIP:
As we pass the 20-minute mark, Tiger Mask has the match well in hand, but when he goes to set Owen up for a Tiger Suplex, Owen slips out of his grasp, moves around behind Tiger Mask, and drops him with a release German suplex.
As Tiger Mask gets to his feet, Owen connects with a standing dropkick, then pulls Tiger Mask up and hits a Northern Lights Suplex into a bridge for the 1, 2, 3!
Owen Hart has won the Young Lions Cup tournament!
END VTR
Trongard and Page then talk about the rivalry between Americas champ Sgt. Slaughter and the former champion, Paul Orndorff. Trongard says that these two have been trying to rid the AWA of the other since the summer.
Clips are shown of past matches between Slaughter and Orndorff.
Trongard says that after months of matches that never saw a clear winner, the AWA granted Slaughter one final shot at the Americas title on October 8 at Super Sunday. As we know, Slaughter made the most of that opportunity, and left the match as the new champion.
VTR: Orndorff vs Slaughter, 10/8/88, JIP:
we’ve seen Orndorff and Jimmy Hart try to refuse to give Slaughter any more title matches, but Orndorff never did get a clean victory over the Sarge, so the AWA signed one more match between the two. Despite the way that most of the AWA fans feel about Orndorff, there’s no denying that he’s one of the top wrestlers in the world, and is the better technical wrestler of the two. That doesn’t seem to matter, though, as Sarge takes the fight right to Orndorff, relying on power moves and brawling.
We get an action-packed 18 minutes from these two, before Slaughter hits Orndorff with the Slaughter Cannon, then locks on the Cobra Clutch right in the middle of the ring! Orndorff fights valiantly to break the hold, but he’s not close enough to the ropes, and he can’t break free. Finally the lights go out, and Sgt. Slaughter has finally become the AWA Americas champion!
END VTR
Page says that a few weeks after Super Sunday, on November 3 in St. Paul, Jimmy Hart had a big surprise for Slaughter and Terry Taylor, all the way from the wilds of Uganda!
VTR: Slaughter/Taylor vs Orndorff/Orton, 11/3/88, JIP:
After more than 20 minutes of hard-hitting, back and forth action, Slaughter and Taylor get the win when Taylor pins Orton after hitting him with the diving forearm smash off the ropes.
After the bout, Orton and Orndorff attack Slaughter and Taylor. Orton throws Taylor through the ropes, then runs him into the guardrail, knocking him down. At that point, Jimmy Hart starts motioning to the back . . . and we see a masked man leading THE UGANDAN WARRIOR KAMALA to the ring! Kamala enters the ring, and joins Paul Orndorff in double-teaming Sgt. Slaughter!
As Orton continues to pummel Taylor outside the ring, opening up a nasty cut on his forehead, Orndorff drops Slaughter with a Piledriver inside the ring! With Slaughter flat on his back on the mat, Kamala goes to the top rope . . . and delivers a splash!
At that point, the ring is swarmed by wrestlers and AWA officials, and they manage to get Jimmy Hart, Orton, Orndorff and Kamala to leave the ring, before checking on Taylor and Slaughter.
END VTR
Trongard says that since then, Slaughter has had some wild, bloody matches with Kamala, while still facing Orndorff in return matches for the Americas title.
Page thinks it’ll end up being too much for Slaughter, and says that 1989 will be the year that we see the end of Sgt. Slaughter!
Trongard says that, as a special treat for the great AWA fans, they’ve got the finals of the Christmas night tag team tournament, right here on TV! He says that Steve Williams and Gary Albright squared off against their rival Big Van Vader, and a man that has been making a name for himself in the Southeast, Bam Bam Bigelow!
Williams/Albright vs Vader/Bigelow, 12/25/88, tournament final for $20,000:
These two teams are no strangers to each other. Bigelow has come to the AWA a few times before, teaming with Vader and Stan Hansen against Doc, Albright and another out of town star, Terry Gordy. Both of these teams have been dominant in their earlier matches, and now they collide in the finals, with the $20,000 and a shot at the World Tag titles hanging in the balance! In the early going, neither team really has a clear advantage, every time one team seems to have things going their way, the other turns the tables.
As the match progresses, Vader and Bigelow eventually take control of the match, and they isolate the rookie Albright in their corner. They pummel Albright, taking turns working him over, but Albright keeps fighting back, he just won’t stay down. Albright turns the tables, as he explodes out of the corner, knocking Bigelow to the mat with a shoulder tackle, then he picks Bigelow up and wows the fans by getting the big man up, and dropping him on the back of his head with a German Suplex! Albright makes the tag, and Williams comes in like a house of fire, dropping Vader and Bigelow with clotheslines! Vader rolls out of the ring, and Doc takes the fight to Bigelow, battering him with rights and lefts, before slamming him to the mat. Williams stomps away at Bigelow, then pulls him to his feet, whips him into the ropes, then Doc bounces off the ropes himself, and catches Bigelow with a diving shoulder block.
Vader comes in, but Albright comes back in as well, and cuts Vader off. They brawl on one side of the ring, while Williams continues to pummel Bigelow . . . then heads to the top rope, and dives off, hitting Bigelow with a top-rope diving clothesline!
Williams covers Bigelow, and gets the 1, 2, 3!!!!
Williams and Albright have won the tournament, the $20,000, and the shot at the World Tag Team titles in the new year!
Trongard says that Williams and Albright donated the $20,000 that they won from the tournament to the Mayo Clinic’s Childrens Center! He says that will help the specialists with the already world-class care that they provide at the Mayo Clinic!
Page can’t believe that they would just give $20,000 away!
Trongard says it’s for a good cause. Page says that there’s no better cause than the growth of one’s own bank account.
Trongard just shakes his head, then he and Page wrap things up. Trongard says that they’ll see us all in 1989!
Credits Roll
© 1988, AMERICAN WRESTLING ASSOCIATION
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