AWA TV 1-5-89 6-man tag team main event!
Jan 13, 2018 23:41:53 GMT
Post by Chitohausen on Jan 13, 2018 23:41:53 GMT
AWA “PRO WRESTLING USA”
Airdate: Friday, January 5, 1989
Broadcast on Superstation WGN
Taped January 3, 1989 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, Illinois
“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 hopes the fans had a great holiday season, and asks Page if he made any new years resolutions? DDP says that there’s no reason for him to make resolutions, he doesn’t need to change anything, there’s no improving perfection!
Trongard hypes tonight’s show, which will feature a big 6-man tag team main event, as Sgt. Slaughter, Terry Taylor and Phil Lafleur take on Hart Foundation members Paul Orndorff, Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart!
We’ll also see Steve Williams and Gary Albright in tag team action!
And, Nick Bockwinkel will be presenting Owen Hart with the Young Lions Cup trophy!
THE FANTASTICS: TOMMY ROGERS & BOBBY FULTON VS. THE CONQUISTADORS. The former World Tag Team champs get the win when Fulton pins one of the Conquistadors after the Fantastic Flip.
After the match, FULTON and ROGERS make their way over to the announce desk and confront Diamond Dallas Page! Fulton says Page better let the Samoans know that he and Tommy aren’t going to take what the SST did to them lying down!
Trongard says that they have footage of the incident that Fulton is talking about, which took place after the two teams met on Christmas night.
VTR: Fantastics vs Samoan SWAT Team, 12/25/88, JIP:
The SST have the advantage, and they take things to the arena floor. Neither team can get back into the ring before the referee reaches the count of 10, and the match is declared a double count-out! As a result, both teams are eliminated from the tournament!
After the match, the SST continue to batter the Fantastics, with Samu grabbing a chair, and pummeling Rogers with it! Fatu then uses the timekeeper’s bell to bloody Fulton as well. By the time the SST and Page leave the ringside area, both Fantastics are a bloody mess, and having trouble standing under their own power. Another referee, Gary DeRusha, comes out, and he and Randy Anderson help Fulton and Rogers to the back.
END VTR
Page defends his team’s action, saying that back at the end of 1987, the last time the Fantastics were in the AWA, they STOLE the AWA World Tag Team championship from Samu and Fatu’s cousins, the Islanders, and then refused to give the Islanders a rematch for the belts. When he brought Samu and Fatu to the AWA, once they heard the Fantastics would be returning, Samu and Fatu promised to make them pay for the disrespect they showed the Islanders.
Rogers says that Page can try to justify their actions any way he wants, but the fact is, he and Fulton ran the Islanders out of the AWA last year, and they’ll do the same to the SST!
BIG VAN VADER VS. GEORGE “THE ANIMAL” STEELE. The Animal makes a rare trip to the Midwest, but it’s probably not a trip he’ll want to remember. Vader makes short work of the Animal, pounding him into the mat, then delivering a vicious Powerbomb for the pinfall.
MAGNUM TA is standing by with AWA Americas champion Sgt. Slaughter, AWA World TV champion Terry Taylor and Phil Lafleur. Magnum talks about their match against Paul Orndorff, Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart in tonight’s main event. Slaughter says that all three of them have their reasons for wanting to get their hands on the Hart Foundation. Bret and Neidhart injured Lafleur’s partner Tom Zenk, Orndorff tried to break Taylor’s neck by repeatedly piledriving him after the match was already over, and Orndorff has been a thorn in his side since he showed up in the AWA last summer. Slaughter says that tonight is the night that they rid the AWA of the Hart Foundation, once and for all!
HANDICAP MATCH:
STEVE “DR. DEATH” WILLIAMS & GARY ALBRIGHT (w/ Dick the Bruiser) VS. NICK KINISKI & THE MOD SQUAD: SPIKE & BASHER. Kiniski and the MOD Squad try to use their man advantage to gain the upper hand, but it’s short-lived. Williams and Albright quickly take control of the match, and Doc pins Kiniski after the Oklahoma Stampede.
After the match, Larry Nelson talks with Williams, Albright and the Bruiser. Nelson talks about them winning the Christmas night tag team tournament, and then donating the $20,000 purse to the Mayo Clinic’s Childrens Center. Williams says that he and Albright wanted to donate the money somewhere that it could really do some good for the people, so they decided on the Mayo Clinic.
Nelson asks about their ongoing rivalry with Triple Crown champion Stan Hansen and Big Van Vader, with Doc saying that he’s still got his sights set on the Triple Crown and tells Hansen that he won’t stop until he’s holding those three belts!
Dick the Bruiser then talks about Hansen and Vader, saying he hasn’t forgot about them jumping him a while back, and says that they’re going to find out why they call him the World’s Most Dangerous Wrestler!
THE SAMOAN SWAT TEAM: SAMU & FATU VS. BUCK ZUMHOFF & JAKE MILLIMAN. The SST make short work of their opponents, while Page brags about their abilities on commentary. The SST get the win when Samu hits a top-rope diving headbutt on Zumhoff for the pinfall in about 2 minutes.
AWA President Nick Bockwinkel is in the ring, holding the Young Lions Cup trophy.
Bockwinkel brings out Owen Hart to present him the Young Lions Cup trophy!
Before they can get too far along, they’re interrupted by Mr. Matsuda and the man Owen beat for the trophy, Tiger Mask.
Matsuda grabs the mic from Bockwinkel, and says this is a travesty, everyone knows Tiger Mask should’ve won that match! A crooked referee let Owen cheat constantly throughout the match, and made a fast count at the end. Bockwinkel starts to say something, but Matsuda cuts him off, saying the AWA is biased against the Japanese wrestlers!
At this point, Owen grabs the mic from Matsuda, and tells him that he beat Tiger Mask on Christmas night, fair and square, and anytime Tiger Mask wants to get in the ring with him, he’ll beat him again!
At that point, the masked man attacks Owen from behind! Tiger Mask drops Owen with a vicious kick to the back of the head, then grabs the Young Lions Cup trophy, and repeatedly hits Owen in the head with it!
Tiger Mask then drops the trophy to the mat, and stomps it until it’s in pieces!
Matsuda then leads Tiger Mask from the ring as Nick Bockwinkel checks on Owen Hart.
“MR. WONDERFUL” PAUL ORNDORFF & BRET HART & JIM NEIDHART (w/ Jimmy Hart) VS. SGT. SLAUGHTER & TERRY TAYLOR & PHIL LAFLEUR. After more than 10 minutes of hard-hitting, back and forth action, we end up with all six men in the ring! Eventually Orndorff and Slaughter take their battle to the floor, as do Neidhart and Lafleur. That leaves only the two legal men, Bret and Taylor, in the ring. Taylor has the upper hand, and goes for the forearm smash off the ropes, but as he hits the ropes, Jimmy Hart trips him. Bret takes advantage, putting the boots to Taylor, as Jim Neidhart makes his way back into the ring. Bret and Neidhart then hit Taylor with the Hart Attack, and Bret covers him for the 1, 2, 3!
Bret Hart has once again pinned the World TV champion Taylor!
Trongard and Page wrap things up, and Trongard hypes next week’s show.
Credits Roll
© 1989, AMERICAN WRESTLING ASSOCIATION
Working on it now.