AWA Championship Wrestling – 12.19.1989

Last time we took a trip down memory lane with the AWA (the December 18th episode of Championship Wrestling), I was shocked to see there wasn’t much to do with the Team Challenge Series, but we did get Larry Zbyszko defending the AWA Championship against Nikita Koloff, and we witnessed one of the last matches of Crusher Blackwell as he teamed with the Fantastics (Bobby and Jackie Fulton) to take on the Wrecking Crew and Johnny Valiant.

Now, if you caught the dates of the last show covered and the one right here, we’re about to dive into, yes, AWA really did have programming daily on ESPN, somehow cobbling together episodes despite taping roughly 2-2.5 hours’ worth of content at their monthly shows.

Eric Bischoff welcomes us to the program, talking up the Six-Man Tag from yesterday’s episode, and the world (all 6 people who watched AWA on ESPN at this point) are speculating on the relationship between the Destruction Crew and Johnny Valiant going forward. This afternoon, we have a Main Event of Paul “Hard Rock” Diamond joining The Trooper to face Akio Sato and Pat Tanaka. We replay the promo from the previous episode where Diamond revealed the Trooper as his partner.

Tommy Jammer vs. W.T. Jones:
Unless noted, it looks like every match is from the November 18th taping from the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, MN. Not too much to say about Jones, who was based out of the Midwest and got the occasional look in the following years as an enhancement talent for WWF’s syndication programming. We’ve seen Jammer plenty, a very green training-on-the-job project for the AWA, nicknamed “The California Kid”. Wait, wasn’t he born in Minnesota?! YOU LIED TO ME, GAGNE!

Jammer represents Baron’s Blitzers, but this is not a Team Challenge Series Match. Lockup into the ropes and Jones gives a clean break. The crowd lights are turned way down and you can only see the first few rows. Lee Marshall mentions some heat between Jammer and Doug Somers as Jones gives Jammer a cheap shot in the ropes and starts biting the arm. Whip to the ropes, Jones is off-balance with a clothesline and drops the elbow for a two-count. Jammer is looking mad, but makes sure to adjust his trunks before getting back on offense. Jammer shoots Jones into the ropes and drops down and… Jones just kind falls over him? Was that supposed to be an intentional trip, just executed poorly? Nick Bockwinkel the smartest man in the room, saying Jones probably didn’t mean to do that. We get some slow-motion rope-running from Jones and Jammer hits a pair of dropkicks. Jammer with an abdominal stretch that we acknowledge isn’t well executed, and it still wins the match at 3:19. WOOF. Not much positive to find here, at least it was short.

Eric Bischoff throws it to a pre-tape from the AWA Champion, Larry Zbyszko, who has comments for yesterday’s Main Event and TOMORROW’S MAIN EVENT. Larry will head to Kansas City on December 28th to make another defense of his AWA Championship, then accused IVAN Koloff and Sgt. Slaughter of trading secrets in an effort to take down Larry Land. Tomorrow, he’s facing The Unknown Soldier, representing Sarge’s Snipers, with the title on the line. We throw it back to Bischoff, who corrects Zbyszko on the identity of which Koloff he was meant to name drop. To put some shine on the Soldier, we catch the closing minutes of a match between himself and “Mean” Mike Enos.

“The Illustrious” Jonnie Stewart vs. Frankie DeFalco:
If you are familiar with this era of AWA, you will probably notice that Stewart is another young name that gets featured regularly, just a few years into his career, but with some decent upside, billed from Pacific Palisades, CA and doing an obnoxious heel routine. DeFalco is another name we’ll see pop up as enhancement talent for the WWF around this time but mostly stuck to the Midwest independent scene.

Lockup and Stewart quickly put together a chain, taking DeFalco off his feet. Save some for later, man! The crowd gets on Stewart with “Jonnie Sucks” chants. DeFalco is feeling it, hitting Stewart with an inverted atomic drop and winds up for a big right hand. The Thumper continues to go to work as the referee does a poor job creating separation in the corner. Whip to the ropes and Big Thumper with a side slam for two! DeFalco shows some fire as Nick name drops “Virgil Runnels”. Stewart cuts him off with a knee to the midsection, pulls down the pad, and the running bionic knee to the face finishes at 2:44. Much more entertaining than what Jones and Jammer produced. Post-match, Jonnie Stewart randomly talks about Nick Bockwinkel (were they teasing a match they weren’t going to pay off?) And runs down Greg Gagne for being knocked out of action.

We continue to hype the Main Event of this program, showing the closing moments of a singles match between Paul Diamond and Pat Tanaka that ends with Akio Sato running in for the DQ. WE’RE GONNA SETTLE IT IN THE RING, LATER TODAY!

The Destruction Crew (w/ Johnny Valiant) vs. Jim Evans & Randy Fox:
Will we get answers on the future of the Destruction Crew and Johnny Valiant? Will I have anything interesting to say about Evans and Fox? Well, Fox doesn’t have a cagematch page, and Evans, like Jones and DeFalco, was a regular in the Midwest and got called in quite a few times when the WWF was in the area. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2019 at just 53 years old.

I don’t know what Johnny Valiant’s outfit is supposed to be, but he looks ridiculous. Meanwhile, Lee Marshall is giving Bockwinkel the business over Stewart’s comments. Bloom starts, shrugging off Evans’ strikes and slamming him face-first to the canvas. Fox tries his luck and is quickly knocked back to reality with a clothesline. Fox gets dropped across the top rope and Enos comes off the ropes with a jumping leg drop. Enos with a powerslam and he picks Fox up at two, all for the sake of the most poorly timed combination suplex/flying body press possible, and that disaster of a spot finishes at 2:26. File that under “you know what would be cool…” rules. Don’t do shit for the sake of doing something “cool”.

With some “clever” editing, we throw it to a promo from the Destruction Crew (in front of the god awful green screen, of course), with Wayne Bloom yelling at Johnny Valiant (off screen) that he’s through as the manager of the Destruction Crew. Mean Mike thought they were waiting for the 1st of the year, but Wayne couldn’t wait any longer, he doesn’t care if it’s Christmas or if Valiant’s kids starve, he’s finished! That pretty much finishes Valiant’s wrestling career, at least as far as making even semi-regular appearances for any promotion with a TV audience.

Paul Diamond & The Trooper vs. Pat Tanaka & Akio Sato:
Time for our Main Event, and this one should be a classic! … What, I’ve listened to Eric Bischoff over-hyping things for half-an-hour! Give me a break! Do not expect to see much of Tanaka and Sato going forward, as the WWF would scoop them up early in the new year and debut them as “The Orient Express”. We have some colorful outfits here; black, black, black and black/white micro-checkerboard patterns. Paul Diamond, you rebel!

Trooper starts, endlessly working on both Sato and Tanaka with side headlocks, only briefly giving up control for the sake of a few tags for the opposition and about 10-seconds of control over a 4-minute period. Diamond in for the first time, taking a shot at Tanaka napping on the apron. Sato cuts him off with knees and now we spend FOREVER working the leg. Like 6 minutes of standing toe holds and leg locks. At one point, Diamond desperately reaches for a tag and Trooper just barely gets the contact with the tips of the fingers, but the referee disallows it, as we can only assume he was looking the other way. You see, the director got cute zooming in on their hands, so we couldn’t see anything else. Diamond’s comeback is cut off with a DDT. Tanaka sets up for a second (that might be considered murder by late 80’s standards) but counters with an inverted atomic drop. Trooper with the hot tag, running wild on both men with left hands and a DOUBLE NOGGIN KNOCKER. Heck breaks loose, Trooper drops Tanaka with a press slam, and Diamond with a front suplex, dropping Sato across Tanaka for the three-count at 12:36. Post-match, we get quick words from Trooper and Hard Rock, teasing a match with the Destruction Crew for the Tag Titles. This was your patented “have us work three times in one night” special; low-effort most of the way, with about 60-seconds of excitement. It was dull, but everything was done competently.

Eric Bischoff wraps up today’s episode, having failed to secure comments from poor Johnny Valiant and hyping tomorrow’s Main Event of Larry Zbyszko and the Unknown Soldier. We don’t have another episode until December 28th, but I’m sure that match will be repackaged at some point.

Final Thoughts: Episodes like this one are the worst; it wasn’t so bad it was entertaining like featuring some insane stipulation matches, it was just dull. A few squash matches, some recycled footage to pad the run time, and a Main Event that was like a low-effort WWF TV taping dark match. The Team Challenge Series is mentioned in passing, but in back-to-back episodes, nothing that factored in the actual TCS, not even an update from Lee Marshall. You could argue that writing Johnny Valiant out of the promotion was the highlight of the week. When we return to the AWA, we are covering the December 28th episode of Championship Wrestling, and then we jump forward to the latter half of January, as we covered several episodes of TV from the start of the new year before coming across episodes from the Fall of ‘89.