The SmarK Rant for AWA All Star Wrestling – 07.11.87

The SmarK Rant for AWA All Star Wrestling – 07.11.87

Originally written 08.18.25

Yes it’s another magical U-Matic master tape upload from Richard Land, which makes for exactly what I want to watch on a Monday night.

Taped from the Showboat in Las Vegas, NV

Your hosts are Rod Trongard & Ray Stevens

Mitch Snow joins Larry Nelson, and he’s all stitched up because Curt Hennig has apparently attacked him, and that’s all he’s got to say. Well we certainly dodged a bullet then.

Boris Zhukov & Soldat Ustinov v. Jim Evans & Stoney Burke

Sadly the reign of the Midnight Rockers has come to an end and the Russians are now the tag team champions of the AWA. Ustinov uses the CLUBBING FOREARMS and Boris puts the boots to Evans, but Stoney gets the hot tag and he’s rockin’! Stoney with a dropkick like granite, but then he tags out to Evans and the Russians double-team him while Stevens tells stories about the Russian team wrestling SHOOT BEARS to train. ACTUAL BEARS. They put the beats on Evans in the corner until STONE COLD STONEY makes the save for his partner. And then the Ruskies go right back to double-teaming Evans again because he’s so, so very useless. Man you’re really wasting the potential greatness of Stoney Burke here, man. Ustinov puts him in a body vice and submits him at 3:50. To call the Russians a dull placeholder team would be an understatement. Oh and they show the top 3 tag teams and apparently NICK BOCKWINKEL AND RAY STEVENS are the #1 rated contenders, in May of 1987. Verne Gagne, man.

Larry Zbyszko joins Larry Nelson, refuting charges that he’s in cahoots with Curt Hennig. “Why don’t I just tell Hennig to wrestle me instead of making challenges to him?” Nelson: “SMOKESCREEN!” Sure, Jan.

Meanwhile, make sure to order souvenirs of your favorite AWA stars now! Even the ones who already left the promotion to go work for Vince McMahon without giving notice!

Greg Gagne v. Tony Leone

Leone looks like a super sized version of Lord Littlebrook, actually. Leone rakes the face and goes to a front facelock, but Gagne gets a small package for two. Apparently Greg has an injured eye at the moment due to Curt Hennig consistently beating him like a dog around the country. Leone hits Groovy Greg with a few shots to the ribs and drops a knee on him for two, but Greg slugs back with POWER OF NEPOTISM and throws dropkicks to finish at 3:13. His daddy told you to stay down, mister!

Nick Bockwinkel joins Larry Nelson next, and Larry thinks that Nick should still be the World champion, even though Nick was already champion for like 25 years and people were sick of him by his own admission.

DONNA’S REPORT! BROUGHT TO YOU BY NORELCO!

Donna is hanging out with the Russians, who are having a patented Harem Party with Sheik Adnan’s dancing girls. We also get footage of the new tag champs arriving in a stretch limo, which was probably borrowed from one of the top stars working as a chauffeur to make extra money. Well I certainly appreciate Norelco bringing us this report. Maybe Ustinov should use a Norelco and shave his damn head like a real Russian.

Curt Hennig v. Chris Curtis

Hennig takes him down and works a chinlock on the mat for a bit while Ray Stevens notes that “You don’t just walk around with a roll of dimes in your pocket”. Yeah well what if you’ve got a lot of calls to make and you need to use a payphone? Hennig takes the guy down and works the leg while the crowd heartily boos him, and Curtis gets a sunset flip for two while Curt is distracted. But then Hennig punches him down, with no roll of dimes I should point out, and Curtis is out cold and pinned at 4:30. I think that proves that Hennig won the title fair and square and we can put all this conspiracy nonsense about rolls of coin to bed.

Curt Hennig joins Larry and makes it clear that he won’t need a roll of dimes to beat Bockwinkel again and put him out of wrestling for good. And hey, Bockwinkel was retiring pretty soon, so maybe Hennig had a point.

Kevin Kelly puts up $10,000 for an arm wrestling challenge, which leads to jobber Chris Curtis taking up the challenge first and quickly getting flashed. So then Kevin decides to take some money out of Curtis in the form of a beating, probably because the guy was being mouthy. So the next week we get another geek challenger and he also gets geeked out like a geek of the week. Larry Nelson’s narration of this two week storyline seemed to indicate that this was, you know, GOING SOMEWHERE, but apparently not. Well that was a thrilling recap. They should have paid it off with Big Bubba Rogers beating him in the arm wrestling match and then years later we could have been like “oooooooooooo long term storytelling!”

Wahoo McDaniel v. Mike Tolos

Tolos beats on Wahoo with shoulderblocks in the corner, but Wahoo chops him down and goes to a neck vice before going to a chinlock. Backbreaker gets two and Wahoo hits him with another chop and pins him at 4:20.

Wahoo McDaniel & DJ Peterson talk with Larry about how the Russians are ducking them and no one can find them. They were literally shown having a harem party in a fancy hotel a few segments ago! Just ask Donna Gagne where they are. Do I have to do all the thinking around here? Also DJ Peterson looks like he’s ready to go do a deal in the back alley for some extra cash. Maybe he was. We know the paydays weren’t great, I’m not here to judge. Also you know the tag team division is in some trouble when Wahoo and DJ Peterson are your #2 ranked challengers underneath Ray Stevens & Nick Bockwinkel. Doesn’t matter, Boris Zhukov left the promotion and abandoned the tag titles anyway before the end of the year.

And we finish with the whirlwind of charisma that is Kevin Kelly, once again challenging anyone who wants to challenge him in arm wrestling for $10,000.

Boy if you want a WHOLE LOT of Kevin Kelly and the fake Russians in your AWA, I’ve got some great news for you about this episode!