The SmarK Rant for AWA All Star Wrestling – 08.04.90

The SmarK Rant for AWA All Star Wrestling – 08.04.90

Originally written 11.10.25

I seriously had no idea the show actually lasted this long. This has gotta be one of the last episodes of AWA TV, given the very last taping was 08.11.90. The promotion was functionally dead a couple of months before this and I think the tapings for this one were sometime in June.

So yeah, the theme for this one is the TEAM CHALLENGE SERIES!

Taped from Rochester, Minnesota. No idea when. I know a couple of matches from this one seem to be from a taping in the same building all the way back in October of 1989, so there’s that.

Your hosts are Greg Gagne & Ralph Strangis

The Trooper v. Nacho Berrera

The Trooper is using “Desire” by U2, and I have no clue what that has to do with his gimmick. Trooper throws plastic toy badges to the kids at ringside, which probably sent Verne another couple of thousand into debt. Nacho attacks to start, but Trooper clotheslines him out of the corner and powerslams him. And then he finishes with a Vulcan nerve pinch at 0:57. And then he writes the jobber a citation and sticks it to his head. I can’t imagine why they didn’t make him World champion and rake in millions of dollars. And apparently Del Wilkes died in 2021?! Man I don’t even remember that one. Damn, that sucks.

Meanwhile, Eric Bischoff chats with Baron Von Raschke,as apparently Baron’s Blitzers are in the lead right now. Baron brings in Buck Zumhoff. Buck feels like boys and girls of all ages are gonna be there backing them up. I’d advise children under the age of consent to steer clear of him. Just trust me on that one.

This week in 1990 commercials: Apparently SMOKING CRACK IS BAD?!? Holy shit, thankfully I saw that commercial before smoking up a big pipe full of it to put me to sleep like I usually do. Thank you, government funded PSA! Saved me a lot of money, actually. Sure, the kids always have their sayings like “Cheap as an ounce of crack” or “You can buy that and a crack pipe for a quarter” but let me tell you, it’s pretty expensive. I’ve seen some stuff, man.

Jonnie Stewart v. Frankie DeFalco

Jonnie looks a little like Chris Candido but without any of the charisma. He was around for a surprisingly long time, apparently lasting until 2007. DeFalco gets a back suplex for two and slugs away on Stewart, who does a Flair Flop off it, so Frankie uses a Flip Flop & Fly eyepoke, before walking into a kneelift. And then Jonnie loads up the kneepad and hits a running knee for the pin at 2:38.

Meanwhile, the Destruction Crew chat with Eric in front of a green screened construction site. Wayne stops Mike from doing his promo with “Hold on Mike I’ll handle this one” to set up a split and babyface turn for Enos that never paid off due to the death of the promotion.

Yukon John Nord v. Bad Boy Brown

Nord is using “Werewolves of London”, which makes no sense given that he’s not playing a werewolf and he’s not from London. Anyway, for those not familiar, picture the Berzerker but playing a lumberjack and you’ve got it. Nord with a big boot on the Bad Boy and then he puts on him on the ropes for another boot, and then runs the ropes 17 times and drops a leg on him to finish at 1:38. The replay nicely exposes how he didn’t even make a little bit of contact on the move.

TEAM CHALLENGE SERIES UPDATE! WITH LEE MARSHALL!

Last week, Wendi Richter, famously known as “the girl who just likes to have fun”, faced Candi Divine in a rematch for the AWA Women’s title, but Candi throws her over the top rope for the DQ. OK, so a few things here. First up, they announce Wendi as a “five times Women’s champion”, which is not even a little bit true. She held the AWA title one time in 1988, and of course the WWF title two times in 1985. That’s only three. Also they claim that Candi won the title from Wendi a few weeks before “in Winnipeg”, which is nonsense because Richter left the promotion in 1989 and they didn’t have a champion until months later when Candi was awarded it. In fact, there’s no evidence that the match shown here even happened as claimed, as the last recorded match Wendi Richter even had in the AWA was aginst Candi in October of 1989! They apparently just took footage of a year old match in the same arena and pretended that it was a current title match with something to do with the Team Challenge Series! COME ON NOW!

Larry Zbyszko v. Todd Becker

Larry is using “Simply the Best” as his entrance music, which is definitely not the case. OK, so Greg talks about how Larry is starring in a “big budget Hollywood film” that’s shooting soon. So that’s easy enough to verify, and of course the answer is “No, they’re full of shit” like everything else on this show so far. I mean they could make a movie about his life called “The Seven Minute Stall” but I doubt anyone would greenlight it. Larry takes him down with a couple of single legs and then adds a backbreaker for two. Larry with a suplex for two and he picks Becker up and piledrives him for the pin at 2:53.

Meanwhile, Larry Z and the Texas Hangmen talk about the alleged main event tonight.

Team Challenge Series main event, Texas Tornado: The Tokyo Bullets v. The Texas Hangmen

This is also 2 out of 3 falls, because why not. Also it’s not actually a tornado match despite being advertised as such. From what I can tell this was also taped all the way back in October of 1989 and then finally used here. Apparently the Bullets are Frankie DeFalco (the jobber from earlier in the show) and Johnny Mercedes. I barely remember them. The Bullets double-team a Hangman and work on his arm. But then a Bullet gets trapped in the heel corner for a bit before coming back with a sunset flip and rollup, which is apparently “high flying Japanese moves” here in the AWA. But then a Hangman takes the Bullet to the floor and hiptosses him on the concrete, and that wins the first fall at 5:05.

Second fall and I guess the Hangmen can go 2-on-1 as a result of winning the fall, so they double-team the Bullet and hit him with a double clothesline. How does that stipulation make any sense whatsoever? They go low on the Bullet and choke him out on the ropes. The other Bullet gets a hot tag and cleans house, and the Bullets get a fluke rollup for the pin after heel miscommunication at 9:34.

This match is really really really bad. Just to clarify.

So now they all brawl outside the ring as they’re all allowed to be in the ring for full Texas Tornado rules due to both sides having one fall apiece. So they all wander around aimlessly and slug it out in the corner as everyone looks completely gassed, and we get a ridiculous double bodypress with both sides getting a simultaneous pin at 12:28, but they cut away from the referee holding up the Hangman’s hands and only show him holding up the Bullets’ hands, so they can pretend that the Bullets “won” in post production when it was actually shot as a double pin. Embarrassing on every level. A shitty match that was already a year old, recycled into an “upset win” for a team not even in the promotion at that point, via clumsy editing. That’s the AWA in a nutshell for you at that point.

The end days of the AWA were wild, you have to give it that.