AWA 1989: From the Ashes

[Theheel]

The Hooligans v The Olympians

 

Another lousy face in Patera, was much better with a manager being the mouth piece etc. But The Hooligans are young and I am going to go with the Vets here as they look to get their title re-match.

 

Mark Callous v Jerry Blackwell

 

Mean Mark was just another big guy, with raw talent at this point. It took some (hate to say this) "creative genius" to give him the very non-verbal (at the time) Undertaker gimmick. Of course now, he does a pretty good match when you look back on what he started out as. Blackwell is well..... not sure. Never did like him as a face. I guess there is going to be some sort of chaos with the Hanson/Murdoch #1 contender situation, so I will go with Blackwell somehow getting the "winner's share of the purse" as they used to say.

 

Kokina Maximus v Baron Von Raschke

 

Now who I think should win and who is going to win are two different stories. The Baron was great in his day, but by 1989 Da Baron was done as an in ring talent. Will probably get burned here but I think having Kokina lose by DQ to put on a monster push is in order.

 

Mystery Opponent v Buck Zumhofe

 

The Buck should have stopped long before this. He never was much of anything but hung around the AWA forever. Hopefully the mystery opponent will take the boombox and break it over his head after winning the match.

 

The Trooper v Greg Gagne (TV Title Defence)

 

This match screams for a new champ, but there has not been much build up of the "heel" Trooper yet, so I think a title switch is pre-mature. And what will Vern say?

 

Wow this is the kiss of death as I have gone with too many faces.

[Ritchardo]

Okay...

 

so it looks like it was a false dawn!

 

Regrettably, I don't think I'll be taking this diary any further for the time being - ultimately I'm a little unsatisfied with how things are going and its becoming a bit of a chore to do - which of course it never should be. I realise that I'd rather book the AWA at the point before it went wrong and I'm at least four years down the road from that at this time.

 

So....

 

I've started work on a very rough 1985 mod (that looks to use old DOTT data with new pics and info where needed) and when completed I'll look to relaunch an AWA diary at that time - apologies to everyone who was enjoying etc but I didn't want to blow all of my intricate storylines on a project which was ultimately going nowhere.

 

 

For those who are interested though here's the basic outline of what was going to go down.

 

Jimmy Snuka's stalking of Kokina Maximus would continue, Jimmy insisting that the Samoan join him for intensive training and that they form a tag-team. Kokina would refuse the advances and turn on Snuka - resulting in the Superfly doing the job for the future Yokozuna.

 

The Koloffs were set to defend against Steamboat and Snuka on next week's AWA show but Jimmy claimed he couldn't fight - too many other things on his mind forcing Steamboat to find another partner at short notice. Teased that it would be Steamboat/Murdoch but ended up as Steamboat & Dustin Rhodes. Olympians would distract the Russians, leaving Nikita open to a bionic elbow from Dustin to get the shock win and crown new tag champs. At the PPV - The Koloffs would get their revenge over Brad & Ken while Dustin Rhodes would turn on his partner at the PPV and declare that he had replaced Dick Murdoch as an Outlaw, with the Outriders taking the straps.

 

Gagne was set to successfully defend against The Trooper despite apprearing to blatantly try and lose the match but being unable to get The Trooper to pin him properly. This had been prompted by Stan Hansen threatening to tear Gagne's head off in their title match if Murdoch didn't 'do the right thing.' This angle would build over a few weeks with Greg trying all sorts of things to deflect attention from himself and get other people to stand in Hansen's way - including forming an alliance of AWA Originals (Baron Von Raschke, Jerry Blackwell, Buck Zumhofe) who had all been losing since The Outlaws arrival - failing to mention that he had a 100% record since their arrival... Jim Brunzell had re-signed and was set to perform run-in attacks in a mask that Gagne would claim was down to Dick Murdoch (despite having no physical similarity whatsoever). This would culminate with Hansen destroying Gagne at the PPV.

 

Bockwinkel would tear a strip off of Harley Race for injuring Wahoo McDaniel and tell him that he was out of commission for at least two months. Harley would then be challenged by Dory Funk Jr. who took exception to that kind of behaviour from a former World Champion. Race would pin Funk at the PPV but a prolonged beatdown would be broken up by a returning Wahoo McDaniel.

 

Larry Zbyszko would embark on a campaign against Texas in general and in particular Kerry Von Erich who would return and eat a submission loss to the Living Legend at the PPV.

 

Hansen and Murdoch would be at odds for the rest of the month - no direct contact but plenty of verbals between the two. The defence between Slaughter and Murdoch would see Slaughter come out on top and offer a hand of friendship to Murdoch following a hard fought battle. Murdoch would accept and the two stand in salute in the middle of the ring before The Outlaws hit ringside. The pair and the quartet exchange glances and Murdoch and Slaughter stood back to back while the other four advanced on them. Behind his back, the two advancing on Murdoch - Rhodes and Hansen probably - stop and smirk, Murdoch turns around and beats down on the Sarge, the rest of the Outlaws falling on him like a pack of wolves. PPV would end with the FIVE Outlaws standing tall.

 

---

 

In the coming months, Nick Bockwinkel would look to organise his troops for a battle with the Outlaws - convincing Zbyszko (who still hates Texas) that they need to work together to take out this common threat. The following PPV would've been headlined by The Outlaws taking on AWA World Champion Sgt Slaughter, Greg Gagne, Jim Brunzell (The High Fliers having reformed - with Jim noticeably more keen than Gagne to get involved), Larry Zbyszko and Ricky Steamboat.

 

In the undercard -

 

Kokina Maximus would win the TV title in the final of a tournament over recently turned face Scott Norton (the title being made vacant when Hansen refused to have anything to do with it - running over the belt with his pick-up truck and posting the bits back to Bockwinkel).

 

Wahoo and Harley Race would finally meet in a big stip match with Wahoo getting the win.

 

The Rock 'n' Roll Express would 'injure' Ivan Koloff on their way to a victory over the Russians with Ivan dropping back to a manager's role for Nikita.

 

King Kong Bundy (Buck Zumhofe's mystery opponent all those weeks ago - a 1 minute squash fact fans!) & his newly heel tag partner Jerry Blackwell would make mincemeat of the makeshift team of Baron Von Raschke & Buck Zumhofe.

 

----

After this Hansen was set to finally win the World title against Slaughter and begin defences against Steamboat and Zbyszko and my intention was to have him finally take on Nick Bockwinkel - winner takes all, title and Commisionership - and win... which would then bring Verne out of the woodwork as an opposing force...

 

Maximus would keep the TV title indefinitely crushing all comers including Scott Norton, Steve Austin, Jimmy Snuka & the rest.

 

The Killer Whales (probably not their name but I hadn't though of one yet!!! lol) Bundy and Blackwell would come up against the Rock 'n' Roll Express and bulldoze their way through to take on the High Fliers who (against all odds) would recapture the Tag titles from the Outriders. The tag belts would be the hot potatoes really thanks to the dominant runs of the TV & World champs.

 

Murdoch & Rhodes would also form an ad-hoc team to take on the Fliers from time to time.

 

That's pretty much as far as the booking had gone - it all gets very sketchy after the next but one PPV. I've had fun doing this and could probably have gone on a bit longer (if it wasn't for a change in real life circumstances curtailing my creative writing periods - lunchtime!) and the yearn to book the thing properly!

 

Hopefully I'll come back to the AWA once I've finished my mod but for the time being thanks for reading and taking the time to comment.

[Theheel]

Wow major bummer as I was enjoying the old school style of the AWA. So much so in fact that I have begun creating my own diary for the AWA but in a different time. Much like you I agree with your reasons and I choose to go back to 1983 for my diary. I have been working on doing my own update to what was the DOTT data base. Working on adjusting the stats some where I felt they needed to be and adjusting it to the TEW 2010 game more.

 

I will only do the AWA diary if I have what I feel are 4 good shows in "the can". My AWA world takes on a new twist with Verne realizing the game is changing with the arrival of VKM and selling the AWA prior to its eventual downfall.

 

Good luck with your project. I did like the storylines you had working, you did a good job with the diary.

[BHK1978]

Well it stinks that this could not continue as it was a great diary, but I understand your reasons. And if/when you come back to write your new project I will be reading.