AWA What-Ifs

Hi Scott,

Since you've been reviewing AWA on ESPN and I just got done watching SuperClash III, I was wondering what if all the promoters involved had been able to trust each other for longer than five minutes and had done a follow-up pay-per-view sometime in 1989? What do you think the card might have looked like based on the talent available at the time?

For title matches, I think a Lawler-Kerry re-match to settle the dispute would be a must, and logically it'd be a first blood match and I suppose you could have Tatsumi Fujinami defend the IWGP title against Manny Fernandez based off their little post-match fracas and to add some international flavour.

You know Verne would want Greg featured with his precious TV title so I guess an outsider with some name appeal who was available in '89 to come in for a shot would be Bam Bam Bigelow. The British Bulldogs would also have been able to come in (if not working All Japan or Stampede) so my initial thought was to do that rare Bulldogs-Rock N' Roll Express match here but alternatively, you could put the Rock N' Rolls in with Jimmy Golden and Robert Fuller in a street fight or a cage match to settle their shitty non-finish, and put the Bulldogs in with the Samoan Swat Team or Badd Company for either set of tag titles and you know they'd both be pretty killer matches.

Sgt. Slaughter also has scores to be settled with Iron Sheik, Adnan Al Kaisse and Col. DeBeers, probably some kind of boot camp match, or maybe teaming with Wahoo McDaniel, Corporal Kirchner or someone. For the women, who knows? Wendi Richter vs. Madusa, Madusa vs. Nina Ferrari, Nina & Wendi vs. Madusa and Susan Sexton?

That leaves the likes of the Steve Cox, RPMs, Jeff Jarrett, Eric Embry, King Parsons, Top Guns, The Guerreros...perhaps Big Van Vader even though he's not really much of a star in the US at this point. Just no Jimmy Valiant I hope!

The Boogie Woogie Man was money.  Just ask him.

Bulldogs v. SST would have been BADASS.  Before they got fat and unmotivated in the WWF, the Headshrinkers could rock that shit. 

Instead of doing another singles match, they could have extended the Lawler-Von Erich feud by doing a tag match, say Lawler & Jarrett (or Dundee) v. Kerry & Kevin in a crazy brawl. 

I’d throw in Badd Company v. Rock N Roll Express for the tag titles, and maybe Greg Gagne v. Larry Zbyszko (which wouldn’t be great but it’s at least a fresh logical matchup with some star power), and the previously mentioned Slaughter v. DeBeers match, and that’s a pretty decent PPV show.