The Independent Matches of Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, & Paul Wight

The title of this blog I'm not very happy with because it doesn't truly convey what it is that I'm writing about.  I just couldn't come up with anything better.

Now a days is not uncommon for former headliner or main event wrestler to make appearances on the independent circuit in non-wrestling roles.  Flair, Sting, Steamboat, they make the rounds to much fan fare.  However it is a great rarity when they have an actual match on the independents.  Here are a few that I have found.

For this list I am referring to the modern day independent scene not the pre-1990's.

"Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels
Many people think that SummerSlam 2002 was Michaels first match back after his back injury and WrestleMania XIV but they would be wrong.  After Michaels left the WWE he started his own school and promotion Texas Wrestling Alliance.  In 2000 Michaels faced Venom in a Bunkhouse Brawl for the TWA Heavyweight Championship. The match is on You Tube here.  Michaels actually looks pretty damn good in the match.

February 4, 2000 aired 4/15/2000 on TWA Total Impact
Michaels defeated Venom to win the TWA Championship

Venom is better known as Paul Diamond former member of Bad Company, The Orient Express, and 16 year ring veteran.

"Nature Boy" Ric Flair
One of my all time favorites Ric Flair never toured the independent scene.  Sure as NWA World Champion he worked some pretty crazy far off places, but that was always under the banner of the NWA. While they were affiliated with the WWE he worked one match for Deep South Wrestling and one for Ohio Valley Wrestling.

September 9, 2006 Deep South Wrestling, Six Flaggs, Austell, Georgia
Flair defeated Montel Vontavious Porter

April 4, 2002 Ohio Valley Wrestling, Louisville, Kentucky
with David Flair defeated The Prototype (John Cena) & Sean O' Haire w/ Kenny Bolin

November 21 - 28, 2009, Hulkamania: Let the Battle Begin Tour, Australia
Flair lost to Hogan in all four matches on the tour

This was Flairs return to wrestling 18 months after his retirement match loss to Shawn Michaels.  After this tour he would sign with TNA where he competed in 12 matches losing most of them.

The Big Show

While in the WWE Big Show worked several matches in their developmental systems, Ohio Valley Wrestling, Heartland Wrestling Association, Deep South Wrestling, and a joint WWE/IWA Puerto Rico, these matches were all in association with the WWE while he was under contract with them.  This is Big Shows only Independent booking to date.

April 27, 2007 Memphis Wrestling, Memphis, Tennessee
Hulk Hogan defeated Paul Wight

Jerry "The King" Lawler was originally scheduled to be Hogan's opponent but the WWE pulled him from the show.  Show was a last minute replacement.  The FedEx Forum can hold pretty near 19,000 people and the show only drew 4,500.  I mean that is a huge number, but many felt with Lawler it would have drawn more.

Hulk Hogan

The Hulkster has already been mentioned in this post with his matches with Flair and Big Show, but he did wrestle one other independent match.

November 21 - 28, 2009, Hulkamania: Let the Battle Begin Tour, Australia
Flair lost to Hogan in all four matches on the tour

April 27, 2007 Memphis Wrestling, Memphis, Tennessee
Hulk Hogan defeated Paul Wight

November 14, 2001 X-Wrestling Federation, Orlando, Florida
Hulk Hogan defeated Curt Hennig

This promotion was hoping to fill the void left after WCW and ECW folded, and with Hogan some thought it would.  However, after Hogan left signing with the WWE to reform the nWo with Hall & Nash, the promotion never managed to make a go of it.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, read my other posts, and like my blogs Facebook page.

Later Readers!

AWA SuperClash II

I recently was looking through the vault section of WWE Network in the AWA and found four of their supershows, including the only AWA PPV just listed in the TV section.  The shows are this one here, Super Sunday, WrestleRock 86 and Superclash III.

SuperClash II

May 2, 1987

San Francisco, California

The Cow Palace

Commentator: Rod Trongard

Duration: 2 hours 28 minutes

"Rock N' Roll" Buck Zumhofe vs. Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie 
This match was horribly long!  First all the walk and talk of Al-Kaissie at the beginning of the match, then the super slow cadence of it made it practically unbearable.  Al-Kaissie got the pin with his feet on the ropes similar to how Billy Graham pinned Bruno.

Super Ninja w/ Mr. Go vs. DJ Peterson
Super Ninja's arm gauntlets cover the back of his hands and I'm pretty sure they are supposed to be chinese stars, but they are swastika's.

This match was not as terrible as the first, but pretty darn close.  15 minute time limit draw.

Women's Champion: "Sensational" Sherri Martel vs. Madusa Micelli  
1 Fall 1 hour time limit
Doug Somers accompanied Martel to ringside. Great match!  Very hard hitting, I mean these girls really put it to each other.  Madusa busted out a picture perfect airplane spin!  Martel got the win with a roll up pulling the tights.

World Heavyweight Champion: Nick Bockwinkel vs Curt Hennig 
1 Fall 1 hour time limit
Fantastic match that went 23 minutes.  Bockwinkel worked the left arm for the majority of the contest out wrestling Hennig frustrating him.  As the match built towards a finish Curt attempted several pin falls but couldn't put the champion away further frustrating him.  Then it appears Larry Zybyszko who was sitting at ringside handed Hennig a roll of quarters clocking the champion and getting the three count.

After the match Hennig gave Zybyszko the roll back, but Ray Stevens at ringside exposed the foreign object.  A meeting in the ring with the referee, Stanley Blackburn, and Stevens leading to Blackburn declaring the title to be held up until the championship committee can review the tape.
Hennig was the babyface in the match, and the fans were excited that he won the championship.
Much like at Super Sunday the crowd chanting bullshit after the reverse decision.  Eventually though the decision was upheld and Hennig was declared champion.

Six Man Tag 
The Midnight Rockers: Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty, and Ray "The Crippler" Stevens vs. "Playboy" Doug Somers, Kevin Kelly, & Buddy Wolfe, w/ Sherri Martel
Jannetty took a beating for a long, long time, playing what I dub the Ricky Morton roll of the tag match.  He would fire up and the crowd with rise up with him, until the heal would bring him back down.  When he finally made the hot tag, after at least 15 minutes of punishment, the crowd figuratively exploded!  It was the hottest of hot tags!
The finish came when a minute after Jannetty finally tagged out, the match broke down and Stevens rolled up Somers in a small package for the pin.  Stevens was not the legal man in the ring.

Jerry Blackwell w/ Buck Zumhofe vs. Boris Zhukov w/ Adnan Al-Kaissie
This was nothing more than a steaming pile of garbage.  Blackwell won.

Russ Francis in green jacket

Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka & Russ Francis vs. The Terrorist & The Mercenary 
Russ Francis played in the NFL for the San Francisco 49ers and he spent a lot of time on the outside of the ring in this match.  Once Snuka finally made the tag Francis showed us he could handle himself in the ring getting the win with a splash off the top rope on the Terrorist.  The crowd was jacked and could see many of them literally jumping up and down.

After the show was over they had a series of interviews in the empty arena with the majority of the wrestlers that were on the show.

Notes:

Ray Stevens joined Trongard on commentary for the The Women's and World Heavyweight championship matches.

This would be the fourth and final reign for Bockwinkel as champion who held the AWA World Championship an impressive 2,990 days in total.

Kevin Kelly would go onto the WWE to be Nailz.

The Terrorist is Brian Knobbs and The Mercenary Ron Fuller

Russ Francis is the son of wrestling promoter Ed Francis.  He competed in the WrestleMania 2 battle royal and was one of the final four competitors.  He wrestled in the late 70's while playing in the NFL.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, check out my other posts, and like the facebook page.

Later Readers!

AWA Wrestlerock 1986

I recently was looking through the vault section of WWE Network in the AWA and found four of their supershows, including the only AWA PPV just listed in the TV section.  The shows are this one here, Super Sunday and Superclash II & III.

April 20, 1986 

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Hubert H. Humprey Metrodome

Commentary: Rod Trongard & Larry Nelson
Interviewer: Ken Resnick
Ring Announcer: Gary Michael Capetta
Duration: 3 hours 42 minutes

At the beginning of the show there were so many empty seats on the floor and in the stands, it did fill in by the end of the show.  It was interesting that Rod Trongard called the first eight matches by himself before Larry Nelson joined him.  The faces and heels came from separate sides of the ring.  Also there were several guest ring announcers in the evening.

Opens with the national anthem sung live

Brad Rheingans vs. Boris Zhukov with Skandor Akbar
1 Fall 15 minute time limit
American Olympian vs. Evil Soviet Communist to a hilt.  Rheingans gets an interview on the way to the ring.  Rheingans took a beating for the majority of the match before making his comeback with a powerslam for the pinfall.  8 min 31 seconds.  Decent very formulaic for that time frame.

Midget Tag Team Match
Lord Littlebrook & Little Tokyo vs. Little Mr. T & Cowboy Lang
1 Fall 15 minute time limit
At the beginning of the match Trongard busted out this gem "Big or small short or tall the AWA has it all" and later "Coast to coast and border to border we go all over."  Not going to lie, I love it!
Not your typical comedy filled spotfest.  This match was actually a physical seriously contended match with what I would call only one comedy spot.  Lang and Mr. T got the win when Lang pinned Littlebrook with a scissor roll.  10 min 1 second.

Wahoo McDaniel vs. Col. Debeers
1 Fall 15 minute time limit
Short match, basically punch, kick, and chops with Wahoo getting disqualified for throwing DeBeers out over the top rope.  Post match McDaniels and DeBeers had a better match/fight on the floor before officials separated them.

Tiger Mask vs. "Rock n' Roll" Buck Zumhofe
1 Fall 15 minute time limt
Pre-match promo with Zumhofe while Tiger Mask made his entrance.  There was so much feedback you couldn't understand Zumhofe.  Mitsuharu Misawa was under the hood as Tiger Mask in thsi match.  This was no Dynamite Kid classic, in fact Zumhofe was outclassed by Tiger Mask who seemed not impressed to be there.  Tiger Mask gets the win when he does a front flip off the top rope and crashes into a standing Zumhofe.

Ken Resnick interviews Mike Rotundo & Barry Windham calling them former WWF Tag Team Champions.

Mike Rotundo & Barry Windham vs. The Fabulous Ones: Stan Lane & Steve Keirn 
I was never a fan of the Fabulous Ones, I always preferred Lane in the Midnight Express.  Really great tag team match with four guys that really know what they are doing.  Lane had Rotundo set up for a piledriver when Windham came off the top rope with a elbow to the back of the had and scored the three count.  Classic 80's good guy doing what the bad guy does and getting cheered for it.

Giant Baba vs. "Bulldog" Bob Brown
1 Fall 20 minute time limit
Terrible, just terrible.  Baba wins with a kick in the chest

Harley Race vs. Rick Martel
1 Fall 20 minute time limit
Interview with Race on the way the ring. I've never seen these two wrestle each other before.  This match started a bit slow but after a few minutes they turned it on and just went for it battling to a double count-out.  I'm not even angry about it, it was truly a fantastic match!  After the match they kept at it on the floor until it was broken up by officials.

Ten Women Battle Royal
Sherri Martel won last eliminating AWA Women's Champion: Candi Devine.  Other competitors: Joyce Grable, Kat LeRoux, Luna Vachon, Rose Devine, Taylor Thomas, Destina Montagus, Misty Blue Simmes, Debbie Combs. Near the end of the match Tongard confused Debbie Combs and Champion Devine calling one the other.

The only lady in match I had never heard of was Despina Montagas and I was very impressed with her in the match especially her strength.

Sgt. Slaughter vs. Kamala the Ugandan Giant with Skandor Akbar
Slaughter is in GI Joe ring gear.  Bad match, fans were popping big time for Slaughter though, who won by disqualification when Akbar interfered.  Larry Nelson conducted a post match promo with Sgt. Slaughter, he gathered up a few kids to say the pledge of allegiance.

AWA Tag Team Championship
Champions: "Big" Scott Hall & Curt Hennig vs. The Long Riders: "Wild" Bill & Scott "Hog" Irwin
1 Fall 60 minute time limit
 Hall is awarded a trophy from Pro Wrestling Report for being voted Most Popular Wrestler.  This match wasn't very good at all.  For some reason Hennig and Wild Bill were in the match 95% of the time.  Hennig pinned Wild Bill with a missile dropkick.

Larry Nelson conducted a post match promo with the champs.

European Rules Match
Scott LeDoux vs. Larry Zbyszko with Go the Ninja
10 two minute rounds with 1 minute rest breaks
Ken Resnick conducted a pre-match promo with Ledoux.  Special Referee Larry "The Axe" Hennig.  This match was basically a hot mess.  Both men wore four ounce karate gloves, but it was never made clear how you can win the match.  At the end of the first round the bell rang and Larry Nelson asked what that bell was all about.  Midway through the second round Trongard said this could end many ways.  It was basically punches, kicks, and take downs with then awkward ground grappling.  At the beginning of the 5th round Zbyszko throws LeDoux to the floor and posts him drawing the disqualification.  Larry Nelson conducted a post match interview with LeDoux.

AWA World Champion: Stan "The Lariat" Hansen vs. Nick Bockwinkel
1 Fall with a 60 minute time limit
On his way to the ring Hansen beat up Larry Nelson.  As you can imagine this was a wild and crazy Hansen style brawl.  I've never seen Bockwinkel in a match like this before, he didn't have a choice though, it was survival!  Also the perennial heel Bockwinkel was getting baby face reactions.  After several minutes of these guys beating the tar out of each other we get a ref bump and Bockwinkel gets several pin falls that the ref doesn't see.

Of course he comes too in time to see Hansen back body drop Bockwinkel over the top rope drawing the disqualification and giving Bockwinkel the win and Hansen retaining the title.  Of course after the match they keep fighting.  10 minutes 8 seconds, felt longer, in a good way.  Larry Nelson conducted a post-match interview with Bockwinkel.

Main Event Steel Cage
Greag Gagne & "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka w/ Verne Gagne vs. King Kong Brody & The Barbarian w/ Shiek Adnan Al-Kaissie 
1 Fall to a finish no time limit
If Greg & Snuka win Verne gets Al-Kaissie in the cage for 10 minutes.  This was contested under standard tag team rules, just in a cage.  Brody wasn't the typical wildman that we are used to.  Gagne and Brody got busted open well, Barbarian just has a cat scratch,  Oh my god, the pin fall came when Gagne was down on all fours, Barbarian and Snuka were both standing with Barbarian holding Snuka open for a shot from Brody who threw a dropkick knocking Barbarian backwards over Gagne tripping Barbarian and Snuka falling onto him for the pin...seriously.

All four men battle to the back and Vern grabs Al-Kaissie ramming him into the cage twice before throwing him in the ring where Al-Kaissie was bleeding profusely.   This wasn't your typical "10 minutes in the ring" this was a match! So yes Verne actually Main Evented the card.  Verne gets the pin with a small package. 3 minutes 49 seconds.  Larry Nelson conducted a post match interview with Verne who stated that, that was his last match.  Verne would wrestle three more matches after this before ending his in ring career.

Steel Cage
The Road Warriors: Hawk & Animal vs. The Fabulous Freebirds: Michael PS Hayes & "Gorgeous" Jimmy Garvin
In the first minutes Hayes eats the cage and is busted open.  Standard match with the Warriors dominating and getting a quick win after a few minutes when Hayes accidentally hit Garvin with a foreign object and Animal getting the pin on Garvin.  7 minutes 18 seconds.

Even though the previous match was announced at the Main Event the Warrior vs. Freebirds was the last match on the tape.  Checking a couple websites also shows that this match happened prior to Gagne & Snuka vs. Brody & Barbarian.

Also checking those same websites show that a match on the card appears to have been cut from this broadcast on the WWE Network.  The Rocker vs. Playboy Buddy Rose & Doug Somers.  Now before any says anything here is a video capture I found on the internet of the match with the WWE logo on the screen.

I wonder why it was cut.

Also cut from this version, and I'm not upset about it, was a concert performed by Waylon Jennings, to which I question about Waylon Jennings qualifies as rock music

This would be the last dome show for the AWA with an announced recorded attendance of 23,300 but inside the 65 thousand seat dome it looked sparse.  If I didn't list the time limit it was because it wasn't mentioned same with the time of the match.

Rod Trongard

Rod Trongard just has one of those amazing voices that I just love from wrestling's past.

I've never seen this show before and was surprised to see some guys on the show like Giant Baba, Rotundo and Windham.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, check my other posts, and like the facebook page.

Later Readers!