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Raymond Rougeau vs. Matt Borne is a bar fight I really wouldn't want to wander into.

Then maybe Martel could fight a black bear

There's a lot of new faces and changing dynamics in the AWA, but Badd Company aren't out of contention by a long shot.

AWA show from the Crisler Center, Ann Arbor, February 9th Darryl Peterson & Jeff Gaylord vs. The Onyx Express Gaylord caught Koko in a flying shoulder tackle and got the one two three British Steel vs. Masa Saito & Larry Zbyszko Larry was going for an over the shoulder neckbreaker on Regal, but Regal was able to counter with a backslide to get the pin. Afterwards, Larry argued with the ref but to no avail Ron Simmons & Leon White vs. The Killer Bees Simmons hit a crushing spine buster slam on Blair to score the victory Chris Adams & The British Bullies vs. Mike Rotundo, Doug Furnas & Brian Pillman A lengthy technical matchup that went back and forth and ended when Adams was finally able to hit the Superkick on Pillman to pull out the win for his team Dusty Rhodes vs. Kevin Sullivan Dusty won the match with the Bionic Elbow Cactus Jack vs. Buzz Sawyer A crazy brawl that ended when Buzz took advantage of the ref being knocked down and hit Cactus with a chain to get the cheap victory AWA Six-Man Tag Team Title Match : The Guerrero Brothers © vs. Too Cold Scorpio & The Youngbloods An exciting , fast paced match that really got the fans on their feet and ended when Chavo dodged a bicycle kick by Blackman and took him down with a legsweep, followed by a double leg rollup that got the pinfall AWA World Tag Team Title Match : Buddy Rose & Doug Somers © vs. Badd Company Badd Company came out guns ablazing and looked at several times like they just might take the titles, but Playboy After Dark went to desperate measures and popped the ref, leading to a DQ loss but retaining the championship AWA American Title Match : Nick Bockwinkel © vs. Al Perez Another lengthy, purely scientific match, where Bock was going for a figure four leglock, but Perez countered with a small package. However, Bock was able to reverse that with his own small package to successfully defend his belt.

Love the whole card but the post-break is brain melting. Going from the crazy brawl to the technical showdown to the main event that told a great story is how you cap off a big show. Cactus vs. Hickerson is a pairing I would love to see again. So glad the Bullies got a chance to show their talents on a big stage. The main event was truly epic. More juniors!

The behind the scenes reason for these Gagne draws is a very simple one : Groovy Greg is one of the trainers. Once the rookies have had their intial matches with Burke and Barr, they go the distance with Gagne to work on endurance and match building. From there on, the move on to more intense matches with the British Bullies, The Guerreros and Mike Rotundo for their advanced education. The order can change up, but the methodology remains the same.

AWA show from Cobo Hall, Detroit, February 8th Cactus Jack vs. Leo Burke Cactus won with a flying clothesline Jesse Barr vs. Darryl Peterson Peterson made Barr give up to the Wakigatame armbar Too Cold Scorpio vs. Kevin Sullivan Scorpio scored the pinfall with a top rope flying splash Greg Gagne vs. Doug Furnas Both men went to a 20 minute time limit draw Dan Spivey vs. Al Perez In a long , hard-fought match, Perez had Spivey set up for a German Suplex, but Spivey blocked it with several big elbows to the face, then followed up with a Spivey Bomber lariat to get the victory AWA World Tag Title match : Buddy Rose & Doug Somers © vs. The Onyx Express Rose hit the Inside Out Backbreaker on Koko to successfully defend their titles AWA American Title match : Nick Bockwinkel © vs. Mike Rotundo Rotundo was about to hit the Varsity Rush, but Bock grabbed the ropes to stop it, then hit a belly to back suplex and got the win

The AWA releases Jesse Barr and the Fallen Angel and picks up David "Fit" Finlay and Larry Cameron.

AWA show from the Met Center, Bloomington, Feb. 7th (as shown on ESPN / TSN Super Cards) The Onyx Express vs. The Youngbloods Brickhouse pinned Blackman after a top rope missile dropkick Jesse Barr vs. Cactus Jack Cactus won with a flying forearm smash to the head Greg Gagne vs. Ron Simmons Both men went to a 20 minute time limit draw Larry Zbyszko vs. Dan Spivey Zbyszko trapped Spivey in a roll up with his feet on the ropes, but failed to notice that Spivey had gotten his shoulder up just before the three and the ref had not made the full count. While Larry was arguing with the ref, Spivey nailed him with the Spivey Bomber lariat to get the win Sgt. Slaughter, Dusty Rhodes & The Great Kabuki vs. Ken Patera, Jerry Blackwell & Sheikh Adnan Al Kaissie Sgt. Slaughter scored the victory for his team when he hit the Slaughter Cannon on Kaissie AWA Southern Title Match : Mando Guerrero © vs. Too Cold Scorpio Mando reversed a sunset flip attempt by Scorpio to successfully defend his title Ricky Steamboat & Nick Bockwinkel vs. Paul Orndorff & Kevin Sullivan Steamboat hit a top rope flying cross body press on Sullivan for the victory

I see this as my place among the various promotions. While big promotions like the WWF and the UWF might focus on established characters, the AWA is the place where they get their initial experience and seasoning. I give them programs and training and work them in matches with veterans who teach them the ropes. That way, when it is time for them to move on to the bigger promotions (like Lex Luger to the UWF or Rick Steiner to the WWF) , they can be credibly be presented as big names, having already done the ground work.

AWA All-Star Wrestling on ESPN / TSN for February 7th Masa Saito vs. Mark Caruso Saito had Larry Zbyszko in his corner for this match, but unlike his appearances during Nick Bockwinkel’s matches, Larry pretty much kept his opinions to himself. This could have been because of Saito’s intimidating presence (Saito could give even Ron Simmons lessons in the cold, hard stare) , or it could have been the fact that Saito clearly needed no “advice” in this match. Saito picked poor Caruso to pieces with his hard edged, strong style moves, mangling the rookie’s legs before hitting not one but two of his trademark Saito Suplexes, knocking him out. Even then, Saito chose not to go for the cover, instead wrapping the unconscious Caruso up in the Scorpion Deathlock until the ref called for the bell. One has to feel sorry for the next person who steps in the ring with Saito, especially if they should somehow make him mad. Doug Furnas vs. Leo Burke Kevin Sullivan did not make an appearance in this match, but Furnas was accompanied by Varsity Club members Mike Rotundo and Dan Spivey, who did offer coaching to the big Tennessee Volunteer throughout the match. Furnas had quite a challenge in this match, as the veteran Burke was not cowed by his power and physique and used his considerable technical expertise to stymie Furnas’s offense. Furnas found himself blocked at several turns by Burke’s counter wrestling, and would head to the outside to consult with Rotundo and Spivey. The more experienced Varsity Club hands seem to be able to give the advice and motivation he needed, as he was able to assert control of the match and start to land his power moves on Burke. It looked like Burke would still pull it off when he was about to cinch in the sleeper hold, but it turned out Furnas was drawing him in for a huge belly to back suplex that got the pinfall. Rotundo and Spivey both slapped Furnas on the back and congratulated him as they led him away from the ring. Ken Patera & Jerry Blackwell vs. The Killer Bees Jim Brunzell was no stranger to this pairing, having faced both men in various configurations back in his old team of the High Flyers. Perhaps this was why the Sheikh’s team was not able to run roughshod over the Bees like they had their past opponents. Brunzell and Blair used their speed and coordinated offense to keep one step ahead of the Syndicate for much of the match. They kept this up until Blair went for a running cross body block on Blackwell, only to be caught in a , yes, crushing power slam. From there on, the Syndicate lowered the boom on the Bees, culminating in a shoulder breaker by Patera to finish off Blair. A game effort by the Killer Bees but they came up just short. Leon White vs. Too Cold Scorpio Kevin Sullivan was certainly present for this match, as he had a personal interest in making sure that the young rookie who had defeated him last week would get his come uppance. One major complication in this match was that it had come out that White and Scorpio had actually been very good friends in the past in Colorado. Sullivan couldn’t seem to be satisfied with anything that White did in this match. When Scorpio was able to duck and dodge White’s initial offense, Sullivan was furious with his Varsity Club Rush prospect. And when White was able to catch Scorpio in several big slams, it didn’t seem to be enough for Sullivan, who was on White’s case to not just beat Scorpio but punish him. White clotheslined Scorpio out of the ring, but Scorpio was able to land on his feet. Sullivan was screaming at White to follow up on Scorpio, but at this point his bellowing was so incoherent that it only confused White, who turned to the Games Master to try to figure out what he wanted. A costly mistake, as Scorpio had swiftly made it back in and dropkicked the huge Colorado Buffalo to the outside. To make things worse, White landed on top of Sullivan, and the two got so badly entangled that the ref was able to count to ten and give the win to Scorpio. Sullivan was livid as he angrily berated the embarrassed White all the way back to the locker room, even smacking him in the back of the head. AWA Southern Title Match : Mando Guerrero © vs. Paul Diamond With Sunshine still nowhere in sight, Diamond, still tending to a damaged shoulder from Starrcade, certainly had his work cut out for him. He gave it the best shot he could, going at it hard with the champ and getting several near falls. He tried to finish him off with a flying back body press, but Mando dodged just in time and Diamond landed hard on his hurt shoulder. Mando put him in the Gory Special, and Diamond had no choice but to give up the match. AWA American Title Match : Nick Bockwinkel © vs. Kevin Sullivan Another match where Sullivan was coming in with a lot of pent up aggression to work off. Bockwinkel, with Zybyszko once again in his corner, was clearly getting progressively more annoyed, both with Sullivan’s flailing antics and with Larry’s constant badgering from ringside to take more short cuts. The two factors combined seemed to distract the usually unflappable Bockwinkel, who found himself on the defensive for much of the match. He would invariably work his way back into control, only for Sullivan’s cheating or Zbyszko’s histrionics to send him off kilter. He almost was able to finish off Sullivan with a sunset flip, only Sullivan to grab a hold of the ropes and get the champion in a pinning position. This provoked Zybysko to jump on the ring apron and clothesline Sullivan. This broke up the pin, but before the ref could take any action, he was knocked out by the Fallen Angel, wielding Sullivan’s Golden Spike. This led to the AWA officials rushing out and declaring the match a no contest, then stating that Fallen Angel was now indefinitely suspended for directly assaulting an AWA referee.

I was ahead on my writing so I decided to throw in an extra card and make it an NXT/learning excursion type show. Over half the matches are rookies working with members of the training staff so they would be getting more match time with experienced hands in front of an audience . Then I would cap the show off with a fun brawl with some big names to send the fans home happy.

I just like the idea of Calgary and Edmonton being run by different promotions, keep that rivalry going.

Gordy takes the belt on Badstreet! Awesome card!

Normally, if I throw in an extra show in at this part of the cycle, it was in Edmonton, but since that's one of your big towns, I had it in Lethbridge.

AWA show from the Canada Games Sportsplex, Lethbridge, Alberta, February 2nd The Youngbloods vs. The Onyx Express Wellington caught Koko in a belly to belly piledriver for the win Jeff Gaylord vs. Leo Burke In a match that went close to the 15 minute time limit, Gaylord caught Burke in a power slam off the ropes for the win. Jesse Barr vs. Too Cold Scorpio Scorpio hit a top rope splash to get the victory Greg Gagne vs. Darryl Peterson Both men went to a 20 minute time limit draw Mike Rotundo vs. Nord The Barbarian Nord was going for a short lariat, but Rotundo countered it with a crucifix for the pinfall Cactus Jack vs. Buzz Sawyer A reckless brawl that saw Cactus hit Buzz with an elbow smash off the second turnbuckle to the back ot the head to get the win AWA Southern Tag Team Title Match : Chavo & Hector Guerrero © vs. Brian Pillman & Ron Simmons Chavo hit a flying top rope somesault senton on Pillman to defend their belts AWA Southern Title Match : Mando Guerrero © vs. Doug Furnas Furnas was able to give him a hell of a fight, but Mando was ultimately able to catch him in the German Suplex for the one two three Double Alberta Bullrope Match : Sgt. Slaughter & Dusty Rhodes vs. Jerry Blackwell & Ken Patera A lengthy brawl where all four men were busted open and only ended when Slaughter nailed Patera with the Slaughter Cannon, followed by the Bionic Elbow Drop by Dusty to finish him off

Calgary has a long and storied history of terrible refs. Should probably do something about that.

AWA show from the Saddledome, Calgary, February 1st The Youngbloods vs. Brian Pillman & Doug Furnas With wrestlers with Calgary connections on both sides (Wellington is a Calgary native, and Pillman played for the Stampeders), the crowd was deeply into this match, which was an exciting bout that went back and forth until Pillman was able to counter a running kick attempt by Blackman with a roll up to get the pinfall. The fans cheered as both teams shook hands after the match as a show of respect. Cactus Jack vs. Jesse Barr Cactus won by countout after hitting a diving elbow drop off the ring apron Nord The Barbarian vs. Buzz Sawyer Nord countered a power slam attempt with his own front slam and got the pin Larry Zbyszko & Masa Saito vs. The Onyx Express Larry low blowed Brickhouse to set him up for a Saito Suplex by Saito to bring them the victory Jake Roberts vs. Jeff Gaylord Gaylord unleashed a brutal assault on Jake and managed to punish him with several crushing power moves but in the end his hot head got him in troublewhen he went for a running tackle and Jake got him with a DDT that spelled the end. After the match, Kevin Sullivan and Darryl Peterson attacked Roberts, leading to Nord and Cactus charging in and brawling with the Varsity Club AWA Southen Tag Title match : Chavo & Hector Guerrero © vs. The British Bullies In a match that saw both incredible technical wrestling and a textbook course in cheating from both teams, they ended up going to a 20 minute time limit draw, with both sides slugging it out well after the final bell Sgt. Slaughter vs. Ken Patera In a bit of a shocking result, Jerry Blackwell snuck into the ring when the ref was distracted and hit an avalanche on Sarge, setting up the pinfall by Patera AWA American Title match : Nick Bockwinkel © vs. Chris Adams Outside interference seems to be the theme of the night, with both Zybyszko & Saito and the British Bullies getting involved in this match. In the end , though, the deciding factor was the Great Kabuki sneaking into the ring and blasting Adams with the Green Mist, setting him up for the Piledriver and a victory for Bockwinkel

Clearly, that's what Raymond should have tried this time. Live and learn, Ray

I was going off TNM where Ray's singles finisher is also called La Bombe Rougeau. The tag finisher is where Jacques elevates the opponent and Raymond comes off the top rope with the sort of Thesz Press sort of thing, whenever it happened in a singles match I figured it would be Raymond just trying it off the top rope on a non-elevated opponent (sort of like in mid-80s singles matches, where Bret would hit the clothesline part of the Hart Attack without the elevation as a singles finisher).

AWA show from the Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg, January 31st (as shown on ESPN / TSN Super Cards) Leo Burke vs. Too Cold Scorpio In a match that came very close to the 15 minute time limit, Scorpio hit the top rope flying splash for the victory Mike Rotundo & Doug Furnas vs. Nord the Barbarian & Cactus Jack The Varsity Club won by DQ when Nord clotheslined the ref. Both sides kept brawling long after the match ended Chris Adams vs. Steven Regal Adams blocked a Regal Stretch attempt with a small package assisted by grabbing the trunks to get the pinfall *Special Video Screen simulcast of NWA Lutte Internationale match from Peers , Alberta* Contract on a Pole Match - Winner gets in the NWA National Heavyweight Championship Match at the Omni in Atlanta on February 2nd: Quebec Heavyweight Champion Armand Rougeau vs. Bobby Fulton Both men use their speed and athleticism throughout the entire match as both Armand & Fulton are trying to get to the pole and grab that National title match contract. While he's mostly a tag team specialist, Bobby Fulton is doing pretty good in this one as he has been a lot of singles matches lately, just like his partner Tommy Rogers. Bobby Fulton almost grabs the contract as Armand seems to be out of it but seeing that Armand is getting back up, Bobby Fulton turns around and attempts a missile dropkick but Armand dodged and Fulton missed his target! That finally allows Armand to climb on the turnbuckle and grab the contract! Armand Rougeau is headed to Atlanta & the National Heavyweight title match! Quebec Heavyweight Champion Armand Rougeau beat Bobby Fulton in 13:43 AWA Southern Title Match : Mando Guerrero © vs. Jacques Rougeau Both men went to a 20 minute time limit draw NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Rick Martel © vs. Ray Rougeau Although Rick Martel is also AWA Canadian Champion, this match is for the NWA World Heavyweight Title. In an exciting technical matchup, Rougeau went for la Bombe Rougeau, but Martel was able to dodge it, take Ray down with a dropkick and follow up with a slingshot splash to defend his title Ricky Steamboat vs. Danny Spivey A truly epic battle that left both men exhausted and could have gone either way. Spivey had Steamboat set up for the Spivey Bomber lariat, but Steamboat ducked at the last second and caught Spivey with a karate kick to the jaw on the rebound, following up with a belly to back suplex for the win. The crowd gave both men a standing ovation, then roared their approval when Steamboat got on the mic and said it was time for Paul Orndorff to quit ducking him and give him a title shot AWA World Title Match : Paul Orndorff © vs. Dusty Rhodes Orndorff won by DQ when Ken Patera pulled down the top rope and caused Dusty to fall out of the ring. The two slugged it out until AWA security intervened.

AWA All-Star Wrestling on ESPN / TSN for January 31st Jerry Blackwell & Ken Patera vs. Bill Posley & Matt Quinlan At the end of 1985, with the Sinister Syndicate losing several key members, it looked like the sun was setting on Sheikh Kaissie’s crew. But now, with both the debut of the British Bullies and the return of Ken Patera, the Syndicate are even more terrifying than before. Patera and Blackwell pretty much rolled over Posley and Quinlan, destroying them with big power moves before Patera forced Posley to give up to the Full Nelson. To add insult (and further injury) to injury, Blackwell dropped a running splash on both of them after the match. The tag team ranks have just had a major new force join the game. Leon White vs. Jesse Barr White has easily dominated his opposition thus far as part of the Varsity Club Rush, but was now facing one of his toughest tests yet in Jesse Barr. White tried to overpower Barr, as he had his previous opponents, but the wily Barr showed his experience by always being able to dodge White’s attacks and keep one step ahead of him. Barr stymied White by getting him down on the matt and actually taking control of the match, working over White’s legs in an attempt to cinch in the Figure Four. Kevin Sullivan was clearly frustrated with White as he shouted at him from ringside. Barr even managed to get White set up for a running bulldog, but White showed his fearsome strength by powering out of it and tossing Barr hard to the mat. White then gave out a huge roar and flattened Barr with a mighty clothesline. He then hit him with a backbreaker, which actually seemed to hurt his leg after the punishment that Barr had given earlier, but it was still enough to put away Barr. Sullivan showed clear approval at this show of aggression, but White seemed almost embarrassed by it afterwards. Ron Simmons vs. Norman Smiley If Sullivan showed frustration in the last match, he was strangely subdued during this one. Simmons was clearly listening to his instructions during the match, but any time Sullivan seemed like he was being more critical of his performance, Simmons would give him a pointed look and Sullivan would pipe down. The former Florida State Seminole showed an easy going confidence in his match with Smiley, not getting flustered when Smiley got the better of a number of chain wrestling exchanges and readily came back to reassert his dominance, catching Smiley off the ropes with a big spine buster slam for the win. Simmons helped Smiley up from the mat after the match and shook his hand, but if Sullivan took exception to this display of sportsmanship, he chose not to give voice to it in Simmons’ presence. Kevin Sullivan vs. Too Cold Scorpio Busy night for Sullivan. Sullivan looked like he had a fair amount of annoyance built up from his rookie charges bucking his authority, and was set to blow off some steam by taking it out on the young rookie Scorpio. The scrappy youngster did a good job and ducking and dodging Sullivan’s attacks for much of the match, firing back with dropkicks and and fast paced moves, but eventually Sullivan got him trapped in the corner and started beating him down. He got Scorpio hung up in the tree of woe and came running in with a double stomp, but in an impressive show of athletic ability, Scorpio was able to pull himself up at the last second and Sullivan crashed down hard into the corner. Scorpio got himself untangled and swiftly came off the top rope with a flying splash. One … two … THREE!!! Scorpio got the win! Sullivan looked like he was about to pitch a fit as Scorpio rushed to ringside and celebrated with the fans his biggest victory yet. Nick Bockwinkel & Larry Zbyszko vs. The Onyx Express Possibly the frequent presence of Kevin Sullivan on this show started to rub off on Larry Zbyszko, as he was backseat driving throughout the match, loudly calling Bock out whenever he didn’t take some sort of shortcut in the ring. A bit rich, given that Bock is a multiple World Title champion of the past, and Nick seemed to be getting irritated by Larry’s ongoing commentary. It wasn’t though he didn’t have his hands full as it was with the Onyx Express, who haven’t let the loss of Tony Atlas slow them up one bit. Koko and Brickhouse gave Nick and Larry a real run for their money with their rapid tags and smooth double team moves, and might well have pulled off an upset when Koko went up for a top rope dropkick, but Larry snuck up on him from behind and knocked him off the top turnbuckle to the mat. Bock swiftly capitalized with a double leg roll up to get the pinfall. Larry continued to give him an earful after the match, and it looked like it was all Bock could do to keep from backhanding him, but he gritted his teeth and the two left the ring together. AWA World Tag Team Title Match : Buddy Rose & Doug Somers © vs. The Killer Bees Playboy After Dark seemed like profoundly unlikely contenders for the World Tag Titles when they first started challenging the dominant British Bulldogs, but since winning the belts and then sending the Bulldogs out of the AWA, they have shown no sign of ever letting the titles go. The Killer Bees gave them a particularly intense challenge, but every time Rose and Somers seemed like it would be slipping away, they would claw their way back in with some underhanded move. It looked like their luck would run out when the challengers hit the Bee Stinger on Rose, followed by Blair locking him in the Sleeper, but as the ref was ushering Brunzell out of the ring, Somers slipped something in his elbow pad then came off the second turnbuckle with an elbow smash to Blair’s head, knocking him out. He then put Rose on top of Blair, and the ref turned around just in time to make the three count for the champs. A dirty win, but business as usaual for Rose and Somers.

David "Fit" Finlay used to be on the old New Japan roster. Is he still available for use?

I love me some Guerreros. Can put them in any place on the card and pretty much guarantee a good time.

AWA show from the International Amphitheater, Chicago, January 25th Doug Furnas & Brian Pillman vs. Jesse Barr & Buzz Sawyer Barr pinned Pillman after a bulldog headlock Leon White vs. Leo Burke White defeated Burke with a power slam The Killer Bees vs. The Onyx Express Koko executed the brain buster on Brunzell for the victory AWA Southern Title match : Mando Guerrero © vs. Too Cold Scorpio Mando got the win with a moonsault Ricky Steamboat vs. Dan Spivey Steamboat caught Spivey in a top rope flying cross body press for the win AWA Southern Tag Team Title match : Chavo & Hector Guerrero © vs. British Steel Chavo hit a top rope flying somersault senton on Smiley to defend their belts Sgt. Slaughter & Dusty Rhodes vs. Jerry Blackwell & Ken Patera Sarge caught Blackwell with a Slaughter Cannon to get a fast one two three. Both sides kept brawling long after the bell AWA World Title match : Paul Orndorff © vs. Al Perez Both men went to a 30 minute time limit draw