by Scott Keith

- You may have noticed a lack of AWA Classic Wrestling 2 and 3, as we’re jumping right from the first one to the fourth one, and I noticed that, too. More on that later.

- Your hosts are Todd Okerlund & Greg Gagne

- Opening match: Ray Stevens & Pat Patterson v. Frankie Hill & Billy Robinson. From 1980. The deal here is that Stevens & Patterson are supposed to be squashing a pair of jobbers in a 2/3 falls match, but Hill’s partner can’t make it due to travel problems, so Patterson/Stevens rival Billy Robinson (an AWESOME mat wrestler from Britain who has since trained a ton of great wrestlers) comes out to take his place. Robinson dominates both heels and quickly pins Patterson after a one-handed backbreaker, for the first fall. Second fall: Robinson works on Pat’s arm, then makes the mistake of tagging in the jobber, who promptly gets clobbered. Robinson gets back in and has Stevens reeling with some nasty armbars, including UFC-ish stuff I’ve never seen before. Once again, Hill comes in and gets killed. Robinson gets back in, and hits a butterfly suplex on Stevens for two, then slams Pat off the top rope for good measure. For those who’ve never seen Robinson before, picture Scott Steiner when he didn’t suck. Uh…for those who don’t remember that era either…I can’t help you. Patterson and Stevens resort to double-teaming, so the ref call for the DQ. The heels beat the hell out of Robinson. Good little match with a lame TV finish. **1/2

- Patterson & Stevens cut a victory promo and complain that everyone is scared of them, including the tag champs, Ventura & Adonis…

- Jesse Ventura & Adrian Adonis retort, challenging Patterson & Stevens to a tag title match in San Francisco, the stomping grounds for the challengers. And after all that…they don’t mention it again. COME ON! If you’re gonna show this build, at LEAST show us some clips of how it turned out!

- Superstar Billy Graham cuts a promo. Dressed in yellow tye-dye, he’s like the strange lovechild of Hogan and Scott Steiner.

- Quick clip of Jos LeDuc v. Mad Dog Vachon that doesn’t really do anything.

- Words of wisdom from Jimmy Garvin and Steve Regal. Nothing of note here either.

- Cage match: Nick Bockwinkel v. Da Crusher. Joined in Progress as Crusher bleeds and mounts a comeback. They both bleed from the cage shots, then Crusher hits a stomp to Bockwinkel’s face off the second rope. Okay, OUCH. Bockwinkel cheats to come back and they fight on the top rope. Bockwinkel gets rammed to the top of the cage and topples off, and Crusher gets the pin. Not much shown. Call it *

- Hulk Hogan v. Adrian Adonis. JIP again as Adonis smashes a chair over Hogan’s back for two. Inverted atomic drop gets two. Hulk does his thing and Adonis runs away, so Hogan chases him back in and ties him up in the ropes. Adonis escapes and finds an international object, knocks Hogan out, and gets two. Hulk no-sells, drops the leg, and gets the pin. Standard stuff. ½*

- Michael Hayes insults all of Milwaukee to build up a match with Jerry Blackwell, and Blackwell responds, and I’m curious to see the match, so of course we don’t hear anything else about it.

- We get words from some guy named "Nature Boy" Roger Kirby, who I’ve never seen or heard of before, and I used to watch a LOT of AWA. What a terrific use of time.

- Main event: Ray Stevens & Nick Bockwinkel v. Billy Robinson & Red Bastien. The story here is that the tag champs (Stevens & Bockwinkel) are ducking Robinson & Bastien, until finally AWA promoter Wally Karbo corners the champs with an open contract on TV one week and forces them to defend the titles. Robinson & Bastien quickly dominate the champs with some nice stuff, but Robinson gets caught in the corner. Bastien quickly tagged back into keep control for the faces, and Bockwinkel stalls for time. He wants a test of strength, which leads to Robinson doing a nifty wristlock sequence. Bastien comes in and hammers on Stevens. Robinson gets a butterfly suplex for two after a nifty front legsweep. Man, Robinson was something else. Robinson takes a bad fall and ends up on the floor, giving the heels a chance to inflict punishment. Robinson fights back, but the champs hang on like leeches and won’t let him out. Double-KO allows the hot tag to Bastien, and he’s a house afire. An atomic drop to Stevens gets the pin for the first fall. Second fall: Robinson kicks Bockwinkels ass, for a few two-counts. Red slingshots Bockwinkel into a Robinson forearm on the apron, a few times. Man, this stuff is WAY ahead of it’s time. Bastien ends my curiosity from the first AWA Classics rant by hitting…wait for it…the DREADED SKULLCRACKER! It turns out to be a front piledriver (aka DDP’s pancake). Ah well, sometimes the imagination is better than the actual thing. Chaos ensues and the champs cheat again, and Robinson is face-in-peril. The champs basically tee off on him. Robinson’s selling is awesome. Robinson escapes a piledriver with a kick to the face, and Bastien comes in, softens Bockwinkel up, and Robinson finishes him with the one-handed backbreaker (picture the Bossman slam, except dropping him on the knee) to capture the tag titles! Man, that was a GREAT match for 1973. **** Probably not for all tastes, though.

- After the match, Wally Karbo reveals that it was a non-title match because the tag titles can only be defended in a one-hour time limit match, and this was just TV time remaining. Red & Billy take it amazingly well, laughing it off because they got the satisfaction of beating the champs. Bockwinkel and Stevens cut an indignant promo in response, which would lead one to believe that a pretty good blowoff would result, except of course WE DON’T SEE IT.

The Bottom Line: Okay, so Viewer’s Choice was advertising AWA Classics Volume 2, listed as a 2.5 hour show, for which I was charged $24.95. I got AWA Classics Volume 4, which is a 45-minute show followed by 2 hours of dead air, for which I was STILL charged $24.95. A call to Shaw Cable the next day resulted in a refund, thankfully, but I’m still missing volumes 2 & 3 now.

At any rate, outside of revealing how awesome Billy Robinson was, there’s really nothing of interest on this show and I have nothing else to say about it.

Recommendation to avoid.