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AWF Warriors of Wrestling; Episode 6
by Scrooge McSuck

- We're back with the sixth installment of the AWF: Warriors of Wrestling TV series. Last week we caught the remaining matches in the first round of the Championship Tournament, and so we've pushed out all the scrubs (Seriously, the Destroyer and Jim Powers in a title tournament!?), leaving us the likes of Tito Santana, Chris Adams, Sgt. Slaughter, Greg Valentine, Bob Orton, Mr. Hughes, Tommy Rich, and... uh... Koko B. Ware. Okay, so for the most part, it's names, even if they are all about 10 years past it... minimal.

- Mick Karch and Terry Taylor are calling the action, or doing their best impersonation of that, at least.

- Quarter-Finals Tournament Match:
"Gentleman" Chris Adams vs. Greg "The Hammer" Valentine (w/ Rico Suave):

I find it somewhat weird that the ring announcer doesn't mention this as a Tournament match... maybe they just taped a butt load of matches and randomly made up tournament brackets after the fact to try and make sense of it all? For no reason, I was thinking that Greg Valentine turning face in 1991 might've been the worst idea for a face turn at that point. Greg Valentine does not scream babyface. Lockup into the corner, and we get a surprisingly clean break. Adams takes Valentine over with an arm drag, and quickly bars the arm. Irish whip to escape, and Adams takes Valentine over again with arm drags, and goes back to the arm. Valentine tries a slam to escape, but Adams holds onto the arm on the way down. Valentine finally breaks the hold with a back breaker, then follows up with an atomic drop. Valentine with a snapmare, quickly covers for a two count and goes to a chinlock. Adams gets back to his feet, so Valentine snaps him back across the knee. Valentine with shoulders to the midsection, but he misses a charge and posts himself. Adams slingshots Valentine back into the ring and jerks on the arm with a wristlock as the time expires for Round 1.

Round 2: Adams instantly suckers Valentine into taking an enziguri, then goes back to work on the arm. At ringside, we see the mysterious lady that was with Valentine last week, giving "information" to Suave, with a "lap top" that isn't even turned on. Irish whip, and Valentine kills Adams with a clothesline, then drops a headbutt across the midsection. Valentine with a series of knees to the left leg of Adams, followed by some elbows. Adams comes back with a series of roundhouse rights, but Valentine puts him down with an atomic knee drop. After a moment of struggling, Valentine manages to apply the Figure-Four, and yes, he uses the ropes for leverage behind the back of the referee... wait, the referee sees it and forces a break, but the damage has been done. Valentine drops Adams with a stiff chop and rops an elbow across the forehead for a tqo quick, and we're done with the second round. Valentine adds a few chop shots after the bell, while the referee is being distracted again.

Final Round: Valentine attacks with forearms and quickly goes for the Figure-Four, but Adams cradles him for a two count. Valentine is back on Adams, then tosses him out of the ring. Valentine clubs Adams across the throat with a forearm, then takes him back into the ring with a suplex, but that only gets a two count. Valentine tries to pin the wrists down, but Adams keeps getting a shoulder up before the three count can be made. Adams with knees to the groin, and Adams nails a super-kick to the sternum. Adams with a knee lift, followed by a piledriver. Adams heads to the top rope, and he comes off with a cross body, but that only gets a two count. Valentine with a knee, but Adams comes off the ropes with a sunset flip for another two count. Adams tries a roll up, but again only gets two. Valentine applies a sleeper hold, but Adams escapes with a jaw buster. Adams rolls up Valentine for yet another two count. Adams with a bridging back suplex for two. Valentine takes Adams over with a double-underhook suplex, and again, just a two count. Adams counters out of a piledriver and sits on the chest of Valentine for a two count, and the bell rings at 4:19 of Round 3. The referee gets to make the decision, and awards the match to Chris Adams. Terry Taylor gives his reasonings for why Adams wins, and I guess that's good enough for me. *** Surprisingly good match, considering how past his prime Valentine was at this point of his career.

- Quarter-Finals Tournament Match:
Koko B. Ware (w/ Frankie) vs. Bob Orton Jr. (w/ Sir Oliver Humperdink):

The winner of this match gets to face Chris Adams in the Semi-Finals. Last week, Orton defeatted Johnny Gunn to advance, and the week before that, Koko B. Ware got past Nails. Koko doesn't have any theme music, for whatever reason (LAWSUIT?). Oh wait, now it's kicking in, I guess someone just screwed up. Koko attacks Orton in the corner, smacking the ears, Killer Bee style, and connecting with a headbutt. Koko takes Orton out of the corner with a bulldog, but Orton has his foot on the ropes. Orton counters a headlock with a back suplex. Irish whip, and a head collision knocks both men out. It looked like Orton landed on top for a cover, but we didn't get a count. Orton rakes the eyes and drives a series of boots to the midsection. Koko counters, and sends Orton to the corner with an atomic drop. Koko hammers away with mounted punches. Whip to the corner, and Orton drives a knee to the face on a charge attempt. Orton tries for a piledriver, but Koko counters with a back drop. Koko hammers away on Orton, who has been on the apron for quite a while. Orton rams Koko to the buckle, but meets the knees on a slingshot splash attempt. Then out of nowhere, Orton traps Koko in a 3/4 Nelson pinning combination, and that's enough for a three count at 3:24 of Round 1. * Not a terrible few minutes of wrestling.

- Quarter-Finals Tournament Match:
Sgt. Slaughter vs. "Luscious" Tommy Rich (w/ Rico Suave):

In what had been the worst match in AWF history at this point, Tommy Rich went over Tony Atlas in the opening round, and Sgt. Slaughter defeated the Super Destroyer. Lockup to start, and Rich gives a clean break. Rich tries for a slam, but Slaughter's too fat, and he slams the non-skinny Rich, instead. For whatever reason, Taylor throws in his impersonation of Dusty Rhodes. Oh, and as the match goes, Slaughter dumps Rich out of the ring, and the stalling continues. Back in the ring, and Slaughter pounds away across the back of Rich, then connects with a back breaker for a two count. Rich applies a side headlock, but a shoulder block goes the way of Slaughter. Slaughter continues to work over the back of Rich, and plants him with a slam for another two count. Whip to the corner, and Slaughter takes Rich over with a back drop. Irish whip, and Slaughter catches Rich in an abdominal stretch, but the time expires to end Round 1. Round 2: Slaughter quickly goes back to work on the back of Rich, ramming him to the buckle and covering for a two count. Into the corner, and wee see Slaughter clubbing away on the chest. Whip to the corner is reversed, and Slaughter takes his signature chest-first bump, spilling to the floor in the process. Rich heads outside and pounds away on the fallen Sgt. Slaughter. We see that Suave has the referee distracted, as the beatings continue. Back in the ring, and Rich continues to beat down Slaughter. Rich rams Slaughter into the ring post, and covers for a two count. We get a slugfest now, with Slaughter coming out on top of that one. Referee bump! Slaughter maintains control and applies the Cobra Clutch, but the referee is knocked out. Suave jumps into the ring and annoys Slaughter. We get heel miscomunnication, and Slaughter chases Rich over the top rope... and the referee calls for the bell at 3:56 of Round 2. I guess he awarded the match to Rich by Disqualication for Slaughter allegedly throwing Rich over the top rope, which is an automatic disqualification in the AWF. Lame. DUD Match sucked, of course.

- Quarter-Finals Tournament Match:
Tito Santana vs. Mr. Hughes (w/ Shiek Adnan Alkahassie):

The final match of the Quarter-Final Round. Santana went over Hercules, a stable-mate of Hughes, and Hughes, originally not a participant in the tournament, forced his way in and squashed some jabroni named the Superfly. Hughes attacks Santana from behind, and stomps away. Terry Taylor throws us to a Warriors Corner with Chris Adams, doing a TERRIBLE Ringo Starr inpression. Hughes maintains control of the action, by the way. Irish whip, and Hughes with a back drop, followed by an elbow drop for a two count. Hughes chokes Santana across the middle rope, then follows with a splash across the back, Boss Man style. Hughes goes for it again, but ends up crotching himself. Santana comes off the ropes, but Hughes pulls the referee in front of him for the Flying Jalupeno. Santana surprises Hughes with a sleeper hold, but the referee calls for bell at 3:35, and argues with Santana. Hughes and the Sheik celebrate, but the referee ends up raising Santana's arm in victory by Disqualification. Who didn't see that one coming? DUD Not much of a match here, and I don't see the need in having to protect EVERYONE in the god damn tournament. Four matches in the round, only one clean job.

- We review the updated Tournament brackets, and now we've got the Semi-Finals set, with Tito Santana set to take on Tommy Rich, and Chris Adams will do battle with Bob Orton Jr. Round limits have been extended to 6 Round matches for the Semi-Finals, so I wonder if we'll be getting some extended action from Adams and Orton, because any more than two-minutes of Tommy Rich "wrestling" is just sick punishment.

Final Thoughts: This episode started off on a high note, with a pretty entertaining match between Adams and Valentine. From there, it just went downhill. Koko and Orton was going okay before the surprise ending, but then Slaughter and Rich dragged the show to hell, and the finale with Santana and Hughes was nothing to brag about, either. Next week should be an interesting show, but who knows how long it will take for me to get to it.

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