I fought against the notion that is was rigged up until they did the 20/20 special. I was probably about 11 years old at that point. Started watching it at about 9 years old and for couple of years I believed that it wasn't rigged. Went to see my first AWA match at the Pavillion around that time. I just remembered my mom telling me that it was a great experience and cool as we left the arena. Later on I heard her tell someone that "it was cool but you know that it was fake".

I was like damn why did you have to say that.

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Damn parents.

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I vividly remember waiting for Crusher Blackwell and Mad Dog Vachon to kill one another as the result of a "Texas Death Match" at the Pavilion years ago. I wasn't in attendance but i remember waking up on that particular Sunday, turning on Ch. 26 and expecting either one or the other to be dead. After all it was a "Death Match". When both popped in the day after with interviews i thought to myself "isn't one of you supposed to be dead?

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Well, they weren't in Texas, either, were they?

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My sweet tiny grandmother introduced me to AWA on TV. She didn't particularly like sports but she couldn't drive to just get out and do stuff on a weekend morning, and folks like Bob Luce provided her with amusement as compared to the Sunday morning news shows.

I was a Sodbuster Kenny Jay fan, I was always interested in to see how he was going to lose.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

The title was based on style and not geographical location.

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I know, it's just a funny name.

I saw some clip of an old, old WCW Worldwide where Tony Schiavone was bemoaning that a Texas death match now had to be referred to as a "Texas tornado match" because of "political correctness." There's nothing new under the sun.

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Yeah back then the jobbers were the best. There were a ton of them in AWA seemingly. They usually only had maybe one match that was a main event. They didn't want to hurt their house shows by having top tier talent wrestle one another on television.

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Yeah it could just as easy have been called a South Dakota Death Match. Think they thought by using Texas it would seem more menacing. Probably had something to do with Capital Punishment and Texas.

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WCW started calling foreign objects "international objects" for the same reason.

That approach continued with WWF even into the early 90's. Hulk Hogan's only televised matches were on the four pay-per-views a year they had or on Saturday Night's Main Event on NBC. Raw and Nitro competing head to head for ratings changed all that.

Remember the match where the Sodbuster had Bockwinkle in the "sodgrip" and was moments away from becoming the AWA World Heavyweight champ in a stunning upset until the nefarious Bobby Heenan distracted the ref and Kenny Jay once again "snatched defeat from the jaws of victory".

Yeah. I also think UWF and NWA did as well. UWF for a time was the best Federation going.

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I don't remember the Sodbuster. He probably was little bit before my time

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60, 70s and a little bit in the early 80s. He was from outside of Minneapolis, he functioned as a ref occasionally if he wasn't jobbing that week on the TV taping. He wrestled Muhhammad Ali (don't ask....) one time. He was called the Sodbuster becaue he owned a landscaping business. Seriously.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Realize now that Bobby Heenan was the biggest star in the AWA. People paid good money to see him get his ass kicked.

Greatest manager of all time.

He knew the business and he knew people to see him finally get his comeuppance from the babyface.

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Mac just said they won’t be bring back Can’t Do It for a while due to a directive from Mitch.

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They don't want any questions about what Mac and/or Parkins think about DiCaro being a loathsome human being.

These segments used to be purely callers with an occasional self generated item (Kenny Owens with Murph) thrown in to the mix. The bits were fairly entertaining at times and lagged at others. The big problem happened when Who you Crappin' became almost entirely Bernstein created content, all the contributions sounded exactly the same and the segment became lame. Surprised the producers haven't recruited a few off air station personnel to pose as callers and toss softball questions that make the hosts sound like geniuses.

Can’t Do It was a very good segment when it first hit with Spiegs and Parkins. The game was new and Spiegs clearly felt obligated to try and be as transparent and vulnerable as his counterpart who birthed the segment. And Spiegs discomfort with it all paired well with the Confidence of Parkins.

Then the lineup juggle happened.

Mac was the king of wishy wash answers during the segment and eventually became obviously disenchanted with it, for whatever reason. That, combined with the tighter barrier of entry into the segment via the producers all but killed the segment’s original intent.

Anyways, it’s for the best it’s no longer breathing.