AWA World Tag Team Champions - The 1980s

The East-West Connection

(Jesse Ventura and Adrian Adonis)

AWA world tag team champions for 329 days 

(July 20th 1980 - June 14th 1981)

Won the belts by defeating Verne Gagne and Mad Dog Vachon in Winnipeg, Manitoba when Verne Gagne "no showed" the event and the belts were forfeited to Ventura and Adonis.

Lost the belts to The High Flyers (Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell) in Green Bay, WI.

Match of the Day

Today from Wrestlemania 2 here is the one match that everyone would like to forget, Uncle Elmer vs Adrian Adonis.  From a mediocre Wrestlemania 2, the LA portion, this truly stood out as the worst match of the day/night.

Back to Japan

A tag team match from Japan, May 18th 1984. Dick Murdoch and Adrian Adonis (WWF Tag Team Champs) vs The Mask Superstar and Hulk Hogan.

Hogan was on his way to the WWF and the Heavyweight Championship and changing the course of pro wrestling in the USA. The Masked Superstar was Bill Eadie who in a few years would show up in the WWF as a member of Demolition (Ax) and also become a WWF Tag Team Champion.

Here in another unusual pairing where we see some down and dirty old school wrestling. Just black tights, black boots and wrestling.

Tag Team Spotlight

The spotlight is on the team of Dick Murdoch and Adrian Adonis. They have been called the forgotten tag team champions of the WWF.
They held the belts from April 1984 until Jan 21st 1985.
They won the belts from Rocky Johnson and Tony Atlas on April 17th and dropped them to the team of Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda on Jan 21st.
They have really been forgotten but in my opinion they were the end of the no frills old school tag teams that Vince McMahon Sr seemed to prefer, where Vince Jr prefered to dress things up and use new talent he had brought in from the AWA and NWA and make a big family show.
Adonis/Murdoch did not lend themselves to flamoyance....yet.
Adonis would go on to a somewhat infamous run within the next couple of years with his "Flower Shop" and new effiminate gimmick.
Murdoch is still more well known as "Captain Redneck" and for teaming with Dusty Rhodes as The Outlaws in the 60s and 70s.
The team of Murdoch and Adonis was called "The North South Connection" which was a variation of the name give to the team of Jesse Ventura and Adoins earlier in the decacde "The East West Connection" and "The Wrecking Crew" which was a knockoff on the Minnesota Wrecking Crew name for the Andersons in the NWA. Before being the champs in the WWF the team had a long successful run in Japan and went up against teams like Hulk Hogan/The Masked Superstar, Antonio Inoki/Tatsumi Fujinami, Andre the Giant/Sgt Slaughter.
They were an odd pairing to say the least but their success cannot be argued with and they brought that old heel presence with them to every match.
Adrian Adonis (born Keith Franke) died tragically July 5th 1988 in NewFoundland Canada when a minivan he was riding in swerved to miss a moose and the driver blinded by the setting sun drove into a lake. Adonis was 33.
Captain Redneck Dick Murdoch born Hoyt Richard Murdoch died June 15th 1996 of a heart attack while traveling to wrestle with an independent promotion. He was 49.

Piper's Pit with Adrian Adonis & Dick Murdoch
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