My favorite foreign objects Part Two & a great Mr. Perfect story

After posting part one of "My favorite foreign objects" I got quite a few emails from people reminiscing on their favorites. While I wasn't surprised at the diversity of responses (which really jogged my memory by the way), I was surprised by one incident that kept popping up on the lists of fans. While this particular incident is memorable, I was surprised because it happened in a promotion that was dying out and which had seen better days.

Which incident am I referring to? None other than the infamous roll full of quarters (or was it dimes?) incident involving the American Wrestling Association (AWA) World Heavyweight Championship.

The year was 1987 and Nick Bockwinkel was once again AWA champion. What was different was that after years of being one of the promotions' top heels, Bockinkel was now a face. Bockwinkel put his AWA strap up against Curt Hennig at the AWA's Superclash II show. When the smoke was over, there was a new champion and a ring full of coins surrounding the fallen Bockwinkel. Bockwinkel fans would claim that Hennig's second Larry Zbyszko had handed him a roll of coins to kayo the champ, Hennig's fans might suggest it was raining pennies (or in this case, dimes-or was it quarters?) from heaven.

So many people sent in this great moment that I had to include it. My friend Scott also sent in a great story about meeting Mr. Perfect. Check this out:

Great Column my brother!!!! The first great foreign object match I can remember really pissed me off because I was young enough to think it was real. It was back in the AWA when Larry Zabisco handed Curt Henning a roll of dimes to knock out The legendary Nick Bockwinkle to win the AWA title. I thought he was a spoiled daddys boy getting the belt. Later in life I was fortunate enough to meet Curt in Las Vegas at the grand opening of the WCW cafe. It was during the heyday of the NWO. The whole wolfpack arrived and were as arrogant and shitty to the crowd as you can imagine. They even had a roped off area where they went and ate and drank without even looking at the fans. Sting and DDP were also there in the roped off area. I was thinking I wasted an entire evening waiting for these jerks to show up and went over to the bar to get a drink. I looked up at the area next to the bar and saw a guy from behind that looked like Curt Henning talking to a couple fans. He was wearing a purple suit and sure enough it was. He was mingling with the "low lives" that paid for that purple suit and I went over and introduced myself. We talked about a few things and I found out what a down to earth funny guy he was. He disliked the way the wolf pack treated everyone, yet there they were in droves standing at the rope waiving hoping for a glance and I was there talking to Mr. Perfect. I never asked him about the foreign object. I knew at that time it was meant to drive us all nuts, it was entertainment and it was .......Perfect.


Thanks for the story Scott!

Unfortunately, I never got to see the AWA during its heyday but I did see the infamous roll of coins incident with Hennig winning the AWA gold. Thanks to bootlegs and the WWE's DVD The Spectacular Legacy of the AWA, I've had a chance to sample the promotion's golden years. Despite all this, it just goes to show that you can still have some great moments even when a promotion is down on its luck. Of course if someone mentions the Turkey on a Pole Match as a classic, I may have to use my own roll of quarters.