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American Wrestling Association

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The American Wrestling Association (AWA) was a professional wrestling organization, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The AWA operated mainly in the midwestern United States and central Canada. Wrestling bouts were promoted in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Bloomington (Minnesota), Winnipeg, Chicago, Omaha, Milwaukee, Detroit, Denver, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco. From 1957 to 1991 it was owned by Verne Gagne.

Contents

History

Until the late 1980s, the AWA was considered one of the top wrestling companies in the world and Verne Gagne was its biggest star. The territory was originally part of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), becoming an independent territory in the late 1950's. Then NWA World champion Pat O' Connor was recognized as the first AWA World champion, but when O'Connor failed to defend the new AWA title against number one contender Verne Gagne, Gagne was awarded the belt.

Over the years, Gagne feuding against Gene Kiniski, Dr. Bill Miller, Fritz Von Erich, Dr. X (Dick Beyer under a mask), The Crusher, Ray Stevens and Nick Bockwinkel, he won the AWA World Heavyweight Championship a record 10 times before retiring from full-time competition in 1981. He would go on to wrestle a few matches a year until his final match at WrestleRock '86 against Sheik Adnan El Kassey.

Gagne was a former amateur-wrestling champion who had earned a spot on the U.S. team at the 1948 Summer Olympics, and he ran the AWA with a traditionalist sensibility, firmly believing that good wrestling, not flashy entertainment, should be the basis of a pro-wrestling company. When his career wound down, he turned the company's focus to Bockwinkel, also a skilled mat technician.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, AWA television production was headquartered at Minneapolis independent station WTCN-TV, then owned by Metromedia. The ring announcer was longtime Minneapolis sports broadcaster Marty O'Neill, who also conducted the post-match interviews. Hold-by-hold commentary was provided by Roger Kent. In the mid-1970s, during a prolonged illness, O'Neill was occasionally replaced as ring announcer by program producer Al DeRusha and interviews were conducted by both Kent and Gene Okerlund. By 1979, Okerlund had permanently replaced O'Neill, who died a couple of years later, and production was transferred to Minneapolis station KMSP-TV. During the AWA's existence, it produced or had a hand in production of several TV programs:

But as Vince McMahon and the northeastern-based World Wrestling Federation attempted to end pro wrestling's regional era in the mid-1980s and establish the WWF as the dominant national promotion, Gagne made several decisions that caused the AWA to lose momentum in the emerging wrestling war. Among them was overemphasizing his son Greg in AWA storylines (which led to speculation of nepotism in regards to Verne himself within the company), but his biggest misstep was his failure to make Hulk Hogan the focus of his company. Starting in 1982, Hogan rapidly caught on as a babyface with AWA fans, but even as his popularity grew to unprecedented levels, Gagne refused to give him the AWA championship. He recognized Hogan's showmanship and charisma but believed a wrestling company should be built around the best wrestler in the company, such as himself and Bockwinkel (both being great mat technicians). Gagne did not respect Hogan as a pure wrestler, and in an interview years later, rated his wrestling ability as "a one or a zero" on a scale of one to 10. On two occasions, the AWA went so far as to tease title wins for Hogan only to strip him of the championship.

Frustrated by Gagne's business decisions, Hogan accepted an offer from Vince McMahon, Jr. to wrestle for the WWF in December 1983. Within months, he had become the focus of the company and its dominant world champion. He and the WWF soon became mainstream media phenomena and virtually synonymous with professional wrestling in much of the country, leaving the AWA a second-tier promotion. Soon, some of the AWA's other top talent, including announcer "Mean" Gene Okerlund, manager Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, and wrestlers Ken Patera, Jim Brunzell, and Jesse Ventura, among others, also left for the WWF.

In 1985, the AWA was able to sign former WWF wrestlers like Sgt. Slaughter, Bob Backlund, and the Tonga Kid. They were also influential in Pro Wrestling USA, an attempt to co-promote with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and establish a national presence to compete against the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). However, the colaborative effort didn't last. Abroad it had working agreements with Japan-based promotions International Pro Wrestling (1969 to 1980), then All Japan Pro Wrestling (1980 to 1988, although the relationship was strained in 1986 following the World Title debacle surrounding Stan Hansen), and, near its end, New Japan Pro Wrestling. It also had a brief relationship with European promotion Catch Wrestling Association, through which its promoter, Otto Wanz, won the World title as well.

The AWA continued to fall behind the WWF and NWA as a major promotion throughout 1986 and 1987, but Gagne still managed to develop legitimate young talent like Scott Hall, Shawn Michaels, Marty Jannetty, Leon White, Brian Knobbs, Jerry Saggs, and Madusa Miceli. But they too would soon be gone.

During that time period, Gagne forged a relationship with Memphis based promoter Jerry Jarrett and even allowed Mid-Southern legend Jerry Lawler to win the AWA World Title from Curt Hennig in May of 1988. However, in December 1988, following a contentious and unsuccessful PPV SuperClash III, the collaborative effort was over and Lawler was stripped of the title in January 1989. Lawler even kept the title belt in an attempt to leverage PPV revenue from Gagne that he claimed was owed. Gagne eventually made a new belt of the same design.

In February 1989, Larry Zbyszko, Verne Gagne's son-in-law, won the vacated AWA World Title in an 18-man Battle Royal, eliminating Tom Zenk to end the match. It was also during this time that Joe Blanchard replaced Stanley Blackburn as AWA president, Eric Bischoff began to take a more active role in the company, and the Team Challenge Series concept was developed.

The AWA would become inactive in the fall of 1990. As a result, Larry Zbyszko signed to wrestle with the NWA. As his last official act, Verne Gagne would strip Zbyszko of the World Title in December 1990. Gagne did promote a card in Rochester, MN in May 1991, featuring the return of Greg Gagne and Wahoo McDaniel against the The Destruction Crew (Mike Enos & Wayne Bloom) in the main event, but was unable to restart the promotion. However, the AWA continued re-running matches in their weekly ESPN time slot and on their syndicated All-Star Wrestling show, and the company managed to release a commercial tape (Hulk Hogan Highlights) during 1991.

AWA Team Challenge Series

The AWA held a "Team Challenge Series" from October 1 1989 through August 11 1990. All of the available wrestlers were divided into three teams, "Larry's Legends", headed by Larry Zbyszko, "Slaughter's Snipers", headed by Sgt. Slaughter, and "Baron's Blitzers", headed by Baron Von Raschke. (Sgt. Slaughter left the company before the TCS ended, and Colonel DeBeers became the new team captain.) The winners of Team Challenge matches would earn points for their team; at some unspecified point the highest-scoring team would share one million dollars. Some of the earlier TCS matches took place in a TV studio without an audience; the announcers claimed it was part of an effort to stop wrestlers from interfering, but it was actually due to poor ticket sales. The remainder of the matches took place at the Rochester Civic Center, where the AWA taped live matches for its television program from 1989-1990.

The Team Challenge Series was promoted by the AWA as revolutionary, but once underway, it appeared to be little more than a long series of gimmick matches and traditional matches with gimmicky names. Rather than showcasing technical wrestling, as the AWA had done for decades, wrestlers wore football helmets and pads in matches, or fought in a "Behind the 8-Ball Battle Royal." Jake Milliman defeated Colonel DeBeers in the "Great American Turkey Hunt," where the one who got a stuffed, uncooked turkey off of the top of a pole first would win.

The final match in the TSC was a royal rumble style battle royal featuring Brad Rheingans, The Destruction Crew, Colonel DeBeers, the Texas Hangmen, the Trooper Del Wilkes, and others. Jake Milliman again came away with the win by eliminating DeBeers at the end, winning the Series and supposed $1,000,000 check for Larry's Legends. The final point tally was as follows: Larry's Legends (56), Baron's Blitzers (51), Slaughter's Snipers/DeBeers' Diamondcutters (48).

The TCS concept was ill-conceived and poorly played out and many wrestling fans feel that it hastened the AWA's demise. Yet elements of the series- having separate "teams" within one company, a "draft," etc. - have parallels to the brand extension employed by World Wrestling Entertainment.

AWA Super Cards & PPV's

AWA Wrestlers

AWA Wrestlers (Chicago)

(These wrestlers often performed at the International Amphitheater in Chicago)

AWA Female Wrestlers

Other Notable AWA Contributors

AWA Titles

The AWA Video Library and the WWE

The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) inducted Verne Gagne into the WWE Hall of Fame on April 1, 2006. Verne's son Greg Gagne introduced Verne at the ceremony. Gagne's induction was part of the first two hours of the live event showed on the promotion's official website, and was not aired live on the USA Network with the latter inductions of Gene Okerlund, Eddie Guerrero, and Bret Hart.

Currently, all copyrights and footage for the AWA prior to the formation of AWA Superstars of Wrestling (See below) are owned by World Wrestling Entertainment. WWE recently announced that it will be releasing a DVD called "The Spectacular Legacy of the AWA" on November 21, 2006.

AWA Superstars of Wrestling

See also: AWA territories

In 1996 former AWA workers Dale Gagne (actually Gagner) and Jonnie Stewart relicensed the AWA name in the state of Minnesota and the AWA opened up as an independent promotion called AWA Superstars of Wrestling. On April 4, 2005, the owners changed its history books and named Hulk Hogan a two time AWA World Heavyweight Champion. Also in 2005, Gagne began to franchise the AWA name, selling memberships to existing independent promotions around the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Japan. Several members of the new AWA are former members of the National Wrestling Alliance. The AWA is now in its tenth year of operation.

External links

 

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