AMERICAN WRESTLING ASSOCIATION
(AWA)
1960-1991
THIS SECTION REFERS ONLY TO THE ORIGINAL AWA.
FOR MERCHANDISE RELEASED THROUGH WWE, CHECK OUR WWE SECTION.
THIS SECTION REFERS ONLY TO THE ORIGINAL AWA.
FOR MERCHANDISE RELEASED THROUGH WWE, CHECK OUR WWE SECTION.
The AWA, like most wrestling promotions of the 50's and 60's once was a member of the NWA, the National Wrestling Alliance, which, during its prime years, was the governing body of all of professional wrestling. In fact, Omaha, Nebraska promoter Wally Karbo (a partner in the AWA with Verne Gagne), was associated with the late Tony Stecher in 1948 when the NWA had its first convention. Stecher hosted the meeting in Minneapolis and became a charter member of the Alliance. Stecher had promoted wrestling in Minneapolis since 1933 through his Minneapolis Boxing and Wrestling Club, and in 1952, he sold a one third interest in the promotion to Karbo and his son Dennis. When Tony Stecher died on October 9, 1954, control of the promotion passed to Karbo and Dennis. In 1959, Dennis Stecher sold his majority stake in the Minneapolis Boxing and Wrestling Club to Karbo and Gagne. This would be the basis for the AWA promotion.
The AWA formed in 1960, after breaking away from the National Wrestling Alliance. The factors leading up to the dispute and later secession from the NWA involved a contested title match between Edouard Carpentier and Lou Thesz in Chicago on June 14th, 1957. According to NWA rules (which are still in effect today), a championship cannot change hands on a countout or a disqualification. In those days, all Championship matches were "best of three" contests. Carpentier was awarded the title belt, but the NWA Board of Directors overruled the referee's decision and gave the title back to Thesz as one of the falls was won by disqualification. Due to this controversial decision, as well as Verne never receiving the chance to be NWA World Champion himself, was the last straw for Gagne and his supporters. Karbo would lead the territories that refused to acknowledge the ruling, continuing to recognise Carpentier as World Champion until he eventually lost to Verne Gagne in August 1958. This was one of several controversies that would splinter the NWA Championship lineage, as well as damage the power of the NWA as a whole.
Karbo, a supporter of Gagne, had been working for the last several years to arrange an NWA title unifcation match for Gagne (who was the current World Champion by the promoters who had seceded from the NWA) in Gagne's hometown of Minneapolis (one of the seceded territories) against Pat O'Connor, the reigning officially recognised NWA World Champion.
Finally, in 1960, Karbo called a meeting of the promoters from the splintered territories, who all agreed that unless Gagne was given a shot at unifying the fractured NWA Championship, then the NWA World Championship would be meaningless, because to have a true "world champion", they must defend their title against the very best challengers from all over. At the time, Gagne was ranked among the top ten contenders for more than five years, and frequently found himself ranked the number one contender, yet had never been granted a title shot. These promoters formed the American Wrestling Association and recognised O'Connor as AWA and NWA Champion, but insisting that O'Connor had 90 days to sign a title unifcation match with Gagne or else lose recognition as Champion by the AWA. Predicatably, O'Connor and the NWA refused to sign for the match and when the 90-day period elapsed, the AWA stripped recognition from O'Connor and crowned Gagne the AWA World Heavyweight Champion.
Although owned by Verne Gagne, by being affiliated with other leading promoters, due to the former NWA territories joining the AWA, enabled the AWA World Heavyweight Champion to defend the title throughout the disputed territories, and having a working agreement with Japanese promotions, creating a World Champion closer to what Gagne, Karbo and the other promoters who shared their opinion envisioned. Verne would go on to become a ten-time AWA World Champion, a record in wrestling at the time. He also had one of the longest World Title reigns in wrestling history, holding the AWA Title from August 31, 1968 until November 8, 1975, a total of 7 years, when he finally lost the belt to Nick Bockwinkel. The duration of Gagne's title reigns would be the third longest in wrestling, behind notable names Lou Thesz and Bruno Sammartino. The prolific Gagne also operated a wrestling school where he would train or assist in the training of such stars as his son, Greg Gagne; Ric Flair; Ricky Steamboat; Larry & Curt Hennig; Lars, Gene, & Ole Anderson; Buck "Rock and Roll" Zumhofe; Scott "Flash" Norton; "Cowboy" Bill Watts; "Playboy" Buddy Rose; The Nasty Boys, Knobbs & Sags; Sgt. Slaughter; The Iron Sheik; Ken Patera; Jim Brunzell; Baron von Raschke; Brad Rheingans; Bill & Scott Irwin; The Blackjacks, Mulligan & Lanza; "Bulldog" Bob Brown; "Precious" Paul Ellering; "Boogie-Woogie Man" Jimmy Valiant; being some of the most recognisable graduates. Many Gagne trainees would go on to train other superstars of wrestling. Verne retired from active competition in 1981 during his tenth reign as AWA World Champion, becoming one of the few wrestlers to retire as the active World Champion. The vacant title was awarded to Bockwinkel, the previous Champion.
Part of the decision to return the belt to Bockwinkel was due to Bockwinkel's longevity in the company, but it was also due to Verne's mentality that only wrestlers with strong amateur credentials, like himself, a former amateur wrestling champion who had earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic team during the 1948 Summer Games, should be the top draws of a professional wrestling company. That mentality had been what the NWA had always been about, and certainly the AWA thrived under it for the past twenty years. Unfortunately, Verne was unable to adapt to the changing landscape in professional wrestling. The time of amateur style holds and extended matches were no longer what attracted fans to the arenas in the wake of Vince McMahon's flashy and colourful WWF "SuperStars", where style reigned supreme over substance.
While the AWA continued to promote and thrive with new stars entering the company, very few captured the attention of fans in a major way...except one...a tall, blond muscleman with limited wrestling skills, but a charisma that could not be denied, who went by the name of Hulk Hogan.
While Hogan was no rookie (he had débuted a few years earlier in 1979, and had also wrestled for the WWF in 1981 and Japan the year after), he was a new and popular face in the AWA, and thanks to an appearance as "Thunderlips" in the movie Rocky III, he was clearly a true crossover and mainstream star that pro wrestling in general, but the AWA in particular needed...bad.
While Hulkamania was still a few years away, Hogan's popularity with the fans was not. With the AWA suffering due to not having any young and popular stars to build the future of the company around, the most logical choice was to have the AWA World Champion Nick Bockwinkel wrestle Hulk Hogan, and have Hogan cleanly defeat the World Champion to carry the AWA to the next level. Unfortunately, it didn't work that way. Since Hogan was not truly a wrestler, but merely an "entertainer", Verne was reluctant to put Hogan up as the top draw of a company that had focused so long on strong amateur wrestling. Not only did Gagne feel that his company would lose credibility without a "real" wrestler at the helm, but even if Verne decided to go with an unproven wrestler at the top of the card, he felt that his son, Greg, should be the one to be the future of the company, as Verne was its past. The problem was that Verne Gagne was publicly known as the owner of the AWA, so when Greg Gagne started to be seen more often towards the top of the card, many fans saw it as a touch of favouritism by the owner. Greg's slim, non-athletic build was also seen as unbelievable by fans, who were used to seeing bigger, more muscular physiques, especially as the decade of the 80s began, and wrestling fans were conditioned to accept huge bodybuilder physiques, regardless of how legitimately tough you were. Greg not only didn't possess the size fans were becoming used to, but he also didn't have the ability or the attitude that the new generation of AWA wrestling fans were willing to accept. Worse was that the person fans did want to see, Hulk Hogan, was not the AWA Champion.
Hogan did receive some title shots during his time in the AWA, but could never seem to win the "big prize". Gagne felt it would be enough for the fans to have Hogan as the top fan favourite chasing after the title held by the rulebreaking Bockwinkel. Sometimes the thrill of the chase can be exciting. Wrestling fans have always been excited by seeing their hero chasing after the championship or the head rulebreaker. Entire shows have been based on that premise, both in and out of wrestling. That premise only works when the fans truly believe that on any given night, their hero can defeat the reigning champion and walk out with the title. In the case of Hogan, the fans were slowly being conditioned to realise that it would not be the case here.
That's not to say Hogan did not receive title shots, or victories. On the contrary, on at least two separate occasions Verne Gagne would tease AWA title wins for Hogan, only to return the title to Champion Bockwinkel via technicalities. The first was title tease was on April 18, 1982 where Hogan would defeat Bockwinkel with the help of a foreign object that Bockwinkel's manager, Bobby Heenan, had used in the match. After the three count, the belt was awarded to Hogan and he was announced as the new Champion. However, Heenan pointed out to the referee the use of the object, and although the ref would question Hogan about it, the blood on Hogan's face was evidence that whatever was used, it was used on Hogan and not by Hogan. As such, the referee stood by his decision and Hogan left the arena as the new AWA World Heavyweight Champion. However, six days later on AWA television, AWA President Stanley Blackburn would overrule the referee's decision and negate the title change, returning the belt to Bockwinkel.
The second such occasion was on the "Super Sunday" card in St. Paul, Minnesota on April 24, 1983. "Super Sunday" was the AWA's first real "supercard". Hogan again pinned Bockwinkel, was awarded the belt and announced as the new champion. This time Blackburn came to the ring moments after the match and tried to have Hogan retroactively disqualified for throwing the champion over the top rope a few minutes before the pinfall occurred. However this match had been a no disqualification match, which prevented this, so Blackburn simply stripped Hogan of the title and once again handed it back to Bockwinkel. (AWA President Blackburn had a history of making biased decisions in favor of Bockwinkel. On two other occasions -- once prior and once after the Hogan incidents -- he simply handed the title to Bockwinkel with no match.) The crowd, which had exploded in cheers when Hogan appeared to have won, almost rioted as an upset Hogan attacked Bockwinkel and his manager, Bobby Heenan. After the match, Hogan would get on the microphone, telling the audience to calm down afterward. Although the same type of finish was had been used by the AWA several times in the past to reverse an unwanted title change, but this time, the younger crowds, drawn to the arena by the charismatic Hogan, would refuse to accept Hogan as anything but the AWA World Champion, something Gagne would clearly refuse to do. On the DVD The Spectacular Legacy of the AWA, it was revealed that Verne Gagne originally planned to have Hogan win the belt that night, but only if he would give Gagne the bulk of the revenues that Hogan was earning from merchandise and his periodic main event performances for Japanese promoters. Hogan refused, wanting a 50/50 split instead, so Gagne kept the belt from him.
Since it was clear that the AWA World Championship was not coming his way, Hogan had no problems accepting Vince McMahon's offer to jump to the WWF in the fall of 1983, especially when McMahon let Hogan know it was his intent to put the WWF Championship belt on Hogan.
Vince McMahon put *his* World title on Hogan almost immediately after Hogan’s entrance into the WWF, and as a result of years of clean pinfall victories for Hogan over his challengers, gave the upstart WWF title the kind of credibility that Bob Backlund could never bring to it. The war between the Big Three suddenly looked very different, with the WWF on top of the world, Jim Crockett struggling to find his identity, and Verne Gagne vainly trying the same tricks that worked in 1975 in an effort to maintain his suddenly-shrinking fanbase and talent base against the onslaught of the MTV generation. In an effort to win back the fans who were increasingly migrating to the more "cool" WWF product, Verne entered into an agreement with the NWA, which pretty much marked the first time in more than a decade that the two groups were willing to work together in any significant fashion. The end result was Superclash in Chicago, putting 21,000 people in a baseball stadium to witness both the NWA and AWA titles being defended on the same show. It was a novel idea that drew some pretty good attention from the general wrestling fanbase, but the NWA stars on the show clearly eclipsed the AWA ones, and as a result the tentative agreement fell apart fairly quickly. Verne also entered into another cross-promotional agreement, this one with Shohei Baba’s All Japan Pro Wrestling. However, this one would prove much more costly to Verne. The AWA World title was rapidly losing prestige due to ridiculous backstage political maneuvering (such as Otto Wanz reportedly paying Gagne $50,000 in exchange for a title reign) and Nick Bockwinkel’s generally stale act. As a show of good will, the AWA title was put onto top Japanese draw Tommy "Jumbo" Tsuruta in 1984, which was completely the wrong move to make in order to win back fans in the more important United States. Further, Verne had the idea of making bland Rick Martel into his top babyface, and so he put the title on him during a tour of Japan. His reception upon returning to the States with the title was lukewarm at best. Finally, needing a dominant heel to carry the promotion while he found someone to fill his babyface role, the title was moved to the unstable and undependable Stan Hansen, killing Rick Martel’s credibility in the process due to a humiliating submission loss, and Gagne decided to stop and regroup. This would prove to be the beginning of the end for the promotion. In 1986, Verne decided to try Nick Bockwinkel as a babyface champion, and turned Bockwinkel by using a confrontation with Larry Zbyszko as the catalyst. Gagne asked Hansen to job the title to Bockwinkel in June of 1986. Hansen, a longtime employee of Baba’s AJPW, considered himself to be Baba’s champion first and Gagne’s second, and so asked Baba for his okay on the title change. It was not given, so Hansen simply took the title back to Japan with him on the next tour and defended it there against challengers of All Japan’s choosing. The AWA stripped Hansen of the title and awarded it to Bockwinkel, with the no-show being the official reasoning, and Hansen was to be effectively blackballed from the US for four years as a result. By 1987, things were looking somewhat up for Gagne. He was developing young talent in Curt Hennig (son of longtime AWA associate Larry Hennig), along with the Midnight Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty), a team discovered in Texas. Curt Hennig was first established as a top babyface, then turned heel to prevent him from eclipsing Greg’s popularity. He was given the AWA World title in April 1987, and Nick Bockwinkel retired soon after at the hands of Larry Zbyszko. Hennig proved to be by far the most marketable and popular heel champion that the AWA had seen in years, and he enjoyed a long reign was only interrupted when the biggest threat to Gagne emerged: The talent raids by the WWF. Indeed, the AWA was rapidly becoming Vince McMahon’s personal wrestler shopping center. From 1986-1991, Vince took, practically at will, every major (and minor) star developed or signed by Gagne until finally entire title reigns were being dictated by the whims of the WWF and how soon they were likely to sign away the champions at a given time. Curt Hennig left in 1988, The Rockers followed soon after, along with Ron Garvin, Rick Martel, Sherri Martell, Boris Zhukov, Baron Von Rashke, Bobby Heenan, Ken Patera and anyone else that the WWF felt like signing away to a big money deal. Buddy Rose was even claimed for no conceivable reason other than to rub it in Verne’s face.With the majority of the AWA's top talent being signed away in the midst of the WWF's national expansion, and his most recent former World Champion, Curt Hennig, having just recently been signed, Verne could not and would not risk crowning another champion that could potentially be signed away, so Gagne would only feel comfortable placing the World Championship on someone whom there was no chance of being signed away, which meant Gagne loyalists or relatives.
By the midpoint of 1988, Gagne was left with only his loyalist supporters within the promotion, a World champion ready to depart for the competition, dwindling attendance, and a TV deal that needed new shows every week. He strayed into the world of the ridiculous gimmicks, creating Nord the Barbarian (from Norwegia), various cartoonish Russian figures, and a series of teen-idol heartthrob wannabes to replace the departed Rockers, but nothing clicked for the more old-school clientele that he was catering to. So now becoming increasingly desperate and running out of money, Verne once again made a cross-promotional deal. In May of 1988, the AWA World title was put on longtime contender and AWA sympathizer Jerry Lawler, who just happened to own the Memphis-based CWA and all it’s talent. Lawler began challenging anyone from any promotion, and his first test came in the form of Terry Taylor, who was working for Fritz Von Erich’s World Class Championship Wrestling at the time. And thus was a three-way alliance formed between the AWA, CWA, and WCCW. Lawler began a heated feud with WCCW World champion Kerry Von Erich over who was the "real" champion (never mind that both titles were considered to be bush league by most of the casual fans at that point), and the payoff was the AWA’s first ever pay-per-view, Superclash III in Chicago. The titles were to be unified there into one, with the AWA and WCCW thus becoming a single entity in the process. And then everything went completely wrong. To start, the building held thousands, and even with months of hype and promotion the paid attendance ended up being a little over 1,000 people. So the event was already a huge money-loser from the start. The buyrate wasn’t terribly impressive, doing about of the business that the NWA and WWF were doing at the time. And the backstage planning sessions were plagued with political squabbling between the major promoters, none of whom wanted to end up looking the least bit bad when all was said and done. In the end, Jerry Lawler was awarded the decision over Kerry Von Erich due to blood loss, a bogus cop-out booking decision if there ever was one. But for a week or so, at least, there was peace and harmony as Lawler began defending the so-called "Unified World title"…mainly in Memphis. Two problems became apparent: Firstly, now that Lawler had what he wanted, he seemed reluctant to fulfill the dates set forth by the AWA. Secondly, World Class was rapidly running out of time and money, and needed the funds from the PPV to stay alive. Thirdly (and most importantly), Verne lied about the revenues from the show, keeping most of them for himself, and ended up stiffing the promoters who had contributed talent to his big show. In early 1989, everything hit the fan, as Lawler refused to defend the title in AWA territories from that point on until his share of the PPV revenue was paid. It was never paid to him, so the CWA pulled out of the deal altogether. As a result, the AWA stripped Lawler of the AWA title, leaving him as the World Class champion, and leaving the AWA with no champion. Then World Class quickly declared that THEY were no longer financially solvent, leaving Lawler to bail them out and merge the CWA and WCCW into the USWA, thus turning the Unified World title into a meaningless hunk of tin in the span of a month. This was a new record for self-destruction, even by wrestling’s lofty standards. Lawler wouldn’t even give the AWA title belt back, leaving Gagne the task of having a new one made and using the TV title in the interim. The AWA panicked and put the title on the one guy who had stuck with them through all the chaos: Larry Zbyszko. Back from a brief stint in the NWA, Larry won the AWA World title in a battle royale over Tom Zenk, which was just about the worst possible way they could have passed the title onto a new champion. Larry had no credibility and the crowd continued to dwindle. Desperate for some new talent, they turned longtime jobbers Wayne Bloom and Mike Enos into the new #1 tag team, the Destruction Crew, and even loaned them out to the NWA under masks as the Minnesota Wrecking Crew II in exchange for cash, but the WWF machine stepped in again: Pat Tanaka, Paul Diamond, the Destruction Crew, Kokina Maximus and even the announce team fled to the WWF, and the signs were pointing to the end faster than wrestling pundits could point fingers. By 1990, the situation was unsalvageable. Larry Zbyszko dropped and regained the title from Mr. Saito in an effort to build interest, but none was there. They were finally going to put the title on Sgt. Slaughter, who was at least known in the mainstream, but then the WWF signed *him*, too, and that fell apart. Left with a TV deal with ESPN and no talent, Verne allowed junior announcer Eric Bischoff into the production end of things, and the AWA’s last gasp for life came about: The Team Challenge Series. The TV shows became completely focused on three teams fighting each other in a series of gimmick matches for points, and the team with the most points would be declared the winner after some undefined time period. The results were chaos, with no one keeping track of the results to any great degree, and crowds were finally so embarrassingly small that the only feasible way to keep from going broke was to film everything in a closed studio with no fans. In late 1990, in a fitting end to the Series and the AWA, longtime jobber Jake Milliman won a "turkey on a pole" match to claim the victory for his team on the last original episode aired of AWA wrestling on ESPN. World champion Larry Zbyszko, left with no dates to work, signed with WCW immediately following this, leaving the title belt behind him as an afterthought. No replacement was ever crowned, and in early 1991, with no contracted wrestlers left, no more TV deal, and no more money, Verne Gagne filed for bankruptcy and folded the AWA after 30 years of existence. Epilogue: Perhaps it’s fitting that a promotion as quiet and unassuming as the AWA would go out with a whimper rather than a bang, leaving no more ripples in it’s wake than a few disgruntled stars leaving for rival promotions, but many people did mourn for the loss of the only true competition for Titan and Turner, and indeed that was considered the greater loss. Although Verne Gagne’s promotional methods were stale and outdated by the time of expansion in 1983, he did provide a necessary counterpoint to the circus that was the WWF and the mismanaged hellhole that the NWA, replete with Dusty Rhodes and Ole Anderson’s inept booking strategies. The nepotism displayed by Verne was no worse than anything seen in just about any promotion in the history of wrestling, yet sadly that seems to have become his greatest legacy as a promoter. Indeed, as WCW enters the next century making many of the same mistakes that Gagne did, one has to wonder if the same fate can possibly befall them, as it did the AWA years before. The same arguments were made back then: Verne has too much money, and too much support from ESPN, to let his promotion slide into bankruptcy. Most felt that he’d pull it out, somehow, even as the promotion lay on it’s deathbed like a cancer victim. I think that’s what saddest about the passing of the AWA: Many people did care for it deeply and enjoy the straightforward, less-is-more philosophy it put forth, a throwback to the days when steroid-monster quasi-athletes weren’t necessary to make money in the business. The AWA truly lived in interesting times, but in the end, it just wasn’t interesting enough to keep up with them. As the years passed, the A.W.A. title received wider and wider recognition. Although Gagne has been the champion for most of the past decade, Bill Miller and Mad Dog Vachon also had the title for periods of over a year, and Wilbur Snyder, Don Leo Jonathan, Fritz Von Erich, The Crusher, and Dick the Bruiser all had brief stints as champion. In each case the result has been the same. Gagne may have lost the title, but in a rematch he regained it. Verne also gained stature by winning title defenses against Dory Funk Jr., Gene Kiniski, Pat O'Connor, and Lou Thesz. Needless to say, those matches took place either before or after the above mentioned held the N.W.A. title during period, but the fact remains that Gagne successfully defended the A.W.A. title against every one of the N.W.A. champions during the past decade. Gagne also traveled to N.W.A. cities such as Atlanta, St. Louis, Detroit, Kansas City, Amarillo, and Honolulu to wrestle for National Wrestling Alliance promoters while he was A.W.A. Champion. A super bowl type match between Gagne and the N.W.A. champion was proposed several times, but the match was never signed. The reasons shy are complex, but probably the chief one is that N.W.A. promoters feel that Gagne would not keep the rigid schedule the N.W.A. demands and that Gagne would favor the present A.W.A. promoters with more appearances in that area. However, history disproves this because when Gagne held the N.W.A. World's Junior Heavyweight Championship some years back, he was without a doubt the most traveled champion that division ever saw and defended the N.W.A. World title in more areas than any other champ in that division's history. The time factor may have chief importance. One champion can only defend his title a maximum of around 300 times per year. Two champions mean twice as many title matches when you add up both N.W.A. and A.W.A. promotions, so an agreement would have to include the provision that all promoters in both alliances would have to cut down the number of title matches in each individual city if they had one champion for both groups. The promoters individually are reluctant to cut down the number of times they have the champion per year and the collective result is that super bowl type eliminations have been blocked by the individual demands made by promoters from both alliances on the universal champion that would result. (aged 77) Walter J. Karbo (14 August 1915 – 25 March 1993) was an American wrestling promoter, and co-founder of the American Wrestling Association with Verne Gagne. He would also appear an an on-air personality hosting the AWA's Saturday morning television show All-Star Wrestling before Karbo sold his interests to Gagne in 1985. Although retiring soon after, he did remain in professional wrestling most notably appearing as the commissioner of the Ladies Pro Wrestling Association before his death from a heart attack on March 25, 1993. In 1949, Verne decided to wrestle professionally, starting his career in Texas. In his debut, he defeated Abe Kashey, with former World Heavyweight boxing Champion Jack Dempsey as the referee. In 1950, Gagne captured the NWA Junior Heavyweight title. In 1953, Gagne won the Chicago version of the NWA United States Championship. Verne became one of the most well-known stars in wrestling during the golden age of television, thanks to his exposure on the Dumont Network, where he wowed audiences with his technical prowess. He was rumored to be one of the highest paid wrestlers during the 1950s, reportedly earning a hundred thousand dollars a year. As promoter of the AWA, Gagne was known for putting on an "old school" show. He sought out wrestlers with amateur backgrounds over the hulking brutes who dominated wrestling in the 1980s. This led to a problem with his biggest draw, Hulk Hogan, whom Gagne felt was not championship material, due to the fact that Hogan was a powerhouse wrestler and not a technical wrestler. Eventually Gagne settled with making Hogan his champion, but only under the condition that he receive a percentage of Hogan's earnings from Japan; Hogan refused. In late 1983, Hogan accepted an offer from Vincent K. McMahon to go to the WWF. Allegedly, Gagne offered The Iron Sheik $100,000 to break Hogan's leg during their World Title Match, with the intention that he return to the AWA with the belt. Supposedly Sheik refused the offer and informed Hogan, the McMahons, and Pat Patterson about the planned double cross, and Hulkamania was born. However Gagne claims the deal was never made What followed was a purge of stars from various territories and promotions, including Gagne's AWA, by Vince McMahon, who wished to take his WWF "national", and do away with the traditional territorial system that dominated the North American Pro Wrestling landscape for years. The AWA suffered perhaps the most damage, losing nearly every one of its top stars in the mid to late 1980s. By 1991, the damage had been done, and the AWA shut down, after 30 years. In April 2006, Verne Gagne was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by his son, Greg Gagne. On April 30, 2006, it was announced that Gagne would be working for World Wrestling Entertainment full-time as a Road Agent, starting at the Backlash 2006. He has also been sent to help with the booking of Ohio Valley Wrestling. In September 2006, it was announced he was released from the WWE from his OVW position. The WWE front office believed Gagne's views of wrestling were "antiquated" and simply not in touch with their vision of sports entertainment. Super cards * AWA SuperSunday * WrestleRock 86 * SuperClash o SuperClash 3 - The first and only AWA PPV. The PPV was built around talent from the AWA, WCCW out of Texas, and the CWA out of Memphis. The AWA roster throughout the 1970s and early 1980s was a virtual who's who in professional wrestling. By 1983, Gagne had assembled the largest and deepest roster in the business, featuring everyone from stalwarts like Bockwinkel, Mad Dog Vachon, and Baron Von Raschke, to up and comers like Hulk Hogan, Jerry Blackwell, Rick Martel, and Curt Hennig. AWA on television AWA All-Star Wrestling Running time 120 minutes Original run 1960 – 1990 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 St. Paul-Minneapolis sports broadcaster Marty O'Neill, who also conducted the post-match interviews. O'Neill announced the matches for the local WTCN audience. But fans watching the syndicated version of the show heard hold-by-hold commentary provided by Rodger 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: * AWA All-Star Wrestling, the promotion's syndicated program, which aired from 1960 until 1991. * AWA Championship Wrestling, which aired on cable sports network ESPN from 1985 to 1990; it was a continuation of the earlier ESPN program Pro Wrestling USA, the co-operative venture between the AWA and several NWA affiliates (most notably Jim Crockett Promotions). On February 26, 2008, ESPN Classic began reairing AWA Championship Wrestling episodes. * AWA Major League Wrestling, a Canadian program produced in Winnipeg, Manitoba for that city's station, CKND, and syndicated across Canada during the 1980s. AWA on pay-per-view AWA Championship Wrestling aired on cable sports network ESPN from 1985 to 1990. It was a continuation of the earlier ESPN program Pro Wrestling USA, the co-operative venture between the American Wrestling Association (AWA) and several National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) affiliates (most notably Jim Crockett Promotions).In September 1985, the AWA would air weekly programming on ESPN, giving the promotion the national exposure already enjoyed by the WWF (airing on USA Network) and the NWA's Georgia/World Championship Wrestling (airing on TBS). Unfortunately, as frequently occurs on the network, AWA shows were not treated with any priority, sometimes being delayed, pre-empted, or sometimes having their time slot change change without prior notice to viewers, making it difficult for fans to tune in on a regular basis.
The AWA would lose its contract with ESPN and became virtually inactive by late 1990.
For many years, the AWA held their television tapings in their home base of Minneapolis, Minnesota (for their syndicated All-Star Wrestling program) at the WTCN television studios. However, in early 1985, AWA promoter Verne Gagne made the decision to hold some television tapings at the Tropicana Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. When Gagne inked the deal with ESPN later that same year, he along with the ESPN management felt that another location for the AWA television tapings was necessary. Ultimately, Gagne and ESPN settled on the Showboat Sports Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nevada. The ESPN tapings in Las Vegas often took place in front of small, silent crowds. * By the near end of 1986, Curt Hennig was deemed the top challenger to AWA World Champion Nick Bockwinkel. The ever relentless Hennig wrestled Bockwinkel to a one hour draw in a match seen nationwide on ESPN. * In 1987, Wahoo McDaniel was brought into the AWA to challenge Curt Henning for the World Title in a series of ultra stiff brawls. Ultimately, Henning emerged victorious in the feud by beating McDaniel in an Indian Strap match seen nationwide on ESPN. * In the weeks following December 13, 1988 pay-per-view, SuperClash III, ESPN aired bouts from the aforementioned pay-per-view broadcast and did not show any new AWA matches * The AWA International Television Championship was a short-lived title in the American Wrestling Association from 1987 to 1989. Greg Gagne was the first champion. It was filled with a several months long tournament and was defended on their television broadcasts on ESPN. * After Jerry Lawler was stripped of the AWA World Title (for refusing to defend it following the SuperClash III pay-per-view due to a dispute with Verne Gagne over the payout from SuperClash III), a Battle Royal to decide the new AWA Champion was held in St Paul, Minnesota on February 7, 1989. When the Battle Royal to crown a new champ (which was ultimately, Larry Zbyszko, who emerged victorious after eliminating Tom Zenk) aired on ESPN a week or so later, the announcers particularly, Lee Marshall tried to bury Jerry Lawler. During the 1960s and early 1970s, the All-Star Wrestling television series was essentially a one-hour paid advertisement for the AWA's house shows. This meant that third party advertisers were almost nonexistent. In the early 1970s, as wrestling became more popular, national companies such as McDonald's and local companies such as car dealerships bought commercial spots on the shows. Every two weeks, many of the wrestlers who were currently working the house shows for the AWA would assemble at a studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They would wrestle jobbers in squash matches. Then, they would do as many different interviews as were needed. These intervews were tailored to whatever opponents they were scheduled to meet at the various house shows during the coming two weeks. In the meantime, editors would splice together the appropriate interview and wrestling footage for each individual house show and send the canned one-hour production to the TV stations in the respective market. The AWA bought 60 or 90 minute time slots each week at the TV stations. The shows usually aired on a Saturday or Sunday mornings (when TV time was relatively inexpensive). The shows throughout the 1960s-on through the early 1970s were shot in black and white. The wrestler would next appear in an interview and promise to vanquish his opponent. Afterwards, the afordmentioned opponent would appear in his own a squash match, followed by his interview. After each interview, the viewer would be reminded of the the date, time, and location of the house show. This would continue throughout the 60-90 minutes and include as many of the wrestlers appearing at the upcoming house show as possible, as well as other well-known wrestlers in the AWA who might be appearing in the near future. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, AWA television production was headquartered at Minneapolis independent station WTCN-TV, then owned by Metromedia. By 1979, production was transferred to Minneapolis station KMSP-TV. According to AWA wrestler (and son of AWA promoter Verne Gagne) Greg Gagne on the Spectacular Legacy of the AWA DVD, AWA All-Star Wrestling was the second highest rated program in St. Paul, Minnesota (behind only 60 Minutes).In 1999, the AWA would air a series of show hosted by Verne and Greg Gagne, called AWA Legends of Wrestling, which spotlighted one wrestler from the AWA and showed various classic matches and promos and current interviews with the wrestler (if he was still alive).
From 1999 to 2002, a series of AWA-related pay-per-views were produced. Titled AWA Classic Wrestling, they featured compilations of old AWA footage, hosted by Greg Gagne and Todd Okerlund (son of Gene Okerlund), with occasional appearances by Verne Gagne. The pay-per-views ceased following the acquisition of the AWA tape library by World Wrestling Entertainmen Every tuesday, 20-30 wrestlers would be flown into Minneapolis to tape market specific interviews inlue of the upcoming live events in said area: * Chicago * Denver * Green Bay * Las Vegas * Milwaukee * Minneapolis * Omaha * Phoenix * Salt Lake City * San Francisco * Winnipeg AWA wrestlers * Adrian Adonis * Badd Company (Paul Diamond & Pat Tanaka) * Ox Baker * Red Bastien * Crusher Jerry Blackwell * Nick Bockwinkel * Bruiser Brody * Jim Brunzell * The Crusher * The Destruction Crew (Mike Enos & Wayne Bloom) * Bobby Duncum * Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts) * Jimmy Garvin * Scott Hall * Stan Hansen * Curt Hennig * Larry Hennig * Hulk Hogan * Sheik Adnan El Kassey * "Mr. Magnificent" Kevin Kelly * Kokina Maximus * Jerry Lawler * The Long Riders (Bill & Scott Irwin) * Jerry Lynn * Rick Martel * Wahoo McDaniel * The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags) * Steve Olsonoski * Midnight Rockers (Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty) * Nord the Barbarian * Original Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey & Randy Rose) * Ken Patera * Harley Race * Brad Rheingans * Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch * Road Warriors (Animal & Hawk) * Buddy Rose * Masa Saito * Akio Sato * Sgt. Slaughter * Superfly Snuka * Doug Somers * Ray "The Crippler" Stevens) * The Trooper (aka The Patriot) * "Mad Dog" Vachon * "Butcher" Vachon * Jesse Ventura * Baron Von Raschke * Leon White * Larry Zbyszko * Tom Zenk * Boris Zukhov (These wrestlers often performed at the International Amphitheater in Chicago) * Dick the Bruiser * Reggie Lisowski (The Crusher) * Rock Rogowski (Ole Anderson) * Sailor Art Thomas * Bobo Brazil * Angelo Poffo * Ernie Ladd AWA female wrestlers * Penny Banner * Candy Divine * Sherri Martel * Judy Martin * Madusa Miceli * Wendi Richter * Vivian Vachon Other notable AWA contributors * Eric Bischoff (interviewer/commentator) * Paul E. Dangerously (manager) * Bobby Heenan (manager) * Lee Marshall (commentator) * Gene Okerlund (interviewer) * Diamond Dallas Page (manager) * Ken Resnick (interviewer/commentator) * Rod Trongard (commentator) Rod Trongard (1933-2005) was a Minnesota-based sports broadcaster on both radio and television in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area for more than fifty years. Trongard's career began in 1953 at KXRA Alexandria, followed by positions at KSDN Aberdeen, South Dakota, and KDIO Ortonville. He moved to the Twin Cities in 1959 as news director at WLOL. It was there than Trongard began his sports broadcasting career, calling basketball for the Minnesota Muskies as well as the Minneapolis Lakers (preceding Chick Hearn until the Lakers moved to Los Angeles). Trongard also called University of Minnesota football and basketball. He joined KSTP in 1968, where he broadcast Minnesota Pipers basketball, produced Minnesota Vikings football and Minnesota North Stars hockey broadcasts, and did player and coach interviews. He also hosted Minnesota Gopher football coach Cal Stoll’s show on KSTP TV. He also was the public address announcer for the Minnesota Fighting Saints (WHA) hockey team and the Minnesota Kicks (NASL) soccer team. Trongard is fondly remembered as the voice of American Wrestling Association (AWA) pro wrestling throughout the 1980s, calling matches involving the likes of Hulk Hogan, Nick Bockwinkel, Bobby Heenan, Verne Gagne, The Road Warriors, Shawn Michaels and many others. Trongard's voice was featured on the AWA's weekly ESPN broadcasts, reaching millions of homes around the world. His signature phrase "From coast to coast, continent to continent, and border to border" brought the broadcasts closer to the viewer, as he'd often include city names in the phrase, signifying the broad reach of wrestling and the AWA's broadcasts at the time. Trongard left the AWA in 1988 for a brief stint in the WWF, before retiring from the wrestling scene. Trongard joined KEEZ FM Mankato in 1982, where he did morning drive, news, and sports for eleven years before moving to KTOE/KDOG Mankato in 1993. He continued to broadcast sports on KTOE/KDOG and on KXAC/KRRW St. James for many years, and was an important part of the community in southern Minnesota until he died after a long battle with liver cancer in June 2005. Trongard was inducted into the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2003 The 1985 event was held at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois on September 28, 1985. Attendance 21,000 * Ric Flair defeated Magnum T.A. to retain the NWA World Heavyweight Championship * This card was one of the co-promotional efforts by the NWA and AWA to attempt and compete with the WWF's increasing national popularity. SuperClash 2 Attendance 2,800 SuperClash 2 was held at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California on May 2, 1987. SuperClash III was held on December 13, 1988 from the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois. It was the third annual SuperClash event produced by the American Wrestling Association and the first and only AWA show to be broadcast on pay-per-view. The Texas-based World Class Wrestling Association, women wrestling promotion Powerful Women of Wrestling, and Memphis-based Championship Wrestling Association also provided talent for the show. The show was not a financial success and soon after the WCWA was bought out by Jerry Lawler and Jerry Jarrett and merged with the CWA to become the United States Wrestling Association (USWA). The PPV was built around talent from the AWA, WCWA, POWW, CWA and others. Attendance 2,000 SuperClash 4 was held at the St. Paul Civic Center in St. Paul, Minnesota on April 8, 1990. EDINA, Minn. (AP) -- Wrestling promoter Wally Karbo, 77, familiar to fans of All-Star Wrestling on Saturday morning television, died of a heart attack March 25. Karbo and Vern Gagne were partners in the American Wrestling Assn. for more than three decades. Karbo sold his interest in the association,and, in recent years was commissioner of the Ladies Professional Wrestling Assn. Wally Karbo (52 - 85) & Verne Gagne (59 - 91)
