American Wrestling Association

The American Wrestling Association (AWA) was an American professional wrestling promotion based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that ran from 1960 to 1991. It was owned and founded by Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo. The territory was originally part of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), becoming an independent territory in the late 1950s. Reigning NWA World Champion Pat O'Connor was declared the first AWA World Champion in May 1960, but was given a 90 day ultimatum to defend his title against Verne Gagne who was touted as the number one contender. When O'Connor failed to defend his title, it was stripped of him and awarded to Gagne on August 16, 1960.

History
Over the years, Gagne feuded 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 ten 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 in the early 1980s, he turned the company's focus to Bockwinkel, also a skilled mat technician.

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. In an interview years later, wrestling legend Lou Thesz rated his wrestling ability as "a one or a zero" on a scale of one to ten. Hogan, in turn, rated Thesz's entertainment ability on the same scale at -7.283.

On two occasions, the AWA went so far as to tease title wins for Hogan only to strip him of the championship. The second occasion was on a "Super Sunday" card in St. Paul, MN in 1983. Hogan appeared to pin Bockwinkel only to have the referee announce that Hogan was disqualified for throwing the champion over the top rope a few minutes earlier. The crowd (who had exploded in cheers when Hogan appeared to win) almost rioted as an upset Hogan attacked Bockwinkel and manager Bobby Heenan. On the DVD "The Spectacular Legacy of the AWA," it was revealed that Verne planned to give Hogan the belt that night but only if Hogan would give Verne the bulk of the revenue from merchandise and his Japan shows. Hogan refused, wanting a 50/50 split, and thus Verne kept the belt off him.

Frustrated by Gagne's business decisions, Hogan accepted an offer from Vince McMahon, Jr. to wrestle for the WWF in December 1983. Within 2 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. Hogan wasn't alone either, soon, some of the AWA's other top talent, including announcer "Mean" Gene Okerlund, manager Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, and wrestlers Adrian Adonis, Ken Patera, Jim Brunzell, and Jesse Ventura, among others, also left for the WWF.

Despite the loss of talent, the AWA went on to have one of its most successful years in 1984. Mainly because of the babyface turn of Jerry Blackwell and the arrival of the Road Warriors. 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 World Class Championship Wrestling and establish a national presence to compete against the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). However, the collaborative effort didn't last, with Gagne accusing David Crockett of trying to sign away AWA wrestlers backstage.

Abroad, the AWA 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 the European promotion Catch Wrestling Association, through which its promoter, Otto Wanz, won the World title as well.

It was around that time that the AWA began airing weekly programming on ESPN giving the promotion national exposure right along with the WWF on the USA Network and the NWA on WTBS.

However, the AWA continued to fall behind the WWF and NWA as a major promotion throughout 1986 and 1987. Despite this, 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 (who was also about to depart for the WWF) in May of 1988. However, in December 1988, following a contentious and relatively 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, but 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.

The influence of Verne Gagne and the AWA as a whole in professional wrestling is immeasurable. Countless wrestlers and personalities were either trained by or received their first big break under Gagne, an influence that is felt to this day.

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 AWA before the TCS ended, and Colonel DeBeers was named 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 several 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.

For years, Eric Bischoff was credited with having developed the TCS, even cited as such in several books. However, in both his autobiography and "The Spectacular Legacy of the AWA", Bischoff denied having anything to do with the series. Instead, Greg Gagne takes responsibility for coming up with the idea and developing it with his father.

Super Cards
AWA SuperSunday, SuperClash, WrestleRock 86, SuperClash 3

Notable AWA Wrestlers
Adrian Adonis, Pat Tanaka & Paul Diamond, Ox Baker, Red Bastien, Jerry Blackwell, Nick Bockwinkel, Bruiser Brody, Jim Brunzell, The Crusher, Col. DeBeers, Mike Enos & Wayne Bloom, Dick the Bruiser, Bobby Duncum Sr., Fabulous Freebirds, Greg Gagne, Verne Gagne, Jim Garvin, Superstar Billy Graham, Stan Hansen, Curt Hennig, Larry Hennig, Hulk Hogan, Adnan Al-Kaissie, Jerry Lawler, Dennis Condrey & Randy Rose, Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty, Blackjack Lanza, Wahoo McDaniel, Brian Knobbs & Jerry Saggs, John Nord, Ken Patera, Pat Patterson, Harley Race, Baron Von Raschke, Steve Regal, Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch, Billy Robinson, Buddy Rose & Doug Somers, Road Warriors, Sgt. Slaughter, Jimmy Snuka, Ray Stevens, Maurice Vachon, Jesse Ventura, Leon White, Larry Zbyszko, Boris Zukhov, Buck Zumhofe

Notable AWA Ladies Wrestlers
Candy Divine, Sherri Martell, Madusa Miceli, Wendi Richter

Other AWA Personalities
Paul E. Dangerously, Al DeRusha, Paul Ellering, Bobby Heenan, Wally Karbo, Gene Okerlund, Diamond Dallas Page, Rod Trongard

AWA on television
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 1986 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)
 * AWA Major League Wrestling, a Canadian program produced in Winnipeg, Manitoba for that city's station, CKND, and syndicated across Canada during the 1980s.

The AWA video library and WWE
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 shown 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.

The WWE released a DVD entitled "The Spectacular Legacy of the AWA" on November 21, 2006. The video includes a documentary on the amateur and professional career of Verne Gagne, the rise and fall of the AWA over its 30 year history, and numerous interviews and features with Gagne, Hulk Hogan, Jim Brunzell, Michael Hayes, Baron Von Raschke, Greg Gagne, Eric Bischoff, Bobby Heenan, Gene Okerlund and Nick Bockwinkel.

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 new AWA contains a mix of both seasoned veterans in addition to younger competitors trying to make a name for themselves, sometimes wrestling as part of a development program for other wrestling organizations around the world. In late 2007 Wrestling-Radio forums become official AWA forums with exclusives Steve Corino & "Krazy K" Kirby Mack.

In April 26, 2007 it was revealed that the WWE has seeked legal action against Dale Gagne for the use of the AWA name, citing trademark infringement, as the WWE owns the AWA tape library.