The American Wrestling Association (AWA) was an American professional wrestling promotion based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that ran from 1960 until 1991. It was founded by Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo. The promotion was born out of the Minneapolis Boxing & Wrestling Club, originally founded in 1933, which served as the Minnesota-based territory of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) from 1948 onward, before breaking away from the NWA and becoming an independent territory in 1960.
History
Pre-AWA years (1933–1960)
Anton Stecher, brother and manager of former World Heavyweight Champion Joe Stecher, was a founding member of the NWA in 1948 and had promoted wrestling in Minneapolis since 1933 through his Minneapolis Boxing and Wrestling Club. In 1952, he sold a one-third interest in the promotion to his son Dennis and Wally Karbo. Stecher died on October 9, 1954, and control of the promotion passed to Karbo and Dennis. Verne Gagne, an amateur wrestling champion, had become a well-known and popular wrestler nationally in the 1950s as a result of his appearances on the DuMont Network. He aspired to become NWA World Champion, but political sentiment within the NWA prevented it. In 1959, Dennis sold his majority stake in the Minneapolis Boxing and Wrestling Club to Karbo and Gagne. They then became co-owners of the promotion.
Breaking from the NWA (1960) In 1960, after unsuccessfully lobbying the NWA for a title match between Gagne and the NWA World Champion Pat O'Connor, Gagne and Karbo led certain territories out of the NWA forming the AWA. The AWA unilaterally recognized NWA World Champion Pat O'Connor as AWA World Champion and gave him 90 days to defend the AWA title against Gagne. The NWA ignored the challenge. O'Connor was stripped of the AWA title and it was awarded to Gagne on August 16, 1960. While O'Connor was considered the first AWA Champion, he didn't wrestle in the AWA until later in the 1960s (when he teamed with Wilbur Snyder to win the AWA World Tag Team Championship).
Gagne was an amateur wrestling champion who had earned a spot on the U.S. team at the 1948 Summer Olympics; he ran the AWA with a conservative sensibility, firmly believing that sound technical wrestling should be the basis of a pro-wrestling company. Starting in the 1970s, Gagne trained his newcomer wrestlers from his farm in Chanhassen, Minnesota.
Expanding the territory (1960s–1980s)
Under Gagne and Karbo, the AWA became one of the most successful and expansive single territories in North America, promoting shows in such major cities as Minneapolis, St. Paul, Milwaukee, Chicago, Omaha, Winnipeg, Denver, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Phoenix and throughout the Midwest region. Relationships were also developed with existing promotions in Houston, Memphis and San Antonio. Gagne's westward expansion into traditional NWA territories was made possible due to relationships and business partnerships he had forged for decades—more the result of other promoters struggling to survive rather than by purchase or hostile takeover by Gagne. The AWA would also benefit from, among other things, the profits which was made from matches that occurred in 1973 and 1974 between Superstar Billy Graham and Wahoo McDaniel.
The promotion was briefly affiliated with International Championship Wrestling (ICW), which had broken away from NWA Tri-State in 1977, and recognized then AWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Bockwinkel as the "real" world champion. Bockwinkel, accompanied by then manager Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, traveled to Mississippi several times to defend his title.
Nick Bockwinkel vs. Hulk Hogan (1982–1983)
After Gagne's retirement in 1981, he focused the promotion on Nick Bockwinkel, a loyal employee of several years who was a mat-wrestling technician like Gagne had been. Bockwinkel faced numerous challengers for the title during the early 1980s including eventual champions Rick Martel and Otto Wanz, champion Mad Dog Vachon, and perennial contenders Wahoo McDaniel, and Brad Rheingans, but perhaps his most famous opponent would be Hulk Hogan. Starting in 1982 and accelerated by a role in the hit film Rocky III, Hogan rapidly caught on as a babyface with AWA fans, and became the AWA's top draw. But even as his popularity grew to unprecedented levels, Gagne refused to make him the AWA World Heavyweight Champion, as Hogan was a powerhouse wrestler. He recognized Hogan's showmanship and charisma and was well aware of his potential drawing power, but still believed a wrestling company should be built around one of its best technical wrestlers (e.g., himself and Bockwinkel). On the Spectacular Legacy of the AWA DVD, Gagne denied bias against Hogan and defended his actions by reasoning that he believed that Hogan's pursuit of the title was the draw for the audience and that "we really didn't need him to be champion".
On two occasions, Gagne went so far as to tease AWA title wins for Hogan, only to return the title to Bockwinkel via technicalities. The first was on April 18, 1982. Hogan defeated Bockwinkel with the help of a foreign object that Bockwinkel's manager Bobby "the Brain" Heenan had interjected into the match. After the three count, the belt was awarded to Hogan and he was announced as the new champion. Heenan informed the referee of the object and the referee questioned Hogan about this, but the blood on Hogan's face was evidence that the object had also been used on him. The ref stood by his decision and Hogan left the arena as the new AWA World champion. Six days later on AWA television, AWA President Stanley Blackburn stripped Hogan of the title and returned it to Bockwinkel.
The second such occasion was on a AWA Super Sunday card in St. Paul in 1983. 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 booked as a no disqualification match, which prevented this, so Blackburn simply stripped Hogan of the title and once again handed it back to Bockwinkel. The crowd (which had exploded in cheers when Hogan appeared to have won) almost rioted when learning that Hogan was once again cheated out of the title,Best of the 80's. Kayfabememories.com. Retrieved on 2013-09-05. and Bockwinkel later had to do damage control with the rabid crowd, telling the audience to calm down afterwards as well. Hogan attacked Bockwinkel and his manager Heenan. On the DVD The Spectacular Legacy of the AWA, it was revealed that Gagne 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 in New Japan Pro-Wrestling.Wrestling - Shining a Spotlight 12.01.06: The Rise, Fall and Legacy of the AWA. 411mania.com. Retrieved on 2013-09-05. Outraged at being strongarmed, Hogan refused, but nonetheless offered a 50/50 split instead. Gagne refused, and kept the belt from him. However, Hogan did admit in his autobiography My Life Outside the Ring that he still intended to stay with AWA and that Gagne had planned to book him in steel cage matches with Bockwinkel in an effort to expand the AWA to the New York market, but he decided to leave when Vincent K. McMahon of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) offered him the WWF World Heavyweight Championship.
Talent jumps to the WWF (1983–1984) As McMahon and his Connecticut-based WWF attempted to end pro wrestling's regional era in the mid-1980s (by establishing the WWF as a national promotion), Gagne made several decisions that caused his AWA to lose momentum in the emerging wrestling promotion war, including overemphasizing his son Greg Gagne in AWA storylines (which led to charges of nepotism within the company) and failing to make Hogan the top star of his company when he had the chance.
Frustrated by Gagne's business decisions, Hogan accepted an offer from rival promoter McMahon to wrestle for the WWF, in December 1983. One month later, Hogan became the WWF World Heavyweight Champion. He and the WWF soon became a mainstream media phenomenon and virtually synonymous with professional wrestling in much of the national consciousness, vaulting past the AWA and NWA as the premier promotion in wrestling. Hogan wasn't alone in leaving the AWA. Some of the AWA's other top talent, including announcer "Mean Gene" Okerlund, manager Heenan, and wrestlers Adrian Adonis, Ken Patera, Tito Santana, Jim Brunzell, David Schultz, Wendi Richter and Jesse Ventura also jumped to the WWF. As the AWA required talent to place a six-week notice upon leaving the company for booking and syndication-based reasons, most of the talent reportedly told Gagne that McMahon offered them more money to not work out their notices and previously scheduled appearance dates, which has been disputed by McMahon. Of the talent to leave AWA for the WWF in this time, only Heenan worked out his notice in good faith to the Gagne family.The Spectacular Legacy of the AWA DVD
The sting of the WWF expansion was not shouldered by the AWA alone. The Mid-Atlantic, Georgia, and Florida territories of the NWA also lost top stars such as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Jack Brisco, Jerry Brisco, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, "Cowboy" Bob Orton, Barry Windham, and Mike Rotunda to the WWF during that same time.
Pro Wrestling USA (1984–1986)
Despite this talent raid, the AWA went on to have another successful year in 1984, mainly because of the arrival of The Road Warriors and an angle uniting longtime heel Jerry Blackwell with Greg and feuding with former manager Sheik Adnan El-Kaissey. Although aging, most of the AWA's longtime core talent still remained. Stars like Bockwinkel, Ray "The Crippler" Stevens, The Crusher, Dick the Bruiser, Baron von Raschke, Mad Dog Vachon, and Larry Hennig were all still active at this time despite all being in their 40s or 50s.
In response to McMahon's expansion, the AWA forged an alliance with several NWA promoters, including Jim Crockett Promotions, Mid-South Wrestling, Pacific Northwest Wrestling, World Class Championship Wrestling, and the Continental Wrestling Association. This new promotion was known as Pro Wrestling USA and came about in an attempt to establish a national presence to compete against the WWF. The AWA was also able to sign top wrestlers like Sgt. Slaughter and Bob Backlund. By 1985, however, the AWA began to lose audiences, as the WWF was gaining wrestling superiority due to the success of WrestleMania I. Later in the year, as this struggle against the WWF progressed, Karbo also sold all his stock to Gagne as well. In September 1985, Pro Wrestling USA would respond to McMahon's rising success by promoting the first SuperClash. Despite this success, the Pro Wrestling USA collaboration did not last, as Gagne accused David Crockett of trying to sign away AWA talent over to the NWA backstage at numerous Pro Wrestling USA shows.
The AWA released an AWA Remco Action Figure line with the toy company Remco and a series of 30 minute videos entitled "Wrestling Classics", primarily featuring wrestlers such as Sgt. Slaughter, the Road Warriors, Jimmy Garvin and Steve Regal, and World Champion Rick Martel.
Decline and closure (1986–1991) Despite falling behind the WWF and NWA as a major promotion throughout 1986 and 1987, Gagne still managed to find and/or develop legitimate young talent like Scott Hall (later known as Razor Ramon), The Midnight Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty), "Bull Power" Leon White (later known as Big Van Vader), The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobs and Jerry Sags), and Madusa Miceli during that timeframe.