American Wrestling Association

One day soon, if anyone is interested, this blogger would like to do more features on North American Pro Wrestling Territorial history.  Please message me either on the blog or Facebook messenger if you would like to see an occasional post like the one about to be shared.

 

In the meantime, early today, this blogger sat down and watched a video called The Spectacular Legacy Of The American Wrestling Association.

 

The promotion lasted from 1960-1991.  It broke away from the major group which was/and still is called the National Wrestling Alliance.  The AWA would eventually have shows in the Midwest portion of the U.S and Canada.  It's home base was in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota area.  Other major cities with the promotion included Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada), Milwaukee (Wisconsin), Chicago (Illinois), Omaha (Nebraska), Denver (Colorado), Las Vegas (Nevada) and eventually the San Francisco Bay Area where this blogger lives.

 

The major reason behind the breakup with the NWA  centered around a 1948 U.S. Olympic wrestler by the name of Verne Gagne. He became a popular star, especially in the Midwest region of the country.  Television became popular with wrestling in the 1950's.  Gagne would draw high ratings on Chicago television very Saturday night.  

 

Story has it that the NWA felt that another great wrestler in Lou Thesz was their champion.  In three matches between Gagne and Thesz, there were two draws and one match where Thesz was disqualified according to the video.  During The Territory Era, there was a lot of situations like this regarding the different promoters in different areas of North America. 

 

Three years after the AWA began, there was another breakup from the NWA on the eastern coast of North America.  An organization called the World Wide Wrestling Federation was formed (today's WWE).  As of 1963, there were now three wrestling organizations in North America.  

 

Back to the AWA, it did well for awhile until an incident occurred in the early 1980s.  A popular wrestler by the name of Hulk Hogan, defeated AWA Champion, Nick Bockwinkel before a sellout crowd in St. Paul, Minnesota.  The outcome was eventually overturned by officials. The apparent reason had to do with merchandising by Hogan.  It was an issue to Verne Gagne.  When the two sides disagreed on this, it would eventually lead to Hogan jumping to the WWF (today's WWE).  Over the next year, other wrestlers and officials would jump as well over better pay.

 

This led to the eventual downfall of the AWA and to Verne Gagne.  In 1991, the company would eventually fold.  Those that were left with the AWA at the time either went to the WWE or WCW.