Post by tystates on Dec 2, 2009 20:03:00 GMT -5
I don't remember ever posting this on any of the boards. If I did it was quite awhile ago. This is sort of an overview on the AWA my friend Kevin Cerutti wrote. It could help if someone wanted to model their fed after the AWA and how things were ran, or just be nice background to read.
The American Wrestling Association
Established 1960, Folded 1990
The AWA, as a promotional body, did an excellent job of playing to the strengths of whomever they had in the territory at the time. It’s owner, Verne Gagne, was a former collegiate standout wrestler and was the Champion for the majority of the territories run from 1960 though 1981.
The AWA had a full array of masked men, Ethnic villains, and popular brawlers to go along with the scientific strengths of it’s champion and regular babyfaces. What made the AWA special is that they employed some of these characters outside of what they would normally be asked to do in other areas. For example, The AWA had two different masked men hold the AWA World title, MR. M {Bill Miller} for most of 1961 and Dr. X {Dick Beyer} for a few weeks in 1968. Other unlikely Champions included The Crusher (1963, 64), Mad Dog Vachon (1964, 65), Stan Hansen (1986), and Fritz Von Erich (1963), all full scale brawlers. Traditional wrestlers also held the title such as Nick Bockwinkel (1975, 1981, 1982, 1986), Rick Martel (1984-85), Curt Hennig (1987-88) and Larry Zbyszko (1989-90), and of course Verne Gagne (9 reigns from 1960-1981). The AWA also went outside of traditional North American wrestlers with it’s Champions, as the title wins of Austria’s Otto Wanz (1982), Jumbo Tsuruta (1984), and Mr. Saito (1990) illustrate.
Bottom Line? When you watched an AWA title match you could never write off a challenger to the title as being someone that “could never win the belt”. That made each title confrontation unique and worthy of paying attention to.
The true strength of the AWA from its inception was it’s tag team division. The Tag Team titles of the AWA were held by some of the greatest teams of all-time, teams including Ivan and Karol Kalmikoff, Bruiser and Crusher, Larry Hennig and Harley Race, Moto and Arakawa, Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens, Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell, Jesse Ventura and Adrian Adonis, Ken patera and Crusher Blackwell, The Road Warriors, The Midnight Rockers, Paul Diamond and Pat Tanaka, and tons more.
AWA rivalries often played out on a three-match basis for an average feud. Those bouts would consist of two traditional bouts and one “specialty” match designed to bring an end to the feud. These specialty matches included Cage matches, Strap matches, No DQ matches, and the popular “Death match”, where the wrestlers would fight until one could not reach the count of ten after losing a fall. It was not unusual for a match to go ten falls before a winner was decided.
Two things to remember about AWA feuds:
1) about 99% of specialty matches in the AWA were NON-TITLE. The AWA wanted their titles to change hands in a traditional manner, so no DQ bouts and cage matches with a champion in it were never for the title. Occasionally the matches would be announced as title matches, but the next week on TV if a title appeared to change hands in that match it would be overturned.
2) The AWA was excellent at remembering previous feuds and bringing them back in a subtle way later on, sometimes even years down the line. A good example is the Nick Bockwinkel vs. Larry Zbyszko feud, which began in 1985, ended in the summer of 1987 after being on-again, off-again for years, and resurfaced when Bockwinkel was brought in after being gone for 3 years to referee a title match between Zbyszko and Mr. Saito in 1990. The AWA gave it’s long-time fans credit for remembering the backstory to a long-dormant feud and letting the implications of what might happen based on previous history provide for great drama.
The AWA also utilized Managers on a long-term basis, including Bobby Heenan (1972-1984), Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie (1981-1989), and Lord Alfred Hayes (1974-80) amongst others. Wrestlers were often “brought in” by a long term manager to get involved in a feud that their last charge couldn’t settle or needed help with. Sometimes new guys came in to feud with disgruntled wrestlers no longer in the stable of a manager.
There were never a lot of Managers running around so whomever was being used in a particular time period often had the managerial spotlight’s undivided attention.
The AWA was very loyal to the wrestlers that were it’s principle grapplers throughout it’s existence. Often, when a heel wrestler was getting older, they would end up becoming popular babyfaces and finish their career in the territory being cheered by the fans. Grapplers that benefited from this included Mad Dog Vachon and Baron Von Raschke, and even Nick Bockwinkel.
Scientific Grappling was also put on display regularly in the AWA. Verne Gagne and Billy Robinson had some of the greatest scientific matches of all time and they were AWA title bouts. Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell vs. Tito Santana and Rick Martel for the AWA tag titles were also some of the most exciting and dramatic bouts for the tag titles of all time. Rick Martel defended the singles title through his reign against scientific challengers such as Bob Backlund, Brad Rheingans, Billy Robinson, and Jim Brunzell.
TV format: AWA TV until 1985 featured mostly the big name wrestlers vs. Enhancement talent, except in situations where a new feud or angle was being started up or played up. There would be localized TV interviews between the matches promoting the nearest town’s next AWA card. Often there would be “Arena Footage” showing part of a match from a larger arena as a teaser of how great the action was at the last card. Sometimes this footage would also be used to highlight some event or angle that had happened at the last card. The most popular venue for these arena bouts to be shown from was St. Paul at the Civic Center. The TV bouts were shot in a studio in Minneapolis with a small crowd of fans around. It was a very intimate atmosphere.
After 1985, the format was still squash-match heavy but there was usually a bigger name bout on the show as a “main Event”. Interviews became less localized asnd centered more on the action of the TV card that was going on at that time. The location of the matches also centered out of Las Vegas with stops in smaller midwest towns on occasion.
Other key figures/notes to note from the AWA:
Promoter/Matchmaker: Wally Karbo, famous for making suspension anouncements, booking grudge matches, and being the TV face of AWA management.
President: Stanley Blackbutn, Appeared to rule on controversial decisions in title matches and in other unique Circumstances.
Announcers: Marty O’Neil, Rodger Kent, Rod Trongard, Ken Resnick, Larry Nelson, and Lee Marshall were the primary announcers and are listed in order from beginning to end of the AWA. Note that Resnick is circa 1983, Nelson circa 1986, Marshall circa 1987
Main, larger city stops: Minneapolis/St. Paul, Chicago, Denver, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Winnipeg, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Rochester, MN, Salt Lake City.
--The AWA ran an annual Battleroyal tour around October each year through the late 70’s and early 80’s. Each winner of the Battleroyal woud get the title match on next month’s card. AWA Battleroyals would often go 20 minutes without anyone being eliminated.
--The two cards that were best attended were always the Battleroyal card and any card with a Cage match on it.
A who’s who of wrestling competed in the AWA over its history. Aside from those named in the above text, other stars included Superstar Graham, Ivan Koloff, Pedro Morales, Dick the Bruiser, Billy Robinson, Baron Von Raschke, Andre the Giant, Jerry Blackwell, Abdullah the Butcher, Shawn Michaels, Scott Hall, Ric Flair, and far too many others to mention. If you are today considered a legendary wrestler, there’s a good chance you competed in the AWA at one point or another.
--Kevin Cerutti, aka “khawk20
The American Wrestling Association
Established 1960, Folded 1990
The AWA, as a promotional body, did an excellent job of playing to the strengths of whomever they had in the territory at the time. It’s owner, Verne Gagne, was a former collegiate standout wrestler and was the Champion for the majority of the territories run from 1960 though 1981.
The AWA had a full array of masked men, Ethnic villains, and popular brawlers to go along with the scientific strengths of it’s champion and regular babyfaces. What made the AWA special is that they employed some of these characters outside of what they would normally be asked to do in other areas. For example, The AWA had two different masked men hold the AWA World title, MR. M {Bill Miller} for most of 1961 and Dr. X {Dick Beyer} for a few weeks in 1968. Other unlikely Champions included The Crusher (1963, 64), Mad Dog Vachon (1964, 65), Stan Hansen (1986), and Fritz Von Erich (1963), all full scale brawlers. Traditional wrestlers also held the title such as Nick Bockwinkel (1975, 1981, 1982, 1986), Rick Martel (1984-85), Curt Hennig (1987-88) and Larry Zbyszko (1989-90), and of course Verne Gagne (9 reigns from 1960-1981). The AWA also went outside of traditional North American wrestlers with it’s Champions, as the title wins of Austria’s Otto Wanz (1982), Jumbo Tsuruta (1984), and Mr. Saito (1990) illustrate.
Bottom Line? When you watched an AWA title match you could never write off a challenger to the title as being someone that “could never win the belt”. That made each title confrontation unique and worthy of paying attention to.
The true strength of the AWA from its inception was it’s tag team division. The Tag Team titles of the AWA were held by some of the greatest teams of all-time, teams including Ivan and Karol Kalmikoff, Bruiser and Crusher, Larry Hennig and Harley Race, Moto and Arakawa, Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens, Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell, Jesse Ventura and Adrian Adonis, Ken patera and Crusher Blackwell, The Road Warriors, The Midnight Rockers, Paul Diamond and Pat Tanaka, and tons more.
AWA rivalries often played out on a three-match basis for an average feud. Those bouts would consist of two traditional bouts and one “specialty” match designed to bring an end to the feud. These specialty matches included Cage matches, Strap matches, No DQ matches, and the popular “Death match”, where the wrestlers would fight until one could not reach the count of ten after losing a fall. It was not unusual for a match to go ten falls before a winner was decided.
Two things to remember about AWA feuds:
1) about 99% of specialty matches in the AWA were NON-TITLE. The AWA wanted their titles to change hands in a traditional manner, so no DQ bouts and cage matches with a champion in it were never for the title. Occasionally the matches would be announced as title matches, but the next week on TV if a title appeared to change hands in that match it would be overturned.
2) The AWA was excellent at remembering previous feuds and bringing them back in a subtle way later on, sometimes even years down the line. A good example is the Nick Bockwinkel vs. Larry Zbyszko feud, which began in 1985, ended in the summer of 1987 after being on-again, off-again for years, and resurfaced when Bockwinkel was brought in after being gone for 3 years to referee a title match between Zbyszko and Mr. Saito in 1990. The AWA gave it’s long-time fans credit for remembering the backstory to a long-dormant feud and letting the implications of what might happen based on previous history provide for great drama.
The AWA also utilized Managers on a long-term basis, including Bobby Heenan (1972-1984), Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie (1981-1989), and Lord Alfred Hayes (1974-80) amongst others. Wrestlers were often “brought in” by a long term manager to get involved in a feud that their last charge couldn’t settle or needed help with. Sometimes new guys came in to feud with disgruntled wrestlers no longer in the stable of a manager.
There were never a lot of Managers running around so whomever was being used in a particular time period often had the managerial spotlight’s undivided attention.
The AWA was very loyal to the wrestlers that were it’s principle grapplers throughout it’s existence. Often, when a heel wrestler was getting older, they would end up becoming popular babyfaces and finish their career in the territory being cheered by the fans. Grapplers that benefited from this included Mad Dog Vachon and Baron Von Raschke, and even Nick Bockwinkel.
Scientific Grappling was also put on display regularly in the AWA. Verne Gagne and Billy Robinson had some of the greatest scientific matches of all time and they were AWA title bouts. Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell vs. Tito Santana and Rick Martel for the AWA tag titles were also some of the most exciting and dramatic bouts for the tag titles of all time. Rick Martel defended the singles title through his reign against scientific challengers such as Bob Backlund, Brad Rheingans, Billy Robinson, and Jim Brunzell.
TV format: AWA TV until 1985 featured mostly the big name wrestlers vs. Enhancement talent, except in situations where a new feud or angle was being started up or played up. There would be localized TV interviews between the matches promoting the nearest town’s next AWA card. Often there would be “Arena Footage” showing part of a match from a larger arena as a teaser of how great the action was at the last card. Sometimes this footage would also be used to highlight some event or angle that had happened at the last card. The most popular venue for these arena bouts to be shown from was St. Paul at the Civic Center. The TV bouts were shot in a studio in Minneapolis with a small crowd of fans around. It was a very intimate atmosphere.
After 1985, the format was still squash-match heavy but there was usually a bigger name bout on the show as a “main Event”. Interviews became less localized asnd centered more on the action of the TV card that was going on at that time. The location of the matches also centered out of Las Vegas with stops in smaller midwest towns on occasion.
Other key figures/notes to note from the AWA:
Promoter/Matchmaker: Wally Karbo, famous for making suspension anouncements, booking grudge matches, and being the TV face of AWA management.
President: Stanley Blackbutn, Appeared to rule on controversial decisions in title matches and in other unique Circumstances.
Announcers: Marty O’Neil, Rodger Kent, Rod Trongard, Ken Resnick, Larry Nelson, and Lee Marshall were the primary announcers and are listed in order from beginning to end of the AWA. Note that Resnick is circa 1983, Nelson circa 1986, Marshall circa 1987
Main, larger city stops: Minneapolis/St. Paul, Chicago, Denver, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Winnipeg, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Rochester, MN, Salt Lake City.
--The AWA ran an annual Battleroyal tour around October each year through the late 70’s and early 80’s. Each winner of the Battleroyal woud get the title match on next month’s card. AWA Battleroyals would often go 20 minutes without anyone being eliminated.
--The two cards that were best attended were always the Battleroyal card and any card with a Cage match on it.
A who’s who of wrestling competed in the AWA over its history. Aside from those named in the above text, other stars included Superstar Graham, Ivan Koloff, Pedro Morales, Dick the Bruiser, Billy Robinson, Baron Von Raschke, Andre the Giant, Jerry Blackwell, Abdullah the Butcher, Shawn Michaels, Scott Hall, Ric Flair, and far too many others to mention. If you are today considered a legendary wrestler, there’s a good chance you competed in the AWA at one point or another.
--Kevin Cerutti, aka “khawk20
