American Wrestling Association
While the American Wrestling Association (AWA) might be familiar to older wrestling fans, the AWA that reportedly ran two shows in in Oklahoma in 2001 is not the Verne Gagne owned wrestling federation. The original AWA began in 1960 and became inactive in the fall of 1990 following a mass exodus of several of its top talent. In 1996, former AWA workers Dale Gagner and Jonnie Stewart relicensed the American Wrestling Association name in the state of Minnesota and the "AWA" re-opened as an independent promotion called AWA Superstars of Wrestling. Gagner even dropped the "r" from his last name to further cultivate an heir of legitimacy to the promotion. On April 26, 2007 it was revealed that World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) had sought legal action against Gagner for the use of the AWA name, citing trademark infringement, as WWE owns the AWA tape library, trademarks, and logos. On October 24, 2008, it was revealed that the WWE won the first count of 23 counts in the copyright infringement case against Gagner, which effectively means that AWA Superstars of Wrestling could no longer infringe upon the AWA trademarks owned by WWE. Due to losing the lawsuit, the company was forced to change it name. The company was renamed Wrestling Superstars Live. Pictured below is King Kong Bundy and Larry Zbyszko, the only two wrestlers with Oklahoma ties to hold the World Title of the new version of the AWA.
