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Between the Ropes Reviews "The Spectacular Legacy of the AWA"

Posted: Mar 31st 2007 By: CMBurnham

I had a chance to catch the "The Spectacular Legacy of the AWA" on WWE Fanatic pay-per-view this week. I must admit, I really enjoyed. It brought back a lot of fond memories of a one time great wrestling promotion. Growing up in the 80s, I recall watching many great matches that aired on ESPN and in syndication. The documentary goes all the way back to the beginning, and is a rather honest portrayal of the history of the American Wrestling Association.

The documentary opens with a history lesson of the wrestling territories in the 1930s and 1940s. As noted in the documentary, the National Wrestling Alliance was formed in 1947 in Waterloo, Iowa by a handful of regional wrestling promoters to share talent and a world champion. It orchestrates just how watered down today's world titles have become. In the day, you had one world champion for several promoters, and today, the WWE has three different world titles.

WWE hall of famer Verne Gagne is interviewed, and highlights his impressive amateur wrestling background:

* 1942 Northwest AAU Champion
* 1943 Minnesota State high school Champion
* 1944, 1947, 1948, 1949 Big Ten Champion
* 1948 National AAU Champion
* 1948 U.S. Olympic Team
* 1949 National AAU & NCAA Champion

Despite serving in the U.S. military, it was obvious that wresting was in Verne's blood. He went from Greco-Roman wrestling to professional football. Gagne was paid $5,000 a year to play football, but it was frowned upon that he would play football and wrestle. Verne's son Greg was born in 1948, and talked about moving from city to city as he dad toured the country.

Wrestling historian Mike Chapman was interviewed, and pointed out that the wrestlers were as big as movie starts back in the 1950s with the birth of television. Greg said his father was the Hulk Hogan of his era. Verne pulled in a lot of money working on the circuit and doing commercial endorsements. They talk about Verne never getting the NWA title as promoters wanted to keep it on Lou Thesz. As a result, Verne formed a new group - the AWA, in which Gagne would run the promotion and continue to wrestle. This was the period that saw the formation of the AWA and in 1963, in the northeast, the World Wide Wresting Federation. The AWA was formed in 1957, and Gagne naturally became the world champion for his new promotion.

In the early days, Gagne became partners with Wally Carbo. Gagne quickly recognized the importance of television in marketing his product, and acquired television time in Minneapolis, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Winnipeg, Chicago, Omaha, Salt Lake City, Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas (the site of many television tapings in the 80s), and San Francisco.

In listening to the interviews of stars such as Gene Okerlund, Jim Brunzell, Larry "The Axe" Hennig, it becomes apparent that Gagne was very much like today's Vince McMahon. He was deliberate in his vision of pro wrestling and sported a rather large ego. He was a perfectionist, and was described as a tough man to work for at times.

They talked about the conflict of interest in making himself the champion of his own federation. But as Baron Von Raschke pointed out, other promoters made themselves champions as well. Chapman states that Gagne could easily be called one of the five best world champions of all time. "I guess you could call him a master in the ring," said Von Rasche. Jim Ross pointed out that despite being the world champion, Gagne keep his ego in check as he had to still sell tickets and make money.

They established the legacy of Nick Bockwinkel, a man that is apart of the 2007 WWE hall of fame class. Bockwinkel, a second generation wrestler, was the ideal wrestler to feud with Gagne. He was a colorful grappler with an expanded vocabulary. The documentary establishes the Bockwinkel-Gagne feud as the greatest program in the history of the AWA.

Greg mentioned that the AWA television show was a highly rated program in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in fact, was only beaten in the ratings by "60 Minutes" which grabbed a 65 share, compared to the AWA's impressive 64 share and a 25 rating.

As a precursor to today's Wrestlemanias and Summerslams, Verne established the extravaganza type shows promoting events at out door venues.

"I think Verne had a great eye of talent," said Ross. As you watch the documentary, you see star after star after star. Stars such as Ray Stevens, Dusty Rhodes, Andre the Giant, Bobby Heenan, Bob Backlund, Hulk Hogan, Jesse Ventura passed through Verne's promotion. Verne also established a training facility on a farm in Minnesota, training wrestlers six hours a day, six days a week.

The documentary establishes the legacies of The Crusher, Mad Dog Vachon, "Superstar" Billy Graham, Ventura and Dick Murdoch. Greg calls Bobby "The Brain" Heenan the greatest wrestling manager of all time. It was said that The Crusher started calling him a weasel, and the nickname stuck for many years. The documentary also cements Gene Okerlund as the greatest interviewer of all time.

Hulk Hogan is interviewed, and he talks about sending his "Rocky" promotional picture to Verne since he had to basically quit the WWWF to do the movie. In a funny story, Greg talks about Hogan saying that he couldn't make it in the wrestling business, and Greg convincing him to work for his father. "He got over like a million dollars," said Hennig of Hogan in the AWA. Verne wanted him as a heel, but he got over as a babyface. "I would have loved to have been the world's champion, but I had lot of things I was doing such as going back and forth to Japan," claims Hogan in the documentary. Hogan defeated Bockwinkel, but in the title match, Hogan tossed Bockwinkel over the top rope, and was disqualified after pinning Bockwinkel following his patented leg drop. Hogan claims that Verne wanted to put the belt around his waist, but when he wanted a cut of his Japan money, that severed his relationship with the AWA.

Hogan claims that Gagne sold Hulk t-shirts when he was in Japan without paying him, which also led to his AWA departure. "Gagne missed the boat on really capitalizing on Hulk Hogan." Hogan said it was tough leaving the AWA, but Vince McMahon Jr. made him an offer he couldn't refuse including being paid not to fishing up his remaining dates. Verne received a telegraph in December 1983 (from Tampa) that Hogan wasn't coming back. Verne said that Hogan didn't have the guts to say to his face that he was leaving. In the documentary, Vince claims he always encouraged talent to honor their remaining commitments. Hmmm.

Greg said that CBS wanted to do a Saturday night special, but the deal fell through when Hogan left the AWA. Following in Hogan's footsteps, Gene Okerlund called to say he was leaving for New York. Jesse Ventura also left without fulfilling his commitments. It was pointed out that the only one that did honor his final commitments before leaving was Heenan. Ross notes that at the time Gagne should have signed his talent to contracts.

Vince McMahon Jr. approached Verne Gagne about selling the AWA to him, but Gagne had partners to consider. Vince never made a formal offer to purchase the AWA. Greg points out that Vince decided to approach the television stations that carried the AWA shows, and established new agreements to air WWF shows instead. Vince defends his actions calling it competition.

What was AWA's answer to Hogan leaving? They put the AWA title on Rick Martel, and while Martel was a good grappler, not a world champion caliber wrestler. Greg also got a push as a single's wrestler. Greg was always undersized and lacked the necessary charisma to follow in his father's footsteps. Verne got together with other independent promoters to run a super show called Super Clash. "Desperation," said Ross of Gagne's attempts to revive his business. "It was doomed to fail from day one," said Ross. Greg claimed egos prevented it from working including David Crockett trying to sign talent backstage.

"His loyality was to himself and Japan, and not to any American promotion," said Bockwinkel of Stan Hansen, who became the AWA champion. It was pointed out that Hansen was a big star in Japan, and made more money working in the Orient. As AWA officials tried to get the title belt away from Hansen before a Japanese tour, he drove over the belt.

AWA's next big move was to land a television deal with ESPN. Verne also hired the Road Warriors to help fill the talent void. Verne put together Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels as the Midnight Rockers. "They were tough to handle," said Greg of Jannetty and Michaels. Sherri Martel was brought in to manage Doug Somers and Buddy Rose. Verne also brought in the Nasty Boys, Scott Hall, and Eric Bischoff as an announcer as another interviewer (Larry Nelson) had been arrested on a DUI.

New talent in the AWA also included Paul Heyman and Curt Hennig. Hennig was a natural being a second generation wrestler. "Probably one of the greatest wrestlers of all time," said "The Axe" of his son. Hennig feuded with Bockwinkel for the AWA title. WWE continued to snatch up AWA talent including Hennig, The Rockers and eventually the Destruction Crew (Beverly Brothers).

Before leaving for New York, Hennig dropped the AWA title to Jerry "The King" Lawler. Lawler said he believes that he wouldn't have gotten the strap had Hennig not headed to the WWF.

Verne worked with other wrestling promoters once again to do a pay-per-view in December 1988 called Super Clash III. "That was impossible, I wasn't concerned about that at all,"; said McMahon. They used talent such as Lawler, Mick Foley, Jeff Jarrett, Diamond Dallas Page, The Iron Sheik, and Sgt. Slaughter, basically the biggest stars at the time not working in New York. The main event was Lawler squaring off with World Class champion Kerry Von Erich in a title unification match. It was a brawl won by Lawler, when the referee stopped the match due to blood. Lawler wouldn't come to the AWA to defend the title, and because he wasn't paid for working Super Clash III, he decided against working the scheduled dates. In fact, Lawler claimed no one was paid for working Super Clash III.

Without Lawler's knowledge, Lawler was stripped of the AWA title. Verne booked a battle royal to determine a new champion. Larry Zbyszko defeated Tom Zenk to become the new AWA world champion. Zbyszko was Verne's son-in-law. It was characterized as a safe selection as Verne wasn't worried about his son-in-law jumping to the WWF. Ross said that it was "irrelevant" that Zbyskzo was Verne's son-in-law.

"Verne just wouldn't throw in the towel, he probably should have a year or two earlier," noted Bischoff. The AWA came up with the team challenge series, which was won by Larry's legends. "I had nothing to do with that," said Bischoff of the team challenge series which was a gigantic disaster. Bischoff stated that the end of the AWA came when Verne lost an eminent domain case in Minneapolis, and lost property he could no longer borrow money against. "They ran out of talent," said Heenan simply of the final days of AWA. Basically, the documentary points to Verne's stubbornness that caused him to lose his wrestling company. "I couldn't make the talent fast enough," claimed Verne.

Verne always said he was on friendly terms with Vince Sr., but wondered why WWE wanted to induct him into the company's hall of fame. The documentary features Greg inducting his father into the WWE hall of fame.

If you are fan of the wrestling business, and enjoy studying the history of the industry, I do recommend you check on this documentary.