The Rise & Fall Of The AWA Wrestling Promotion, Explained
Quick Links
Nowadays, pro wrestling fans can be pretty tribal in their support of WWE or AEW in ways that feel reminiscent of how they used to be divided over their loyalties to WWE or WCW. Years before the back and forth Monday Night War, the American Wrestling Association (AWA) was a major player on the national level.
Related: 10 Wrestlers You Didn't Know Competed In The AWAIndeed, in earlier eras, wrestling was a more purely territorial business in which the competition between different promotions was more symbolic than literal because each had their own distinct, regional markets for their television product house show business. When the AWA split from the National Wrestlers Alliance, though—earlier than even WWE itself did—it set the stage for them to become a true leader in the U.S. wrestling scene, first in the Midwest, but in time reaching a truly nationwide audience as a hugely influential promotion.
The AWA Thrives Under Verne Gagne
Verne Gagne was the focal point of the AWA’s secession from the NWA. He emerged as the top babyface in the territory, but as discussed by Bleacher Report, the powers that be in the NWA weren’t interested in giving him a run with the world title. So, the AWA splintered, promoting the reigning NWA Champion Pat O’Connor as their first titleholder, then stripping him of the title when he didn’t defend it within the required thirty days. Gagne the promoter awarded the title to himself as the top babyface and carried forward as the defining star of the AWA for years to come.
Far from just a shameless self-promoter, Gagne represented a unique combination of factors that set him up to successfully lead the AWA into the future. He had a real life wrestling credibility from his amateur grappling career that included winning NCAA Championships and being an alternate for the US Olympic team. These experiences informed not only how he worked as a pro wrestler, but how he trained a wide swathe of fledgling hopefuls as they got started in pro wrestling. Additionally, though, Gagne was creative and relatively forward-thinking for that era of the business.
Gagne came up with ideas for outside the box acts and fostered creativity on the part of his employees, setting up the emergence of larger than life acts like Jesse “The Body” Ventura and the managing career of Bobby Heenan before they took their fortunes to the next level in WWE. The AWA achieved a truly national reputation on the strength and fundamental differences of their presentation. Their broadcast deal with ESPN dramatically expanded their audience from there.
The Way The AWA Used Hulk Hogan Underscored Their Shortcomings
The AWA struck gold with a young babyface named Hulk Hogan. Yes, before he became arguably the greatest babyface champion of all time in WWE or led arguably the greatest heel faction of all time—the New World Order—in WCW, The Hulkster chased Nick Bockwinkel’s AWA Championship.
In WWE’s documentary, The Spectacular Legacy of the AWA, the narrative emerged of Verne Gagne recognizing he had a megastar in the making. Some pundits blamed Gagne’s old school sensibilities for him wanting a more traditionally credible wrestling technician as his world champion. Gagne himself commented in the documentary that he simply didn’t think Hogan needed to, or should have been champ, but rather that the money was in the chase—fans investing in The Hulkster’s pursuit of the title rather than him ever achieving his goal.
Hogan wound up leaving the AWA for WWE out of a combination of promises for more money, a world title reign, and a company built around him. It’s amazing to think that the AWA had him on their roster, though. Vince McMahon probably would have outmaneuvered Gagne in wrestling promotion in the long-term anyway, but letting Hogan slip from their fingers felt emblematic of the limitations of the AWA on the whole in knowing how to get the most out of its talents and resources.
The AWA Falls To Vince McMahon's WWE Machine
Every major wrestling promotion struggled to hold its own with WWE once Vince McMahon got rolling with an aggressive strategy of signing top talents from across the territories, leveraging syndicated television, and touring nationally. The AWA was one of the few companies that stood a chance and that stayed afloat into the early 1990s. A deficit of marquee talent, and failing to appeal to a general audience the way WWE did, capped their potential, though.
Efforts like the four SuperClash events had promise as the AWA promoted what now might be called “Forbidden Door” events with talent from other promotions like WCCW. However, the exact problems critics associate with co-promoted events—like promoters understandably each wanting their own talents to win—manifested in inconclusive finishes or dodging the matchups fans most would have wanted to see.
Related: What Forbidden Door? Wrestling's History Working With Other PromotionsThe AWA struggled more and more over time. Interestingly enough, though, Eric Bischoff revealed in the Spectacular Legacy of the AWA documentary that the death blow to the company happened behind the scenes. Verne Gagne had leveraged some valuable land holdings for a number of AWA business dealings, only to lose an eminent domain case that cost him the financial resource he needed to keep his promotion afloat.
The AWA was one of the most important wrestling promotions in the world for the talent it developed and an aesthetic that influenced the direction of WWE and others for decades to come. To the AWA's long-term detriment, the company also kept one foot in an older school sensibility—including not running with Hulk Hogan as the face of the promotion. In the end, though, they, like most wrestling companies that competed with WWE simply weren’t a match for Vince McMahon and the machine he built around him.
