The Rise And Fall Of The AWA 

Eric Bischoff did the same formula in WCW as Verne did. The only difference: he gave older guys creative control especially Hogan.

"Potlucking in wrestling is pure chaos

Because they didn't move on in the times brotha!!! , They should have pulled the trigger , made Hogan a champ and think outside the box brotha!!! , And did what Vince did in the 80s expand bortha!!!!!

@@vampirascoffin870 Yeah my point is that the company also started witht he NWAs reluctance to put the belt on Vergne. I just find it fascinating how Vergne didnt see the parrallel

If Virgil got the wcw belt it would still be around today

@@VirgilAhmedJohnsonwerethebestw Wasn't he called "Vincent" in WCW?

@@majordbag2 Yes he was Vincent but he also used the groundbreaking gimmick of Curly Bill which many superstars today borrowed from

Also, he could not see that his son was no wrestler.

Yet I understand his actions because he knows it' s planned presentation, so he figures he's big in that culture concealing the nature...Mcmahon, who is smart guy...but his swaggar comes from tv connection...AND production value...just seems to be a sense that feels a little beyond his public socialization...yet he has the awareness it hits audience effectively... and that's just wild sophistication for that decade

@@p.d.l7023 A lot of the promoters had that problem. Remember Eric Watts and Mike Von Erich?

You nailed it. He could not see the big picture.

He just wouldn't do "What's Best for Business"

Hulkamania actually started in the AWA. Verne just wasn't smart enough to give Hogan the ball and let him run with it.

@@suicidality2744 "Hulkamania and the 80s wrestling boom period????? No thanks.....I'll put the belt on my son- its Gregamania baby!" - Verne Gagne. Probably.

@@anthonyaman1488 Even if Verne had put the belt on Hogan it's likely Vince would have got him anyway. He could have always paid him more. Even before the era of guaranteed contracts the New York territory was the biggest.

Verne would have regretted it either way, Hogan was just too self centered to save that company let alone any.

😊

I don't know why Vince would be the deciding factor there. He primarily played the role of interviewer in those days

@@eddiemoney1093 over the years as wwe got bigger he couldn’t stand Vince and also he didn’t like the gimmicks and storylines Vince was doing either. Basically he didn’t like what wwe became and the product didn’t interest him. That and he knew Vince was kinda killing the territories.

Lmao.....😂😂😂😂

Same here! I have a near complete set of the AWA action figures, too.

Seconded.

I'd never heard of a Plot to screw Martel... -- I've seen several sources (long since forgotten where) state that Verne allegedly tried to Pay the Iron Sheik to Break Hogan's Leg as pay back for Hogan leaving... ** He apparently promised Cash and a Championship run if he'd do it, Leave WWF and then come to the AWA.. Sheik refused on Moral grounds and in not trusting Verne to actually make good on either promise... when the story circulated in the grapevine it set a lot of guys' eyes to looking for the door

That was actually my first exposure to the AWA. ESPN Classic would re-air AWA shows and put some of their TV on demand. I was 11 or 12 years old, and my dad had seen the AWA in its hey day, so we bonded over those old broadcasts.

@@gabepollock1641 First match I ever saw was Rick Martel vs some big guy I can't think of but it was the BEST match I ever saw

@@hartiwanger9176 Was it Terry Gordy? A big curly haired guy?

@@lubbulz1 Maybe. Cant find that match on RU-vid

Da one, Da only, Da Crusher!💪💪

Good times

Same here. I met the Baron at the Apple Valley zoo. I voted for Jesse for Governor 😂

Do you remember that there was this white guy with a huge red Afro-type hairdo that used to stand at the side of the ring giving the wrestler the finger the whole time at those civic center monthly cards? I used to go as a kid and it’s just a funny memory I have of them, lol

How about the guy called Ricky the midget always at ringside ?

Yes! There was a segment with Hogan and Mean Gene training in thw Twin Cities area, including my old neighborhood in West Side of St Paul near the Wabasha caves.

Indeed. Years later, Eric Bischoff made the same mistake as Verne did. The difference is: Bischoff gave them (the older guys) creative control.

The cream of the crop of the Heenan family

One of The Great Tag Teams in Professional Wrestling History and ahead of their time.

Probably the single best tag team in wrestling history before the Road Warriors.

They were...yep...Nick & the Crippler.

Even as a young kid I couldn't comprehend Rose and Sommers being tag team champs.

​@@catguy00I agree to an extent. They would've made a good transitional championship team, but as it was it took way too long for them to get the belts onto Janetty and Michaels. It should've happened within a couple of months, not a year.

I think WWF would still be number one but a close second with either be the NWA maybe WCW with the AWA in third place but still riding high if Verne would have changed with the times.

Considering how many 1990's era wrestlers have died at a relatively young age, I don't think the territory days were that hard on the talent.

Ryan Jacobson Yeah but that was more about steroids and secret drug use than physical wear and tear on the body. Back then almost no one worked out, didn’t have the time or was too tired from being beaten to death at work, so if you just lifted weights a little and had a little muscle you were bigger than 99% of the population. If you notice that’s why a lot of the old school wrestlers were just naturally big and tall guys not necessarily muscular. But as the general population got bigger wrestlers had to keep up to stay impressive then hogan came along and basically set a horrible example for what a wrestler should look like and after that if you weren’t taking steroids you weren’t ever going to make it in the wrestling business. So guys started taking the stuff all the time in the 90s and they had to do it secretly or risk being fired, shunned from society for “cheating” or even arrested and thrown in jail. Which means they couldn’t talk to their doctor about it and monitor their health. Back in the day the labor laws weren’t as strict as they are today meaning people could get away with working their employees as hard as they want and mix that with the secrecy of the wrestling business and let’s just say yeah the 90s schedule was probably easier for most wrestlers than the 60s-70s schedule

Another channel did all this already and this video literally copied the idea... These Brits didn't watch these promotions... They're just desperate for views so theyre copying them

Original Wrestling Documentaries did these already and have covered almost all the territories... This channel is just copying them for views... Bunch of Brits this young didn't watch these promotions and these videos just come across as sone highschool PowerPoint

​@@ToxicAvengerCleanYourMind ok 'Click next video'

back when hogan could actually work!

@@MrZappaman420Hogan was a different breed in the AWA vs later in the WWF!

Yeah, Bockwinkel carried him the whole match.

Same I remember my mom buying me a compilation tape of AWA matches with the title match of Hogan vs Bockwinkle and a tag team match with hogan and Andre the giant against bockwinkle and stevens?

Obviously, you care not of the many incorrect errors in the history as it is told in this video.

@@georgeschire3590 What are some inaccuracies? Hogan's contract with njpw seems to be the key info

I thought it was Dan Severn!😂

Not to mention the mustache Scott could have been mistaken for either Thomas Magnum or Magnum T.A. Terry Allen

Lotta junk to the bottom cheek.

@@1_Fish.2_Fish.Red_Fish. so did 90% of wrestlers back then and today...lets make somthing clear . juicing doesnt magically make you jacked. you still have to work hard to create a body like young scott hall had..juice makes it easier then not juicing, but you still have to work hard and work even harder to keep it during your 10 weeks off

@@dustincongello5802 Jilly Juice gets you rock hard!

Most of the time Bobby would wrestle in Chicago and Indiana. Then would manage in Minneapolis

He wasn't called the brain for nothing

I disagree. Vince would have been relentless and ruthless more to get Hogan because Verne would not change with the times still.

There was no stopping Vince's ruthless aggression!

​@@attiepollard7847you know competition makes Vince better

Same here. AWA was treated as a punchline in the late 80s...

I remember the same. As a kid I always preferred nwa/wcw over wwf because I thought it was real.

From 1985?

I think Vern would have brought himself at least a couple of more or a few more years of delayed downfall. The AWA maybe would have went out of business in either 1994 or 95.

I've always heard and Crusher even said in a 1984 interview that his best bench was 500 pounds in the late 50s. By the way what was the name of the Milwaukee bar?

Tricky Nick was tremendous in the ring and on the mike, and he was perfectly matched with Stevens and Sir Robert of Heenan.

Like Jackie Moon in "Semi-Pro" with the Flint Tropics.

I like tna more then aew to which i only seen one show either way i will always be a wwe guy for life

TNA started including a few Wrestling Veterans...then a few more...then a few more...until TNA, at least eventually, lost a lot of the very identity, that they'd been founded on!

Vince McMahon I thought bought the rights to AWA?

​@@aliensyndrome4280He did. He owns the complete library and video tapes of the AWA.

You went to Superclash 1?

I had a Sgt. Slaughter G.I. Joe.

Remember the WCCW reruns on ESPN? Is that Warrior???

That last sentence is very subjective. The NWA probably had the biggest clout in that era, with Georgia Championship Wrestling being aired across the continent on TBS, while Mid-Atlantic (JCP), CWF, Mid-South, Continental, and Big Time/WCCW were also popular outside their home territories. A lot of the AWA talent in the video were more famous from their NWA days. And really, the NWA wasn't a promotion like the WWF and AWA, it was a conglomerate of independent promotions that stretched across the U.S. and parts of Canada for decades.

No, it is mainly because it has been a monopoly for decades.

I hear ya. I was 14 in '85 when I moved to upper South Carolina. Found Crockett NWA on TV every Saturday and Sunday morning. I have the WWF network now but hardly ever watch anything after 2001.

EXACT same. I grew up watching EVERY federation could find on TV. WWF just came up with bigger shows. But territories let you watch top guys wrestle bit more on tv or they at least made appearances. Silliness & gimmicks and trash stories have kind of ruined wrestling. Also just the excessive non selling of old finishers, 1 million superkicks and everyone able to do top rope.

@@robcressey7228you love Val Venus huh?

Hogan's contractual situation with njpw at this specific period, is really layered instance...

This Ross guy talks fast, but his account of history of the AWA, is void of many actual facts.

It's interesting.

And every time you praise this particular video on the AWA, you'll be giving to praise to a video that is factually incorrect with much of the story.

Kind of like Bischoff with WCW.

Don't forget Jarrett at TNA.