With ESPN Classic finishing reairing these episodes, let’s take a look at what the AWA was doing wrong (and right) as the company’s closure loomed closer week by week.
Seeing as ESPN Classic recently finished reairing the 1990 episodes of the AWA’s ESPN television show, I felt that it would be a good time to take a look at what the AWA was doing wrong (and right) when they shut down.
First up let’s talk about the champions. The AWA’s world champion had been Larry Zbyszko since February of 1989. Zbyszko was a good choice. It had been traditional in independents for primary championships to be held by either the promoter or members of his family. After all, family (who’ll probably inherit the company when you step down) would be least likely to bolt for a rival promotion.
As Gagne’s son in law, Zbyszko was a safe bet. He was good on the microphone and a good in-ring worker.
However, Zbyszko’s reign got off to an odd start. In January of 1989 the working agreement between champion Jerry Lawler and the AWA collapsed due to problems from the Superclash III PPV. Lawler was stripped of the title. Rather than holding a tournament to crown a new champion, the belt was decided in a battle royal which Zbyszko won after eliminating Tom Zenk.
Another problem was that going into 1990 he was growing stale, having held the belt for nearly a year. It wasn’t as if the AWA lacked challengers. Sgt. Slaughter, Nikita Koloff, and the Trooper are only a few of the names who were legitimate contenders for the belt.
Even when he lost the title in February of 1990 to Masa Saito, there was no footage of the match aired on the ESPN show. Also, to the best of my knowledge, Saito never defended the belt on the show. Larry simply regained the title at that year’s Superclash and held it until the company folded.
The tag team titles were held by Mike Enos and Wayne Bloom – the Destruction Crew. The Crew were built up extremely well as dominant champions with their finisher (the Wrecking Ball) actually outlawed by the AWA.
The Crew had strong competition chasing them. Scott Norton and John Nord (the Lumberjacks) and the Texas Hangmen had legitimate feelings that they should be the champions. They also had DJ Peterson chasing them and Peterson had sworn to team with partner after partner until he defeated the Crew. Peterson and the Trooper finally won the belts at one of the final AWA tapings for their ESPN show.
As the company was shutting down, a tournament was also going on to crown a new light heavyweight champion. At the final taping, Buck Zumhoff defeated Johnnie Stewart to win the tournament.
The women’s title was held by Candi Devine. This division had been mined as well. Devine had won the title in 1984 and had traded it back and forth with Sherri Martel for nearly three years, until Sherri headed to the WWF in 1987. In December of that year, Madusa Miceli had won the belt, losing it to Wendi Richter in November of 1988. A year later, the belt was vacated again when Richter left. In December of 1989 Devine defeated Judy Martin to regain the belt.
To be fair, the AWA’s problems had begun years before. Talent raids from the WWF and Jim Crockett’s WCW had stripped the roster every time Gagne had begun building someone up. The WWE’s Spectacular Legacy of the AWA DVD stated that the attitude backstage had all but turned the AWA into a place where someone got noticed so they could be signed to WCW or the WWF.
By this point that was all that was left on the roster – guys hoping to make it big and legends who were nearing the end of their careers. The veterans normally skewed older – a couple of examples were Baron Von Raschke (50) and Col. DeBeers (45), and Sgt. Slaughter (42).
This was a major problem the AWA had faced for years. Dominant champions like Verne Gagne and Nick Bockwinkel had wrestled (and held the world title) well into extended age. Gagne’s final reign ended when he was 58 (when he retired without losing the belt) and Bockwinkel’s ended at 53. Since Gagne and Bockwinkel had controlled the title for so long (although younger competitors like Rick Martel and Curt Hennig had also held the belt) the AWA had gotten a reputation as an older person’s promotion. Although Zbyszko was only 35 when he captured the belt, he was well into his second decade as an active wrestler and arguably the defining moment of his career (his defeat of Bruno Sammartino) had occurred nearly a decade earlier.
To be fair, several of the veterans had gas left in the tank. There was nothing wrong with Zbyszko’s in-ring skills. Ditto for Nikita Koloff or even Col. DeBeers. The worst problem was that they were still working the gimmicks they had for years and were growing stale.
Another problem turned out to be the commentary. Lee Marshall, Ralph Strangis, and Eric Bischoff had been performing commentary, but towards the end of the company the commentators appeared on a green screen in the studio, either in front of the studio’s normal background or a shot of an arena. This was another shot the company took because it was now very obvious that the commentators were no longer in the arenas.
The worst of the commentary occurred at the final tapings, when Lee Marshall and Verne Gagne did commentary. Verne was confused by several of the rules (including a rule that stated that a DQ would occur if a wrestler came off the top rope onto an opponent who was lying on the mat or elevated) and openly questioned calls that followed the rule. This served to give the AWA the reputation of not only having “old guys†in the ring, but on commentary as well.
However, the younger roster had a great deal of potential, and that potential was shown in the Trooper. The Trooper had a police officer gimmick and played it up well, even going so far as to hand out plastic badges to the kids. He had a great look and was decent in the ring. Even Gagne had questioned his decision to chase the tag team titles with DJ Peterson instead of going after Zbyszko’s world title.
One of the worst flaws was that the AWA forgot its core audience. During the days of the territories, each territory had a slightly different style. Wrestling in Memphis wasn’t the same as it was in Dallas, and they were both different than Portland. However, by 1990 the dominant games in town were the WWF and WCW. One of the AWA’s biggest mistakes (and one that would be aped by WCW nearly a decade later that would again contribute greatly to the company’s death) was the decision to start bringing in more and more “kiddie†gimmicks. The Trooper gave out plastic badges and wrote tickets to defeated opponents. Tommy Jammer was a surfer who came out to “Surfin USA.†Buck Zumhoff still came out with his boom box. Sgt. Slaughter was announced as being part of the GI Joe team. John Nord howled like a wolf. By doing this the AWA isolated its traditional audience and also began looking like a pale ripoff of the WWF.
The Team Challenge Series was another blow. In the Team Challenge Series, gimmick matches were held for the sole purpose of having a gimmick match (a mistake that large promotions are still making today). The AWA forgot that for a stipulation to mean something they needed to be held for a reason (the recent Unsanctioned match between Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho is an excellent example).
However, these weren’t just gimmick matches. These were goofy gimmick matches. A match was held where both competitors wore football pads and tried to carry a football over lines to score goals. There were bodyslam matches. And, of course, there was the infamous turkey on a pole match.
Also, the scoring system was confusing. Certain points were awarded for wins and DQs. Fans would have to keep up with the scores from week to week and most didn’t bother.
Yet throughout all of this the AWA kept plugging along and trying to turn things around. The final blow to the company was when Verne Gagne lost a court battle. He was fighting to keep some lakefront property that was finally taken by the city under eminent domain. Verne had been borrowing money to keep the company afloat and when he lost the property he lost his collateral.
This wasn’t the first time a company had run out of money and it certainly wasn’t the last. As a matter of fact, Jim Crockett had found himself in the same situation during his nationwide expansion. His company was only saved by selling it to Ted Turner.
By 1990 the AWA was on borrowed time. When they lost the ESPN contract and Gagne lost his property, time was up. The final action of the AWA was to strip Larry Zbyszko of the AWA world title when he jumped to WCW. In 1991, the company filed for bankruptcy, ending the company’s 55 year existence (dating back to the days when it was known as Tony Stecher’s Minneapolis Boxing and Wrestling Club).
