History Wrestling / AmericanWrestlingAssociation

* ICallItVera: During Baron Von Raschke's late-1980s feud with the the Sheik's (Adnan Al-Kaisse) Army, he carried around a baseball bat he called his "Louisville Sleeper."[[note]]There is a baseball bat commonly known as a "Louisville Slugger."[[/note]]

* BaldOfAwesome: [[Wrestling/SuperstarBillyGraham "Superstar" Billy Graham]] and [[Wrestling/JesseVentura Jesse "The Body" Ventura]] amongst others.

You can find more details at [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Wrestling_Association The Other Wiki]].

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: An all too common theme near the end of the AWA's life was for wrestlers and even announcers to leave with no warning after not getting paid or just seeing the writing on the wall for the promotion. Among the many sudden defections included Wrestling/SgtSlaughter (described as having "gone AWOL" when he left for the WWF) Wrestling/JerryLawler (who left with the AWA championship belt after Verne Gagne didn't pay him for ''Superclash III'') and announcer Larry Nelson (who described his sudden defection in his book ''Stranglehold'').

After Gagne's retirement in 1981, he focused the promotion on Nick Bockwinkel, a loyal employee of several years who was a mat wrestling technician like Gagne had been. Bockwinkel faced numerous challengers for the title during the early 1980s, with by far the most famous of them being spry newcomer Wrestling/HulkHogan, who took on the villanous Bockwinkel in a heated rivalry which lasted up until 1983. Unfortunately, like many promoters, problems arose when the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]] began making its national push. Chief among them was that Hulk Hogan hadn't actually been crowned the next face of the company, and quit after 1983 due to disagreements with the money he had been making in his periodic trips to Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling, and an increasing feeling of nepotism on the part of Gagne who, among other things, was pushing his own son. A massive talent exodus ensued, including such names as Wrestling/BobbyHeenan, Wrestling/JesseVentura, and Wrestling/MeanGeneOkerlund. They would bounce back however by pushing some of their rising talent like Wrestling/ScottHall, Wrestling/RickMartel, The Rockers (Wrestling/ShawnMichaels and Wrestling/MartyJannetty), [[{{Wrestling/Vader}} Leon White]], and others...but by the late 80's, {{Wrestling/WCW}} and the WWF had raided them into oblivion nearly bi-annually. The final straw for the company came in 1990, where money problems and a lapsed TV deal allowed champion Larry Zbyszko an opportunity to sign with WCW, and Gagne stripped him of the world title. With mounting losses, Gagne folded for good in 1991, though not without occasional reunion shows throughout the early 90's.

Gagne, an amateur wrestling champion who had earned a spot on the U.S. team at the 1948 Summer Olympics, had become a well-known and popular po wrestler nationally in the 1950s. He aspired to become NWA World Heavyweight Champion, but political sentiment within the NWA (whose Board of Directors decided who was world champion) prevented it. In 1960, after unsuccessfully lobbying the NWA for a title match between Gagne and the then-NWA World Heavyweight Champion Pat O'Connor, Gagne led certain territories out of the NWA, forming the AWA. The AWA unilaterally recognized O'Connor as the first AWA World Heavyweight Champion in May 1960 and gave him 90 days to defend the title against Gagne. The NWA ignored the challenge. O'Connor was stripped of the AWA title and it was awarded to Gagne on August 1960.

-->-- '''{{Tagline}} of ''AWA Championship Wrestling'' on Creator/{{ESPN}}'''

The American Wrestling Association (AWA) was an American professional wrestling promotion based in [[UsefulNotes/TwinCities Minneapolis]], Minnesota that ran from 1960 to 1991. Successfully breaking away from the Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance (NWA) in 1960, at their height they had weekly shows sold-out across the country, with the AWA having insane TV numbers in a dozen markets, being beaten only by ''Series/SixtyMinutes''. Today's promotions are often lucky to put a thousand people in a building despite being aired on major cable outlets (such as [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]]'s run on Creator/SpikeTV). A lot of this was built on the back of decades of relationships that head booker (and frequent champion) Verne Gagne had built in his time. This culminated in 1981, when a spry newcomer {{Wrestling/Hulk Hogan}} took on the villanous Nick Bockwinkel in a heated rivalry which lasted up until 1983.

Unfortunately, like many promoters, problems arose when the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]] began making its national push. Chief among them was that Hulk Hogan hadn't actually been crowned the next face of the company, and quit after 1983 due to disagreements with the money he had been making in his periodic trips to Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling, and an increasing feeling of nepotism on the part of Gagne who, among other things, was pushing his own son. A massive talent exodus ensued, including such names as Wrestling/BobbyHeenan, Wrestling/JesseVentura, and Wrestling/MeanGeneOkerlund. They would bounce back however by pushing some of their rising talent like Wrestling/ScottHall, The Rockers (Wrestling/ShawnMichaels and Wrestling/MartyJannetty), [[{{Wrestling/Vader}} Leon White]], and others...but by the late 80's, {{Wrestling/WCW}} and the WWF had raided them into oblivion nearly bi-annually. The final straw for the company came in 1990, where money problems and a lapsed TV deal allowed champion Larry Zbyszko an opportunity to sign with WCW, and Gagne stripped him of the world title. With mounting losses, Gagne folded for good in 1991, though not without occasional reunion shows throughout the early 90's.

Unfortunately, like many promoters, problems arose when the [[{{Wrestling/WWE}} WWF]] began making its national push. Chief among them was that Hulk Hogan hadn't actually been crowned the next face of the company, and quit after 1983 due to disagreements with the money he had been making in his periodic trips to Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling, and an increasing feeling of nepotism on the part of Gagne who, among other things, was pushing his own son. A massive talent exodus ensued, including such names as Wrestling/BobbyHeenan, Wrestling/JesseVentura, and Wrestling/MeanGeneOkerlund. They would bounce back however by pushing some of their rising talent like Wrestling/ScottHall, The Rockers, [[{{Wrestling/Vader}} Leon White]], and others...but by the late 80's, {{Wrestling/WCW}} and the WWF had raided them into oblivion nearly bi-annually. The final straw for the company came in 1990, where money problems and a lapsed TV deal allowed champion Larry Zbyszko an opportunity to sign with WCW, and Gagne stripped him of the world title. With mounting losses, Gagne folded for good in 1991, though not without occasional reunion shows throughout the early 90's.

* AffablyEvil: Nick Bockwinkel was much like former top star Verne Gagne, a loyal company man, agreeable if not as friendly, he even wrestled similar to Gagne. Bar Bockwinkel's ego, lack of sportsmanship, and tendency to insult them, fans liked him. Sgt. Slaughter as well, not in style so much but he was a patriot.

* AllAmericanFace: Verne Gagne was a decorated amateur wrestler before founding the AWA with multiple Big Ten and AAU championships as well as a spot on the 1948 U.S. Olympic team to his credit. Also, Wrestling/SgtSlaughter, a more militant example (obviously).
* AllAsiansKnowMartialArts: Pat Tanaka's, of the TagTeam Badd Company, RedBaron was "The Sensei." Despite the fact that he was born in UsefulNotes/{{Hawaii}}.

** With names like "Butcher" and "Mad Dog," how could the Vachons not qualify? They used to terrify audiences but their antics eventually fell into the realm of nostalgia, making them baby {{face}}s by default. Foaming mouth crazy baby faces.

* CoolMask: Double X and Dr. X had black masks

* DiabolusExMachina: Hulk Hogan beat Nick Bockwinkel for the AWA Title, despite Wrestling/BobbyHeenan cheating against him, only to have the title stripped away by AWA President Stanley Blackburn because Hogan had also cheated(to defend himself from Heenan and Bockwinkel). Hogan won the title a second time by throwing Bockwinkel over the top rope, which would be a disqualification in AWA rules except, given the way he was stripped of the title last time, was done in a no disqualification match. Unable to find an excuse for Hogan not to be champion, [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem Blackburn simply took the belt from Hogan anyway]]. The fans nearly rioted and were only pacified by Hulk Hogan giving [[ExtremeMeleeRevenge an extra beating to his tormentors.]]
* DirtyCoward: And Bobby Heenan's running from another one
* ForeignWrestlingHeel: Baron Von Raschke(Germany), Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie(Iraq), Wrestling/AbdullahTheButcher(Sudan), [[{{Wrestling/Kamala}} Kamala]] the Ugandan Giant, Wrestling/BorisZhukov(Russia), Akio Sato(Japan), Soldat Ustinov(Russia), Col. [=DeBeers=](South Africa), etc.

* HeelFaceReturn: Of a sort. Hulk Hogan was the bad guy in ''Rocky III'' but being in a movie still made the fans treat him like a superstar baby {{face}}.
* HighlyVisibleNinja - Larry Zbyszko's training partner [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W67HcAoGvHU Mr Go]] was supposed to be a ninja.

* InvincibleHero: Verne Gagne right before he retired. Gagne couldn't get NWA Champion Pat O' Connor on his show, so he broke away from the NWA, declared O' Connor the AWA Champion, and then "stripped" O' Connor of the belt for "failing" to defending it for 90 days, Gagne awarding it to himself.

* ManOfWealthAndTaste: Nick Bockwinkel, a well read man with the pay checks of a champion, and also the top heel of the AWA.
* MrFanservice: The Midnight Rockers (Wrestling/ShawnMichaels & Marty Janetty)
* NonIndicativeName: Much like Wrestling/{{WCW}}, The American Wrestling Association Women's Title was defended almost exclusively in Japan, about as far away from America as you can get. Though unlike WCW, this only happened with WSL's replacement belt that was created in 1999 after AWA closed. Wrestling/ProWrestlingZero1 eventually sent it back to the USA and then retired it after Wrestling/SherriMartel died. On other hand, almost all the active AWA belts and substitutes ended up being almost exclusively defended in Japan after WWE sued Wrestling Superstars Live.
* OneSteveLimit: Averted with [[Wrestling/JerryBlackwell Jerry "The Crusher" Blackwell]] and Reggie "Da Crusher" Lisowski. They did feud over this.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Baron Von Raschke, Col. [=DeBeers=], for your network acceptable takes on Nazism and apartheid.
* PowerStable: The Heenan Family, The Diamond Exchange

* RingOldies: The combination of the AWA style resulting in less wear and tear on the wrestlers bodies and the [[Wrestling/{{WWE}} WWF]] signing away their younger talent made the AWA especially prone to this in the 80s. Nick Bockwinkel, Verne Gagne, Da Crusher and Baron Von Raschke all had World Heavyweight or Tag Team title runs past the age of 50.
* RuleOfCool: Da Crusher's signature move, the bolo punch, ran on this.

* UnrelatedBrothers: Da Crusher and Wrestling/DickTheBruiser, though more commonly billed as cousins.

The American Wrestling Association (AWA) was an American professional wrestling promotion based in [[UsefulNotes/TwinCities Minneapolis]], Minnesota that ran from 1960 to 1991. Successfully breaking away from the Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance (NWA) in 1960, at their height they had weekly shows sold-out across the country, with the AWA having insane TV numbers in a dozen markets, being beaten only by ''Series/SixtyMinutes''. Today's promotions are often lucky to put a thousand people in a building despite being on major cable outlets (such as [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]]'s run on Creator/SpikeTV). A lot of this was built on the back of decades of relationships that head booker (and frequent champion) Verne Gagne had built in his time. This culminated in 1981, when a spry newcomer {{Wrestling/Hulk Hogan}} took on the villanous Nick Bockwinkel in a heated rivalry which lasted up until 1983.

The American Wrestling Association (AWA) was an American professional wrestling promotion based in [[UsefulNotes/TwinCities Minneapolis]], Minnesota that ran from 1960 to 1991. Successfully breaking away from the Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance (NWA) in 1960, at their height they had weekly shows sold-out across the country, with the AWA having insane TV numbers in a dozen markets, being beaten by only ''Series/SixtyMinutes''. Today's promotions are often lucky to put a thousand people in a building despite being on major cable outlets (such as [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]]'s run on Creator/SpikeTV). A lot of this was built on the back of decades of relationships that head booker (and frequent champion) Verne Gagne had built in his time. This culminated in 1981, when a spry newcomer {{Wrestling/Hulk Hogan}} took on the villanous Nick Bockwinkel in a heated rivalry which lasted up until 1983.