In Search Of.....The AWA

And now let's talk about something near and dear to my heart. The old wrestling league, the AWA. The American Wrestling Association. Run by Verne Gagne. That came to Winnipeg every third or fourth Thursday night in the '70s and the first half of the '80s. Their TV show was on CKND on Saturday night, replayed early Sunday afternoon.

And then the AWA lost Winnipeg after the AWA's last card here, on January 16, 1986, which featured NWA champion Ric Flair defending his title against former AWA champion Nick Bockwinkel. WWE took over the AWA's time slot. I'll get more into that at the end of this.

At that point, those of us living on the west side of the Red River in Winnipeg would not be able to see the AWA on our TV screens again until September 1987. That's 1.5 years. That's because our mandated cable company, Videon, could not provide TSN (The Sports Network), which aired the AWA's ESPN show, until that time.

When all of this stuff with the Rock And Wrestling Connection started happening in WWE in 1984, I was ecstatic. Celebrities like Cyndi Lauper getting involved in wrestling! National American media covering it! Ex-AWA wrestlers like Hulk Hogan becoming national media stars because of it! This was the greatest thing to happen since sliced bread! All Winnipeg was missing was a WWE TV show.

But not at the expense of the AWA!

I didn't want the AWA to be removed from our TV screens for us to get WWE in place of it!

I wanted both!

And we kind of didn't even get WWE. 

Prior to this, another Winnipeg station, CKY, aired a WWE show, or tried to, on Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. But it was mostly pre-empted for sports. I didn't get my first VCR until 1985, so that time slot was an incredibly difficult one to be home for. So I rarely saw the show. It was called Maple Leaf Wrestling (without mention of WWE, or WWF at the time) and it was hosted by Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura. This was the show that moved over to CKND a few weeks after our last AWA card in January 1986. This show was a real head-scratcher. They didn't bother to cover most goings-on in WWE. It was just squash matches with Gorilla and Jesse on commentary. And Jesse did his show, The Body Shop, but it seemed to be evergreen: nothing was said that referenced current storylines. Only a little bit was said in the commentary during the matches by Gorilla and Jesse about current storylines. The show was boring! And I wrote a huge letter to WWE's Stamford offices complaining about it.

I eventually found out this was a secondary show filmed in Canada for CRTC Canadian content regulations. The same regulations that were tightened up in 1984 that caused the AWA to start Winnipeg TV tapings, first at Norberry School, then Holy Cross School. In Winnipeg, later in 1986, we started to get the Detroit network affiliates on cable instead of the North Dakota ones (except one) and one Detroit station on  Saturday morning aired WWE's main show, WWE Championship Wrestling. Okay! HERE'S where everything happens! Hosted by Vince McMahon and Bruno Sammartino. Filled with clips of the goings-on. Eventually, in Canada we stopped getting the other show, Jesse Ventura joined the main show which was renamed WWE Superstars Of Wrestling in the United States, but still had the name Maple Leaf Wrestling in Canada for some reason, Bruno left soon after, so it became just Vince and Jesse, and the show we stopped getting, I read through magazines, replaced Jesse with Bobby Heenan and started airing in the U.S. as WWE Wrestling Challenge. (AI tells me parts of the Gorilla/Jesse version did air in the U.S., especially Jesse's show The Body Shop, on WWE Championship Wrestling and WWE Prime Time Wrestling on USA Network.)

Now, back to the AWA.

I tried doing lots of things during this 1.5-year span to try and see the AWA.

1) I subscribed to Verne Gagne's Pro Wrestling Report. I actually did this while we were still an AWA town. I only saw the TV commercial once and thought, "I've got to have this!" and frantically wrote down the address and pricing. This was during a time when you couldn't rewind broadcasts on your TV or press pause, and it must have been before I bought my first VCR in 1985. This publication was a Godsend, and helped me immensely as I tried to follow the AWA without television.

2) There was a bar that still exists today on the east side of the Red River that my friends and I went to a lot called The Marion. The cable company on the east side could provide TSN. So sometimes on Friday/Saturday nights we'd see the AWA's ESPN show on TSN on the big huge TV screen they used to have on the one wall. But there was no audio. This was a bar with music and bands playing. Hey, just the picture was better than nothing. (This also applied to Canada's music video channel Muchmusic, which started in 1984. We couldn't get that, either. Sometimes the TV was tuned to Much, again, without the sound. When our cable company on the west side could provide TSN in September 1987, they also could now provide Muchmusic, too.)

3) A new concept bar called a "peanut bar" opened up in the St. Vital suburb where I grew up, on the east side. My friend and I went on AWA night. We got them to change the channel to AWA and I saw a Stan Hansen promo, but the bar switched to a game a bunch of people at another table wanted to see. Oh, well.

4) In the summer of 1986, I went with a friend to Minneapolis to see the AWA. My first plane ride! Not my first time in the United States, as I had been to Grand Forks, ND before by car. The show was at the St. Paul Civic Center. The main event was Nick Bockwinkel vs. The Barbarian with Sheik Adnan Al-Kassie at ringside. I also saw one of those classic matches between The Midnight Rockers and Playboy Buddy Rose & Doug Somers with their manager, Sherri Martel! 

5) In 1987, I drove to Minot, ND to see the AWA at the North Dakota State Fair. But I only saw the last two matches because Michael Dukakis was having a rally when he was running for president, and his rally blocked the way into the community centre! Lots of people couldn't get in. But the card went on in the building, anyway. I don't know why they didn't just hold on. I think it was because of the fans that did manage to get in before the rally started. At least I can say I saw a presidential candidate live.

6) Also in the summer of 1987, I saw the AWA at a high school gym in Roseau, MN! Here's the story on that: There was a station in Pembina, ND, right across the border, called KNRR that is still there today. We don't get that station on cable. At the time, I could just remove my cable from the TV and KNRR would come in via antenna on channel 12. Well, sort of. There was too much snow to watch anything, but the audio came in perfectly. They aired an AWA show Saturdays at noon. One day Larry Nelson was running down upcoming cards, and he announced Roseau, MN on June 30. June 30? That's the day before Canada Day, a holiday, so I wasn't working that day. And Roseau is only 30 minutes away from the border. I also looked up when that border crossing closed. It was midnight. Good. So I went! I saw Sherri Martel, Curt Hennig, and The Nasty Boys. The card ended earlier than I thought it might, so I had plenty of time to buy stuff at a convenience store and drive to the border.

So many great memories from all of the above. 

Now let's explore why the AWA left Winnipeg.

Jack Lanza retired from wrestling in mid-1985 and stepped into a backstage producing and agent role. During late 1985, while still handling promotional duties for the AWA in Winnipeg, Lanza was approached by Vince McMahon to join WWE as a roadmap agent and road producer. At the time, Lanza had been working on securing a broader national TV deal via Winnipeg's production setup at Holy Cross Gym for TSN. However, when negotiations broke down between Verne Gagne and TSN over distribution fees, Lanza recognized the AWA's declining leverage. Lanza formally accepted WWE's offer around late November/December 1985, and Vince McMahon handed Lanza the local promotional role and operational control of the Winnipeg market. Because Lanza held the keys to local venue scheduling and station relationships in Winnipeg, his departure left the AWA without Winnipeg TV time, as Lanza had now effectively made Winnipeg a WWE town. However, he let the AWA have one last show on January 16, 1986, probably because he didn't want the Christmas season to interfere with his WWE plans in Winnipeg. Without a local point-man right before the planned December TV tapings, those tapings were cancelled. For the last AWA card, the AWA brought in Ric Flair to defend his NWA title against Nick Bockwinkel. Stan Hansen had just defeated Rick Martel for the AWA title, so their planned match had Hansen defending. The TV show consisted of longer promotion segments with Ken Resnick and Wally Karbo sitting at a table, since there were no new TV matches and they had to rerun old matches and use matches that had been taped but never aired.

Now, the AWA could have kept coming here by taking the WWE's now-former CKY time slot. But first we'll discuss the arena situation.

Historically, AWA protected its territory via local arena lockouts - the Winnipeg Arena had an exclusivity clause preventing outside promotions from running 30 days before or after an AWA event. Winnipeg independent promoter Tony Condello worked locally to challenge and reduce that window down to 1-2 weeks, opening the door for WWE to book the Winnipeg Arena. Originally, the Winnipeg Free Press reported that Condello got involved in this because he was planning on bringing in WWE to compete at Winnipeg Arena with the AWA. Condello had already run one WWE card at Winnipeg Convention Centre in 1984 off of TV time he had with a WWE show on CKY Saturday afternoons. It drew 2000 people but that was when WWE was just starting to expand nationally. So the Convention Centre, which had a capacity of between 5000 and 6000 people, was a safe venue at that time. Although what would not change is that his Saturday afternoon TV time slot was poor, due to the show being pre-empted by sports half the time. Condello operated as an independent broker rather than an exclusive agent with a binding long-term promoter contract for WWE. When Jack Lanza resigned from the AWA and jumped to WWE, Vince McMahon handed Lanza the local promotional role and operational control of the Winnipeg market. WWE's agreements with local promoters typically featured flexibility or short-term booking arrangements, allowing McMahon to bypass Condello in favor of Lanza, who had decades of established ties with local media and venue operations.

But that didn't mean Condello could also switch and go with the AWA: The primary barrier to placing AWA on CKY was Verne Gagne's refusal to compromise on syndication rights fees. During 1985-1986, WWE offered TV stations slickly produced content (often at minimal cost or via barter) to secure prime Saturday slots, whereas Gagne consistently demanded higher compensation for AWA broadcasts. As well, the WWE show CKND was to start airing, the same one CKY had aired, was produced in Canada. CKY had no incentive to take on the AWA's cost structure, including worrying about local TV tapings (that might not even air when the show was pre-empted due to sports), or instead having to deal with an old-school show consisting of American TV tapings (no Canadian content except for local interviews) when WWE was dominating TV ratings across Canada.

Also, Gagne viewed Condello’s efforts to lift the 30-day arena restriction as an act of hostility against the AWA. By the time AWA realized it needed a replacement for Lanza in Winnipeg, the bridge with Condello was already burned. Gagne attempted to run the January 16, 1986 show directly without local infrastructure, but after that, without local TV since CKY was not interested, future 1986 dates became financially unviable. (Which means The Midnight Rockers JUST MISSED the opportunity to come to Winnipeg every third or fourth Thursday. And look at the career Shawn Michaels has had. Today, he runs WWE's NXT brand.)

Ironically, Condello DID actually bring the AWA back for two poorly-attended Winnipeg Arena cards around 1988/1989. By then, the AWA was in severe financial distress and willing to accept significantly reduced terms, leading Gagne to finally work with local promoters like Condello. However, by that time, the WWE had already locked down the market and captured the local fanbase. Even with Condello's better CKY timeslot: By then CKY had given Condello a Sunday 5:00 p.m. timeslot for whatever wrestling he was doing. Condello tried nine months' worth of promotion to bring Jim Crockett Promotions to Winnipeg for a show that drew 2000 people. It was after that that he went with the AWA. I can't remember what was on the TV show leading up to the first card, or what could be considered Canadian or American. After the first card, the TV show was heavily local interviews done after that card promoting the next card. The first card drew 2000; the second card drew 800. And that was it for the AWA. Interestingly, a journalism student asked the Winnipeg Free Press if he could do a writeup on that second card. They said yes. That student's name was Chris Irvine. Yes, it was Chris Jericho. After that, Condello used the timeslot for his own promotion, IWA Hardcore Wrestling, which eventually featured Jericho and Don Callis as The Natural.

Pro Wrestling Comments

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE TWELFTH EDITION OF "THE BEAU ZONE" ON THE HARD ROCK HEROES WEBSITE FROM NOVEMBER 2008 TO FEBRUARY 2010.

It looks like Vickie Guerrero on Smackdown has made something of the catch phrase, "EXCUSE ME!" Don Callis as Cyrus in the original ECW tried, but he didn't make his entrance often enough before the TNN show was pulled.

Speaking of Don Callis, the act of The Brian Kendrick and Ezeikel on Smackdown seems to be someone's ripoff of Don Callis as The Natural when he had Bad News Allen as his bodyguard in Tony Condello's IWA Hardcore, which was the last thing Allen did before retiring, and the last thing Callis did as The Natural before heading off to WWE as The Jackyl. Allen dressed up in that same white outfit Ezeikel wears.

And speaking of Vickie, when she punished referee Charles Robinson for his conduct, I guess she was remembering when J.J. Dillon replaced Ric Flair with him as acting president of WCW on Nitro from Fargo, North Dakota in April 1999 (I was there) after Roddy Piper had Flair committed to the insane asylum the previous week in Gainesville, Florida. (Remember Robinson and Flair talking on split-screen?)

And speaking of Flair, on Raw, when he and Chris Jericho were going to go outside to fight, I was wondering if Jericho might get locked out again like he did on Nitro when he had his security team, including Ralphus, and he locked himself out of the building and couldn't get back in. In the ring, Wrath was watching all this on the screen and figured if Jericho couldn't go to him, he'd go to Jericho. So he left the ring, went backstage, went outside, and they had their match outside. (FUN FACT: The bar First Avenue in Minneapolis is where Prince filmed Purple Rain. Years later, they built the Target Center kitty-corner from First Avenue. When Nitro was at Target Center, there was another match where Jericho and his opponent (forgot who) wrestled outside into the street and I could see First Avenue behind them. Cool!)

I heard a comment from an audience member on MTV Live on MTV Canada when they were talking about colleges and universities: "Well, you know the saying, if you can hold a fork, you can go to York." I chuckled as I remembered Trish Stratus went to York.

WWE has released Stevie Richards, but here's something I had written about him before he was released that no one ever says: The reason WWE fans don't react to Stevie Richards is because they don't get why Steven Richards of the Right To Censor looks like that. Now, I don't remember myself, but what was the angle to end the Right To Censor? I have a feeling there wasn't one. So WWE just dropped it and the leader, Steven Richards, grows his hair again and inexplicably slowly morphs into what original-ECW fans know as Stevie Richards. Without any promos. And so the fans are confused. Ever since the Right To Censor ended, WWE fans just don't know what to make of this man. Can he even be salvaged in WWE? It's amazing he's even still there.

Regarding the May 9 and May 16, 2008 Smackdowns, where they had the winner of the battle royal become the new World Heavyweight Champion: Why couldn't Teddy Long (in Vickie Guerrero's absence) or Michael Cole/Mick Foley bring up the following points: 1) If Edge was medically cleared to wrestle during the battle royal, couldn't they have brought up the fact that he was supposed to wrestle and defeat someone in a qualifying match first? If there is no time for such a match because the battle royal is taking place, that's not fair, it's in favor of Edge, and it's something the announcers could easily have brought up as heat on Edge. Instead, no one brought that point up. 2) And if Edge is going to run out into that battle royal, how is it that he wins just by spearing Batista off the ring apron? I thought that the way you eliminate anyone in a battle royal is by throwing them over the top rope. Edge did not throw Batista over the top rope. He just pushed him from the ring apron onto the floor. Batista should have gotten back in the ring. He was not eliminated. Now, WWE could have still done all this and have the announcers deliberately not bring it up until after the match, which in this case would be on next week's show, but the problem with doing all this is that, although it puts heat on Edge, it portrays the WWE's referees that worked that battle royal as a bunch of incompetents.

Pro Wrestling Comments

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE FIFTH EDITION OF "THE BEAU ZONE" ON THE HARD ROCK HEROES WEBSITE FROM APRIL TO AUGUST 2005.

Remember the Breakaway Club at the Polo Park Inn, when the wrestlers would go there to hang out after the card? They're just in the room, among the fans. None of this Sunfest/CITI FM VIP area crap. (God, I HATED seeing that VIP room with a roof, places to sit and fridges right there in front at Sunfest, just flaunting it right in front of the PAYING fans who have to put up with the elements - I hope that stupid VIP area was why Sunfest died - a VIP area should be ten miles from the stage so that anyone in it needs binoculars to see the band - give the PAYING FANS the damn benches, fridges, and a roof over their head. If I was invited in the VIP area during the Hard Rock Heroes years, I would have checked it out, but probably not stayed there long, as I would have been embarrased to be in there.) So when Chris Jericho's band Fozzy came to town that first time at The Colesseum in December 2003 and Joe Aiello on CITI FM's No Holds Barred said WWE wrestlers might be at the gig because it took place after that night's WWE card, I truly, sincerly thought it would be a throwback to the Breakaway Club days with the wrestlers just in the bar among the people. I never dreamed in my wildest dreams they would be sequestered into a damn upstairs VIP area. I sure felt like a peon that night, little old me, JUST A PAYING FAN. So what would it take to bring back the days of the Breakaway Club? And just where DO the wrestlers go after the card now? Is it really like the article in the WWE Mag that said Kane reads Shakespeare novels after the card, etc., and no one goes to bars anymore? I wondered to myself if the wrestlers would be going to the Tijuana Yacht Club when that place first opened, but when I went there after the first applicable WWE card, no wrestlers showed up. So where are they? DO they just go out in public anymore like they used to at the Breakaway Club? Or are they just too big for that now? And I don't mean that sarcasticly - ARE WWE superstars more like Elvis and Britney now, that they would get really hounded in public, moreso than they ever did at the Breakaway Club? I e-mailed Cyrus at the time that Fozzy gig happened to tell him maybe this would make a good future subject for his Winnipeg Sun column, but alas, he never approached it, and now he doesn't do a column anymore.

Speaking of Cyrus, I had been drooling at the thought of upcoming stories in the Stanley Weston wrestling mags on Don Callis taking control of TNA (a cover story with Don on the cover, perhaps?), but alas, I guess that happened, along with Don suddenly quitting the company a bit later, in such a time period that allowed all of that to occur between issues. I had been hoping Don's taking control of TNA would be right before their deadline, hence all the cover stories. Since that wasn't the case, the info was just buried in their news tidbits with the addition that Don had left the company for "a full-time job in his hometown." Oh, well.

So if Lita's baby really was Kane's, but Matt Hardy had won that night's match on Raw, would the baby have been (or still have been) named Matt Hardy, Version 2?

I guess a couple of weeks after it happened, JBL got one of those photo radar tickets in the mail from Eddie Guerrero driving his limo. If that had happened here for our Smackdown taping, would he have gotten Bob Holliday to pay the ticket?

Pro Wrestling Comments

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE SECOND EDITION OF "THE BEAU ZONE" ON THE HARD ROCK HEROES WEBSITE FROM JUNE TO SEPTEMBER 2004.

Speaking of The Apprentice, as I was above, here's my idea for a new reality show: It's kind of like The Apprentice, only instead of Donald Trump, you have The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase, and he makes the teams do all the Fear Factor stuff. When someone asks what these things have to do with running a business, he tells them to shut up and has Virgil beat them up and belittle them. At the end, everyone goes to the board room. The door opens and Ted walks in. Already sitting on his side of the table is Virgil on one side of him and IRS on the other side. Ted then proceeds to fire everyone. It'll be tremendous.

Before Trish Stratus turned heel, I had this idea for how she should turn: Picture a tag team match: Chris Jericho and Trish Stratus vs. Christian and a mystery female partner, who will turn out to be.....Chris' wife Jessica!!! Trish will scream, "You have a WIFE?" and the three of them will triple team Chris. Chris should now be the heel and the other three the faces, but in WWE logic, since you can't have three faces ganging up on someone, the announcers will feel sorry for Jericho, saying he doesn't deserve this kind of triple-team treatment, and will sway Chris into being the face and the other three the heels. Trish will start swearing and smoking in addition to wearing more stilettos to reflect her new heel character. It'll all also be tremendous.

Speaking of Chris Jericho, how about that week on Raw where he comes out and talks about how excited the crowd is to see Canada's greatest athlete - you mean Angelo Mosca was there? And don't say Gene Kiniski - Mosca's the one who won that feud with Kiniski in 1977 at the Winnipeg Arena to determine who Canada's greatest athlete is.

Before this gets too old, as if it isn't already, remember the NHB card Joe and Cyrus put on at The Colesseum (now Cowboys)? If you were there, you'll remember the ring entrance music was awful. I hope they get that fixed for next time. What does Cyrus' entrance have to do with Iron Maiden's "Run To The Hills?" Usually it's the TNN ECW theme that's played for him. And the DJ didn't have that Deep Purple song (forgot the name of it, but I believe it's from the Perfect Strangers album) for Shane Douglas' entrance, either. By the way, playing that song was a nice touch at the previous show at Coyote's when Shane was there, as Joe & Cyrus apparently figured out Shane's WCW music sounded exactly like that song. Maybe if they get DDP here they can play Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" for his music.

Someone should start a new indie wrestling league called MFW - Middle Finger Wrestling. Nice ring to it, eh?

Hey, how about a battle royal where the winner gets to be called "The Coach?" The participants will be John Tolos, Johnathan Coachman, Scott Taylor, and Jeff Allan (whatever happened to him?). I always thought it was funny, but frustrating, that here are two guys opposite each other on the radio calling themselves "The Coach" and no one ever commented on air how funny (as in funny/weird) that was. Of course, the competition doesn't exist, so neither CITI FM (Taylor) nor whatever 97 called themselves at the time (Allan) would acknowledge it. But no one in the Winnipeg press made those comments, either. It could be because of rock radio's low reputation, but that's another story for another day.