[Pro Wrestling] The Territorial wars of the 80s- from tragedy to triumph

[Alstein]

This is my idea for a pro wrestling timeline. This is the first part, with a fairly simple and tragic POD.
I really hope nothing in here is too OOC, but we really don't know a whole lot about how Greg Gagne would be behind the scenes, and Vince is going to have some really crap luck (which to me is the only way you can not have him win- New York money is hard to beat)

The November 27,1982 broadcast of AWA All-Star Wrestling

This is Gene Okurland, with some tragic news to report. Right before Thanksgiving, AWA champion Nick Bockwinkel and Verne Gagne met to patch up their differences over the years, but the private plane they were riding in crashed right outside of St.Paul, Minnesota, there were no survivors. We now have this statement from Verne's son, Greg Gagne.


"I am saddened by the loss of my father, who was not only my mentor in wrestling, but in life, and was taken from us way too soon. I also offer condolences to Darlene, Johnna, and Nikki, Nick's family, who are suffering the loss of a great champion and family man. He may not have always been the most popular in the ring, but he was always a good man behind the scenes, and helped many a person. That said, I have to consider the future of the American Wrestling Association, and as such, I need to retire from active in-ring competition to make sure we continue to deliver the best product available for the fans, as that would be Verne's wish, and that will be what I will proclaim as the Verne Gagne Cup. It will be a celebration of the wrestling Verne wanted, and this year it will be a weight-limited event at 220 pounds, and the winner will be proclaimed the AWA Light Heavyweight Champion. I am also vacating the AWA Tag Team championship, with the understanding of my longtime partner and friend Jim Brunzell, who will be the first entrant in the Verne Gagne Cup.

As for the Championship of the World, the main event that night will be a match for the vacant world championship. One man will be the current #1 contender, the Incredible Hulk Hogan. The other man will be selected in an emergency meeting of the AWA Championship committee"

The remainder of the broadcast was highlight reels of Verne Gagne's career, with the following week being highlight reels of Nick Bockwinkel's career

On the following week's broadcast, the eight participants for the Verne Gagne Cup were scheduled to be: Mike Graham, Jim Brunzell, Steve Wright, Dos Caras, Bret Hart, Mr.Electricity Steve Regal, Buck Zumhofe, and Bill Dundee.

It was later found out that Ric Flair had asked the NWA if he could be Hogan's opponent as Soldier Field for the AWA Championship, but the NWA would not let him lose to Hogan- which was understandable especially considering he had just won the belt at Starcade the day before the accident. The opponent for Hulk Hogan was announced as a man who had an upcoming title shot cancelled by the accident, Jerry "The King" Lawler. The card itself was going to be held Feburary 6,1983, and was going to be held at the Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan and broadcast on closed-circuit television nationwide.

Future interviews and reports revealed that Steve Wright was offered and volunteered by Otto Wanz as a show of support for Verne and the business relationship between the Catch Wrestling Association in Germany and the AWA. Bill Dundee was part of the package with Lawler, and Greg was perfectly fine with that as he knew Bill could wrestle the technical style demanded. Dos Caras was suggested by Hector Guerrero, who was unfortunately clearly over the weight limit to the point it couldn't be kayfabed. Bret Hart was invited in, because he was interested in Calgary becoming a full-fledged AWA territory alongside Memphis, and there was someone up in Calgary who he felt would make a great future opponent for Hogan. The idea at the time was also for Lawler to eventually get the AWA Championship briefly in Memphis before dropping it back to Hogan a short time later.

Greg's idea of a light heavyweight division was also partially a failsafe- he knew he had to give Hogan the belt, the fans were clamoring for it, but he wanted to keep Verne's vision of wrestling alive, and he felt the best way to do it was to have a light heavyweight division that he would give time and attention, and an emphasis on a technical style of wrestling. While he wanted a more modern product, having had differences with his father on the matter, he wanted to also keep Verne's style of wrestling alive, and he felt the Cup being an annual event of technical skill would be a great way to do this as well. He already had plans for the following year to be an openweight event. Bill Dundee was brought in not just for the tournament, but to help with the booking as well, alongside Bobby Heenan.

Match Results for Feburary 6, 1983- Verne Gagne Cup. Attendance: 11,874
Match 1: Jim Brunzell pin Steve Regal
Match 2: Steve Wright sub Buck Zumhofe
Match 3: Bill Dundee pin Mike Graham
Match 4: Dos Caras sub Bret Hart
Match 5: Steve Wright pin Jim Brunzell
Match 6: Bill Dundee pin Dos Caras
Match 7: The East-West Connection (Adrian Adonis and Jesse Ventura) pin the Fabulous Ones (Stan Lane and Steve Keirn) to win the vacant AWA Tag Team championship
Match 8: Bill Dundee pin Steve Wright for the AWA Light Heavyweight Championship
Match 9: Hulk Hogan pin Jerry Lawler for the vacant AWA Heavyweight Championship

The show was very well regarded by most critics of pro wrestling, with Bret Hart and Steve Wright being viewed as standouts. The Hogan-Lawler was Lawler doing heel shtick to perfection, with Hogan overcoming it all and dropping the leg on Lawler. Hogan signed a 3 year contract with the AWA in order to win the Championship. This did cause some friction with Giant Baba , as Hogan was considered a New Japan guy, and Hogan insisted he be allowed to wrestle for New Japan. This eventually led to the fracturing of All Japan with the AWA and towards the NWA, and eventually started New Japan's relationship with the AWA.

Notes:
the formula for the AWA right now is Hogan-style matches on top, technical-style wrestling in the light heavyweight division, and the old guard in the tag division (though that will change soon)
The booking committee is Greg Gagne, Bobby Heenan, Bill Dundee (who had success as a booker). The tag team division was hurt by Greg's retirement while champion, but I decided to do that because I think Greg understood he wasn't considered that legitimate by the fans, and I think he would want to concentrate on the business side full-time. Dundee also wanted to be a full-time booker, but never could do that in Memphis due to the influence of Lawler and Jerry Jarrett.

The idea for the cup was based partially on the death of Antonio Pena, and how AAA has a PPV in their founder's honor. The tournament itself will remain unique because of a lack of rulebreaking- it's a showcase of technical wrestling- even if heels tend to win, it's because of their skill not cheating- though they'll cheat the rest of the year. This is explained as respect for Verne's influence.

The AWA has "territories" right now in Memphis, Calgary- as well as their main base in the midwest, Denver, Vegas, and California. They are on semi-friendly terms for now with the NWA, and a strained relationship with All Japan, though they did invite Dos Caras to the Verne Gagne Cup through All Japan's office. They are also on Friendly terms with the CWA over in Austria, which is why they received Steve Wright (who is most famous for being Alex Wright's dad, but was a fine technician himself- had some great matches with Marty Jones over in England).

I wanted to replace Steve Regal (no relation to WWE Regal) and Buck Zumhofe with better talent, but I wanted to keep at least half regular AWA talent. Dundee was capable of wrestling a technical style even if he mostly brawled in Memphis.

I mentioned the bit about Flair because I could see Flair having some real sympathy, being that he was in a similar plane crash that almost ended his career a few years earlier, and he got his start with Verne.

 

[Son of Sphinks]

While as a wrestling fan, I would hate to have seen the loss of such territorial stalwarts as Verne and Bockwinkle, Hogan as the champion made sense. If Greg was able to keep a tight working relationship with the folks in Memphis, a long running Hogan-Lawler feud might serve the use as the Hogan-Piper feud did for Vince IRL. It would also allow the top talent from Memphis (Jimmy Hart, Dutch Mantel, Dundee, Wayne 'the Honky Tonk Man' Farris, and eventually Randy Savage) a shot at a national spotlight. Add in if Greg cultivates the existing relationship at the time with Southwest Championship Wrestling, you might also get Tully Blanchard and Gino Hernandez, a tag team that could give the East-West Connection a run for their money. Then again, if Calgary is in the fold, seeing the British Bulldogs against Ventura and Adonis would be a "Main event in any arena around the world."

 

[Unknown]

Yeah, one of Verne's biggest mistakes was not putting the title on Hogan and milking that cash cow until it ran dry; his refusal to give Hogan the title (and a share of his merch sales, IIRC) led to Hogan's going to the WWF, where Vince McMahon didn't make the same mistake...

Another reason Vince McMahon succeeded (and it's an understated one) was the fact that he was located in the New York City tristate area (Stamford was in this area, IIRC), which is the major media capital of the United States of America...

 

[Alstein]

I'm working on part 2 right now- which is going to cover Vince's response. You're absolutely right the New York money is huge, and the AWA is still an underdog even with Hogan. Vince is just going to go in a different direction. Vince is going to crush someone else first- and it's over a wrestler Vince wanted for years but took forever to get.

As for Lawler- it's a short term program. Lawler wanted to be world champ, but he never wanted to be a world champion. He liked staying in Memphis too much and the money and power was great- Jerry was the King, and Memphis was his kingdon. A big reason Bill Dundee moved over to the AWA was a chance to book, but also to get away from Jerry Lawler and to be a centerpiece of the AWA's Light Heavyweight division- Dundee did have a huge ego himself. Light Heavyweights are going to be a big deal in the AWA, which alongside some of the AWA's other accidental arrangements, are going to be a boon to the AWA down the road.

One thing Hogan's signing with the AWA is going to do- is speed up the territorial wars. Vince thinks the AWA is trying to beat him at his own game. Also no Hogan means none of Hogan's AWA buddies jump ship either.

 

[Alstein]

WWF- June 1983

Vince McMahon was fuming at the news that Hogan turned down the money to go to the WWF. He understood the reason, there was a real opportunity, but he didn't care. He knew he needed another plan if he was to go national- the Midwest seemed shut off at this time. Ric Flair just wasn't the right person in his eyes for a national expansion, but he did have another idea- there were some boys down in Texas he always liked- though he knew the negotiations were going to be tough. Fritz was always pretty shrewd, and his territory was doing really well. Hearing about a potential TV deal for the AWA also convinced Vince he had to act, the AWA had to be trying to beat him and go national! He had a plan of his own in that regard, the USA network needed programming.

Today was going to be a busy day, first a phonecall to Bristol, and then one to Dallas. Vince was really unsure which one was going to go worse.

The first call was to Bristol- ESPN wanted Vince to pay to get his show on the air. At least the USA network was willing to pay him a little bit. National TV is National TV, and while Vince would rather be on ESPN, there had to be standards- why pay for something when you can be paid for it? He'll just have to the USA show the best show on the air.

The second call to Fritz- well, as bad as the ESPN call went, Fritz was even worse. Bundy was already in the process of being cycled out by Fritz, so all Fritz asked for was a couple of Andre dates, and Vince had no problem with that. The problem came in trying to get Fritz's boys to come over- Fritz wanted a share of Titan in response for that! Talks gradually turned from just getting Kerry or David as champ into something bigger- the complete buyout of the promotion of World Class into a full-fledged part of the WWF. Fritz wanted 20%, Vince was not going to give up any control. Vince understood where Fritz was coming from, he would have asked for more actually, but right now he couldn't afford to wait. He had to do something, and fast in order to make a splash.

He had made up his mind, he was going to bury Fritz in the ground- but make sure he got a soft landing- he still wanted those Von Erich boys in the fed. He already had his mind up on who he needed to get- if you can't get the Von Erichs, well- Bundy was already his- and he can start building him up. He looked at the World Class roster. Gary Hart never had that much interest in working in New York- and never stuck around that long. There was a young up and comer by the name of Iceman Parsons, and Vince was looking at Koko Ware- maybe those two could be a team- the Tag Team division needed some fresh blood. Vince wanted to aim for the heel side mostly- as Fritz couldn't turn his boys heel at all. Kabuki was also a name that could be had, and fairly cheaply- as he was on the down side of his career. Wouldn't have to push him too much, just stick him with a manager and let him be used to build up some new stars.

That said, when you're talking about heels in Dallas- there are three names that had to be said, and those names were obvious to all, the Fabulous Freebirds. Vince was going to get them no matter the price- and he had an idea of what to do with them. Lou Albano had just shot a video with Cyndi Lauper, and he had plans to follow up on that anyways- why not have Lou bring in the Biggest Rock-n-Rollers in Wrestling. The only downside is he didn't know if any of them could be champion on their own- it just didn't seem right for the champ to have blood brothers like that, but that's an issue that could be worried about down the road- he knew the Birds would make him a lot of money in connection with Lauper, and he just needed to find the perfect foils- but it was a story that could write itself, so that could wait a bit while the Birds were being built up.

The final thing he started to do was bring some shows down to Texas, and bringing syndication down to Dallas, Texas once he started to get the Dallas stars into the WWF- that was some TV he was willing to pay for.

Vince scowled a bit as he salivated at the idea of Bundy taking the belt off of Backlund- Vince never really considered Backlund that much of a draw- he just wished he had Kerry to be the champ. He had his plan to get the belt off of Backlund, though it was going to take a few months- the Iron Sheik already agreed to head up to New York once his Mid-Atlanic run was done- and it would be easy to turn Slaughter face against the Sheik.


The NWA in 1983:

The NWA in 1983 had a successful year, capped by the first ever Starcade event, where Ric Flair defeated Harley Race to once again become NWA World Champion. They largely stayed out of the interpromotional warfare between the AWA and WWF, though they did send Harley Race and the Iron Sheik several times out to Dallas to help prop Fritz up some, though it didn't work for long.

Starrcade Card
the Assassins pin Rufus Jones/Bugsy McGraw
Kevin Sullivan and Mark Lewin (with Gary Hart) sub Scott McGhee and Johnny Weaver
Tommy Rich CO Abdullah the Butcher
Bob Orton Jr/Dick Slater pin Mark Youngblood/Wahoo McDaniel
Charlie Brown (aka Jimmy Valiant) DQ One Man Gang(c) in TV title match
Greg Valentine def Roddy Piper in a dog collar match for US Champ. Roddy Piper left for the WWF after
Rick Steamboat/Jay Youngblood def the Briscos for Tag Team Championship
Ric Flair sub Harley Race for NWA World Championship


Notes:

this storyline is mostly going to be AWA-centric, so kinda cursory going over the WWF stuff right now- though as the promotional wars heat up that will change, and the NWA really hasn't been touched. The big change is the One Man Gang replaced the Great Kabuki in the TV title match.


Vince always wanted the Von Erichs. He always considered them highly, and even featured them in his magazines despite not working for him for years. Even though Vince is going to do everything possible to bury the World Class promotion, he's going to consider it business and part of his plan to go national- it was his plan B if he didn't get Hogan.

I picked targets I think Vince would go after.

One thing that is butterflied away is the 5-count from Bundy- that was a Bill Watts idea, and Bundy never goes to Mid-South now. The 5-count gimmick will now go to Dr.Death Steve Williams after the Oklahoma Stampede.

 

[Alstein]

The AWA in the rest of 1983-business was booming as Hulk was drawing record crowds, mostly facing the likes of King Kong Brody, Jerry Lawler, Crusher Blackwell, Mr.Saito, and Dr.D David Schultz. Hulk did drop the title briefly July 4th to Jerry Lawler in Memphis, winning it back a month later August 5th in Las Vegas. This was a thank-you for Lawler's help after Verne's death, and as a way to keep the Memphis talent pipeline open. Lawler was a weird case, as he was the face in Memphis, but was a heel in the rest of the AWA- which made it difficult to use Lawler all that often, which suited Lawler fine as he preferred to stay in Memphis. Hogan improved as a technical wrestler as well, as he knew the AWA titleholder was expected to be a strong technician- while he would never be the league of a Flair or a Bockwinkel, he worked as hard as he did in Japan.

The Light Heavyweight championship, held by Bill Dundee, was defended frequently, which kept Dundee out of Memphis, but he was starting to take a liking to Minnesota, though he still did the occasional Memphis super show and kept a home in Memphis. He eventually lost the championship to Eric Embry in November. The Light Heavyweight division was fairly stocked, as it was the most prominant platform for lighter wrestlers in the US, which Greg Gagne pushed hard- with many saying it was because of his own size. Stars like Bret Hart, Buck Zumhofe, Ricky Morton, and Bill Dundee even defended the championship once in Japan against Tiger Mask.

The Tag Championship did not fare as well, the tag division being fairly thin. The only real contenders since the High Flyers were disbanded by Greg's retirement were imports from Memphis- largely the Fabulous Ones and occasionally the Rock N Roll Express.
Unfortunately, Jesse Ventura's career ended in August 1983 when he suffered a career-ending neck injury against the Rock N Roll Express, disbanding the team. Adrian Adonis headed to the WWF shortly after, and Jesse Ventura ended up a TV announcer alongside Wally Karbo. The Fabs defended mostly against veteran heel teams like Crusher Blackwell and Ken Patera, or the LeDuc Brothers. Greg knew he needed an influx of talent, and saw an interesting team down in Georgia. He sent Heenan down there as well to manage- as Heenan didn't really want to wrestle much due to injuries, and Heenan and Dundee were not always getting along- they had differing ideas on what would work. Greg decided to put his trust in Bill Dundee and make him the guy in charge of booking, though Greg would continue to have final input on the light heavyweights- it was a general rule you wouldn't book yourself in the AWA.

In September, negotiations between the AWA and ESPN were completed, and ESPN was going to show one hour of AWA wrestling starting after the Super Bowl. The Verne Gagne Cup would start and cover the first month, then it was going to move to the Showboat Casino, Mid-South Coliseum, and other arenas as a taped studio show.


It was announced in November that the Verne Gagne Cup this time would be a heavyweight, not a junior heavyweight tournament, and that the champion, Hulk Hogan, would compete in the event and try to show how the sport of wrestling should be portrayed. Hogan had improved on his technical ability, and while he was still considered more of a strongman than a wrestler- he was going to show that he can win against the best technicians in the world in their own style. Unfortunately, in a match in December against King Kong Brody, Hogan suffered a torn ligament in his knee. Hogan knew he would need surgery, but worked in a very limited fashion, especially since the Gagne Cup was being filmed for ESPN to start the new AWA wrestling show that would appear on ESPN.


The 1984 Gagne Classic lineup- Jan.29th 1984.

Hulk Hogan- injured
Bad News Allen
Chris Adams
Brad Rheingans
Rick Martel
Curt Hennig
Terry Funk
Hector Guerrero

Chris Adams was up from World Class on loan, as Baron von Raschke was working for Fritz (along with the Spoiler) doing a claw vs claw angle with Kerry and Kevin Von Erich. Ric Flair was still scheduled to transition the belt over to David Von Erich, but he died a few days later in Japan. A very young, promising wrestler by the name of Shawn Michaels also moved up north to compete in the Light Heavyweight division.

Bobby Heenan also left the territory for Georgia, as part of an exchange with the Roadies heading up to the AWA.

Results:

Bad News Allen beat Hulk Hogan in two minutes after Hogan suffered a knee injury. This was the kayfabe reason for Hogan's surgery and why he was stripped of the title in March (after the tapings ended on ESPN).
Chris Adams beat Brad Rheingans in a very good match.
Rick Martel advanced on decision against Curt Hennig after the 20 minute time limit expired. This was shown as a very even match with a split decision (the Gagne Cup handled all draws by decision)
Terry Funk beat Hector Guerrero in a longish squash match

Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Eddie Gilbert won the Junior Heavyweight Title by pinning Eric Embry with a roll-up.

Semis:
Bad News Allen defeated Chris Adams with a ashi-garami, the same move he used to injure Hulk Hogan, after Chris Adams whiffed on a superkick. A lot of judo techniques were used during this match, as both men were accomplished judokas as well as wrestlers.

Rick Martel defeated Terry Funk just before the time limit. Terry Funk dominated most of the match, and then started to stall a bit, trying to get a decision, but it cost him.

Tag Title: The Fabulous Ones lost the tag titles to the Road Warriors in a 3 minute squash match. The Roadies were already starting to get some cheers, as the Fabulous Ones were just not as over in Minneapolis as they were in Memphis.

Finals: Bad News Allen defeated Rick Martel in about 8 minutes. They played up how exhausted Martel was,and how fresh Bad News was. Bad News Allen was being groomed to be the next champion and dragon for Hogan to slay, and since Hogan suffered the knee injury, they decided the best thing to do was to build up Bad News as a dominant champ for a few months while Hulk recovered. In fitting with the tradition of the event, Bad News, while normally a heel, did not cheat and was respectful enough during the event, though the next week on TV he did plenty of bragging about breaking Hogan's leg and that pro wrestling allows moved banned in judo like the ashi-garami, and he showed why the move was banned.

They announced that in February 12th on a live broadcast that Hulk would have to be stripped of the AWA championship due to suffering a torn ACL as he was going to be out for six months. As the winner of the Verne Gagne Cup and the man who defeated Hogan, Bad News Allen would be guaranteed a spot. The other spot was going to be determined at next week's Battle Royal, which was won by Rick Martel. Feburary 26th, Bad News Allen won the championship by defeating Rick Martel on national television , submitting him with the ashi-garami.

Also during the Feburary 26th show, the AWA announced their plans for a big annual show, after seeing the success of Starcade by the NWA. It was going to be called Super Clash- and it was going to be held September 1st (which was incidentally the week before the NFL started and a holiday weekend) at Soldier Field in Chicago. The first match was announced, which was going for be for a new ESPN Television Wrestling Championship. The participants would be decided in a sixteen man tournament to be held over the next 14 weeks on ESPN.

Bad News Allen proved to be a surprisingly strong draw as a heel champ in Hogan's absence, defending mostly against Rick Martel and Curt Hennig when they weren't facing off against the Road Warriors, occasionally Ken Patera and Dutch Mantell as well.


A couple of newsbits did it from the other organizations around the same time: the first one was a car accidant involving Tully Blanchard, who reportedly suffered nerve damage in his arm when it was stabbed by a fan. The second was the face turn of Sgt.Slaughter in the WWF after a confrontation with Ivan Koloff.



Notes:

Chris Adams was bouncing around at this time, and the AWA didn't mind using one-shots and trying them out in the Gagne Cup. Chris Adams did well and will be picked up by the AWA in the future. Might even have a familiar tag team partner. Terry Funk was also a one-shot, and brought in for his credibility as a wrestling champion, not the middle-aged and crazy Funk we see later.

World Class is struggling some at this point, but it's still doing well enough despite the WWE's attempts to wreck it. The Von Erichs are that big a draw.

The AWA's tag division is still a problem for them- losing Ventura to injuries early (he retired in OTL due to injuries, they just happened a bit more quickly in the AWA) made them weak on the heel side. The Roadies are supposed to be the killer heels, but they're getting face reactions. Bill Dundee knows a solution to this, and we'll probably see it in the next AWA article.

Rick Martel was pushed down the card a bit from OTL, but is still the #2 face behind Hogan. Martel and Hennig are an occasional tag team as well.

Tully, well, some folks who had bad IRL fates don't have that happen to them due to butterflies, but some do. The Horsemen still happen, but it's going to be somewhat different.

 

[OldNavy1988]

Looking forward to see where this one goes.

 

[eldandythedoubter]

More of this please. A healthy sea and new is best for business although I wish we would have saved David von Erich from his stomach rupturing.

 

[Alstein]

The WWF and NWA in 1984

Vince's attempts to take over the Texas market- it was still tight, but it was bearing fruit, especially after the debut of the longtime Texas mainstays the Fabulous Freebirds. They were introduced at the end of 1983 with Lou Albano and Cyndi Lauper managing them- though it was mostly Lou Albano, and they were huge faces, easily the top draw, even moreso than King Kong Bundy, who had just taken the title off of Bob Backlund, who was making his way out of the WWF and supposedly was heading to Memphis.

So far, the Freebirds have mostly been doing 6-man tags, lots of talking, and squashes, but Vince had the men in mind to face the Freebirds, one of them was limping in now- his new acquisition from Mid-Atlantic, now "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. So far, Piper due to being injured in his last Mid-Atlantic match had been abusing folks in Piper's Pit, but he had found the perfect people to place with Piper- and he introduced them, alongside their father Angelo Poffo.

"Rod, this is Randy and Lanny Savage- they're going to be your enforcers when you're ready to step back into the ring- that's gonna be soon right?"

"Yeah, I'm good enough to go now. Just want to start it off hot."

"Don't worry, I got how we're doing it, you're going to interview the Freebirds, berate them a bit- I'll let all of you decide how to do it, then Randy and Lenny are going to jump the Birds and threaten Cyndi. Will be huge, it will lead up to Trouble in Texas. We're going to sell out the Astrodome on May 13th!"

After Starcade and knowing the AWA was about to get TV, Vince knew he had to act fast- he had plans for an event called Wrestlemania, but he needed a test run of closed-circuit first, and a lead-in for the USA network, which offered him a Tuesday night slot called Tuesday night Titans. Vince had originally decided on a talk show format, but with the Freebirds- he felt he could do some real wrestling matches- get some squashes, build up things for the big MSG shows and eventually, Wrestlemania.

The card for Trouble in Texas- May 23rd, Astrodome. It didn't sell out, but it drew 59,545 , and outdid the Parade of Champions for World Class where Kevin Von Erich won the NWA title from Ric Flair.

Main Event, Battle of the Giants: King Kong Bundy (c w/Freddie Blassie) def Andre the Giant

Co-Main Event: The Fabulous Freebirds (w/Lou Albano and Cyndi Lauper) DDQ Rowdy Roddy Piper, Randy Savage, and Lanny Savage

loser leaves the WWF match: Sgt.Slaughter sub Ivan Koloff (w/Skandar Akbar)

Special Challenge Match: Dick Murdoch def Don Muraco (w/Mr.Fuji)

Tag Team Championship: The Blackbirds (Iceman Parsons and Birdman Koko B.Ware) def The Soul Patrol (c)

Tag match: The US Express def The Wild Samoans

Intercontinental Championship: Tito Santana (c) def Paul Orndorf

Davey Boy Smith def Iron Mike Sharpe

The card itself was considered a tremendous success, and other major promotions took notice. They also took notice of Vince McMahon stealing their stars, and while the AWA was perfectly willing to be reasonable and let people finish out, and even in some cases offered a talent exchange, such as Bobby Heenan heading to Georgia to help out after the Road Warriors left to go to the AWA- Vince was not so nice, particularly when it came to the World Class organization, which he was raiding mercilessly.


Long-term plans for the WWF now revolved around Sgt.Slaughter's chase for King Kong Bundy's championship, finding a replacement for Freddie Blassie, who was signaling that he couldn't do it for much longer (and the same applied for Lou Albano)

The two promotions which seemed to be handling the storm the best were the Mid-Altantic area, which was merging slowly with the Florida and Georgia promotions under Ted Turner's TV umbrella- he was carrying people from all three shows on NWA Saturday Night Wrestling, and Memphis- which had Jerry Lawler and Austin Idol carrying the load, as well as a solid connection with the AWA.

David Von Erich did die tragically, and the parade of champion in his honor was held, where Ric Flair dropped the title to Kevin Von Erich. The original plan was for Kerry to have a short transitional reign, but it was decided to help Texas that the belt should stay in Texas a while, and Kevin was considered the more stable of the two brothers, so it was decided for Kevin to do it instead.

Fritz was in serious trouble, and he knew his only chance was to try and go national himself, but he also knew he couldn't do it alone. His decision was pretty obvious- he knew another promoter who wanted to try and go it alone as well, and that was Bill Watts just north with the Mid-South territory. Combined he felt they could go national, and they currently had the NWA World Champ in Kevin Von Erich, and enough clout with the NWA to deadlock the attempts to bring it back to Flair or Dusty. The first signs of a split in the NWA were formed, with Fritz and Watts working under a World Class NWA banner, while the Crocketts and Turner were working under a World Championship Wrestling version of the NWA banner. Florida was largely Dusty Rhodes territory- and Dusty really wasn't sure which way the wind was blowing- ever the master politician, he decided to stay out of things for now and was perfectly willing to appear in both places- especially when he got his "suspensions" in Florida for the things he would do to Kevin Sullivan. Many wrestling fans were shocked at how quickly things fell apart, but Fritz and Bill Watts knew their window of opportunity was limited, and they had to strike while they could. It is widely believed that David's death and the WWE raid of the Freebirds forced Fritz's hand- especially when Bill Watts offered up 50% control.

The interpromotional turmoil grew so bad by late 1984 that Kevin Von Erich refused to drop the title to Flair at Starcade as planned, and decided to take the NWA title for themselves, holding a Christmas Day show in Oklahoma City. The Crocketts responded with Turner and decided to form their own alliance- calling it World Championship Wrestling, and declaring Ric Flair their first champion , defeating Kevin Von Erich by forfeit. Dusty and the Grahams down in Florida decided that Turner and his money was a better long-term bet than Fritz and Bill Watts, who were acting out of desperation, and decided to be part of World Championship Wrestling themselves.

The Mid-Atlantic, Georgia, and Florida titles were no longer defended or recognized on television, though they were still used on spot shows. WCW felt like they needed to show they were a national organization, and also knew they needed to start expanding their footprint beyond the Southeast, though they would do it gradually. They signed Austin Idol from Memphis, and started to plan shows in Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Nashville.

Starcade 1984:
Denny Brown def Mike Davis for the WCW Junior Heavyweight Championship
Billy Jack Haynes def Pez Whatley
Austin Idol CO Kevin Sullivan in a no-DQ match
Paul Jones def Jimmy Valiant in a Loser Leaves Town match
The Minnesota Wrecking Crew (Ole and Arn Anderson w/Bobby Heenan) def The Fantastics
Bob Backlund def Billy Graham for the WCW Television Championship.
The Russians (Ivan and Nikita Koloff) def Jack and Jerry Brisco to crown the WCW World Tag Team champions
Ricky Steamboat defeated Wahoo McDaniel (c) for the WCW United States Championship
Dusty Rhodes def Ric Flair to win the WCW World Championship.

Shortly after Flair loses the belt to Dusty, he aligns himself with Bobby Heenan. Together with Heenan's new protege, "Dr.Death"
Steve Williams, Heenan's family declares themselves the Four Horsemen of Wrestling and that it was their mission to rid WCW of Dusty Rhodes.

NWA Christmas Day card in Oklahoma City

Brian Adias def Hercules Hernandez (on his way out headed to WWF)
Kamala def Brad Armstrong
Jim Duggan def Jake Roberts (about to be WWF bound)
NWA American Tag Team Champions: John Tatum and Jack Victory (w/Missy Hyatt) def the Junkyard Dog and Dr.Death Steve Williams where the loser had to leave the NWA
NWA Television Champion Butch Reed double CO Kevin Von Erich
NWA Tag Team Champions: the Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condrey w/Jim Cornette) def Mr.Wrestling II and Magnum TA. Dissension was shown between Wrestling II and Magnum
NWA American Champion: Kerry Von Erich (c) def Larry Zybisco
NWA World Championship:Ted DiBiase def the Iron Sheik (c)

The NWA began to spread out as well, with nationwide syndication, and a tour of Israel planned for 1985. Bill Watts ran the booking for the fused promotion, with Fritz having a lot of say and running the production, which was ahead of what the AWA and WCW were doing, and was on par with the WWF. Bill Watts did feel some personal sadness when his protege told him he was leaving, as the rival WCW had big plans for him- WCW wanted him immediately, but he insisted on filling out his time so Bill could push him out of the territory- which was done by a losers leave town with John Tatum and Jack Victory (the Junkyard Dog was Dr.Death's partner) when Missy Hyatt (who would become Tatum and Victory's valet after the match) knocked Dr.Death out with a loaded purse. Much like WCW, the NWA also de-emphasized its regional titles in favor of a national identity.

For a wrestling fan growing up in the right area, this was a golden time to watch wrestling. On Saturday mornings, at 6am you could catch the replay of AWA All-Star wrestling. At 7 you could switch the channel and catch a replay of Memphis. 8am it was time for the WCW syndicated show, and if you wanted more WCW you could watch it again Saturday night from 6pm until whenever the Braves would lose on TV. At 10am you could catch the bloody brawls of NWA Wrestling, usually out of Dallas, Tulsa, or New Orleans.

Wrestling was in its golden age. You had two national promotions in the WWF and AWA that could span from coast and coast, and sell out shows anywhere in the country. You also had both sides of the NWA split, which were very strong in their areas- WCW out in Atlantic Coast country and Florida, and the NWA/World Class promotion out in SWC and Big 8 country. The SEC states were a battleground, with Memphis and Continental in the middle.

The AWA announced on All-Star Wrestling's Dec.15th broadcast the field for the 3rd annual Verne Gagne Cup- to be held in the light heavyweight division:

Bill Dundee
Eric Embry
Owen Hart
Steve Wright
Dynamite Kid
Rip Rogers
Shawn Michaels
Adrian Street

Other matches announced were Hulk Hogan's comeback for the world title against Bad News Allen, and the Road Warriors seeking revenge against the Dynamic Duo (Chris Adams and Gino Hernandez, currently the AWA World Tag Team champions after they beat the Road Warriors and shaved off Animal's mohawk)

Notes:

I'll admit the pieces are moving a good bit quicker in this timeline than in OTL. The reasoning for this is because the AWA snatching up Hogan levelled the playing field between the AWA and WWF for now, and the WWF is still hellbent on going national, which forced the AWA to follow suit. The NWA territories split up because each side wanted to go national, and both sides didn't want to share the pie- there was real mistrust between Fritz and Crockett in particular. Dusty reluctantly sided with Crockett mostly due to a combination of geography and the fact he wouldn't have the creative control with Watts that he would with Crockett. Right now the WCW promotion is considered the "outlaw" promotion between the two- and it is viewed as a regional promotion similar to ECW (and similar to how World Class was viewed OTL), while the NWA is considered to have more credibility. One issue WCW has is they don't have the economic base the other three promotions have- World Class has Dallas and the oil boom, the AWA has the midwest on lock up to Chicago, and the WWF has the New York market and the most cash.

Lanny Savage is Leaping Lanny Poffo/the Genius- he's going to be a bit more serious of a character as he's being pushed higher up the card here- though he's still the usual taker of falls for the Piper/Savages trio- as Roddy Piper and Randy Savage are protected heels.

One thing I forgot to mention in part 3: the AWA bought out the Calgary Stampede early in 1984, due to them losing their business from being banned due to a riot in 1983 (which occured OTL). This is how they acquired Bad News Allen, the Harts, and others. Other talent left for the WWF such as Billy Two Rivers and Davey Boy Smith. The AWA would run a few shows a year in Calgary, but for the most part it just "owned" the promotion and let Stu Hart run it as a territory in a fashion similar to Memphis after the ban was up. Owen Hart is currently on a training excursion to England and making a name for himself. Memphis runs very independently of the AWA- though it recognizes AWA guys as their world champions.

Heenan is managing both Flair and the Minnesota Wrecking Crew. Consideration was given but dropped to making Butch Reed part of that group and calling them the Horsemen, but they are waiting for the right person to be the 4th member of the group. and Butch preferred to stay with Bill Watts. Austin Idol was asked but refused, though he did start working for WCW. Heenan thinks it needs to be a big man. Tully Blanchard would have been a good fit, but his career is in serious doubt after the accident, and Gino Hernandez decided to sign with the AWA instead. Eventually, they see Dr.Death and decide to give him an opportunity he cannot refuse, and despite his close ties to Bill Watts- he decides to leave to get a much larger role. Bill Watts gives him his blessing, knowing that he doesn't have a way to push him up the card rapidly with all the babyface talent he had- he was short on heels not faces, and Dr.Death wasn't going to be a heel period in Oklahoma, and the Texas/Oklahoma thing needed to be avoided with the alliance/merger with World Class. Dr.Death did leave on good terms.

Each national promotion right now has its own style of wrestling.

The WWF has a lot of emphasis on ethnicity and strongman-style power wrestling. It's a mix of both, as Vince's national expansion has been slowed. The WWF's Tuesday Night Titans show runs 9-10pm on Tuesdays on USA Network. Theatrics are played up heavily thanks to the infusion of the Freebirds, Savages, and Blackbirds. WWF is considered the strongest promotion for tag team wrestling at the current time.

The AWA has a real reliance on technical wrestling. Greg shared the late Verne's desires for a more technical product. It even rubbed off on Hulk Hogan, who wrestles in a style similar to his Japanese style- which caused his knee injury. That said, there are also Memphis booking style elements involved thanks to Bill Dundee's influence, so heels do tend to back off and cheat, with the exception of Bad News Allen- who is booked as a dominant heel through skill. Much also depends on the region, Memphis-style is very close to WCW
Also the AWA is largely considered the home of junior heavyweight wrestling. The ESPN show the AWA runs is shown at midnight Friday and 6am Saturday.
The slight change in the AWA's style and the phasing out of older talent did turn off some fans particularly in Detroit, but the addition of Hogan and the Roadies have added more fans, and they have a national footprint due to ESPN. ESPN also prefers a more sports-like presentation.

WCW has more of a brawling style , with strong emphasis on personal fueds. Ric Flair is the exception, and is their technical showcase. Right now WCW is a mix of technicians and brawlers, but Dusty's influence has the brawlers winning out- especially because Dusty thinks it makes him look good. This will have implications down the line. WCW's main show is Saturday night, which runs 6:05-8:05 on TBS, though it regularly gets cut short by Braves games.

The NWA is heavily influenced by Cowboy Bill Watts vision- which Fritz mostly shares. The Von Erichs are the bastion of all that is good and moral- and while they get less nepotism than they did in World Class, they are still featured stars and the top babyfaces. The expanded roster from the merger also means the other Von Erichs have not been pressured to enter ring roles and are currently working backstage or going to school instead. Heels in the NWA are villains and do bad things, but they are treated as more legitimately tough- like in WCW, unlike the AWA or WWF. Also, the NWA style is rugged, flippy stuff is not done much in the NWA, outside of the Midnights (and even they do more brawling and viciousness and less fancy than OTL) The NWA currently lacks a flagship national show, though they have their syndicated product. Wrestling is often presented as a morality play, with Biblical verses playing a central role and the Cowboy telling you right and wrong. The production values are high in the NWA, Fritz's crew was really strong in this area- and they match the WWF right now.

Several indies still exist, most loosely affiliated with the AWA or NWA. Memphis, Portland and Calgary are AWA territories, with most of the others being NWA territories. Most NWA territories are willing to work with WCW as well.

Internationally at this time, the AWA contracts with New Japan as well as the Catch Wrestling Association over in Germany, the NWA with All Japan. WCW and WWF currently do not contract with anyone, though WWF light heavyweight titles are defended in Japan. Hogan's star power in Japan has a lot to do with the switch from OTL- the AWA did not ask for a cut of Hogan's Japan money.

 

[OldNavy1988]

So basically, the WWF is growing at a smaller pace than it did IOTL?

 

[Alstein]

Not getting Hogan meant they didn't have the charismatic superstar they needed to really make the expansion explode. They are still expanding and going national. Sgt.Slaughter was very good, and the GI Joe deal is happening like IRL (and Slaughter had enough leverage to not give Vince a cut , in OTL that's why he bolted to the AWA). That said, Slaughter is no Hogan.
WWF still has the most money coming in, and they can win most bidding wars, but the other promotions can keep their top stars for one reason or another. WCW has the lowest income right now, and the two splinter NWA factions have the most financial trouble, though they are doing good business right now. The proliferation of belts in WCW and NWA territories has to do with the financial pressure- the AWA and WWF can keep it more under control.

The Freebirds are more over as main eventers right now than Slaughter is. Slaughter isn't a transitional champ- but Vince is looking to upgrade. We're also due for a disaster/death or two to shake things up soon. Some folks just aren't meant to be long for this world. Bad News Allen is also proving to be a surprisingly good draw as champ, though he's controversial and high maintenance. The ashi-garami is really viewed as a death move and is a very protected finisher because of how it put Hogan on the shelf.

Also, we're still in pre Wrestlemaia I days- WWF didn't really get it going until after.

I remember a Cornette podcast which kinda inspired me to do this- and he mentioned that Vince's three best choices if he didn't have Hogan were Slaughter, Kerry Von Erich, and Austin Idol.
Austin Idol wasn't a big enough name nationwide, he was a regional star, so I kinda threw him out, though he is pretty good. Kerry with a mouthpiece would have been close to Hogan level (Kerry couldn't talk for crap), but he has reliability issues- this is why the belt went to Kevin not Kerry here- Kevin didn't have those issues AFAIK. One reason I had Vince develop such an interest in Kerry was Cornette mentioning how the WWF magazines carried the Von Erichs and recognized them, when they didn't recognize anything else. Kerry and many of the ex World-Class guys are still irresponsible and drug-addicted as hell in this timeline, but there's kinda split up so they can't sabotage a promotion by itself.

One of my ideas- the Gagne cup, came out of the Antonio Pena cup AAA throws in Mexico. I could see Verne being treated in a similar way by the AWA as AAA treats Antonio Pena. It was also Greg's attempt to make sure Verne's legacy was honored ringwise as well, which is why it's a unique event- it is still "all-in" rules , but the attitude and style is closer to Mountevans. Bill Dundee also made the event work, as he was capable of working that style, and Bill Dundee really is the MVP of the AAA with everything he's doing for them. This is going to lead to some intrapromotional conflict soon.

Right now, there's a lot of economic pressure on all four feds because while the business is actually slightly healthier than OTL, competition is closer and more cut-throat, and the wrestlers are making a killing on the promoters (which is the opposite of today- when WWE is talking about buying ROH to keep wrestlers salaries down- there's a reason the Young Bucks turned Vince down hard and Cody is making more money doing indies than WWE)

 

[Alstein]

Sorry I'm a little late with this and got less covered than I like, but had a political convention this weekend and that kinda cut things short.


Part 5- the 3rd Gagne Cup and the Road to Wrestlemania I.

Held Feb.2nd Attendance 17,500 at the Arena in Oakland. Also held in closed-circuit and in PPV in a few areas.

1st Match:
Eric Embry vs Shawn Michaels. Michaels had been making a bit of a name for himself during his rookie year, but he was still pretty green, and Eric Embry gradually made him pay for his mistakes, taking him out in 9 minutes with a piledriver.

2nd Match
Owen Hart vs Dynamite Kid. This Calgary Stampede special was considered the match of the night by many folks. Plenty of innovative and high flying moves, and the match went to the full twenty minute time limit and decision, which was given to Owen Hart in what was considered an upset.

3rd Match

Steve Wright vs Adrian Street. Two Veterans of the European Ring Wars, Adrian Street really managed to rile up the crowd and draw legit heel heat in the Gagne Cup while keeping it within the spirit of the competition. Steve Wright was always a fan favorite in the AWA, unlike in Europe, and was doing great until Adrian Street caught him with a roll-up with two minutes to spare before the twenty. Another really strong match.

4th Match

Bill Dundee vs Rip Rogers
Rip Rogers was a solid veteran at this time, but he did not have too many political friends in the AWA, and was not in Bill Dundee's league technically. Dundee beat him in 7 minutes with his Superstar Splash.

Tag Team Championship:
The Road Warriors vs the Dynamic Duo (Chris Adams and Gino Hernandez)
This match was not good. It was clear that Gino Hernandez was in no condition to compete, and Chris Adams wrestled 95% of the match. Hawk in particular was wrestling stiffly as well. The Roadies regained their championship with a Doomsday Device in about 6 minutes, and given the length of the intermission before the semi-finals, it's pretty likely that the match was cut short.


Semifinal Match 1: Eric Embry vs Owen Hart
This was a pretty good match. Embry controlled most of it, but Owen showed a lot of great fire, and some flashy technical skills- Embry was more than able to keep up with it. Most folks saw Embry as a greasy brawler, but he was a greasy technical wrestler as well. He could be greasy and sleazy in just about any style. Owen Hart won in fourteen minutes with a missile dropkick off the top rope.

Semifinal Match 2: Adrian Street vs Bill Dundee
This match was half-Memphis, half-World of Sport. Lots of stalling and heel shtick, mixed in with some really intricate technical wrestling in between. Adrian Street won in sixteen minutes with a abdominal stretch after Bill Dundee missed on his Superstar Splash.

World Championship: Hulk Hogan vs Bad News Allen
Hogan had been out of action for months with a knee injury, kayfabe caused by Bad News Allen with the Ashi-Garami, which was now viewed as a very lethal finisher, one where Bad News has run roughshod over the federation , defeating and in many cases injuring several opponents with the move. Hogan was not going to be denied his vengeance, though seeing the brawling in the world title match was a bit jarring given the technical wrestling on display most of the night, and a tag team match that was best forgotten about. Hogan managed to avoid the ashi-garami three times, and managed to nail Bad News with the Axe Bomber (he didn't use the legdrop, and the Axe Bomber was also one of Hogan's finishes) in twenty-three minutes to regain the AWA Championship for the third time.

Finals: Owen Hart vs Adrian Street
It was clear that Owen Hart was selling fatigue after a grueling draw with the rough Dynamite Kid and the almost as rough Eric Embry, while Adrian Street had an easier time with more intrictate wrestling matches. As such Adrian dominated most of the action, with Owen mostly relying on roll-ups, occasional arm work, and defensive wrestling. He didn't do as much high flying as he did in the first two matchups. Adrian began to get cocky, and tried to put makeup on Owen Hart, but at the fifteen minute mark Owen Hart managed to get a backslide and the upset pin, being a surprise winner of the Gagne Cup at twenty years of age, beating three experienced ring veterans and making his name in one night.

After the event, a nervous and happy Owen Hart announced to the wrestling magazines that he was going on a tour of New Japan, but that he would be back soon, and he wanted to challenge for the Light Heavyweight Championship when he returned.


Chris Adams and Gino Hernandez were not seen as a team on AWA television after the event. Gino was fired immediately, with Greg having no tolerance for not being in condition, especially on his dad's night. Chris Adams put over up and comers until he left to return home to England in May- still on good terms with AWA management.

In other drug-related news: Brian Adias, Sam Houston and Kerry Von Erich were arrested in Ohama, Nebraska for assaulting police officers after an altercation outside a restaurant. Brian Adias was also charged with drug trafficking after they found a large amount of cocaine in his luggage.


Wrestlemania I Mar 31, 1985 Attendance: 18,598
Was on PPV , announcers Gorilla Monsoon and Bruno Sanmartino.

Opening Match: Jake "The Snake" Roberts def the Masked Executioner
Second Match: The Mighty Hercules def Johnny Rodz
Third Match: Rick Steamboat def Buzz Sawyer
IC Title Match: Greg Valentine def Tito Santana to win the IC Championship
Tag Title Match: The US Express (Barry Windham/Mike Rotunda) def the Blackbirds (Iceman Parsons/Koko B.Ware) for the Tag Team championship
Body Slam Challenge: Andre the Giant def Big John Studd.
WWE Championship: Sgt.Slaughter def King Kong Bundy to win the WWF Championship
Main Event: The Fabulous Freebirds w/Cyndi Lauper def Roddy Piper, Lanny Savage, and Randy Savage.

Note: Badstreet USA was used for the first time at Wrestlemania I as the Freebirds entrance theme.

Vince McMahon hired Jimmy Hart shortly after Wrestlemania to both be a manager, and to help with entrance themes for other wrestlers, alongside Jim Johnston. Also, friction was developing between the Freebirds and Vince McMahon- largely over Vince's attempt to split off Buddy Roberts from the group, as he wanted to concentrate on Gordy and especially Hayes- the Freebirds insisted on remaining as a unit- though they were willing to turn heel on Slaughter, and split up focus- with Hayes going for the WWE Title, and Gordy and Roberts the tag title. Vince had his long-term booking planned, and he had an idea for his next main event star. He immediately sent feelers out to Dallas, seeing what happened to Kerry made him glad he didn't sign him after all- he was facing some real jail time for what happened, and the Von Erich name was pretty toxic at this time, so Kevin was off-limits as well.

Another issue facing Vince is MGM is unhappy with the theme from Fame being used for the Savages. One reason Jimmy Hart was brought in is because Vince thinks this is going to become more of a thing as wrestling gets bigger, and he wants to own the theme music, or at least have an agreement to use it like he does with Badstreet USA. Hayes and Gordy are also taking a bit of time off to appear in an upcoming movie called Highlander, though they are expected to be back in a couple of weeks.

In regards to the Von Erichs, Kevin was fortunate to be doing an All Japan tour at the time, or he would have been in the car as well. He ended up spending much of the next three years overseas, as even Fritz realized the damage was serious due to the national news and reports of serious drug abuse by Kerry. As for Kerry himself, he turned evidence on Brian Adias, in order to get out of prison within a reasonable time, though he was despondent and suicidal throughout the whole experience. There always have been rumors Fritz paid off one of the cops to frame Adias as the main culprit, but the Fact Kerry agreed to an attempted murder (one of the policemen ended up with a broken back and severe concussion) and ended up getting three years in prison says otherwise. Both plea bargained, Brian Adias with the drug charges ended up receiving twenty years for attempted murder and drug dealing.

Drugs in wrestling did become a news issue- and the AWA announced that it was willing to drug test its wrestlers, and even invited the USIOC to aid with the program, mostly looking for drugs of abuse. The WWF reluctantly followed suit, the NWA under Bill Watts more enthusiastically, and even asked for the program to cover steroids. Crockett followed Bill Watts's lead, feeling the pressure, while the AWA and WWF both claimed steroids weren't a problem and showed a video of the work Hulk Hogan did in the gym every day.

In April, reports came out that Buddy Roberts tore his rotator cuff in a tag match at the Boston Garden against a new team that debuted after Wrestlemania comprised of Jim Neidhart coming up from Continental, and Bret Hart fresh off a solid run in the AWA, managed by Jimmy Hart. Vince had plans to break up the Freebirds, but with Buddy out, it seems plans have shifted to making Hayes and Gordy a top team for now, with Buddy managing. Apparently Vince was never that high on Buddy Roberts, but the Freebirds are as tight out of the ring as they are in it. Recovery time is expected to be 9 to 12 months. Also, WWE is getting concerned that Randy and Lanny are getting too popular to be heels- right now the only heel tag team that are over as heels are the Blackbirds and the Wild Samoans, and it's hard to turn the Freebirds heel as they are the most over faces.

Also reports have come out of the AWA of a very bad backstage fight between Bad News Allen and Dr.D David Schultz which resulted in a broken jaw for Schultz. Apparently Schultz made some colorful remarks, and as usual, Bad News was having none of it. Bad News has also had issue with Jerry Lawler, and has been reluctant to travel to Memphis- which was becoming a major issue when he was champion, though Lawler blames Dundee for this more than Allen due to the long-time dislike between the two of them. Despite Bad News being the AWA's most over heel, and arguably the company ace, Greg Gagne is getting tired of dealing with his mercurial nature. The AWA in general is having a problem with a toxic locker room environment, with Hogan's buddies such as Brutus Beefcake, Scott Hall, and David Schultz being disliked by most of the locker room, and while Hogan and Bad News do not have heat with each other- the two of them are feuding behind the scenes as well, with Bad News thinking younger talent such as Curt Hennig and Leon White should be groomed to take over for Hogan. Allen even suggested teaming with Leon White to take on the Roadies as a new feud. Hogan is still pretty popular, but not to the extent he was before the injury. In some towns the Road Warriors are more popular than Hogan, though with Gino Hernandez's firing, which was supported by most of the locker room as folks were getting tired of his unprofessional behavior. Right now the plan for Chris Adams is for him to take some time off in England, which he wanted anyways, and form a new team when he gets back. It has been reported that a big reason Greg pushed hard for drug testing is due to the rampant drug use by some AWA wrestlers which has always struck Greg as unprofessional. Bad News is taking Greg's side on this- which is interesting because as much as a headcase as Allen can be, he's pretty much the type of wrestler Greg wants in the AWA. It's going to be interesting how the power struggle between Allen and Hogan plays out over the next few months- Hogan is gaining a reputation as a master backstage politician, and Allen is the opposite of that but Greg respects Allen more than Hogan despite the frustrations.

Right now the current plan for Hogan is a feud with Otto Wanz, who is coming over from Germany.

In WCW, the name that is currently making a big name for himself is Al Perez. Dusty is pretty high on him, and Ric Flair also has positive words to say about the young Latin Heartthrob. Also with the Von Erich arrest, there has been talk of taking the NWA name back from Bill Watts by getting some of the other NWA promotion to dump Watts and Fritz. Dr.Death has also been impressive, and they are feuding him already with Ricky Steamboat over the US Championship- partially as a way to get Steve Williams used to working with top-flight technical wrestlers. While it is still believed that the signing of Dr.Death was mostly a spite signing by Crockett to get at Watts, since Williams is earning top-flight money despite heavy inexperience, his talent and attitude are keeping him in good graces with the locker room.

The NWA was shook hard by Kerry's arrest, and Bill Watts was very upset, and has even unfairly taken it out on Kevin, who did not have a big drug habit as far as anyone knows. Apparently drugs were also a major issue in the NWA locker room, and Bill Watts joined in on the drug testing agreement for much the same reasons as Gagne did up north. Fritz was opposed, but his power was marginalized by one of his sons sitting in a Nebraska prison. Kevin has been doing plenty of tours for All-Japan Pro Wrestling as a consequence, and Fritz is largely building the promotion on the Mid-South Stars, that said, Vince was raiding the Texas stars hard, and Texas is quickly becoming pro-WWF and less pro-NWA as a consequence, though the NWA brand is holding strong in the Mid-South territories, and still does strong business in Texas.

 

[Kalvan]

I'm always a sucker for a good '80s pro wrestling timeline. Keep up the good work!

 

[Alstein]

The NWA had a big problem on its hands with its top babyface star sitting in Nebraska prison, alongside a midcard heel. Fritz Von Erich, who was already in many ways the junior partner when it came to decisionmaking, was marginalized heavily- though he still had backstage influence. Fritz wanted Mike to become a wrestler, there were plans late in 1984 when Mike wrestled some preliminary matches on untelevised house shows, but Bill Watts thought the Von Erichs needed time off. Mike ended up doing some spot shows in the San Antonio area, but never became a full time wrestler, and he wasn't very good when he did wrestle.

Bill Watts decided to promote Magnum TA to top babyface star in his territory- he had the look, enough wrestling kills to be solid, and generally was willing to listen to direction. He really wished he still had Dr.Death, but Magnum was a pretty good substitute. The first step was using Wrestling II to turn on his old partner- the old hand understood, and they worked together to come up with a good way to get Magnum over in the next few months. This would culminate in a loser-leave-town match which main evented a July 5th card in Dallas. Another step Bill took was in combination with Greg Gagne. Bill and Verne always had a respectful relationship, and the drug use that seemed to be rampant in wrestling troubled both promoters. Bill in particular felt it was a problem with the black wrestlers. They came up with a drug testing program and suspensions that would be honored through both major promotions. The drug testing was for steroids, heroin, and cocaine, Watts wanted marijauna testing but Greg knew enough of his stars liked weed and claimed it helped with pain,so he nixed that- though they agreed that Bill could test for weed but the AWA would not though that part would not be made public. The wrestlers themselves were unhappy about the drug testing, and several in both promotions left over the next year.

Bill and Greg Gagne did a joint press conference, talking openly about how insidious drugs were in wrestling, and Bill Watts made it clear that Brian Adidas compromised someone he knew was a good young man who made a terrible mistake- and flat out said if Kerry wished for a second chance, he would help- and that was a promise Bill Watts fully intended to fulfill. He liked Kerry, even if he got frustrated with Kerry's flaws and drug issues- and really wanted to see what a clean Kerry could do. In some ways, he was relieved Kerry ended up in state prison for a couple of years (Kerry would be up for parole in late 88), and Bill Watts visited Kerry several times in prison, which was treating him rough. Later on Kerry claimed that Bill Watts saved him from committing suicide- though Kerry did end up in suicide watch twice during his first year of incarceration.

Bill Watts also did something that was not normal for him by actually opening his pocketbook, and paying to bring in former NWA Champ Harley Race, who was one of the most expensive free agents in wrestling, to be NWA Champ again, defeating Ted DiBiase, who was going to leave for WWF. Bill wondered if it was because Ted was on drugs as well- but he'd never know. Bill did spend much of the rest of 1985 scrambling for new talent that was drug free, and was forced to put some younger talent up in prominant roles: Having to fire Jim Duggan for drugs was another personal disappointment for Bill Watts, as Duggan was someone he personally liked and had planned to push to the American title.

NWA Christmas Day held at the Superdome in New Orleans:

the Samoan Savage (Yokozuna) def Steve Cox
Savannah Jack def Black Bart
NWA American Tag Team Champions: The Lightning Express (Brad Armstrong/Tracy Smothers) defeated Krusher Kruschev and Korstia Korschenko
Terry Taylor def Butch Reed in a Death Match
NWA World Tag Team Title Match: The Rock N Roll Express defeated the Midnight Express for the belts. The Midnights would soon be leaving the NWA over low pay.
American Title Match: Larry Zybisco held on to the American title defeating Ken Patera
Main Event: Magnum TA won the NWA World Title defeating Harley Race


Kevin Von Erich spent most of 1985 in Japan, where his family scandals were not as known, and even among those who knew- Kevin was not implicated in any of it, so he could still travel to Japan. His bags did get searched every time. He was in the upper midcard of All Japan for most of 1985, with occasional title shots, and also made it to the finals of the Tag League with Jesse Barr , losing to Jumbo Tsuruta and Genichiro Tenryu. Overall Kevin was booked just below the two top Japanese stars, regularly losing to them but occasionally getting pins in tag matches. He would spend the next three years primarily wrestling in All Japan, and didn't wrestle in America much at all.

Overall , 1985 was not the best year for Bill Watts- attendance was starting to slip in most cities due to the drug scandal, which hurt the NWA hardest out of any of the major promotions, as Kerry was one of the premier faces of the NWA. Bill Watts thought he could weather the storm if there weren't any more shocks, and outside of Harley and Magnum he just tightened the pursestrings some- even if it cost him some talent. In November, the WWF asked if the promotion was for sale, but Bill Watts said no, he was still holding on, even if things were a bit rough.

Crockett in 1985

Crockett was viewed these days as more of a regional promotion, so the drug issues did not pop up on a national level, so they were able to ignore the issues for the time being. This was probably a good thing , as the Horsemen were becoming famous for their wild partying ways, and Ric Flair was in the middle of a very good run- with strong matches versus a variety of opponents such as Ron Bass, Bob Backlund, Jimmy Valiant, Al Perez, Dusty Rhodes, and Billy Jack Haynes. The only bad matches Ric Flair had was against a very washed-up and drugged-out Billy Graham, who would soon be leaving the promotion as he was not getting much of a reaction.

Outside of the Horsemen, the next top heels were the Russians, Ivan and Nikita Koloff, with Don Kernoodle occasionally joining them as an American turncoat. One could tell Nikita was being groomed, he got to look dominant in short bursts of action, and he was slowly learning the ins and out of the business. Late in the year, another promising rookie wrestler came up from Florida in the name of Lex Luger- who had a tremendous look and a high amount of athletic ability, but was still very green. Rumors had it that there were plans to turn Dr.Death face and replace him in the Horsemen with Lex Luger.

The TV title scene was pretty well-established, with Bob Backlund mostly facing low card heels and building his way up to a World Title program with Ric Flair. The US title program was Dusty Rhodes facing Dr.Death, who had won the title after a long and very stiff program with Wahoo McDaniel. Those two really enjoyed working with one another- and the rest of the roster enjoyed that those two enjoyed working with each other just so they didn't have to work with them.

Starcade 1985- Omni in Atlanta and Greensboro Coliseum , sold out

Lex Luger def George South. Bobby Heenan and Ric Flair talked up Luger afterwards during interview time.
Mr.Wrestling II, and Austin Idol def Buzz Sawyer and the One Man Gang (who was on his way out)
The Barbarian and Shaska Whatley (with Paul Jones) def Jimmy Valiant and Jim Duggan. Duggan turned on Valiant after the match and joined Paul Jones's army.
Al Perez def Buddy Landell
Manny Hernandez def Ron Bass
Greensboro: The Russian Team def Wahoo McDaniel and Ron Garvin in a double Russian Chain match. This match was considered to be as good as the Piper/Valentine Dog Collar match from two years ago, and very stiff.
Tag Team Title, Omni: The Minnesota Wrecking Crew (Ole/Arn Anderson) retain against the Fantastics (also on their way out)
Greensboro Main Event: Dusty Rhodes defeated Dr.Death Steve Williams in a cage for the US Heavyweight Title. This was the impetus for Dr.Death's eventual face turn.
World Title Match: TV Champ Bob Backlund defeats Ric Flair (w/Bobby Heenan) in what was called a MOTYC candidate for the WCW World title

Crockett and the Mid-Atlantic area were quietly surging- the area was experiencing economic growth, and they were putting out a solid product, and they had national TV through TBS. While the bigger name NWA was still getting more national attention, WCW was drawing similar or slightly higher numbers, and were keeping the WWF and AWA mostly out of their territory. Having Backlund as champ did get some national attention, as Backlund was still a big name in the Northeast, and WCW had plans to start running shows further north in 1986 in places like Baltimore, Washington DC, and Philadelphia (though Flair would get cheered over Backlund in Philly)

Memphis Wrestling:
Memphis was still a territory of the AWA, though those ties were becoming somewhat strained due to the dislike between Lawler and the AWA in general- particularly Bad News Allen and Bill Dundee (who never liked Lawler). Memphis was largely seen as a place for top heels to put over Lawler and draw good money, and for younger talent to learn the ropes- such as Flash Borden (OTL Sting) and Jim Hellwig (OTL Warrior)- who eventually got packaged into a team called the Blade Runners as lackeys for Eddie Gilbert, who was currently the top heel feuding with Lawler over his desire to be the King- much of which played on Eddie Gilbert's IRL admiration of Lawler. The dissention between Lawler and the AWA was beginning to be well-known, and other promotions such as Crockett and the NWA held talks with Lawler and Jerry Jarrett over swapping promotional affiliation, but Memphis was determined to keep its semi-independent status.

 

[Alstein]

The AWA in 85 from the Gagne Cup to Super Clash

Hulk Hogan's 3rd reign as champion got off to a solid start- with defenses against the former champ Bad News Allen, King Kong
Brody, Jerry Blackwell, Ace Orton, and Phil Hickerson down in Memphis. There was some criticism to the quality of the matches,
and some folks felt he had lost a bit of mobility from the knee injury- but overall the fans were content enough with the top of
the card, and those who came to see the wrestling were getting it from the uppercard with Curt Hennig and Rick Martel splitting
turns as the #2 babyface, and showing dissension in tag matches. Everyone knew a major feud was planned between the two of them,
and in June in a match vs the Road Warriors- it finally happened when Curt Hennig turned on Rick Martel in June. It was widely
considered to be a matter of time before Curt Hennig would feud with Hulk Hogan for the World Heavyweight championship, but for
now, he was in a long feud with Rick Martel that would last all the way into the next Verne Gagne Cup.

The big news with the AWA was the announcement of Super Clash, which came from negotiations with Bill Watts about drug testing
after the arrest and imprisonment of one of their top stars, Kerry Von Erich. Bill craved the TV exposure the AWA was getting
on ESPN, and agreed to a favorable split with the AWA for a merged card, anchored by a champion vs champion match between their
current champ, Harley Race, and Hulk Hogan. Greg liked the idea, and arranged for a few other matches, and an agreement on a
double countout finish- the AWA had interest in Harley Race themselves and wanted to keep him strong as a potential heel down the
road, not that Harley had any issues with credibility- as he had established himself in the AWA years prior and was a multi-timeNWA champion. The AWA had always recognized the NWA as "another legitimate sanctioning body", even if they considered
themselves "the major league of professional wrestling".

That said, the AWA did have to deal with some talent leaving- the big names leaving were the Road Warriors, who had agreed to
sign with Vince up in New York. Vince wanted a top babyface tag team due to plans with the Freebirds and a generally weak tag
team roster on the babyface side, and Greg just couldn't match the money offered. Needing to transition the titles off the
Roadies, and losing their top heel team due to the firing of Gino Hernandez and Chris Adams taking some time off back in England.
Chris Adams didn't return to the AWA, he chose to stay in England and mostly wrestled World of Sport and Catch Wrestling
Association the next couple of years. He was known to have drug issues as well, and preferred to not get involved with the AWA's
drug testing.
Eddie Gilbert went to Bill Dundee and mentioned that down in his feud with Lawler in Memphis, there were a couple of bodybuilders
called Powerteam USA, and he had an idea for them. He decided to take a couple of them, Flash Borden and Jim Hellwig, and
renamed them the Bladerunners, Sting and Rock. For the rest of 1985 they would be built up with squashes on the undercard.
Dundee didn't think they were ready to carry the tag division, and they didn't talk much- they just came out there and did it.
Bill Dundee's choice to replace the Roadies as least transitionally was to push Bad News Allen down the card slightly and team
him up with a wrestler from Chicago, Leroy Brown, and they defeated the Road Warriors in a Chicago Street Fight, loser leaves the
AWA match in June that was very violent for the time, with Allen "injuring" Hawk with the ashi-garami.

Other AWA acquisitions in the 2nd half of 1985 were Mike Rotundo of the US Express, which had split up and left the WWF after
being pushed down the card, with Barry Windham heading to WCW. Another WWF acqusition was the Magnificent Muraco, who felt
underused by the WWF and wanted to stay a heel while the WWF wanted him to be a face, so he left. "Big" Scott Hall was another
name that was gaining traction in the AWA, and currently he was partnered with another young wrestler, Dan Spivey- who got hurt
early on, so they decided to team up Hall and Rotundo to help give the young Scott Hall a mentor. Another promising youngster
was Leon White, who they portrayed as Hulk Hogan's friend, which made him receive a ton of beatings from the top heels such as
Brody, Muraco, and Blackwell- where he would be competitive but come up brutally short in the end. Brody in particularly was a
big influence on Leon White, and Leon White gained a reputation over the years as a stiff worker due to the early lessons he
received.

Super Clash- Comsikey Park Chicago, Attendance 24,376


Mil Mascaras defeated Shaun Michaels for the IWA championship (even though the IWA had been out of business for years)

Owen Hart def Eric Embry to win the AWA Light Heavyweight Championship
Sherri Martel def the Killer Tomato
6-man Russia vs Japan challenge: Soldat Ustinov, Korstia Korchenko, and Khruscher Kruschev double DQ Keiji Mutoh, Masahiro Chono,

and Shinya Hashimoto

The Blade Runners (w/Eddie Gilbert) def John Tatum and Jack Victory
The Fabulous Ones def the Clawmeisters (The Spoiler and Baron Von Raschke)
Adrian Street and Eddie Gilbert def Bill Dundee and Dutch Mantell
The Midnight Express def Scott Hall and Mike Rotundo

Curt Hennig def Steve Cox
Magnum TA def Scott Hall
Harley Race double Countout Hulk Hogan in a NWA-AWA unification match. Both Wrestlers kept their titles.

Overall the card was not that well received, with many of the matches perceived to be lackluster, with obvious and unsatisfying
finishes. The most notable situation was a backstage fight that developed between Eddie Gilbert and John Tatum, which
reportedly involved Missy Hyatt cheating on Tatum with Eddie Gilbert. Also, negotiations between the AWA and the Midnight
Express led to the Midnights giving a 90-day notice to Bill Watts, though Dennis Condrey would not make it to the AWA, having
failed a drug test and having no-showed a few cities. Condrey was replaced as one of the Midnights with "Sweet" Shaun Michaels
replacing Dennis Condrey when they entered the AWA full-time in 1986.

The other big continuing issue was the friction between Hulk Hogan and Bad News Allen. Part of sending Allen to the Tag Division
was to keep the two of them apart. Hogan had more leverage, as his contract was coming up in a few months- even if he was just
as much of a headache at times as Allen was. He was also still very over with the fans despite his relative lack of wrestling
chops compared to AWA Champions of the past- but even Greg had to acknowledge the work Hogan was putting into matches, and ESPN
loved the Hulk as well- they even had him do some guest commentary for Monday Night college basketball when they were in Big 10
country sometimes. One of their classic images was Hogan giving Dick Vitale a noogie. That said, Hogan was upset at the refusal
to hire Brutus Beefcake (who was just terrible period), and the depush and eventual firing of Dr.D David Schultz. Neither of
Hogan's buddies were over at all and both had serious issues. Greg did think it was time for a new top heel, especially with
Hogan's contract up, and that was the impetus between the Hennig/Martel split. Martel was pretty clearly the #2 babyface at this
point behind Hogan, but Greg was unsure if he could carry the company- he felt more confident about Hennig- and Hennig had more
ties to the company than Rick Martel did with his father being a longtime hand for Verne. Lawler and Memphis were also
headaches as usual.

Bill Dundee and Eric Embry hit it off and quickly became friends who bounced ideas off each other, and Eric Embry was added to the booking committee later on. Greg decided to set a rule just out of common sense, he decided he would control the booking of the light heavyweights, and Dundee and Embry would be in
charge of the heavyweights. Dundee and Embry understood the logic behind the decision, Dundee had been around Dusty Rhodes, and
understood why booking yourself can have issues- and Greg wanted to push a more athletic light heavyweight division with Owen
Hart as the face of it, combined with the international talent he was willing to fly in. He felt bad giving up Shaun Michaels
to the Midnight express, but Shaun was also getting close to the 220 lb weight limit, so it was easy to promote him to
heavyweight, and Bobby Eaton was a great talent as well. He was looking forward to the Midnights-Fabulous Ones feud and seeing
how that turned out.

WWF in late 1985

The WWF was in good shape, and still considered to be one of the top 2 promotions nationally alongside the AWA, and Roddy Piper,
Michael Hayes, and Terry Gordy were all huge names at this point on par with Hogan, with Sgt.Slaughter not that far behind.
Slaughter even managed to end up on a Kids Cartoon of GI Joe- Vince wanted a share of the money, but knew with the AWA as an
option that he couldn't really push it. It was a wrestlers market for salaries right now, and that benefitted Vince as not even
the AWA could match the New York money. He already had started backchannel dealings with Hulk Hogan, though his contact wouldn't
expire until after Wrestlemania II.

Buddy Roberts injury and being out for several months, and the popularity of the Savages, particuarly Randy, made Vince want to
split up the Freebirds again- though this time he would try something risky- he was going to turn both of the remaining Freebirds
heel, and have Gordy go after the Intercontinental Title and Hayes the World Title. He was going to do a double title switch at
another PPV event he had planned, the Wrestling Classic which was going to be held in November. His original plan was to do his
own version of the Gagne Cup- but that idea was pushed to a Tuesday Night Titans tournament that was held over several weeks,
with Roddy Piper beating Jake the Snake Roberts in the final. Jake the Snake with the addition of Damian was getting over as a
face. Fortunately the Freebirds this time were agreeable to the plan, they preferred to be heels, and were ok with being split
up as long as they got to do some tag matches.

The Tag Division was ok at the top as well, especially after Vince went with the crowd reaction and turned the Savages Face and
had them turn on Piper during a Piper's pit segment in June. The top heel challengers were Jimmy Hart's Hart Foundation, and
Jimmy Hart had established himself as a top manager, adding Greg (now christened the Hammer) Valentine and the One Man Gang to
his roster. Turning the Savages face was also an issue since the US Express gave their notice shortly after winning the tag
belts- apparently due to differences between Rotunda and Windham- who were each going different places. Despite being heels,
the Savages won the belts from the US Express to a face reaction, and the US Express were quickly sent packing. Other teams
included the Bolsheviks (who were aligned with Piper), the Killer Bees, the Moondogs, and Adrian Adonis/Dick Murdoch. Shortly
thereafter Randy Savage added his girlfriend Elisabeth to the team as their manager, spurring Jimmy Hart, which cemented their
face turn and caused Jimmy Hart to vow revenge.

On an unfortunate note, Andre the Giant suffered a serious knee injury from trying to slam King Kong Bundy on a July house show
in the Spectrum, and given his size and age they had no idea when or even if he would be back. Bundy also ended up being blamed
for the injury, and was depushed down the card, and Bundy eventually left at the end of 1985. Roddy Piper had a shoulder injury
from a match with Paul Orndorf, and was also out for a few months, though he could do commentary, and started to do so.
The WWF also had to fire Jimmy Snuka in June after he was caught with cocaine during a traffic stop in June in Hartford, CT.

Normally Vince wouldn't have cared too much, but given the current political climate he did not want to take any chances.
The heel turn for the freebirds was set up in with a six man match between the Freebirds and Slaughter vs Piper and the
Bolsheviks, where Hayes and Gordy turned on Slaughter and allowed him to be draped with the Russian flag. This also gave
Slaughter a kayfabe injury that allowed him to do some GI Joe voice work. This match was televised on NBC as part of the first
special Saturday Night's main event in mid-August, and the national airing turned the Freebirds into the biggest villains in the
WWF.

The Wrestling Classic Card:
The British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith def Don Muraco (who was on his way out)
The Bolsheviks def the Moondogs (with Hillbilly Jim)
Jake the Snake Roberts def King Kong Bundy (who also was one his way out)
The Blackbirds def the Killer Bees
Terry Gordy won the IC Title off of Tito Santana with help from Buddy Roberts at Ringside
Randy and Lenny Savage (with Miss Elisabeth) DCO the Hart Foundation (with Jimmy Hart) for the WWF Tag Team Championship.
Greg Valentine DDQ Tito Santana
The One Man Gang def Big John Studd
Ricky Steamboat def the Mighty Hercules (with Mr.Fuji)
Michael Hayes def Sgt.Slaughter for the WWF Title

The card was also the first use of the commentator team of Roddy Piper and Gorilla Monsoon. Roddy Piper would eventually be
moved into a more fulltime color commentator role, as he was picking up injuries in the ring and gained a reputation for being
injury-prone.

Jimmy Hart, Jim Johnston, Rick Derringer, and David Wolfe were also working on wrestlers theme music, to avoid the issues that
happened with the Savages and Fame earlier. The Wrestling Album put out by the WWF also added some revenue to the coffers when
that was put out after the Wrestling Classic.

Long Term- the plan was to let Hayes hold onto the belt for a few months, until they can get either Hogan or Magnum TA from the
AWA or NWA respectively. Hogan was the first choice, and he seemed agreeable to sign, as apparently he was having issues in the
AWA, and the relationship with Greg Gagne was always strained- with Greg having a vision of wrestling that was similar to his
dad. Hogan was also picking up injuries and wanted to work a slower wrestling style.

Note : The Moondogs were faces here, having been sanitized in a very similar to way to how the violent Sheepherders became the
Comical Bushwhackers in the WWF. Hillbilly Jim was used primarily as a manager for the Moondogs. Davey Boy Smith was working
as a low-card singles competitor, though he was getting over. The Dynamite Kid was working AWA Light Heavyweight Division.

Also, if anyone is reading this, and is curious about certain folks and why they're not being used (or maybe you think there's someone important I forgot)- let me know. I'll write out what happened to them- there are so many talented guys in the 80s it's hard to keep track of everyone sometimes, especially when certain folks are getting chances they didn't get OTL such as Iceman Parsons (who I felt was criminally underrated in the 80s)

 

[Urban fox]

Will Yomamba the Jungle Savage show up in this TL? Remember he is totally awesome!

 

[Alstein]

Sorry for the shortness and the one week missing. Had a busy work schedule and had to do a lot of beta testing for a game (if you like space 4X's, GalCiv Crusade is excellent). The AWA is in for some rough times this year.



The AWA from Super Clash to Gagne Cup 86

The AWA was still doing very well in late 1985, almost matching the WWF, and having a very strong showing in the Western Midwest and West Coast, with the exception of Texas and New Mexico which were WWF territory (with the NWA being strong in Texas). That said, they were not free of problems. Hulk Hogan and Bad News Allen, were both rapidly becoming headaches to deal with- Hulk because of his political games, and Allen because of his general nature. In addition, Continental down in Memphis, while still an AWA territory, it was a known secret they were in talks with Crockett and Turner's WCW promotion- which was not going away because they had Ted Turner backing them up, and Turner wanted a strong Southeastern promotion. Greg Gagne has a long standing mistrust of Southeastern promotions*, brought to him by his dad- though he loved having Bill Dundee around.

One of the more interesting rumors floating around was that 1/2 of the new Midnight Express, Beautiful Bobby Eaton, was developing a relationship with Bill Dundee's daughter**, and while Bill Dundee was originally furious about it, Bobby Eaton's reputation as one of the nicest guys in wrestling smoothed things over. Dundee was also fond of Cornette as well, knowing him since he was a kid learning the business, so it was widely believed they were in line for a huge push.

Dundee was doing more active wrestling as well these days, as the Light Heavyweight division was producing stars who were being promoted to the Heavyweight Division: Shaun Michaels was one of those stars, being moved to be part of the Midnight Express with Dennis Condrey being too unreliable to be hired, and failing a drug test. The other one was the champion himself, Owen Hart. Greg Gagne had the idea of legitimizing the light heavyweights by moving a top star up to the heavyweights and doing well. Owen Hart was very over despite his young age, and he was legitimately edging close to the 220 lb limit as is- and Owen was working hard on his physique***. Greg decided the Gagne Cup would be the perfect vehicle for this, and decided to issue a new rule- the Light Heavyweight Winners are auto-entered into the following Heavyweight cup. Greg also wanted to push folks who would stay around a bit in the cup, for the Light Heavyweight version he was fine with imported talent like Steve Wright, because they were often better than the Americans, though the quality of Light Heavyweights was improving in America largely thanks to the AWA. He really wanted to bring Steve Wright over full time, and he agreed, bringing his family over in 1986.

Speaking of the Light Heavyweight Division, to move Owen up, he dropped the title to Eddie Gilbert, who would get suspended from Memphis for running Jerry Lawler over with a car in a very hot angle that was blocked by ESPN for their television show. Despite the blocking, the AWA and ESPN had a very strong relationship, the AWA show was one of ESPN's strongest shows, and it also allowed the AWA to expand into places nationally they normally wouldn't. They were able to draw a strong crowd in the Greensboro Coliseum for a house show in October, with Ric Flair and Steve Williams in attendance (though this wasn't noted anywhere outside of rumors in Pro Wrestling Illustrated).
Eddie won the title thanks to interference from Blade Runner Sting, who was being pushed over Blade Runner Rock, who was not well-liked for his poor work. Sting was pretty green as well, but showed some real enthusiasm and was improving rapidly. Eventually the Blade Runners would break up in 1986, and Rock would head to the WWF. Missy Hyatt was also part of Eddie Gilbert's "Hot Stuff International" stable****.

Owen Hart said afterwards that he knew he didn't lose to that punk Eddie Gilbert, but that he wanted to do something bigger, and that he was also getting tired of cutting weight to fit in as a light heavyweight. He demanded to a Greg Gagne sitting at the announcers booth that he wanted to be in the next Gagne Cup, even if it was heavyweights. Jesse Ventura, who was often critical of the "Canadian Rocket", applauded Owen for his testicular fortitude, and made a suggestion- why don't we give him the best the AWA has to offer and see how the light heavyweights stepped up? Greg liked that idea, and said he'd announce the field in December, but as of right now, Owen Hart would get a spot.

The Gagne Cup field for 1986 ended up being the following

Owen Hart vs Curt Hennig (AWA champion)
Magnificent Muraco vs Rick Martel (he was rumored to be on his way out to the WWF, but the AWA re-signed him as insurance because they felt Hogan was going to leave in June at this point)
Mike Rotundo vs Billy Robinson
Chris Adams (returning to the promotion as a single after some time in England) vs Masahiro Chono (on excursion from Japan- wrestling as a face)

the Tag Match was going to be Bad News Allen and Big Bad Leroy Brown versus Hulk Hogan and Baby Bull Leon White (who they were high on, though Hogan wasn't, which led to some issues)

The Light Heavyweight Match was Eddie Gilbert vs Keiji Mutoh*****

Hogan was not happy being in the Tag Match- especially with Allen, as the two had a ton of heat with each other. Hogan wanted the spot to go to the Nasty Boys, two young wrestlers who he hit it off with, but Greg wanted to keep them heel, or if he had to be there, he wanted them to bring Dr.D back, but Greg was no fan of Dr.D, who was currently wrestling on the WWF undercard, and not getting over there either. Hogan and Leon White did not get along that well, as Leon was friends with Bad News Allen, who took a liking to the young man and helping to get Leon over by having Leon lose with various partners against them but looking good in the process. While Allen was very difficult and prickly to work with, he never let it affect his work, and he would bust his ass for people he liked.

The plan for the tag titles after Gagne Cup was a quick drop to Lawler and Dutch Mantel down in Memphis, who would hold for a couple of weeks before hotshotting it to the Midnight Express. Lawler still appeared on ESPN television every now and then, and the fans still responded to him, but he was usually treated as a special attraction. The Lawler/King Kong Brody match in September was one of ESPN's highest rated episodes, and one of the wildest brawls ever seen in an AWA ring, ending in a double countout.


Gagne Cup 1986

Curt Hennig (dec) over Owen Hart. This was the opener, and the match went all-out, Greg told the two of them to steal the show, and they absolutely did. Hennig was ruled the winner by split decision, which disgusted him and Owen. Afterwards, Owen Hart made the comment that he wanted to go 60 with the Champ to finish this later, and Hennig wanted to show up "this young undersized punk".

Rick Martel (sub) over Larry Zybisco. The Magnificent Muraco got injured at a december show, and Larry Zybsico was a last minute replacement, having just come over from the NWA, which was beginning to have financial difficulties due to a poor economy developing down in Texas, due to low oil prices and the beginning of the Savings and Loan Crisis. Martel won in thirteen minutes with the Quebec Crab, and was looking forward to getting one back at Curt Henning for backstabbing him last year, without any interference from Big Scott Hall, as the Gagne Cup had a very strict no interference rule (you got kayfabe banned for life if you did), and a very strict disqualification rule (with kayfabe $100,000 fine for getting disqualified)

Mike Rotundo (pin) over Billy Robinson. The veteran Billy Robinson was brought in to put Rotundo over, especially since he was well known in the AWA for his amateur style- and they wanted to push Rotundo as an amateur-style wrestler given his background, and Rotundo won with a roll-up in eleven minutes

Chris Adams (pin) over Masahiro Chono. Adams returned after several months off in England, and clean- having temporarily sworn off drugs after what happened to Gino Hernandez, who was pretty much blackballed nationally. Adams won in eight minutes , dispatching Chono easily with a superkick.

Light Heavyweight Title Match: Eddie Gilbert def Keiji Mutoh. This was with some help from Missy Hyatt who distracted Mutoh by kissing him.

Rick Martel (dec) over Curt Hennig. This time the decision didn't go Curt Hennig's way, and the two of them wrestled about as hateful of a technical wrestling match as you would imagine, with all sorts of nasty jointlocks and attempts to injure. Both competitors looked really worn down after the match, which was very unusual for a Gagne Cup match as usually folks didn't really bring the hate- but those two did. That was a feud that was going to keep going on in 1986, at least unless Hogan re-signed, which was looking less and less likely.

Chris Adams (pin) over Mike Rotundo. This match didn't bring the hate, and was kinda viewed as pedestrian in comparison. It was not helped by the order of matches, and many used it as a popcorn break. Chris Adams won with a superkick and moved onto the final

Bad News Allen and Big Bad Leroy Brown (COR) Hulk Hogan and Leon White. This match stunk, largely due to Hulk Hogan halfassing it, and Allen not wanting to work with Hogan. Much of the match ended up being Brown working with Hogan and Allen working with White. Leroy Brown was not much of a worker himself, so the Brown/Hogan parts were really terrible. Things picked up when Leon White would come to in get beaten up by Brown and Allen. Leon was supposed to get a comeback, but Hogan went into business for himself and did the comeback on his own. During the main event, Gagne had to have other folks keep Allen and Hogan apart, as Allen wanted to fight Hogan, though Leon White was not as angry as he should have been, which led to Allen ripping him privately in the back telling him that he needed to protect himself in the business, and that even though he had only one year in he shouldn't have let himself be punked like that.******

Finals: Chris Adams (sub) def Rick Martel. Martel came in with an injured knee at the hands of the wars with Curt Henning and Larry Zybisco, and Chris Adams attacked it mercilessly, having had two much lower impact matches, as Chono was very inexperienced and Rotundo was not a very damaging wrestler going more for amateur pins than limbwork. Adams won with a new hold he called the "Super Lock" (the Scorpion Deathlock), which he had learned on a Japanese excursion of his own*******. After about twelve minutes and a comeback from Martel, Adams was able to put him away with a Superkick into a Superlock, and Ventura openly questioned whether Martel could ever win the big one and started to imply that Martel was a choker.

* This was the case in Reality- Verne did not trust Southern promoters much, and passed it onto Greg
** This is OTL as well, they are married.
*** Vitamin S
**** Eddie stole Missy from John Tatum around the buildup to Super Clash. John Tatum and Jack Victory left for the NWA and then Crockett in 1986
***** Mutoh was barely a light heavyweight already at this point, but they kayfabed his weight at 219. This is his training excursion.
****** Allen had a reputation of caring for younger wrestlers, and Allen had "his guys" in the back as well, many of whom were liked by Greg as well, such as Owen Hart, Sting, and Leon White. This is a big factor in why Allen was still pushed despite his constant headache-causing with the AWA offices- he was considered the Locker room leader by a good portion of the lockerroom, while the other half considered Hogan the leader.
******* he stole it from Choshu. Owen Hart also occasionally used a slightly different version of the hold, claiming it was invented by Stu Hart and being called the Sharpshooter. This would eventually lead to a feud.

 

[eldandythedoubter]

Nice to see that no matter what universe hogan's still an ungrateful douche.

But this time, whoever picks him up will be less likely to back the binks truck up to sign him.

 

[BWBarefoot]

So no poems or Frisbees for Lanny Savage, then?

Anyway, believe it or not, he was my favorite wrestler, probably because I felt so bad for him. Here he is, with a cool gimmick, a great talent, signed to the then-WWF at the same time as his brother - and while Randy's a big star, Lanny's a jobber? I'll never, eeeeeeever get that!

Then Vince McMahon finally gives him a push and he becomes the obnoxious Genius. By the way, there was speculation in the pro wrestling press at the time of the change (1989 OTL) that the two would be in a program together, possibly as a tag team. But nothing came of that.

It took years for WWE to finally acknowledge that Randy Savage and Lanny Poffo were brothers. In 2015, Poffo inducted Savage, who had died the year before, into the WWE Hall of Fame.