AWA 2012

An Abridged History of the AWA 1980's-Present

1980’s

The 1980’s was known as the rise of the AWA thanks in a large part to the tremendously popular Hulk Hogan. Hogan became champion in early 1984 and held onto the title for over 2 years. Hogan’s presence in the AWA brought in many new fans as they were selling out arenas everywhere as Hogan took on the likes of Stan Hansen, Larry Zybysko and eventually the likes of Sgt Slaughter & Randy Savage. Hogan wasn’t the only star to be born in this period as the AWA also boasted the top tag team in The Road Warriors, who dominated the tag team division over this time, on the success of Hogan & The Warriors and due to a disagreement with the NWA over both the use of these megastars and their growing expansion across other NWA territories, the AWA split from the NWA to run independently from them. This put a dent in the NWA and allowed the AWA to become the biggest company across all of America. Curt Hennig was also becoming quickly popular and at the end of 1986 saw him in title contention. Nick Bockwinkel meanwhile had won the AWA Heavyweight Championship off of Hogan which nearly caused a riot. Bockwinkel’s fourth reign was cut short however as Hennig managed to pick up the victory and the championship. Hennig’s reign started smoothly however the crowd wanted Hogan. Hennig began to get jealous at this and let the success get to his head. He formed a partnership with Diamond Dallas Page & Medusa known as The Diamond Exchange and feuded with Hogan over the AWA Heavyweight Championship that culminated at the second Superclash event in 1988. Hogan picked up the victory and the title to the delight of the crowd. In the tag team division The Road Warriors continued to reign strong however a new young exciting team had emerged in The Midnight Rockers, the pairing of Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty. The Midnight Rockers managed to win the titles for the first time in 1987 and then engaged in a long feud with The Road Warriors. Hogan meanwhile continued to look on top but a new face was raising eyebrows. The intimidating mammoth known as “Bull Power” Leon White, White engaged in a vicious feud with Hogan in 98 and looked like nothing was going to stop him on his warpath, however Hogan managed to overcome White in a memorable Steel Cage match to retain his Heavyweight Championship. Just as it looked like would be holding onto the title into the 1990’s, however enter Jerry Lawler. Lawler was the biggest star in AWA partner CWA’s promotion and his feud with Andy Kaufman had gained him national prominence. Lawler had fought often in the AWA and finally won the championship off of Hogan under dubious cicrumstances. Lawler ended the decade as AWA Heavyweight Champion, whilst Tag Champions were The Midnight Rockers enjoying their third reign with the titles. 1984 saw an explosion for the AWA, it appeared like the WWF was attempting to go national, but without Hogan that proved a tricky task and instead it was AWA that rose to the top. The decade saw the rise of several other stars including Hogan such as Rick Martel, Curt Hennig, “Bull Power” Leon White , The Road Warriors, The Midnight Rockers, Diamond Dallas Page and his Diamond Exchange stable that included the likes of former tag champs Badd Company (Paul Diamond & Pat Tanaka), Scott Hall and rising star “Straight Cash” Kevin Nash.

1990’s

Jerry Lawler walked into the 90’s as World Champion but didn’t last a long time as Roddy Piper managed to pick up the win at Wrestle Rock ‘90. Piper came over from the WWF and was received well instantly, he picked up the victory to the delight of the fans. Piper then had a close to year long reign before losing the title to Hulk Hogan in a highly anticipated clash. Hogan was now enjoying his third reign as champion and hadn’t seemed to lose a step. Hogan was defeating all comers before he saw the return of a familiar foe in “Bull Power” Leon White who returned to the company after going over to Japan. White managed to defeat Hogan to capture his first Heavyweight Championship, following this loss Hogan soon left the AWA for other ventures. With his nemesis gone White looked like Kobe Bryant at a Colorado Hotel, unstoppable. The AWA needed a new star and they got one in Lex Luger, who made the move over from WCW. Luger managed to defeat Vader by a display of strength at SuperClash XIII. Meanwhile in big news the biggest tag team at the time The Midnight Rockers had a highly talked about break up, the four time tag team champions saw their partnership end after a match with Terry Gordy & Dr Death Steve Williams. Gordy & Williams then engaged in a feud with hot new team Harlem Heat, the pairing of Stevie Ray & Booker T. The big news however was the feud with Michaels & Jannetty, this one was personal and saw Michaels injure Jannetty putting him out of action. Luger meanwhile had his hands full with Diamond Dallas Page and his Diamond Exhange clients “The Diamond Studd” Scott Hall, Bam Bam Bigelow and Kevin Nash. Page himself eventually became a wrestler and joined with Luger to take on his former clients. It was Nash though who dropped the “Straight Cash” moniker and took the title off of Luger after a year. Nash & Bigelow then determined that Hall was the weak link and decided to assault him leading to Hall going after Nash & Bigelow. Hall finally got his shot at Nash at SuperClash X where he picked up a big victory. Hall would then lose the title to Leon White who started another dominating reign. White’s reign was stopped by none other than Shawn Michaels, who finally achieved his dream of becoming World Champion. Michaels then reignited his rivalry with Marty Jannetty this time with the championship on the line, Jannetty & Michaels faced off in a Cage match at Rage in the Cage with Jannetty coming out on top. The title was then passed around between White, Hall & Nash for the next couple of years before we finally got a new champion in “The Peoples Champion” Diamond Dallas Page. Page’s reign was dramatically cut short due to suffering a broken neck and the title was put on the line in a tournament. During this time Shawn Michaels had joined up with fellow superstars Kevin Nash & Scott Hall, in a group of the best of the best known as “The Kliq”. The final four came down to the three Kliq members and Japanese Superstar Ultimo Dragon. Ultimo managed to shock the much larger Nash, whilst Michaels demanded Hall lay down for him, Hall felt this was all too familiar and this saw the break-up of the Kliq at least for now as Hall battled Michaels with Michaels coming out on top. Michaels was then stunned by Ultimo Dragon in the final as he became the AWA Heavyweight Champion. The Kliq was now without a member and took on a search for a new member. That’s where “The Blueblood” Steven Regal entered as he assisted Michaels to a win over Dragon. However with all this the AWA had dropped to number 3 in the world behind WCW’s nWo faction formed of former AWA and WWF superstars that had been poached in Hulk Hogan & Leon White from AWA and The British Bulldog and Psycho Sid from WWF, they had also dropped behind WWF who rose to number 1 due to the rise of popularity of megastar “Stone Cold“ Steve Austin and “The Attitude Era“. The AWA needed somebody to help bring back fans and somebody to stop The Kliq and who better than the return of their biggest star Hulk Hogan. Hogan managed to defeat Michaels before being stunningly defeated by Steven Regal, who had the title heading into the new decade. Over on the tag team side of things, Doc & Gordy and Harlem Heat traded the titles around for the early part of the decade before Doc & Gordy wound up leaving, that left Harlem Heat to dominate capturing the titles 8 times in the decade, they were met with various challengers such as The Outlaw Express (Bart Gunn & Justin “Hawk” Bradshaw). One of the biggest stories in the late 1990’s was former Road Warrior Joe Laurinaitis teaming with his brother John Laurinaitis. The Laurinaitis brothers captured the tag gold only for Animal’s team mate Hawk returning and leaving Joe “Animal” Laurinaitis in a bind as to who to team with, he eventually sided with his Road Warrior partner to the delight of the crowd and The Road Warriors were once again champions. They eventually lost them back to Harlem Heat who took them into the new decade with a new team chasing them down in Sex and Violence (Sexton Hardcastle & Christian Cage). The 90’s saw the rise of several new stars including Shawn Michaels, Marty Jannetty, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Harlem Heat, Leon White, Ultimo Dragon & Steven Regal. It also saw The AWA lose it’s grip over the wrestling world as it dropped to number 3.

2000’s

Steven Regal’s reign wasn’t a long one as we saw the return of Diamond Dallas Page after a year and a half off for his neck injury. Page was coming after the title that he never lost and was successful at the first PPV of 2000. The AWA was looking for a way back to the top so they decided to focus on two things, building new stars and focusing on tag team division. The first step was a success as we had a new star in the AWA, 1996 Olympic Gold Medallist Kurt Angle. Angle burst onto the scene and picked up the AWA Title off of Page at Bedlam after less than a year in the company. Kurt Angle then dominated The AWA for roughly a year. Meanwhile the tag team division was as strong as ever. Harlem Heat came into the decade as champions but were faced with many tag teams including Sex and Violence (Sexton Hardcastle and Christian Cage) and a couple of new teams in The Haas Brothers (Charile & Russ) and The Minnesota Stretching Crew (Shelton Benjamin & Brock Lesnar), as well as a team that found success in ECW in The Impact Players (Justin Credible & Lance Storm). Harlem Heat lost the Tag Titles to Sex and Violence and soon had an amiable split with Stevie Ray retiring soon after. Violence, The Haas Brothers, The Minnesota Stretching Crew and The Impact Players had some legendary contests that saw the belts change hands multiple times. Meanwhile Kurt Angle was continuing to dispatch of all challengers until Shawn Michaels stepped up, Michaels had been fighting injuries over the past few years but at full health managed to defeat Angle for the title. Angle and Michaels then continued a feud that saw the belt go back to Angle before having a feud ending match at SuperClash that saw Michaels pick up the victory and the title for a fourth time, Michaels brought one of his protégés Lance Cade to the AWA and Cade received a huge push that included a long feud with mentor Shawn Michaels and a few shots at the gold. We then saw the breakdown of one of the most influential friendships in the business as Kevin Nash and Shawn Michaels faced off with Nash coming out on top and winning the title and revitalising his youth. However during his reign Nash attacked members of the AWA staff causing his title to be vacated and Nash being suspended. Meanwhile Brock Lesnar of The Minnesota Stretching Crew had been on a warpath after his team mate Shelton Benjamin was injured. Lesnar was groomed as the future star and managed to defeat Shawn Michaels to pick up the AWA championship. Kurt Angle was the man who finally managed to dethrone Lesnar after a 14 month reign. Next up for the title was Booker T who finally reached the top of the mountain. Another name who reached the pinnacle was Eddie Guerrero who picked up his first title in 2005, Guerrero decided that he wanted to hold on to that title by not giving Angle a rematch so he formed a team between the two that captured the tag titles, eventually Angles quest for gold got in the way of the partnership and Guerrero was forced into a rematch with Angle which he lost. Guerrero would sadly pass away in 2005 in a death that shocked the world. Former tag team specialists continued their success as Shelton Benjamin followed in his partners footsteps with his first title win on the first day of 2006. Shawn Michaels had one last title run but announced his retirement in 2006, he faced off against legendary foe Kurt Angle in his final match, Angle defeated Michaels and embraced his rival in his final match. Sexton Hardcastle dropped not only his partner Christian Cage but his ring name saying he wanted to be known as Adam Copeland, he picked up his first title in 2007 defeating Angle, it appeared as if his reign was going to be short though as it appeared that CM Punk had managed to defeat Copeland, however controversy brewed as officials were unable to determine who the winner, the title was consequently held up and Copeland picked up the victory in the rematch. The AWA had begun to see a slight dip in popularity as many of it’s stars had left or were leaving in Hogan, Lesnar & Michaels and decided to attempt to capitalise on the growing popularity of independent wrestling and most notably Ring of Honor as the two companies developed somewhat of a working relationship and ROH became a pipeline of sorts to the AWA as Samoa Joe and CM Punk became focal points of the company in a long feud over the title which saw both of them hold the belt. Another successful collegiate wrestler found success in the AWA, this man was “All-American” Jake Hager, who proclaimed himself the future of wrestling and it is hard to argue as he picked up his first title at 26 at SuperClash. Hager, Punk, Angle & Shelton Benjamin feuded over the title with the four meeting at the final event of the decade in a fatal four way. Hager once again proved himself as he won his second title and proved that he was the top dog in the wrestling world. Over in the tag ranks most of the tag teams of the early decade seemed to have fallen apart, Sex & Violence, The Minnesota Stretching Crew, The Impact Players and most tragically The Haas Brothers due to Russ Haas’s death were all not together by the second half of the decade. That left some spots for some new teams to step up, once team seemed to immediately rise to the top and that was The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin who are already on their fourth reign with the titles entering the next decade and have been the most dominant team of the second half of the decade. Recently though they’ve encountered a couple of new foes in The Dude busters (Trent Barretta & Caylen Croft) and The Dynasty (Joey Ryan & Scott Lost).

Present (2010s)

Jake Hager came into the decade as champion but lost the title to international superstar Bob Sapp at the Bedlam PPV. The Sapp experiment wasn’t as successful as the AWA had hoped for and he soon lost the title to Nigel McGuiness in his home country. McGuiness looked like he was going to stay champ for a while but was forced to vacate his title due to a torn ACL. A battle royal was held to determine the two competitors who would compete for the title. It came down to Shelton Benjamin and breakout star “Hollywood” John Hennigan. Benjamin managed to sneak away with the victory against the rising star, the two then engaged in a lengthy rivalry before Hennigan suffered a knee injury which caused his match with Benjamin to be replaced with a match with Kurt Angle which Angle won to pick up his 8th title reign. Angle then lost the title to CM Punk who then resumed his long rivalry with Jake Hager, Hager won the belt in a submission match against Punk, however Punk never submitted instead passing out due to pain. That is where we stand in regards to the Heavyweight title picture as Jake Hager is the current champion with the likes of CM Punk, Kurt Angle, Shelton Benjamin, John Hennigan and others chasing the gold. In the tag title picture we saw The Motor City Machine Guns come into the decade as champions and resume their feud with The Dynasty which ended in a classic ladder match at the American Rumble PPV. The Dynasty then held the titles for the remainder of 2010 until the Superclash PPV where they faced off against the new hot young team of Trent Barretta and Caylen Croft in The Dudebusters. Tag team wrestling was strong with the likes of The Dudebusters, MCMG and The Dynasty competing over the belts. Motor City Machineguns captured the titles for the fifth time but their reign was short lived as another knee injury caused another title to be forfeited as Chris Sabin suffered a knee injury. Brock Lesnar returned in 2011 and went on not only a warpath in the singles division but reformed the Minnesota Stretching Crew with Shelton Benjamin and the duo won the belts in a tournament for the vacant titles against The Dudebusters in the final. The Motor City Machineguns then came back to win the titles they never lost and have held those titles for nearly 200 days as they are the current champions. In other AWA news their relationship with Ring of Honor was still going strong and was highlighted by a joint PPV in 2012 which was built up for a couple of months and headlined by Jake Hager taking on Davey Richards from ROH and Kurt Angle taking on Kevin Steen. Steen soon jumped the AWA following the PPV and seems on a path to the top immediately. The AWA is currently still in a decades long competition with Vince McMahons WWE, the AWA has typically built itself on a more pure style of wrestling for the most part and always keeping a focus on tag team and lightweight wrestling. The top stars are currently “All-American” Jake Hager, Kurt Angle, CM Punk & Shelton Benjamin with them also carrying two big name entertainers in Brock Lesnar & Bob Sapp to draw in some crowds. They have a number of stars ready to break out including John Hennigan, “Natural” Nic Nemeth ,Kevin Steen & Jon Moxley and a number of tag teams including The Motor City Machineguns & The Dudebusters.