Just think. Had Gagne just had a little vision he could've gone through the 80s with Hulk Hogan, Srgt. Slaughter, Curt Hennig, Larry Zybisko, the Road Warriors, Rick Martel, the Rockers, Scott Hall, Jimmy Snuka and the Freebirds.

I know they fucked up royally..................but I love me some AWA.

Any american company that would put their title on Jumbo is good in my book.

I like portions of it, Mad Dog as champion mostly, but the shows are pathetic by the mid 70s as the roster just has a massive amount of guys who's time had past in the late 60s.

Of the three Bigs of the time, AWA is bar far my least favorite. Of course there was some great stuff here and there, but overall I'm just not crazy about it.

I'm not big on them either. I like it mostly to see green versions of guys that went on to bigger and better things in NWA/WWF/WCW. I'd put them at 4th actually. WCCW blows them away.

I'm not exactly MR. AWA.....................but I would argue with that for sure.

Before the Von Erichs completely collapsed they had it going along pretty well.

Yeah, and before the AWA went to hell aka Greg Gagne it was going well too.

Not a WCCW fan either. I know they drew well and everything, and maybe it's just what I've seen, but I'm just not into it. Besides, wasn't WCCW just an NWA territory?

Yeah, fair enough they were an NWA fed.

I'll give the AWA credit. They did put their title on the Destroyer even if it was only for 2 weeks. Damn Gagne and always winning the belt back within a month of dropping it to a heel. Man he even won the belt in 80. That had to be a real trip having a 54 year old man going strong with a 10 month title run.

I still can't believe that they didn't put the belt on Hogan in 82 for real. That move might've saved their federation and kept him from jumping to the WWF.

Hogan vs. Slaughter could've done huge business during the early 80s.

Hogan couldn't wrestle and that was the thing that Gagne insisted on. Yeah, obviously these rules didn't count for his son Greg.

Gagne must've been either blind, stupid, or ignorant that (in his eyes) this long haired guitar player was drawing big money rather than his 60 year old best friends like Nick Bockwinkel.

Greg never got the belt either though. But yeah, it was Hogan's lack of wrestling skill that kept the belt off him, but I think in time Verne would have had to make him champ.

The way they crowd went completely apeshit when they thought Hogan won the belt you think he would've given it a try. But then I think things like that about the WWF product all the time.

You've also got to keep in mind that there was no "AWA RAW", so Verne probably wanted to work that finish for 6 months or so around the circuit before being forced to making a switch, but he didn't get the chance.

Yeah, that's understandable. I still have my doubts that he would've ever taken the belt off of Bockwinkel in favor of Hogan.

Actually wasn't the AWA on ESPN by this point?

No. ESPN was in the dyeing days of AWA, and cable and ESPN were both so young, it still didn't reach a huge audience.

I had thought that they started on ESPN in the early to mid 80s. I'm probably wrong on that though.

I think sometime around 1986-87, but I'm hardly a reliable source.

<---Thought the real Warrior died in 1991. :P

They debuted in 85.

They could've probably made some nice money off of a Hogan vs. the Freebirds feud as well.

Possible Hogan vs. Freebirds feud? Dammit, fucking AWA not seeing money when it was slapping them in the face.

They could've toured doing Hogan vs. Gordy or Hogan and the Road Warriors vs. the Freebirds. Then when you've exhausted that someone like Curt Hennig might've been ready for a main event feud or you could've gone to Hogan/Slaughter.

Mad Dog clearly knows how to book for success... too bad you didn't run AWA (or even old enough to know wrestling was fake at the time). I would've loved seeing some of that stuff.

If WCCW was above AWA, it was in 1983 or 1984..right before Gino Hernandez's death. For that brief period, WCCW was above the AWA of the time (83-84). But if you look at both companies' overall history, AWA was well ahead of WCCW.

Even after Hogan and the other big names left, Verne missed out on a possible Sgt. Slaughter push in 1986. Sarge should have been going after the AWA title then, not messing around with Boris Zhukov and the relatively worthless "Americas Title". Sarge had big crossover appeal at the time, but Verne didn't run with it. It also didn't help that Stan Hansen took the AWA title over to Japan and refused to show up.

I wouldn't slam Nick Bockwinkel so much. Bockwinkel in the 80's was kinda' like Flair in the 90's. Great wrestler who was coasting on his past achievements.

Yeah, Hansen killed the company with that move.