The Spectacular Legacy Of The AWA

We first had satellite television connected to our house in the Summer of 1989. I even remember the first wrestling show I saw on it.

It was an episode of G.L.O.W that was on the Lifestyle Channel (remember the butterfly station identification?). The following morning, my Father called me downstairs and he had the Screen Sport channel on and that was when I was introduced to the AWA.

It was the first and only time I saw an episode of the AWA. The only wrestler I recall seeing on the show was Sgt Slaughter who later made his way back to the WWF becoming one of the hottest heels during the Persian War in 1991.

The AWA was seen as the third best company during the years when the WWF were branching out on a worldwide scale. The history of the company is explored in a WWE released DVD entitled 'The spectacular legacy of the AWA.'

The documentary starts out exploring the early career of Verne Gagne, the man who created the American Wrestling Association. He became a household name during the time when televsion and wrestling was first paired together.

One of the most remarkable things I learnt from the DVD was how many stars made a name for themselves in the Minnesota company. The likes of Jesse Ventura, Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, The Road Warriors and Curt Hennig are just some of the names that were employed by the AWA.

The company's battle against the growing WWF was the main highlight of the DVD. And rightfully so, it was the expansion of the WWF that caused a lot of regional promotions to close down. The AWA lasted a little bit longer than most of the companies but they couldn't compete with the strangehold that Vince McMahon had on the industry.

One of the downsides of this DVD is that it is WWE produced so the majority of the documentary is their spin contrasted with little bits from some of the talent that worked with AWA and have no affiliation with the WWE today.

We may have had a better story had an independent company created this documentary. The problem with that is the WWE owns the tape library of the AWA and this DVD includes a selection of matches from back in the day.