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#1
11-26-2006, 05:52 AM
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THANK YOU FOR THE LEGACY AWA POSTING (Long Read if Interested)
I want to say thank you for the posting of "The Spactacular Legacy Of
The AWA" in alt.pro-wrestling.wwe. This was an entire history lesson for me in the world of Pro Wrestling. (This may run long so exit here if this isnt interesting to you) For me, growing up in the Bronx throughout the 70's, all I knew about wrestling was what fed to me thru television on late Saturday nights at 12 am on Channel 9 (WWOR). And many Saturdays night Id prop myself in front of the TV watching the clock, 11:45 pm, 11:50 pm, 11:51 pm.....1:25 AM! OOps??? Yes, I'd fallen asleep and missed the whole program at times. (Those of you who understand what I meant by that should be laughing or a smile on your face because YOU went thru that same problem.) But when I did stay awake to watch, I see those matches, most of them squash matches, but I still enjoyed it. Bruno, Backlund, Tito Santana, Andre, etc. And at that time I thought that was the best of the best and we had great wrestling until...... One night I was flipping thru the channels on a Tuesday night...I was around 13 - 14, and saw wrestling on our local Spanish channel in NYC, Channel 47. It was 11 pm and they had "Championship Wrestling From Florida". Florida? Who are these guys trying to be like "OUR" wrestlers up here??? But I watched and I got hooked. Why? Because they matches looked more "real" to me. Dusty, Flair, Mike Graham, Rotundo, Gordon Solie, etc. I was constantly stuck on this WWWF thing and didnt know there was other wrestling out there. And now I fell in love with THOSE guy from Florida, thinking they were better. So now in the schoolyards with friends who loved wrestling also, I had to constantly "fight" to tell them about this thing called NWA. And they looked at me as if I had 2 heads. And you couldnt tell them that there was a Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes and all that southern stuff. They didnt wanna hear it. NYC had the best wrestling period in their minds. But that didnt stop me from staying up EVERY Tuesday night at 11 pm, and Saturday night at 12 AM. to get my fill of both territories. So now im off to high school. I had to take the city bus across town every morning to get to school. After taking one bus I had to transfer to a 2nd one. But there would be a 10 - 15 minute wait sometime. So Id go get a soda from the corner newstand. As im walking to the soda cabinet, I look to my left and what do I see? A magazine called "The Wrestler" and "Inside Wrestling". Im like WHAT??? I lift it up outta the slots and I see the same guys I see on Saturdays on the cover. And then I see the guys from that "NWA thing", covered in blood and cages and bullropes, OH YES! I damn near harrassed the counter man to hold these magazines for me till I got the money to buy. (During that time I had no idea that the mags would sit for awhile until the next month issue came out...I thought those were IT and once gone, they are gone). I scrambled together money to get these books and see the action that got me interested. WWWF/WWF was only letting me see certain types of TV matches when in fact all this high action, gory, exciting matches were going on in other parts of the United States. (At this time I saw AWA in the magazines, but gave it a sluff off and flipped past the section when they talked about AWA stars because...I didnt know who they were.) So I got real excited reading about cage matches, bullrope, chairs, cowbells, all this was being talked about in the mag from various wrestling arenas, but...I never saw this on TV. But I wanted to SEE these with my own eyes. But WWWF/WWF never showed me this. Then I saw Superstar Billy Graham who made my reall connection with WWWF wrestling. He was the man! Yes even I imitated him to friends. But during those days, you had to be 14 and older to even get INTO Madison Square Garden to see matches. Mom was working hard but no time to take me to see wrestling. So one day I saw the famous cover of Superstar Billy Graham being choked by Dusty Rhodes with the bullrope and cowbell. HEY I KNOW DUSTY RHODES from that NWA thing and I KNOW BILLY GRAHAM from here in NYC. Woo hoo! Im was hooked on the blood matches. But that was only in the magazines. But the mags were good sources of getting me hooked more and more into the NWA side of things cause they showed more action that I craved!! BTW, when I had joined the military and moved the South, I was like a kid in the candy store with all the wrestling they had down there. I watched 7 HOURS of wrestling on a Saturday from ALL the promotions. thanks to Cable TV at my cousins house. And to me NWA was the most exciting thing. You couldnt tell me ANYTHING about silly, boring WWWF/WWF back then. Rock and Roll Express, Road Warriors, Flair and Rhodes, Magnum TA, Tully Blanchard, Barry Windham, Nikita Koloff, Ivan Koloff, Wahoo McDaniel, Steamboat and Jay Youngblood, Valiants, Junkyard Dog, Jim Cornette and Midnight Express and ALL the others that made NWA Rock! Screw that damn WWF. So now im more of a true wrestling fan seeing all those NWA guys and more, thinking this was it! Until I finally saw this posting and downloaded and LEARNED it was all Verne Gagne who did it. He had all those guys from WWWF/WWF. He had most of the guys from NWA. If they were top stars in the late 70's and 80's, they all came from AWA. I was shocked thinking VINCE MCMAHON started Hulkamania. Hell, I thought Vince started everything with wrestling. Nope. He just picked up the ball and ran with it when AWA dropped it. Yes yes Vince is the King now, but man. AWA had it going good. My first taste of AWA came when we got cable and they were on ESPN and Im like heres ANOTHER wrestling program. But I caught on when they would show classic matches and I would see guys and be like, "Hey! That AWA thing is trying to steal OUR wrestlers from WWWF/WWF". Nooooooooooooo. It was backwards. The northeast promotion was pushing us to believe they created the stars, they had the best. Yes indeed money will make people jump and that is what Vince did to get many of the people we saw during the 80's. If your reading this and didnt see this story about the AWA, get it and watch and see where all these guys pretty much started their careers. This was a good history lesson for me and I THANK you for posting. It taught me alot. Thanks for reading this far. Any comments are welcome. 
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