The AWA In Arizona

Vern Gagne ran a successful promotion for many years with his AWA, but Arizona was a jinx for him and he just did not seem to catch on.  Not once, but twice, he announced he was coming into Arizona to show all those  small item promotions how a big operation did things. Evidently, the big operation didn't do its homework as both times he lost his ass.

Rather than sweat the competition, the local offices just continued to run and watch the AWA spend itself down the drain with televised airtime, expensive venues and high transportation costs.

The first time Gagne tried things in Arizona was in the 1970s, with a Tucson invasion that bombed. With himself  int he main events, the name appeal lasted for a little while, but then boredom set in with the fans.

Gagne failed to realize the wrestling he AWA offered was too "tame": for Arizona fans who were used to the likes of The Comancheros, Pancho Pico, Don Kent and Killer Kane, who were brawlers all. With little fighting outside the ring and no blood, the AWA lost its fan base quickly. The audience went to the cheaper shows presented by the coals, where bloodshed was the thing. The great promotional war ended with hardly a shot being fired.

Evidently a slow learner, Gagne was back in 1983 with the intent of taking over the territory once more. As before, the local office in Phoenix just waited for him to crash and burn.

Once more Gagne came with television and rented out the Phoenix Fairgrounds Colosseum, which was at the time the biggest and most expensive venue in Arizona. 

It was not that his shows were poor quality,. He unloaded all his big names.  Ken Patera, The Blackjacks, Bobby Heenan, Crusher, Bockwinkel, David Shultz, Baron Von Raschke. Good stuff, mind you. This go of things the promotion even caught on and had some blood flow.

It seemed a bit odd to see Baron Von Rashcke not in his more common role as a high-stepping Nazi villain who brawled like crazy and clawed the hell out of people, in the roll of a favorite. Then again, the Arizona spectators once made hated heel Kurt Von Steiger one of their most popualr heroes when he started facing fellow villains, so....

Overall, Theo product took a while but was slowly catching on when it bottomed out.

The problem was the overhead was again way too high.

After less than 8 months, the AWA was gone from Arizona once more. This time for good.

The "small time" promotions he intended to crush survived by simply waiting for the inevitable.