Resurrecting the AWA (1991)

[alanreao]

My name is Quincy Wickard, but everyone calls me Joey. I’ll get to why in a little bit. I just made what could be the biggest mistake of my life. I just bought the AWA from Verne Gagne. I grew up in Minneapolis Minnesota, and for as long as I can remember the most important thing in my life was the AWA. In school, when they asked what you wanted to be when you grew up, I said a wrestler. And that was all I ever wanted to be. I was on the wrestling team in high school, and when I graduated in 1982 I went to Verne’s farm in Chanhassen, Minnesota to learn how to be a pro wrestler. After a year of training I had my first match, which I lost. You probably never heard of me, unless you paid a lot of attention to jobbers in the AWA from 1983 to late 1985. I only wrestled for a little more than two years. Not due to a lack of desire, an injury ended my career. And it didn’t even happen in the ring. It was November 23, 1985. Even though it was winter in Minnesota, it wasn’t too cold. The previous day it had gotten warm enough to melt a lot of the snow, but that night the temperature dropped, and all the water from the melted snow turned to ice. This next part is pretty gruesome, so if you have a weak stomach you may want to skip it. It was 8 in the morning, and I was walking to my car. I heard my neighbor Deb say good morning, and I turned my head to say it back. My foot hit a patch of ice, and I fell awkwardly. I sat up, embarrassed and saw I had some snow on my pants. I went to brush it off, but it was hard, and wouldn’t move. I thought it was ice, but when I looked closer, I saw it was bone. My bone had broken, and tore through my muscle, skin, and pants. My neighbor ran into her house to call 911. I just sat there, my leg didn’t hurt, maybe I was in shock. I just sat there until Deb came back out asking if I was all right. I said I was, even though I clearly wasn’t. I just sat there until the ambulance came and took me to Abbott Northwestern Hospital. The break was bad, I had broken my tibia and fibula. Just like Joe Thiesman did the last Monday night, hence the nickname Joey. I was in a cast for almost a year, my leg was never the same. I walk with a slight limp to this day. I didn’t want to quit the wrestling business, so I took any job with the AWA I could. I set up the ring, set up chairs, got coffee, ran the finishes to guys, whatever I could to stay in the business. Eventually Verne made me a road agent. But by this time, things were bad for the AWA. A lot of top guys had left, Verne had driven Hulk Hogan to New York, and attendance was way down. So much so that we started filming in an empty TV studio, since renting an arena was no longer worth it. Not to mention the Team Challenge Series. But I knew we were really in trouble when I didn’t get my pay check. Say what you want about Verne, he never paid much, but he always paid you when he was supposed to. I called Verne and asked him why I had not been paid and he said to me, “Look, if you want me to write you a check, I can. It won’t clear, but if it makes you feel better I can write you one.” “Verne, what’s going on?” I asked him “It’s all over, we’re broke. I’m filing for bankruptcy, that’s it.” I was devastated. I loved the AWA, my childhood memories all seemed cheapened by this news. My whole life had revolved around the AWA, I couldn’t let this happen. “Verne, I’ll tell you what. Sell me the company, I’ll settle the debt and run the AWA myself.” “Absolutely not.” “Look Verne, you have two options. File for bankruptcy or sell to me, either way you won’t have the AWA anymore. But, if you sell to me your legacy will live on Verne.” “I’ll think about it.” That was the end of the conversation. I knew by “I’ll think about it” he meant yes. Playing to his ego had to work, being a ten time champion of a closed promotion meant nothing, and he knew it. The next day, Verne called me and the deal was done. Ownership passed to me January 1, 1991.

[alanreao]

Here is the roster I had to work with. Faces in blue, heels in red. Main Event [COLOR="Red"]Larry Zbyszko [/COLOR] AWA World Champion [COLOR="Blue"]Wayne Bloom[/COLOR] Upper Midcard [COLOR="Blue"]Mike Enos Greg Gagne[/COLOR] Midcard [COLOR="Blue"]Jake Milliman[/COLOR] [COLOR="Red"]Mr. Saito The Trooper (Del Wilkes)[/COLOR] Tag Champion Lower Midcard [COLOR="Blue"]Buck Zumhofe[/COLOR] AWA LIght Heavyweight Champion Opener [COLOR="Red"]Col. DeBeers[/COLOR] Enhancement Talent [COLOR="Red"]D.J. Peterson[/COLOR] Tag Champion Baron Von Raschke is the referee, and not a good one. Joe Blanchard, Verne Gagne, and Wahoo McDaniel are road agents Eric Bischoff is our announcer, but he'll be taking over the color job once we hire a new announcer. That was it. That was all I had to work with. And there was supposed to be a TV taping on Sunday. I was supposed to put on a show with only 10 wrestlers. I'd have to start hiring guys soon.

[D16NJD16]

You got an uphill battle.

[BYU 14]

Wow, I will be pulling for you. You deserve booker of the year if you can bring the AWA back. Jake Milliman as a midcarder...ouch. This will be interesting, I will be reading.

[theoutlaw321]

[QUOTE=BYU 14;449807]Wow, I will be pulling for you. You deserve booker of the year if you can bring the AWA back. Jake Milliman as a midcarder...ouch. This will be interesting, I will be reading.[/QUOTE] The Milkman was a legend! :D

[D16NJD16]

Col. Debeers, oh boy...

[alanreao]

I felt like I spent the next few days entirely on the phone, calling just about everyone, seeing if they wanted to work here, or if they knew someone who did. Writing a show was impossible, I had no idea who would be there. After spending 5 days straight on the phone, I had enough people to be able to run a show. Unfortunatley, almost all of our newly hired top guys had other commitments on Sunday. There was no way we were going to be able to run a show that day. Moving the date of the taping would screw things up, but so would not having half our guys. Monday would be the day of the taping. Now I had 3 days to write a show and figure out the direction of the AWA.

[rjhabeeb]

I couldnt even get the AWA to turn it around in DOTT last year so good luck keeping Verne's dinosaur out of extinction