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Brody and Friends talk about the AWA (Brody has no friends)

I hope Meltz does a deep dive of sorts on Bobby Duncum. He's working squash matches for Verne up to vanishing in June 85.

He was on a reduced schedule as he only had 15 shots in 6 months.

WrestlingClassics indicates Duncum was in an all time great bloody brawl with BJ Mulligan on Worldwide that was played up as too wild for TV and a highlight for anyone who was able to see it.
 
That might have been among the reels and tapes that dopes like Ole threw in the dumpster.
 
Kamala sent me a recent pod called "The Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel" who interviewed AWA Superfan and historian George Schire.

Schire is old and must be slipping. The pod was supposed to cover the AWA in 1985. So despite reading results and such Schire somehow has the ESPN deal year off by 2 years!!! He says the ESPN deal starts in 1987. That should be pretty easy to quickly fact check or even know that off the top of his head given the whole story about Slaughter being the catalyst for the AWA getting the ESPN deal. Pretty basic knowledge even if you watch some random youtube AWA now and then.

Then they get into the Hansen title reign. Schire says Verne wanted a major star on the level of Hogan and Flair and who else but Hansen fits the bill? (Well in Japan, yes, but in North America Hansen was in and out and despite his WWWF title matches with Bruno and Backlund, he wasn't going to be a instant box office fix.
They go through Hansen's defensive stance for his own booking and manage to not mention Baba being part of how and why Hansen got the belt. That should be entry level stuff for this sort of discussion.

I'll go outside and yell at the clouds now
 
Schire's magnum opus on AWA history was published more than 15 years ago. His specialty, at his best and once he finished his book years ago, was the 50s-70s. His focus was Verne's prime, the territory's prime...Crusher, Bruiser, the Kalmikoffs and High Flyers. I suspect he wasn't a big fan of their neutered product in the mid-late 80s in real time, and probably hasn't dedicated much time to researching it since.

This is why I didn't vote in the IC belt eliminator. I didn't see or know much about Gunther's run but, hearing how good it was, it didn't make much sense for me to go on and on about something I don't know.

Maybe, instead of pestering people like Schire, maybe interview younger people who are actively researching those eras.
 
https://twitter.com/x/status/2024550928074850455

There's a sad alternative timeline where 57 year old Verne says F it and sells the AWA to Vince in 1983 when offered the chance. Then instead of enjoying his millions (while Greg sells cars and works spot shows for Windy City Wrestling etc for fun) Verne loses much of it in his lawsuit with Minnesota over the rights to his land value.

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I still want to find the TV news piece again that toured his house and we see the stained glass window with Verne as champ on it. I couldn't find it last time I went to rewatch
 
I'd like to learn more about the eminent domain thing. Not a big fan of that in general but, of course, so many of things I/we take for granted may have originated from it. Lots of good parks in the Cities and all over Minnesota and they add a lot to economies, culture, etc. But, for someone with his influence locally and statewide, and all the money the AWA generated (the wrestling shows and TV...studios, ads, employees...merch, training, hotels, all the gas pumped by wrestlers driving from Winona to Bimidji and back in a day), it feels a little like how Joe Louis was treated late in his life too.
 
I love me some Verne of course, but the man seemed to be a cunt to a lot of people for decades, so perhaps he pissed the wrong political power man off and they hurt him while dressing it up in PR move of expanding the park system????

I should email mick karch and see if he has details.
 
And by the late 80s, the 90s, he certainly wasn't adding anything to the economy. In Verne and Greg's minds, though, they were probably still doing "million dollar houses."
 
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