411’s Tales from The Territories Episode 3 Report: ‘AWA: Bodyslams in The Heartland’

-We head North after spending the last two episodes in Memphis. Let’s get to it!

-Roundtable: Diamond Dallas Page, Greg Gagne, Madusa, Jim Brunzell, and Ken Patera

-Brief overview about Verne founding the AWA based on his vision of what pro-wrestling should be. The AWA was based in Minnesota, but stretched into Canada, West into California, and South into Chicago.

-Brunzell talks about losing men and women over the years and he is just happy to get together and talk to people that went through all the things he had.

-Greg tells us he started by driving the ring truck. Madusa thinks it would be fun to have Verne as a dad. Greg made a call to Jim to see if he wanted to try pro-wrestling and he went through Verne’s camp. DDP says he had three matches and sucked so he decided to run clubs. He never lost his love of pro-wrestling and felt he was too old to wrestle, so he became a manager. He sent a video to the AWA and Greg told him to bring the hot women and they would give him a shot. DDP was wearing cowboy boots that made him 6’6” and Verne told him he was the biggest damn manager he had ever seen.

-Madusa got a call to do a program in the AWA and she calls it the greatest opportunity ever. Ken was sponsored by Verne for the 1972 Olympics. He was a broke amateur athlete and Verne stepped up for him. We get video of Patera weightlifting and apparently becoming the first man to lift 500 lbs over his head. From there he also joined Verne’s camp.

-They discuss training in The Barn and it was basically hell. A ring in the middle of a freezing cold barn with chickens running around shitting in the ring. They mention Ric Flair was part of one of the camps and Greg tells the story of Ric quitting and Verne dragging him back after slapping him in the face. Ric told that story in his ESPN 30 for 30.

-They discuss the airplane Verne had that had the nickname “Suicide One.” Mad Dog Vachon is discussed and they show the promo where he is building a coffin. Greg says you had to fight Mad Dog or he didn’t respect you. This story is at the back end of Mad Dog’s career as they are on this 12 passenger plane. Mad Dog asked to wrestle early so he could get out in time to meet his fiance’s family. They agreed and Mad Dog started drinking. Mad Dog asked Jim for some uppers and like any good wrestler, of course he did. Instead of just taking one pill, he took two. He was so wired he blew through the match and took a case of beer to meet his fiance’s family. They find Mad Dog later coming back in a cab with BBQ sauce all over his face. He is drinking wine and whiskey and was given a joint by one of the boys. He apparently ate ribs with the family and returned to get back on the plane. They give him some downers to get on the plane and then he drank more whiskey and took more pills. All seems okay until the plane starts to move and they think another plane hit them, bur instead it’s Mad Dog hanging out of an open door on the plane. The pilot is yelling to get him back in, but Greg is convinced Mad Dog is jumping and doesn’t want to be near him.

-Commercials!

-So Mad Dog is throwing things out of the plane including beer bottles, a garbage can, and his wrestling gear. They get him down and back into his seat, but they can’t get the door closed. The pilot had to make an emergency landing which meant police and fire had to be there to put foam down for them to land. Mad Dog ended up covered in foam and the police said he either had to go to jail or they had to take him back. They doubled strapped him to a seat in the plane to keep him safe. The next door Verne chews him out and yells at Jim as well. Jim mentions that was the last time he rode the plane and they also take away his little pharmacy in his fanny pack.

-Milkshake Martel: Madusa soon realizes she was brought into the AWA to do a program with Sherri and she calls it an honor. She nearly shit herself, but it was an honor. Madusa traveled with some of the boys who would get high and leave the windows up in the car so she would get a contact high. They would even duct tape the handles to roll the windows down as a rib. They make a stop at Dairy Queen and apparently Sherri was a big fan. They were all driving down the road and Sherri started throwing milkshakes at their car. Doug Summers pulls his ass out to moon them, so they start throwing food back at them. The Sherri/Summers car ends up wrecking in a ditch, but Madusa’s car just blew by as they knew they would be fine. Madusa tells Greg that his dad took care of her and her first check was $800. She used it to by markers for graves for members of her family that passed and she praises Verne to this day which Greg confirms.

-Commercials!

-Heenan Heat: Jim calls Bobby Heenan the greatest all around talent in the business during their era. They talk about the crazy heat he could get from the crowd. One night a fan threw a chair at Heenan and he ducked, so it hit Greg in the noise. It broke his nose and he had to wrestle the next night and it happened to be against Heenan. Bobby caught him with a headbutt and rebroke the nose. They discuss the weasel suit match that the WWF used for Warrior/Heenan matches. They have audio of Heenan talking about fans attacking him. Greg says the way it was told to him was Verne and Nick were having a match and they could hear a “pop, pop, pop.” It seems a guy in the crowd tried to shoot Heenan. The bullets ricocheted and struck a couple fans in the front row. Apparently the guy who fired the gun was never caught.

-Next story is a trip with Heenan and Adrian Adonis on the way to Winnipeg in the plane. Greg was on the trip and Adrian has to take a shit, but there are an hour from an airport. Heenan has an idea and wraps a garbage bag around Adonis’ ass. Seems it was explosive diarrhea and it blew the bag off and Heenan gets covered in it. HAHAHA! Adrian and Heenan were responsible for cleaning, but they left the bag on the plane. Nobody knows as they use it until they are in the air. They don’t know what to do so Mad Dog puts his head in the bag for 30 seconds and tells them that’s how you get used to it. Everyone is gagging as he has shit hanging off his neck. Yep!

-Commercials!

-Fast Food Fury: Here we go! Ken Patera says of all the things he has done in his life, the one thing he is asked about is McDonalds. So it is a winter night and they worked some high school in Minnesota. They get on a plane and fly to the wilderness (Wisconsin) as Patera calls it. The only hotel is a Holiday Inn and the bar is open. Patera is downing Scotch and Water and it’s midnight and they haven’t eaten. He is told there is a McDonald’s close, so he takes a walk. He bangs on the drive-thru window and the guy recognizes him as Ken Patera. He asks for quarter-pounders, and is told they are closed. He sees a stack of them and is told they are for a commercial they are shooting in the morning. He offers the guy $5 for each one he can give and the guy tells him he can’t. Some kid is near and tells Ken the people in the McDonald’s are a bunch of assholes and Ken agrees. He turns away from the kid and a boulder goes flying through the window. Ken assumes the kid threw it and asks the kid why he did it. The kid says because they fired him. Patera goes back and tells Saito they won’t sell him any burgers. There is a knock on the door 10-15 minutes later and the police are there. Saito answers the door in his underwear and they ask for Patera. He tells them he didn’t throw the rock, but they maced him anyway. They also maced Saito, so he leg dived at one of the cops and broke his leg. Sixteen state troopers show up with billy-clubs.

-Commercials!

-The cops are beating on them with the clubs, so they started fighting back. They cleared the room of the police and Ken says they were all pretty good guys except for a handful of them. One of the cops pull his revolver and both men end up getting sentenced two years with 6 months probation. Jim chimes in that he loves Ken like a brother, but he feels Ken threw the 33 lb boulder as they aren’t too many people that would be able to do that. Ken seems annoyed they are accusing him and Madusa believes he threw the boulder as well.

-Chain Gang: In 1969 Dick The Bruiser came up with a team called The Chain Gang. It was a biker team and Dick wanted the team to work in Milwaukee. They were warned not to bring the gang into the town. Some bikers invited the team out after the match to a biker bar. It was a set-up and a big fight erupted. The team got the piss beaten out of them. One was able to escape by jumping through the window and into a river. The police pick him up and tell him his partner was shot twice in the leg. It seems the real biker group didn’t take kind to some wrestlers pretending to be bikers. The gimmick was dropped immediately and one of the guys never wrestled again (I assume the one that was shot).

-Commercials!

-Next week we go to Florida!

-Despite thriving for nearly 30 years the writing was on the wall for the AWA. They note the AWA helped create Hulk Hogan, but the AWA was on it’s last legs. Greg says that Vince Sr was on HBO saying they were going National. He talked the AWA into sending them video of the Main Events and Vince Jr would play them on HBO. It was a way to see their top talent and see who they wanted to take. Vince Jr wanted to buy-out The AWA and they had a meeting. Verne gave him a number and they took Vince to the airport where he told them, “I don’t negotiate.” They didn’t know what that meant, but on Christmas Night Hulk Hogan didn’t show up. Verne got a letter from Tampa a few days earlier from Hogan saying he was done. Verne thought it was Eddie Graham playing a joke on him. Greg called Hogan after the no show and he told him he had signed with McMahon. Hogan told them Vince was paying him more to stay home. Greg buries Hogan by saying all agreements were a handshake and nobody broke that agreement from 1950 until 1983 when Hogan did it. Oh come on! You can dislike Hogan for a lot of things, but that’s a stretch there. Nobody ever broke their word with Verne until Hogan did and Verne’s word was gold. Apparently Greg was getting calls to go WWE, but wouldn’t leave his dad.

-They discuss the legacy of the AWA and Greg says it was the top promotion for a long time. Madusa says without Verne she would not be sitting here today and the rest say the same as this episode closes.

-Another fun episode though Greg taking shots at Hogan and acting like him leaving was something that had never been done before is insane. So far Hogan has been mentioned in Memphis and now the AWA and by the previews will be mentioned in Florida. They would always do that with Dark Side too as they would look for a way to at least mention Hogan as his name still means something obviously. I enjoyed the two Memphis shows more, but I think it’s because I found their panel more likeable. Page didn’t offer all that much and outside of one story neither did Madusa. This ended up being carried by Greg which I can understand as it was his father’s promotion. The Patera story was the one we were all waiting for though and the fact nobody believed his version was awesome. Fun stuff and I look forward to Florida next week. Thanks for reading!