You are here: Home>Regional Territories>St. Louis>#13


Search Kayfabe Memories

Regional Territories 4

This section contains monthly articles on over two dozen territories. To relive those wonderful days of old, click here.

Wrestlers 4

Enter this section for bios/profiles of various wrestlers from the regional days. To find more out about your favorite pro wrestler, click here.

Stories 4

This section contains stories from the pros themselves told exclusively to Kayfabe Memories. Want to know more as told from the wrestlers themselves? Click here.

Old School Book Reviews4

Click here to find various book reviews from old school wrestlers. 

KM Links 4
For tons of links to old school related sites, click here.
KM Micro Wrestlers4
What are Micro Wrestlers?  Click here  
to find out.
KM Interviews... 4
Click here to read exclusive interviews with stars from the regional territories.
 

View Old Guestbook

 
 

www.kayfabememories.com is © 2004 AtomDesigns. All promotional art, characters, logos and other depictions are © their respective owners. All Rights Reserved.

All contents save Wrestler Stories are © Kayfabe Memories.

Website designed and maintained by  AtomDesigns © 2004 . If you experience any problems with this site or have any questions, please contact the Webmaster.

 

AWA and WWWF Split from the NWA

 - John Edwards

Back in the “good old days” I used to watch my local NWA telecasts on Channel 11 and read the Apter mags at the grocery store. I read about the “AWA” and the “WWWF” in the magazines, but never saw them, as we did not have cable yet and certainly no internet. As I got a little wiser, I understood the boundaries and that certain cities were “AWA” or “WWWF”, while the rest of the world was “NWA”.  And certainly St. Louis was the cornerstone of the NWA. 

The more I read and learned about the other two federations, the more I was convinced that the NWA was the real deal and the other two were minor league. The AWA and the WWWF did, from time to time, send talent to St. Louis. As mentioned in previous articles many, many AWA stars found the time to appear in the Kiel on a Friday night. The occasional WWWF superstar would also grace the St. Louis ring. Now that I realize this, years later, I ask the question: 

Why did the NWA allow the splits that became the AWA and the WWWF? 

From all my research of the beginnings of the NWA in 1948, the point of the organization appeared to be the protection of the product, the title, and the promoters’ best interests. That being said, things were <apparently> pretty smooth until the 1957 Thesz-Carpentier episode, which lead to the AWA.  The following is from the AWA section of Kayfabememories.com: 

The first real sign of trouble with the NWA's "undisputed" World title came in 1957, as Eduardo Carpentier defeated Lou Thesz to win the belt in a best-of-three falls match (the standard for title matches at that time). However, one of the falls was decided on a DQ, so one group of NWA Promoters chose not to recognize that title switch, while another group (led by Nebraska promoter Wally Karbo) chose not only to recognize Carpentier, but to continue recognizing that claim when Minnesota amateur wrestling legend Verne Gagne won the title from him in 1958. The situation worsened until finally Karbo's group (led, not coincidentally, by Gagne himself) split off in dramatic fashion to form the American Wrestling Association (or AWA for short), the first major challenger to the NWA's dominance of wrestling in America. Verne Gagne was given the first AWA World title, shocking no one.  More...

If you'd like to discuss the St. Louis region with other fans, please visit the KM Message Board

KM DVD/VHS Store 4
Click here to purchase DVD or VHS products direct from the official distributors.
KM Replica Masks 4
Click here to purchase pro quality replica wrestling masks of all your favorite old school masked wrestlers.   
KM Store 4
The KM Store now features products featuring the GCW logo as well as some other very cool images.  To see what's new and to purchase T-Shirts, ball caps, mouse pads and more, click here
KM Message Board 4

Want to chat with other fans of regional wrestling? This message board has forums for over two dozen promotions. Click here.

KM Belt Gallery 4

This section contains an extensive title belt gallery... images of heavyweight, tag, U.S. and various regional title belts.  To view it, click here.

Old School Tape Review 4

Reviews of various PPV's, commercial tapes and regional wrestling TV shows are available in this section. To read more, click here.

 

Website designed & maintained by

 

 

Thanks for visiting!