Recap and Preview

 1988 was the year Jerry Lawler engaged in a red-hot feud with Eddie Gilbert & Missy Hyatt before realizing his career-long dream of winning a world title when he downed Curt Hennig in May in Memphis to win the AWA title. Lawler continued to appear in the area but worked some outside the area defending the championship. Closer to home, Robert Fuller & Jimmy Golden headed up the area’s leading rulebreaking group called The Stud Stable. While the national expansion had mostly destroyed the territorial system, the Jarrett promotion held on, in large part due to the success of their long-running TV show hosted by Lance Russell and Dave Brown. As 1989 started, the expansion of wrestling nationally drained the talent pool and more than in years before the Jarrett promotion then truly became a testing ground for those getting their feet wet in the business. 1989 would prove to be a good year for area fans as they had the chance to see many future stars of wrestling as they cut their teeth on the business in the area. The promotion would also tap into the pop culture world some midyear as the horror movie genre suddenly became well-represented in the territory. As 1989 started though Jerry Lawler was AWA champion but the fallout of his December pay-per-view match against Kerry Von Erich would turn the recognized world title into a real big mess.

A Really Fine Mess

At one time the AWA world title was one of the most prestigious and respected championships in the business of professional wrestling. Verne Gagne, Nick Bockwinkel, Mad Dog Vachon, The Crusher, Bill Miller (as the masked Mr. M), Dick Beyer (as the masked Dr. X) and Gene Kiniski were some of the more well-known and celebrated champions in AWA history. Poor creative and business decisions by AWA owner Verne Gagne though had helped that title lose much of it’s own luster during the 1980s.