Scott's Blog of Doom
Rants

AEW BATTLEBOWL/ Slight Verne Gagne Defense

By Scott Keith on 6 January 2024


Scott,

I hope you and your family have a happy/healthy New Year and that Sgt. Slaughter's Privates continue to help Daryl's health improve.

Tony Khan needs to create his own 32 Man BattleBowl. Multiple weeks of wacky/mis-matched tag team matches. 16 Winners. 16 Losers. Then a 16 Man winner's bracket tournament and a 16 Man loser's bracket tournament. At the end, maybe a BattleBowl Championship Match? Or, maybe a tag team title match? Being declared The King of Cable?
Many options for Tony.

As it is 40 years later: Verne Gagne probably did not destroy his company by not giving Hulk Hogan the AWA World Title. Hogan being AWA World champion would have only been more embarrassing when Hogan no-showed X-Mas night to join the WWF. Vince only would have wanted Hogan more, if possible, by having the extra joy of stealing Verne's champion. Verne may not have lasted through 1984 in that situation.

Now, losing The Road Warriors to JCP was the true death blow to the AWA. The AWA talent roster early/mid '85 may have been as good as JCP. By late '86 JCP had a much stronger roster.
Verne had a whole lot of troubles but the wholesale raid of his talent from both bigger companies added up over time and killed him in the end. It’s hard to pinpoint or two that were deciding factors.