''AWA All-Star Wrestling'' was a syndicated television series featuring wrestling matches as promoted by the

American Wrestling Association The American Wrestling Association (AWA) was an American professional wrestling promotion based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that ran from 1960 until 1991. It was owned and founded by Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo. The territory was originally part o ...

(AWA). ''All-Star Wrestling'' footage (and AWA footage as a whole) is now owned by

World Wrestling Entertainment World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

Overview

In relation to upcoming house shows

During the 1960s and early 1970s, the ''All-Star Wrestling'' television series was essentially a one-hour paid advertisement for the AWA's

house shows A house show or live event is a professional wrestling event produced by a major promotion that is not televised, though they can be recorded. Promotions use house shows mainly to cash in on the exposure that they and their wrestlers receive du ...

. This meant that third party advertisers were almost nonexistent. In the early 1970s, as wrestling became more popular, national companies such as

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

and local companies such as car dealerships bought commercial spots on the shows. Every two weeks, many of the wrestlers who were currently working the house shows for the AWA would assemble at a studio in

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

. They would wrestle

jobber Jobber may refer to: Athletics * Job (professional wrestling) - A professional wrestler who routinely loses a match. * Wichita Jobbers, a minor league baseball team in the Western Association from 1905 to 1911 Commerce * A person or corporation ...

s (wrestlers who constantly lose) in squash matches (one-sided victories) that seldom lasted for more than a few minutes each. Then, they would do as many different interviews as were needed. These interviews were tailored to whatever opponents they were scheduled to meet at the various house shows during the coming two weeks. In the meantime, editors would splice together the appropriate interview and wrestling footage for each individual house show and send the canned one-hour production to the TV stations in the respective market. The AWA bought 60 or 90 minute time slots each week at the TV stations. The shows usually aired on Saturday or Sunday mornings (when TV time was relatively inexpensive). The shows throughout the 1960s-on through the early 1970s were shot in

black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

Alternate opens and titles

The March 9, 1986, edition of ''AWA All Star Wrestling'' featured a new show opening, with a change from the "old time" grainy open which was similar to the '' WWWF''/''WWF All-Star'' opening. The new one featured the AWA logo flying through space. The show was referred to as ''Pro Wrestling USA: All-Star Wrestling'' beginning with the January 26, 1985, edition and was called so until early 1986. The program was called ''Verne Gagne's All Star Wrestling'' to avoid confusion with the former

Pro Wrestling USA Pro Wrestling USA was a professional wrestling promotion in the United States of America in the mid-1980s. It was an attempt to unify various federations, including the American Wrestling Association (AWA), Jim Crockett Promotions and other m ...

label afterwards.

Standard format

The early shows followed a standard format: As previously mentioned, there would be a squash match featuring a wrestler appearing at the upcoming house show. The wrestler would next appear in an interview and promise to vanquish his opponent. Afterwards, the aforementioned opponent would appear in his own squash match, followed by his interview. After each interview, the viewer would be reminded of the date, time, and location of the house show. This would continue throughout the 60–90 minutes and include as many of the wrestlers appearing at the upcoming house show as possible, as well as other well-known wrestlers in the AWA who might be appearing in the near future. For wrestlers who could not appear in Minneapolis on the date the taping was produced, footage of one of their old squash matches would be spliced in, and the wrestlers might do the interview for the house show weeks before the actual house show. Taping the interviews well in advance wasn't much of a problem, as most matches (and most results) were already known weeks or months in advance.

Production locations

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the AWA's television production was headquartered at Minneapolis independent station WTCN-TV, then owned by

Metromedia Metromedia (also often MetroMedia) was an American media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and controlled Orion Pictures from 1988 to 1997. Metromedia was established in 1956 after the DuMo ...

. By 1979, production was transferred to Minneapolis station

KMSP-TV KMSP-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, broadcasting the Fox network to the Twin Cities area. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetwo ...

Ratings

According to AWA wrestler (and son of AWA promoter

Verne Gagne Laverne Clarence Gagne (February 26, 1926 – April 27, 2015) was an American amateur and professional wrestler, football player, wrestling trainer, and wrestling promoter. He was the owner and promoter of the Minneapolis-based American Wrestling ...

) Greg Gagne on the ''Spectacular Legacy of the AWA'' DVD, ''AWA All-Star Wrestling'' was the second highest rated program in St. Paul, Minnesota (behind only ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...

''). ''All-Star Wrestling'' at its peak, earned a 25 rating and a 64 share.

Notable markets

Every Tuesday, 20-30 wrestlers would be flown into

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

to tape market specific interviews promoting the upcoming live events in various areas: *

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

* Green Bay *

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Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

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Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

References

External links

* {{American Wrestling Association

All-Star Wrestling All Star Wrestling (ASW) is a British professional wrestling promotion operated by Brian Dixon and based in Birkenhead, England. Founded as Wrestling Enterprises of Birkenhead in October 1970, it has also been known over the years as All Star P ...

1970s American television series 1980s American television series 1960 American television series debuts 1990 American television series endings