Verne Gagne, an amateur wrestling champion, had become a well-known and popular wrestler nationally in the 1950s as a result of his appearances on the DuMont Network.

But even as his popularity grew to unprecedented levels, Gagne refused to make him the AWA World Heavyweight Champion, as Hogan was a powerhouse wrestler.

He recognized Hogan's showmanship and charisma and was well aware of his potential drawing power, but still believed a wrestling company should be built around one of its best technical wrestlers (e.g., himself and Bockwinkel).

This time, Blackburn came to the ring moments after the match and tried to have Hogan retroactively disqualified for throwing the champion over the top rope a few minutes before the pinfall occurred.

[15] However, Hogan did admit in his autobiography My Life Outside the Ring that he still intended to stay with AWA and that Gagne had planned to book him in steel cage matches with Bockwinkel in an effort to expand the AWA to the New York market, but he decided to leave when Vincent K. McMahon of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) offered him the WWF World Heavyweight Championship.

[16] As McMahon and his Connecticut-based WWF attempted to end pro wrestling's regional era in the mid-1980s (by establishing the WWF as a national promotion), Gagne made several decisions that caused his AWA to lose momentum in the emerging wrestling promotion war, including overemphasizing his son Greg Gagne in AWA storylines (which led to charges of nepotism within the company) and failing to make Hogan the top star of his company when he had the chance.

Frustrated by Gagne's business decisions, Hogan accepted an offer from rival promoter McMahon to wrestle for the WWF, in December 1983.

Some of the AWA's other top talent, including announcer "Mean Gene" Okerlund, manager Heenan, and wrestlers Adrian Adonis, Ken Patera, Tito Santana, Jim Brunzell, David Schultz, Wendi Richter and Jesse Ventura also jumped to the WWF.

Of the talent to leave AWA for the WWF in this time, only Heenan worked out his notice in good faith to the Gagne family.

The Mid-Atlantic, Georgia, and Florida territories of the NWA also lost top stars such as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Jack Brisco, Jerry Brisco, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, "Cowboy" Bob Orton, Barry Windham, and Mike Rotunda to the WWF during that same time.

Despite this talent raid, the AWA went on to have another successful year in 1984, mainly because of the arrival of The Road Warriors and an angle uniting longtime heel Jerry Blackwell with Greg and feuding with former manager Sheik Adnan El-Kaissey.

Stars like Bockwinkel, Ray "The Crippler" Stevens, The Crusher, Dick the Bruiser, Baron von Raschke, Mad Dog Vachon, and Larry Hennig were all still active at this time despite all being in their 40s or 50s.

Despite falling behind the WWF and NWA as a major promotion throughout 1986 and 1987, Gagne still managed to find and/or develop legitimate young talent like Scott Hall (later known as Razor Ramon), The Midnight Rockers (Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty), "Bull Power" Leon White (later known as Big Van Vader), The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobs and Jerry Sags), and Madusa Miceli during that timeframe.

Lawler kept the AWA Title belt and continued promoting himself in Tennessee, Texas, and on the independent circuit as the unified World Heavyweight Champion.

In February 1989, Larry Zbyszko, a one-time employee and Verne's son-in-law, returned to the AWA and won the vacated World Title in an 18-man Battle Royal, eliminating Tom Zenk to end the match.

During this time, he would defend the title against Zenk, Greg, Wahoo McDaniel, Ken Patera, Nikita Koloff, Brad Rheingans, The Trooper Del Wilkes, and Masa Saito.

In early 1989, Eric Bischoff, who was performing office work for the AWA at the time, mostly in sales and syndication, was placed in front of the camera to replace Larry Nelson as interviewer and occasional commentator.

Despite this, the AWA continued re-running matches in their weekly ESPN time slot, and on their syndicated All-Star Wrestling show.

Gagne fought the decision for several years, but eventually lost the eminent domain case, leading to the creation of Lake Minnetonka Regional Park.

In an interview during the late 1990s with Minneapolis television station KARE, Gagne spoke of the devoted fan base in Minnesota and joked about how he may promote again some day, but nothing ever materialized.

After a four year absence, Gagne returned to promoting the American Wrestling Association on January 22, 1994 in Red Wing, Minnesota.

On June 29, 1986, in Denver, Colorado, Hansen refused to lose the AWA World Title to Bockwinkel prior to a tour of Japan and left with the championship belt.

Gagne disagreed and awarded the AWA Championship to Bockwinkel, using one of the tag team title belts on a temporary basis.

The ring announcer was longtime Minneapolis - Saint Paul sports broadcaster Marty O'Neill, who also conducted the post-match interviews.

In the mid-1970s, during a prolonged illness, O'Neill was occasionally replaced as ring announcer by program producer Al DeRusha and interviews were conducted by both Kent and Gene Okerlund.

By 1979, Okerlund had permanently replaced O'Neill, who died a couple of years later, and production was transferred to Minneapolis station KMSP-TV.

[2] However, weekly AWA shows were not treated with any priority by the cable network, sometimes being delayed, preempted by live programming, or suffering from occasional changes in time slot, making it difficult for fans to tune in on a regular basis.

Babyfaces and heels alike were assigned to teams, forcing bitter rivals to work together, and due to main talent losses many of the participants were jobbers, such as Jake Milliman, Tom Stone, etc.

Some of the earlier TCS matches took place in a TV studio without an audience; the announcers claimed it was part of an effort to stop wrestlers from interfering, but it was actually due to poor ticket sales for arena shows.

An unsold pilot for a weekly syndicated "Team Challenge Series" television show was taped in 1989 with hosts Ralph Strangis and Greg Gagne at "Satellite Base" calling matches recorded in an empty TV studio with no ring announcer.