No Sale: Ted Turner’s Attempt to Purchase the AWA

Brian Damage

We all know about Ted Turner…the media mogul who founded the Superstation WTBS and CNN among other ventures. It was Turner who bought out Jim Crockett Promotions in 1988 and formed World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Did you know that he also had ambitions to buy the American Wrestling Association and merge it with WCW? This is the story of how Ted Turner almost expanded his wrestling empire to go head to head against Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation.

In the early Spring of 1990, the AWA run by its founder Verne Gagne was in serious financial straights. The once booming wrestling promotion was seeing business evaporate before its eyes. Over the years, the AWA had lost a number of its stars and personalities like Hulk Hogan, Gene Okerlund, the Midnight Rockers and Curt Hennig. Business was way down with a serious lack of star power. The AWA was hanging on by threads.

With business being as bad as it was for Verne, the company had gone on a couple of hiatuses to try and regroup and come back stronger. Two of the AWA’s top stars were a tag team called the Destruction Crew consisting of ‘Mean’ Mike Enos and Wayne ‘The Train’ Bloom. The duo were the reigning AWA world tag team champions. Seeing as there was no work at the time for the team, Verne Gagne allowed the tag team to be “borrowed” by WCW. The only thing Gagne requested, was that the team wear masks to protect their identities and the integrity of his tag team titles.

Bloom and Enos would work under masks in WCW known as the Minnesota Wrecking Crew II managed by Ole Anderson. After a brief run under the masks, it was time for the team to return to the AWA. The thing was, Jim Herd wanted to continue using Bloom and Enos. That would trigger an interesting development that may have changed the face of pro wrestling if it had happened.

Apparently, Jim Herd went to his boss in Ted Turner about the situation. Turner realizing that the AWA was suffering financially called Verne and and the two talked. The conversation between the two men ultimately led to discussions about Turner buying the AWA outright from the Gagne family. According to Dave Meltzer, the talks were serious enough that plans were in place when and if WCW absorbed the AWA.

WCW would taker over all of the AWA’s syndicated timeslots including their cushy ESPN gig. They would also own the vast AWA tape library and take over the contracts of all remaining AWA talent. Greg Gagne would be hired to the front office and work directly under Herd. He would also book WCW in the Midwest region. Verne would transition into a role as an on air commissioner for WCW television. While a price tag was never officially revealed for the purchase, it was believed to be for at least a couple of million dollars.

Of course, we know that this deal between Ted Turner and Verne Gagne never happened. The reasoning sums up exactly how the AWA was being run during that time. Apparently, Verne would only agree to selling the promotion if the AWA world title would still be recognized by WCW. Verne wanted the AWA world title to be a separate entity from the company…much like the Big Gold Belt was for WWE for a period of time. Naturally, that became a deal breaker and the WCW purchase of the AWA never occurred.

A year later in 1991, Verne filed for bankruptcy and the American Wrestling Association was no more. Bottom line, Verne could’ve retired a year earlier with a few million in his pockets. Instead, things ended the way they did. Who really knows if a sale to Ted Turner would’ve strengthened WCW or things would have eventually ended up exactly the way they did. In either case, the AWA met the same fate.