AWA or ECW?
 

Which was the better promotion that was killed by the big boys?

Gotta go with AWA simply because Heyman was on Vince's payroll and Verne wasn't

Paul was on the WWE payroll during the time WWE was taking ECW's talent and Paul was a horrible business man when it came to money

He still owes guys a lot of money


by the time AWA shut down most of the good talent had fled to WWF and WCW

-Verne's downfall was he didn't wanna change with the times and thusly in the fall of 1990 the promotion closed

by that time they were pretty much a tv only promotion

I have more fond memories of ECW, but looking at their history and the superstars they created I have to go with AWA.
More people know who Hulk Hogan is than Rob Van Dam.

AWA. I don't even know how this is even up for debate. I'm a HUGE ECW mark, but the AWA blows it away.

I went with ECW personally.

ECW

ECW had RVD,Sabu,The Sandman, Etc

AWA had Hulk Hogan, Curt Henning, Scott Hall, Nick Bockwinkel and at the tail end The Had Brusier Brody.

I am going to have to go with ECW it what I am more familiar with.

Hey what did everyone think of the Title vs Title match between Jerry Lawler and Kerry Von Erich.

The AWA lost soooooo many top wrestlers. Curt Hennig, Hogan, Scott Hall, Rick Martel, The Road Warriors, Bobby Heenan, The Midnight Rockers, Gene Okerlund, Jesse The Body Ventura, Adrian Adonis, Sgt Slaughter not to mentions guys like Ric Flair, The Nasty Boys, Vader all got their starts in the AWA. The AWA was considered the top title along with the NWA and WWWF/WWF. The ECW was never on par with the AWA in terms of prestige.

The big guys didn't destroy ECW it was Paul Heymans poor business handling that made it go under. ECW had everything to make it successful but but Heyman was terrible with money. I would though he would have been better with money him being jewish and all.

yeah fucking jews steal and miser all the moneys

I'd like to know who's voting ECW, and ask them why. AWA made bigger stars than ECW, it had better wrestling, it lasted longer, and Verne Gange was never on WWE payroll.

ecw was more important to wrestling

plus i never saw awa

Wait, what?
ECW was more important to wrestling, but you never saw AWA?
ECW was more influential to modern day wrestling, but you're making an unfair judgment call if you've never seen AWA.
While ECW did have some stellar talent on their pay roll during one time or another (The Dudleyz, RVD, Dean Malenko, Raven etc) their star power is incompreable to the likes of Nick Bockwinkle, Hulk Hogan, Curt Henning, Scott Hall, and Bruiser Brody. ECW was counter culture, and in your face. AWA was traditional wrestling that made people like Bobby Heenan, Shawn Michaels, Sgt. Slaughter, and Jesse Ventura. Besides, you'll never hear of the icons that Paul Heyman trained. Verne helped make Ric Flair who he is.

AWA

lol are you serious?

its true i never saw awa

personal opinions aside, there's no argument here. AWA was a far more successful company then ECW. AWA lasted for around 30 years. ECW lasted for like 6 years. come on.

Both companies were from two different eras though. They each left thier mark on professional wrestling and each produced great talent for the bigger promotions. Gagne was just an old promoter that didn't change with the times. Heyman certainly changed with the times, but was a horrible businessman.

ECW did change the way the Wrestling world worked for the better. YOu could argue without ECW the WWE/WCW would have never turned things around in the 90s.

But man, AWA was the shit. They were national, cultivated more hall of famers than anyone, and were a top promotion.

And that pic is just a drop in the bucket

I love this video AJHayes Posted

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WrestleRock_86

Sorry to spam, but look at the card for that event. Fucking STACKED

At one time,AWA was the most watch wrestling promotion on television.

Crowd wise, has ECW ever drawn at least 15,000 to a show? No,hell how many times they drew at least 10,000?

Look, my favorite time period was the 90's and I seen ECW first hand and thought it was cool but looking back I never put ECW on WWE or WCW level like others. I never got why people was so mad at WCW and WWF for taking talent from them,you can only get so far in ECW. AWA messed up by not keeping Hogan, that was their biggest downfall.

P.S. ECW on TNN is probably the worst primetime weekly cable wrestling show EVER. Awful show

Two different generations of wrestling and different styles, but without the AWA there wouldn't even be an ECW. Paul Heyman was even in the AWA.....Paul E Dangerously.

E-C-Dub! E-C-Dub!

ECW it was always about the fans.

Verne at the tail end of AWA was only trying to steal Vince's Ideas.

ECW had to be about the fans due to the size of the promotion.

Isn't that what all idependent promotions are about?

It's their only choice.

Well I mean shit if they didn't make it all about the fans Ian Rotten would be out of work.

Also, I heard Paul Heyman had a gambling problem. I hate the fact the Dudleys talk shit about him now.

Well it's better than taking Vince's money and lying about it.

on a related note, i watched 'forever hardcore' last night, it was a documentary by jeremy borash (yet that one) it was really good as an alternative to the wwe's rise and fall of ecw
it showed the real side to ecw rather than just wwe masturbating in a mirror screaming how great they are.

lol this thread shows the ages of the people on here. ECW is no way comparable with the AWA.

Agreed

Well Gertner what did you choose?

try geography aswell

Exactly man

AWA blows ECW completely outta the water

they created legends and made wrestlers into superstars

Plus they had Jerry Blackwell who was pretty damn good for as large as he was

Hell even Yokozuna had a stint in AWA during its dying days in 1989 as Kokina Maximus

Georgraphy has nothing to do with it. The AWA was a national promotion.

The AWA of course. The ECW comparison is laughable.

I like how very few people are sticking up for ECW. Any pro ECW argument is going go be shallow.

What does that even mean?

Seriously?

I think this just boils down to more CZW yard tards liking ECW due to the fact that is was closer to that shit garbage wrestling than anything else.

still it wasn't international, to be honest i had never heard of it until this thread

it means people who are not from america most likley have never seen/heard of awa because it was never shown or spoke about however ecw was shown over here.

AWA had a far more expansive TV and PPV market. They did shows overseas. THis whole argument is fucking retarded and incorrect. You make assumptions based on the fact that you didnt see them, probably because you are 13.

ECW wasnt international fuck wit

oh really? because i swear they were showing ecw hardcore tv in my country
you know , i guess you are right

double that number and you get my age.

awa never had a tv show here
awa never showed any Ppvs over here
also in all my years looking for wrestling tapes/dvd's i have never seen an awa one

and THAT is why i have never seen awa

AWA was very much international. They ran shows all across North America, and would frequently bring in Asian wrestlers. The AWA also had T.V deals in Europe and would venture there. An example is the infamous Otto Wanz Heavyweight Title reign. Mr. Saito also won the AWA Title over Larry Zbysko in Japan.

LOL!

Showing a syndicated TV show doesnt make it an international promotion. They never left US soil and had little to no international ties other than a piss poor limited talent exchange.

International Promotions have established business ties around the world, do shows from multiple countries.

lol they went to Canada once. I went to the show.

I repeat, they never left US Soil.

Actually they went to Canada all the time

They worked with Al Tomko's promotion when they did shows in Canada

They also had tv thru out Europe and Asia

I believe they went to Japan as well

I think the wrestlers went to Japan, but i don't believe the actual promotion did. kinda like a talent exchange.

yeah that's what I meant...

It seemed like Japan used alot of american talent in the late 70's and 80's as well as Puerto Rico

AWA had Ricky Choshu and Saito as a tag team at one point. The Guerrero Brothers frequently did stints in the AWA too.

Yep I believe AWA also had japanese wrestler Jumbo Tsuruta as worlds champion breifly

Yep I was right... here it is

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lol geography.

lots of wrestlers you wouldn't even think of have done AWA shots one time or another. Like Gertner said, there were constant talent exchanges going on within all the NWA promotions. Fresh Faces brought in $$$$.

Being as I wasn't alive for AWA's era, I can't pick. Love ECW to death though.

They ran shows in Japan. As a matter of fact, I have a Hardcore TV that details one of their Japanese tours. So yeah...

Yeah but that doesn't count as they usually did them with FMW....

Hey guys I was a fan of ECW as well but you cannot clearly tell me that ECW was better then AWA

AWA created legends all ECW did was take unwanted talent and make them indy superstars


AWA produced RIC FLAIR for crying out loud....

I'm bumping this...

I'm actually surprised ECW is winning this poll, because based on the thread I really thought AWA was going to be killing it.

ECW is responsible for making wrestling industry the most profitable it ever was. Late 90's boom happened primarily because of the big 2 companies ripping ECW off.

ECW can't compete with the AWA roster, but ECW still made a ridiclious impact with 1/3 of the talent AWA had. That's really impressive.

I will not give ECW that credit.

ECW drove WWF/WCW to their finest and changed the landscape.

AWA drove WWE/NA to their finest.

They are very similar.

I will neither say that ECW had a worst roster.

AWA had anaoming chance. They had Hogan before he was Hulk. They has the most amazing wrestlers ever come through.

but ECW roster over the years was just as good.

AWA had Hogan
ECW had Austin
AWA had Perfect
ECW had RVD

And so on

AWA had Bockwinkel, Hall, Hansen, Brody, Rhodes, Murdoch, Ventura, Verne Gagne, Von Raschke, Road Warriors, Robinson, Martel, the Rockers, and so on.

ECW had The Dudleyz, Guerrero, Benoit, Malenko, Mysterio, Douglas, Bigelow


I'd take the AWA roster any day of the week.

Wow, I cant type for shit when I am drunk

also lets not forget ECW had Jericho

It still doesn't measure up to the AWA's talent roster. Anybody who was anybody came through the AWA.

You could say the same on the NWA ffs

NWA > AWA in my opinion.

Thats a Given

NWA > Everything

NWA > WWF > AWA > ECW > WCW > ROH > TNA

I'd put WCW ahead of ECW. WCW during its peak was tremendous.

but that was like 10 percent of their run. Think of 1990-1995. and 1999-2000

ECW was solid its whole run

After 2000 it wasn't that great, especially in its final years.

Fixed.

2000/2001 was pretty good. Corino was the shit, Sandman and Raven had their return runs. Rhyno was a mad man

You get past those four are you were pretty much left with low card wrestlers. The roster had zero depth.

Look at their Final PPV

RVD
Lynn
Rhino
Sandman
Corino
Credible
Balls
Simon Diamond
Whipwreck
Tajiri
Kid kash
Super Crazy
The FBI
Tommy Dreamer
CW Anderson
Nova
Doring
Roadkill

Pretty fucking deep. granted they had a couple shitty guys on the card (Chilly Willy, Hamrick, Dinero) that was a hella good roster.

Not to mention they had Cyrus, Joel, Joey, Francine, Sinister Minister, Dawn Marie as on air personalities

Solid workers no doubt, but in comparison to 2 years before it doesn't measure up. The tag division was the area that really stood out. Doring and Roadkill were essentially a jobber tag team in 99-2000, and they were the last world tag team champs.

The division consisted of Diamond and Swinger, The FBI, Tajiri/Whipwreck Doring and Roadkill, and Hott Commodity.

Better than any tag division I have seen in 8 years.

Consider the time frame though. ECW had teams like the Impact players, Eliminators, Gangstas, RVD/Sabu, Dudleyz. No way any of those teams would have come close to winning the belts( I'm aware FBI held the belts when it was smothers and Guido.)

To be fair, look at AWAs last year vs ECWs last year if you want to knock on it.

Tournament Challenge?

I think it is safe to say that every promotions last year is the pits, which is why they close.

lol oh the tournament challenge, what a complete mess that was. You know things are going wrong when one of your captains leave the company in the middle of the tourny. Although it did bring us a Russo match before it's time: Turkey on a pole match.

And the Gridiron Challenge. Simply amazing television. All in front of NO audience.

The pink room

Was never a fan of ECW.

Heard of AWA, but even if I've seen any matches it only might have been in some kind of a compilation.

AWA because they had the better talent come out of it