TBS Acquires AWA: 1991 and beyond

What a year! It was finished at the end of 1991. I am sharing the summary of 1991 below. I hope you had fun reading it! In this first year when I returned AWA from the cemetery, I tried to give a push to Brian Pillman in particular. However, as the company lost importance in some regions, I had to activate "heavy weapons" such as Rick Rude, Ricky Steamboat, Jerry Lawler and Jesse Ventura. Larry Zbyszko unintentionally stayed in the background with the introduction of these talents. In fact, Zbyszko would win the Crockett Cup tournament. But as I said, in order not to allow the loss of importance points to increase further, I quickly recruited "Ravishing" Rick and won the tournament and earned the championship belt.

With Pillman, I hope to develop young talents like Owen Hart and Eddie Guerrero throughout 1992 (likewise, Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko). However, the most important problem here is that these talents are on tour in Japan most of the year and their calendars do not fit the AWA on the days of PPVs. I would like to evaluate these capabilities if I can switch to Exclusive PPA contract type.

Eddie Gilbert was the biggest disappointed for me in the 1991. Although we signed the contract with high hopes, we had many problems from the moment he arrived due to the unpleasant situations he was involved in the backstage area and his disturbing character. As a result, from the moment I gave him a warning, we got on bad terms and he started to hate me. That was bad because I had just given the AWA World championship to him. For this reason, the period in which Gilbert became the champion was short and his AWA adventure was much shorter than I expected.

I was too excited for Rental Killers Inc in the tag team/stable division at the beginning of 1991. However, I could not give the right push. Although I quite like the concept, I could not find suitable talents for this stable. And that's why this stable has been inactive for a while. With SuperClash, I'll be experimenting with a new Rental Killers with brand new talents. Normally I was planning a stable led by Tony Atlas. However, a few days after signing the PPA contract with him, he signed a written contract with the WWF and had to leave the AWA before he could ever use it. Thus, I included Ken Patera, one of the former stars of AWA, in the plan. As I had planned from the very beginning, I brought another team of United Nations of Terror into the dissolution process with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. With 1992, I aim to give a little more push to the El Tiradores team, which was formed by the duo Eddie and Salazar Luuv (El Dandy). However, as I just said, the fact that talents like Eddie are constantly on tour in Japan creates a big problem and it messes with my booking processes.

The biggest loss for me in the managers division this year has been Jim Cornette. When he became a booker in the Global Wrestling Federation, he did not want to renew his contract with the AWA and left. Instead, I tried to create a Racket Club model with Paul Ellering. At this point, I felt like I wasted a bit of Sid, who has been in this formation since the beginning, and I separated him from Racket Club along with Cornette. I have big plans for Terry Mawashi in the future. After helping him with his drug addiction, we developed a relationship of loyalty. He hasn't been on the Japan tour for a while and I attribute the reason to this.

This year, I bought the failing South Eastern Wrestling Alliance (SEWA) company and made it our child company. I will send very young talents here to evolve until their rookie period is over.

I'm excited for 1992! If you have followed this whole diary in general, all your comments and recommendations are very important to me. I am so happy to share my diary on this forum and with you!