The American Wrestling Association (AWA) was an American professional wrestling promotion based in Minneapolis, Minnesota that ran from 1960 until 1991. It was founded by Verne Gagne and Wally Karbo. The promotion was born out of the Minneapolis Boxing & Wrestling Club, originally founded in 1933, which served as the Minnesota-based territory of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) from 1948 onward, before breaking away from the NWA and becoming an independent territory in 1960.
Harley Leland Race was an American professional wrestler, promoter, and trainer.
Rocky Johnson was a Canadian professional wrestler. Among many National Wrestling Alliance titles, he was the first Black Georgia Heavyweight Champion as well as the NWA Television Champion. He won the World Tag Team Championship in 1983, along with his partner Tony Atlas, to become the first black champions in WWE history. He was the father of actor and current WWE wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and the grandfather of Simone Johnson.
Alan Robert Rogowski, better known by the ring name Ole Anderson, was an American professional wrestler, booker, and promoter.
Eugene Avon Anderson was an American professional wrestler and professional wrestling manager. He is best known for being one-half of the tag team the Minnesota Wrecking Crew, first with Lars Anderson, then with Ole Anderson.
The Minnesota Wrecking Crew, also known simply as the Andersons, was originally a professional wrestling tag team that was formed by Gene and Lars Anderson but since then has comprised a number of wrestlers. All members wrestled were presented as members of the Anderson family despite not being blood related.
Nicholas Warren Francis Bockwinkel was an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the American Wrestling Association (AWA) in the 1970s and 1980s.
Fanene Leifi Pita Maivia, better known as Peter Maivia, was a Samoan-American professional wrestler, actor and stunt coordinator. Maivia was the grandfather of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson via adoption, and was also part of the famous Anoaʻi family via blood brother pact. He was also the promoter of the National Wrestling Alliance member Polynesian Pro Wrestling in Hawaii.
James Grady Johnson was an American professional wrestler, best known by his ring name, "Crazy" Luke Graham. As Luke Graham, Johnson was part of the Graham family, a stable of wrestlers. All members were billed as kayfabe brothers. He worked extensively for various National Wrestling Alliance territories as well as the World Wide Wrestling Federation, where he was a three-time tag-team champion and the inaugural WWWF World Tag Team Champion.
Paul E. Perschmann was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, Playboy Buddy Rose. He wrestled primarily for the AWA, WWF, and for promoter Don Owen in Pacific Northwest Wrestling.
Don Stansauk was an American professional wrestler and actor, known by his ring name, Hard Boiled Haggerty. He was previously a professional American football player, and he became a successful character actor after his wrestling career.
Carl Raymond Stevens, better known as Ray "the Crippler" Stevens or Ray "Blond Bomber" Stevens, was an American professional wrestler. Stevens was a wrestling superstar since the early years of the television era until his retirement during the early 1990s.
Larry Hennig was an American professional wrestler. He was the father of "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig, and the grandfather of Curtis Axel and Amy "Ms. Perfect" Hennig. He worked in the American Wrestling Association, National Wrestling Alliance, and the World Wide Wrestling Federation. Hennig was known by the nickname, "The Axe", a nickname he had because of his signature, often finishing move of dropping a full weight elbow onto his prone opponents.
The Anderson family is a family of professional wrestlers, largely consisting of brothers, cousins and children.
Les Wolff was an American football player and professional wrestler, known by his ring name "Beautiful" Buddy Wolfe, who competed in North American regional promotions including the American Wrestling Association, National Wrestling Alliance and the World Wide Wrestling Federation during the 1970s and 80s.
John Joseph Murphy was a Canadian professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Skull Murphy. He began his career wrestling in Canada and later worked at Jim Crockett Promotions and Georgia Championship Wrestling in the United States. In the 1960s, he teamed with Brute Bernard in the World Wide Wrestling Federation and won championships in several professional wrestling promotions. In his later career, he worked primarily in Australia.
The Blond Bombers is a name used by several tag teams in professional wrestling. The first team to use the name was the combination of Rip Hawk and Swede Hanson. It was later used by Pat Patterson and Ray Stevens, who began teaming in 1965. Larry Latham and Wayne Farris used the name in the late 1970s in the Continental Wrestling Association and, from 1979 to 1980, Stanley Lane and Bryan St. John competed as the Blonde Bombers while wrestling in Championship Wrestling from Florida. In the early 2000s, the team of Tank and Chad Toland appeared as the Blond Bombers in Ohio Valley Wrestling before changing their team name upon entering World Wrestling Entertainment. Each incarnation held title belts together at least once. Patterson and Stevens were inducted as a team into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2006.
Roy Lee Albern, known by the ring name Ripper Collins, was an American professional wrestler, who primarily wrestled for 50th State Big Time Wrestling, also known as NWA Hawaii.
A Hot Summer Night: The '85 World Invitational Wrestling Spectacular was a professional wrestling supercard produced by NWA Polynesian Pro Wrestling (NWA-PPW), which took place on August 3, 1985, at the Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii. An interpromotional show, it featured wrestlers from the American Wrestling Association, Jim Crockett Promotions and New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
A Hot Summer Night II was a professional wrestling supercard produced by NWA Polynesian Pro Wrestling (NWA-PPW), which took place on August 9, 1986, at the Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii. Like the original show, this was an interpromotional event and featured representatives from All Star Pro Wrestling, the Continental Wrestling Association, Championship Wrestling from Florida, New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Stampede Wrestling.
