Wrestling Superstars Live!
| Wrestling Superstars Live! |
|
|---|---|
| shape | promotion |
| Establishment date | 1996 |
| Location | Rochester, Minnesota Chicago, Illinois |
| Territories | Global |
| founder | Verne Gagne (by tradition) |
| management |
Dale Gagner Jonnie Stewart |
| Branch | Pro wrestling |
| Further information | |
| Inactive since | February 2009 |
| Closed since | 2010 |
| Website | Profile on Facebook.com |
Wrestling Superstars Live! , WSL for short , is a former American wrestling promotion based in Rochester, Minnesota and Chicago, Illinois. Promoters were Dale Gagner and Jonnie Stewart .
history
In 1996, two former wrestlers from the former Promotion American Wrestling Association founded a wrestling promotion called AWA Superstars Of Wrestling (SOW) , which saw itself in the tradition of the former AWA, but was not identical to it.
Organizing under the AWA banner became possible because Verne Gagne had failed to protect the naming rights at the time.
From 2005 Gagner, who now called himself "Gagne" and, according to the storyline, called himself a "distant relative of Verne Gagne", began to sell the rights to the name "AWA" to foreign wrestling promotions. For example, AWA titles were sold to Japanese , Canadian and British promotions and held in these countries.
Gagner even went so far that he sold the American Wrestling Association's naming rights to sub-organizations of the competing NWA , which in turn also had AWA titles.
On October 30, 2007, Gagner and Stewart stated in a press release that the American Wrestling Association no longer felt bound by the territorial principle and would now compete in every single state in the USA. With this declaration, the cooperation with the NWA was finally ended.
Previously, the wrestling market leader World Wrestling Entertainment sued Gagner April 26, 2007 for infringement of the naming rights. According to the popular opinion of the WWE, these fell to the then World Wrestling Federation after the original AWA was discontinued . The court ruled in favor of the wrestling market leader and this is how Gagner named his promotion in Wrestling Superstars Live! around.
The promotion was last held on February 21, 2009 and was closed during 2010.