| 1 | 18.04.2020 | steviecw | 7.0 | Generously it could be considered a spiritual successor to the classic AWA World Championship, more cynically it could be regarded as a scam heavy grift from a big time carny promoter. However, this was a title that was defended prolifically and proudly by a number of terrific wrestlers. International defenses were relatively common and the championship was quite established in Japan for a spell through Masato Tanaka, Steve Corino, Takao Omori and Shinjiro Otani. Corino played the role of traveling champion well, defending the AWA title against champions in UXW (Balls Mahoney) and BCWC (Sean Casey) and winning their gold too. Ultimately the title is too messy to be truly prestigious on account of pretending to be something that it wasn't but it was still a title that got a lot of mileage due to the hard work of the performers. UPDATE: Rating revised from 6 to 7 having read Steve Corino's blog on his championship reign. As much as a carny con, you can consider this a love letter to the original AWA and some of the excitement of the time is apparent. In a number of ways, Corino's reign with the AWA went better than his NWA title run. |
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