The Road Warriors: Danger, Death, and the Rush of Wrestling by Joe Laurinaitis Page A

last match together. Jack retired to Florida; Jerry went to the WWF as an agent.
    When June rolled around, panic was in the air from some of the boys. Fearing the worst, some Georgia Championship Wrestling guys scrambled to other territories. Paul had anticipated this, so he got in touch with AWA owner Verne Gagne to gauge his interest in having the Road Warriors jump aboard.
    After having lost Hulk Hogan, his biggest star, and a bunch of other wrestlers to the WWF, Verne needed to make some big moves quickly or he could’ve ended up in a situation like Ole’s. Verne told us he was ready whenever we were and that we’d immediately be thrown into a championship program for the AWA World Tag Team titles. He also said there was a big TV deal with ESPN on the horizon and we’d be a major factor in the network’s decision.
    We liked what we heard. Verne had a reputation for being a smart businessman and paying his main event guys good money. The AWA was also based right in our backyard in Minneapolis, which made it an even easier decision. We gave Verne a verbal agreement over the phone and then went to speak with Ole about our departure.
    By this time, Ole was having a hard time keeping himself together. Thinking guys from the WWF might break in and take his records, he was paranoid to leave his office at the TV studio. I hated seeing him like that.
    When we told him we were going to the AWA, Ole more than understood. He said how proud he was of us and talked about how far we’d come. We agreed to drop the National belts on our way out of the company, shook his hand, and even gave him a farewell present. Since Ole was so concerned about the security of his office, Hawk called our old bouncing buddy Scott Norton to come down. Norton was bigger than ever and more than happy to stand guard at the office. Although it never came down to it, Norton was prepared to murder anyone dumb enough to get in Ole’s way.
    For the rest of June and into July, it was pretty much business as usual without any real sign that the WWF was coming. The rumor was that Vince was going to produce his own show from our World Championship Wrestling studio, but the place remained unchanged right up until the day we left. Hawk and I just focused on the few matches ahead of us that we had to finish up before abandoning ship.
    We defended the titles almost every night and still made the Saturday morning TV tapings. All along, we wondered what kind of changes, if any, were going to take place. On Black Saturday, July 14, at 6:05 p.m., we found out like everybody else.
    The intro to World Championship Wrestling started with its usual opening graphics and music, while announcer Freddie Miller, who had replaced Gordon Solie, stood at the podium. After saying hello, Freddie welcomed the World Wrestling Federation to TBS before introducing none other than Vince McMahon.
    Having Vince in Atlanta was definitely a surreal moment but not as shocking as his announcement that people would no longer be seeing the stars of Georgia Championship Wrestling on TBS. “We’ll be bringing you the very best in professional wrestling entertainment in the world today.”
    But the fans of World Championship Wrestling thought that’s what they already had. The backlash from the public was overwhelming. Angry viewers started sending complaints and bombarding TBS with phone calls, demanding to know where their beloved show was. In those days, the WWF didn’t go over too well in the Southern states. Its product came off to the people like an over-the-top circus compared to the grittier, more realistic presentation of the NWA.
    Fundamentally, though, the biggest issue to Southerners with the big change was the simplest: the WWF was from the North.
    You’ve got to understand something. Southern people are extremely proud of their heritage and still recognize many of the traditional boundaries from the Civil War era, especially those concerning land. Anything north of Virginia is