Exploring The History — AWA Brass Knuckles Championship
Professional Wrestling or pro wrestling is a popular thing in the United States. Other than sports like American Football, Baseball and Basketball, wrestling has been the popular show to watch. However, it is not exactly a sport, but a combination of sports and entertainment. These wrestlers are not just wrestlers, but also the actors. There are many wrestling entertainment companies in the US, including the very famous WWE, AEW, AWA, and many others. These companies introduce different championships for which the wrestlers fight each other. Today, we are exploring some of the championships from the history. Our focus would be on the AWA Brass Knuckles Championship.
What was AWA Brass Knuckles Championship?
During the late 19070’s and 1980’s, pro wrestling was different than it is now. Weapons were often used inside the ring. Among the weapons, the most popular was the brass knuckles. The wrestlers often used it for knocking their opponents down and pick up the win. However, this weapon was not legalized in most of the states in the US during that time. However, despite all the issues AWA (American Wrestling Association) introduced the Brass Knuckles Championship in 1979. There were a couple of wrestlers who held this title. But, the championship never went on and promoted for a long period of time. Rather, it was a short span of a championship. Despite this short period, the championship gave some memorable matches and moments.
In this championship, wrestlers were not exactly wearing brass knuckles. They often have taped their hands to give an impression to the audience that they were wearing the weapon. The idea was to determine who is the toughest wrestler inside the ring. In the matches, almost everything was legal. The wrestlers could use the weapons and objects to their advantage to secure victories over their opponents.
What Exactly is Brass Knuckles?
Since the championship was named after a deadly weapon known as brass knuckles. This is one of the weapons that existed a long time ago but became popular in the recent times. In modern days, we have this weapon as a common thing to defend against the attackers. You know that attackers are now victimizing the people quite fearlessly. Hence, we are urged to use self defense weapons like brass knuckles for our self defense.
Brass knuckles is sometimes known as knuckle duster. It is not necessarily made of brass, rather, it is mostly made of metal. You can wear it around your knuckles. It can seriously enhance your punching power. A punch would then become brutal and inflict a severe injury. However, in the case of AWA Brass knuckles championship, it was not necessarily worn by the wrestlers, therefore, no real damage was done to the wrestlers.
History of the Brass Knuckles Championship
The legal Brass Knuckles Championship was like any other championship in pro wrestling. AWA introduced it on February 12, 1979. As today we have several different championships like United States Championship and Intercontinental Championship, this was a similar one. However, it had a few significant rules. At an event called Mid-South Coliseum, this championship was revealed to the audience. However, later in May 1981, the championship was abandoned.
As everybody knows, there is a storyline behind every match held in pro wrestling. This championship was held during a storyline involving Don Fargo who challenged many wrestlers for this title. During the match, both the wrestlers heavily taped their fists and pretended as if they had worn the brass knuckles. However, on the belt, brass knuckles were drawn. The non disqualification matches were held during those days and punching the opponent did not cause disqualification. During the whole run of this championship, there were just two champions, Don Fargo and Lisowski.
It is also believed by many former wrestlers and fans that the title debuted just to introduce Don Fargo to the fans in the territory of Memphis. Fargo used to determine that he was a World Brass Knuckles Champion. Hence, he was then given the title as he actually became champion. It is worth mentioning that a short run of the title was memorable. There were great matches in which almost everything was legal. However, it is funny how they pretended to wear the weapon but had just taped their fists. Perhaps, this is one of the reasons why this championship did not capture the attention of the fans entirely.
Read Also : Best Self Defense Weapons to carry around or Own
During the early days of the championship, fans mostly remained uninterested. They never gave a huge appreciation to the matches and seemed if they did not enjoy them to a great extent. This is why the title was deactivated once Fargo left after a long reign of 595 days as the champion. However, this did not discourage the AWA as they introduced the title again in 1980 when The Crusher won it. But, the title was again disappeared from the picture when The Crusher suffered an injury that ended his pro wrestling career.
After The Crusher left the title vacant, it was deactivated once again. After that time, we did not see the title for a very long time. It seemed as if AWA had decided not to bring it back to the audience. However, in 2005, after 25 years, Brass Knuckles Championship was again brought back. This time around, the title run was even shorter than before. It lasted just six months before the title was deactivated for the third time. The matches were held once again but the audience never seemed interested. Finally, we saw the end of the title and till now we haven’t seen the title again.
Conclusion
From this whole story, one can conclude that it is difficult to shove something down the throat of the audience. Brass knuckles championship was a great idea to start with. However, it had a miserable end. But, in the future, we may see someone give yet another try with such a championship. Brass knuckles have been used in the matches in WWE, specifically by Chris Jericho and William Regal. So, Vince MacMahon may decide to bring such a title to the picture again and promote one of his superstars the way Don Frago was promoted under this championship.
