AWA: The World’s Poorest Athletes
This article was written by Matthew Burgess and was originally published on www.unicafemedia.com
When people think of professional wrestling, it is safe to say most think of the bright lights of the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), the Hulk Hogan’s, the Stone Cold Steve Austin’s and the Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s of the world.
However, the whacky world of professional wrestling isn’t always performing on the biggest stages in packed out arenas across the globe. For the most part, a wrestler will spend thousands of dollars on gear, jump into a $500 car and go to a show where they’ll make $50. In fact, the odds of becoming a WWE superstar are actually lower than making it in the NFL, NBA, MLB or the NHL.
Few people realise Brisbane has its own independent wrestling scene, and leading the way is Jesse Moon and the Australian Wrestling Alliance (AWA).
“We work very hard to make sure each person that comes enjoys themselves,” Jesse Moon, AWA’s owner, promoter and one of many wrestlers exclaimed. “It’s got to the point where we’ve had people come to our shows who have been to WWE events and say that you guys are so much better, how come people don’t know about you?”
Despite a lack of awareness in the wider community, AWA has worked diligently to re-establish Queensland professional wrestling after the void left by Channel 9’s decision to cease coverage of Australia’s World Championship Wrestling in 1978.
Back then wrestling in Queensland was being run by the Professional Wrestling Association of Queensland (PWAQ), and were comfortably getting shows of over a thousand people. But then the crowds started to decline rapidly, and wrestlers were left performing and risking their lives for an audience of 50 people, at best.
In 2008, professional wrestling in Queensland was still suffering from Packer’s decision and was facing an uphill battle to say the least. This was when a young Jesse embarked on a career in professional wrestling.
“In all honesty I probably should have stopped, but that little kid in me was just like ‘no you’ve got to do this. Good things will come to you if you work hard’.”
The owner of PWAQ then sold the company to an individual who called himself the Vince McMahon, WWE’s Chairman and CEO, of Australian Wrestling, who ironically began running the company into the ground. Jesse and his trainer at the time, world travelled wrestler Esteban Molina, were sitting backstage, rolling their eyes and said, “we can’t do this.”
As a result, in 2011, under the guidance of wrestling stalwart Esteban, the Australian Wrestling Alliance was born with a single goal. To restore Queensland wrestling to its former glory. However, to say the AWA came from humble beginnings would be an understatement.
“Our first show was for the Caboolture show at the end of 2011. We had the six best guys in Queensland and we wrestled in a bull pen, sawdust and dirt everywhere. Our locker room consisted of a cement staircase,” Jesse laughed. “Very humble beginnings.”
However, although Esteban had the experience, he was being called out to wrestle far too often and AWA was suffering.
“I was seeing how you should be promoting a company, but I wasn’t seeing the hard work it actually took,” Moon explained.
In 2012, Esteban returned to America for personal issues, and the company was handed over to promoter Neil Henry.
“He [Esteban] was going to give it to me at the time, but he gave it to Neil, a good friend of mine, as he was instrumental in the promotion side of it. He was ringing newspapers, making the phone calls and for me to step in and start doing that, when he had already been doing that, didn’t sit well with me. So Neil took over, and I became his second as the booker and promoter, “ said Jesse.
During Neil’s time in charge AWA was booking some of the US independent scene’s biggest stars such as Paul London, Colt Cabana and Adam Pearce, who now works for the WWE. However, eventually Neil found it a bit stale, and in late 2012 he handed the reins over to Jesse.
“By now I’d seen more companies come and go that I’d like to admit, but there was a lot of good stuff on the horizon. I’d only ever heard the fables where a thousand people were coming to shows and I just wanted to bring that back.”
Shortly after Jesse took over, Luke Davison who ran Grindhouse Wrestling at the time, came to him with an idea, and wanted to use Jesse’s ring. The idea was to do something different, to step away from what everyone else in Queensland was doing , to start using masked characters.
Grindhouse Wrestling had the idea. Jesse and AWA had the ring, the belts and all the equipment.
“Come under AWA,” Jesse told him. “Use our belts, our ring, our storylines, use our name. If it doesn’t work out we’ll split.”
Luckily it worked out and AWA has not looked back since. With Davison and Moon splitting the workload, Davison booking and organising the matches, and Moon promoting , AWA has gone from strength to strength, running monthly shows for three years now. But the product has changed dramatically in that time according to former AWA Heavyweight Champion, and one of the best professional wrestlers in Australia, AJ Istria.
“AWA has changed more than anything. What started as family events in the suburbs evolved into a completely different type of entertainment when we started over 18 shows at the globe. It turned into a more alternative style of entertainment.”
AWA’s over 18 shows at the New Globe Theatre in Fortitude Valley are the driving force of the company, and they are alternative in every sense of the word. On any given show fans are treated to an array of masked wrestlers, outlandish storylines and of course, fantastic professional wrestling.
“We’ve had guys do boy band gimmicks, to homosexual gimmicks and everything in between,” said Jesse. “The level of talent we’ve got now is phenomenal. People come to our shows and they’re blown away by the technical element, blown away by the humour, the satire, the entertainment, the comedy, you’ve got the technical ability, you’ve got the high flying, the brutal back and forth punching, you get everything you get on a WWE pay-per-view and more because there’s no limitations on the guys.”
AWA still runs all ages shows at both the New Globe Theatre and Pine Rivers PCYC, with the latter now being broadcast on Foxtel’s Aurora network, gaining viewers from across the country. Furthermore, AWA’s all ages shows are also live streamed across the globe, with over 10,000 worldwide viewers from countries such as Mexico and Japan.
It’s been a tough few years, but AWA is well on its way to restoring professional wrestling in Queensland to its former glory. However, despite all of AWA’s success, Jesse is always looking to take the next step.
“We’re out there. We’re in the public eye. But we need to do a lot more. What Australia needs right now is that TV deal, and of all the companies in Australia right now, of all the companies doing great stuff, right now AWA is the only one that has the potential to do the weekly show. That’s through a lot of hard work, through our different branding system, what we’ve done is different to what everybody else in the country has done, and that’s what’s going to see us succeed. AWA’s always been able to not just be a step ahead, but be five steps ahead.”
One of the reasons AWA has seen so much success is its passionate fan base. Jesse, who wrestles as a bad guy, otherwise known as a heel, under the name Jesse Daniels, is infatuated with the connection he has with fans.
“Our fans are what drive us. They force us to reach new heights and do crazy stuff just to get a cheer or a boo. But there’s so much more to it than that. You make eye contact with a little kid, who believes in what you’re doing like I’m the bad guy. I’m looking at this little kid, I’m not telling him I’m going to hurt him, I’m going to destroy the guy in the ring right now. He’s going to regret he ever stepped there. I turn around I get punched in the face, that same guy looks at the little kid and he’s like ‘nah I got this!’ That little kid suddenly believes that superheroes are real, that if he’s getting bullied in school he can do something about it. I love it.”
But it’s not just young children. Pὸl Rua, a 30 year fan of professional wrestling who has been going to shows in Queensland for over a decade, can’t get enough of AWA.
“I love the athletic competition, the theatrics and the immediate crowd reaction. I love being able to watch the guys improve with every show, it’s rewarding to be a part of their journey. It’s also the fact that at the Easter show I was being handed chocolate eggs by Combat Wombat, a military experiment where they tried to create a super soldier gone wrong. I mean where else does this happen?”
But beneath all of AWA’s success, there lies a core of giving back to the community, something Jesse and AWA pride themselves on. In 2012 they took the huge Adam Pierce vs. Colt Cabana show to Caboolture and donated plenty of tickets to the Starlight Foundation.
“We ended up having a busload of people from Starlight come. I can remember a family of 11, I think they had three or four children with disabilities, they got go to go out as family for the first time ever. They came to the wrestling. I got called a fucking dickhead by one of the kids. As a bad guy, it was great.”
The Australian Wrestling Alliance is more than just a promotion. It’s a promotion that cares about its fans, the community and the future of Queensland and Australian professional wrestling. With a driven Jesse Moon at the helm, AWA is bound to go on to bigger and better things.
“I’ve been here since the start, and I’ll be here until the end.”
