Pavillion Azteca
Pavillion Azteca or the AWWA (Azteca World Wrestling Association) was a Mexico City promotion.
The promotion held some events in 1980 but truly began around 1983 as Pavillion Azteca. It got its name as it held shows in a tent adjacent to Estadio Azteca called Pavillion Azteca. César Valentino played a major role behind the scenes in the promotion.
Around 1983 to 1984, multiple wrestlers in EMLL left EMLL to go independent. Due to this, the promotion now had access to wrestlers like Blue Demon, Halcon Dorado, El Fantasma, Huracán Ramírez, Angel Blanco and others.
In 1983, the promotion held Tercera Dimension to gain publicity. The event was the only wrestling event to ever be held at Estadio Azteca and featured a unique concept where there would be three rings, with different matches happening in each ring at the same time. The event was a success and helped give the promotion more legitimacy.
In 1984, the promotion got a television show on Canal 4. While today this would not be too unusual, in Mexico there were bans on wrestling on television put in place in the 1950's. The show was called "Super Mondays" and was broadcast on Mondays in parts of Mexico like in Tijuana at 7PM. The promotion also sometimes broadcasted matches from Arena Coliseo Monterrey. The promotion used more notable wrestlers like Angel Blanco, Felipe Ham Lee, Sergio El Hermoso and Mil Mascaras, when available. The promotion also gave some younger wrestlers at the time their first break like El Magnifico, Flama Azul, Voltio Negro, El Teddy and others.
The wrestler formerly known as El Sanguinario Jr., changed his character to Super Muneco in 1983. The new gimmick was an instant hit and helped the promotion, despite concerns from various wrestlers and the Mexican Wrestling Commission about such a childish character. The character was such a success that it shaped the promotion into a more kid-friendly promotion with the tagline of "Lucha Fantasia" or "Fight Fantasy". Soon other kid-friendly wrestlers like Tigre de Bengala I, Super Pinocho, Ricky Boy and El Canalla arrived.
The promotion added a Thursday night show during their peak in 1986 with Trio Fantasia of Super Muneco, Super Pinocho and Super Raton being the main draws. While the promotion were able to get more top talent like Lizmark, Los Misioneros de la Muerte and Negro Casas, the wrestlers were seen as "circus fighters" and weren't taken seriously.
The promotion started to cool off as Trio Fantasia got stale, with César Valentino being replaced by Halcón Dorado II behind the scenes. Unable to create new stars and with the talents less than stellar in-ring skills being exposed, the promotion closed in 1988. Trio Fantasia continued to be top independent wrestlers and had runs in EMLL and AAA after it closed.
This promotion had affilations with both EMLL and UWA at points and controlled the Mexican National Trios Championship in 1990. They also had their own group of AWWA championships.
- AWWA World Welterweight Championship
- AWWA World Middleweight Championship
- AWWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship
- AWWA World Trios Championship
- AWWA Light Heavyweight Championship
