10 Most Shocking Pro Wrestling Title Changes Of The 1980s
6. Rick Martel Takes The AWA By Surprise
Rick Martel was a successful tag team wrestler in WWE during the early 1980s. He and Tony Garea had captured the tag team titles on two separate occasions from Captain Lou Albano’s Wild Samoans and Moondogs. They held the belts until Albano threw the team of Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito at them.
Martel quietly left WWE after their loss to begin a solo run in the AWA. In spring 1984, he was flying under the radar when he captured the AWA Championship from Jumbo Tsuruta. Most fans thought Tsuruta would simply drop the belt back to former champion Nick Bockwinkel. Bockwinkel had lost and regained the title before and that was what fans expected before Martel’s upset win. Maybe more shocking than Martel winning the title was that he held it for over a year and a half before dropping it to Stan ‘the Lariat’ Hansen in late 1985.