10 Wrestling Facts We Didn't Know Last Week (Dec 7)

6. The AWA Planned To Eventually Beam Crowds Into Empty Arenas

There was no way the AWA was heading to the top with their hare-brained cost-cutting strategy in the late-80s.

Fire up the WWE Network, head to the 'Hidden Gems' section and you'll see a pilot for the 'Team Challenge Series'. It was the group's bold vision for the future of pro wrestling, and it included wrestlers coming out in front of crude green-screen audiences either side of them. Looking back now, it's embarrassing, and it probably even sucked at the time.

On his 83 Weeks podcast, Eric Bischoff told how the eventual plan was to green-screen cheering fans in at ringside too. That's why the Series took place in those god-awful pink warehouses. Over time, new technology was going to fill in the gaps and have those 'arenas' bursting full of eager, happy people who just loved the AWA.

It was an idea flawed from the start (green-screen isn't pink for a start), and the project was abandoned when the company realised how hard it'd be to implement. So, in the pilot, they went with the original concept and had freakish walls of humanity staring down Tommy Jammer's crotch.