Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
When the American Wrestling Association (AWA) folded in 1991 and was purchased by Vince McMahon and WWE, the thought process was buy a vast, treasure trove of a rich and historic video library. While WWE did indeed do that, I am pretty sure one of their discoveries probably caught them way off guard. While legendary names like Larry Hennig, Nick Bockwinkel, Stan Hansen, Baron Von Raschke and The Road Warriors have all made their way through the Minnesota based wrestling promotion…I am confident that WWE executives weren’t expecting names like Hondo the Honeybee Haymaker, Nutri Rockne and Mr. Oat-portunity to also be included in the sale.
Most of you may be curious about those obscure AWA wrestling names and never knew they existed…but for one night in 1989…they did indeed. You see, back in 1989, the AWA was already starting its decline in the pro wrestling industry. Promoter Verne Gagne was having a hard time adapting his company to a younger generation of fans. He was hesitant to push younger talent…instead pushing older veterans that he trusted more. While the AWA was seemingly in a financial crisis, Verne needed other ways to generate income to continue to run his promotion.
On May 1st, 1989, the AWA partnered with the Kellogg’s company to put together a sort of wrestling/sales showcase. Yes, the company that has given us iconic advertising mascots like Tony the Tiger, Toucan Sam and Snap, Crackle and Pop were going into business with a struggling wrestling promotion. It wasn’t to become an official sponsor for the AWA, nor was Kellogg’s interested in buying a stake in Verne’s promotion. What it was, was seemingly a one time deal where sales executives for Kellogg’s would be treated to a pro wrestling show….but not like anything we had seen up to that point.
The event took place at the Hyatt Hotel in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the ballroom on May 1st, 1989. It was affectionately called, “The Battle of the Breakfast Cereals.” It would feature a series of matches with such titles as THE MELEE IN MINNEAPOLIS, TERROR IN THE TWIN CITIES, THE BRAWL NEAR ST. PAUL and THE RILE IN THE AISLE! In between the matches, would be representatives from Kellogg’s to give speeches on how to improve sales and continue to compete against Kellogg’s main rival in General Mills.
For the Battle of the Breakfast Cereals….the AWA wrestlers didn’t portray themselves, but characters with goofy cereal inspired nicknames as we previously mentioned. Some of the wrestlers who participated on this show included, Greg Gagne, Tom Zenk, Paul Diamond, Pat Tanaka, Col. Debeers, Mike Enos, Wayne Bloom and Wahoo McDaniel. The concept was pretty simple…the AWA heels would represent the dreaded competition General Mills….while the AWA babyfaces represented Kellogg’s.
The entrances for the heels and babyfaces actually had signs that stated “Bad Guys” and “Good Guys” so as not to confuse the Kellogg’s sales team that were in attendance. All of the wrestlers would hold boxes of cereal, with the bad guys putting down the Kellogg’s brand and beating up boxes of their cereals. The entire event was hosted by AWA announcer Larry Nelson. The ring announcer was a man named Dale Gagner, who years later would change his name to Dale Gagne and run wrestling shows using the AWA name…supposedly unauthorized.
It is unclear how much money Kellogg’s paid Verne Gagne for this particular event or if any of the wrestlers were paid for their participation. While the event was taped, it wasn’t meant to be viewed by the general public. It wasn’t until the WWE Network aired it a few years ago as a part of their ‘Hidden Gems’ collection. While it seemed harmless and innocent enough…allegedly not every one found the humor in what the AWA and Kellogg’s were trying to present. Some Kellogg’s executives took a few shots at wrestling being fake, but the competition with General Mills was very real. No word if that particular exec met with an untimely accident before leaving Minneapolis.
The entire length of the event lasted about an hour. Here are the official results of this one night only event…
Nutri Rockne (Tommy Jammer) defeats Total The Terrible (Mike Enos)
Mr. Oat-Portunity (Derrick Dukes) defeats Hondo Honeybee Haymaker (Wayne Bloom)
Dr. K (Wahoo McDaniel) defeats The General (Col. DeBeers)
The Sales And Marketing Team (Greg Gagne & Tom Zenk) defeat The Mills Brothers (Pat Tanaka & Paul Diamond)
This was a one time event, never to be done again. Ironically, the late Lee Marshall who was an AWA announcer would later become the voice of Tony the Tiger for Kellogg’s cereal in 2005 until his death in 2014. Did the Battle of Breakfast Cereal event help him eventually get his foot in Kellogg’s door? We may never truly know.