Dale Gagne wrestles with the truth  Drama and deceit in sports
entertainment's inner circle  Gagner acted as though the WWE
purchase of the trademark had never happened and kept marketing
the AWA name as his own. For a "sanctioning" fee that ranged
from $300 to $750, Gagner sold promoters from Florida to
Winnipeg the right to use the AWA logo and name. He persuaded 22
groups to join. They'd slap "AWA" at the front of their name—AWA
Florida, AWA Rocky Mountain Championship, AWA North Atlantic.
Gagner even offered one AWA franchise promotional materials, "so
that your organization is properly represented as part of the
history and legend of the AWA—American Wrestling Association."
But Gagner's liberal franchising of the AWA name brought him a
new round of trouble.  Down in Florida, Thomas "Mr. T" Perryman,
a part-time sports radio commentator, bought into Gagner's AWA
for his Orlando promotion.  "If you purchased Florida, you would
get all of Florida," Perryman says. "So that's basically the
contract. He sent