But as Vince McMahon and his northeastern-based World Wrestling Federation (WWF) attempted to end pro wrestling's regional era in the mid-1980s (by establishing the WWF as a national promotion), Gagne made several decisions that caused his AWA to lose momentum in the emerging wrestling promotion war, including overemphasizing his son Greg Gagne in AWA storylines (which led to speculation of nepotism by Verne within the company) and failing to make Hulk Hogan the focus of his company when he had the chance.
Frustrated by Verne Gagne's business decisions, Hogan accepted an offer from rival promoter McMahon to wrestle for the WWF, in December 1983. One month later, Hogan became the World Heavyweight champion. He and the WWF soon became a mainstream media phenomenon and virtually synonymous with professional wrestling in much of the national consciousness, vaulting past the AWA and NWA as the premier promotion in wrestling. Hogan wasn't alone in leaving the AWA. Some of the AWA's other top talent, including announcer "Mean" Gene Okerlund, manager Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, and wrestlers Adrian Adonis, Ken Patera, Jim Brunzell, and Jesse Ventura, also jumped to the WWF. The sting of the WWF expansion was not shouldered by the AWA alone. The NWA also lost top stars "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Jack Brisco, Jerry Brisco, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, and "Cowboy" Bob Orton to the WWF during that same time.
On the Spectacular Legacy of the AWA DVD, Eric Bischoff revealed that one of the main reasons the AWA shut down was that Verne Gagne was leveraging money against a valuable property he owned along Lake Minnetonka. Local officials wanted to turn the property into a park. Gagne fought the decision for several years, but eventually lost the eminent domain case, leading to the creation of Lake Minnetonka Regional Park. As a result, he lost the financial resource he was using to keep the AWA up and running and had no choice but to shut down the promotion. In an interview during the late 1990s with KARE 11, an NBC affiliate out of Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Gagne spoke of the devoted fan base in Minnesota and joked about how he may promote again some day, but nothing ever materialized.
There's your answer....
Could they have been? absolutely WWF may never had gotten it's initial momentum if AWA/NWA were run correct, and just 10yrs later NWA/WCW started to pull it off b4 there funding was pulled too and talent jumped ship back to WWF.
Lol also reading that first bit it seemed Hogan was an egomaniac b4 he ever came to WWF and insisted he be the only one to be the focus of the company and when Gagne didn't he took his ball and went to another company. Gee how original, exactly how his jump to WCW happened 
WWF stopped using him as the sole focus and he got shitty and fled to WCW where they put him back into the number 1 slot.
