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 Post subject: Verne Gagne
PostPosted: Mon Apr 27, 2015 10:55 pm 
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Legendary wrestling figure of the Midwest. Operating out of Minneapolis, his A.W.A. at one point could've been considered the biggest and best territory in the U.S. It's amazing to look back and see the amount of talent that spent time up there in Minnesota. Bockwinkle, Heenan, Rhodes, Baron Von Raschke, Dick Slater, Hall, Hennig, The Rockers, Rick Martel, the Iron Sheik and of course Hulk Hogan just to name a few.

Unfortunately for Verne, he couldn't change with the times and the younger more aggressive Vince McMahon passed him and everybody else by. Who knows what might have been had Gagne realized what he had and had not been so beholden to his old-school beliefs of what wrestlers owe their promoters. Some of my earliest wrestling memories are catching some A.W.A. bouts on Sunday mornings.

Also we cannot forget that Mr. Gagne also killed a man in 2009. In his early eighties, Verne pushed or threw,(depending on the account) 97 year old Helmut R. Gutmann to the floor breaking his hip. Mr. Gutmann eventually died from complications related to the injury.


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 Post subject: Re: Verne Gagne
PostPosted: Mon Apr 27, 2015 10:59 pm 
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Was he recently interviewed by you know who?

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 Post subject: Re: Verne Gagne
PostPosted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 12:05 am 
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When I was a yute, I watched Bob Luce Wrestling on channel 26...Bockwinkle, Heenan, Baron Von Raschke, Dick Slater, the Iron Sheik, Dick the Bruiser, Moose Cholak, The Crusher, Gagne. Burt Weinman Ford, with Linn Burton "for certain" as the spokesman. Great times.
Then I grew up & realized that it was all fake bullshit.

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 Post subject: Re: Verne Gagne
PostPosted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 5:19 am 
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Scorehead wrote:
When I was a yute, I watched Bob Luce Wrestling on channel 26...Bockwinkle, Heenan, Baron Von Raschke, Dick Slater, the Iron Sheik, Dick the Bruiser, Moose Cholak, The Crusher, Gagne. Burt Weinman Ford, with Linn Burton "for certain" as the spokesman. Great times.
Then I grew up & realized that it was all fake bullshit.



Image






...Ray Stevens,The Lanzas, Dr. X (IE The Destroyer),Pretty boy Paul Diamond,British Billy Sullivan,Pedro " Iron Stomach" Morales & Wilbur Snyder.

Verne Gagne was one of my all-time favorites along with Wilbur Snyder & Dr. X. Verne used to have some kind of protein shake he used to advertise between matches. Bob Luce & "Ben's Autosales on Western". Those were the days!!

Flair on Gagne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40kmBDNTQRU

Gagne vs. Dick The Bruiser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCMapMVXWG8

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 Post subject: Re: Verne Gagne
PostPosted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 6:32 am 
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Scorehead wrote:
When I was a yute, I watched Bob Luce Wrestling on channel 26...Bockwinkle, Heenan, Baron Von Raschke, Dick Slater, the Iron Sheik, Dick the Bruiser, Moose Cholak, The Crusher, Gagne. Burt Weinman Ford, with Linn Burton "for certain" as the spokesman. Great times.
Then I grew up & realized that it was all fake bullshit.


I was young and watched these guys as well. I always "hated" when Gagne wrestled / had a match. And......he always won. I never could figure out how that guy could win and was champion.

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 Post subject: Re: Verne Gagne
PostPosted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 6:35 am 
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Matches Malone wrote:
Also we cannot forget that Mr. Gagne also killed a man in 2009. In his early eighties, Verne pushed or threw,(depending on the account) 97 year old Helmut R. Gutmann to the floor breaking his hip. Mr. Gutmann eventually died from complications related to the injury.


That was when Verne was trying to revive the AWA as the Alzheimer's Wrestling Association.

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 Post subject: Re: Verne Gagne
PostPosted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 2:16 pm 
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walkrman5 wrote:
I was young and watched these guys as well. I always "hated" when Gagne wrestled / had a match. And......he always won. I never could figure out how that guy could win and was champion.


The good old days of Kayfabe in the late 70's early 80's when I wondered why this old, bald fuck was the champ.

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 Post subject: Re: Verne Gagne
PostPosted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 3:19 pm 
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Joe Orr Road Rod wrote:
Matches Malone wrote:
Also we cannot forget that Mr. Gagne also killed a man in 2009. In his early eighties, Verne pushed or threw,(depending on the account) 97 year old Helmut R. Gutmann to the floor breaking his hip. Mr. Gutmann eventually died from complications related to the injury.


That was when Verne was trying to revive the AWA as the Alzheimer's Wrestling Association.


Image


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 Post subject: Re: Verne Gagne
PostPosted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 4:33 pm 
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Scorehead wrote:
When I was a yute, I watched Bob Luce Wrestling on channel 26...Bockwinkle, Heenan, Baron Von Raschke, Dick Slater, the Iron Sheik, Dick the Bruiser, Moose Cholak, The Crusher, Gagne. Burt Weinman Ford, with Linn Burton "for certain" as the spokesman. Great times.
Then I grew up & realized that it was all fake bullshit.


Wrestling is a morality play. Either you like good triumphing or evil or you don't.

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 Post subject: Re: Verne Gagne
PostPosted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 4:35 pm 
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I only sampled Verne's product after he ran out of gas, and started pushing Greg Gagne too much. He had an incredibly large territory in its hey-day.

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 Post subject: Re: Verne Gagne
PostPosted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 5:08 pm 
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Beebo wrote:
I only sampled Verne's product after he ran out of gas, and started pushing Greg Gagne too much. He had an incredibly large territory in its hey-day.


One side is "Hey, if I put the belt on myself or my son(s) a la the Von Erichs, I know my champ isn't going to walk out on me." The other side is, my ego is "Running Wild" and completely out of control.

Rumor has it that back when Gagne had Hogan...
A. he wanted a cut of his earnings from Japan and
B. didn't want him to do the Rocky III cameo.

Pissing off your talent, especially your top talent will bite you in the ass eventually. Anybody with any sense would have, and should have realized Hogan was a star amongst stars who was going straight to the top. Verne was stubborn and it cost him big time.


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 Post subject: Re: Verne Gagne
PostPosted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 6:00 pm 
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The 2nd one I heard of. The former sounds likely of him.

I understand the argument for putting the belt on yourself or your kid. But it ignores the fact we don't want to keep seeing their lame asses. (Didn't work for WCW-era Dusty or Flair, either.)

Fritz was a nasty piece of business. Wouldn't pay his kids what they were worth, either.

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 Post subject: Re: Verne Gagne
PostPosted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 6:10 pm 
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This is somewhat interesting. I should read the history. I had assumed the regional stuff like Gagne was dead by the time Rocky III and Hogan were around.

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 Post subject: Re: Verne Gagne
PostPosted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 7:23 pm 
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I think the AWA limped along until the end of the '80s. They were around long enough to do an astonishingly bad ripoff of the Super Bowl Shuffle.

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 Post subject: Re: Verne Gagne
PostPosted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 7:59 pm 
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I remember the old time stuff and then the WCW Von Erich, Thunderbird stuff stayed around. Murky memory.

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 Post subject: Re: Verne Gagne
PostPosted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 10:53 pm 
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Beebo wrote:
The 2nd one I heard of. The former sounds likely of him.

I understand the argument for putting the belt on yourself or your kid. But it ignores the fact we don't want to keep seeing their lame asses. (Didn't work for WCW-era Dusty or Flair, either.)

Fritz was a nasty piece of business. Wouldn't pay his kids what they were worth, either.

Verne having the belt was somewhat understandable. He was pretty good in his time.

His son was not good. He just did not have it. Pushing his son so much really hurt him in the long run.

I have read that about Fritz. Now he had sons who were worth it and deserved the belt.

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 Post subject: Re: Verne Gagne
PostPosted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 11:53 pm 
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Joe Orr Road Rod wrote:
Matches Malone wrote:
Also we cannot forget that Mr. Gagne also killed a man in 2009. In his early eighties, Verne pushed or threw,(depending on the account) 97 year old Helmut R. Gutmann to the floor breaking his hip. Mr. Gutmann eventually died from complications related to the injury.


That was when Verne was trying to revive the AWA as the Alzheimer's Wrestling Association.

:lol: :lol:

I'm thoroughly ashamed I never thought of that ...

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 Post subject: Re: Verne Gagne
PostPosted: Thu Apr 30, 2015 11:02 am 
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Matches Malone wrote:
Rumor has it that back when Gagne had Hogan...
A. he wanted a cut of his earnings from Japan and
B. didn't want him to do the Rocky III cameo.

Pissing off your talent, especially your top talent will bite you in the ass eventually. Anybody with any sense would have, and should have realized Hogan was a star amongst stars who was going straight to the top. Verne was stubborn and it cost him big time.


It was McMahon Sr that didn't want the Rocky cameo, they lost Hogan over it. And from what I understand it wasn't just Japan, Verne also wanted a cut of Hogan's merch, which Hogan was supposedly producing on his own.

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 Post subject: Re: Verne Gagne
PostPosted: Mon May 04, 2015 11:46 am 
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