Ah, those were the days, he was one of my favorites, along with The Bruiser and The Crusher.
Joining pal Wally Karbo threatening fines and suspensions in the sky. RIP.
RIP
Did he outlive his archrival, Hans Schmidt?
Aw man.
I grew up in Minnesota in the 60s/70s.
We had four black-and-white channels. All the kids on the block knew all the players on the Twins and these TV guys:
Casey Jones (Roger Awsumb)
Roundhouse Rodney (Lynn Dwyer)
Clancy the Cop (John Gallos)
The Crusher
Verne Gagne
Very class guy; we never used to miss Saturday morning wrestling; saw Gagne fight ‘Mad Dog’ and ‘Butcher’ Vachon, Haystack Calhoun, Dr. X, The Crusher and Dick the Bruiser, Red Bastien and Billy Red Lyons, ‘Pepper’ Gomez and so many others...good times.
Ah, yes. All-Star Wrestling, brought to you by Vern Gagne’s Gera-Speed.
Sorry to hear Vern has passed. RIP to a good man and an asset to the Twin Cities
Just hearing the name brings back a lot of memories of guys like:
-”Mean Gene” Okerlund and Roger Kent, the stalwart announcers/interviewers
-Da Crusher
-”The High Flyers” - Greg Gagne and Jumpin’ Jim Brunzell
-Kenny “Sodbuster” Jay
-George “Scrap Iron” Gedasky
-Jerry Blackwell from Stone Mountain, Georgia
-Tito Santana (the only man to ever body slam the 468 lb Jerry Blackwell)
-Nick Bockwinkel
-Bobby “The Brain” Heenan
-Ray “The Crippler” Stevens and Pat Patterson
-Lord Alfred Hayes (of Windemere, England) and his proteges, the “Super Destroyers” Mark II and III
-Larry “The Axe” Hennig
-Ken Patera and Mr. Saito (who cast salt “to the four winds” before each match)
-”Big Bad” Bobby Duncum
-Stan “The Lariat” Hansen
-Kamala the Ugandan Giant
-Rufus R. Railroad Freight Train Jones
-Chief Wahoo McDaniel
-Sheik Adnaan al-Khaesi
-Baron von Raschke
-Buck “Rock n Roll” Zumhofe
-Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka
...and that’s just off the top of my head; the list goes on. Memories of Saturday and Sunday TV viewing in the late 70’s and early 80’s.
RIP.
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Gosh, he had a full life. He was way before my time of watching wresting. I didn’t get started until around the original Wrestlemania.
Verne Gagne put together a great promotion, with the AWA producing some of the biggest stars in wrestling. Unfortunately, Vince McMahon drove him out of business by the late 80s/early 90s.
Verne Gagne put together a great promotion, with the AWA producing some of the biggest stars in wrestling. Unfortunately, Vince McMahon drove him out of business by the late 80s/early 90s.
I had an aunt who was a super avid fan of Gagne and wrasslin’in the early 60s. She was totally convinced that all of it was real.
Bong.
A buddy of mine was related to Verne and saw him at a family reunion. My friend was 250 lbs when he was 16 and liked to drink and approached Verne and stated “That wrestling is a bunch of crap” whereupon Verne stood up and put one of his famous moves on my friend leaving him staring up at the sky wondering what just happened. My buddy was sore for several days after and hated Vernes guts for that. The rest of us loved AWA and went to every match and told out friend that he should get into wrestling since he was really big and knew Verne but he hated him too much.
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