Verne Gagne

Laverne Clarence Gagne[2] (February 26, 1926 – April 27, 2015)[4] was an American amateur and professional wrestler, football player, wrestling trainer, and wrestling promoter. He was the owner and promoter of the Minneapolis-based American Wrestling Association (AWA), the predominant promotion throughout the Midwest and Manitoba for many years. He remained in this position until 1991, when the company folded.

Verne Gagne
Gagne in 1964
Birth nameLaverne Clarence Gagne
Born(1926-02-26)February 26, 1926
Corcoran, Minnesota, U.S.
DiedApril 27, 2015(2015-04-27) (aged 89)
Bloomington, Minnesota, U.S.
Children4 Children including Greg Gagne
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Verne Gagne
Billed height5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)[1]
Billed weight215 lb (98 kg)[1]
Trained byJoe Pazandak[2]
Tony Stecher[2]
Debut1949[2]
Retired1981[1][3]

As an amateur wrestler, Gagne won two NCAA titles and was an alternate for the U.S freestyle wrestling team at the 1948 Olympic Games before turning professional in 1949. Gagne was a 11-time world champion in major professional wrestling promotion, having held the AWA World Heavyweight Championship ten times and the IWA World Heavyweight Championship once as the IWA World Heavyweight Championship was considered a world champion in Japan. He has also won top professional wrestling promotions World Heavyweight Championship such as the World Heavyweight Championship (Omaha version) five times. He holds the record for the longest combined reign as a world champion in North America and is third (behind Bruno Sammartino and Lou Thesz) for the longest single world title reign. He is one of only seven men inducted into each of the WWE, WCW and Professional Wrestling halls of fame.

Early life

Gagne was born in Corcoran, Minnesota and grew up on a farm in Robbinsdale, Minnesota. He left home at the age of 14 after his mother died. He went to Robbinsdale High School and excelled in football, baseball and wrestling, winning district, regional, and state championships in high school wrestling, as well as being named to the All-State Football Team. In 1943, he was recruited to play football at the University of Minnesota, where he was named to the All-Big Ten Team.

Amateur wrestling career

After one year of college, Gagne enlisted with the Navy Underwater Demolition Team.[2] He chose to return to the University of Minnesota, where, as an amateur wrestler, he captured two NCAA titles. In 1948, he beat Charles Gottfried of Illinois in the 191-pound class to win his first NCAA championship in Pennsylvania. The next year, he returned to the championships but had moved up a class, to heavyweight. In the final, he met future NWA World Heavyweight Champion Dick Hutton, the two-time defending national champion in the division. The showdown ended in a 1-1 tie, but Gagne was awarded the win because he controlled Hutton for longer periods of the match.[5] He was also an alternate for the U.S freestyle wrestling team at the 1948 Olympic Games; he later said that he might have wrestled in the Olympics, but his coaches had discovered that he had earned money winning a wrestling match at a carnival, thus putting his amateur standing in question.[6]

Football career
Gagne in the 1940s

Gagne joined the National Football League (NFL) soon after being drafted by the Chicago Bears in the 16th round (145th pick) of the 1947 NFL Draft.[7] Bears owner George Halas prevented Gagne from pursuing both football and wrestling (likely due to former Bears Football Hall of Fame great Bronko Nagurski having moonlighted as a professional wrestler during the height of his NFL career), and forced Gagne to make a choice. In a 2006 interview for WWE, Gagne's son Greg mentioned that wrestling was a much better paying job at the time than playing football (as recently as the 1970s, it was not uncommon for NFL players to have a second job during the NFL offseason to help make ends meet), and as a result, Verne chose wrestling over football.[8]

Professional wrestling career

National Wrestling Alliance
Gagne in the early 1950s

In 1949, Gagne decided to wrestle professionally, starting his career in Texas. In his debut, he defeated Abe Kashey, with former World Heavyweight boxing Champion Jack Dempsey as the referee. On November 13, 1950, Gagne captured the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) Junior Heavyweight title in a tournament for the vacant championship.[2]

In September 1953 in Fred Kohler Enterprises, Gagne was awarded the newly created Chicago version of the NWA United States Championship.[2] Gagne became one of the most well-known stars in wrestling during the golden age of television, thanks to his exposure on the Dumont Network, where he wowed audiences with his technical prowess. He was rumored to be one of the highest paid wrestlers during the 1950s, reportedly earning a hundred thousand dollars a year.[9]

On June 14, 1957, Edouard Carpentier defeated NWA Champion Lou Thesz in Chicago. The NWA later overruled the decision of the referee in Chicago and gave the title back to Thesz. However, certain wrestling territories of the NWA including Nebraska refused to go along with the decision and continued to recognize Carpentier. Carpentier lost his title to Gagne in Omaha on August 9, 1958,[2] making him the recognized NWA World champion in the NWA territories that had recognized Carpentier, before dropping the belt three months later to Wilbur Snyder. By early 1960, the highly wealthy Gagne rarely wrestled and turned his focus towards building a wrestling promotion of his own.

American Wrestling Association

In 1960, Gagne formed his own promotion, the American Wrestling Alliance (later it became Association). Before this, the Minneapolis territory was under the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) umbrella. Setting up to pull away from the NWA, the Minneapolis territory (as it was known), gave a "story-line only" edict to the NWA in May 1960 that unless their NWA World Champion Pat O'Connor defended his title against Verne Gagne with 90 days, Verne Gagne would become recognized World Champion by default. There was never any intention of such a match taking place. At the end of the 90 day period, the AWA was formed in August 1960 and it was announced that because NWA champion Pat O'Connor failed to meet Gagne, that the AWA recognized Gagne as the first AWA World Champion.

Some of Gagne's biggest feuds were against Gene Kiniski, Dr. Bill Miller (under a mask both as Dr. X and then Mr. M), Fritz Von Erich, Dr. X, The Crusher, Ray Stevens, Mad Dog Vachon, Larry Hennig and Nick Bockwinkel. He always wrestled as a face, and utilized the sleeper hold as his finisher.

Gagne with WWWF promoter Vincent J. McMahon and his perennial world champion Bruno Sammartino

As promoter of the AWA, Gagne was known for putting on an "old school" show. He sought out wrestlers with amateur backgrounds over the hulking brutes who dominated wrestling in the 1980s. This led to a problem with his biggest draw, Hulk Hogan, whom Gagne had acquired after Hogan had been let go by the World Wrestling Federation and who Gagne also felt was not championship material, due to the fact that Hogan was a powerhouse wrestler and not a technical wrestler. Seeing Hogan as the company's top draw, Gagne did, however, let Hogan feud with Bockwinkel. Eventually, as noted on the 2006 Spectacular Legacy of AWA DVD, Gagne settled with making Hogan his champion after Hogan's feud with Bockwinkel ran its course in April 1983, but only under the condition that he would receive the bulk of the revenue Hogan made from both merchandise sales and his matches in Japan. Hogan refused. In late 1983, Hogan accepted an offer from Vincent K. McMahon to return to the WWF. The Iron Sheik, whom Gagne trained, has alleged that he was offered a cash bribe by the AWA's owner to inflict career threatening damage on Hogan's knee after it became apparent that he was going to go to the WWF.

What followed was an exodus of major stars from various territories and promotions, including Gagne's AWA, to Vince McMahon's WWF. McMahon wished to take his promotion "national" and do away with the traditional territorial system that dominated the North American pro wrestling landscape for decades. Unlike most of his contemporaries, by the mid 1980s, Gagne began promoting the AWA beyond the geographical bounds of the company's traditional territory. In September 1985, ESPN began broadcasting AWA Championship Wrestling, granting the AWA national exposure similar to what the World Wrestling Federation was experiencing. However, the AWA suffered numerous setbacks; AWA Championship Wrestling wasn't treated as a priority by ESPN, the show was sometimes not aired in its regular timeslot, sometimes it was preempted by live sporting events and occasional changes in timeslots without advertising the changes resulted in many fans being unable to tune in on a regular basis. Gagne's booking strategies for the wrestlers themselves continued to follow more traditional themes than those of the WWF and Gagne continued to believe the top stars should be highly gifted technical wrestlers rather than those with just charismatic personalities. Throughout the mid to late 1980s, the AWA would lose the vast majority of its top stars to McMahon while ratings and live attendance continued to decline. By 1991, the damage had been done, and the AWA shut down, after 30 years. Gagne would eventually end up in bankruptcy court.[10]

Hall of Famer

In April 2006, Gagne was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by his son, Greg Gagne. He is one of only six people to be inducted into the WWE, WCW and Professional Wrestling Halls of Fame.[11]

Death of Helmut Gutmann

On January 26, 2009, Gagne got into an altercation with Helmut Gutmann, a 97-year-old resident of the Bloomington, Minnesota facility where they both resided. According to Gutmann's widow, who was not present during the altercation, Gagne picked Gutmann up and hurled him to the floor, then broke his hip by pulling back on his body. "'The attack happened quickly while the men were at a table,' Bloomington Police Chief Jeff Potts said. 'It was more like "a push and a shove" and it caused Gutmann to fall.'"[12]

Neither man had any recollection of the incident.[13] Gutmann was admitted to the hospital, and died on February 14 from complications of the injury.[14] On February 25, 2009, the older man's death was officially ruled a homicide by the Hennepin County medical examiner's office.[13] On March 12, 2009, the Hennepin County Prosecutor's office officially announced that Gagne would not be criminally charged as a result of the death as, because of Gagne's dementia, he lacked the mental capacity necessary to have intended to harm Gutmann.

Illness and death

Gagne was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease[15] (or possibly chronic traumatic encephalopathy caused by a lifetime of head injuries)[16] and had been living in the memory-loss section of a Bloomington, Minnesota health care facility.[15] In January 2012 (and possibly since the 2009 altercation), he was living in the home of his daughter Beth and her husband Will.[17] He continued to make public appearances in his last years, aided by his son Greg.[18]

On April 27, 2015, Gagne died in Bloomington at the age of 89.[19]

Championships and accomplishments

Amateur wrestling

Professional wrestling

References
  1. "Verne Gagne's Hall of Fame profile". WWE. Retrieved May 24, 2011.
  2. Hornbaker, Tim (2007). National Wrestling Alliance: The Untold Story of the Monopoly That Strangled Pro Wrestling. ECW Press. pp. 234–237. ISBN 978-1-55022-741-3.
  3. Westcott, Brian. "Verne Gagne". Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum. Archived from the original on May 29, 2009. Retrieved May 24, 2011.
  4. "He Helped Define Wrestling". Classic Wrestling Articles. Retrieved 8 August 2015.
  5. Youngblood, Kent. "Pro wrestling champion Verne Gagne never forgot his amateur roots". Star Tribune. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  6. Grasso, John (2014). Historical Dictionary of Wrestling. Maryland: Scarecrow Press. pp. 107–109. ISBN 978-0-8108-7925-6.
  7. "1947 NFL Player Draft". databasefootball.com. Archived from the original on March 19, 2011. Retrieved January 25, 2011.
  8. The Spectacular Legacy of the AWA DVD
  9. "Verne Gagne's Great Crusade". Wrestling-Titles.com. Retrieved 2018-05-19.
  10. "Wrestling Perspective: In re: Verne C. Gagne, Debtor. (166 B.R. 362)". wrestlingperspective.com. Retrieved 2018-05-30.
  11. "Minnesota Wrestling Icon Verne Gagne Dead At 89". CBS Minnesota. April 28, 2015. Retrieved April 28, 2015.
  12. No Criminal Charges Against Ex-Wrestler Archived June 29, 2011, at the Wayback Machine SI.com, March 12, 2009
  13. Simons, Abby (February 25, 2009). "Gagne case: Death ruled a homicide". Minneapolis Star Tribune. Avista Capital Partners. Retrieved February 26, 2009.
  14. Walsh, Paul (February 19, 2009). "Famed wrestler Gagne linked to death of man, 97". Minneapolis Star Tribune. Avista Capital Partners. Retrieved February 19, 2009.
  15. Featherly, Kevin (February 18, 2009). "Legendary wrestler Verne Gagne and a tragic tale". MinnPost.com. Retrieved February 19, 2009.
  16. Featherly, Kevin (February 20, 2009). "Verne Gagne and aging pro athletes: Studies focus on brain damage". MinnPost.com. Retrieved February 20, 2009.
  17. Royce, Graydon (January 25, 2012). "Verne Gagne returns to screen in 'The Wrestler'". Star Tribune.
  18. Powell, Jason. "AWA legend Verne Gagne dead at age 89". prowrestling.net. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  19. "Breaking News: wrestling legend, Observer first year Hall of Famer Verne Gagne passes away at 89". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. April 27, 2015. Retrieved April 28, 2015.
  20. "Honorees". Cauliflower Alley Club. Retrieved September 27, 2020.
  21. NWA United States Heavyweight Title (Chicago) history At wrestling-titles.com
  22. "Ventura given Museum's top honour". Slam! Wrestling. Canadian Online Explorer. August 4, 2003. Retrieved November 6, 2018.
  23. NWA World Tag Team Title (Chicago/Indianapolis) history, wrestling-titles.com; accessed September 10, 2014.
  24. AWA World Heavyweight Title history, wrestling-titles.com; accessed September 10, 2014.
  25. AWA World Tag Team Title history At wrestling-titles.com
  26. NWA World Tag Team Title (Minneapolis) history At wrestling-titles.com
  27. World Heavyweight Title (Omaha) history At wrestling-titles.com
  28. NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title history At wrestling-titles.com
  29. Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame Inductees At wrestling-titles.com
  30. "ALEX SHELLEY INJURY UPDATE, ISSUE BETWEEN FORMER WWE STARS OVER WEEKEND, GAGNE HONORED, FUNKS REUNITE AND MORE | PWInsider.com". www.pwinsider.com. Retrieved 2018-05-30.
    • Will, Gary; Duncan, Royal (2000). "Texas: NWA Texas Heavyweight Title [Von Erich]". Wrestling Title Histories: professional wrestling champions around the world from the 19th century to the present. Pennsylvania: Archeus Communications. pp. 268–269. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  32. "NWA Texas Heavyweight Title". Wrestling-Titles. Retrieved March 30, 2017.
  33. Duncan, Royal; Will, Gary (2000). "Texas: NWA World Tag Team Title [Siegel, Boesch and McLemore]". Wrestling title histories: professional wrestling champions around the world from the 19th century to the present. Pennsylvania: Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
  34. "National Wrestling Alliance World Tag Team Title [E. Texas]". Wrestling-Titles. Retrieved February 21, 2017.
  35. 東京スポーツ　プロレス大賞. Tokyo Sports (in Japanese). Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  36. WCW Hall of Fame Inductees At wrestling-titles.com
  37. WWF/WWE Hall of Fame Inductees At wrestling-titles.com

Further reading
  • Dave Meltzer & John F. Molinaro (2002). Top 100 Pro Wrestlers of all Time. Winding Stair Press. ISBN 1-55366-305-5.
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