BrooklynBomber
The Champ is Here
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2005
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Danny, it has chapters on Ed Lewis, Danny Hodge, the Wigan guys, Verne Gagne, among others.
It helped me realize just how popular Verne was in the 50s, because of Kohler's DuMont Chicago wrestling show. Verne was the lead babyface for Kohler, and because of DuMont's wrestling saturation across the nation, Verne was booked nation-wide through Kohler's office. Gagne was the US champion, and he actually toured with the title and defended it in different territories, just like Thesz was doing with the NWA World title.
Verne only charged 10% of the gate for his fees, so he undercut the NWA champion who charged 10% for himself, 3% for Ed Lewis, and another percentage for Sam Muchnick (the NWA president).
Verne was a bargain in comparison! He was in line to be the next NWA heavyweight champ, but because he was controlled by Kohler, the NWA didn't want Verne to essentially have Kohler control the title. Gagne became very frustrated by this and created the AWA in 1960, with him as champion.
In fairness to Verne he didn't actually start off as AWA champion when the promotion began. Pat O'Connor who was NWA champion was actually recognized by the AWA as world champion and was given 90 days to defend the title against Verne or he would be stripped of the title. O'Connor never wrestled Verne, the title was stripped, awarded to Verne.