When it was time for Verne Gagne - the AWA's owner, booker, and biggest star - to lose the company's World Heavyweight Title after a seven-year-long reign, it was ultra-talented technical wrestler Nick Bockwinkel who was chosen to become the new champion. Bockwinkel nearly equaled Gagne's accomplishment, holding the title for five years. Although Bockwinkel was already 40 years old when he captured the belt, it didn't really matter - the champion's incredible conditioning and physical fitness meant that he had no trouble competing in classic hour-long matches, and his cerebral promo style (filled with, as Bockwinkel described them "four, five, and six-syllable words") ensured that fans hated him. That enmity from the audience was especially easy after Gagne defeated Bockwinkel for the title and retired as champion - meaning the belt was returned to the previous titleholder. Though the AWA began to falter in the 1980s, Bockwinkel remained a persistent main eventer and racked up a total of four runs with the World Heavyweight Championship - the last of which ended when he was 52 years old. Bockwinkel accomplished a great deal in his career (and after it), but the most famous image of the man will always be as the "gentlemen" AWA Champion, belt on his waist and Bobby Heenan by his side.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013