10 Wrestling Bookers Who Made Themselves World Champion

3. Verne Gagne

After a dispute with the NWA in 1960, Minnesota-based wrestling star Verne Gagne and promoter Wally Karbo founded the American Wrestling Association. Gagne, a serious, accomplished mat technician, was declared the first champion of the new group, and would spend the next twenty years as the promotion's top draw.

In 1980, the 54-year-old Gagne retired as AWA World Heavyweight Champion, marking the end of his tenth reign with the title. Though Gagne was a great talent and a legitimate superstar to his core audience, it can be argued that he overstayed his welcome - from 1960 to 1980, Gagne spent 4,677 days as world champion, a record that stretches across all of wrestling.

The AWA fizzled out in the late 1980s after Vince McMahon poached the company's top talent - to be fair to Gagne, he never had to worry about that when he was champion.