News broke last night of wrestling legend and former AWA owner Verne Gagne passing away. To WWE-only fans, he is a name on the list of Hall of Famers and is associated with a defunct wrestling organization. But Gagne, who passed away Monday at the age of 89, was so much more than that, and WWE took the opportunity Tuesday night to air a tribute to him. Gagne was a 10-time AWA World Champion whose promotion gave rise to a lot of performers who would help define the 1980s WWF, including Mean Gene Okerlund, Bobby The Brain Heenan, Jesse The Body Ventura and of course, Hulk Hogan. Verne also had a hand in training some of the best wrestlers of the past 40 years, most notably Ric Flair, Curt Hennig, Ricky Steamboat, Bob Backlund and Gene and Ole Anderson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdmn-0NrueI In a fitting tribute, Jerry Lawler said that Gagne believed enough in him in 1988 to make him AWA World Champion.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
