8 Wrestlers Who Quit On Top

There was once a special class of wrestling champions turned promoters who were like old chewing gum stuck to the bottom of a school desk: practically impervious, and almost impossible to dislodge. Hardy Minnesotan bone-bender and inveterate AWA impresario Verne Gagne was cut from that particular obdurate cloth, a world champion of one sort or another from the outset of his career until his eventual retirement in 1981, aged 54.

Gagne's first taste of the gold came in 1953, when Fred Kohler Enterprises earmarked the handsome and preternaturally gifted youngster to carry the newly-fashioned NWA Detroit World Heavyweight Championship. A star of the Dumont Network, Verne became one of the highest-earning wrestlers of his era, raking in enough to dictate his own dates, and eventually, set up his own promotion: the American Wrestling Association.

As old school as they came, Gagne knew the best way to protect his new territory was to name himself its champion. He awarded himself the strap in 1960, and kept almost sole possession of it across the next two decades. His ninth reign, beginning in 1969, lasted an astonishing seven years. Gagne was still the champion in 1981, when advancing age forced him to finally hang up his boots.