|
The Wrestler (1974 Film)
''The Wrestler'' is a 1974 independent film directed by Jim Westman, produced by professional wrestler Verne Gagne and W.R. Frank, starring Ed Asner as Frank Bass, a wrestling promoter. Verne Gagne also stars in the film as Mike Bullard, the current wrestling champion of his "league". After a long reign as champion, Bullard is getting older and feeling pressure from all sides, including his wife and wrestling promoters, to pass the championship to Billy Taylor and retire. Bullard's resistance to their requests that he step aside is the central conflict in the film. The film presents professional wrestling as a truly competitive sport, always maintaining the illusion that matches are a result of athletic combat and not pre-determined outcomes decided before the matches. At one point during the film, a number of wrestlers who had either died during a match or as a result of in-ring injuries are mentioned. That list of names was not fictional, but taken from the history of profession ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Verne Gagne
Laverne Clarence Gagne (February 26, 1926 – April 27, 2015) was an American amateur and professional wrestler, football player, wrestling trainer, and wrestling promoter. He was the owner and promoter of the Minneapolis-based American Wrestling Association (AWA), the predominant promotion throughout the Midwest and Manitoba for many years. He remained in this position until 1991, when the company folded. As an amateur wrestler, Gagne won two NCAA titles and was an alternate for the U.S freestyle wrestling team at the 1948 Olympic Games before turning professional in 1949. Gagne was an 11-time world champion in major professional wrestling promotions, having held the AWA World Heavyweight Championship ten times and the IWA World Heavyweight Championship once as the IWA World Heavyweight Championship was considered a world championship in Japan. He has also won top professional wrestling promotions World Heavyweight Championships such as the World Heavyweight Championship (Oma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Danny Hodge
Daniel Allen Hodge (May 13, 1932 – December 24, 2020) was an American professional wrestler, amateur wrestler, and boxer. He is renowned primarily for his wrestling career, where he competed both as an amateur and professional. A three-time NCAA champion, a middleweight Olympic silver medallist and a seven-time NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion, Hodge is widely considered to be one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. The Dan Hodge Trophy, named after him, is the college wrestling equivalent of the Heisman Trophy. He was born and raised in Perry, Oklahoma, where he continued to live. He was famous for the ability to crush apples with one hand, a feat which he demonstrated live on ESPN during the 2006 NCAA Wrestling Championships. He said his strength was due to having double tendons in his hands. Early life Daniel Allen Hodge was born on May 13, 1932. Born and raised in Perry, Oklahoma, he was the son of an alcoholic father and a mother who dealt with severe depression ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Larry Hennig
Larry Hennig (June 18, 1936 – December 6, 2018) was an American professional wrestler. He was the father of "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig, and the grandfather of Curtis Axel and Amy "Ms. Perfect" Hennig. He worked in the American Wrestling Association, National Wrestling Alliance, and the World Wide Wrestling Federation. Hennig was known by the nickname, "The Axe", a nickname he had because of his signature, often finishing move of dropping a full weight elbow onto his prone opponents. Professional wrestling career American Wrestling Association In the early 1960s, Hennig entered the American Wrestling Association (AWA) under the tutelage of Verne Gagne. He eventually found some main event success and shared a brief Tag Team Championship reign with Duke Hoffman. But due to frequently losing to rougher, more experienced wrestlers, he began questioning the scientific style instilled into him by Gagne and looked toward a different approach (in kayfabe). During the summer of 1963, Hen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greg Gagne (wrestler)
Gregory Alan Gagne (born July 27, 1948) is a retired American professional wrestler. He is the son of Verne Gagne. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he achieved his biggest success as one half of the tag team The High Flyers with Jim Brunzell. The High Flyers enjoyed a number of high-profile feuds within the American Wrestling Association (AWA) with the likes of Bobby Duncum and Blackjack Lanza, Pat Patterson and Ray "The Crippler" Stevens, The East-West Connection (Adrian Adonis and Jesse "The Body" Ventura), and The Sheiks (Ken Patera and Jerry Blackwell). Professional wrestling career American Wrestling Association Schooled in the fundamentals of amateur wrestling by his father as a teenager, Gagne started wrestling professionally in 1972 in his father's promotion, the American Wrestling Association (AWA). Gagne formed the team The High Flyers with Jim Brunzell, and on July 7, 1977 they defeated Duncum and Lanza to win the AWA World Tag Team Championship. The Flyers succ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dick Murdoch
Hoyt Richard Murdoch (August 16, 1946 – June 15, 1996) was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring names "Dirty" Dick Murdoch and "Captain Redneck". He was best known for his time in the World Wrestling Federation and New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Murdoch started his wrestling career in 1965, and three years later, he began teaming with longtime partner Dusty Rhodes as the Texas Outlaws. After they split up, Murdoch wrestled for several territories including the National Wrestling Alliance, Florida Championship Wrestling, and Mid-South Wrestling, also touring overseas. He would join the World Wrestling Federation in 1984 and teamed with Adrian Adonis to form the North-South Connection, winning the WWF Tag Team Championship. In 1981, Murdoch gained international exposure by joining New Japan Pro-Wrestling and stayed there until 1989. He later wrestled for Jim Crockett Promotions, engaging in feuds with the likes of Ric Flair, Nikita Koloff, and Dusty Rhodes. He a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ric Flair
Richard Morgan Fliehr (born February 25, 1949), known professionally as Ric Flair, is an American professional wrestler. Regarded by multiple peers and journalists as the greatest professional wrestler of all time, Flair has had a career spanning over 50 years. He is noted for his tenures with Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later WWE) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). Much of his career was spent in JCP and WCW, where he won numerous titles. Since the mid-1970s, he has used the moniker "the Nature Boy". A major pay-per-view attraction throughout his career, Flair headlined the premier annual NWA/WCW event, Starrcade, on ten occasions, while also co-headlining its WWF counterpart, WrestleMania, in 1992, after winning that year's Royal Rumble. ''PWI'' awarded him their Wrestler of the Year award a record six times, while ''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' named him the Wrestler of the Year (an awa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Stevens (wrestler)
Carl Raymond Stevens (September 5, 1935 – May 3, 1996), better known as Ray "The Crippler" Stevens or Ray "Blond Bomber" Stevens, was an American professional wrestler. Stevens was a wrestling superstar since the early years of the television era until his retirement during the early 1990s. His performances and hard bumping style inspired generations of villain wrestlers who attempted to emulate his ability to provide high quality and heat-generating matches that continuously brought crowds of fans. He was also known for using two different finishing moves in his many victories: the "Bombs Away" knee drop (a diving knee drop from the top rope to the throat) and the piledriver. Stevens wrestled as both a singles performer and in tag team matches with a variety of partners. In 2006, he was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame. Early life Stevens was born on September 5, 1935 in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and was raised by an aunt in Columbus, Ohio. Pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Superstar Billy Graham
Eldridge Wayne Coleman (born June 7, 1943), better known by his ring name "Superstar" Billy Graham, is an American former professional wrestler. He gained recognition for his tenure as the WWWF Heavyweight Champion in 1977–1978. He is a three-time world champion in major professional wrestling promotions. As an award-winning bodybuilder, he was a training partner and close friend of Arnold Schwarzenegger. He is most remembered for revolutionizing the interview and physique aspects of the professional wrestling industry, and for his charismatic performance style. Some of his wrestling protégés include Hulk Hogan, Jesse Ventura, and Ric Flair. Early life Coleman was born into a working-class family in Phoenix, Arizona, on June 7, 1943. His father was from Mississippi, and his mother, who claimed Cherokee ancestry, was from Arkansas. Coleman was attracted to weight lifting in the fifth grade. As a teenager he was an avid reader of bodybuilding magazines, his idols being ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nick Bockwinkel
Nicholas Warren Francis "Nick" Bockwinkel (December 6, 1934 – November 14, 2015) was an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his appearances with the American Wrestling Association (AWA) in the 1970s and 1980s. Bockwinkel had a lengthy professional wrestling career with matches in 34 consecutive years. Debuting in 1954, Bockwinkel spent the first half of his career as a journeyman babyface, wrestling primarily in California and Hawaii with stints in Texas, Georgia, and the Pacific Northwest as well as Canada and Australia. In 1970, he joined the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based AWA, where he would be based for the remainder of his career. Swiftly rising to prominence as a main event heel, Bockwinkel held the AWA World Tag Team Championship three times then the AWA World Heavyweight Championship four times before retiring in 1987. Bockwinkel was recognized for his exceptional technical wrestling ability, mastery of in-ring psychology, and even-toned, articulate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Dusek
The Dusek family is a professional wrestling family. The Dusek Family real surname is Hason. The Dusek family started with four brothers Ernie, Emil, Joe, and Rudy Dusek. The other two members are Wally and Frank Dusek. Both men are not Dusek by blood their last names are Santen. Wally is the father of Frank. The Dusek brothers were often known as The Dusek Riot Squad. The Dusek brothers were well known in the Omaha, Nebraska territory. The Dusek family also wrestled and did very well in the New York territory. When Ernie Dusek got injured in a car accident he was replaced by Wally Dusek who was introduced as a cousin. The Dusek Brothers (Emil and Ernie) were inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum in 2008. Members Ernie Dusek Ernie Dusek was born in Omaha, Nebraska on January 26, 1909, to Anton and Maria Hason, Bohemian immigrants. Ernie wrestled with his brothers Rudy and Emil in the New York territory during 1933 to 1940. Ernie was the NWA Texas Heavyw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wahoo McDaniel
Edward Hugh McDaniel (June 19, 1938 – April 18, 2002) was an American Choctaw-Chickasaw professional American football player and professional wrestler better known by his ring name Wahoo McDaniel. He is notable for having held the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship five times. McDaniel was a major star in the American Wrestling Association and prominent National Wrestling Alliance affiliated promotions such as Championship Wrestling from Florida, Georgia Championship Wrestling, NWA Big Time Wrestling and, most notably, Jim Crockett Promotions. McDaniel is often compared to his contemporary, Chief Jay Strongbow, due to both portraying similar Native American gimmicks. Unlike Strongbow (who was Italian-American), McDaniel was legitimately Native American. Early life McDaniel was born in the small town of Bernice, Louisiana in 1938. His father worked in oil and he moved to several towns before settling down in Midland, Texas, while McDaniel was in middle school. He atte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dusty Rhodes (wrestler)
Virgil Riley Runnels Jr. (October 11, 1945 – June 11, 2015), better known as "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, was an American professional wrestler, booker, and trainer who most notably worked for the National Wrestling Alliance, Jim Crockett Promotions, World Championship Wrestling, and the World Wrestling Federation, later known as the WWE. Rhodes is considered as one of the greatest wrestlers and talkers in the history of professional wrestling. Rhodes was a three-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion, and during his time in Jim Crockett Promotions, later known as WCW, he was a United States Heavyweight Champion, and multi-time World Television, World Tag Team and World Six-Man Tag Team Champion. He also won many regional championships, and is one of seven men inducted into each of the WWE, WCW, Professional Wrestling, and ''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' Halls of Fame. His sons, Dustin and Cody, both pursued careers in professional wrestling, currently performing fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
