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Obit: Verne Gagne, Champion and Syndicator of AWA "All-Star Wrestling," Dead at 89

Gagne's AWA had a impressive syndication market in the 1960s-1980s. Stretched from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Oakland/San Francisco.
 
I don't remember having access to AWA syndication in Detroit. Or didn't realize it came on a UHF station. Detroit didn't get cable until Don Barden brought it into the city in 1987. That's when I could finally watch AWA on ESPN.

The reason why I mentioned this is because I read the wrestling magazines and had no idea how Gagne was pronounced. I assumed it was like the baseball player Greg Gagne.

R.I.P. Verne
 
Oddly enough, Verne Gagne's son, also named Greg, was a prominent wrestler in his father's promotion at the same time the unrelated Greg Gagne (GAG-nee) was playing for the Minnesota Twins. He pronounced it GAH-nyeh, just like his father.

Until the deal with ESPN, the AWA's network covered a wide area, but was limited to parts of the country where the AWA presented live arena shows. Detroit had its own promotion, with its own local TV show.
 
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Verne Gagne also produced a low-budget movie (probably for the drive-in/grindhouse market) called THE WRESTLER. He was in it along with many of his stable of wrestlers, Ed Asner as the "name" starring actor, and several Minneapolis-area media types including Rodger Kent (his TV announcer), Mel Jass (daily interview host for years on WTCN-TV), and Jim Klobuchar (newspaper columnist) in bit roles.

Not long ago I saw what must have once been Gagne's personal 35mm print of the picture in an antique shop in Duluth. It was in a couple of those big metal transit cases they used to use to ship them, and had labels on them addressed from the film lab to Gagne's office in Minneapolis.
 
JeffM said:
Verne Gagne also produced a low-budget movie (probably for the drive-in/grindhouse market) called THE WRESTLER. He was in it along with many of his stable of wrestlers, Ed Asner as the "name" starring actor, and several Minneapolis-area media types including Rodger Kent (his TV announcer), Mel Jass (daily interview host for years on WTCN-TV), and Jim Klobuchar (newspaper columnist) in bit roles.
Click to expand...

...actually, Rodger Kent doesn't appear in The Wrestler; Rod Trongard does. And, curiously, the TV cameras in the opening scene, the Larry Hennig promo taping, were marked "KTCA," the call sign for Minneapolis' main PBS affiliate. It appears Verne would use KTCA's facilities to tape promos when WTCN's weren't available...
 
CTListener said:
Oddly enough, Verne Gagne's son, also named Greg, was a prominent wrestler in his father's promotion at the same time the unrelated Greg Gagne (GAG-nee) was playing for the Minnesota Twins. He pronounced it GAH-nyeh, just like his father.
Click to expand...

And "Gagne" is the French word for "win."
 
Ultimajock said:
...actually, Rodger Kent doesn't appear in The Wrestler; Rod Trongard does. And, curiously, the TV cameras in the opening scene, the Larry Hennig promo taping, were marked "KTCA," the call sign for Minneapolis' main PBS affiliate. It appears Verne would use KTCA's facilities to tape promos when WTCN's weren't available...
Click to expand...

I confess I've never seen the movie; but the cast listing available at imdb.com lists both Kent and Trongard as appearing in the film, along with co-announcer Marty O'Neil and promoter Wally Karbo. Here's a link to their article:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070930/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm
 
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