Greg Gagne on Hulk Hogan Leaving AWA for WWE
Вставка
- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- Greg Gagne on Hulk Hogan Leaving AWA for WWE
Learn More about The Hannibal TV: www.thehanniba...
Follow on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter @TheHannibalTV
The Hannibal TV 2nd Channel: / thehannibaltv
Convenient how Greg always tells this story without mentioning how Verne Gagne was screwing Hogan out of $$$ by selling T-shirts while hogan was in Japan and refusing to kick Hulk even a percentage of the merchandising.
Verne ruled with an iron fist and refused to change with the times…he got what he deserved.
ZERO sympathy.
And also - isn't Greg the guy that thought he could throw David Schultz out of his dads office. If he would of tried, they would of been scraping Greg off the floor with a spatula.
Totally agree
@@foreverunsaved6661 bull
@@williambarnes7133 you really think that a skinny wimp like Greg could try to throw Schultz out of a room without resembling road kill afterwards. Go home to your mother - BOY
For all the money Hogan could have made them you'd think they'd be only too happy to give him even 90% of the T-shirt sales. The amount Hogan would have gone on to sell they'd have gotten rich merely having 10% instead of trying to be stingey and screw him.
It always amazes me how miserly people always end up costing themselves more money by trying to be mean, tight & miserable.
He does not answer the question why he didn't make Hogan champion in his match with Bockwinkle because the answer is it was one of the greatest mistakes in pro wrestling history! Making Hogan champion was the only thing that could have saved the AWA and refusing was the end and the nail in the coffin!
Wasn't his Call . That was his Father Verne call seeing as it was Verne Company .
I mean if you want to know why Hogan wasn't Champion 🏆 🥇 then Perhaps that's a Question you should have Ask Verne when he was Alive . Or You could Ask Greg or Verne Daughter or Son In law Larry Zbyszko .But that was not Greg Call or Verne Daughter or Verne Son In law Larry but Verne's call
It was a jealousy thing, Hulk did Rocky 3 and popular and Verne didn’t pay Hogan his merchandise royalties. Don’t blame Hogan cause Jessie, Dr Shultz and etc.. Verne wanted his Son Greg to be Champion.
Wrestling isn't real. Its about money, not who holds a championship belt. Hogan left the AWA in 1983 for the same reason many other did. The WWF was willing to pay them way more money. Belt or not, Hogan was going to leave.
He didn't make Hogan champion in the match with Bockwinkle because after the match Hogan was going to a tour of Japan for several months. Why put the belt on someone who isn't going to be doing matches in the AWA for months?
Losing Hogan in 1983 killed the AWA, losing the LOD in 1986 was overkill. Losing arguably the GOAT in singles and the GOAT Tag-Team are just moves that AWA wasn't going to come back from.
John Poz I gotta give you credit. You kept a straight face the whole time listening to Greg's BS. What a professional
Agreed. Unlike Rob Feinstein who cuts people off with random unrelated questions!
“So that’s when I suggested that we switch the “f” and add the “e” and call it the wwe. And make the company public. But bisoff and hogan came along and took the credit.”
Wait...he's saying 1980 Hogan, following the Andre match at Shea after he had already been in title matches against Backlund while also main eventing in Japan...that's the guy who said he couldn't make it as a wrestler?
He can piss and moan all he wants but the AWA was handed the greatest opportunity in pro wrestling history and they dropped the ball high time. Beating Bockwinkel in 83 for the title would've cemented Hogan and the AWA as the top promotion of the 80s. No one to blame but themselves
My favorite Greg Gagne moment was when he told God to make Man in his image, because it would “be big”.
The AWA's enemy was Verne. Period. And Greg saying Hogan "maybe" he would have become champion is BS.
Not BS. Nick was in his 50's and not going to last forever. Hogan probably would have gotten the title eventually. Meaning in a couple of years.
Be honest, your father was greedy and didn't pay the wrestlers on time and ripped them off. This is based on interviews from former AWA wrestlers. He also screwed up big time over Hogan. He wanted a huge commission % on all of Hogans merchandise and tour money, thats why Hogan left. Also In title matches he screwed over the fans with ridiculous endings. RIP AWA.
There are many wrestlers that have claimed Verne paid them well. Hogan was one of them. Indeed Verne did try to take advantage of Hulk later in 1983. T- shirt money and the Japan cut for the AWA title was a big issue. Once 1984 hit, the payoffs for wrestlers were on the way down and there were complaints about it.
@curthennig9448 had verne paid them well then they wouldn't have left. It's really that simple.
I never understood what Verne Gagne seen in Nick Bockwinkle
I think that ultimately Vince would have won anyway. All of the old school promoters were happy with the areas that they had. Vince's "I want it all" attitude was something that nobody had faced before. Even if he didn't get Hogan, he was still going to buy the TV slots and get his show on the air in other territories. Jim Crockett Jr was the only other younger promoter at the time and the only one with the same vision as McMahon (without Vince's finesse). Hogan sped up the process by a good 10 years or so, but with cable TV and then the international VHS and Satellite TV stations wanting American wrestling it was always going to happen eventually. Hogan just took Vince's vision in to orbit and was a super added bonus for McMahon.
Umm Mac Mahon would’ve won because, uhh...his territory was located in freaking MANHATTAN. ...are you aware of where Minneapolis is located..?
@@bustersales6921 It's hard to compete with that.
@@bustersales6921 Yeah, I said that Vince would have won anyway, but getting Hogan sped up the process by a few years.
@@lalomontoyajr.9282 You are incorrect. Vince had the national touring promotion vision, cable TV and PPV were growing quickly, he was younger by an average of 30 years than other owners/promoters and as others have said, he was in NYC so had access to all of the major media outlets to promote himself. Many territories were already in a slump by 1984, such as St Louis, San Antonio & Florida for example, so a lot of them would not have survived until the 2000s at all. I agree that some like the AWA would have survived longer than they actually did, but it was always just a matter of time. He would always have won in the end, but Hogan sped it up hugely.
If anything you’re overestimating hogan. He was huge - I live through those times. But it wasn’t just him… the tv production alone advanced so far and fast under Vince jr… making the other promotions look 2nd rate. He was THE pioneer in ppv… another guy here touted Vince having ppv… Vince WAS ppv. When he first started doing it, people in all fields were laughing at him. Including other sports and entertainment domains… I remember reading a cable industry article back in mid 80’s giving credit to McMahon and wwf for recognizing so early that ppv could be a thing….
…tough to say but maybe hogan gave them… 5 years… probably more like 3…. He was an icon that crossed to mainstream (though he barely was on tv wrestling), but if he was a great driver, wwf was the car… the Honda racing vehicle. It was Vince’s tv and promotion and look, and production values, and cast around him that made hogan too. Even if gagne had made let Hogan be awa champ… (probably drag their feet again). he’d have been just another big regional star. Not much bigger than he was at that time as top contender.
McMahon would have used and pushed somebody else… maybe they would have been as perfect as hogan… but the wwf was taking over one way or another. Like I said… at the time, all you had to do was look at the shows themselves. Wwf seemed big, professional, a real sport (so to speak)… the others seemed somewhere between podunk state fair wrestling and redneck hick arena, here comes depleted Greg Gagne in his underwear to battle lounge lizard Michael hayes!! Man there’s going to be some rasslin tooonightttt!!
I used to watch the AWA from time to time on ESPN back in the 1980’s and it was rarely entertaining. Compared to what the WWF and NWA was doing at that time the AWA just looked really small time.
It was located in Minnesota lmfao
@@bustersales6921 Don't know how old you are, but the AWA was a huge promotion back in the 70's and early 80's. Being located in MN didn't mean anything. They still performed around a large section of the country. AWA & GCW were by far the best promotions back then. And I'm referring to the 70's run.
@@bustersales6921 Are you slow kid? Minnesota was the hot bed of wrestling in the 70's and early 80's.🙄
@@williamcopeland2617 umm no, the AWA being located in freaking *minneapolis* had everything to do with them not surviving. Minneapolis is some 5th rate city in the middle of Nowhere, Murica, where no one in their right mind would ever want to live. Invaders/land thieves settled there out of pure necessity ages ago, and everyone began fleeing those Midwestern murican cities after the Vietnam ‘war’, for obvious reasons. Minneapolis was shrinking rapidly by the 80s, and there was absolutely no way the AWA was ever going to survive as a viable force with their headquarters being centred in Minnesota lmfao. Also, what does GCW /AWA being ‘the best’ (subjective) promotions of the 70s have to do with anything...?
@@bustersales6921 It wasn't the location brotha, it was poor management from, Verne. Remember, he pretty much had all the talent and screwed it up. Facts! Better moreso meaning higher ratings during that time. Again, don't know if you're an older guy or young guy, but the 70's was dominated by GCW and the AWA.
At the time, the AWA had Nick Bockwinkel, Larry Zybysko and Greg Gagne as the main guys competing for the AWA title.
That says it all...the writing was on the wall. Vinnic Mac was going to win no matter what.
What time frame are you talking about here?
Yeah. Another AWA "expert" who didn't the watch the AWA and doesn't know who was even wrestling in the AWA when Hogan was there.
If they would have given Hogan the title. And especially coming off Rocky 3. The awa would have lasted longer and been more entertaining.
@@Jim-Tuner In the northeast we received programs from Mid-South, GCW and AWA.
I remember Greg Gagne and thr AWA days. The UWF, NWA days Was by Far the best time in wrestling
Yes. I was glued to the TV then…
Only from a limited viewpoint.
@alwilson3204 And where's your view point Mr Wilson lol
I like Greg, and his dad Vern launched a number of careers. However, watch Jesse Ventura and Jerry Jarrett's interviews on the AWA regarding Greg and Vern
Greg will not admit they ruined it they had his dad on TV still wrestling and he was way past his prime and Nick was in his 50s with the belt they couldn't move on and go with there younger stars like Santana Ventura Hogan
💯
Jesse Ventura was a horrible wrestler and was never going to be anyone's champion. The typical Jesse singles match was eight minutes of stalling followed two minutes of his opponent selling for Jesse. The WWE got a good look at what Jesse could do in the ring and made him an announcer.
Greg never admit's his dad's faults.
Wah, wah. He wasn't under contract, which means he could do whatever he wanted. He went where the money went. 70% of America would have done the same thing.
It's a bigger market. It's hard to compete with that.
It was worse than that, the Gagnes didn’t treat people well quite often. Many have spoken about that. Vince McMahon sr had already put on hogan Andre I’m shea stadium and the McMahon had told hogan they had huge plans for him. Verne…. Nope… keeps the belt off him and only after he leaves says: hey, I too had big plans for you!!
@@MrSmitty1074 nope… at the time the awa had a comparable market and in some ways bigger tv deals before vince jr made his moves.
@@datacipher Hogan was really over in the AWA.
Should’ve taken the offer Verne
Father and son Gagnes threw away MILLIONS by being so clueless and greedy.
All the best WWF talent came from the twin cities.
Amazing how Hulk wouldn't continue to work for a buck-and-a-half a match.
this is all very skewed. i mean yes hogan walked out. yes vince was breathing down their wrestlers necks to jump. but no mention of how verne wasn't changing with the times. keeping the belt on less popular wrestlers. screwing guys on paydays. taking merch money that he wasn't entitled to. verne gagne did as much to bury his own territory as vince did to crush it
Just like what Jesse said in another interview. Verne took money and went to Aspin on vacay. Didn't want to pay his wrestlers incentives to stay.
Gagne's lying about the CBS deal
That doesn't work for me brother
🤣
This exactly why AWA were never going to survive.
Acording 2 Greg his dad invented everything
Jesse Ventura said your dad was a cheap skate and wasn’t paying the wrestlers enough. 🤷🏻♂️
Perhaps if verne hadn"t tried to make Greg champion all the time AWA might have survived. Unfortunately Verne wasnt strategic enough.
I'm not sure whether that's true. I mean he's got to say they were gonna make Hogan the champion or make him a bigger deal than he already was because he would sound quite utterly ridiculous to say "oh no we never seen the potential there" and had no big plans for the future biggest superstar wrestler of all time
The Gagne's were poor business people, they made it easy for vince took take their talent.
The Gagne's were fools to not have contracts and had no clue on how business works.
Anton La Vey - That was a time when your word meant something and a handshake WAS how wrestling did business. Crazy but true. A different time
It’s also how people conducted themselves in general. Note I’m from New York. My friend I worked with from ‘88 - ‘06 and now 88 would always say “Good enough” when I said what I would do for him. One day I stopped to think what “good enough” actually meant. It means “Your word is good enough” and that kind of integrity where you didn’t have to be bound by a a legal written contract is lost
Note: A handshake agreement is how Graham didn’t keep the belt when he would have been “Hulkamania” in ‘77. Vince Sr promised the belt to Backlund and kept the promise. Even as it was clear how over Graham was becoming. Should have dropped it to Backlund as promised BUT put it back on Graham. Would have likely changed the course of wrestling
@@cirenosnor5768 lol… sure a man’s word should mean something - in fact everything! But when did hogan shake hands with the Gagnes and promise to stay there forever? Lol.
They certainly didn’t promise or give him much!
@@datacipher - Not saying they gave Hogan much and if anything it seems they weren’t giving him what he was worth. He did what was in his best interest by leaving. And the rest is history
@@datacipher He made about $200,000 in 1982 including Japan tours. He was paid well except for the T-shirt money in 1983.
@@cirenosnor5768 exactly. He didn’t get what he thought he was worth so he got a better deal. 💁🏻♂️ lol. He was an indentured slaves to the Greg and Verne lol. What kind of dullards try to even argue that he shouldn’t have looked for a better job, when he had no contract/commitment to stay? It’s ridiculous. It’s no different than getting mad at a kid at KFC for leaving because he got a higher paying job at McDonald’s….. it’s funny because it’s well documented that Vince, as ruthless as he can be, had even helped guys get bigger deals at competitors, and told them to go with no hard feelings when they did get better deals.
the Gagnes - Serge included refused to change with the times the Crocketts at least tried to change witih the times but it was too little too late
Verne should have let Hogan have a run with the AWA Title. The AWA probably would have lasted longer than it did. Another program that Vince took over was "Wrestling at The Chase."
Guy was too pig headed old school. Hogan wasn’t a. Old school shoot wrestler so Verne never thought he was worthy. Vince didn’t care he was 10 steps ahead of these old territory promoters
@@caps201 VKM felt that the promoters had gotten fat and lazy and too complacent. I couldn't buy into The Iron Sheik beating Bob Backlund for the WWE Title. I mean, this was a wrestler that had been (storyline) run out of WCW Atlanta by Brett Wayne Sawyer?
It would have lasted a while longer if hogan would have stuck around.
@@curthennig9448 But Hogan began to see that all he was doing was beating a dead horse if he stayed with Verne.
100% agree with interviewer. Hogan was the essential element in making WWF the success it was in the 80s.
Did the AWA have contracts with TV stations running shows? No, great way to do business! Hogan just wrestled in the 2nd to main event in front of 40,000 at Shea and would be in Rocky 3, with out Vern or Greg's assistance.
Let's face it hogan and the wwf were made and meant for each other not the awa,jcp etc.
What characters-Scrap Iron Kadaski; Crusher; Bruser; Sodbuster Kenny Jay; Mad Dog Vachon; my question is-was there really a Stanley Blackburn? Karbo was always talking about Blackburn.
Yes there was. If you come across the match that Curt Hennig beats Nick Bockwinkel for the AWA title, Blackburn appears towards the end of the clip.
@@homeschooladventure5687 no kidding. Karbo used to come out screaming about getting a rematch together...and said he had cleared it with Blackburn. I remember reading when Wally died, thirty years ago, he had like three girlfriends showing up for his funeral.
By the way, who called Wally Karbo Wally Caribou? Was that Jesse Ventura?
@@homeschooladventure5687 And at the beginning of the match. Stanley Blackburn was a long time AWA president. A real Texan and a mentor to Terry Funk.
@@davemaki4888 Exactly Jack!
Got YOUR talent, as if you owned them.
Vince paid them, you owned them...yep that's about it.
Too late, brother!
Greg still carrys the mentality that killed the AWA.
He and Verne didn't get it then and he still doesn't get it.
Vince got it.
Territorys were the wrong way to go.
Pay for talent.
Vince offered to buy them out, and they missed out.
A handshake deal is not legally binding. Thats why you and your Dad lost so many guys. After they signed Hogan the AWA was basically WWEs Developmental territory
Greg you and your dad screwed Hulk Hogan. The AWA could still be around if Hogan was champion. Especially coming off of Rocky 3. If You and your dad didn't make the dumbest mistake in wrestling history.
Hahahahahahaha. Decades of blaming everyone but his dad. If they were serious, they would’ve done SOMETHING, ANYTHING, to try and keep him. All you here for is “possible” “maybe” “could have” it’s funny how after all this time, he could just admit they messed up and didn’t do right by him. McMahon went out, told Hogan what he was going to do, and did it. He gave Hogan everything because he knew that’s what it would take. Gagne, please don’t shit on people because your and your father’s business acumen wasn’t as good as McMahon. The Gagne family pride got in your way.
I think also they had those long 20 minute matches, and not giving Hogan the title didn't help.
If Hogan wins the belt everything changes for them they were stubborn and they hurt themselves Hogan was right to leave Hogan debut late 1983 4 weeks later Vince put the belt on him vern never recovered
talking to the guy who really ruined wrestling... he let vince take hulk and hulk blew up bigger than anything in wrestling history ... unbelievable
I miss the AWA . I look at Vince putting the smaller territories out of business and I always wonder how much money does a person need. But I think it’s a power thing. I’m in the landscape business and there’s always big outfits trying to have it all. Kind of like Wal mart... sorry I’m just rambling..
Nah, You're absolutely right. Wal Mart are the locusts of the business world. Their execs would drive through a small town about to get a Wal Mart and gloat as they'd point at the local stores and say " I give them 6 months,them 4 months,they'll be gone in a year!" etc.etc. when referencing the eye glasses store,the photo processing store etc.etc. Wal Mart: The high cost of low prices. Think that's the documentary where I saw these examples. They ended small businesses like the WWF ended the territories.
We all missed the territories, but that's beside the point!
Vince saw he could make Hogan the damn face of the entire sport and he did. Some of these territories didn't deserve to be around if they couldn't utilize their stars properly
Jessie Ventura was just as big of a loss.
vince was going to put everyone else out of business period. Lie, cheat, backstab, double cross, or anything else it took. he basically said it himself many times. I wish someone like Watts, Verne, Fritz, or Crockett would have been the one to take it all over. Then it would not have turned into a kindergarten shit show. What he turned it into still makes me want to vomit.
Verne Gagne would never give Hogan the world title. He was a bockwinkle guy
Hogan was meant to go to the wwf the awa was just a stopover belt or no belt hogan was going to the wwf.
Vince is the devil.
Verne Gagne was more devil than you think...
If Vern 😂He was sleeping on the job!I grow on this bull 🐂
Greg is right. The wrestling business was pure honesty until Hogan left the AWA without giving multiple notices from multiple addresses. lol
The wrestling business was always like the Mafia. Promoters paid out what they wanted when they wanted to whom they wanted.
A sht ton of main event,commentary,and exec. WWF,WWE/WCW talent came from the AWA. Lol. Bet Vince Jr. cooks up some tasty poached eggs.
Hulkamania started with rocky iii
Hogan should have married Greg's sister, then he would have been champ. Like Larry Zbysko. :)
Yep, Cathy was waiting for Hogan to say yes, but Hulk was hanging and banging with Linda at the time. Your eventual winner was the Living Legend Larry Z(I believe in 1988). Hmm, an AWA title run in 1989! Coincidence?
Well Cathy looked like Greg in drag according to Hogan, So if anyone is content with a butterface as a wife, then sure!!!!
1983 wwf.
“Winning” something that is not real i don’t get it.
What do you not understand?
@@datacipher winning a fake title
Awa was the best
Greg "Nepotism" Gagne
Idk who is a bigger liar Greg or Hogan....Hogan
A man’s word is as good as his handshake…
Unless your hair yellow
and send love notes by mail .😂
Must have missed where hogan shook hands and promised to stay with the Gagnes forever lol.
@@datacipher Handshakes in the 50s, but not in the 1980s. No contract means I'm out of here.
@@curthennig9448 even in the 50’s hogan didn’t commit to anything. Even Greg doesn’t mention any length of time he was supposed to be there. They admit they didn’t tell him anything about these alleged plans. He notified them in advance, albeit by fax, but he wasn’t even there in person, but in Florida. Greg and Verne by their own admission chose not to believe the fax, and never followed up on it! 💁🏻♂️
The only person with a more revisionist bs history of wrestling than Hulk Hogan is Greg Gagne.
Ha
Even if Hogan had won the AWA title he would have left anyway. Vince could have always paid him more.