Guest Booker with Greg Gagne...Going against Vince McMahon

[MissDeeCole]

Verne Gange

YOUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRR FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIREEEEEE­EEEEEEEEEDDDDDD!!!!!!!

[TBDV1]

where is Greg's chin???

[cowbelltg]

@TBDV1 Jerry Blackwell ate it : p

[TheBronzeSkull]

Mixed feelings on this. McMahon made things more exciting but made wrestling a career that's very lucrative for the few. The McMahons got lucky in that they controlled the lucrative East Coast areas. This does show though what dinosaurs most of his opponents were. Gagne saw the end approaching but the others couldn't stop fighting each other trying to steal one little piece of territory or one wrestler from each other when a giant was about to stomp them all.

[SVSR2011]

this show kick serious ass.

[rtfuhj]

Vince is the true devil!!!! he hides his horns!!

[stndrds79]

@rtfuhj yes he is. u r right

[rtfuhj]

I can tell your a man of high I.Q!!! if i had a shit load of space i could tell all about the that son of a bitch has caused !!

[AceDagger1]

I'm sure he's a smart guy to the biz behind the scenes, but this guy was awful in front of the camera as a babyface doing interviews. He had no excitement to his interviews and never reeled you in. Some of the best minds of the biz should stay AWAY from the camera because they offer nothing on it

[xxpandamidknightxx]

@AceDagger1 He ran his father's business.

[bluesky8921]

I saw this shoot and I can tell you something... Greg was clueless about what was really going on in the world and pop culture. He also didn't know what fans wanted to see. He couldn't book a fart after lunch at Taco Bell. Seems like a nice guy, though.

[xxpandamidknightxx]

@bluesky8921 Greg would be around my dad's age. That seems very disrespectful that you thought he was clueless.

[tknippe]

@bluesky8921 book a fart after lunch at taco bell? I loveit!

[DeepSouthWrestling1]

Also, people seem a little too hard on Greg... sure he had nepotism on his side, but he was primarily a tag-team wrestler... not exactly a Goldberg-type push. He could wrestle pretty good, but he never would set the world on fire. Anyone complaining that he doesn't have the right "look" because he doesn't have a 'roided out physique should take a long, hard look at Adrian Adonis, Dusty Rhodes or Jimmy Valliant... and a much better example of misplaced nepotism would be the Gulas family...

[AceDagger1]

@DeepSouthWrestling1 Good point, but I think people refer to when he was getting his singles push and also feuding with Hennig. He just was not an entertaining personality as a top singles wrestler. I don't even think a heel turn would of worked

[DeepSouthWrestling1]

@AceDagger1 : true, but Verne was smart enough to keep the belt off him. He was rarely the main event. He was dull, but putting him in a team most of his career was an attempt to hide that. I don't remember him feuding with Hennig, but I do remember his feud with Brody in '87. Brody wouldn't sell, ha ha! Bad as he is, I'd rather watch him than the steroid hags that dominate these days... hard to respect wrestlers who shave their legs and wear little leather undies...

[AceDagger1]

@DeepSouthWrestling1 you can be dull like Greg and survive in a midcard tag team, at least back then, and that was the spot for him. His feud with Hennig was in '88 I believe when Hennig was AWA champ. To be honest, if you were to ask me to pick between generic babyface Greg and todays monotone, generic, bland, we-all-look-the-same-and-sound­-the-same mainstream wrestlers, I'd tell you to keep BOTH haha

[DeepSouthWrestling1]

...flavor all the local wrestling promotions had has long been wiped away in favor of the generic, corporate WWE style, and McMahon's company seems unable to make fans for life like the old promotions were able to do... instead, all they seem capable of is appealing to the kids and teenager market (historically the stupidest demographic, and the most foolish and gullible when it comes to spending) for maybe a few years at a time ('84-'87, '96-'00) before slipping back into the "uncool" category.

[DeepSouthWrestling1]

...and, although changing wrestling to "family entertainment" and eliminating the subversive element all true pro wrestling had ( hardcore violence, racist/homophobic/xenophobic attitudes) has made McMahon a very rich guy, to call him the best pro wrestling promoter of all time really shows how little people understand... the fact is, wrestling as a business has never been worse, and it's been literally dying since 1984. Fewer performers make a living in wrestling than back then, the local...

[DeepSouthWrestling1]

All the people calling McMahon a "genius" should dig their collective heads out of their asses... the facts are: Vince was underhanded and dishonest in his dealings with almost every promoter, particularly the Gagnes... luring away talent and not allowing them to finish their commitments, sneaking into town and buying tv slots away, not honoring agreements he promised (particularly with Stu)... appalling, particularly when you consider the relationships these promoters had with Sr...

[fjccommish]

Pro Wrestling USA was doomed to fail with all those guys trying to work together.

[Derby14]

The resemblance between Greg and Verne is amazing.

[Vizzoid]

Greg was gthe most horrific version of nepatism in history... he had NO in ring ability, no promo skills and no look.... how in the Hell does he dare to get ill at anyone???

[heavymetalsoldier]

@Vizzoid

Greg was a good wrestler, but yes, he had no charisma

[pacjamT1]

I read a lot of what some of you guys have said and The one guy said the 80s sucked to me the 80s was the best time for music and tv and wrestling and I do agree that Vince was ahead of his time but a lot of what he has done has caused a back lash a lot of hard core fans don't like him or his WWE brand Its just his luck that the AWA or the WCCW are no longer around and the NWA is still trying to rebuild. Hopefully one day TNA, ROH, and NWA can one day give Vince a run for his money.

[JonathanVonErich]

Vince is the best....period. I like Verne, The AWA....but Vince is Evolution....

[DeepSouthWrestling1]

@JonathanVonErich : More like Devolution... while Vince gets bigger, the biz gets smaller and smaller... by the time his grandkids are old enough to take over, the biz will probably not even exist anymore...

[EdmondSwitch]

Once Vince was in control his Dad made sure AWA sank. He refused to make new stars only let his son be on top. Other wise he only let his friends and old men stay on top.

Second Greg was boring as all fucking hell and his tag team was ok. Greg is known liar as well.

[topdinero]

@EdmondSwitch hell has bought everybody from awa to wcw ecw

[fjccommish]

I wish these sheisters wouldn't place misleading titles on their short promo videos. Write "promo" in the title!

[mfbinc]

the music in the background is annoying and not needed. greg's hair is holding up better than his dads did :P

[lawrence142002]

To further elaborate on my point. A majority of wrestling fans are marks. They have almost no true knowledge of how a match is worked. They don't care about the fancy workrates. Anyway, in football, that kind of thing doesn't matter. Fans root for the home team or the better team. XFL players were bad because they rushed the league into competition without learning the target audience. That's why the XFL failed. That's why the Gagne's failed... Failure to read the target audience.

[kevinneslund]

I would recommend putting the bong down. Good ol' hindsight is always 20/20 isn't it? funny how that works. The XFL was protected even before the idea was finalized. Vinny Mac knew it had a big potential for a bell-flop, and, his hunch came true. Gee, what a shocker. How that is correlated to the 30 YEARS of a successful AWA is beyond any semblance of rational thought. Again, ya need to put the bong down brother.

[lawrence142002]

Yeah, cause I smoke that shit, right... Real knowledge you got on my personal life... Once again... Facts are facts. The AWA failed. It could've competed but the Gagne's were outpromoted, outsmarted, and out performed... That's why they couldn't compete with McMahon. They were overmatched. The only promoter who could ever compete with McMahon was Eric Bischoff, and even he failed at the end. McMahon is the best wrestling promoter of all time. Hands down. Sorry.

[kevinneslund]

McMahon is no doubt a genius. He doubt took some very huge risks and they panned out. Simple facts. However, as in art (music, acting, etc.) there's no criterion for "best". Vince is very, very popular. Heck, numbers don't lie. However, there's a huge niche market for some of the cornball goofy stuff the AWA ran from back in the day. Just as people who age, tend to stick with the music they grew up listening. This is easily understood. The product WWE now runs is odd and meandering. It's lost.

[lawrence142002]

I don't dispute that the current WWE product isn't exactly my idea of good. There is good and bad as with anything. I just don't see how the AWA can be defended, given they had the biggest oppertunities to compete and did nothing with them. That's my opinion.

[kevinneslund]

Hey, I grew up in the twin cities, so, I'm going to be a bit biased. It was what kids and adults did on Sat. or Sun. mornings for many years. "All-Star Wrestling" (The AWA) is firmly etched into the memories of many of us. It's really a cherished thing now the older we get. I'm 50, and it's wh

[lawrence142002]

I'm a fan of old school wrestling... But I'm from Pittsburgh, so either way, I would've grown up with the WWF, even if the territorial system had stayed. You can't dispute that after Hulk Hogan left the promotion, that was death. Gagne couldn't figure out how to use his talent and compared to McMahon, none of the promoters worked as hard. It's just facts of life. In the 80s, the AWA was a poor promotional model.

[kevinneslund]

Oh, I certainly agree with you regarding the exodus of major talent Vince lured away from Verne. I remember it all too well when it occured. Vince lured away Hogan, Ventura, Adonis, David Schultz, Patera, Brunzell, and more. Incidentally, at the time, Vince didn't have the money to pay these guys what he promised them, but, he did eventually because his gamble payed off. In that regard, Vince McMahon is an extraordinary visionary genius. He really is. Gagne just didn't have foresight and vision.

[mfbinc]

the awa stuck to it's guns but vince gave the fans a cartoon that happened to catch on.....the 80's wwe was just one of many many reasons while the 80's sucked...

[bearany1]

Greg looks cuter than when he was wrestling....I just can't believe they made him a champion, winning so many matches against superior athletes. I mean, seriously.... he should have the biggest jobber of all time. He didn't have a body...and not a muscle on him!

[burth179]

His old man trusted him, he wasn't a bad wrestler at all. But yeah his "look" was far from ideal.

[gangstaOGgangsta]

dont forget Hulk Hogan, the Gagnes had the biggest star in the world and didnt even know it

[Baacas]

A successful promotion has to have 3 things: good story lines, good talent and great television exposure. If any one of these is missing, the promotion can fail. The Gagnes produced a very well done, family entertainment wrestling promotion. Vince was successful at luring away talent and saturating TV markets with the then WWF. His predatory business practices had more to do with the success of WWF than the quality of his promotion.

[HeyArnoldsspleen]

Pppft...yeah right. Sour grapes much?

[lawrence142002]

That's BS... The WWF had some damn good quality in the 80s, as opposed to the boring matches that traditionally went on in the AWA... By 1989, the only guy in the AWA worth anything was Larry Z. All the good talent went where the money was.

[RHP444]

Isn't that luring away talent?

[lawrence142002]

Well, hell... Say you were a worker in those days... Where would you go? Would you rather work for the Gagne's who overlooked their talented stars for older names, or would you go where you could be exposed nationally?

[lhh4531]

THE WWF in the 1980's was lame, cartoonish and geared to 10 year olds. If it hadn't been promoted on TV for hours on end, it would have flopped as badly as Vince's XFL. That failure he blamed on what else -- lack of promotion.

[lawrence142002]

First step towards running a sucessful business... Know the audience. The Gagne's failed to do so. McMahon promoted to children and families. The Gagne's failed to learn the target audience, and let the biggest star in the wrestling world get away. They failed as bookers and as businessmen. It's just a fact. The XFL actually failed due to the lack of quality players and the fact that unlike professional wrestling, there is no such thing as a "mark" in football.

[ctothecman]

I have no sympathy for the lazy promoters who couldn't compete with Vince. Vince is still well known as one of the hardest working people in the world. Supposedly he only gets like 5 hours of sleep a night. He's easily the hardest working person in the business. From what I've read, most of these 80s promoters spent a handful of hours a WEEK in the office.

They had no vision to expand beyond podunk little wrestling orgs running out of dirty, smoke-filled arenas. You grew and adapt or you die

[BootPatrol]

Sad tale that this should happen, but this tale must be told.

Thanks for telling us of this, Greg.

[alexglauer]

The Gagnes put AWA out of business, not Vince.

[lawrence142002]

This guy had horrible ideas...

[jb0609]

What was horrible???

[ChromeFamily]

Comments from Lawrence lol He made Hulk Hogan and a ton of other stars.. Vince took them away and marketed them better.

[budget342]

Greg is now a car salesman. We bought a Buick Lesabre from him awhile back. The car was a lot better than his wrestling.

[jpcfit]

Growing up in rural Minnesota in the late 1960's and early '70's, All-Star Wrestling was a Saturday night staple. It was an absolute hit.

[HeyArnoldsspleen]

For some reason, Vince's dickhead yell from the limo actually sounds pretty funny and typical of his character, since there's barely a difference according to even him.

[MarvinYoureNaked]

Well said.

[TheTrueFranchise]

I want all these DVD's but at $20 bones a pop plus s&h its kinda hard to come by.

[jimmycrackas]

Sean, looks like a grand slam like every other release. cant wait to get my copy..... jimmy james

[missuscake]

Kayfaybe commentaries hands down best shoot company.

[MarvinYoureNaked]

You guys do great work... the Sullivan WCW DVD was incredible.

"Creative Control."

[dadirrtywhyteboi]

Kayfab you have done it again i must say this looks like the best DVD you have come out this year really interesting stuff going on at that time between Vince and ever promoter out there and this is unedited. I will definetly pick up

[Volumesofdoom]

I need to get this. The AWA was a huge influence on the wwe in 80's. WWE raped the AWA by taking Hogan, Okerlund, Ventura, Henning, Martel, Adonis, HBK, Jannetty, Nasty boyz, and Slaughter. RIP AWA