The history of professional wrestling is full of second-generation talents, the children of wrestlers who have taken up the family business. While many get opportunities in places like WWE because of their names, lineage doesn’t guarantee greatness — while there are successes like Terry Funk, Dustin Rhodes, and Charlotte Flair, there are also busts like David Sammartino, David Flair, and Wes Brisco.
Then there’s Greg Gagne, the son of Verne Gagne, an icon of the Midwest wrestling scene and an all-time great who not only founded the American Wrestling Association but also trained countless future legends. The younger Gagne had tremendous shoes to fill that he arguably couldn’t, but he’s still a performer fans should know a thing or ten about.
10 Football Background
Born shortly before Verne Gagne embarked on his pro wrestling career, Greg Gagne followed in his father’s footsteps in several ways, including playing football. Like Verne, Greg Gagne played football for the University of Minnesota, with Greg’s stint being in the late 1960s. In 1970, he transferred and played as a quarterback for the University of Wyoming, and was being scouted by the Atlanta Falcons. In order to get in better shape for his big-league opportunity, Greg Gagne trained with the legendary Billy Robinson, which got him more interested in pursuing pro wrestling.
9 Tag Team Specialist With Jim Brunzell
After debuting in the ring in 1972, Greg Gagne brought his University of Minnesota football teammate Jim Brunzell into the business, with Brunzell learning how to wrestle in Verne Gagne’s training camp alongside future legends The Iron Sheik and Ric Flair. Together, Gagne and Bruznell formed a tag team called The High Flyers, who ended up capturing the AWA World Tag Team Championship from Blackjack Lanza & Bobby Duncum and held the belts for 443 days. Their reign may have lasted even longer if Brunzell didn’t get injured, forcing the duo to vacate in late September 1978
8 Two-Time AWA World Tag Team Champion
In November of 1978, The High Flyers were back in full force, and returned to the Tag Title picture, but ultimately failed to beat the new champions, Pat Patterson and Ray Stevens. The following year, Jim Brunzell departed AWA to wrestle for Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, leaving Gagne to wrestle in singles bouts and take on other tag partners like Dino Bravo and Tito Santana.
Brunzell returned to AWA in 1981, reuniting Gagne, and the High Flyers subsequently beat Adrian Adonis and Jesse Ventura to capture the World Tag Title a second time, with this reign lasting 742 days.
7 Feuded With Bruiser Brody
After losing the Tag Title in 1983, The High Flyers would go their separate ways, with Greg Gagne focusing on a solo career. It wasn’t long before Gagne got into a big feud with the heel Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie and the various heels he managed, particularly Bruiser Brody, who wrestled in AWA as King Kong Brody. In one notable match, at the supercard WrestleRock ‘86, Gagne teamed with Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka — with Verne Gagne at ringside — to take on Al-Kaissie and King Kong Brody in a steel cage.
6 Repackaged As A Soldier
After embarking on a singles career, Greg Gagne underwent a bit of a change in his presentation, seeking training from fellow AWA star Sgt. Slaughter. Pre-taped segments showed Gagne undergoing grueling training from Slaughter, and the second-generation star began to wear outfits similar to that of Sylvester Stallone’s John Rambo, complete camouflage and a red bandana. Gagne would compete in tag team matches alongside his new mentor, but the experiment in giving Greg Gagne an edge failed to work, so the partnership with Sgt. Slaughter lasted only a couple of months.
5 Generational Feud With Curt Hennig
The year 1987 saw top AWA star Nick Bockwinkel lose the World Heavyweight Title to Curt Hennig, who turned heel in the process and thus became Greg Gagne’s new target in his never-ending pursuit of the World Title. Because both Hennig and Gagne were second-generation stars, it only made sense to incorporate their fathers, Verne Gagne and Larry “The Axe” Hennig, though for many fans the aging legends tended to upstage their sons. Once again the World Title eluded the younger Gagne in this feud, as he was only able to almost-obtain it due to Dusty Finishes.
4 Two-Time AWA International Television Champion
Over the course of his in-ring career, Greg Gagne was never able to actually capture the World Heavyweight Championship, but he did manage to score a couple singles belts late in the game. The year 1987 saw the creation of the AWA International Television Title, with Gagne becoming inaugural champion after defeating Adrian Adonis in a tournament final.
Gagne’s 265-day reign would end at the hands of Ron Garvin, but the title would be held up after AWA officials decided that Garvin won the belt by cheating. This led to a rematch for the belt in late 1988 at AWA’s only pay-per-view, SuperClash 3, with Greg Gagne regaining the belt.
3 Retired Early Due To Injury
In 1989, Greg Gagne returned to the tag team division, teaming with Paul Diamond to capture the vacant World Tag Title in a tournament. However, during the final round bout against The Destruction Crew, Gagne was attacked by Sheik Adnan Al-Kassie and his new client, Kokina Maximus (later known as Yokozuna), who ended up causing a legitimate injury to Gagne’s leg. The injury forced Greg Gagne to retire from competition to work backstage as well as a commentator.
2 Became A Road Agent
The American Wrestling Association stopped taping weekly shows in 1990, though Verne Gagne did put on a few last house shows in 1991, with Greg Gagne returning to the ring for one last match. The younger Gagne worked backstage for WCW as a road agent for several years, after which he found work as a car salesman in Minnesota. In the mid-2000s, Gagne once again started pursuing work in pro wrestling, and scored a job working as a road agent for WWE as well as a trainer at the company’s developmental promotion at the time, Ohio Valley Wrestling.
1 Now 73 Years Old
Now in his early 70s, Greg Gagne’s role in the wrestling business is not unlike that of most veterans, with appearances at conventions and the like. While he continued to work at the car dealership as a manager, in 2009 Gagne opened a wrestling school, Gagne Wrestling Association, alongside his old tag team partner Jim Brunzell and AWA jobber Buck Zumhofe, though the Academy appears to be defunct. In the 2010s, Greg Gagne took part in a shoot interview with RF Video where he told stories about his time in wrestling.