When Vince McMahon raided the AWA of its stars

When Vince McMahon secured ownership of the World Wide Wrestling Federation from his father in the early '80s, he was far from a proven promoter or media mogul.

He was simply the son of a promoter, an unproven kid with crazy dreams that could get him in trouble with the established order. Undaunted, Vince McMahon set out to prove the old guard wrong when he took the reins of his father's franchise.

After dropping the word 'Wide' from the company's moniker and simply calling it the WWF, he began to search for stars. He needed trained grapplers who he could mold in his vision. And for some reason, he always used to find them in the great state of.

Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association had ruled most of the upper midwest and far west wrestling scene at the time. Gagne, a former amateur champion, founder of his own promotion, and multi-time world champion stressed that wrestling be portrayed as a legitimate sport with serious competitors.

Vince McMahon's vision of a combination of sports and entertainment was a long way away from his elder statesman.

Verne Gagne had what Vince McMahon needed

Gagne had a roster full of talent and a great television reach in several major markets.

At first, Vince tried to purchase the AWA outright from Gagne, but the veteran wrestler and promoter balked at what he thought was too low a price and not a fair arrangement for him and his son, Greg.

Reportedly, the two were amicable up until the point that the Gagnes dropped Vince McMahon off for his fight nack home. That's when Vince allegedly turned around and said to Gagne, "Verne... I don't negotiate."

He wasn't kidding either.

Before long, VKM was buying up all of Gagne's talent, promising them fame and fortune as part of his new World Wrestling Federation. It was an easy sell. Gagne was notorious for having low payoffs from time to time. Plus, the lure of performing in New York at Madison Square Garden - to break out and truly become international stars - was too much to resist.

It didn't take long before names such as Jesse Ventura, 'Dr. D' David Schultz, Ken Patera, Wendi Richter, 'Jumpin' Jim Brunzell, manager Bobby Heenan and announcer Mean Gene Okerlund were all on their way to New York.

There were several others over the course of the next two years, but the crown jewel of them all was Gagne's biggest drawing star, Hulk Hogan. The Hulkster and Verne had some disagreements over money, Hogan's Japan touring dates, and his booking in the AWA.

Hogan should have been the company's world champion at that point, but Gagne was reluctant to put his coveted title on a brawling strongman.

McMahon came in and swooped Hogan away. He then built his entire franchise around the muscular blonde superstar. Gagne was so furious about Vince's plans that there's an old wrestling rumor that says he offered The Iron Sheik, one of his former pupils and the WWF champion at the time, an extremely large sum of money to double-cross him on the night of their title change.

Supposedly, Gagne wanted him to break Hogan's leg in the match and then bring Vince's title belt to the AWA.

Sheik refused the offer apparently because everything went off as planned. Hogan would win the WWF World title and go on to lead Vince McMahon and his promotion into a new stratosphere.

Gagne would try to build new stars in the years ahead, only to have McMahon sign them away without warning. Rick Martel, The Rockers, and Curt Hennig were all promising prospects in Minnesota who went on to bigger and better things under the glitzy umbrella of Vince McMahon's empire.

Verne Gagne and the American Wrestling Association would eventually cease operations in early 1991. But in reality, they had already died years earlier; Vince McMahon choked them out when he raided their talent and TV markets.

In essence, he took Gagne's own stars and used them against the old promoter.

The WWF promoter conquered the Midwest and the Rocky Mountain region when he toppled Verne Gagne and the AWA. He wouldn't stop there as he took stars from Jim Crockett Promotions and World Class Wrestling in Texas, as well.

Vince McMahon was on his way to global domination and was determined that no one could stop him. The rest, as they say, is history.

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