AWA #11 Page #2
The Crusher brought in his longtime rival Mad Dog Vachon as his partner to challenge Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens. Crusher and Mad Dog defeated Nick and Ray in a one fall, no disqualification match held at the Milwaukee Auditorium on January 19th, 1974 to apparently win the AWA tag team titles. However the AWA ruled the wrong man was pinned and the tag straps were returned to Bockwinkel and Stevens. The next six months of 1974 saw Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens continue their reign of terror in the AWA. Nick and Ray fought many of the same teams they had before including Robinson and Bastien, Robinson and Geoff Portz, Bastien and the Crusher, Bastien and Portz, Robinson and the Crusher and Bastien and Wilbur Snyder. Finally on July 21st, 1974, the team of Billy Robinson and the Crusher defeated Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens to capture the AWA tag team titles in a match held at the Brown County Arena in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
The victory by Robinson and the Crusher triggered a chain of events which would shape the AWA for many years to come. Bockwinkel and Stevens were incensed about their tag title loss and let their thoughts be known on the August 10th, 1974 telecast of All Star Wrestling. Before their scheduled television match against the High Flyers, Greg Gagne and Jumping Jim Brunzell, Nick and Ray launched a tirade declaring there was a conspiracy by the AWA hierarchy against them. Bockwinkel and Stevens said they needed someone to watch their backs, handle their travel schedule, invest their earnings and make sure the AWA was kept in line.
Nick and Ray then introduced their new manager, Bobby Heenan. Heenan took his place in the corner of Bockwinkel and Stevens as the match against the team of Gagne and Brunzell was about to begin. Nick and Ray dominated the match but were so upset about losing the AWA tag straps to Robinson and the Crusher that they were intentionally disqualified. Bockwinkel and Stevens along with Heenan continued to pound Gagne and Brunzell after they had been disqualified. Nick and Ray threw the referee out of the ring and fought off the preliminary wrestlers who tried to save the High Flyers. All of a sudden, Larry the Axe Hennig who had been feuding with Gagne and Brunzell hit the ring and shockingly cleared the ring of Nick Bockwinkel, Ray Stevens and Bobby Heenan.
The impact of the run in by Larry Hennig to rescue Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell from the post match attack by Bockwinkel, Stevens and Heenan can not be understated. Larry Hennig had been the arch enemy of Verne Gagne for several years and was a hated villian. Greg Gagne and Jim Brunzell were a young, up and coming tag team who had been strictly undercard material until this attack by Bockwinkel, Stevens and Heenan.
Suddenly Gagne and Brunzell were thrust into the spotlight and began feuding with Bockwinkel and Stevens. Bobby Heenan was a well known manager throughout the midwest and would be one of the AWA's most important figures for the next several years. One televised match started all these storylines.
With Heenan at their side constantly interfering in matches, Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens quickly regained their championship form. Bockwinkel and Stevens received several title shots against Robinson and the Crusher and it was only a matter of time before Nick and Ray would recapture the AWA tag team titles. On October 24th, 1974 in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada, Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens defeated Billy Robinson and the Crusher to win the AWA tag team titles for the third time. Bobby Heenan was responsible for Nick and Ray regaining the title as Heenan intefered in the match leading to the winning pinfall.
The third tag title reign of Bockwinkel and Stevens was much different than the other two in terms of opposition. Larry Hennig had been added to the mix of challengers. Hennig teamed with a variety of partners including the Crusher, Billy Robinson, Greg Gagne, Jim Brunzell, Ivan Putski and Dusty Rhodes against Nick and Ray. However the presence of manager Bobby Heenan made it impossible for Hennig and company to capture the AWA tag team titles.
In early 1975, Superstar Billy Graham had a falling out with Baron Von Raschke and Horst Hoffman which ended up turning Graham babyface. Graham recruited Dusty Rhodes to be his partner against the hated Germans. After an extremely vicious series of matches, Superstar Graham and Dusty Rhodes emerged victorious in the feud and were granted an AWA tag title shot against Bockwinkel and Stevens to be held on May 17th, 1975 in Chicago at the International Amphitheatre. There was one problem with the scenario however. Graham left the AWA before the title match took place leaving Dusty Rhodes without a partner. Dusty Rhodes came to the ring by himself to face Nick and Ray that night in Chicago. Bockwinkel and Stevens began double teaming Rhodes when out of nowhere the Crusher in his street clothes ran into the ring to help Dusty. Rhodes and the Crusher won the impromptu match but were not awarded the AWA tag team titles because Crusher had substituted for Graham. Dusty and the Crusher met Bockwinkel two more times for the tag straps in Chicago on subsequent cards but were unable to get the job done. Rhodes was announced as being injured in the third match between the two teams. The Crusher wanted revenge for Rhodes so an AWA tag team title match was signed pitting Crusher and Dick the Bruiser against Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens. On July 16th, 1975 in front of a sellout crowd of 12,000 at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Dick the Bruiser and the Crusher defeated Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens to win the AWA tag team titles for the fifth time.
Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens would continue to team for a few more months but were never the force they once were. Verne Gagne decided Nick should be the man to succeed him as AWA champion. Nick becoming the AWA kingpin would lead to trouble between Bockwinkel and Stevens but that's a story for another time.
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A look at the career of Verne Gagne as a wrestler.