41-596: Super Ninja may refer to: Wrestlers Shunji Takano , in AWA , SCW , NCW , and WWE Keiji Mutoh Rip Oliver Ron Reis , briefly known as Super Giant Ninja in WCW Others The Super Ninja , a 1984 film starring Alexander Lou Super Ninja , a villain in the Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos television series “Super Ninja”
82-401: A face and utilized the sleeper hold as his finisher. His longest reign as champion was for 7 years, from August 31, 1968, to November 8, 1975, dropping the title to Nick Bockwinkel. He would regain the title from Bockwinkel on July 18, 1980, and drop it back to Bockwinkel on May 19, 1981. After his last title lost in 1981, Gagne would wrestle occasionally for AWA until 1986. His last match was
123-462: A 97-year-old resident of the Bloomington, Minnesota nursing care facility where they both resided. According to Gutmann's widow, who was not present during the altercation, Gagne picked Gutmann up and threw him to the floor, then broke his hip by pulling back on his body. "'The attack happened quickly while the men were at a table', Bloomington Police Chief Jeff Potts said. 'It was more like "a push and
164-585: A brief return to Calgary, Shunji Takano went to All Japan Pro Wrestling in November 1985, originally as part of Riki Choshu 's Japan Pro-Wrestling group. Takano teamed with fellow Calgary Hurricanes Hiro Saito and Super Strong Machine on a short JPW tour in November. The Calgary Hurricanes became regular performers in April 1986, constituting a third Japanese faction along with the All Japan faction led by Jumbo Tsuruta and
205-656: A choice. In the same interview, Greg mentioned that wrestling was a much better paying job at the time than playing football and as a result, Verne chose wrestling over football. By 1949, Gagne had signed with the NFL's Green Bay Packers . He went on to play three preseason games with the Packers before being released. In 1949, Gagne decided to wrestle professionally, starting his career in Texas. In his debut, he defeated Abe Kashey, with former World Heavyweight boxing Champion Jack Dempsey as
246-674: A promising boxer. Takano grew up at home with his mother and brother after his father returned to the United States and leaving them behind, and he was a mixed-blooded child. Shunji Takano debuted for New Japan Pro-Wrestling on December 8, 1981, defeating Fumihiro Niikura. In his early years, he stayed within the undercard and the lower mid-card area, wrestling the likes of Niikura, Shinichi Nakano , Shunji Kosugi , Norio Honaga , Nobuhiko Takada , Masanobu Kurisu , and Junji Hirata . Upon his return to NJPW in October 1984, Takano began moving up
287-534: A regular basis. Gagne's booking strategies for the wrestlers themselves continued to follow more traditional themes than those of the WWF, believing as he did that the top stars should be highly gifted technical wrestlers rather than those with just charismatic personalities. Throughout the mid to late 1980s, the AWA would lose the vast majority of its top stars to McMahon, while ratings and live attendance continued to decline. By 1991,
328-637: A result of the death as, because of Gagne's dementia, he lacked the mental capacity necessary to be criminally culpable. Gagne was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (or possibly chronic traumatic encephalopathy caused by a lifetime of head injuries) and had been living in the memory-loss section of a Bloomington, Minnesota health care facility. In January 2012 he was living in the home of his daughter Beth and her husband Will. He continued to make public appearances in his last years, aided by his son Greg . On April 27, 2015, Gagne died in Bloomington at
369-571: A shove" and it caused Gutmann to fall.'" Neither man had any recollection of the incident. Gutmann was admitted to the hospital, and died on February 14 from complications of the injury. On February 25, 2009, the older man's death was officially ruled a homicide by the Hennepin County medical examiner's office. On March 12, 2009, the Hennepin County Prosecutor's office officially announced that Gagne would not be criminally charged as
410-454: A single named Ultra Bazooka (his wrestling nickname) through King Records in 1999. Verne Gagne Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Laverne Clarence " Verne " Gagne ( / ˈ ɡ ɑː n j eɪ / GAHN -yay ; February 26, 1926 – April 27, 2015) was an American amateur and professional wrestler , football player , wrestling trainer and wrestling promoter . He
451-470: A six-man tag with his son Greg, and Jimmy Snuka defeating Boris Zhukov , John Nord and Sheik Adnan Al-Kassie on June 29, 1986. As AWA head, Gagne was known for putting on an "old school" show. He sought out wrestlers with amateur backgrounds over the larger, more impressive-looking wrestlers who dominated professional wrestling in the 1980s. This led to a problem with his biggest draw, Hulk Hogan , whom Gagne had acquired after Hogan had been let go by
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#1733084997273492-427: A tie with The Nasty Boys ( Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags ). After leaving AJPW in the summer of 1990, Shunji Takano joined Super World of Sports , in which he joined the stable, Palestra, led by his older brother, George. On SWS's pre-launch show on September 29, 1990, a one-night singles tournament took place, in which Shunji defeated Fumihiro Niikura and Kendo Nagasaki , before losing to his older brother George in
533-835: A wrestling promotion of his own. In 1960, Gagne formed his own promotion, the American Wrestling Alliance (later it became Association). Before this, the Minneapolis territory was under the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) umbrella. Setting up to pull away from the NWA, the Minneapolis territory (as it was known), gave a "story-line only" edict to the NWA in May 1960 that unless their NWA World Champion Pat O'Connor defended his title against Verne Gagne with 90 days, Verne Gagne would become recognized World Champion by default. There
574-468: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Shunji Takano Shunji Takano (高野 俊二 Takano Shunji ) (born February 16, 1964) is a Japanese former professional wrestler and actor, whose artistic alias is Ken Takano . Takano was born on February 16, 1964. His father was a black American Marine who belonged to the Iwakuni base, and has also become
615-534: The Dumont Network , where he wowed audiences with his technical prowess. He was rumored to be one of the highest-paid wrestlers during the 1950s, reportedly earning a hundred thousand dollars a year. On June 14, 1957, Edouard Carpentier defeated NWA Champion Lou Thesz in Chicago. The NWA later overruled the decision of the referee in Chicago and gave the title back to Thesz. However, certain wrestling territories of
656-559: The World Wide Wrestling Federation and who Gagne also felt was not championship material, due to the fact that Hogan was a power wrestler rather than a technical wrestler. Seeing Hogan as the company's top draw, Gagne did, however, let Hogan feud with Bockwinkel. Eventually, as noted on the 2006 Spectacular Legacy of AWA DVD, Gagne agreed to make Hogan his champion after Hogan's feud with Bockwinkel ran its course in April 1983, but only on condition that Gagne would receive
697-466: The 191-pound class to win his first NCAA championship in Pennsylvania. The next year, he returned to the championships but had moved up a class, to heavyweight. In the final, he met future NWA World Heavyweight Champion Dick Hutton , the two-time defending national champion in the division. The showdown ended in a 1–1 tie, but Gagne was awarded the win because he controlled Hutton for longer periods of
738-642: The Ellipse Technical Admins AKA Amundson duo See also [ edit ] Super Ninja Boy , a computer game Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Super Ninja . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Super_Ninja&oldid=1108912908 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
779-587: The Greco-Roman team would not be competing. Gagne joined the National Football League (NFL) soon after being drafted by the Chicago Bears in the 16th round (145th pick) of the 1947 NFL draft . In 2006's The Spectacular Legacy of the AWA , Verne's son, Greg , said in an interview that Bears owner George Halas prevented his father from pursuing both football and wrestling, and forced him to make
820-744: The Ishin Gundan faction led by Riki Choshu. Veteran Killer Khan defected from Ishin Gundan to give the Calgary Hurricanes, who were all relatively young and inexperienced, a senior member. The Calgary Hurricanes continued to feud with the other groups through September 1986, with Takano mostly appearing in tag team and six man tag matches with fellow Hurricanes members. Takano returned to AJPW in February 1988 touring in North America, and by that time, his stock
861-753: The Marine Corps. Gagne's football and wrestling career was interrupted by a tour of duty with the United States Marine Corps in 1943. He played on the Marines Football Team with the likes of Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch , Gopher Great George Franck and other NFL Stars. Gagne also served with the U.S. Navy 's Underwater Demolition Team . He chose to return to the University of Minnesota , where, as an amateur wrestler, he captured two NCAA titles. In 1948, he beat Charles Gottfried of Illinois in
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#1733084997273902-467: The NWA including Nebraska refused to go along with the decision and continued to recognize Carpentier. Carpentier lost his title to Gagne in Omaha on August 9, 1958, making him the recognized NWA World champion in the NWA territories that had recognized Carpentier, before dropping the belt three months later to Wilbur Snyder . By early 1960, the wealthy Gagne rarely wrestled and turned his focus towards building
943-552: The Super Ninja persona. In July 1987, Takano won his first championship, the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship with Rip Oliver , with whom he held the titles for nearly two months, before Oliver left the territory, and was replaced by Joey Jackson, who Takano held the titles for nearly two months with, before finally losing them to The Southern Rockers ( Steve Doll and Scott Peterson). After
984-732: The United States. His first stop was for Verne Gagne 's American Wrestling Association in Minneapolis, through Masa Saito 's connections, where he wrestled under a mask and went by the name, the Super Ninja . Upon his debut, he was aligned with Larry Zbyszko . In January 1987, Takano had his first major title match against Nick Bockwinkel for the AWA World Heavyweight Championship , in which he won by disqualification. In May 1987, he moved to Portland to wrestle for Don Owen 's Pacific Northwest Wrestling , still wrestling under
1025-466: The WWF. McMahon wished to take his promotion "national" and do away with the traditional territorial system that dominated the North American pro wrestling landscape for decades. Unlike most of his contemporaries, by the mid-1980s, Gagne began promoting the AWA beyond the geographical bounds of its traditional territory. In September 1985, ESPN began broadcasting AWA Championship Wrestling , giving
1066-459: The age of 14 after his mother died. He attended Robbinsdale High School , where he went on to win the state championship for high school wrestling in 1942 and 1943. In 1943, he was recruited to play football at the University of Minnesota as defensive end and tight end, while also continuing wrestling. As a freshman, Gagne won the Big Ten 175 pound wrestling title in 1944 after returning from duty in
1107-529: The bulk of Hogan's revenues from both merchandise sales and his matches in Japan, which Hogan refused. In late 1983, Hogan accepted an offer from Vincent K. McMahon to return to the WWF. The Iron Sheik , whom Gagne trained, alleged that Gagne bribed him to inflict career-threatening damage on Hogan's knee after it became apparent that Hogan was leaving for the WWF. What followed was an exodus of major stars from various territories and promotions, including Gagne's AWA, to
1148-620: The card slowly, but his unhappiness with the company caused him to leave NJPW in September 1985. In 1983, Takano went on an excursion to Canada, wrestling for Stu Hart 's Stampede Wrestling in Calgary. While there, he formed a tag team with Hiro Saito called the Calgary Hurricanes , which would later become a trio with Junji Hirata , who by then became known as the masked Super Strong Machine . In October 1986, Takano went on an excursion to
1189-630: The damage had been done, and the AWA shut down after 30 years. Gagne would eventually end up in bankruptcy court. In April 2006, Gagne was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by his son, Greg Gagne . He is one of only seven people to be inducted into the WWE , WCW and Professional Wrestling Halls of Fame. In 2018, he was inducted into the Nebraska Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame. On January 26, 2009, Gagne got into an altercation with Helmut Gutmann,
1230-411: The match. He was also an alternate for the U.S. freestyle wrestling team at the 1948 Olympic Games , after losing a closely contested wrestle-off match to the eventual gold medalist Henry Wittenberg . He earned the starting spot for the U.S. Greco-Roman wrestling team for the 1948 Olympics by finishing second in the U.S. freestyle wrestle-offs, but upon arriving to London, the U.S. coaches decided that
1271-747: The place was so packed with fans that the police had to be mobilized to get in. Takano also has started to play roles in numerous japanese movies such as Kentaro Amakusa in Sanshiro 1 and 2 , Akira Aizen in Yakuza Sengoku Shi Fudo , Dick Head in The Defender and other features, being credited as Kenji "Ken" Takano , his " American " name. He also voiced characters in japanese such as Gary Daniels in Rage from 1995 and Fatman in Spriggan from 1998. He also released
Super Ninja - Misplaced Pages Continue
1312-411: The promotion national exposure like the WWF. However, the AWA suffered numerous setbacks. ESPN did not treat AWA Championship Wrestling as a priority; the show was sometimes not aired in its regular time slot (occasionally ESPN would change the time slot without advertising the change beforehand), and sometimes it was preempted by live sporting events. This resulted in many fans being unable to tune in on
1353-505: The record for the longest combined reign as a world champion in North America and is third (behind Bruno Sammartino and Lou Thesz ) for the longest single world title reign. He is one of only seven men inducted into each of the WWE , WCW and Professional Wrestling halls of fame. Gagne was born in Corcoran, Minnesota , and grew up on a farm in Robbinsdale, Minnesota . He left home at
1394-635: The referee. On November 13, 1950, Gagne captured the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) Junior Heavyweight title in a tournament for the vacant championship. In September 1953 in Fred Kohler Enterprises , Gagne was awarded the newly created Chicago version of the NWA United States Championship . Gagne became one of the most well-known stars in wrestling during the golden age of television , thanks to his exposure on
1435-547: The semi-finals, but lost to Genichiro Tenryu and Koji Kitao in the finals. On August 9, 1991, he teamed up with his older brother for another one-night tag team tournament. They defeated The Great Kabuki and Tito Santana in the first round, but lost to The Legion Of Doom in the semi-finals. On April 16, 1992, he and his older brother won the SWS Tag Team Championship, defeating King Haku and Yoshiaki Yatsu . Unfortunately, their reign didn't last long, as they lost
1476-471: The semi-finals. When SWS officially launched the promotion on October 18, 1990, Shunji teamed with his brother George for the one-night tag team tournament, in which they defeated Isao Takagi and Yoshiaki Yatsu in the semi-finals and Genichiro Tenryu and The Great Kabuki in the finals. On November 22, 1990, he took part in another one-night tag team tournament, this time with Naoki Sano as his partner. They defeated Takashi Ishikawa and The Great Kabuki in
1517-736: The titles to The Natural Disasters the next day. After SWS folded in June 1992, Shunji Takano joined his brother George in forming a new promotion called Pro Wrestling Crusaders . Also, Takano worked for Network Of Wrestling . Their trainees had included Masato Tanaka and Tetsuhiro Kuroda , who both transferred to Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling . Aside from running PWC, he would also wrestle for other promotions including Network Of Wrestling, Social Progress Wrestling Federation, Wrestling International New Generations , International Wrestling Association of Japan , and Michinoku Pro Wrestling . PWC folded in 1994. At an event held at Kitazawa Town Hall in 1996,
1558-602: Was an 11-time world champion in major professional wrestling promotions , having held the AWA World Heavyweight Championship ten times and the IWA World Heavyweight Championship once as the IWA World Heavyweight Championship was considered a world championship in Japan. He has also won top professional wrestling promotions World Heavyweight Championships such as the World Heavyweight Championship (Omaha version) five times. He holds
1599-736: Was beginning to rise. That summer, Takano began teaming up with Shinichi Nakano. On September 9, 1988, Takano and Nakano defeated Footloose ( Samson Fuyuki and Toshiaki Kawada ) to win the All Asia Tag Team Championship , ending their reign after exactly six months, although Footloose would win back the titles six days later. In the tail end of 1988, he teamed with John Tenta for the World's Strongest Tag Determination League , but ended up placing ninth place with four points. A year later, he tried again, this time with The Great Kabuki as his partner, but he ended up dead last with two points, in
1640-609: Was never any intention of such a match taking place. At the end of the 90 day period, the AWA was formed in August 1960 and it was announced that because NWA champion Pat O'Connor failed to meet Gagne, that the AWA recognized Gagne as the first AWA World Champion . Some of Gagne's biggest feuds were against Gene Kiniski , Dr. Bill Miller (under a mask both as Dr. X and then Mr. M), Fritz Von Erich , Dr. X , The Crusher , Ray Stevens , Mad Dog Vachon , Larry Hennig and Nick Bockwinkel while champion and title changes. He always wrestled as
1681-523: Was the owner and promoter of the Minneapolis -based American Wrestling Association (AWA), the predominant promotion throughout the Midwest and Manitoba for many years. He remained in this position until 1991, when the company folded. As an amateur wrestler, Gagne won two NCAA titles and was an alternate for the U.S. freestyle wrestling team at the 1948 Olympic Games before turning professional in 1949. Gagne