"I just come back from Minn-e-aaah-polis, where I just beat Verne Gagne and Dick the Bruiser, daddy! There ain't no -- you can bring on Haystack Calhoun, Eric Bloom, I don't care who you bring here, daddy. Rainbow, Strongbow. They're all going under the thunder of Manitoba!"-Handsome Dick Manitoba, introducing "Two Tub Man" on the first Dictators LP, 1975.
In the 1960s, Minneapolis was home base for the American Wrestling Assoication, which aside from the above-mentioned personalities also gave the world such a wrestling luminaries as Baron von Raschke and future Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura. The AWA was sort of the missing link between the old regional barnstorming amateur wrestling circuits of the earlier part of the century and the slick, profitable "sports entertainment" industry that it became with the WWF in the 1980s and '90s.
The Dictators were big fans of old-school pro wrestling, and "Two Tub Man" was their tribute of sorts ("I can go anywhere, people look and people stare / They all know that I'm the one, not to let your son become"). They were a New York City band through and through, having emerged in that mid-70s window between the trashy psychedelic metal of the Blue Oyster Cult (who Manitoba namechecks above) and the punk rock of the CBGB's bands. A strange thread of references to Minneapolis run through their early catalog, though -- Handsome Dick was born in the Bronx, but on the cover of that first album, Go Girl Crazy!, he's standing in a locker room in a wrestling unitard, with a varsity jacket behind him bearing his name and an image of Minnesota, a gold star over Minneapolis. And of course, there is the legendary "Minnesota Strip" a few albums later, the chorus of which is something like "there's a tunnel that leads to the city."
I only mention this because there's a sort of low-level reverse thrill in seeing a native New Yorker placing so much emphasis on passing as a fake Minnesotan, instead of the more common opposite.
Above: Robbinsdale's own Verne Gagne, circa 1960. The highest-paid wrestler in the world in the 1950s, and founder of the American Wrestling Association.
1 comment:
Brilliant post. I grew up in the Greg Gagne era, but I was well aware of his illustrious father.
Some may get Greg Gagne (pronounced Gon-ya) the wrestler confused with Greg Gagne (pronounced Gag-nee) the baseball player. The latter was the Minnesota Twins shortstop between 1983 and 1992, which actually covers part of the wrestling Gagne's hey-day.
Back to the wrestling Gagne. If you read the Wikipedia entry on Gagne, you'll see a reference to an arch-rival, Shiek Adnan El Kassey.
His story was really strange. He was a Baghdad-born Iraqi who wrestled as an American Indian, Billy White Wolf, in the 70s. But later, he wrestled as an Arab sheik, and pandered to stereotypes as a wrestling-world villian. According to Wikipedia, he lives in Hopkins, Minnesota today.
For more Minnesota wrestling insanity, including bios of Minneapolis' own Nature Boy Ric Flair, 500 pound French-born Andre The Giant, and the unforgettable Nick Bockwinkle, check out the Professional Wrestling Museum.
Keep up the great blogging.
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