As Hall of Famer Nick Bockwinkel died on Saturday night at age 80, the world of professional wrestling definitely lost another giant.
In the mid-1950s, when Bockwinkel concluded his time on the University of Oklahoma football team, he began his sports entertainment career, soon after that and bacame known for his great in-ring skill and intelligent interviews.
Competing in Georgia, Texas and the Pacific Northwest before moving on to where he would find the most success, which is the American Wrestling Association, Nick teamed with his father on many occassions.
He won the first of his AWA heavyweight titles at the age of 40 when he ended AWA legend Verne Gagne's seven-year run as titleholder. That victory helped make the self-proclaimed, "Smartest Wrestler Alive", become one of pro wrestling's grestest villains.
Being a four-time AWA world heavyweight champion, he became known for beating his fellow Hall of Famer, Verne Gagne for the title belt in 1975. That ended Gagne's seven-year reign as champion.
On three separate occasions, he was able to win the AWA world tag team championship with Ray "The Crippler" Stevens. As his career went on, Bockwinkel was able to accumulate many more honor for himself.
He made several television appearances including The Monkees and Hawaii Five-O, and served as WCW commissioner in 1994-95.
His great career was capped off by his 2007 induction into the WWE Hall of Fame, where he will forever be remembered as one of the sports entertainments’ all-time greats.
Bockwinkel was living in Las Vegas, Nevada with his second wife, Darlene, whom he had been married since the early 1970s until his recent death in 2015. He has two daughters (from his first marriage), two grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
Bockwinkel underwent triple bypass heart surgery in November 2007.
