Vern Gagne.

I used to watch this guy when he was a semi-old man in the '70's. He would wrestle technically against the vast majority of showmen. He was always, always the fan favorite. This man had nothing but respect in his professional career. He kept himself in great shape until very late in life.

Wikipedia-vern gagne

quote:
After one year of college, Gagne enlisted with the Navy Underwater Demolition Team.[2] He chose to return to the University of Minnesota, where, as an amateur wrestler, he captured two NCAA titles. He was also an alternate for the U.S freestyle wrestling team at the 1948 Olympic Games; he later said that he might have wrestled in the Olympics, but his coaches had discovered that he had earned money winning a wrestling match at a carnival, thus putting his amateur standing in question.[5]

quote:
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.[6] Bears owner George Halas prevented Gagne from pursuing both football and wrestling (likely due to former Bears Football Hall of Fame great Bronko Nagurski having moonlighted as a professional wrestler during the height of his NFL career), and forced Gagne to make a choice. In a 2006 interview for WWE, Gagne's son Greg mentioned that wrestling was a much better paying job at the time than playing football (as recently as the 1970s, it was not uncommon for NFL players to have a second job during the NFL offseason to help make ends meet), and as a result, Verne chose wrestling over football.[7

quote:
In April 2006, Gagne was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by his son, Greg Gagne. He is one of only six people to be inducted into the WWE, WCW and Professional Wrestling halls of fame

This post was edited on 4/11/17 at 9:07 pm