November 1975

Seven days before his historic match against Nick Bockwinkel in St Paul, Verne Gagne defends the AWA World Heavyweight Title in Chicago

Available on History of the WWF Heavyweight Championship VHS (Coliseum WF042) Seven minutes shown of 21:14

I just watched this for the second time and while this feud probably gets a lot of attention for the impressively athletic exchanges these two innovated, on second viewing the psychology of the match was what really impressed me. What starts out as a friendly game of one-upmanship gets increasingly competitive and snug as the lower weight class underdog Grey continuously gets the better of Myers. In the first round or so Myers almost seems a little dismissive of Grey in a good natured way but that doesn't last long. As we get into the later rounds Myers becomes increasingly aggressive, taking a handshake opportunity to almost attack Grey, landing some tight shots and thro…