Andrew Lutzke
Jim Brunzell Shoot Interview
Presented by RF Video
The Man: The American Wrestling Association was founded in 1960 and built around a legit national star in Verne Gagne, who headlined events from 1949 til 1986 over the course of an incredible career. However, from the very start the AWA supplemented Gagne’s singles stardom with an incredible tag team division.
The very first AWA tag champions in 1960 were the dangerous mobster duo of Tiny Mills and Stan “The Big K” Kowalski, collectively known as Murder Inc. They set the tone immediately for the Minnesota based promotion providing some of the best tag team action in the nation. Over the upcoming years Minnesota fans were treated to seeing an array of tag talent that included:
- Karol and Ivan Kalmikoff, a team comprised of a pair of brutal communists…
- The barrel chested duo of “cousins” Da Crusher and Dick “The Bruiser” Afflis – two villainous body breakers who later became one of the most popular tandems in AWA history…
- Larry Hennig and Harley Race – two rugged men who won the straps 3 times over and may have had many more reigns to their credit had a serious knee injury not knocked Hennig out of action and forced him to vacate his share of the belt…
- The Vachon Brothers, Maurice and Paul – better known as “Mad Dog” and “Butcher”. if you witnessed the gory aftermath of a typical Vachon match you’d realize they earned those monikers…
- Texas roughnecks Blackjack Mulligan and Blackjack Lanza, whose sheer size and bunkhouse mentality was complimented by the evil genius of their manager Bobby “the Brain” Heenan…
- The wild redneck pairing of Dusty Rhodes and Dick Murdoch created chaos in the AWA while engaging in many bloody brawls…
- The nefarious Fabulous Freebirds, a team whose wild style in and out of the ring saw them chased out of Georgia, Texas, New York, Florida and New Orleans only to land in Minnesota to raise further Hell…
- The Fabulous Ones, a pair of men who looked like pretty boys but were able to fight with all the intensity necessary to survive with any tandem that signed to face them
- And of course the last great AWA tag team – The Hawk, The Animal – The Road Warriors! A pair of fierce and fearless beasts who often had teams mentally defeated before the Warriors could even hit the ring. The spikes…The “Iron Man” theme…the inhuman body size and the face paint intimidated foes and allowed the Road Warriors to claim the AWA tag belts for over a year.
An honorable mention should go to the Midnight Rockers, who earned two title runs late in the AWA’s existence – but the Rockers were able to take advantage of a weak AWA roster and it can be debated whether or not the inexperienced Rockers would have survived had they been forced to compete with the legendary teams of the past.
The AWA was also blessed with some “dream teams” of single superstars aligning for great success. This includes tandems such as Verne Gagne and Billy Robinson, Wilbur Snyder and Pat O’ Conner, Nick Bockwinkel and Ray “Crippler” Stevens, Jerry Blackwell and Ken Patera, and Verne Gagne and Mad Dog Vachon – these teams all claimed the AWA belts. Da Crusher may very well be the AWA’s most impressive performer as Crusher claimed the titles with Baron Von Rasche, Billy Robinson, Red Bastien, and Verne Gagne –in addition to his FIVE reigns with the aforementioned Dick the Bruiser. Not bad for a beer swilling Pollock.
It’s in this environment of legendary teams that Jim Brunzell entered into as a rookie in 1972. Brunzell lost his debut match on December 28th of that year to Dennis Stamp. Success would come gradually to Brunzell, but eventually his wrestling training camp experiences with Verne Gagne would come to serve Brunzell well and he became increasingly successful. His personal friendship with fellow youngster Greg Gagne (that stemmed back to high school) would see Brunzell start a tag team with Greg and two of them slowly moved up the ranks.
The young duo, with their flashy dropkicks and up tempo moves, were dubbed simply “The High Flyers”. They were a hit with the AWA fan base. By 1977 they were working towards gaining a definitive victory over the smash mouth rouges Blackjack Lanza and “Big Bad” Bobby Duncum. The Express were managed by the crafty Bobby Heenan, who was instrumental in keeping his team as champions by either cheating or helping them earn a disqualification.
Finally after being the AWA champions for 50 weeks, Lanza and Duncum were overtaken by Gagne and Brunzell on July 7th, 1977. The young men wore the belts with pride for fourteen months. The only thing to stop their momentum was a freak injury to Brunzell that he suffered during a charity baseball game. After failing to recapture the belts and growing tired of being in the shadow of the Gagne family, Brunzell sought singles success with Jim Crockett’s Mid Atlantic Wrestling.
Being surrounded by talents like Ricky Steamboat, Jimmy Snuka, Big John Studd, BlackJack Mulligan, Mr. Wrestling and Ric Flair, Brunzell excelled and in September of 1979 Jim upset Olympic strongman Ken Patera for the Mid Atlantic Heavyweight championship. Brunzell lost the title in November to Ray “The Crippler” Stevens – only to regain it back on Christmas day. Brunzell defended the title proudly until May of 1980 when he was downed by his former training partner the Iron Sheik.
By now Brunzell had proved his point and was ready to return to his home base in Minnesota. This proved fruitful for Jim as he and Greg re-formed their successful team and the tandem regained the belts from the East West Connection – the duo of Adrian Adonis and Jesse “The Body” Ventura on June 14th 1981. The High Flyers once again had amazing success once they claimed the belts as Jim and Greg held the belts for almost two years, finally dropping the belts to Jerry “The Mountain from Stone Mountain” Blackwell and Ken Patera on June 26th 1983. Brunzell and Gagne worked both singles and tags until the summer of 1985, when Brunzell took a lucrative offer to join the ever expanding WWF.
Brunzell found a partner in Brian Blair, a solid wrestler from Florida. They dubbed themselves “The Killer Bees” and often implemented wearing masks in order to outwit opponents and steal victories. Unfortunately the team could not overcome their size disadvantage often enough to become tag champs during their 3 years of teaming. The Bees beat a number of notable teams though in the form of the Hart Foundation, the Dream Team, the Funk Family, and Demolition among others. It can be argued that the team’s two most successful nights both occurred in 1987: In March the Bees won three matches in one night over a talented field that included eight teams to win the Frank Tunney Sr Memorial Tournament. Then that November the Killer Bees hit one last pinnacle as a team as they found their hand raised in a match at the inaugural Survivor Series – out lasting every heel unit that the WWF could offer at that point. The team spent much of the next few months stumbling with little success and ultimately Blair would leave the WWF in the Fall of 1988.
Brunzell worked for the WWF off and on until 1993, but age had eroded his skills and he was being dispatched on TV with ease by the next generation of stars. Brunzell supplemented his income by working many independent cards in the Midwest and Canada, as well as a brief run with Herb Adams’ UWF which saw Brunzell return to PPV alongside Brian Blair. Brunzell faded into retirement in the mid 90’s and is now selling toilet paper in Minnesota.
The Shoot: Brunzell starts by talking of his 1st wrestling he ever saw – Memphis Wrestling with Sputnik Monroe.
Jim shares his football stories of meeting Greg Gagne and his Washington Redskins tryout.
After football dried up Greg invited Jim to Verne Gagne’s camp with himself, Iron Sheik, Ric Flair and Ken Patera among others.
Camp went 10 weeks for 6 hours a day.
Billy Robinson would exercise them to death, then Verne came in and roughed them up.
Sheiky Baby worked stiff early on because he felt his college wrestling background meant he should dominate.
Brunzell worked in Central States and Japan to gain experience before his big AWA push.
Jim thinks he’s the only guy to comply with Verne’s wish to be given 10% of his earnings for the first five years after graduating Verne’s camp.
Some promoters took advantage of Brunzell early in his career, so Jim appreciated Verne’s payoffs and support.
Verne was an “egomaniac”, but he lived the American Dream of being a self-made millionaire.
Compares Rick Steamboat’s fan reaction in the Mid Atlantic in 1979 to Hogan’s mid 80’s pops.
Shares how Greg was paid significantly more than Jim since he was the bosses’ kid.
Greg also “pulled rank” on Jim sometimes regarding their match layouts. Frustrated by this – Brunzell hopped to the Mid-Atlantic.
Thinks Heenan is the greatest manager ever – we get some Bobby Heenan drinking stories.
Brunzell got roughed up by Larry Hennig, meanwhile working Ray Stevens was like working a feather.
We hear why Jim never turned heel against Greg.
We hear some Flair living the gimmick stories – including running out of cash, borrowing more and giving most of that cash away in tips and booze.
We hear of Murdoch ribbing a young Brunzell and nearly getting Jim arrested for pot.
John Studd was hard to work with in the ring but a great guy outside of it.
Ventura was a dud in the ring and was scared of being injured all the time.
We learn the circumstance that led to Jim teaming with his enemy Bockwinkel on a Japan tour.
Otto Wanz was once in a Battle Royal and proved too fat to pull himself in the ring and he flopped to the floor. Brunzell was embarrassed for him – Wanz may have been the champ at this point.
Brunzell asked Verne for just under 6 figures to stay in the AWA in 1985 and Verne told Brunzell he “wasn’t worth it”.
Brody and Verne had a falling out after Bruiser slapped a fan. The dispute led to Brody walking off in the middle of a Brunzell and Brody match. Other times Brody put him over hard in the ring.
We hear how Wahoo deals with a fan drawing a gun on a heel.
Brunzell and Vince didn’t get along from day one. Vince compared Jim to Bob Backlund as far as promos went and Jim knew he was screwed right then and there.
Jim didn’t want to be in teams anymore. The Killer Bees idea never went as far as Jim thought it might.
The WWF money wasn’t much better than the AWA when you consider the schedule and abuse he took.
Jim talks about how drugs have ruined the Iron Sheik.
The masked gimmick the Bees used got used for comedy with Steele and Koko and that killed the gimmick in Jim’s opinion.
Neidhart was hard to work with – Bret was great.
“Cowboy” Bob Orton Jr was the best guy to come out of his era in the ring.
Brunzell puts over Jake Roberts hard too.
The Bulldogs are also put over hard. We hear how terribly the Bulldogs treated Terry Taylor.
Jim blames Vince for not putting the kibosh on the heat the Rougeaus and Bulldogs had before it had its violent conclusion.
The Warrior is buried for the usual things you hear about him. We learn of Mr. Perfect drugging the Warrior while out on the town and messy aftermath.
Brian Blair refused to job to the Brain Busters and quit – Brunzell knew this would lead to him plunging down the card.
Andre met Jim’s family and his sheer size sent Brunzell’s daughter running away in fear. That’s followed with more Andre drinking stories.
Brunzell tired of jobbing and quit WWF in 1993. The Killer Bees sued Vince for merchandising revenue that Vince neglected to pay out.
Vince paid his main stars more for the wrestling figures than the undercard guys. Jim says Orndorff and Sheik made almost 100 grand for their 1st royalty check, meanwhile the Bees received 12 grand.
Jim talks about his cocaine, steroids and other drugs that he consumed over the years.
We get Brunzell’s version of the infamous Adrian Adonis and Dan Spivey locker room fight. Jim says Spivey drove Adonis’ cheekbone through his flesh with an uppercut.
Greg Gagne didn’t like the AWA DVD Vince released. Brunzell basically says that the turd couldn’t be polished as far as how AWA collapsed.
Brunzell feels there’s too much talking in modern wrestling TV.
We learn how hard Mr. Perfect’s death hurt Brunzell. Jim smoked pot with Curt only 3 weeks before Hennig’s death. He experienced Curt’s pill popping first hand that day.
Jim misses the locker room atmosphere and the money, but not much else.
Brunzell figures he worked 5,000 matches.
We learn how Bruce Springsteen became friends with “Jumping Jim”.
Final Thoughts: Jim is overall super positive and the shoot was very fun as Brunzell seemed to be having a blast telling his war stories. He talked excitedly and at times passionately about the business he loved for so long. Rob Feinstein did his usual cruddy interviewing job at times, as he asked Jim questions that Brunzell had already covered. I was really surprised by Jim negativity towards Verne and Greg. I was also glad to see Jim looking good for being in his early 60’s compared to the mess a lot of workers are by his age. This was well worth my 2 hours!
Photo Credit: WWE
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