There's a very peculiar lawsuit being adjudicated right now in Minnesota concerning what used to be two of wrestling's Big Three.
World Wrestling Entertainment is suing a man in Minnesota named Dale Gagner, who they claim is selling unauthorized material -and staging wrestling events- bearing the likeness of the American Wrestling Association (AWA), the defunct wrestling league that operated out of Minnesota for years but folded in 1990. Its tape library and other trademarks were sold to the WWE in 2003.
Gagner, according to the suit, allegedly dropped the "r" from his last name in order to create the impression that he was related to AWA founder Verne Gagne and his son, Greg Gagne, while selling the memorabilia.
What an odd thing to do- of all the celebrities one could pretend to be related to, why the hell would someone pick Verne Gagne? Especially when the actual Verne Gagne wasn't able to keep the AWA promotion going in Minnesota himself?
Greg Gagne's wrestling career in Minnesota, incidentally, coincided with the Twins career of the shortstop whose name was also Greg Gagne (though pronounced GAG-nee, rather than GON-ya.) But to the best of everyone's knowledge, the wrestler never sued the shortstop, and Dale Gagner never impersonated either of them (nor did he steal the identity of Dave Gagner, a North Star of the late '80s.)
Posted by Stephen Silver at April 27, 2007 05:24 PMare any of them related to Eric Gagne? Or Simon Gagne?
Posted by: LilB at April 28, 2007 12:11 PM