# Nick Bockwinkel, a four-time AWA heavyweight champ, dead at 80

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nick-bockwinkel-a-four-time-awa-heavyweight-champ-dead-at-80/737661>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [November 16, 2015, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nick-bockwinkel-a-four-time-awa-heavyweight-champ-dead-at-80/737661 "2015-11-16T00:41:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2015, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nick-bockwinkel-a-four-time-awa-heavyweight-champ-dead-at-80/737661/1 "2015-11-16T00:41:58Z")

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He was a great heel. I saw him a few time in tv matches. He always got the crowd into the match.  
[Nick and Hulk Hogan Title match](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFVWro5_umM)

> [@](#):
>
> The world of professional wrestling lost another giant as Hall of Famer Nick Bockwinkel died on Saturday night. He was 80.

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**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2015, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nick-bockwinkel-a-four-time-awa-heavyweight-champ-dead-at-80/737661/2 "2015-11-16T01:09:01Z")

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Quite sad. I miss the days where the champ held the belt for a long period of time. Bockwinkel/Backlund/Flair or Bockwinkel/Backlund/Race just seemed normal as the three champions

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**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2015, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nick-bockwinkel-a-four-time-awa-heavyweight-champ-dead-at-80/737661/3 "2015-11-27T02:56:01Z")

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I only ever knew him as a clearly a bit too old to still be doing this even if his ring work was still as good as ever babyface champion. Saw him fight Curt Hennig in a match for the belt on TV one New Year’s Eve, which was weird since at the time they were both “good guys” and in the 80’s that rarely happened. The match was really excellent, even though it ended in time limit draw. A precursor to Flair/Sting, I suppose, or more recently Lethal/Strong. Even though it was a draw, he did a really good job putting Hennig over, and setting him up to be really over for the rematch.