A Ridiculously Intense Training Camp
Flair was a natural from the get-go, but Gagne gave him no special treatment. His training camp for wrestling hopefuls was ridiculously intense. A wrestler in his heyday, Gagne had an old-school wrestling mentality. His wrestling camp wasn’t flashy like today’s performers. In fact, his methods shaped some of the best pro wrestlers to enter a ring.
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Another wrestling camp trainee was Ken Patera – the first wrestler Flair met while bouncing. Patera recalls them working out in the ring, which was inside one of Gagne’s old horse barns. “It was below-zero temperatures, with one light bulb in the whole barn, just dangling on a wire. The slats on the barn were about an inch apart, so there were times when we’d show up to four-foot snowdrifts in the place. The ring was all broken down, and the ropes were f***** up.”