"Now as far as I am concerned, when you talk about obdurate recalcitrance..."
Nicholas Warren Francis "Nick" Bockwinkel (December 6, 1934 - November 14, 2015) was an American Professional Wrestler. Most famous for his work in the AWA. Debuting in 1954 and after spend half of his career as a "journeyman babyface", he found time to serve in the Army for two years. He then turned heel and held the promotion's World Heavyweight Championship
for a ground-breaking record of 2,990 days combined across four reigns and the World Tag-Team Championship three times w/ Ray Stevens. A sound technical and psychological master, Bockwinkel achieved his greatest success as an eloquent, cheating but likable heel .
Bockwinkel was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 1996, the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum in 2003, the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame in 2007, the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2009, and the National Wrestling Alliance Hall of Fame in 2016.
"Read my tropes, you cretinous humanoids":
- The Ace: Depicted by many experts as "The definitive heavyweight champion heel of the 1970s" and "The most successful heel champion in wrestling history".
- Agent Peacock: The man even on the last years of his career was as athletic as all-time well groomed.
- Affably Evil: Made a long career of being a very polite, well spoken, intelligent, reasonable man who was more than willing to cheat or drop you straight on your head. Bar Bockwinkel's ego, lack of sportsmanship, and tendency to insult them, fans liked him.
- Anti-Villain: Sure he cheated and called fans "cretinous humanoids", but he was just so eloquent and well spoken that you could always see where he was coming from. When he finally turned face in the mid-80s, it was a fairly seamless transition.
- The Apprentice: Was trained by Lou Thesz, who had known him since he was a baby.
- Arch-Enemy: His most noted foes were Pampero Firpo, then Hulk Hogan and Curt Hennig in The '80s.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Though he still had standard ring gear for actual matches, he wore suits for all his interviews and used ten-dollar words that went over the average fans' heads, pissing them off markedly.
- Cool Old Guy: During his final World Title run at age 52. Not to mention that Bockwinkel was able to rap better than everyone else, including the younger talent, in the WrestleRock Rumble video.
- Cool Teacher: Was the head trainer of the Ultimate Wrestling Federation school (now known as the Las Vegas Pro Wrestling Academy).
- Early-Installment Weirdness: He was actually an "All American babyface" in the early half of his career and even wrestled as "Nicky Bockwinkel" or "Nick Bock".
- Expy: As AWA world champion, he was much like former top star Verne Gagne; a loyal company man, agreeable if not as friendly, and a very good technical wrestler despite entering middle age, he even wrestled similar to Gagne.
- In the other direction, while he has generally claimed that his inspiration was Anton Chigurh, many commentators see the late 2000s and early 2010s character work of Chris Jericho as more of a Bockwinkel homage. To his credit, Jericho has admitted the influence. Even Triple H
- Finishing Move: Two, actually. Sleeper hold and Texas piledriver.
- Five Moves of Doom: Averted; as noted in Dave Meltzer's obituary, Bockwinkel was very versatile in the layouts of his matches and did not rely on a particular set of sequences.
- Guest Fighter: Was brought into UWF for an exhibition match with Billy Robinson.
- Heel–Face Turn: Attempted to defend Greg Gagne from Larry Zbyszko's nunchaku in late 1985, turning face as he entered the last two years of his full-time career.
- Long Runner: Combining his four reigns, he was the AWA World Heavyweight Champion for 8 years, 2 months, and 10 days.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Was a well-read man with the paychecks of a champion, and also the top heel of the AWA.
- Piss-Take Rap: Did one as part of the infamous "Wrestlerock Rumble" while being arguably the best rapper on the roster. Bockwinkel allegedly studied rap music before going into the recording booth and it showed.
- Red Baron:
- "The Smartest Man In Wrestling"
- "Kinpatsu Ōkami" (金髪狼 "The Blonde Wolf"), in Japan.
- Ring Oldies: Retired from full-time work just before turning 53. He worked a handful of matches after this, the last for WCW when he was 58! Despite the justified criticism that the AWA has received for suffocating itself by pushing its older talent, it must be stated that, as a performer, Bockwinkel absolutely still had it. The vast majority of the footage comes from approximately the last eight years of his full-time career, and there is zero tape in circulation from his physical prime in the 1960s. It is a testament to his skill that he's considered among the greatest workers of his era despite this footage gap. (Imagine if there was essentially no Ric Flair footage available before 1995, and you'll get an idea of how remarkable this is.)
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Famous for using long words in his promos. He carried a small notebook in his everyday life, in which he would write down words he came across that he didn't know, and he would then learn their meanings and memorize them for later use in his promos. He apparently inspired one of Vince McMahon's favorite sayings: "If you asked him the time he'd tell you how to build a watch".
- Wrestling Family: Son of wrestler Warren Bockwinkel.
- Wrestling Psychology: Considered a master of in-ring psychology.
