Minnesota Wrecking Crew

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For the sketch comedy troupe, see The Minnesota Wrecking Crew

The Minnesota Wrecking Crew was a professional wrestling tag team that was formed by Gene Anderson and which featured a number of wrestlers who wrestled under the Anderson name.

[edit] History

Gene Anderson formed the original Minnesota Wrecking Crew with Lars Anderson in 1965. They wrestled throughout the country in the late 60's until Lars left to live in Hawaii. In 1969 Gene then brought in Alan Rogowski, and renamed him Ole Anderson. They dominated tag team wrestling in the 1970's, winning the NWA World Tag Team Titles 9 times. Over those years, Lars Anderson was on occasion brought back in as part of this team.

When Gene stopped wrestling in 1981 to manage, the team was disbanded.

In 1985, Ole reformed the Crew with Arn Anderson (his kayfabe cousin) as his partner. They won the NWA National Tag Team Titles and were members of the original Four Horsemen as the Wrecking Crew. They disbanded in 1987 when Ole was kicked out of the Horsemen.

Arn and Ole revived the Wrecking Crew in 1990 but it lasted for only a few months before Ole retired.

Ole managed the Minnesota Wrecking Crew 2 in NWA in 1990 while Arn was out injured. It was two wrestlers from Minnesota in masks, Mike Enos and Wayne Bloom. They were former AWA World Tag Team Champions but they did not do much but get beat by NWA World Tag Team Champions Rick and Scott Steiner in the NWA.

In 2001 in Ohio Valley Wrestling, Brock Lesnar and Shelton Benjamin formed the Minnesota Stretching Crew in honour of the Wrecking Crew. More recently, independent women wrestlers Lacey and Rain have started using the name "Minnesota Homewrecking Crew" as a homage to the Anderson's classic tag team.

[edit] Championships and accomplishments

• National Wrestling Alliance
• World

• NWA World Tag Team Championship (9 times) - Ole and Gene

• National

• NWA National Tag Team Championship (1 time) - Ole and Arn

• Regional

• NWA Atlantic Coast Tag Team Championship (3 times) - Ole and Gene
• NWA Georgia Tag Team Championship (6 times) - Ole and Gene
• NWA Mid-Atlantic Tag Team Championship (2 times) - Ole and Gene
• NWA World Tag Team Championship (Georgia version) (1 time) - Ole and Lars

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI ranked Ole and Arn Anderson # 79 of the best 100 tag teams during the "PWI Years" in 2003.
• PWI Tag Team of the Year award in 1975 for Ole and Gene Anderson.
• PWI Tag Team of the Year award in 1977 for Ole and Gene Anderson.