[3][2] But due to frequently losing to rougher, more experienced wrestlers, he began questioning the scientific style instilled into him by Gagne and looked toward a different approach (in kayfabe).

[3][2] Race and Hennig continued to feud with the Bruiser and Crusher and other top teams for the next several years, amassing three title reigns.

[3] Verne Gagne, in particular, was a hated rival of the team and recruited many different partners to try to defeat Race and Hennig during their AWA run.

[3] On November 1, 1967, during a tag team match in Winnipeg, Hennig was in the middle of lifting Johnny Powers as another opponent rammed into him from the front.

[3] After several years at the top of the tag team division, however, Race returned home to Kansas City to pursue a singles career in the National Wrestling Alliance.

[6] Hennig also traveled to New York City to unsuccessfully challenge Bruno Sammartino for his WWF World Heavyweight Championship title from 1973 to 1974.

[4] Hennig made a face turn on August 10, 1974, at a TV taping in Minneapolis, now sporting a full red beard and calling himself "the Axe" when he saved the High Flyers, Jim Brunzell and Greg Gagne, from an attack.

The event had Hennig opposing his former allies, Nick Bockwinkel and Ray Stevens, and manager Bobby Heenan (who Bockwinkel and Stevens hired following their recent loss of the AWA World Tag Team title to The Crusher and Billy Robinson the previous month) as they assaulted the Flyers during an episode of AWA All-Star Wrestling.

[7] During this time, Hennig also appeared in the independent film, The Wrestler, where he faced Verne Gagne at the Cow Palace in the opening match.

The Hennigs eventually went in to win the NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship before Larry's retirement the next year in 1986.

[8] He was awarded a scholarship from the University of Minnesota to wrestle and play football but had to quit due to the priorities of family and raising children.