Verne Gagne is alleged to have thrown down 97 year old Helmut Guttman on January 26, breaking his hip and Guttman later passed away over the weekend reports The Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Online. Both were residing in a facility in Bloomington, MN which treats patients with Alzheimer’s and dementia. Gagne, who was a week shy of his 83rd birthday, is believed to have thrown Guttman down hard on the ground and no one seems to know exactly what sparked the incident at the memory loss unit. Guttman was first hospitalized, released, but his condition got worse and he later died in hospice card according to MinnPost.com.
Gagne is no longer a resident of the facility and had been kicked out previously and was later allowed to return. Guttman’s wife Betty, who was notified about what happened on January 26 and found her husband lying on the floor in pain, added: “You can’t blame the person that did it. (Verne Gagne) doesn’t know what he’s doing. I feel so sorry for his family, because they are faced with a terrible problem of what to do.” No one is willing to comment if the incident caused the death of Guttman.
Gagne was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2006 and negotiated a deal to sell his AWA tape collection to Vince McMahon and WWE. He has been suffering for years with Alzheimer’s.