leaving to Japan, they dropped the titles to Mark Lewin and Dominic DeNucci. Race and Hennig returned to the US in fall of 1966, starting back at the bottom of the competition. As they climbed the ranks all over again, they received a title shot on January 6, 1967, and defeated Bruiser and Crusher in Chicago, Illinois. This would prove to be their final reign at AWA Tag Team Champions. Knee injury 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. As he dropped Powers to the mat, Hennig found that his knee had bent inward. Despite severe damage to the cartilage and tendons, he refused to go to the local hospital and instead had Race drive him 500 miles home to Minneapolis. The injury ended their last title run. The AWA allowed Harley Race to select another partner to defend the championship. In March 1968, Hennig returned to once again wrestle alongside Race. 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. Hennig was then partnered with Lars Anderson and then "Dirty" Dusty Rhodes (who was then a heel). In the early 1970s he competed in singles matches working against champions Pedro Morales and Bruno Sammartino. 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. 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. In 1976, Hennig formed a team with Joe LeDuc. Return to AWA When Harley Race returned to the AWA in 1984, he wrestled Hennig's son, Curt - a match that was fueled by Larry going on to confront his former tag team partner at the