Gabor became interested in combat fighting at a young age when his uncle brought him to boxing matches and he grew to admire profession wrestlers such as
Lou Thesz and
Bobby Managoff, both of whom he would wrestle with later in his career. According to
Mercury News, Gabor was trained in gyms, where wrestlers "beat him up badly just to see how much he wanted to learn," writing: "Von Goering is one of the few successful wrestlers who does not have an amateur background; he isn't the product of a wrestling academy, nor did he rise up through the college or Olympic ranks."
Greg Oliver reported that Gabor was trained by
Joe Pazandak, whom Gabor recounted had subjected him to intense training. Eventually his character was modified to be of
East German origin, after relations with
West Germany softened during the
Cold War. During his career, he captured several tag team championships. In 1962, he won the
NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Championship. Frequent rivals included Thesz and Managoff, as well as
Dick Hutton,
Pat O'Connor, and
Bronko Nagurski. He was also paired against
Buddy Rogers; Von Goering stated that he "hated [Roger's] guts offstage as well as on". He finished his career in Roy Shire's
Big Time Wrestling promotion, where he teamed with
Luke Graham. ==Retirement and death==