BurningBeard Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 I'd buy a ticket Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool arrow Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Yeah, Magnum was stupid to say that, but doesn't it strike anyone else that Harley was being unprofessional? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEN! Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 Magnum got off easy compared to "The King Of The Chain Matches"... http://www.drtomprichard.com/2012/07/the-world-champion-meets-the-king-of-chain-matches/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramsey Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 Yeah, Magnum was stupid to say that, but doesn't it strike anyone else that Harley was being unprofessional? Probably. Bottom line, Harley is Harley and Magnum should have kept his mouth shut and let Dusty get out his check book to settle things. Things worked differently back then. Picking fights with Harley Race never ended well. PS: I could read Harley Race stories all goddamn day. They are His gospel, amen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 Magnum got off easy compared to "The King Of The Chain Matches"... http://www.drtomprichard.com/2012/07/the-world-champion-meets-the-king-of-chain-matches/ Meltzer ran that story as part of Slatton's obit a couple of years ago. Maybe the best part is that the referee (a young wrestler on loan from All Japan) knew what the finish was supposed to be so he never actually rang the bell when Slatton touched the fourth corner. That referee was Tonga Fifita. HAKU, BITCHES. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramsey Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 I seem to remember hearing a story that Harley sort of told himself about a trip to Mexico. He was defending the NWA strap in Mexico city against some dude working a C3P0 gimmick and, Harley being Harley just said, "He tried getting cute and ended up on a stretcher." I'd say Harley was probably the last world champ anywhere that had to be enough of a legit shooter/bad ass to defend against a double cross. Praise Him and know His word... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool arrow Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 Excepting Severn and Shamrock, that's almost certainly the case. And neither of them would have ever had to deal with a legit double-cross anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 Maybe Hansen and Saito in their younger days, not necessarily when they had the awa belt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistah Na1m4rk Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 Didn't Brock Lesnar hold a world title at some point? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramsey Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 Hang on all, re-read what I said: "I'd say Harley was probably the last world champ anywhere that had to be enough of a legit shooter/bad ass to defend against a double cross. Praise Him and know His word..." My statement was more a commentary about how the business has changed than the legit toughness of other world champs. There have been loads of legit badasses since Harley's heyday but how many of them had to worry about the other guy going into business for himself to grab the belt? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 The C3PO and Slatton stories are both in Harley's book and are fucking hilarious. It is also worth noting that Harley gave his KOTR title away to Haku because he respected him. I'm sure that had something both to do with the Slatton match, and the fact that Tonga would bite your nose off. The biography disappoints though because it is clearly the tip of an iceberg of insane stories it seems like he doesn't want to get into. When you're always packing heat, drink 24/7 while driving 100 MPH on the road, can break a pair of pliers with your grip, and have actually pulled a flaming dead body out of a car wreck, there has to be way more that he can't even talk about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 And because young Haku really patterned a lot of his work after Harley's. Something Harley talks about in his book as well. Man, I wonder where my copy of that book is... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool arrow Posted April 19, 2014 Share Posted April 19, 2014 Speaking of Haku, anyone remember Harley's babyface run in the WWF that led to the Haku match at RR 89? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPVrfPChkx4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BEN! Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 That match might be all of his babyface run really. When he came back from injury he still wrestled babyfaces and was even on Andre's team at Survivor Series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cool arrow Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 Yeah, he never really turned, and I don't remember them especially pushing the Haku match either, despite the built-in "King" angle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted April 20, 2014 Share Posted April 20, 2014 That match might be all of his babyface run really. When he came back from injury he still wrestled babyfaces and was even on Andre's team at Survivor Series. Yeah, actually, they were talking a lot of the match about what side Elizabeth might be on at Mania. I think that was the point of the match as much as anything else, to show what a conflicted manager looked like in Heenan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingus Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 Harley's kinda funny because sometimes he would go all MOVEZ~! without warning. I've repeatedly seen him hit jobbers with a PILEDRIVER (in the South, even!) and they kick out and just get up and go to the next spot like it was a hip toss. And clearly Harley had no problem with it, he probably called the spot himself. But Harley was one hell of a carrier. He did great shit with Hogan at that point when Hogan started to lose the old fire. And he might've been Baba's best foreign opponent ever. All apologies to Stan Hansen et al, but Harley had this amazing ability to sell Baba's cringe-inducing offense just enough to make it look legitimate. Hansen would sometimes overdo it and look like heel Rock out there, bouncing all over the damn place and kinda dampening his own credibility (so it's fortunate that Stan Hansen had infinite credibility) but Race just barely sold it so that it looked like two big tough guys having a fight; as opposed to Bad Baba with one guy having magic telekinetic powers that made the other guy fall down, because those weak-ass strikes sure as shit weren't causing it. Remember Dynamite Kid's book? Even that blowhard didn't claim he was tougher than Harley. His "the time I fought Harley Race" story basically had Harley slipping on a banana peel and then laughing at himself and calling it a draw. Also, here's a horror story for you, and I wish I could remember who told it: it was some old-timey referee. One time there was a fan riot and drunken idiots hit the ring. The referee and the wrestlers were especially squabbling with one big dude who must've been on the 1960s equivalent of PCP, because he REALLY meant that No Retreat, No Surrender bullshit. The referee decides "fuck a buncha this" and goes for the all-time nasty carny move, the eyeball rip... and his questing fingertips found nothing but an empty socket. Harley had already beaten him to it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 CM Punk, Harley Race and "that f****t Indian" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramsey Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 Ok, another Harley story, and once again, I can't remember where I heard it. A promoter in California (Roy Shire possibly) was having problems with the hells angels at his house shows. They'd sit in the ring side seats with a leader type and not only bully fans, but they'd bully the refs and other wrestlers. So the call went out to send Harley. Champ comes to town, full house and yes, the Angels are there. Harley gets into the ring and invites this huge biker to prove "how tough the Hells Angels actually are." Long story short, Harley wallops him the second he's in the ring and then chokes him out with a front face lock and the dude shits himself in the middle of the ring. His buddies are forced to carry their shit soaked and bloody "enforcer" out of the arena as they dodge garbage and get mocked mercilessly by the crowd. Harley Race simply wasn't a guy anyone should ever have tried to fuck with. I'm sure everyone knows the Lawler/Harley story too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 I'll bite. What's the Lawler/Harley story? I should already know this but can't recall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 While we're on Harley stories I love the one in his book where he called Hogan on his bullshit saying he sat fire to the ring during Vince's takeover. Instead he merely pulled our a gun in front of the locker room, then walked to ringside, just to get the crowd to see who was the big fucking dog in his territory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramsey Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 Lawler was quickly becoming the man behind the scenes in Memphis and, to his credit, he was THE man in front of the camera. One of the promotional things the Memphis crew would do is take tape from any time Lawler was in the ring with a World Champ, they would make highlight films for TV that made it look like Jerry was kicking the shit out of, and maybe even pinning, the champ but would always get screwed by someone to keep him from getting the belt. Well apparently, this promotional tactic was used as Harley was coming into town. The video made it look like Harley lost but ran with the belt anyway. Apparently, Harley, being a straight up NWA stalwart and surly ass kicker, took serious offense to this. I've also heard that Lawler was bad mouthing Jack Brisco around the same time. This all piles up and Harley shows up in Memphis ready to commit murder. Jerry and a promoter (it may have been Eddie Marlin or Jerry Jarrett) are in the locker room when Harley arrives. He's in the door 30 seconds when he throws his suitcase as both of them and says "I hear ya beat me so bad I was afraid to come to town" or some such thing. Well, Jerry is terrified. That night, Lawler won't go to the ring. He stalls so long, Harley goes out first. Then a message is sent to the ring saying that Jerry won't come out until Harley promises not to murder him. Harley agrees (and probably gets a little cash to seal the deal and Lawler's continuing good health) and the match goes on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jingus Posted April 25, 2014 Share Posted April 25, 2014 I don't quite get that. Where was Lawler saying these things, other than on TV, in character, as part of the work that everyone should've instantly understood? I wonder if it was just a case of mixed signals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.H. Posted April 25, 2014 Share Posted April 25, 2014 It was a matter of the reputations of both NWA Champion (no matter who it was) as well as Harley's own personal rep. Having the video re-worked to make Harley loo like a coward affects the reputation of the champ and might even adversely affect the gate and I would not want to be the guy to fuck with Harley Race's payoff. The public perception of the World Champion meant everything back then, having a weak touring champion does no one any good. I mean look at how the NWA title is treated today, its lucky to get a midcard slot on some local indy James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted April 25, 2014 Share Posted April 25, 2014 Those "lawler beats everyone" videos are great for lawler, not so much for his opponents. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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