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Harley Race
The
King of Wrestling
Harley
Race (born April 11, 1943) is a retired American
professional wrestler and current promoter. During
his career as a wrestler, he amassed eight National
Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Heavyweight Championship
reigns at a time when wrestlers rarely repeated
as champion, and worked for all of the major wrestling
promotions, including the NWA, the American Wrestling
Association (AWA), the World Wrestling Federation
(WWF), and World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
His
ring skill, legitimate toughness, and classic
matches with the icons of professional wrestling
make him a legend in the business. He is the first
ever United States Champion and an 8-time NWA
Champion. He was inducted into the WWE Hall of
Fame in 2004.
Early
career
Race
was an early fan of pro wrestling, watching programming
from the nearby Chicago territory on the DuMont
Network. After overcoming polio as a child,[2]
he began training as a pro wrestler as a teen
under former world champions Stanislaus and Wladek
Zbyszko, who operated a farm in his native Missouri.
While in high school, an altercation with another
classmate led to the principal kneeing Race in
the back of the head as he tried to break up the
fight. Enraged, Race attacked him, resulting in
his expulsion. Already 6'1" and 225 pounds,
Race decided to get his start in pro wrestling.
Race
was recruited by St. Joseph wrestling promoter
Gust Karras, who hired Race to do odd jobs for
his promotion. Eventually, Race started wrestling
on some of his shows, and some of Karras' veteran
wrestlers helped further Race's training. At the
age of 18, he moved to Nashville and began wrestling
under the alias of "Jack Long", forming
a tag team with "brother" John Long.
The duo quickly captured the Southern Tag Team
Championship. Race was seen as a rising star in
the business with a bright future, until a car
accident (his pregnant first wife, Vivian Louise
Jones, died instantly; they had been married for
little over a month) put him out of action, with
his leg coming close to being amputated. Karras
heard about this and went rushing into the hospital
and blocked the planned amputation, stating "Over
my dead body"; by doing this, he saved Race's
leg. Although he recovered, doctors told him that
he might never walk again, and his wrestling career
was over. Undaunted, Race endured grueling physical
therapy for several months and made a full recovery.
He returned to the ring in 364, wrestling for
the Funks' Amarillo, Texas, territory. This time,
he wrestled under his own name, after his father
told him that he should not work to make anyone
else's name famous. Race never again used a different
ring name.
In
Amarillo, Race met fellow up-and-coming wrestler
Larry Hennig (later Larry "The Axe"
Hennig and father of "Mr Perfect" Curt
Hennig). The two formed a tag team and moved to
the American Wrestling Association.
American
Wrestling Association
In
the AWA, Race and Hennig branded themselves as
"Handsome" Harley Race (which was actually
a moniker given to him by fans in Japan) and "Pretty
Boy" Larry Hennig, a cocky heel tag team
with a penchant for breaking the rules to win
matches. They quickly became top contenders, and
in January 1965, they defeated Dick the Bruiser
and The Crusher to capture the AWA World Tag Team
Titles. Race and Hennig continued to feud with
the Bruiser and Crusher and other top teams for
the next several years, amassing four title reigns.
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. In October 1967 Gagne was credited with
"breaking" one of Hennig's legs, thus
giving him some much needed time off from the
ring. Race (as the storyline went), was allowed
to choose a new partner and retain the AWA tag
belts. Harley's choice was Chris Markoff. The
duo lost the title in their first defense of the
belts to the babyface team of Wilbur Snyder &
Pat O'Connor in November 1967. For the next several
months, Race teamed with the legendary Hard Boiled
Haggerty (Don Stansauk) who over the years presented
Verne Gagne with some of his greatest matches.
Together, Race and Haggerty often battled Gagne
and "Cowboy" Bill Watts. In March 1968
after Hennig's return to the ring, he and Harley
were back together, though the two never recaptured
the AWA World Tag Team Title. Despite his tag
team success, Race left the AWA after several
years at the top of the division to pursue a singles
career in the NWA.
Race
returned to the AWA in 1984 to wrestle Curt Hennig.
The confrontation was fueled by Larry Hennig confronting
his former tag team partner at the end of the
match. Race would also wrestle former AWA World
Champion Rick Martel at part of WrestleRock '86.
Toward the end of his in-ring career, he would
challenge Larry Zbyszko for the AWA World title
in October 1990, in the main event of an AWA broadcast
on ESPN. However, all
of these matches were basically just special appearances.
National
Wrestling Alliance
Race
jumped from territory to territory in the early
1970s, renewing his rivalry with Terry
Funk in Amarillo and winning a regional title.
He was seen as a gifted territorial wrester, not
quite ready for the worldwide spotlight, until
1973.
In
1973, Race faced NWA World
Heavyweight Champion Dory
Funk, Jr. in Kansas City, Missouri. Race emerged
from the battle as the new World Champion in what
was perceived by fans a stunning upset. Though
Race held the title for only a few months, losing
it to Jack Brisco in Houston, Texas in July, he
became a worldwide superstar and perennial championship
contender.
Race
was determined to eventually regain the NWA World
Championship, often moving between territories
and collecting several regional titles, including
eight Central States Titles, seven Missouri Titles,
the Georgia Heavyweight Championship, the Stampede
North American Title in Canada, the Japan-based
NWA United National and PWF Titles, and becoming
the first-ever holder of the Mid-Atlantic U.S.
Title, still defended today as the WWE United
States Championship. This kept Race in contention
for the World Championship, and Race vowed that
he would only need one chance against the champion
to regain it.
Race
finally got his wish in 1977, facing familiar
rival Terry Funk, who had become the champion
since their previous encounters, in Toronto. Race
won the title by submission with the Indian Deathlock,
a rarely used submission move but one that put
great pressure on Funk's injured leg. The NWA
World Champion once again, Race this time established
his dominance, defending the title up to six times
a week and holding it for four years (excluding
extremely short reigns by Tommy Rich, Dusty Rhodes,
and Giant Baba). At the time, the NWA, AWA and
WWF were on good terms, and Race engaged in title
vs. title matches with WWF Champions "Superstar"
Billy Graham and Bob Backlund, as well as AWA
World Champion Nick Bockwinkel. Race toured extensively
all over the country and the world, including
many stints in Japan, where he was already well-known
from his visits with Larry Hennig.
Race
lost the title to Dusty Rhodes in 1981, and despite
many matches, never regained it from the popular
fan favorite. Rhodes lost the title to up-and-coming
star Ric Flair, though
Race was able to defeat Flair in St. Louis in
1983 for his seventh reign as champion, breaking
the record previously held by Lou Thesz. What
followed was one of the classic angles of the
1980s, which led to the first-ever NWA Starrcade
event.
Determined
not to lose the title again, Race offered a $25,000
bounty to anyone who could eliminate Flair from
the NWA. Bob Orton, Jr. and Dick Slater attacked
Flair, inflicting what appeared to be a career-ending
neck injury, and collecting the bounty from Race
after Flair announced his retirement. However,
Flair's retirement was a ruse, and he eventually
returned to action, much to Race's surprise. NWA
officials set up a championship rematch, to be
titled "NWA Starrcade: A Flair for the Gold".
The match was to be held in Flair's backyard,
Greensboro, North Carolina, which enraged Race.
Race lost the title to Flair in the bloody and
memorable Starrcade cage match (with Gene Kiniski
as the special referee) in November, 1983. He
would regain the NWA title for a short two-day
reign in New Zealand in 1984 (a change not recognized
by the NWA in the U.S. until 1996, making Race
an eight-time champion), but his loss to Flair
at Starrcade was largely seen as the torch-passing
from Race to Flair. Flair would go on to an unparalleled
20 reigns as World Heavyweight Champion (10 of
those reigns as NWA World champion) and largely
credits Race for igniting his legendary career.
Earlier
in his career, Race became involved in the ownership
side of wrestling, buying a portion of the Kansas
City and later St. Louis territories. St. Louis
was a stronghold of the NWA, and around this time
in 1984, WWF owner Vincent K. McMahon began his
invasion of NWA territories, including St. Louis,
in his ambition to build a truly national wrestling
promotion. Race was enraged, famously confronting
Hulk Hogan at a WWF event
in Kansas City. Race lost over $500,000 as an
owner of the Kansas City territory, and despite
his championship years being at an end and wishing
to retire from active competition, was forced
to rely on continuing to wrestle to make a living.
He continued to travel in the US and abroad, and
signed with McMahon's WWF in 1986.
World
Wrestling Federation
Race
entered the WWF managed
by longtime friend Bobby "The Brain"
Heenan, bleaching his hair blond and billing himself
again as "Handsome" Harley Race. During
a time when promotions did not recognize the existence
of other promotions and the accomplishments a
wrestler made there, WWF officials came up with
a solution to recognize his wrestling pedigree
by renaming the WWF Wrestling Classic to the King
of the Ring tournament and making Race the eventual
winner. After winning the 1986 King of the Ring
tournament, however, he referred to himself as
"King" Harley Race, coming to the ring
in a royal crown and cape, to the ceremonial accompaniment
of the tenth movement (known as "The Great
Gates of Kiev") of Pictures at an Exhibition
by Modest Mussorgsky. After winning a match, Harley
would make his defeated opponent "bow and
kneel" before him. Usually Bobby Heenan would
assist the defeated opponent to "bow and
kneel" by grabbing their hair and forcing
them to bow before King Harley Race.
He
participated in a notable feud with the Junkyard
Dog, culminating in a match at WrestleMania III
at the Pontiac Silverdome. He would spend 1987
feuding with Hulk Hogan and "Hacksaw"
Jim Duggan, the latter of which was highlighted
by an extended brawl at the 1987 Slammy Awards.
In early 1988, he suffered an abdominal injury
in a match against Hogan in which he tried to
hit Hogan, prone on a table at ringside, with
a swandive headbutt. Hogan moved out of the way
and Race impacted the table inwards. The metal
edge forced its way up into Race's abdomen giving
him a hernia. Following this incident and during
his recovery, the WWF ran an angle where they
acknowledged his injury,and his manager Bobby
Heenan vowed to crown a new king. He left the
WWF in early 1989, following a brief comeback
from hernia surgery and a failed attempt to regain
his crown from the new "king," Haku,
at the Royal Rumble). While Race never won the
WWF Championship (at the time dominated by Hulk
Hogan), his career was notable enough to earn
him an induction into the WWE Hall of Fame in
2004. He continued to wrestle until the spring
of 1991, most notably with WWC in Puerto Rico,
the NWA, and the AWA. After retiring from competition,
Race joined the NWA (WCW) in July 1991 as an adviser/manager
to Lex Luger.
World Championship Wrestling
Race
excelled as a manager as he had as a wrestler,
immediately leading Lex Luger to the WCW World
Championship. Later, he led Vader to win the title
as well. During his managership of Vader, Race
met with racial controversy when Vader was feuding
with WCW wrestler Ron Simmons when saying during
a promo, "When I was World Champion, I had
a boy like you to carry my bags!" This was
actually part of the booking strategy of then-WCW
head Bill Watts to build support for Simmons,
who he would eventually make champion. The wily
veteran was popular among the young WCW talent,
and developed close friendships with Mick
Foley and Steve Austin,
among others. However, as his early wrestling
career had been nearly derailed due to a car accident,
another car accident forced Race out of the wrestling
business altogether. Race required hip replacement
surgery, which, along with injuries accumulated
after years in the ring, prevented him from even
being a manager.
In
October 1999 he introduced Bret
Hart and Chris Benoit to the ring for their
tribute match for Owen Hart on Monday Nitro.
Retirement and World League Wrestling
Race
spent several years away from the business, working
briefly as a process server before retiring with
his wife in small-town Missouri.
In
1998 another individual named Harley Race committed
suicide. The news led to reports on Internet wrestling
sites that Race the wrestler had taken his own
life. After some fact-checking, these claims were
dismissed.
In
1999 he started World League Wrestling (originally
called World Legion Wrestling, but changed a year
later), an independent promotion which runs shows
near Race's hometown of Eldon, Missouri and other
cities in Missouri including Kansas City. A year
later, he started Harley Race's Wrestling Academy,
which seeks to train up-and-coming wrestlers who
will benefit from Race's unique experience and
perspective on the wrestling business. Race's
events are family oriented, and usually raise
funds for local charities. As well as featuring
his students, legends like Mick Foley, Terry Funk,
Bret Hart, and even Mitsuharu Misawa make guest
appearances. WLW has a working agreement with
Misawa's Japanese promotion, Pro Wrestling NOAH
and have NOAH star Takeshi Morishima as a former
heavyweight champion. He is credited with training
WWE world tag team champion Trevor Murdoch who
was then known as Trevor Rhodes and Pro-Wrestling
NOAH veterans Superstar Steve, Wade Chism, Matt
Murphy and Daniel Cross.
According
to Wrestlecrap, Harley participated in the controversial
1999 NBC special, "Exposed! Pro Wrestling's
Greatest Secrets." It was a controversial
appearance, as his face was covered to conceal
his identity as he broke kayfabe and discussed
the inner workings of the business.
Harley
is also famous for his barbecues, to which he
invites current and former wrestlers and friends.
He and his wife, BJ, live in Eldon, Missouri.
Harley's
autobiography, King of the Ring: the Harley Race
Story (ISBN 1-58261-818-6), became available in
2004.
Also
in 2004, Harley Race was recruited to be a part
of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling as a member
of their NWA Championship Committee. Despite reportedly
being an authority figure as a member of the committee,
he never made any official decisions and only
made the occasional on-screen appearance for the
company.
Harley
Race has said in numerous interviews that he thinks
he has what it takes to have at least one more
career match, but doubts he'll ever return to
the ring.
Along
with Ricky Steamboat and Les Thatcher, Race is
author of The Professional Wrestler's Workout
and Instructional Guide.
World Wrestling Entertainment
Race
returned to WWE TV in 2004 shortly after being
inducted into their Hall of Fame. On an episode
of RAW, Randy Orton confronted Race and spat in
his face, to go with Randy's "Legend Killer"
persona. Race returned again for RAW's WWE Homecoming
episode in October 2005, marking the show's return
to the USA Network. Race, along with the other
legends who were in the ring, gave Rob Conway
a lesson in respect.
At
the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony on March 31, 2007,
Race and Dusty Rhodes were "inducted"
into the Four Horsemen by Ric Flair and Arn Anderson.
During
Vengeance: The Night of Champions, Harley watched
the World Heavyweight Championship match at ringside,
and lifted Batista's arm after Batista showed
him respect before the match.
Total
Nonstop Action
Race
also made an appearance at TNA's Lockdown 2007
pay-per-view as the special guest gatekeeper for
the main event.
Ring of Honor
Race
made a special guest appearance at the second
night of Glory by Honor VI: Night Two at the Manhattan
Center on November 3, 2007 in New York City.
Wrestling facts
* Finishing and signature moves
o Piledriver
o Belly to belly suplex
o Diving headbutt (Innovated)
o Cradle suplex
o Body slam
o High knee strike
o Battering ram
* Managers
o Bobby Heenan
Championships and accomplishments
* All Japan Pro Wrestling
* NWA United National Championship (1 time)
* NWA World Heavyweight Championship (2 times)
* PWF World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
* All Star Pro-Wrestling (New Zealand)
* NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
* American Wrestling Association
* AWA World Tag Team Championship (5 times) -
with Larry Hennig (4) and Chris Markoff (1)
* Central States Wrestling
* NWA Central States Heavyweight Championship
(9 times)
* NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
* Championship Wrestling from Florida
* NWA Florida Southern Heavyweight Championship
(1 time)
* NWA Florida Tag Team Championship (3 times)
- with Roger Kirby (2) and Bob Roop (1)
* NWA United States Heavyweight Championship (Mid-Atlantic
version) (1 time)1 (First)
* NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
* Eastern Sports Association
* IW North American Heavyweight Championship (1
time)
* Georgia Championship Wrestling
* NWA Georgia Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
* NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
* International Wrestling Alliance
* IWA World Tag Team Championship (1 time) - with
Larry Hennig
* Maple Leaf Wrestling
* NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
* National Wrestling Alliance
* NWA Hall of Fame (Class of 2005)
* NWA World Heavyweight Championship (8 times)
* NWA Mid-America
* NWA Mid-America Heavyweight Championship (3
times)
* St. Louis Wrestling Club
* NWA Missouri Heavyweight Championship (7 times)
* NWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
* Stampede Wrestling
* Stampede North American Heavyweight Championship
(1 time)
* Stampede Wrestling Hall of Fame [3]
* World Championship Wrestling
* WCW Hall of Fame (Class of 1994)
* World Wrestling Association (Los Angeles)
* WWA World Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
* World Wrestling Council
* WWC Caribbean Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
* World Wrestling Federation | World Wrestling
Entertainment
* WWE Hall of Fame (Class of 2004)
* King of the Ring (1986)
* Cauliflower Alley Club
* Iron Mike Mazurki Award (2006)
* Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame
* Class of 2004
* Pro Wrestling Illustrated
* PWI ranked him # 8 of the 500 best singles wrestlers
during the "PWI Years" in 2003
* PWI Match of the Year award in 1973 –
vs. Dory Funk, Jr. (May 24, 1973)
* PWI Match of the Year award in 1979 –
vs. Dusty Rhodes (August 21, 1979)
* PWI Wrestler of the Year award in 1979
* PWI Match of the Year award in 1983 –
vs. Ric Flair (June 10, 1983)
* PWI Wrestler of the Year award in 1983
* Stanley Weston Award in 2006
* The Ring Chronicle
* Ring Chronicle Hall of Fame (Class of 1994)
* Wrestling Observer Newsletter
* Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame (Class
of 1996)
* Wrestler of the Year award in 1980
* Wrestler of the Year award in 1981
* Match of the Year award in 1983 – vs.
Ric Flair (June 10, 1983)
(Credit:
Wikipedia)
Interview
Harley
Race
Websites
Harley
Race official website
Harley
Race Pro Wrestling Training Camp - NOAH
Profiles
Wrestling
Legends
Wrestling
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