Insane Insights From Dark Side Of The Ring: Harley Race
Dark Side of the Ring Season 5 Episode 5 focused on pro wrestler Harley Race. One of the most notable wrestlers during the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's. I was never alive to see Harley Race perform, but every time I hear a story about Harley, he is often referred to as one of the toughest pro wrestlers in the business, that helped revolutionize the business.
No matter how tough you can be, there is always a dark side to the story. Harley Race has had such a dark life with a ton of events that have occurred in his life from when he was a young boy to the day he died.
The talking heads in this episode are Trevor Murdoch, Mick Foley, Jim Cornette, Eddie Sharkey, Gerald Briscoe, Danny Keever (Harley Race's Friend), Evonna Hedbavny Race (Harley Race's Ex-Wife), and Justin Race (Harley's Son).
This episode enlightened me a lot on Harley Race and 10 things stood out to me watching this episode.
10. Harley Race Punched His School Principal Growing Up
Harley Race's toughness was not a thing that was developed immediately, in fact, he showcased it when he was 12 years old in school.
Danny Keaver who is Haley's childhood friend, was interviewed and he gave us an insight on Harley Race growing up in school. After all, he had known Haley since they were in the 3rd grade. They both were big wrestling fans and would often watch Bob Brown and Yukon Eric who were huge during that time.
This got Harley to want to do this and he would often skip school to go wrestle and Harley would even let people hit him hard in the stomach. This got the school principal to be mad and he confronted him to stop. Harley decided to punch the principal and knock him out cold.
Keep in mind Harley was 12 years old when this occurred. Insane that a 12-year-old kid would do these activities. It's clear Harley did not have good parents as they kicked him out of the house when he was 14. They could not afford him to be there and worked at a farm where he learned how to wrestle.
9. Harley Race Bathed Happy Humphery
Harley was working for Gust Karras who was one of the more known promoters of that era. Harley had already picked up work doing pro wrestling at a circus where he was making 3-4 dollars per match.
That is not all he did with Karras. He was in charge of being on the road with Happy Humphery. Happy Humphery is the heaviest pro wrestler in the business ever. The documentary said that he was in the range of 700 lbs., which is absolute bollocks. He was way more than that.
This man at one point weighed into a weight loss clinic at around 800 lbs. in 1962. There was even some speculation that this man was 900 lbs. It boggles my mind how humans can live being that heavy and yet it impresses me that Humphery wrestled at that weight.
Harley had to go on the road with him, where he was the driver, and had to bathe him. Harley Race had to bathe Happy Humphery, and he did it with a garden hose and mop. If that is not dedication for wanting to be in the business, IDK what is. Like Cornette said, "That's paying your dues."
When it comes to Happy Humphery, he retired from heart issues in the 60's. Where is my shocked face?
On the bright side, he did eventually join the weight loss clinic and lost around 570 pounds. This dude went from being 800-900 lbs. to being 237-337 pounds. Humphrey won a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for this awesome weight loss. Good for him losing that weight. Unfortunately, he passed away in 1989 due to a heart attack at the age of 62.
8. Harley Race was Originally Declared Dead In His 1st Car Accident
I pretty much knew most of the details of the Car Accident that took the life of his wife and unborn child. Especially as it has been told multiple times and it's one of the saddest things I have ever heard regarding Harley Race.
What happened was that Harley and his 1st wife Vivian were driving home around Christmas and the roads were super snowy. While driving they got jackknifed by a tractor-trailer and the car slid into the trailer. His wife was killed instantly and so was her unborn baby. Jesus, that is still so sad every time I hear this story.
What I did not know from this accident, was that when the ambulance arrived at the scene, they originally declared Harley Race dead. I knew that Race almost died from the Surgery he got on his legs and almost lost them, but I did not know that many thought he was dead at the scene. Luckily, he was moving, and the people there immediately reacted by taking him to the hospital.
Thank goodness Race did not die from this incident and it is a freaking miracle that he did not lose his legs, especially at the age of 17 years old. Unfortunately, he lost his wife and child in this incident which can break any human being. Understandably, he always hated Christmas after this incident as the accident took place around that time. I honestly don't blame him.
7. How Harley Race Got His Revenge After Getting Stabbed
Ahh Bar Fights and Harley Race. There have been so many bar fights that this man has been a part of you could legit name an alcoholic cocktail Harley Race. Jon Taffer, make it happen on the next episode of Bar Rescue, please.
This was not mentioned in the documentary, and I don't know why, but this incident occurred in a Bar in 1965. When they had acted this out in the documentary, they showed this happened at ringside. This is not true when I did my research.
What happened was Harley saw a guy being super physical with a woman, who had accompanied him to the bar. Harley intervened, but what he did not realize was that this guy had a friend who had a knife. His friend stabbed Harley three times in the back before they took off.
Harley got hospitalized and he was fire-red engine pissed. He somehow figured out where these guys lived and what he decides to do is drive to their house and shoot it with a gun. When Trevor Murdoch asked him about this incident, he admitted that “it wasn’t a pistol. It was a machine gun.” Wow!!
6. Harley Race Was Often Speeding Post 1st Car Accident
You think that getting in a nasty car accident that almost resulted in your legs being lost would give you PTSD driving and try not to speed. Well not to Harley Race. To be fair when the accident happened, he was only going 30 miles per hour.
When he was back on the road, Harley made it important to always ignore speed limits. This guy would do 90 miles per hour in streets where the max would be 70. I legit hate going 70 miles per hour when it's the speed limit, yet it didn't bother Harley.
Why wouldn't it, the cops would just let it go if they pulled him over. After all, it's Harley Race and he was a known figure in the area he was. It is sort of like the athlete card players pull when they have been pulled over and it's used way too many times. This kept feeding into his ego and the only one who had a problem with this was his wife.
5. Harley Had the Most Insane Work Schedule as the NWA Champion
It has been done to death that pro wrestlers' work schedules are insane. I mean they still are today, but they are not as bad as they were in the '70s, '80s, and '90s. Looking at Harley's schedule, it capitalizes the word brutal.
During his time as the NWA Champion, he had a worldwide schedule. One night he would be wrestling in Japan then the next day he had to go to Kansas City to defend the title for an hour, and then he had to go to Puerto Rico the next day. That insanity of adapting to the Time Zone differences had to have a tremendous impact on his body. That is just the prime example, I wonder what his other dates were for a month.
4. Harley Race Legitimately fought Vince McMahon
The documentary dives into 1983, when Vince McMahon was now the owner of the WWF and he was planning to buy everything in pro wrestling. Harley Race was his next big target as he was entering a huge feud with Ric Flair at Starrcade.
Vince threw a ton of money at Harley to jump ship to the WWF and the number has often been referenced as being 250,000 dollars. Harley turned down Vince McMahon as Harley respected Ric Flair and did not want to destroy the wrestling business.
Eventually, both got in a legit fight as Vince tried to leg-dive Harley. Why the hell would you do that at Harley freaking Race? That is just asking for trouble and that is what he got. Harley put him in a sleeper hold and choked him to the point that he was put to sleep.
Harley Race is the only person that I can think of who legit fought Vince McMahon and managed to choke him to the point where he was asleep. That is just an amazing story, but in the end, Vince won.
Now they both eventually reconciled as Race eventually signed with the company and got inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Something that was not covered and I kind of which it did as it brings a lighter side to Vince McMahon. When Harley Race was dying, he desperately needed to be Med Flighted from Atlanta to St. Louis. That is how rough he was during his final days on this earth, but Harley Race could not afford any medical bills.
Somebody called WWE and told the situation to the company and Vince reacted quickly. He immediately paid his bills in full not 10 minutes later and Race got the help he needed. Say what you want about Vince, but this was an awesome thing for him to do. I wish that was covered in this documentary.
3. Harley Race's Plan To Stop Vince From Invading The Territories
Harley Race was a tremendous name in the Central States in Kansas, and they let him buy into the territory. So, Harley Race controlled a big piece of the Kansas Pro Wrestling scene. When Vince was invading every territory, he was super pissed.
One guy who he was super upset with was Hulk Hogan getting promoted there. Especially, as he was labeled as "The Real-World Champion" which heavily disrespected the NWA. Harley decided to fight back and prevent this and let's just say he went overboard.
Harley grabbed his pistol and wanted to see Hulk Hogan. You know Harley Race With a pistol just terrifies me, especially knowing what he did with the guy who tried to stab him. Race could not find Hilk Hogan, so he decided to send the message by lighting the ring on fire. Race already had a few screws loose, but at this point, the bolts are also loose too.
This story has been told by Hulk Hogan in a previous interview he did with Bubba the Love Sponge. You know, the guy that loaned his wife to Hulk Hogan. Now it's Hogan and as I said in the Brutus beefcake dark side of the ring article, you have to take everything this man says with a gigantic fistful of salt.
Luckily Trevor Murdoch confirms the story to be true as Harley told him numerous times. I believe Trevor Murdoch more than the man who once claimed that Harley Race after setting the ring on fire, pointed a gun at him, then immediately shook hands with him, thanked him for all he had done for wrestling at that time, and asked for a job. Yes, and I will be performing in the halftime show with Taylor Swift sponsoring me.
Again, don't believe a single word that comes out of that man's mouth.
2. The Boating Accident Ended his Mariage and Left Him In Financial Ruin
The documentary then talks about the fall of Harley Race's marriage, and it all stemmed from the boating accident.
What happened was that Harley took the boat out at night and it got rammed by another boat that did not have any lights on. A lot of people were injured including Harley and the worst part is Harley drove while intoxicated. When police were about to arrest him, he resisted.
That incident concerned his wife, and she went to his psychiatrist who advised her to leave immediately. She decided to agree to divorce Harley with this boating accident, and a domestic violence incident. It also does not help that a ton of women confronted her saying that they had children with Harley, but he was always able to get away with it.
The divorce alone was very brutal and nasty, but what also was Harley's financial situation. This boating accident put him in the hole as he had to pay 250,000 dollars to the person who was severely injured in the other boat. He was lucky because she wanted 10 million dollars, but the judge felt 250,000 was fairer only because he was intoxicated.
1. Harley Lost a ton of respect with Exposed! Pro Wrestling's Greatest Secrets
It is 1998 and Harley's wrestling career is long over and with him in financial ruin, he had to find a way to make money. One way he did this was by popping up in documentaries. A big one at the time was Exposed! Pro Wrestling's Greatest Secrets. It was going to expose the wrestling business in the late 90's.
Harley participated and they tried to hide him in there and scrubbed the voice. However, look at the photo above. You can easily tell that it is Harley Race with a pair of shade glasses on. They did not even do a good job with his voice either. Trust me I watched it and while it's deep, it is obviously from Harley.
He got a lot of heat for that in the business, especially from Gerald Briscoe. He was super disappointed with Harley. He lost respect for doing that because nobody expected him to do it and he often told others to protect the business. I guess money issues can make you do anything to get out of them.
This episode was a bit of a curveball. I was expecting to hear more Harley Race tough guy stories as he is often named as one of the legit tough guys in the ring. I also thought the main focus was going to be on the car accident, but that was just a portion of his crazy life. However, I learned so much more about Harley after this episode. It's one of the reasons I like these documentaries because I learn so much once the episode is over.
There are so many more stories that the show could have covered. I wish this episode was 2 parts and honestly, I think switching this with the John Tenta "Earthquake" episode would have been much better. Overall, this was another great episode of the Season, and I got enlightened more about Harley.
As for next week's episode, it is going to cover pro wrestler Chris Colt. I am super excited for this one as it is the topic that coming into Season 5, I was looking forward to the most. Especially as I barely have any knowledge of this guy, so I am very intrigued with that episode.
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