If Harley was a used car salesman. He could sale a lot with the way he could talk about how cool the car is.and how it handles.people would have no choice but to buy the car or get beaten up by him,their choice.
Okay, that was a sight to see. Harley Race so animated and excited at the start, but then he calms down and starts that dead serious style of promo we all know and then at the very end to go right back to the animated stuff. That is some damn good promo work.
I always thought it would have been a nice twist to the story had David Von Erich claimed the bounty Race put on Ric Flair. After all, Von Erich had history with both of them. And David's star was on the rise.
Imagine riding in Harley's car between shows going 95+ and handing the King his beers and listening to his advice,stories and critiques on everything 😂👍
So ..he arrives about three or four months earlier on the house show circuit as just plain Harley Race with the standard blue robe that he was known for . My mouth dropped open because I began to salivate and think ..does this mean eventually we will get Race Hogan
There's NOT a wrestler today that could match Harley Race as a in ring performer. Listen to Flairs interview , where the NWA sent Harley to Japan with RIC Flair because they were trying to screw with Flair and the NWA knew that they would screw with Race .
I’m happy to be a 90s baby and to have witnessed wrestling in its biggest boom period but I really would love to experience this era of wrestling. I respect what Vince did but there’s something so magical about the old territory days of wrestling. It just felt like ppl seemed to have more respect for what it was than they do now. I kinda wish wrestling wasn’t widely known as “entertainment” and was still seen as a real sport cause in my opinion it is. No matter what ppl might say, if wrestling was easy and just play fighting, then everyone would do it. Guys like Harley Race would be the ones who would love to show you how “fake” it is if you challenged them. Men’s men.
The 90s were lame. Yes, the Attitude Era and the Monday Night Wars got great ratings, but they came at the expense of the legacy men like Race left behind. McMahon killed professional wrestling when he broke his father's word not to expand into the territories. It's the yanks and their cartoon kayfabe that killed the sport. What you miss (without knowing it) is the NWA. That was a real sport. Everything from "the birth of Hulkamania" and after is pure cancer.
Wrestling died in 1985. Vince turned it into a cartoon for the next decades. He made a lot of money taking wrestling international, but caused a slow death of wrestling and lost many fans with oversaturation and cartoonish, soap opera storyline.
Was Flair the baby face in most of these matches? I only found one video of a Race promo out of Missouri where he was the baby face. I remember Race being the heel for the most part.
Flair was the heel in his Atlanta feud with Race. Proof: Japan pro wrestling filmed the house show. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-njVFLXxAcjc.html
Is it me are did they used to put the belt that on guys that could handle themselves in case of a double cross are shoot ...... race, backlund,thez the funks and briscos.
Race was a better world champion than Ric Flair had ever dreamed of being . Race's eight reigns is a greater achievement than Ric Flaies 16 reigns . I never thought it helped elevate the NWA to have a blatant coward as a champion . No wonder the NWA crumbled with Ric as their go to guy . Its not completely Rics fault though , there were not many young guys with the proper work ethic to be NWA champion who wanted that schedule for any amount of money . Flair just happened to be both ethical enough and stupid enough to want that schedule . The promoters used to think it was a win for them to have their top guy become the consensus NWA approved champion but then the schedule kept him from coming back to the territory often enough to keep gates up . Had they used their influence to create TWO strong babyfaces in their teritories they would be set to have one of them become champion and the other bridge the gap , keeping sales up . None of the promoters were doing that . Most were long in the tooth and were looking to get out of wrestling anyhow . Ric Flair benefitted from Jim Crocketts youth and ambition whereas someone out of StLouis would not have been so lucky , nor many other promotions . FRITZ had 3 stars but none of them had the proper business mentality to bear the banner of NWA champion . They were partiers all addicted to pills and no shows . Bill Watts was young and ambitious but realized rightlly that the NWA was dying so he focused more on his own brand than seeking the prestige of the NWA champion . Wrestling was set to boom in popularity just as most NWA promoters were looking to retire .Ric Flair greatly benefitted from that .
I like to imagine what the wrestling world would have looked like had cable not made crossing territorial lines far less risky a thing to do .Unfortunately The NWA was dying in the eighties , of old age and from fighting of an United States Antitrust suit brought against them for which they had little hope of ever fully defeating .
Love em both but for different reasons. Harley was a tough sob who u knew nobody fucked with. Flair had some of the most entertaining promos of all time. 2 legends.
Ric Flair lost by DQ when all Japan recorded the match for Japan TV. Flair pinned him cleanly in the rematch at the Omni when Japan cameras weren't there. Go figure 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
