411’s Dark Side of The Ring Report: ‘The Life and Legends of Harley Race’

-Quick plug for my review/recap of the fantastic Bray Wyatt documentary that was released yesterday. Also, I will have live coverage of the WWE Hall of Ceremony on Friday Night after SmackDown. This live coverage is always the biggest thing I do each year for 411 and I appreciate everyone who has followed along over the last 8 or so years I have had the honor of doing the coverage. Speaking of Hall of Fame, Harley Race gets The Dark Side treatment this week. Let’s get to it!

-As a reminder, Chris Jericho is our narrator.

-The opening tease has the best quote: “He was no gimmick. He was Harley Race, the baddest man on God’s Green Earth.”

-Harley Race is talking about all the metal in his body from the various surgeries over the years. Jim Cornette says the cumulative effect of all the bumps on Harley made him a legendarily tough man that gained a mystique that he could not be hurt.

-Mick Foley says he was inspired by Harley Race as he was the first guy he saw take a clothesline and backdrop to the floor. He was also doing table spots years before anyone else. Cornette mentions the diving headbutt and the toll that took on his body. It looked like Harley was killing guys, but he was barely touching them. Foley says Harley passed his style to him and he passed it to others. Stars today are using Harley’s style whether they know it or not.

-Cornette says Harley grew up poor on a farm in Missouri. He had to work from when he was a young boy and that instilled a work ethic in him. Next we meet Danny Keever, who is a childhood friend of Harley. They became friends in third grade and says Harley used to let people hit him as hard as they could in the stomach. They used to watch wrestlers like Bob Brown and Yukon Eric. They skipped school one day to go wrestle and Harley, when confronted, told the principal it was a good day to wrestle.

-Trevor Murdoch next and he is a 2 Time NWA Champion and former WWE Tag Champion. He was also trained by Harley Race. He knows the stories because Harley told them to him. It seems he knocked out his principal when confronted.

-Next is Evonna Hedbavny Race, Harley’s ex wife! She was married to Handsome Harley Race for twenty-four years. He left home at 14 because the family couldn’t afford for him to live there anymore. Damn! He got a job on a farm and it happened to be owned by pro-wrestlers, Stanislaus Zbyszko and Wladek Zbyszko. They offered to train Harley in exchange for his farm work. Cornette says it was legalized torture as they stretched him and beat him up. It was a primitive form of hand to hand combat.

-Eddie Sharkey says he has been in the business a million years and Harley was one of his best friends. They got their start wrestling in the circus and would make 3-4 dollars per match and at the end of the night it would come out okay. Cornette goes over the carnival gimmick where a carnival wrestler would challenge the locals to take him on in shoot matches. When there were no challengers they would have a plant in the crowd that looked like one of the locals. Harley would play that part at times and the fans would get behind him. When Harley was the carnival champion it was a shoot. Harley says you had to know what you were doing because you didn’t get paid if you lost. Harley would fight 5-6 strange guys a night.

-Harley worked for promoter Gust Karras, and he put Harley on the road with Happy Humphrey. He was in the range of 700 lbs and Harley was picked as his driver. He also had to make sure Happy’s needs were met, which included Harley having to bath him with a garden hose and a mop. Cornette: “That’s paying your dues.”

-At 17, Harley marries Vivian Jones and she was pregnant with their first child. They were driving on a snowy road around Christmas time and a tractor trailer jackknifed and their card slid into the tractor. His wife was killed instantly and Harley was declared dead as well until they noticed he was moving. They were going to amputate his right leg and he was told he would never walk again.

-Commercials!

-We see the paper with the accident report. Gust heard about the accident and told the doctors not to do the amputation. They did a different surgery that saved Harley’s career and his leg. For the rest of his life, Harley hated Christmas because of the reminder of what he lost.

-Harley asked Evonna out for pie and she thought that was a different way of asking someone out on a date. Her father wanted her to stop seeing him, but she was attracted to him like a magnet. He told her one night to look in his bag on the back seat and inside was a ring and that’s how he proposed. Her family wanted her to stop seeing him. She says she knew she was going to marry an athlete, but never dreamed it would be a pro-wrestler.

-He teamed with Larry Hennig and they each had bleach blonde hair to get heat with the fans. Evonna didn’t like that Harley was a villain because she hated hearing people boo him. We see home video of Harley with Evonna and their baby boy. She would ask Harley if his match would be a bloodbath or clean.

-Justin Race, Harley’s son, says if it was a bloodbath, him and his mom would go to the movies. He got to see his dad wrestle a lot and says it was scary. Evonna says Harley was kind to everyone and it was fun being with him.

-Trevor says Harley saw a guy being physical with a woman in a bar and he tried to stop it. What Harley didn’t know was the guy had a friend with a knife and he stabbed Harley from behind three times before taking off. Harley went to the hospital and then found out where the guy lived. He took a pistol and fired at the house. Trevor asked Harley and he responded, “it wasn’t a pistol. It was a machine gun.” That proved to Trevor it wasn’t a lie.

-Harley is on the road for weeks at a time and Evonna says he didn’t have time for family. She notes he was a good father. Harley enjoyed drinking and he also had a lead foot. He was only going 30 when his first wife was killed in the car accident, so he never followed the speed limit again. If the sign had 70, Harley was doing 90. The cops would pull him over and when they saw it was Harley Race, they would tell him to take it easy and slow down. That made his wife mad. This only fed Harley to believe he was the man. Trevor doesn’t know if Harley knew how to be anything else other than Harley.

-Commercials!

-Harley gets a singles run after Hennig broke his leg. Harley gained the attention of the NWA and was considered as a possible NWA World Champion. Dory Funk Jr was the NWA Champion in 1973 and his father was a promoter in the NWA. Gerald Brisco is here and introduces himself as a WWE Hall of Famer and 50 year veteran of pro-wrestling. Dory Sr didn’t want his son losing the NWA Title to a babyface and Jack Brisco was a babyface. So they needed a heel to cheat and enter Harley Race. Cornette says it served two purposes: Harley was a heel and Harley could legitimately take the Title from Funk if something happened in the ring. We see the final seconds of the match where Harley wins the NWA Title for the first time in 1973.

-Harley was now a national name and became the most constant NWA champion from the early 70s to the mid 80s. Jerry says that Harley personified the image of the NWA Champion being a tough son of a bitch. He ended up being an 8 Time NWA Champion and would have countless hour long matches. Murdoch says it was not like today where matches were planned out in advance. Cornette puts over how important Harley was to Central States in Kansas, and that they let him but into the territory.

-Cornette puts over the insane schedule of the NWA Champion as they had to be all over the word. Harley says he wrestled 1 hour in Japan and then 1 hour in Kansas City the next day, and then an hour against Colon in Puerto Rico the next day. He would come home when he was able and would have gifts for his wife, but to her that didn’t buy love.

-Commercials!

-1983 The NWA decides that Harley will lose his NWA Title to Ric Flair at a new event billed as Starrcade. Gerry says Harley and Ric were perfect foils for each other. Great Harley interview hyping the Starrcade Match. Cornette says that in 1983, Vince McMahon Jr had moved from announcer, to owner of the WWF. He was on the cusp of expanding nationally and wanted to shut down Ric getting the NWA Title because of how huge it would be. He threw $250,000 at Harley if he would jump to the WWF and not go through with Starrcade. Cornette says there is some truth to it, but if Harley never lost the title, he wasn’t sure how they would explain it. Whoever they made champion after, the fans would not have seen him as credible. Harley turned Vince down. Murdoch asked Harley if he ever got into a fight with Vince. Cornette says Vince tried to leg dive Harley, but Harley stuffed him and put Vince in a choke and put him to sleep. See, CM Punk wasn’t the first! Harley says he had too much respect for Ric and the wrestling business. The Main Event of Starrcade went off as planned and Ric Flair became NWA Champion for a second time.

-More fun with Vince as next he wanted to take over Central States in Kansas City. Most territories didn’t confront Vince over his expansion, but Harley did and wanted to know why they were coming into his territory. Cornette: “Now Hulk Hogan has told some stories.” Murdoch says they were promoting big that Hogan was the Real World Champion. Harley was pissed they were promoting in his town, so he had a pistol and wanted to see Hogan. They all say the story has been passed down fourth and fifth hand at this point. Harley was looking for Hogan and couldn’t find him, so he lit the ring on fire. Trevor says he was told this and Hogan (from a Bubba The Love Sponge interview) says the same. Mick doesn’t doubt it, and even if it didn’t, it’s something that sounds like it could have happened.

-Harley then joins the WWF because it got to the point you couldn’t fit against them. He was given a good pay day even if Harley was against everything that era of WWE was pushing. He was given the gimmick of the King of Wrestling. Brisco doubts Harley liked it, but he never bitched about it and would make it work for him. Cornette says the kids didn’t really like Harley and the older fans who knew him, didn’t like what he became. Foley says Harley was methodical and it was cool seeing a dude at that age still taking the big bumps.

-Saturday Night’s Main Event: Hulk Hogan vs. Harley Race! This was a fantastic match that had Harley diving onto a table and this was before they gimmicked them. The bar didn’t break and instead blew out Harley’s small intestines creating a hole. His son found him passed out on the floor of his apartment in the fetal position. He thought he was dead.

-Commercials!

-Harley’s in ring future is in doubt as he is rushed to the hospital. He had an abdominal hernia that required several surgeries. He went from nearly 300 lbs to 200 lbs and had 300 stitches on the inside of him. He eventually got back to his wrestling weight and wrestled here and there when needed.

-His ex-wife says they loved going to the lake and being on their boat. One morning Harley was drinking scotch and left the house angry. He took his boat out at night and he ran into another boat that had turned off all their lights. Several people in the other boat, plus Harley were injured. The police came to investigate, and Harley was intoxicated, so he resisted arrest. His ex-wife called Harley’s psychiatrist and she advised her to leave immediately. She filed for divorce the next day and got a restraining order. It was a nasty divorce! She says Harley was a kindhearted person, but he was not a family man. She tells of various women saying they had children by Harley, but he was always able to get out of it because he was Harley Race. She admits that Harley told her that if she left, he would get rid of her. She admits he was rough with her at times and says she should have told someone about it, but didn’t. His son says he would find all these things out through the newspapers as it was billed as The War of The Races in the KC papers. She breaks down a bit and hopes her son came understand her side of the story. She says her side is true, but she doesn’t know if her son will understand. She is glad she went through with the divorce.

-Harley is sued over the boating accident and the woman had two broken legs. She wanted 10 million and the judge ruled that Harley had to pay $250,000 because he was intoxicated. This was Harley after his career was well past the peak and it put him in financial ruin.

-Commercials!

-Next week it’s Chris Colt! Cornette says the best wrestler nobody saw!

-Harley returns to WCW as a manager because he was still a major name. They put him with Vader and it’s a perfect pairing. Cornette says Race was a brilliant teacher for Vader as he was a former football player and needed that. Foley was a bit nervous as he didn’t know if he was a Harley guy, but he embraced him. Race respected Mick, but thought he was crazy. Mick loved having Harley as part of his feud with Vader.

-His run in WCW ends and then he pops up Expose: Wrestling Secrets Revealed! This shocked everyone as it was against everything Harley stood for and was raised on in the business. The production tried to hide who it was and scrubbed the voice some, but I mean, it’s clear as day the silhouette is Harley Race. Brisco says he was disappointed and asked Harley why he did it and the answer was money. Cornette says the consequences for that would have been dire and Harley would have been the one delivering the consequences, but in this, case who is going to beat up Harley Race.

-Harley opens a wrestling school and in 2004 is inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame. This was the class that started the on-going tradition of a yearly class being inducted the day before WrestleMania. We get some of his acceptance speech.

-In 2019, Harley Race passes away after health battles including one against lung cancer. He was 76 when he passed away. His son held his hand, was crying and felt his dad pat him on the back and leave his warm hand there.

-His ex-wife says he was a God in wrestling, but he wasn’t meant to be a family guy. Cornette doesn’t see how anyone can be any tougher than Harley Race. Someone may be as tough, but he can’t see anyone being tougher. Trevor says that when Harley’s third wife passed away, he told Trevor he missed her but never cried and felt he should be crying. That just wasn’t him. Cornette gets the last word as he says nobody in the history of wrestling gave more of themselves physically, and with their credibility than Harley Race did.

-This was a different type of episode than I thought we were getting. I was expecting more Harley Race tough guy stories, or bar fight stories. I wasn’t expecting stories about Harley being abusive to his wife. I had heard the story of him trying to find Hogan and the fact others have told the story seems to indicate that isn’t one of the tall tales that Hogan is accused of sharing. I felt this was kind of rushed for some reason and I’m not sure why. It covered the various high and low points, but just seemed to be checking boxes along the way. I also wonder how much that tragic car accident that took the life of his pregnant wife changed Harley. I was really into the stories of Harley in the early days and working in the circus/carnivals. It was great to hear from his son and his ex-wife and this episode was perfect for Cornette. The man knows his history and really, I would be fine if he was part of every episode just to bring the historical accuracy. Murdoch and Foley were also perfect choices to be part of this as well. This was definitely more Dark Side than some of the other episodes in this season, and while it wasn’t my favorite, it was still informative and enthralling to watch. Thanks for reading!