WWF/WWE/ECW/WCW

He was "only" 76.  I would have bet anything he was in his 80s; he must have started in the business very young.

RIP.

tohostudios wrote:

He was "only" 76.  I would have bet anything he was in his 80s; he must have started in the business very young.

RIP.

He did. He broke into wrestling when he was 15.

Forgot to do this:



One of wrestling's true tough guys!

This is one of my favorite Harley stories I've ever read. Tom Prichard told this story before on his blog (whose domain is now expired), but it's been copied and pasted in other places. Anyways, check this out:

Dr. Tom Prichard wrote:

Don Slatton was famous for bring Billy Sol Estes to justice and was in fact a deputy, sheriff or some kind of well known law enforcement officer around Abilene, Texas. The Lawman usually came to the ring wearing a cowboy hat, cowboy boots and white jeans. He was billed as “The King of the Chain Matches” and it seemed like no matter what kind of match he was in, he always ended up a bloody mess.

The Lawman was the promoter in Abilene and during one of Harley’s tours as champion in the Amarillo territory, Don Slatton booked himself in the main event against the world champion in a Russian Chain Match!

The “King of the Chain Match” Lawman Don Slatton VS. The World Heavyweight Champion, Harley Race. Russian Chain Match Rules! No Disqualifications, No count outs, the ONLY way to win is to drag your opponent around the ring and touch all four corners consecutively! No stopping for blood! MUST BE A WINNER!

Well, as far as anybody in Abilene knew, The Lawman was “undefeated” in over 400 chain matches and the odds were definitely in his favor! The promos, newspaper ads leading up to the match did it’s job and the night of the match saw a turn away crowd.

I’ve heard this story from numerous people through the years but now I’m hearing it straight from the guy who was in the middle of it all. Harley said he got a call from Bob Giegel (NWA president at the time) asking if he was working with Don Slatton in a chain match that night. When Harley informed Bob that he was, Giegel told Harley not to do it because they got word that Slatton was looking to double cross Harley and take the title using “chain match rules.” Harley told Giegel not to worry about anything like that happening. Slatton would never try anything like that. Surely he wasn’t that stupid! So Bob told Harley to just watch himself and be aware that it was a possibility.

Harley got to the show that night and the dressing rooms were on opposite sides of the building, which meant the referee would be delivering messages back and forth. The match was set where a heel would come out for a distraction just as Slatton was about to get to the last corner and then Terry Funk would come from the opposite dressing room to make the save. In all the commotion, Harley would do something to Slatton, knock him out and touch all four corners, retaining the world championship.

Apparently all was going as planned, with Slatton dragging Harley around the ring touching three corners along the way and the crowd anticipating their local hero about to become the new champ when suddenly a heel came from one dressing room (Harley couldn’t remember who) and Terry Funk came out to stop the interference. At that point instead of letting the moment play out and have Harley stop him, The Lawman continued and touched the fourth corner! The crowd erupted thinking they just saw a title change!

The Lawman took the chain off his wrist and immediately made his way back to the dressing room with Terry Funk while Harley stood in the ring with the crowd still going crazy!

Harley knew he’d been had and was pissed! He made his way through the crowd, with the chain still on his wrist and went back to the babyface dressing room, kicked the door open and found Don Slatton hiding in the shower. Harley said he backhanded him twice and drug him to the ring, punched him out and drug him around the ring touching all four corners in front of a capacity crowd that wasn’t quite sure what they were witnessing. After Harley touched all four corners, he made sure the ring announcer made it clear to everyone in the building that “the winner, and STILL world heavyweight champion was Harley Race!”

Once Harley was declared the winner, he went back to his locker room but was so mad he decided to go back to the other side of the building again and kick the door in, looking for Don Slatton. But the room was empty. Harley kicked a few chairs, went back to his dressing room, showered and left.

Almost a year later, Harley said he was back in the Amarillo territory again and sure enough, The Lawman was still there. Harley noticed a belt on the bench of the dressing room that said “World Champion Chain Wrestler.” He picked it up as Don Slatton walked in. Harley said he looked at him and said “You won’t be needing this” as he took it and put it in the trunk of his car.

He said Slatton begged him not to take it as it cost him a lot of money to have made, but Harley didn’t care. He tried to screw the world heavyweight champion and it backfired on him. I don’t know how much longer The Lawman was involved in promoting Abilene after that.

I heard he and the Funks had a falling out and Abilene pretty much dried up as a regular stop in the territory. Trying to pull a fast one on the world champion didn’t do him any favors, I’m sure.

Great story!

After he passed away last week, a memorial service has already been set for former NWA champion and WWE Hall of Famer Harley Race. The service will be held on August 11 at 3 PM in Troy, Missouri. The event will be open to the public.

Cardinals are on the West Coast so I'm stuck watching Smackdown.

Holy crap, WWE is so desperate for ratings they actually brought back Goldberg?????

Sheesh.

I think it has to do with his Saudi match being so bad. He said he wasn't happy with it and wanted to do another one. I don't mind him too bad, squash matches are fine and I think that's what will happen at Summer Slam. Anything over 8 minutes and he's in trouble.

Love him or hate him, Hogan is always an interesting interview. When you have time check it out with whatever podcast service you use. I admit I've always been a Hogan mark.

https://player.fm/series/the-steve-austin-show-unleashed-11715/the-immortal-hulk-hogan

I've never been a Hogan mark but I do respect his contributions to wrestling and acknowledge the sacrifices he made for the "sport". Not sure how known this is, but did you know that after years and years of the leg drop, he lost about 3-4 inches due to the damage to his spine.

I don't mind Goldberg, I actually was a big mark for him in the late 90s. The problem with the Saudi match was that Goldberg needs someone who can carry him through a match. Undertaker of old would have been capable of it, but not the current Undertaker (please Mark, retire!!!). Dolph is much more capable of doing it.

It’s the greatest news in the history of our sport. PWInsider reports that Tony Schiavone has signed a new del with All Elite Wrestling and will appear on the upcoming AEW show on TNT. It’s unknown how he will be involved on the program, but this will be his first appearance on TNT since WCW Monday Nitro ended in 2001.

The website notes that AEW actually beat WWE to the punch in this case, as WWE was attempting to sign Schiavone as late as this past Wednesday. Schiavone is currently signed to an MLW conract as well, and will continue to work with them. He’s previously made appearances on AEW’s ‘Road To’ shows previewing upcoming events.

Wow that means Schiavone and Jim Ross will be reunited.

This is getting interesting...

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/wwe-nxt-series-shift-usa-015019491.html

Ok we've all seen this before. There is something else odd about this segment that I never noticed until a friend pointed it out. At 1:02 Flair leaves out the backdoor and someone replaced him with a cardboard cut out!!!

Wow, that was creepy and weird. All this time I thought Flair was one of the people talking. I thought he was the one who said, “all right!” Among other things. What an astute observation. I never EVER caught that. I wonder what the reason for it was?

Wow, that's bizarre. You can even hear Flair say "Hey, I'm outta here" then the cardboard cutout shows up

Yeah I've seen it hundreds of times and never noticed it until someone pointed it out. I tried to listen closely and I also heard him say "I'm outta here!" And something about "Eric"... But I can't quite make it out with all the commotion.

That is bizarre. It looks like Flair just kinda drifts off to the back and freezes in place.

007 wrote:

That is bizarre. It looks like Flair just kinda drifts off to the back and freezes in place.

Yeah, the more I watch it the more it looks like he is having an MK Ultra glitch.

Cardinals beat the Giants this afternoon so I'm watching RAW for the first time in about a month. When did Gallows start wearing face paint?

I was flipping thru channels and saw the paint. I think it's new. I only watched for about 30 seconds and then back over to the L-Ville/NDame game. But I read this morning that Bayley turned heel. Will have to go back and see that.

UPDATE: Okay, now we can say it: the AEW World Title has apparently been stolen. PWInsider has confirmed what many of us already assumed: that the “championship wrestling belt” which was stolen from Jericho while he was eating in a Longhorn Steakhouse was in fact that AEW championship. As of this writing, the case remains open and the investigation is ongoing.

But this is the world of pro wrestling so is this a "work" or "legit"? Do you really think WWE is so afraid of competition that they'd "commission" someone to steal this belt from a fledgling competing group? I doubt it.