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Champions During the Mid-Atlantic Period 1973-1986
HarleyRace.com
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There
has always been an ongoing debate over how many times Harley Race
officially held the NWA world heavyweight title: seven or eight.
Regardless of which number you decide in the end is correct, one
can’t argue how impressive either of those numbers are, especially
when considering the era in which he held those titles. Unlike
today, where the “world title” changes hands seemingly every other
Monday night, when Race captured his first title a champion might
hold the title for years at a time. Granted, by the late 70s and
early 80s, there were several cup-of-coffee title interruptions
which inflated the total. That was a harbinger of days to come, I
suppose.
I had
always been on the side of seven times; that was the traditional way
history was written and how things played out to fans at the time.
Everybody agrees on the first seven reigns, the seventh of which in
1983 broke Lou Thesz’s record to that point. The modern-day debate centers
around the title change that would be counted number eight: a short three day title switch
that took place in 1984 between Race and Ric Flair on the other side
of the world, a switch none of us as fans knew about at the time and a
switch the wrestling press (except in Japan), by and large, did not report.
However,
after reflecting back on a chance encounter I had with Mr. Race many
years ago, I began to rethink my position on this debate. It also
made me aware of a debt still owed him, a small debt that goes back
almost 20 years.
It was
the summer of 1990 and World Championship Wrestling was making its
monthly stop at the Greensboro Coliseum. My buddies and I were all
jacked up about going to see Harley Race. Race was making one final
run in the ring, touring with WCW. I knew it might wind up being the
last time I’d get to see Race wrestle, and as it happened, it was.
Less than a year later, he hung up the boots and moved on to a
successful managerial career, guiding both Lex Luger and Big Van
Vader to the WCW world
title.
I don’t
remember much else about that card in Greensboro, but I do clearly
remember being pretty excited because I relished any chance to see
one of the great NWA champions in action. Race, Brisco, Funk, Flair
– these were the great NWA champions of my youth and men who I would
argue should be on anyone’s list of the top wrestlers of all time.
They all had held the “ten pounds of gold”, that most iconic of
wrestling belts.
And as
it turned out, I was going to see two former world champions
on that card: Race’s opponent that night in Greensboro was a man
that once briefly defeated him for the NWA world title - Tommy “Wildfire” Rich.
For just
under five days in 1981, Tommy Rich carried the NWA world belt, defeating
Race on a Monday night in Augusta GA and losing it back to him on a
Friday night in Gainesville. Promoter Jim Barnett and Race may have
gone into business for themselves, as it is generally accepted that
the NWA board did not approve this 5-day switch in advance. The NWA
President at the time, Jim Crockett, was in Japan when it happened
and had to hurry back to the United States, only to find the whole
thing was over by the time he returned. Fans still argue today about
that short title run, questioning whether Rich is worthy of being
remembered as champion. It is, of course, a moot point. As Harley
Race himself has clearly stated, Rich beat him in the middle of the
ring and deserved to be called World Heavyweight Champion.
Given
their legitimate world title history together, it just seemed kind
of cool to me that these two would wrestle again all these years
later, almost a rematch of their infamous 1981 title bouts. Although
winning the title back from Rich in 1981 had evened the score, this
night in Greensboro would allow Harley to regain the upper hand with
Rich in our eyes. As it happened, Race did win the match that night,
and we all thought it had been a pretty good evening. But, as the
old expression goes, business was about to pick up.
After
the matches, we decided to grab some dinner at the local Bennigan’s
restaurant
which was not far down High Point Road from the Greensboro Coliseum.
Despite the fact it was right after the wrestling show, the place
wasn’t very crowded, and we were quickly seated at a corner table and
began looking over the menu. Then, someone across the room caught
our eye. There, sitting at the bar alone, was the former heavyweight champion of the world Harley Race.
There
weren’t any other wrestlers in the place.
Harley was quietly nursing a tall cold one, and we decided the
appropriate thing to do was buy the champ his next one. So we told
our server that there was a legend in the house, and his next round
was on us. We watched eagerly as a few minutes later, the bar tender
leaned over and said something to Harley as he handed him his next
beer, and then pointed to us over in the corner. Harley looked over,
and without any change of expression lifted his glass to us, winked,
and mouthed the word “thanks.”
My
friends started egging me on to go over and talk to him. Anyone who
knows me knows how reluctant I am to do something like that, but
after hearing me talk non-stop about going to see Harley Race for
the past two weeks, they were pretty insistent. After all, they
argued, when was I going to get this close to Harley Race again?
I
decided they were right, gathered up my nerve, and went over to the
bar and sat down next to him.
“Mr.
Race,” I said, “I saw you wrestle tonight at the Coliseum. I just
want you to know what an honor it is to see you in the ring and to
see you here tonight.” It probably sounded as silly to Harley Race
then as it sounds writing it now. But that’s all I could get out. He
was very nice, thanked me, but it was clear he probably would just
rather be left alone to enjoy his refreshments. But heck, I was
sitting at the bar with “Handsome” Harley Race. I couldn’t leave
now.
My
strategy was that he wouldn’t mind me pestering him as long as I was
buying the beer. I then made the tactical decision to buy him seven
of them; one beer for each world heavyweight championship he had
held. Harley, needless to say, thought that was an excellent idea.
I
ordered a beer, too, and we continued to talk for awhile. Actually,
I was doing most of the talking and I know how I must have sounded,
telling him about the first time I ever saw him wrestle live,
defending the NWA title against Ric Flair in 1980 at the Charlotte
Coliseum. I’m sure at some point he had begun to tune me out.
After a
short while, and well before beer number seven, I decided not to
bother him any longer. I slid a $20 dollar bill to the bartender,
which back then easily covered the seven beers with a good bit left
over for a tip. Harley thanked me again, turned back to his beer,
and I went back and rejoined my friends.
Looking
back on that night, I started thinking about Harley’s brief 1981
title switch with Tommy Rich in Georgia, and how similar it was to
the 1984 switch between Race and Flair mentioned earlier. However,
it was Race that time on the short end of a brief reign that started
when he beat Ric Flair in New Zealand and ended days later when
he lost it back to Flair in Singapore. Like the situation with Tommy
Rich, Race won the title and dropped it back to Flair in the ring, and
as with Rich, likely did so without pre-approval from the NWA board.
So why shouldn’t that 1984 title reign be recognized like the 1981
Georgia title changes with Tommy Rich?
There
have always been two ways to look at wrestling title history like
this. You can either go by what was recognized by the NWA at the
time or you can look at what actually happened in the ring. On one
side of the argument, the 1984 New Zealand/Singapore title changes,
which were arranged by the local promoter Steve Rickard and kept hush-hush from
the wrestling media, were not officially recognized by the NWA at
the time they took place. In the years that followed, Race was
always referred to (and indeed referred to himself) as a 7-time
world champion. And back in the day, if neither Bob Caudle nor
Gordon Solie told me about it on my Saturday afternoon wrestling
shows and I didn’t read about it in one of my monthly wrestling
magazines, it didn’t happen.
But on
the other side of the argument, as time passed, those title changes
were finally recognized by the modern-day NWA. And remembering back
to that night in Greensboro, I began thinking about what really
ought to matter, and the type of recognition Race deserved for that
eighth world title reign, surely just as much as Tommy Rich deserved
recognition for his one and only. It seems clear to me now that
Harley Race had indeed accomplished something no one officially gave
him credit for until many years later. Race wasn’t the former
seven-time heavyweight champion of the world; he had held that belt
eight times around. And at that point in time on that hot
August night in Greensboro, as Race would famously say, that was
more times than anyone else on God’s green earth.
What fun it was to share a few moments with one of the greatest of
all time. My best intentions then were to buy him one beer for each
world championship he had held. I bought him seven that night in
1990. Looks like I still owe Harley Race a
beer.
- Dick Bourne
Mid-Atlantic Gateway
March 2009
Copyright © 2009
Dick Bourne,
Mid-Atlantic Gateway |