Line #4 Wrestling/HarleyRace


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/harley_race_6.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:During one of his eight reigns as NWA World Heavyweight Champion]]
3
4	Harley Leland Race (April 11, 1943 – August 1, 2019) was an American {{professional wrestl\|ing}}er, promoter, and trainer best known for his 8 reigns as [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/nwa/world/nwa-h.html NWA World Heavyweight Champion]] from 1973 to 1984. He started in Missouri as a teenager before moving to Memphis and wrestling under the name '''Jack Long''' and teaming with his [[UnrelatedBrothers "brother"]] John Long. Over time, he competed for, obviously, many Wrestling/NationalWrestlingAlliance territories, for the Wrestling/AmericanWrestlingAssociation, for Stampede Wrestling, and for Wrestling/AllJapanProWrestling, before he started winding down his career in Wrestling/{{WWE}} in the late 1980s. He retired from active competition in 1991 and became a manager in Wrestling/{{WCW}}, most famously for Wrestling/LexLuger, and, especially, [[Wrestling/{{Vader}} Big Van Vader]]. He was also the promoter of World League Wrestling in Missouri. He was inducted into the ''[[Wrestling/TheWrestlingObserverNewsletter Wrestling Observer Newsletter]]'' Hall of Fame in 1996 and into the Wrestling/WWEHallOfFame in 2004. He is also on the list of wrestlers who had slammed Wrestling/AndreTheGiant prior to Wrestling/HulkHogan doing it at ''Wrestling/{{WrestleMania}} III''. He passed away at age 76 from lung cancer.
5	----
6	!! "Handsome Tropes":
7	* AfroAsskicker: Sported a pretty impressive afro through much of TheSeventies.
8	* TheApprentice: To Stanislaus and Wladek Zbyszko.
9	* ArchEnemy:
10	** (As a wrestler): Wrestling/DustyRhodes, Wrestling/RicFlair, Wrestling/HulkHogan, Wrestling/DickTheBruiser and Wrestling/TheCrusher, Wrestling/JunkyardDog, [[Wrestling/HacksawJimDuggan "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan]]
11	** (As a manager): Wrestling/{{Sting}}, [[Wrestling/MickFoley Cactus Jack]], Wrestling/RonSimmons, Wrestling/DaveyBoySmith.
12	* AsHimself: As the ring announcer in the 2007 film ''Mil Mascaras Vs. the Aztec Mummy.''
13	* AwesomeMcCoolname: His name sounds appropriately badass for a pro wrestler. Better still, it was his real name.
14	* BaritoneOfStrength: In a business of tough guys, Harley stood out as among the toughest. He also had a voice that sounded like he ate gravel for breakfast.
15	* BashBrothers: Larry "The Ax" Hennig, Roger Kirby, Bob Roop
16	* CoolTeacher: Some of the wrestlers who have trained under him are Wrestling/RichieSteamboat, Wrestling/CurtisAxel and Wrestling/TedDiBiaseJr
17	** Guys like Wrestling/MickFoley and Wrestling/CMPunk never miss a chance to talk about how important and appreciative Harley’s mentorship was for their careers.
18	* DentedIron: A case he thinks could have been avoided. After purchasing the deluxe ring package from High Spots for World League Wrestling, he mentioned he had been researching heavily for the best ring his students could have and that if he had a ring like it when he was active he would have still been wrestling up till that point.
19	* {{Determinator}}: Early in his career, he was in a car accident that killed his wife, and resulted in the near amputation of his leg. After his leg was saved, he was told that he might never walk again. The rest of the story tells itself.
20	** He also battled and survived polio as a child before taking up wrestling.
21	* DirtyCoward: In 1983, he tried to retire Ric Flair by putting a bounty on him.
22	* TheDreaded: He can get guys like Wrestling/BruiserBrody and Wrestling/StanHansen, who were infamously known to use a stiff style of wrestling to ease up and sell his offense by threatening to shoot on them. He's also one of only two wrestlers that Wrestling/AndreTheGiant was afraid of. (The other being Wrestling/{{Meng}})
23	* DrivesLikeCrazy: Like sixty five MPH in a thirty five swerving around police crazy. It's also the basis for one of Manny Fernandez's stories on how the two escaped Puerto Rico, though it most likely did not actually happen.
24	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In the 1960's Race was working a pretty boy blond heel gimmick, which was far removed from the gritty (and not pretty at all) tough guy he was when he began his main event run in the NWA.
25	* {{Expy}}: Some have compared the pairing of Wrestling/CMPunk and Wrestling/PaulHeyman to that of Race and Wrestling/BobbyHeenan.
26	* FinishingMove:
27	** [[SuplexFinisher Fisherman's Suplex]]
28	** [[UseYourHead Diving Headbutt]] - He innovated this, though he later said that he wished he hadn't due to the physical toll it took on other wrestlers who adopted it.
29	** Piledriver
30	* GrandfatherClause[=/=]SignatureMove: He didn't innovated nor was the first wrestler to implement the Jumping Knee Lift, but was so unique to him back in the day that now every time you see one in a match your Color Comentator will refer at it as a "Harley Race Knee" in his honour.
31	* {{Heel}}: His primary role.
32	* FromNobodyToNightmare: His beginnings were humble even by pro wrestling standards - he started out in the business as the guy who had to drive around Happy Humphrey, a comedy wrestler who's main gimmick was that he weighed close to 800 pounds.
33	* IHitYouYouHitTheGround: "If I hit him with my left [hand] and he doesn't go down, I will walk around him to see what's holding him up."
34	* InSeriesNickname: The Crusher would call Harley Race and Larry "The Ax" Hennig "The Dolly Sisters", due to their then-fairly pretty looks, especially by 1960's standards.
35	* IWasQuiteTheLooker: [[https://web.archive.org/web/20160203165910/http://slam.canoe.com/Slam/Wrestling/2005/12/07/hennig-race.JPG His days as "Handsome" Harley Race]], alongside the then-equally good looking Larry Hennig. Ironically, neither man would hit the big time until after losing their youthful looks.
36	* ImprobableWeaponUser: He used a pen to stab on Vader's opponents windpipe in his stint as manager.
37	** You can read more about it in the "Stun Guns" entry.
38	* LightningBruiser: Sort of, as his athleticism often showed by dramatic ways in which he ''took'' offense rather than dealt it out. That said, he was pretty good at landing on his feet.
39	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Has gone on record to say that he wished he had never invented the diving headbutt, as it has lead to spinal and brain injuries for those who have used it (Dynamite Kid, Chris Benoit, etc.).
40	* PowerStable: [[Wrestling/BobbyHeenan The Heenan Family]] in WWE
41	* RedBaron: "Handsome", "Mad Dog", "The King", but perhaps his most famous was "The Master of the Chase".
42	* RetiredBadass: Needed a cane just to stand by 2014 in Wrestling/ProWrestlingNoah, but there was a reason they had him announce his seal of approval prior to putting on their GHC Championship matches. Okay, a reason might be that his own promotion WLW and NOAH are both part of the Global Pro Wrestling Alliance but that's not the reason they had him do it in person.
43	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: He and Vader knew better than to stick around when an enraged Wrestling/{{Madusa}} started kicking Paul E. Dangerously's ass after he fired her from the Dangerous Alliance and went off on a sexist rant at ''WCW Halloween Havoc 92''.[[note]]See The Dog Bites Back under Politically Incorrect Villain on Heyman's page.[[/note]]
44	* TheShowMustGoOn: Days after his death, his promotion, WLW ran their scheduled Supercard event, turning it into a makeshift tribute.
45	* StaticStunGun:
46	** Used one to keep Cactus Jack down for a 10-count in his Texas Death Match against Vader at ''WCW Halloween Havoc 93''.
47	** During his stint as Vader's manager, there is a story about Race using a stun gun on a naked Vader to get him to hurry his ass out of the shower so they could hit the road. Even for a man Vaders size, getting tazered while naked and wet must have hurt quite a bit.

Context Wrestling / HarleyRace