Professional wrestling riot! This is often dubbed the most dangerous riot in pro wrestling history, and is called The Cleveland Riot. OK...I drive my wife Nicole crazy with this stuff, I know! Most of you are saying, I cant wait until this idiot starts his job so he stops posting stupid stuff! Well, I have another 6 days. So, here goes another post that I hope you will find interesting! Some nerds are into Star Trek. Im into wrestling from the 1960s, 70s and 80s (admit it: SO ARE MANY OF YOU!!!!). Here is a clip from back when fake wrestling was believed to be real by many fans (who are called marks by those within the wrestling business for obvious reasons!). It took place within a decade after the famous 1960s race riots, and there still existed severe tensions between whites and blacks. That plays into what you will see here. Incidentally, a better word to use is choreographed, not fake, as doing the moves and stunts you see these guys or gals do requires athletic skill and legitimate amateur wrestling background. They really do at times have to hit each other for real, put each other in holds, slam each other, etc. which leads to injuries. Making it look like a real fight when the whole thing is staged is a skill, and often it required really pounding each other to keep the fans pulled into the action. Unlike the stuff you see on TV today, back in the 1980s and before wrestling was very much protected, in that promoters did not want to let the cat out of the bag for fear that fans would not buy tickets to what they knew was not a legitimate athletic competition. It was so guarded that some newspapers actually carried the results of local matches in the paper alongside the baseball scores, and wrestlers even stayed in character in real life so as to make people think that what they saw on TV was really who they were--including choosing to be arrested or putting their lives on the line (which you will also see in this video). Nowadays, wrestlers openly talk about it not being real, and so they can get away with the more unbelievable moves you would never see in a real fight. Back in the 1980s and before, not so much. Wrestlers had to make it seem as real as possible, and far-fetched moves in the ring (like triple back flips off the top turnbuckle) were rare, as it would have screamed this is not a real athletic contest! Really hitting and slamming each other--though pre-planned and carefully, quietly talked over during the match--often did lead to real injuries. If one wrestler sensed another wrestler was in danger from the fans--he did NOT break character, but they learned how to communicate to protect each other from injury or death. Anyway, here is a legitimate RIOT that broke out in 1974 in Cleveland. The title on the video (1960s) is incorrect. It was 1974--and I was only 2 years old. In the video, a wrestler named Johnny Powers was turning into a heel (which means bad guy). He was originally a good guy (in the wrestling business, called a baby face), but the promoters decided to make him bad in order to keep him around and sell more tickets to fans. Johnny Powers is the wrestler who is not punching or being punched--he is the one who is marching around the ring. This heel turn was against The Big Cat Ernie Ladd (who is the African American wrestler being punched in the chest). Ox Baker is the biggest wrestler who is doing the heart punch to Ernie Ladd. So, if youre a fan, Ernie Ladd (the popular good guy, who is African American) was just turned on by his friend-now-foe Johnny Powers, who joined forced with Ox Baker--who was hated by the fans. Both these bad guys are white. Ox Bakers finishing move was the dreaded heart punch. It was pushed to the fans as being a deadly move. This is because on June 13, 1971, Ox was wrestling against a man named Alberto Torres in Verdigre, Nebraska. Torres was injured during the match and died three days later from ruptured appendix. Bakers Heart Punch was blamed and, though Baker was really distraught over the death of his friend, he worked it as though he had killed Torres. This was part of the fraternal order of wrestling, to protect it, and sell things to the fans as being real. So, even though Torres died from something unrelated to any wrestling move, and was truly missed by Ox Baker, Ox did exactly what Torres would have wanted him to do: Act like your punch killed me and make money! So, Ox did that. But this was NOT the only time this took place. On August 1, 1972, in Savannah, Georgia Baker faced Ray Gunkel, who was a popular wrestler. Gunkel had a heart attack in the ring. He died in the dressing room after the match. This was attributed and sold by Ox Baker as being from his heart punch. Now, jump ahead to 1974. Cleveland, OH. There are many fans who loved Big Cat Ernie Ladd, and many fans who see two hated white guys unfairly beating up Ladd. Out comes the deadly heart punch! Baker lands it again and again. All 4 men in the ring (The referee, Powers, Baker and Ladd) notice the fans are out of control. What the fans dont realize is that below the noise from the crowd, Ox and Ladd are talking to each other the whole time. Johnny Powers and the referee are watching everybodys backs. The fans were getting hotter and hotter. Ox keeps punching Ladd, and they are doing this so they could talk and get an escape plan for what they knew was now way out of control. Ox could not just bow down and say Ernie, what should I do? nor could they say were only kidding around! That would have exposed the business as being fixed. So, Ox kept punching so they could talk to one another. Ernie said in essence (not an exact quote) I will will roll out of the ring to the side away from the exit to the dressing rooms. The fans will come to my rescue because they really think Im hurt. When they come to my side of the ring, you and Powers should have a clear way to get out of here and back to the locker rooms. It was how these guys worked together during a match. Unfortunately, this is not how things ended. You will see Ladd going over to his side of the ring as planned--but the fans are furious and did not do what Ladd thought they would do! They instead want to kill Ox Baker and the former good guy who turned bad guy by betraying and almost killing Ladd (or so they thought!). Watch how it al unfolds. Thankfully nobody was killed---but Ox and Powers dont escape without taking a few hits from the fans! Funny now.....very scary then! youtube/watch?v=zsadSDbSPdg
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 04:59:18 +0000
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