My wrestling buddy, Classic Pro Joe, sent me a link to this old-school match between Harley Race and Tony Atlas. After some impressive Bicep-Bulging Headlocks by Atlas, Race takes control and totally owns Atlas.
Harley Race makes a tremendous Fat Heel — raunchy, over-fed, and gluttonous. There is something intimidating and dangerous in that beefy physique, as if your punches and kicks can never penetrate his cushion, and he could easily smother you if he chose to lay down on your face. Hurt me, you big old brute!
Now lay at the whitefolks’ feet and play the victim.
We can’t help but notice the racial undertones as this big-bellied White Bubba punishes the submissive black man. For example, Atlas is tossed clumsily over the barrier to lie at the audience’s feet, his face in spilled beer and old cigarette butts.
Is his helpless situation, this unfair abuse, perhaps a metaphor for our unfair job market and biased justice system, which conspire to keep guys like Tony Atlas down?
Harley Race is a brutal Heel from way back, so his patriotic Stars & Stripes costume is surprising. This is the traditional gear of a young American Hero in pro wrestling, not the usual color palette for a villain.
For example, see below pretty-boy team in Red, White, and Blue trunks, who were the Heroic Baby-Faces in the prior match on the video.
I’ll tell you when you can come back in my ring.
The Heel, on the other hand, normally wears black, but in this match, good guy Tony Atlas (ironically known as “Mr. USA”) is wearing black tights. So why have the two characters, Hero and Villain, apparently traded gear for this match??
Maybe their clothing signifies the underlying racial politics. The privileged, well-fed, successful white man of course eagerly supports the political system that enables him to hold such power and wealth. So Race proudly wears the Stars & Stripes, while feeling free to also cheat right in front of the (white) referee.
Atlas, meanwhile, is clad in black tights, perhaps as a sign of protest, similar to taking a knee when the nation’s anthem is played. His weak, submissive behavior — his lack of aggressive counter-measures — harkens back to Jim Crow days. His agony recalls the cruel treatment his ancestors suffered from Harley Race’s ancestors. But his black tights signal that he has not submitted in his heart: yes, he is forced to act as Race’s bitch, but he will NOT wear the colors of Race’s flag as well.
Atlas has a right to be in the ring — this is discrimination!
Whipped outside the ring, Atlas is catapulted off the ropes (i.e., denied fair access to the ring) and knocked down to a lower level. Race refuses to share his King of the Hill position with a minority wrestler.
In his e-mail to me, Classic Pro Joe also note the racial tension in this match: “You’d think Atlas would easily out muscle Race, but I’m putting my money on Race… he’s a smarter wrestler and he does what he has to do to win. And you can just tell how Race feels about wrestling a black man… no way is he gonna lose to a black dude.”
A clue to how Race would feel about losing to a black dude can be found in the blog called Tape Machines Are Rolling which recently posted racist comments by Harley Race during a 1992 event. Race insults Ron Simmons and “tells him to be an ‘errand boy,’ and take a message to Sting. Now, here’s the thing: Simmons shuts it down real quick, tells Harley he’s got the year wrong with the way he’s talking to him, and Race fires back that when he was world champion seven times, he ‘had a boy like (Simmons) carryin’ my bags.‘”
Bigoted comments like these may be shocking by today’s standards, but way back in 1992, racism was used to ensure that we all hated the Heels, especially the fat, loud-mouth, white Southern Heels, so try not to get all offended by Race’s trolling.
Big beasts like Race can deliver the rib-crushingest Elbow Drops.
Race uses his ponderous weight to crush the muscle-man, swinging his arm up to perform this deliberate, dramatic Elbow Smash right across his throat. Here is what Joe had to say about Race:
“Harley Race is one of those wrestlers we’ve talked about that can really turn me on when he wrestles even though he’s not a muscleman, though in this match he has bulked up a bit. He’s just this rough, tough real man who’ll do anything to win a match.”
Atlas is such a gullible stooge!
Atlas acts out stereotypical behavior required of black wrestlers during that era. His skull is so hard that Headbutts don’t harm him. He falls for every stupid trick by Whitey, such as foolishly diving right onto those waiting shinbones.
We get the sense that he is forced to play the stooge by the promoters, forced to allow every Tom, Dick, and Harley to dominate him, due to the backstage politics of the day and the audience’s expectations.
Please be clear that I don’t condone racial bias or bigoted behavior IRL However, in the context of pro wrestling, where the Good Guy’s unfair suffering and over-whelming helplessness is the source of the excitement, the mistreatment of the black Titan is kind of hot. We see Race get away with all sorts of bullshit, while the superior athlete receives zero protection from the official, zero support from the audience, and zero respect from the commentators. His powerful muscles are rendered useless, and the systemic, unfair, conspiracy against the black superhero (who ought to be the dominant one) is exciting to ponder.
Harley Race uses a very basic move — the old Sunset Flip — to place Atlas in a degrading position and take the victory. No top superstar ever loses to the Sunset Flip — so poor Atlas is further downgraded and subjugated. Then the commentator, Gorilla Monsoon, plays politics by insulting Atlas with a snarky comment about how easily and foolishly he lost the match:
“Race beats him with a simple Sunset Flip because Tony Atlas literally beat himself.“