Pro Wrestling Posts

Harley Race proposed to third wife on a drive to Duluth

May 07, 2024 No Comments

[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]

Season five, episode five, of the Vice-TV documentary series The Dark Side of the Ring delves into “The Life and Legends of Harley Race,” a world champion professional wrestler whose early career included a run in the Minneapolis-based American Wrestling Association. At the 13-minute mark in the episode, Race’s third wife, Evonna Hedbávný, tells the story of Race proposing marriage on a trip from Minneapolis to Duluth in the early 1960s.

Apparently, even the toughest guy in the rasslin’ business can’t resist the romance of Duluth.


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When Bobby Heenan broke Greg Gagne’s nose in Duluth

Dec 12, 2022 No Comments

Retired professional wrestler Greg Gagne mentions a match in Duluth on the new Vice cable television series Tales from the Territories. The anecdote occurs after the 19-minute mark in episode 3, titled “AWA: Bodyslams in the Heartland.”

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Now That’s a Great Hat: Text Dispatches of a Twin Cities Coincidence

Nov 22, 2022 1 Comment

Friday

My best friend departs for the farmlands of Southern California, where she will join her family to celebrate her sister’s 50th birthday in their hometown. On their agenda: attending a local rodeo.

My husband and teen daughter drive to Twin Cities Con, where husband is excited to see G.I. Joe author Larry Hama, and teen daughter is on the hunt for merch of Squirrel Girl and other favorite superheroes.

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Random

Ferocious Finn falls to Polish strong boy in 1922 mat tussel

Jan 06, 2022 No Comments

It was 100 years ago today that Henry Karhunsaari, “the Ferocious Finn of Virginia,” was knocked unconscious in the deciding fall of what Duluth Herald sportswriter Sandy MacDonald called “the most spectacular and most fiercely contested wrestling match ever staged in this city.”

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History

June of ’71: UMD’s medical school gets initial accreditation

Jun 30, 2021 No Comments

The University of Minnesota Duluth’s medical school took its first step toward academic accreditation 50 years ago. The June 30, 1971 Duluth Herald reported that Dr. Robert E. Carter, medical school dean, announced a letter of “reasonable assurance of academic accreditation” had been received from the Joint Liaison Committee on Accreditation of the American Medical Association Council on Education and the American Association of Medical Colleges.

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Video Archive: World Wrestling Federation 1988 Duluth Promo

Dec 08, 2018 1 Comment

The World Wrestling Federation’s sixth-ever card at the Duluth Arena featured …

Andre the Giant vs. Jake “The Snake” Roberts
Demolition vs. The Powers of Pain
“Outlaw” Ron Bass vs. Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake


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Ripped at Midget Wrestling in 2008

Oct 20, 2018 No Comments

[Editor’s note: The NorShor Theatre operated as a strip club from 2006 to 2010, and all manner of amoral activity took place there. For this week’s essay we’ve once again pulled out a relic from the archive of Slim Goodbuzz, who served as Duluth’s “booze connoisseur” from 1999 to 2009. Ten years ago he paid a visit to the NorShor to take in the rasslin’ matches.]

Lovers of the fine arts, like me, know it doesn’t get any better than strippers and midget wrestling. If you can see them both in the same building, and there’s a guy with a backpack who is graciously offering to share his hallucinogenic mushrooms with you, it’s time to chant U-S-A! U-S-A!

Yes, tonight the stars of the Micro Wrestling Federation are bringing their “MidgetPalooza 2009 World Tour” to the NorShor Experience strip club. Of course, it’s still 2008 on my calendar, but it’s probably not a mistake that the year 2009 appears on my ticket in three places. I like to think the MWF is like an auto manufacturer and releases the next year’s line of midgets early, so fans feel like they’re on the cutting edge of wrestling innovation.

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Video Archive: Rick Rude vs. Kim Yates in Duluth, 1988

Aug 07, 2018 No Comments

What Rick Rude would like right now is for all you fat, ugly, Duluth little boys to keep the noise down while he takes off his robe and shows the ladies what “simply ravishing” is all about.

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Video Archive: Superstars of Wrestling in Duluth, 1988

Aug 02, 2018 No Comments

Finally unearthed from the PDD video archive, clips from the May 10, 1988 World Wrestling Federation card at the Duluth Arena. The segments available here are matches that were broadcast on the syndicated television program Superstars of Wrestling on May 22 and 29, 1988. Numerous other matches were taped at the same Duluth card and broadcast in subsequent weeks.

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Video Archive: Bobby “The Brain” Heenan and “Macho Man” Randy Savage cut wrestling promos for 1988 Duluth show

May 10, 2018 No Comments

Thirty years ago — May 10, 1988 — the World Wrestling Federation brought a card to Duluth for the sixth time. A television crew came along to capture matches for four episodes of the syndicated weekly program Superstars of Wrestling.

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Selective Focus: Joe Klander

Mar 30, 2018 1 Comment

Joe Klander can definitely be called a multimedia artist. He paints, he sculpts, he puts opponents in a full nelson. His art show last year at the Duluth Art Institute was called “Strongman” ond explored his heroes and influences as a kid. He will appear on the upcoming season of America’s Got Talent, and a documentary about him is currently making the rounds at Film Fests, opening last weekend at the Fargo Film Fest.

JK: From what I’ve been told I’ve been drawing ever since I could hold a pencil, and watching pro wrestling not long after that. Mike Scholtz’s documentary “Kinderchomper” hit on my childhood-like arts and crafts art exhibit I was working on and my life as a pro wrestler father and husband. I am constantly reaching back to my boyhood imagination and dreams for inspiration and for some reason always ask myself the question “Would me at the age of 10 think this is pretty awesome?”

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Video Archive: The Hart Foundation and Honky Tonk Man cut a special Duluth Valentine’s Day wrestling promo in 1988

Feb 14, 2018 No Comments

Trade in your candy hearts for some “Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart and the Hart Foundation. The World Wrestling Federation was in Duluth 30 years ago today — Feb. 14, 1988 — for its fifth card at the Duluth Arena. (The WWF is now the WWE, and the Duluth Arena is now the DECC Arena. Times change.)

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“One uses arm drags while the other uses artifacts, but the two perform the same function: They’re both vehicles for storytelling.”

Jan 19, 2018 No Comments

The artifacts…

Terrance Griep is a Minnesota writer and wrestler who makes frequent trips to Duluth (see stories on PDD here and here). He’s subject of an art exhibit at the MSP airport; visit when you catch a connecting flight.

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Art

Video Archive: Honky Tonk Man and Butch Reed cut wrestling promos for 1987 Duluth show

Dec 27, 2017 No Comments

The World Wrestling Federation — now known as World Wrestling Entertainment — brought four cards to the Duluth Arena in 1987. The fourth happened 30 years ago today — Dec. 27.

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Video Archive: “Macho Man” Randy Savage 1987 Duluth promo

Oct 08, 2017 No Comments

The World Wrestling Federation — now known as World Wrestling Entertainment — brought a card to Duluth for the third time on Oct. 8, 1987. In the video clip above, Randy “Macho Man” Savage declares his enthusiasm for his first trip to the Zenith City.

Announcer Gene Okerlund mentions Bam Bam Bigelow and Nikolai Volkoff in his opening remarks, but neither of them appeared at the show.

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