'The Mabel'

One of the most classic ribs in wrestling was known as "the Mabel." This rib was pulled in territories everywhere, but the boys in Stu Hart's Calgary Stampede Federation were especially famous for pulling this prank on newcomers to the territory. Basically, the rib went like this:  

The new wrestler to the territory would be set up by the boys in the dressing room, who would all be talking about "Mabel," a beautiful female wrestling fan (who was married) but went out with some of the wrestlers when her husband was away.

And the boys would take the rib a step further by telling the newcomer that "Mabel" had her eye on him, since he was the "new face" in the territory!

The boys would continue to bait the new wrestler for days, until he was dying to see what "Mabel" looked like. Finally, one of the boys would come into the dressing room telling the new wrestler that "Mabel" was on the phone and wanted to talk to him!

Once the new wrestler got on the phone, sure enough there was a female on the other end who identified herself as "Mabel," and told him that since her husband was out of town, she wanted to get together with him.

She told the new wrestler where to meet her and what time, and sometimes told the new wrestler to bring over some steaks and some liquor or beer so they could really "have a good time."

In fact, when the excited wrestler got back from his phone call, he would even have one of his "good-friend fellow wrestlers" offer to take him over to wherever "Mabel" wanted to meet him, and would offer to come back and pick him up at another designated time.

Sure enough, when the wrestler arrived at the right place and time, there was "Mabel," a beautiful girl, and inside they would go, to a motel room or wherever.

Shortly after his arrival, and sometimes almost immediately, Mabel would suggest that they take off their clothes and get into bed! Of course, not many new wrestlers (none) ever refused THAT offer!

After taking off their clothes and getting into bed, this is where the rib would get interesting.

There would be a loud banging on the door and a male in an angry voice would be yelling, "Mabel!  I know you're in there! You better open this door right now or I'll bust it down! I know you're in there with someone and you better open the door!"

Mabel would then say, "Oh, my God! It's my husband!  He's crazy! And he has a gun! He'll kill us both!"

About that time, the door would burst open and a wild-eyed man with a gun would run into the room! Mabel would jump out of the bed and a gunshot would go off, dropping Mabel to the floor!  

After that, the newcomer's good buddy would burst in the room yelling "Run!" at which time the wild-eyed gunman would shoot the wrestler's friend, dropping him to the floor!

This usually resulted in the new wrestler jumping out the window naked, in a panic-stricken effort to save his own life from a gun-wielding madman who had already shot and killed two people in front of him!

Yes, the rib was very convincing. After the newcomer wrestler jumped out the window and ran for his life, the other wrestlers would come out of hiding, have a good laugh, and eat whatever food and drink the newcomer had brought.

Some of the wrestlers caught by "The Mabel Rib" include the famous / infamous Great Antonio, who started out making headlines in the 70s by doing strongman stunts like pulling buses in Montreal and facing Antonio Inoki in Japan.

When the Great Antonio went into Calgary, the boys thought it would be fun to pull "The Mabel" on him.  

Supposedly, when the Great Antonio was confronted by the gun-wielding husband, he bellowed like a wounded bull and jumped through a window without a stitch of clothes on.

It was the middle of winter in Canada and he supposedly ran right into a barbed-wire fence and caught his testicles in the barbed wire. Poor guy.

This wasn't always how "The Mabel Rib" ended. Story has it that when "The Mabel Rib” was pulled on Don Jardine (who wrestled most of his career under a mask as the top-rope walking Spoiler), he didn't run. 

He was tough enough that he jumped up and attacked the guy with the gun, took the gun away from him and was about to kill him, before the guy screamed that it was all a rib and the boys had put him up to it!

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