Referee Thrown Naked Out of Dressing Room

This road story is about me (Bruce Tharpe), so this one definitely is true. A similar rib happened to "Mouth of the South" Jimmy Hart in Memphis early in his career.

In this incident, I was refereeing in Florida during the summer of 1985, taking a brief respite from my studies at law school. I have to thank the late Wahoo McDaniel for the opportunity, as he was the booker in Florida at the time and hired me for the summer.

It was a great experience for me, as I was booked six to seven nights a week all around the state of Florida, and sometimes in the Bahamas.

We also had a great crew in Florida at the time, including: 

• the Missing Link and Percy Pringle, (later becoming world-renowned as the Undertaker's manager, Paul Bearer); 

• a young Rick Rude, who had just come in from Tennessee; 

• a young Jesse Barr; 

• a young Hercules Hernandez, who had just come in from Kansas City; 

• Japanese mat star Yoshiaki Yatsu; 

• Billy Jack Haynes, booker Wahoo McDaniel, and Florida mainstays Kevin Sullivan, Bugsy McGraw, and Mike Graham.

One night in Fort Lauderdale, I believe, the building had two separate dressing rooms - one for the babyfaces and one for the heels - and the dressing-room doors were in the back of the arena behind the bleachers.

People would stand around behind a barricade waiting for the wrestlers to come out the dressing door so they could get autographs.

On this night, I had finished refereeing the first 3 or 4 matches and was in the shower all soaped up, when all of a sudden I realized I wasn't alone. 

Two pairs of hands grabbed me and held me to where I couldn't move. It was Jesse Barr and Rick Rude, and they had a "royal rib" on their mind for me. 

After giving me several good chops across the chest, they started dragging me toward the dressing room door . . . naked!

Believe me, I fought, and I held on to everything I could grab onto. I dug into the walls with my fingernails trying to hold on, but it was no use against those guys, especially with me covered in soap. I could never get a good grip on anything. 

Jesse Barr and Rick Rude dragged me over to the dressing room door, where I knew there were a bunch of people, including families, waiting for autographs. 

It was during intermission, and the look on my face must have registered a combination of sheer terror and disbelief as I realized that the inevitable was about to occur.

I was about to be thrown out of the dressing room, buck naked!

Sure enough, out I went! Immediately, I shouldered into the dressing room door - my very first instinct - trying to open it. The door wouldn't budge.

Jesse Barr and Rick Rude were on the other side, holding the door shut!

Because I was barefoot, wet, and with soap on my feet, I couldn't get any footing and slipped several times and fell on the floor. 

The wrestling fans waiting for autographs must have thought this was hilarious. (I'm sure there were some Mothers there who thought otherwise.)

All I could do was cover myself with my hands and run to the babyface dressing room. Bill Alfonso had to bring my bag to me so I had clothes to change into.

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