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Art Barr: What could have been

Looking back at Love Machine's career

By JOHN MOLINARO -- SLAM! Wrestling

What might have been? 

That's the question Eddie Guerrero asks himself every day. 

What if he hadn't died? What if he hadn't lived the fast life? What if
his friends could have straightened him out?

What if? 

"You just gave me chills (mentioning him)," Guerrero told me over the
phone recently. "I'm looking at his picture right now in my office."

It seems odd that a picture would choke up someone like Guerrero. But
when that picture is of former tag team partner 'Love Machine' Art
Barr, nothing more has to be said.
  
[ Love Machine Art Barr from the AAA When World Collide PPV ]

November 23rd marked the fifth anniversary of the death of Art Barr.
For Guerrero, the death of his best friend is still a painful memory.
They were close. Very close.

"He was like a little brother to me," said Guerrero, trying his best
to fight back the tears. "We lived together (in Mexico) for three
years. If I wasn't with my wife I was with him. We were each other's
family."

Barr and Guerrero comprised La Pareja del Terror (The Tag Team of
Terror) arguably one of the top tag-teams of the 90s. Plying their
trade in Mexico's AAA promotion, Barr and Guerrero set Mexico on fire.

Barr was largely responsible for advancing the style of wrestling in
Mexico. He was a true pioneer, combining the acrobatic, ballet-like
grace of Lucha Libre, the stiffness of Japanese Puroresu and the big
bumps and heel charisma of American wrestling into a revolutionary
working style. More than anybody else, he helped change the landscape
of wrestling in Mexico forever.

"He and Eddie broadened the style (of Mexican wrestling)," said Dave
Meltzer, editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. "Art opened
their eyes to his style and made the young guys like Rey Misterio Jr,
Psicosis and Juventud Guerrera who came up from AAA to WCW into the
best workers in the world. He and Eddie had that much influence."

Art's influence even extended to his former tag-team partner. 

"I learned so much from Art," admitted Guerrero. "He could make the
fans laugh, he could make them cry and he could make them pissed off.
(He made me realize) there's more to wrestling than just wrestling. He
helped me change my personality in the ring. He had a big effect on
me."
  
[ Eddie Guerrero from the AAA When World Collide PPV ]

At the time of his death, Art Barr was the top draw in Mexico and was
generally regarded as the best heel in wrestling. His solid ring work,
unmatched work ethic and ability to draw the audience into his matches
made him an icon. He was charismatic heel. He was good. He was very
good.

"I went to a lot of shows in Mexico he was on and he always worked
very hard," recalled Meltzer. "He was a better heel than the main
event heels in WCW and the WWF at the time. He was one of the greatest
heels I ever saw. He was a tremendous performer."

Barr's skills as a heel were renowned in Mexico. Noted for his facial
expressions, his cocky swagger and his stiff bumping style, he used
all of these tools to elicit visceral hatred from the audience. He had
the unique ability of making every move he made in the ring mean
something.

He had such heat, riots in the building were often common place. It
was always a security risk whenever he wrestled. Sometimes he had to
wait up to three hours after the event before he could leave the
building safely. He was that over.

Together Barr and Guerrero had unbelievable chemistry, both
complimenting the other. They were so special to watch, working
together naturally and effortlessly.

"We knew our roles and accepted them," said Guerrero. "He knew I was
the work horse and I knew he had the charisma and life of the tag
team."

Konnan and others referred to him as 'the Ric Flair of Mexico'. He was
on top of the Mexican wrestling scene. But the path he took to get
there was anything but smooth.

The son of referee and promoter Sandy Barr, Art practically grew up in
the Portland Sports Arena, home of Don Owen's Pacific Northwest
Wrestling (PNW) promotion. He debuted on April 2, 1987 and after a
year and a half was christened as Beetlejuice by former PNW alum Roddy
Piper in a memorable TV angle.

Dressed in ripped jeans, face paint and flour in his hair, the
Beetlejuice character was based on the Michael Keaton movie of the
same name. Before each match, Art would sing and dance down to
ringside, leading a trail of children to the ring like a pied piper.
It was a character marketed directly at young children.

While it was his first big break in the business, it was hard to look
at Barr, who excelled in amateur wrestling in highschool, as anything
but a cartoon character.

"You didn't take him all that seriously," said Mike Rogers, editor of
Ring Around the Northwest, a monthly newsletter covering wrestling in
the Pacific Northwest for the past 17 years. "He was a cartoon
babyface so you didn't really see that explosive personality come
through like it did when he was the Love Machine."

On July 16th, 1989 Barr's life was inextricably changed forever. After
an evening of matches, on a secluded stairwell in back of an empty
arena in Pendleton, OR, Art had a sexual encounter with a 19 year old
girl. She later filed rape charges.

Oblivious to the powder keg he was sitting on, Don Owen continued to
use Art in the Bettlejuice character.

"We wanted to stick by him and not abandon him," said Barry Owen,
Don's son and executive vice-president of PNW at the time. "He hadn't
been found guilty yet and we didn't want to turn our back on him."

Margie Boule, a columnist with the Portland based Oregonian newspaper
who wrote several columns on Art's pending rape trial offers a
different view.

"They didn't want to turn their back on somebody who could make money
for them. They'd rather have turned their back on the young woman who
was raped and the gang of children following him around the ring."

A year later, just as the case was going to trial, Art plea-bargained
down to first degree sexual abuse. Despite admitting during a police
investigation that the woman did not consent, the Pendleton Judge
ordered Barr to pay a $1,000 fine, pay for the victims' hospital
bills, placed Art on two years probation and sentenced him to 180
hours community service with youth organizations. He served no time in
jail.

"I wrote how ironic it was that he had been sentenced to perform
community service with youths," said Boule, who received several death
threats due to her columns. "Here was a guy who admitted he had raped
someone. I wasn't mad at him, if anything I was mad at the judge."

His wrestling license in Oregon had not been renewed, not because of
the case, but because he lied on his application about a drug charge
as a teenager. A junior heavyweight and short in stature, there was no
way that Art would ever progress in the steroid-big wrestler era of
the late 80s/early 90s.

Miraculously, shortly after the trial, Art was hired by WCW as 'The
Juicer', a gimmick based on the original Beetlejuice character. Boule
wrote more columns condemning WCW for portraying Barr as a children's
character. A faxing campaign began as copies of Boule's columns were
faxed by anonymous sources to newspapers in the cities where WCW and
Barr were scheduled to appear. Chants of rapist serenaded Art when he
was in the ring.

Barr's career was going no where. He was stuck in opening matches. He
wasn't being pushed. WCW booker Ole Anderson told Art he would never
make it big because of his small size and that he would never draw a
dime. Art had been hearing that his entire career. Wrestling was a big
man business and it had no place for a small, yet capable performer
like him.

WCW decided to cut their losses and terminate his contract. 

As it turned out it was the best thing that ever happened to Art Barr.
Konnan, a main event star in Mexico's EMLL promotion, had brought Art
to Mexico after meeting him in WCW when he worked a few shots there in
December of 1990.

Barr donned a mask and was given the name 'American Love Machine'. A
year later he established himself as one of the top draws in Mexico as
18,000 fans sold out the 17,000 seat Arena Mexico in Mexico City and
another 8,000 fans watched on big screen TV in the parking lot, as Art
lost his mask to rival Blue Panther in a mask vs mask match. Somewhere
in the U.S., Ole Anderson was eating crow.

Later that year, Art jumped to the new AAA promotion formed by Konnan
and promoter Antonio Pena. After a short run as a babyface, Barr
turned heel, was put in a tag-team with Eddie Guerrero and later
helped form Los Gringos Locos with Konnan, a heel clique fashioned on
the Four Horseman.

Los Gringos Locos broke all existing attendance records in Mexico. Art
was receiving critical acclaim from the wrestling media for his work.
He was on a guaranteed contract, making more money than ever before in
his career.

Art was on top of the world. A high spot to fall from. 

"He lived a fast life," explained Dave Meltzer. "He was no
angel." 

Despite all the success he had achieved there, Art hated Mexico. He
was far from his son Dexter and his wife back in Oregon. He missed his
mom terribly. He was homesick.

As a way to deal with the pressure of being far from home, Art turned
to alcohol and prescription drugs. For Art, drugs and alcohol was an
escape from the reality of being so far away from his family.

He was on a dangerous path of self-destruction. Those closest to him
had tried to reach out to him.
  
[ Norman Smiley ]
  
[ Vampiro ]

"I would tell him, 'Art, watch yourself'," remembers WCW star Norman
Smiley, who worked with Art during his days in EMLL and remained a
close friend when Art jumped to AAA. "(It was like) you were talking
to a wall. It was kind of frustrating because you wanted to help him,
but you couldn't because he would just continue to do what he was
doing."

"I just miss him," said Vampiro, another friend of Art's during his
tenure in EMLL. "I just wish [breaking down], oh God, I just wish he
listened when we told him to stop. And we tried to make him stop."

As Art's personal life was spiralling out of control, inside the ring
he was on a whirlwind path in establishing himself as the best worker
in the world. He went on his first tour of Japan with New Japan Pro
Wrestling and was scheduled to work a program with Jushin "Thunder"
Liger. AAA had worked out a deal with WCW where they would help them
produce their first PPV.

On November 6th, 1994, AAA held their 'When World's Collide' event,
one of the most critically acclaimed PPV's in wrestling history. And
while Konnan faced off against Perro Aguayo in a cage match in the
main event, the sold out crowd at the L.A. Sports Arena had came out
to see Art and Eddie versus El Hijo del Santo and Octagon in a hair
vs. mask match.

For Art, he saw the PPV as an opportunity. It was a showcase for him
to show the rest of the wrestling world, particularly American
promoters who told him he would never make it because of his size, how
good he really was. He was tired of how American promoters dismissed
his fame. He knew the only way they would believe it was if they saw
it for themselves. He would have to put on the performance of his
life.

And he did just that. The match was incredible, a five-star
performance and ranks as one of the greatest matches in PPV history.

"Over the years I watch (that match) over and over again," admitted
Dave Meltzer. "You watch that match now and you realize there's no
matches now that are this good in the U.S."

Barr had proved all the doubters wrong. He showed the American
wrestling public, convinced that a small wrestler couldn't make an
impact, he was among the best workers in the world. The match had
secured his legend.

As it turned out it was the last match he ever wrestled. On November
23rd, while home for Thanksgiving, Art passed away in his sleep. He
had a mixture of alcohol and drugs in his blood stream. He was only
28.

"I cried three months straight when he passed away," admitted
Guerrero, breaking down.

Pundits still ask themselves where Art's career would have taken him.
There was no question he would be a major player.

"I think if he was still alive today he would be one of the top guys
in the business," said Chris Jericho a friend from EMLL. "He had such
good personality and the ability to piss people off."
  
[ Art Barr on the cover of Boy y Lucha.   ]

"He would have had a hard time becoming the top singular PPV main
event heel in the US," offered Meltzer. "As a tag team, if given the
opportunity, he and Eddie would have headed to WCW and if they weren't
politically squashed, they would have been the tag team of the
decade."

Art's death received major media coverage in Mexico. He made the cover
of Box y Lucha, the oldest wrestling magazine in the world, becoming
the first non-Hispanic wrestler in the magazine's 47-year history to
make the cover.

Although he's gone his memory still remains with the throng of Mexican
wrestling fans who loved to hate him, proving his influence was
immeasurable and his legacy is unquestioned. The only debate that
exists is how big of a player he would have become on the American
wrestling landscape.

What might have been, indeed. 

-- with files from Greg Oliver and Alex Ristic


--- Internet Rex 2.29