Art Barr

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007)

Art Barr


Statistics
Ring name(s)	The Intruder Beetlejuice The Juicer American Love Machine "Love Machine" Art Barr
Billed height	6'1" (185.4 cm)
Billed weight	240lbs (108.9 kg)
Born	October 8, 1966(1966-10-08) Portland, Oregon
Died	November 23, 1994 (aged 28) Springfield, Oregon
Trained by	Sandy Barr, Roddy Piper
Debut	April 2, 1987

Art Barr, full name Arthur Leon Barr ^[1] (October 8, 1966 – November 23, 1994), was an American professional wrestler. He wrestled briefly for World Championship Wrestling, but had his greatest success in Mexico's Asistencia Asesoría y Administración promotion.

1 Career
2 Death
3 Finishing and signature moves
4 Championships and accomplishments
5 References

[edit] Career

[edit] Early career

Barr is the son of promoter Sandy Barr and the brother of Jesse Barr, and began his career in the Pacific Northwest Wrestling (PNW) territory in April 1987. About a year and a half later, he began wrestling as Beetlejuice, based on the title character of the 1988 movie. The character, wearing face paint and flour in his hair, was a cartoonish babyface.

Barr had a sexual encounter with a 19 year old girl after a PNW card on July 16, 1989; the girl later filed rape charges. Barr continued to wrestle as Beetlejuice, despite the charges, and the attention brought to them by the Portland Oregonian. A year later, while admitting in a police interview the girl did not consent, Barr worked a plea-bargain, and was convicted of first-degree sexual abuse. He was fined, placed on probation, and sentenced to community service, but served no jail time.^[1], ^[2]

[edit] WCW

After the trial, Barr's license to wrestle in Oregon was not renewed (for unrelated reasons); he joined World Championship Wrestling briefly in 1990 as The Juicer, still playing the cartoonish babyface. Due to a faxing campaign, his rape conviction followed him; that along with his small stature in a wrestling world then dominated by large wrestlers, he soon found himself unpushed and, eventually, released.

[edit] EMLL

After leaving WCW, Barr was brought into Mexico's Empresa Mexicana de la Lucha Libre (EMLL) promotion by Konnan. He initially wrestled under a mask as The American Love Machine, and was very successful. A year after entering EMLL, the American Love Machine faced off against another masked wrestler, Blue Panther, in a mask-vs-mask match. 18,000 fans sold out the 17,000 seat Arena México in Mexico City and another 8,000 fans watched on big screen TV in the parking lot to see the card. The match ended when "Love Machine" administered a Piledriver (Martinete in Spanish) against Blue Panther, an illegal move in Mexican wrestling, thus losing his mask.

[edit] AAA

Soon afterward, Barr left EMLL to join Konnan's Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) promotion. As "Love Machine" Art Barr, he turned heel, and formed the tag team La Pareja del Terror (The Pair of Terror) with Eddie Guerrero. The pair were highly successful, becoming arguably the most hated tag team in lucha libre history. Barr and Guerrero also formed a heel stable with Konnan and Madonna's Boyfriend, known as Los Gringos Locos (The Crazy Americans).

Despite both the acclaim and the financial success, Barr's time in Mexico took a toll on him, as he was reportedly homesick (his wife and son remained in Oregon while he was working in Mexico). Eventually, he turned to alcohol and drugs for solace, despite the concern of his friends in the business.

On November 6, 1994, AAA held the When Worlds Collide pay-per-view card (with some help from WCW) at the L.A. Sports Arena. La Pareja del Terror faced off against El Hijo del Santo and Octagón in a double hair vs. mask match, which was acclaimed as one of the greatest PPV matches ever. Around this time, Barr and Guerrero were also in talks with Extreme Championship Wrestling.

ECW was very interested in Art Barr & Eddie Guerrero coming into the company to feud with their top tag team Public Enemy. At the same time, WWF, WCW and New Japan also showed interest in the tag team of Guerrero & Barr.

[edit] Death

On November 23, 1994, Art Barr was found dead lying with his child at his home in Springfield, Oregon. Preliminary reports said that he died of an aneurysm, but later reports said that he died under unknown circumstances. Barr did not have heart problems, no aneurysm or internal bleeding, and no ring injuries. He had a mixture of alcohol and drugs in his blood stream.^[3] Eddie Guerrero was his best friend around this time period.

According to Eddie Guerrero, Barr first used the Frog Splash as the "Jackknife". Barr took a liking to the move and began using it regularly. 2 Cold Scorpio commented to Barr that he "Looked like a Frog", thus leading Barr to name his move the Frog Splash. As a tribute to his friend, Eddie Guerrero adopted Barr's trademark Frog Splash as his finishing maneuver. It has since become a trademark move of several wrestlers in Mexico and the United States. Chris Jericho, who was also close to Barr at the time of his death, would, when performing in WCW in the late nineties, occasionally accuse performer Lenny Lane of stealing Jericho's Loverboy tapes in reference to a personal joke between himself and Barr.