Some years ago I read the autobiography of the infamous US pro-wrestler Ric Flair. He related a tale in there about once traveling to Dominican Republic to defend his world title. Apparently after a grueling battle the DR crowd had gotten so crazy that the planned finish (a draw) could not be carried out. In order for Ric and Roddy Piper to get out of the arena safely he was forced to lose to the local champ, one Jack Veneno. The promoters tried to schedule a hasty rematch so Flair could regain his belt, however they still could not pull one over on the Dominican crowd and Flair was forced to let Veneno pin him

Well in the book Flair says Veneno was a complete gentleman and returned the belt. He also claimed the promoters paid him in cocaine instead of dollars. Flair didn't do drugs so he gave the coke to his pal Roddy Piper. Unfortunately the wrestling commission did not recognize the two victories of Veneno as "legit" ( ) so even to this day his name is not in the record books as a world champ. My question for the forum is does anybody know anything about this guy Veneno they could share?

Jack Veneno is something of a folk hero among Dominicans. I remember old men running to watch him on TV when I would be in DR as a child. Very interesting anecdote Manhattanite...lemme find out that the NWA world championship belt once wrapped the waist of a Dominican!...like Flair would say: whooo!...lol

Found some pics , these are pretty funny...





http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/columns/nostalgiapop/09.html

Yes this has to be one of the more glorious moments in Dominican athletic history!

Not only that, but this Dominican was never defeated for the title I poked around that webpage and the author says that it was announced that Jack Veneno had no interest in traveling the world defending his belt in order to explain to the Dominican audience why he was no longer NWA champion.

Man you can always count on the wacky world of wrestling for some laughs

FLASHBACK:

I also remember he would fight with Masambula (The African Witchdoctor), and Memo Diaz, a wrestler from Venezuela.

Here're more links for you:

http://www.jackveneno.com/

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Veneno

What a funny story! Ric Flair must've been like "this is the last time I go to the Caribbean to fight their hometown hero". Maybe he would've won the crowd over by dancing merengue or something, lol. Guess you can't beat national pride even in the world of pro wrestling.

I think Flair also had a close call in Jamaica, but nothing like this where he actually had to lose to get out of there in one piece. I'll check tonight, been a while since I read his book.

Max Von Sydow in Hannah and her Sisters " can you imagine the level of a mind that watches wrestling " truer words were never spoken Woody.... paste this.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCjoNt0iCzY&feature=related

I think it's OK to dislike professional wrestling, especially if you are a woman or a hippie. But if you didn't like it as a child I see this as a very serious character flaw. Children who don't like pro-wrestling have no medulla oblongata and no sense of fun. I mean just take a closer look at that picture above ..it reeks of fun:




Mr. Flair could not possibly have had a more enjoyable time in DR