Love Machine
Profile
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Biography
Arthur Barr was one of those persons whose destiny was to become a pro wrestler. Some wrestle for the fun. Others do it for the money. Art had wrestling in his blood.
His father Sandy Barr was a not-really-successful former wrestler, referee, and long time promoter in the Oregon area, and his brother Jesse already was involved in the business too, in fact he even wrestled in the WWF as the "lost brother" of Terry Funk, Jimmy Jack Funk, so little Arthur's life was full of wrestling basically since he was born.
Just like his brother Jesse, Art was a very good amateur wrestler. Art achieved big success as he became a 4-time district champion and a 2-time state (Portland) champion, but he had to quit the university when his first wife became pregnant, so Art stated to work in a steel mill at day while training to become a pro-wrestler at night.
His father gets credited for Art's early training, however his mentor was none other than the great Roddy Piper. When Art was 12, Piper (who was a big name in Oregon at the time) used to take him to the gym. Piper was more than just a mentor though - he was a friend. There's no doubt that Piper played a very important part in Art's training as he taught him how to use properly the immense natural charisma he had.
The 2nd of April of 1987, Art Barr made his pro-wrestling debut under his real name in a card at Salem, OR, but at just 175 pounds, he was way too small to become a serious threat to the main eventers, so despite the fact that he always was a good worker, it was predictable that he would never get past the low-card spots, as even though he owned the TV title for a few weeks, he would rarely wrestle other match than the opening bout.
But... a few months later, Piper had one idea for him. On January 21, 1989, while Arthur was in the middle of the ring during a televised show, Piper and other three wrestlers entered the ring. They covered Art with a sheet, stripped him naked throwing his clothes to the crowd and gave him a new suit. Piper also sprayed something in Art's hair. Then, Piper got the mic and said: "Now I have created The Beetlejuice, the meanest little son-of-a-gun that I have ever seen". He took off the sheet and Arthur was there with his new gimmick, Beetlejuice, a character based on the movie of the same name. Ironically, in a a traditionalist promotion, he became the most popular wrestler among the fans. He especially was a hero to the kids, and he'd usually fight against and defeat the bad guys of the promotion like Al Madril or Abuddah Dean.
Beetlejuice was a big singles player but he also tasted success in the tag ranks teaming with "Big Juice" (Jeff Warker aka P.W. Storm) as "The Juice Patrol". In 1990 they were the top men in the division along with the team of the U.S. Males of Ricky Santana and Curtis Thompson (Firebreaker Chip). The 30th of June, Big Juice lost a "loser-leaves-town" match but that wasn't a big problem for Art's rise to stardom as the WCW management had noticed him. At the time, WCW was very distant to the WWF in terms of popularity among the younger viewers but they noticed a lot of potential in Barr as a new idol for the little kids. So Arthur got his first break in a big promotion as The Juicer, basically the same character with a different name to avoid copyright problems.
Ten weeks after Barr signed with WCW he was found guilty of sexual harassment to a 19-year-old girl called Angela. The 16th of July of 1989, after a wrestling show in Pendleton, OR, Arthur had a late-night sexual meeting at a deserted armory, underneath a stairwell, with that female fan that later charged him with rape. Art always claimed that he had had that meeting with the fan and that he knew that she didn't want to have sex with him at that place, but that he thought that she would have wanted it somewhere else, and he never accepted that he was guilty. In the end, he was fined with $1,000 and with the payment of the medical and counseling bills of the victim, and he was sentenced to 180 hours of community service work. Barr didn't take the case to court and accepted the plea-bargain, and what was expected to be a chapter of his life that would get quickly forgotten, got worse as local media (TV and newspapers) started putting huge pressure to the commision to revoke his wrestling license. The Oregon boxing & wrestling commission found out that in his license questionary he claimed that he had never been convicted of felony and denied him the right to renew his license anymore.
WCW owner Jim Herd didn't fire him as he felt that Barr had already paid his debt to society, but news of the incident made him very impopular to the point that there were crowd chants of "rapist" during his matches, so Herd decided to stop using Barr to avoid damaging the image of the company promoting "a nasty rapist" as a hero to the kids.
As a funny fact, Ole Anderson once told Art that "he'd never get over beacuse he was way too small". Art's response was "Ole, I'm as tall as you are, you are just fat".
Konnan, who along with Rey Misterio (Sr.) was invited to December's WCW Starrcade 90, noticed Barr's tremendous charisma and ability and took him, and Norman Smiley, to the Mexican promotion EMLL in early 1991. Now Art had a chance to work in a place where he didn't have a bad reputation and where he could become a big star as he wouldn't be hold down for not being big enough.
Art was given a mask and a new personality, and The American Love Machine was born in March 1991: an American tecnico (babyface) with a sexy boy gimmick. Word got to Oregon about his new wrestling personality, however this time pressure didn't cross the border and his looks and his ability made him a popular performer very soon, so he was given the chance to have a singles feud with one of the most respected wrestlers from Mexico, Blue Panther. Now Art was earning $3,500 a week, but he and his family hated living in Mexico.
His rivalry widh Panther helped Love Machine become a real top draw for the promotion and after a huge feud build-up, a máscara contra máscara was scheduled for the 3rd of April, 1992 at Mexico's most important wrestling building, Arena México. For that match, not only 18,000 fans overcrowded the 17,100 building, but 8,000 more fans were turned away at the door. EMLL management predicted that overflow so a set of giant TV screens was set up at the parking lot of the building. Panther won that match, as in the 3rd fall Love Machine used the "martinete" (piledriver, usually a tombstone piledriver) on Blue Panther and was instantly DQ'd. The angle here was that Machine didn't know that the martinete is a banned move. In Mexico, the martinete is pretty much considered a move that can kill you dead, it is sort of the wrestling move that separates in-ring hate with REAL hate. Almost every time somebody gets hit with that move, he sells it acting unconscious and being stretchered out. Even still, Arthur kept himself as a babyface though that night the crowd wasn't exactly cheering for him while he removed his mask as they were more concerned about the health of Panther, who was stretchered out of the ring.
EMLL was at a high business point then, but a month later, one of the bookers, Antonio Peña, with help of Konnan, Cien Caras, Perro Aguayo and others left the promotion to create a new group - AAA (Asistencia, Asesoría y Administración). Konnan, who had developed a very solid friendship with Arthur, got Machine a three-year $3,500 per week contract with the new promotion.
AAA (Asistencia, Asesoría y Administración)
Arthur's first appearance for AAA was a fine example of excellent booking. On November 6, 1992, another rising star, Rey Misterio Jr., faced Tony Arce of Los Destructores in a mask vs. hair match, in the main event of a show in Acapulco, Gro. A masked Rey Misterio Sr. was the "second" of his nephew, while Blue Panther was seconding Arce. During the 3rd fall, Panther was interfering too much, so "Rey Sr." got tired and unmasked himself as Love Machine (now the "American" part was removed from the name)! Panther ran in fear back to the locker rooms chased by his American enemy, while Rey Jr. cleanly defeated Tony Arce in the middle of the ring.
By December of 1992, Machine was finally allowed to wrestle in Oregon again, and on January 9, 1993, Art, this time wrestling as American Love Machine, and his buddy Konnan El Barbaro won the Pacific Northwest USA defeating Polynesian Prince and Tazmanian Devil at the Sports Arena. Those belts would be later teken to Mexico and renamed the AAA World Tag Team titles.
The Panther vs. Machine feud reached its highest point on July 18, 1993, when a Blue Panther and Love Machine hair vs. mask match headlined a show in Tonala, Jal. that drew a crowd of 20,000. Even though Machine was the tecnico for this match, he was met with chants of "Mexico! Mexico!". The third fall of this bout is one of the main examples of Machine's true greatness. He already had his opponent beaten when he started fooling around. He'd cover Panther for the pin and lift him up at the two count while acting all cocky and proud. Then he picked up Panther to execute a tombstone! The crowd told him not to do it, so he hold Panther in a tombstone position until Perro Aguayo pushed them and Art was instantly DQ'd for outside interference of his second! This enraged Arthur, who along with Panther's second and longtime Aguayo enemy Fishman started beating up Perro until Panther made the save. A double turn was made that night - the night that Love Machine became one of the biggest superstars in the business.
A month after that incident, another great angle marked the start of a new era. During a trios match in which Eddy Guerrero and El Hijo Del Santo had Love Machine in the opposite team, Machine ripped off Santo's mask, put it on, and attacked Guerrero while pointing to himself like trying to say "Look at me, I'm Santo!". Machine then returned the mask to its owner, only to see an enraged Eddy Guerrero turn on Santo. A week later, Guerrero formed an alliance with Machine, "La Pareja Del Terror" (The team of terror).
The influence of Guerrero and Machine changed lucha libre forever. Guerrero had been wrestling more and more in Japan and started using high impact suplexes and brain busters during his lucha matches. On the other hand, Machine was the American cocky, coward, old-style heel. Or like Konnan later said "Art was the Ric Flair of Mexico".
December 4, 1993 probably was one of the strangest days from Arthur's career. He showed up at the Portland Sports Arena without a previous announcement to fight John Rambo. He didn't even have a wrestling license to fight there. That show was held between a commission meeting regarding Sandy Barr's promotional license, and earlier in the night, a drunk former local wrestler showed up saying that Rambo was a stooge for the commissioner. And well, the Rambo/Barr match turned into a total shoot, as Barr threw a very stiff forearm to Rambo's nose totally destroying it, as later Rambo required surgery to repair it. After the match Barr said it had been an accident but that earlier Rambo had shoot kicked him hard in the throat to the point that he was coughing up blood. After the match, Rambo and Art got into a backstage fight again, but no criminal charges were pressed as no jury would believe that a real assault incident would happen at a wrestling show.
The 23rd of July, during a AAA card in Chicago, Machine and Guerrero captured the AAA World Tag Team titles by defeating the popular team of Santo Jr. and Octagon. A few weeks later, Konnan turned on Aguayo and joined the evil Americans team during a Konnan/Cien Caras vs. Satanico/Perro Aguayo "parejas increíbles" (incredible teams) match.
The Konnan, Guerrero & Machine alliance, better known as Los Gringos Locos (The Crazy Americans) was the perfect combination, as they mixed charisma with wrestling ability in a way never seen before. As Guerrero wasn't available all the time due to his dates working for New Japan, other wrestlers would eventually join the team. Black Cat, Madonna's Boyfriend (the late Louie Spicolli), El Misterioso, Chicano Power and King Lion (El Sanguinario/La Calaca) were a part of the team at different times, but even though Konnan was the natural leader of the team, Machine always was the heart and soul of LGL.
The Summer of 1994 Arthur Barr made his New Japan Pro Wrestling debut as "American Machine", wrestling with one of old American Love Machine masks. His debut match was a Black Cat, Black Tiger (Eddy) & American Machine vs. Shinjiro Otani, El Samurai and Jushin Liger bout that his team won. Liger had big plans for him including a Liger vs. Machine match for the IWGP Jr Heavyweight Title that was never done as Liger broke his ankle.
When Worlds Collide: his final match
The latest, and greatest match from Love Machine was the one that took place the 6th of November of 1994 - the classic Love Machine/Eddy Guerrero vs. Santo/Octagon double hair vs. mask match. There were all kinds of problems before that match though. First, Art and Octagon were removed from the booking sheet and they'd just be seconds. Luckily, that decision was later changed. Then, the same day of the match, WCW production, pulling out one of their characteristic pointless business decisions, cut down 45 minutes from the show. All the undercard matches became 1 fall matches and the tag team semi-main event, a match that was supposed to last 30 minutes, was cut down to 20 minutes.
Still, Arthur was a man on a mission, and that mission was to steal the show and show the world (because he knew that promoters from all over the world would be watching this) that they should believe the hype and that he really was the best heel in the world.
The match was definitely a 5-star classic and one of the most important bouts in lucha history. Paul Heyman from ECW was amazed and he already wanted to get Art Barr and Eddie Guerrero to wrestle for him in a program against The Public Enemy. Arthur was already scheduled to wrestle on the 1/4/95 New Japan Tokyo Dome show. WCW also showed interest in them and things were only going to get better, but a twist of fate unfortunately ended a career that was just about to peak.
Death
Only three weeks later Arthur Barr was found dead. The 28-year-old wrestler went home to celebrate Thanksgiving Day. At night, he went to sleep with his 5-year-old son Dexter, and the next day, Art's mother, who went to his house after nobody answered her phone calls found him lying in the bed without pulse and bleeding from the nose.
Preliminary reports said that Barr died of an aneurysm, but later reports said that he died under unknown circumstances. He had not had heart problems, there was no aneurysm or internal bleeding from ring injuries and it wasn't a drug overdose either, however he had taken sleeping pills the night before.
Arthur Barr's loss was a true disgrace to the professional wrestling world. After all the problems he had, he fought hard to get past them and he was just in the verge of his professional career. He was also enjoying personal life success, as he had plans of marrying his fiancé who was pregnant. He was no longer doing recreational drugs or having the wild lifestyle he used to. His dream was to return to WCW to become a top wrestler in that promotion and he was about to accomplish that dream. If given a chance, he and Guerrero could have turned out to be the team of the decade.
He may be gone but his legacy will remain forever as his memory still is, and always will be, alive among the lucha libre fans that loved to hate him.
Luchas de apuestas record
| Date | Apuesta | Winner(s) | Loser(s) | Arena and/or Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 92/04/03 | mask | Blue Panther | Love Machine | Arena México - Mexico City |
| 93/07/18 | hair | Blue Panther | Love Machine | Auditorio Rio Nilo - Tonala, Jalisco |
| 94/11/06 | hairs | El Hijo del Santo & Octagon | Love Machine & Eddy Guerrero | Los Angeles Sports Arena - Los Angeles, CA, USA |
