50 Fascinating Facts About WWE in The 1980s
5. Harley Race Invaded A WWF Locker Room
Vince McMahon annoyed a lot of different wrestling promoters when he started squashing all manner of established unwritten rules of conduct in the business. The WWF hoovered up whatever talent they could, and McMahon wasn't adverse to running shows in someone else's backyard. In 1984, he brought his "Superstars" to Kansas City, but there was just one problem.
Harley Race was pushing his own card across town at the same time. Steaming mad, the notoriously tough Race drove over to the WWF's venue and confronted Hulk Hogan in the locker room. Hogan claims Harley pulled a gun on him, but Race said during a 2000 shoot interview that he merely slapped Hulk in the ribs and just wanted to scare him a little bit.
More Hulk being Hulk there? Probably.
Nonetheless, the guys doing that 2000 shoot didn't ask Race why he went after Hogan instead of McMahon. After all, Hulk was simply doing as he was told - Vince was the one in charge, and he was the boss who decided it didn't matter if Harley was promoting his own card in the city. The WWF would beat that hands down and sell more tickets, guaranteed.
Either Race was keeping his options open for a gig with the federation (which he'd get), or he wasn't actually that serious or angry. It might well be 100% true that he only fancied seeing Hulk quake in his boots for a minute or two. Harley surely knew a lot of the workers in the WWF locker room anyway.