The Heart of the Ox

Ox Baker killed a man in the ring.  Ox Baker killed TWO men in the ring.  Ox Baker had a technique:  The Heart Punch.  The move was known before, but no man had used it so viciously.  No man had had the punching power to not just strike the ivory shield we humans have guarding our chests but to compress and break and dig into the center of our circulatory being and hurt places that aren't meant to be hurt.

This is a professional wrestling blog, so of course, you should take anything and everything with a grain of salt.  There's no denying this fact, though:  Two men died shortly after matches with Baker.  The cause of death, as attributed by carnival-bred promoters and ticket takers everywhere, was the vicious Heart Punch of Ox Baker.  And if you saw him, you'd believe it. 

There may not have been a man who looked more evil than Ox Baker.  He's big, he's ugly, his eyebrows arch like devils horns while his trademark mustache descended to his chest.  He's the perfect bad guy, and before anyone could tell one truth from the other, the public only knew of a man capable of killing someone with his punch; a detestable man was born. 

It may be hard for some people to imagine that a legend could go this far, or that anyone would believe a wrestler would really hurt someone he's in the ring with.  I am here to tell you that people feared Ox Baker, but even more than they feared him, they HATED him.  They hated him because they believed he was a killer.  Whole-heartedly.  With no irony.  They believe he had killed and that it had been licensed because it was 'sport'.  So, what happens when he comes to your town?  And he not only uses the dreaded heart punch, but uses it repeatedly?  The people of Cleveland in 1974 wouldn't stand for it.

When I tell you all of this, I'm telling you about the beauty of Professional Wrestling and why I always write about it with such wonder.  Because all of this betrayed the gentle heart of the real Ox.  The real Ox was a sweet man who took care of dogs.  He was soft spoken, and a game show contestant.  You can easily tell the true intentions of a man by how he interacts with Bob Barker.

He was a character, through and through.  And that he was able to make so many people hate him, and that he would not wither from that attention is amazing to me.  I think if people thought Anthony Hopkins really was Hannibal Lecter and showed up to his theatre performances with switchblades, he probably would take out full paper ads and commercial time to stress the point that he has never eaten anyone's liver with fava beans and a nice Chianti. 

Ox died, ironically, from a heart attack.  As he grew older, he still had the mustache and still had the eyebrows.  And still had the iron-on home-made shirts telling people to hate him.  Because wrestling is the kind of stage play you don't get to step down from easily.  You're only sweet when you're gone.