Art Barr

Early life

While growing up, Barr became friends with Roddy Piper during Piper's stint in the Oregonian independent circuit. While attending Oregon State University, Barr became an accomplished amateur wrestler, having become a four-time district champion and a two-time state champion. However, he later dropped out of college to tend to his first wife when she became pregnant.

Pacific Northwest Wrestling

After leaving college, Barr began working in a steel mill during the day while he began receiving training to become a wrestler from his father Sandy, his older brother Jesse Barr, and Matt Osborne. at night. On April 2, 1987, Barr debuted in the Pacific Northwest Wrestling territory. About a year and a half later, at the suggestion of Roddy Piper, 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 fan favorite.

On July 16, 1989, Barr had a sexual encounter with a 19-year-old girl after a PNW card in Pendelton, Oregon; the girl later filed rape charges. Barr continued to wrestle as Beetlejuice, despite the charges and the attention brought to him and PNW by the Portland Oregonian. A year later, Barr was polygraphed as part of the police investigation, during which he admitted the girl did not consent, but he believed she would have been willing to have sex someplace else. Barr worked a plea-bargain, and was convicted of first-degree sexual abuse. He was fined $1,000, placed on two years probation, and sentenced to 180 hours of community service, but served no jail time. Barr always maintained that he would have beaten the case in court, but was advised to take the plea since it involved no jail time. Also if he lost, the bad publicity would harm the local wrestling business, driving away customers.

World Championship Wrestling (1990-1991)

After the trial, Barr's license to wrestle in Oregon was not renewed, stemming from a previous conviction for possession of cocaine that he did not disclose on his license application. About this time, a tape of Barr as Beetlejuice was sent to the offices of WCW president Jim Herd. WCW was even with WWF in adult demographics, but was losing badly among the child demographics. Herd decided to hire Barr, even though booker Ole Anderson thought Barr was too small to work in the company. Barr joined World Championship Wrestling in 1990 and was renamed "The Juicer" in order to avoid copyright conflicts, but he retained his character. Due to a faxing campaign, his rape conviction followed him, which along with his small stature in a wrestling world then dominated by large wrestlers, he lost support and was soon released.

Empresa Mexicana de la Lucha Libre (1991-1992)

After leaving WCW, Barr was brought into Mexico's Empresa Mexicana de la Lucha Libre 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 versus 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 American Love Machine performed a piledriver (Martinete in Spanish) against Blue Panther, an illegal move in Mexican wrestling, thus losing his mask.

Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (1992-1994)

Soon afterward, Barr left EMLL to join Konnan's newly formed Asistencia Asesoría y Administración promotion. As "The Love Machine" Art Barr, he debuted in AAA as a villain, and formed the tag team "La Pareja del Terror" (The Pair of Terror) with Eddie Guerrero. The pair were highly successful, as they would go on to win the World Tag Team Championship and become arguably the most hated tag team in lucha libre history. Barr and Guerrero expanded their tag team into a faction after being joined by Konnan, Black Cat, Madonna's Boyfriend, Jake Roberts, Misterioso, Chicano Power and King Lion. Together, the faction became known as Los Gringos Locos (The Crazy Americans).

Despite both the acclaim and the financial success he received, 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 Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. La Pareja del Terror faced off against El Hijo del Santo and Octagón in a double hair versus mask match, which was acclaimed as one of the greatest pay-per-view matches ever and would receive a 5 star rating from Dave Meltzer. Around this time, Barr and Guerrero were also in talks with Extreme Championship Wrestling.

Extreme Championship Wrestling was very interested in Barr and Guerrero coming into the company to feud with their top tag team, The Public Enemy. At the same time, the World Wrestling Federation, World Championship Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling also showed interest in the tag team of Guerrero and Barr.

At Triplemania XXIV, Barr was posthumously inducted into the AAA Hall of Fame as the 2016 inductee. He is regarded as the most hated rudo the company has ever had along with his tag team partner Eddie Guerrero as Los Gringos Locos.

Death

On November 23, 1994, Barr was found dead lying with his child at his home in Springfield, Oregon. Preliminary reports said that he died of heart failure, 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. Although Eddie Guerrero's book claims that the cause of Barr's death is still unknown to this day, Hardcore History by Scott E. Williams, criminal-justice reporter and wrestling columnist for The Galveston County Daily News, states that "Barr died in his sleep from a drug-related heart attack."

Personal life

Barr has three brothers: Jesse, who was also a wrestler, JR and Sean. His father, Sandy, was also involved in wrestling as a wrestler, referee and promoter. Sandy died on June 2, 2007. According to Guerrero, when they began tagging he first used the frog splash as the "Jackknife Splash". Barr took a liking to the move, began using it regularly and adopted it as his finisher. 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, Japan, 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.

In wrestling

Championships and accomplishments