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Renewing the Feud

 - Gordon Grice

Cyclone Negro was a 250-pounder billed from Caracas, Venezuela. What set him apart at first glance was his cut-from-stone physique. In the ring, his boxing skills quickly became apparent. He had fast hands and a convincing repertoire of blows, including some stiff body punches and a nice uppercut. When he had the chance, he'd grab a headlock and turn away from the ref to deliver a short, crisp set of knuckles to the forehead. A TV video showed him in your basic boxing workout— doing sit-ups, hammering the heavy bag, whipping the speed bag into a continuous blur, and so on. He was said to have gone to a draw with former heavyweight champ Floyd Patterson. 

Of course, punches were illegal, so Cyclone's insistence on using them made him a heel. When he arrived in the early 1970s, he quickly headbutted and piledrived his way to the top. He became "King of the Texas Death Matches" after winning six straight against scientific workers Lord Al Hayes and Nick Kozak, heels Pak Song and the Sheik, a young Terry Funk, and, shockingly, Dory Funk Sr. Lengthy feuds with all the Funks followed. 

Cyclone was great in a bloodbath, and in fact he held the Brass Knucks title, playing a very convincing bruiser. But he was also one of the best workers in the territory, able to match holds—and dropkicks—with Nick Kozak, Les Thornton, or Chavo Guerrero. I particularly remember a match in which he took "the Man of a Thousand Holds," Gordon "Mr. Wrestling" Nelson, to the mat, out-wrestled him, and pinned him with a figure-four head scissors. It was this added dimension that made him an ideal foil for the Funks. Unlike such top heels as King Curtis, Ox Baker, Abdullah the Butcher, and the Sheik, who threatened our heroes with great size or insane violence or both, Cyclone could credibly threaten the Funks in a straight wrestling match—a distinction that put him in a class with Red Bastein and the Brisco Brothers. Add a layer of insane violence on top of that (once in a while he would snap and get himself disqualified for strangling a prelim guy) and you can see why he was the quintessential Amarillo heel. Cyclone often wrestled against fellow heels like Baker and Curtis, perhaps because he was versatile enough to draw good matches out of them. Fans respected him and would cheer for him against these monsters, but they'd hate him again in time for the next week's bout against Ricky Romero or Dick Murdoch. 

Cyclone was a superior salesman. He could show his pain extravagantly without looking silly. When somebody hiptossed him, he flopped like a fish on his way to the canvas. When he took a hard shot to the chops, his eyes went glassy and his shoulders sagged. In one match, Ray Stevens caught Cyclone on the top turnbuckle and sent him into a veritable gymnastic routine by booting him repeatedly in the gut. If you ever saw Stevens work, you'll appreciate how rare it was to watch a match of his and be impressed with the other guy's selling. 

Cyclone's feud with the Funks never really ended. He turned babyface several times, and he took a few hiatuses from the territory, but, like a chronic disease, he came back periodically to challenge our heroes. Good work and good booking kept the feud fresh. 

For example, a new chapter in Cyclone's feud with Dory Jr. opened with a terrific little TV match. Cyclone's gimmick at the time was the $1000 challenge. Anybody who beat him in ten minutes would get the money. Lots of wrestlers tried, and of course several babyfaces had him on the ropes as the ten-minute time limit expired. 

Finally Junior had his turn. He ran across the ring at the opening bell and absolutely beat the hell out of Cyclone nonstop for five or six minutes, hitting him with everything you can think of. It's common to say a match is "non-stop action," but I've only seen a few that really were, and this was a particularly intense example. There was no stalling, no playing to the crowd. Cyclone begged off—he was expert at playing the coward, though this somehow didn't diminish his aura of toughness—but Junior didn't give him a second's rest.   More...

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