World Wrestling Federation
In May 1986, Race entered the WWF managed by longtime friend Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, bleaching his hair blond and billing himself again as "Handsome" Harley Race. During a time when the WWF did not recognize the existence of other promotions and the accomplishments a wrestler made there, WWF officials came up with a solution to recognize his wrestling pedigree by having him win the King of the Ring tournament. After this, he referred to himself as "King" Harley Race, coming to the ring in a royal crown and cape, to the ceremonial accompaniment of the tenth movement (known as "The Great Gates of Kiev") of Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky. After winning a match, Harley would make his defeated opponent "bow and kneel" before him. Usually Bobby Heenan would assist the defeated opponent to "bow and kneel" by grabbing their hair and forcing them to bow before King Harley Race.
He participated in a notable feud with the Junkyard Dog, culminating in a match at WrestleMania III at the Pontiac Silverdome, in which Race cleanly pinned The Junkyard Dog. Race would spend 1987 feuding with Hulk Hogan and Jim Duggan, the latter of which was highlighted by an extended brawl at the 1987 Slammy Awards. In early 1988, he suffered an abdominal injury in a match against Hogan in which he tried to hit Hogan, prone on a table at ringside, with a swandive headbutt. Hogan moved out of the way and Race impacted the table inwards. The metal edge forced its way up into Race's abdomen giving him a hernia. Following this incident and during his recovery, the WWF ran an angle where they acknowledged his injury, and his manager Bobby Heenan vowed to crown a new king. He left the WWF in early 1989, following a brief comeback from hernia surgery and a failed attempt to regain his crown from the new King, Haku, at the Royal Rumble). While Race never won the WWF Championship, his career was notable enough to earn him an induction into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004.
Post-WWF wrestling career
After leaving the WWF, Harley continued to wrestle until the spring of 1991, most notably with World Wrestling Council (WWC) in Puerto Rico, the NWA, and the AWA. Race defeated former NWA World Champion Tommy Rich at the Great American Bash in July 1990. He also received several US Title shots against then champion Lex Luger during his brief stint. Race then received one last shot at a recognized World Title when he faced Larry Zbyszko at the final AWA television taping in August 1990. The match ended in a double countout. After retiring from active competition, Race joined the NWA (WCW) in July 1991 as an adviser/manager to Lex Luger.
World Championship Wrestling
Race excelled as a manager as he had as a wrestler, immediately leading Lex Luger to the WCW World Championship. Later, he led Vader to win the title as well. During his managership of Vader, Race met with racial controversy when Vader was feuding with WCW wrestler Ron Simmons when saying during a promo, "When I was World Champion, I had a boy like you to carry my bags!" This was actually part of the booking strategy of then-WCW head Bill Watts to build support for Simmons, who he would eventually make champion. The wily veteran was popular among the young WCW talent, and developed close friendships with Mick Foley and Steve Austin, among others. As his early wrestling career had been nearly derailed due to a car accident, another car accident forced Race out of the wrestling business altogether. Race required hip replacement surgery, which, along with injuries accumulated after years in the ring, prevented him from even being a manager.
World League Wrestling
Race spent several years away from the business, working briefly as a process server before retiring with his wife in small-town Missouri. In 1999, he started World League Wrestling (originally called World Legion Wrestling, but changed a year later), an independent promotion which runs shows near Race's hometown of Eldon, Missouri and other cities in Missouri including Kansas City. A year later, he started Harley Race's Wrestling Academy, which seeks to train up-and-coming wrestlers who will benefit from Race's unique experience and perspective on the wrestling business. Race's events are family oriented, and usually raise funds for local charities. As well as featuring his students, legends like Mick Foley, Terry Funk, Bret Hart, and even Mitsuharu Misawa make guest appearances. WLW has a working agreement with Misawa's Japanese promotion, Pro Wrestling Noah and have Noah star Takeshi Morishima as a former heavyweight champion. He is credited with training WWE world tag team champion Trevor Murdoch who was then known as Trevor Rhodes and Pro-Wrestling Noah veterans Superstar Steve, Wade Chism, Matt Murphy and Daniel Cross.
Special appearances
Race returned to WWE television as a fan favorite in 2004 shortly after being inducted into their Hall of Fame. On an episode of Raw, Randy Orton confronted Race and spat in his face, to go with Orton's "Legend Killer" persona . Race returned again for Raw's WWE Homecoming episode in October 2005, marking the show's return to the USA Network. Race, along with the other legends who were in the ring, gave Rob Conway a lesson in respect.
In 2004, Harley Race was recruited to be a part of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling as a member of their NWA Championship Committee. Despite reportedly being an authority figure as a member of the committee, he never made any official decisions and only made the occasional on-screen appearance for the company.
At the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony on March 31, 2007, Race and Dusty Rhodes were "inducted" into the Four Horsemen by Ric Flair and Arn Anderson. On the August 8, 2008 episode of Monday Night Raw, Race sat in the front row and was acknowledged by commentators Michael Cole and Jerry The King Lawler. Before the show, Race accompanied then GHC Heavyweight Champion Takeshi Morishima to the ring for a dark match against Charlie Haas.
Race also made an appearance at Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's Lockdown pay-per-view in 2007 as the special guest gatekeeper for the main event. Race made a special guest appearance at the second night of Glory by Honor VI: Night Two at the Manhattan Center on November 3, 2007 in New York City.
Race made a special appearance on the March 31, 2008 episode of Raw as part of Ric Flair's retirement ceremony. He was the second person introduced to congratulate Flair after the 4 Horsemen (Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Barry Windham and James J. Dillon).
Harley Race's Youtube Index
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http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=harley+race&search_type=&aq=f