Veneno VS Flair (The Real Story)

I am a wrestling fan, and I am Dominican, the story I am about to tell I believe has not been told by anyone ever, because people simply accept what is told without investigating, and decide to believe what they want to believe or what suits them.

Many years ago, even before I was born, a Dominican wrestler named Jack Veneno (RIP) defeated the then-world champion Rick Flair, probably the best wrestler in the world at the time.

This unprecedented event would cause a cultural revolution in the Dominican Republic and would elevate the figure of Jack Veneno to be an icon of the country, perhaps the most popular figure in all of the Dominican Republic.

But guess what… Jack Veneno didn’t win that fight.

Veneno didn’t win that fight, the real story

Man, I think I’m playing with fire, Jack is an icon of Dominican popular culture, there have literally been statues made in his name, movies, and documentaries, mostly because of his career and legacy, but the fight against Flair was undoubtedly what catapulted him to all this.

But, I’ve always loved to know the truth above all things, I’m tired of media manipulation, and just accepting false realities just for convenience.

The fight between Flair and Jack Veneno was agreed upon in 1982, I was not even born, no one knows many details, it is only known that Jack Veneno defeated Rick Flair in a fight for the world championship.

But the real story is that there were two fights, not just one, and Jack Veneno did not win any of the fights.

The first fight, was no contest because Relampago Hernandez, a Dominican wrestler rival of Veneno, intervened in the fight disguised as Santa Claus (apparently it was Christmas) attacking Veneno. (This was told several times by Jack Veneno himself, and there are photos on the internet of this fact).

The second fight, which was the definitive one, is the one everyone seems to remember, before describing what happened in this fight I must explain some wrestling terms.

Angle: this is described as the fictional story that should follow the fight, nowadays it is already known that wrestling is a show, but it follows a narrated story, something like a theater play.

Broadway: A fight with a time limit, in the end, it can be a draw if neither wrestler submits the other by a three count.

Babyface: the “good” wrestler of the fight.

The angle of Flair and Veneno’s fight was as follows:

Veneno was the babyface fighting in his home country, Veneno was supposed to look good throughout the fight, but Flair was the world champion and couldn’t lose.

So they decided to make the fight a half hour Broadway, at the end Veneno almost defeated Flair but time ran out, the fight ended in a draw and Flair came out as world champion while Veneno almost won.

And that’s the real story and what really happened between Flair and Veneno’s fight, but there was a huge confusion by the audience that changed the twist of the story.

The final result of the fight between Veneno and Flair is actually a draw by a time limit, but Flair retained his championship.

What actually happened was, that part of the angle of the story at the end, the referee of the fight would count to 2 and before he counted to 3 he would realize that time was up, stop the count and signal with his arms that the fight was over due to time limit.

Veneno would raise his arms thinking he had won, but the referee would tell him he didn’t win, and then Veneno would put his hands on his head in disappointment.

All this happened just like that, but the crowd was so confused with everything and the euphoria was so big, that they thought the count was up to 3 and started celebrating with Jack.

The Dominican audience was not used to seeing broadway matches with a time limit.

No one could stop the crowd in their celebratory euphoria, and Flair was too scared and simply handed over the championship belt to get out of the ring unscathed.

At that time people thought that wrestling was real, there was already a real sporting hatred towards Flair for being from North America (see US military interventions in the DR), to ignite the spark, even more, Flair came accompanied by Roddy Piper who spent the whole time waving a US flag.

The crowd could lynch them, for real.

Flair was so frightened by the crowd’s reaction that he told the referee to raise Veneno’s arm in victory.

How do I know this whole story?

How do I know this whole story if I wasn’t even born at the time of that fight?

Well, I am a fan and connoisseur of wrestling, I like to investigate and I don’t accept facts because history simply says so.

So there are audio-visual evidence and narrations of the direct protagonists of this fight.

Flair, who is accused by many people as a pathological liar tells everything in his autobiography book, and to be honest, I believe what he says.

If you don’t want to believe what Flair says, there is a video on Youtube, badly edited that contains the end of the fight, this video is edited in such a way that at the end it seems that the referee counts as three.

But the bad editing is too evident, and it is clearly shown when the referee stops at the two count and signals to Jack Veneno that the time is up Veneno raises his arms in confusion, but they cut the part where Veneno realizes that he didn’t win because of the time limit.

If you watch until the end of the video you will realize that everything I just said makes sense.

The ending of the Veneno vs Flair fight is supposed to be a copy of the ending of the Rocky I movie, Creed vs Rocky. Creed wins, but Rocky “almost” defeats him at the end and is left as people’s champion.

Jack Veneno until the end of his life always said that he won the championship, but he had to resign because he did not want to leave the country to fight etc. etc. etc.

In reality, he wasn’t “lying”, he was just being professional and keeping the kayfabe, that is, keeping the story alive and making it real all the time.