Rip Hawk Claims Fans are Afraid to Display Their Affection for Fear of Ridicule
Here's a new twist on why a wrestler sometimes draws boos instead of cheers.
Rip Hawk, the 228 pound bomber from Evansville, Indiana claims the fans love him but they're afraid to show their affection for his wrestling skill because they fear ridicule from other ringsiders.
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| Rip Hawk (r) with manager Homer O'Dell |
"Certainly the fans love me," the Hoosier, fresh from a barber's chair with a bristling crew-cut, remarked. "They may jeer me just to follow the others, but you can bet that deep down they admire my wrestling skill. I'm good. They know I'm good. So how can they have anything in their hearts but admiration for me?"
Of course, the fact the Ripper is just about one of the most treacherous heavyweights to appear in the U. S. in recent years doesn't account for the jeers he receives from the fans. No indeed. Not in the Hawk's way of reckoning. These jeers are meant to be cheers if the fans could let loose with their real feelings and not worry about what the fellows sitting next to them think.
The cheering "Jeers" start almost the moment Rip enters the arena and walks into view of the fans. By the time he's in the ring it sounds like a hog-calling convention. Rip doesn't need to attempt any sneak, roughing trick to agitate the fans. His cocky attitude and high strutting turns the tide of fan support against him in jig time.
The blond haired Hoosier is a darn good athlete, we must admit. He's about medium weight by heavyweight wrestling standards and he stands 5'-10". Rip is 30 years old.
It's an odd thing about Rip's height. Usually a wrestler of medium height becomes a crowd favorite when appearing against a man well over the 6-foot mark. But not in the Ripper's case. Whether his opponents are big or small or medium, the fans want the Hawk throttled. It's a strange love they have for him.
Rip isn't what you would call a rougher of the magnitude of the Duseks or the Sharpe brothers. He's an in-between roughhouser who relies on his ability to outfox his opponent, then administer the coup de grace with some sly maneuver which might escape the referees watchful eyes. And if the Hawk is caught in the execution of some misdeed in the ring he quickly assumes the innocence of a mischievous choir boy who has just landed a spit ball on the rector's ear during church services.
To hear the Hawk protest his innocence as the referee starts his third-degree is a sight to behold. The Hawk cajoles, pleads and goes through the agonies of the damned to get the referee "off his back." And during this display of innocence the fans are lovingly jeering him.
Oh, Rip's public. How they love him!
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Author Unknown. May have been part of the Rip Hawk Fanclub newsletter.
Thanks to Andy McDaniel for providing the article and photo.
