Richards, “The Progressive Liberal,” had to take a recent match home early after the crowd in Stickleyville, on Route 58 between Duffield and Jonesville, three hours southwest of Roanoke, an hour east of Bristol, in the sticks, as they say, broke out into a brawl.
Richards, who has been working the “Progressive Liberal” gimmick since 2017, was trying to work the crowd in the small town, where Donald Trump received 84 percent of the vote in the 2020 presidential election, but he couldn’t get his voice heard above the crowd.
Fights broke out among those in attendance. One fan was hit with a chair. The melee spilled over into the parking lot.
Richards and SSW promoter Beau James, who helped Richards develop the “Progressive Liberal” gimmick, had to wait it all out after the show in a small dressing room, like the old days, when the heels needed police protection to be able to get from town to town.
Back in the 1970s and ‘80s, though, fans weren’t in on the secret that wrestling is a work, which is to say, staged, the outcomes predetermined, the wrestlers they were watching in on the gimmick, trying to get a rise out of the crowd for the entertainment value.
Most fans today are in on the secret, making it more significant that Richards – real name Daniel Harnsberger – is able to draw the kind of heat he does on weekend nights.
“I think if I had never existed, they would feel the same thing,” said Harnsberger, a native of Midlothian in the Metro Richmond area, who started training to become a pro wrestler in 2003 after graduating from Concord University in Athens, W.Va.
Harnsberger worked as a newspaper reporter with the Bluefield, W.Va., Daily Telegraph before leaving journalism to work for Appalachian Mountain Wrestling, an indy promotion run by Beau James, who gave Harnsberger the ring name Daniel Richards.
Harnberger’s first run as Daniel Richards was utterly unremarkable, to the point that he left wrestling in 2009.
His return was for a one-off to fill in on an indy show in 2014, which got his juices flowing, and he debuted the “Progressive Liberal” gimmick in 2015 and started billing himself using the nickname in 2016, as the presidential race between Trump and Hillary Clinton took center stage.
Southern States, also run by James, isn’t anything like the wrestling you see on TV these days. It’s more a throwback to the territory era of the ‘70s and ‘80s, without the glitz, the glamor – sans jumbotrons and firework intros, no big-name stars to lure fans to buy tickets.
SSW’s big show this month is at the Kingsport Farmer’s Market, in which Harnsberger, as Daniel Richards, will face Skylar Kruze in a special challenge match on the 6 p.m. Sunday card.
Front row tickets are $20, with general admission $10 at the door.
James, the promoter, is also asking fans to bring a non-perishable food item for Hunger First of Kingsport and/or a new unwrapped toy for a boy or girl to be able to receive at Christmas.
It’s local wrestling as it used to be.
But it’s also in Trump Country, and a liberal character is the perfect heel for this crowd.
It’s a trope that wrestling has used for generations. After World War II, the villains were cast as Germans and Japanese.
At the height of the Cold War, the focus shifted to Russians as the top heels.
In 2022 pro-Trump red America, the heel is the guy in the trunks emblazoned with the phrase “Ridin’ with Biden” saying, “We’re coming for your guns.”
Even as most fans are in on the fact that wrestling is a work, the heat he gets is real.
“The crowd has taken on a more violent approach towards me,” Harnsberger told CNN. “I had rocks thrown at me. A lady pulled out a lighter, tried to light my trunks on fire while they are on me. And had someone else pull out a switchblade.”
Which means, it’s working.
The CNN report noted that Harnsberger once had a fan flash the 9mm handgun on his hip with a dare to him to try to take it.
“The heat you want is the heat where people are upset at what you stand for, and they want to see you get your ass kicked,” Harnsberger said.