There are a number of ways to make an impression in wrestling, but as Bruce Prichard has revealed, some are more successful than others.
Harry Del Rios, also known as Phantasio and Spellbinder, might not have ever been the biggest star in wrestling, but he ensured Bruce Prichard would never never forget him. Phantasio appeared for the WWF three times in 1995, with one of these matches coming on television on Wrestling Challenge. On the night the New York native defeated Tony DeVito.
Bruce Prichard Recalls Phantasio Fire Incident
However, Phantasio’s magician gimmick quickly proved to be his undoing. Speaking on a recent episode of his podcast Something To Wrestle, Bruce Prichard recalled Phantasio’s match on Wrestling Challenge, and more specifically the star setting the gorilla position on fire.
This dumb s— is sitting there, getting ready to go out and all this stuff, and all of a sudden, he’s got a little container about, you know, the size of a Visine bottle, maybe a little bit bigger. He drops it, and next thing I know, now, I’m backed up, and I’m surrounded by pipe and drapes all around me, and then there are the curtains they go out of. Well, I’m on fire! The gorilla position is on fire! And Kevin Dunn is screaming, ‘Send him!’ And I go, ‘We’re on fire!’ He goes, ‘Send him!’ I was like, ‘God d—-, Gorilla’s on fire; get me a fire extinguisher now!’
He had some kind of liquid fire that I guess magicians use or whatever. I guess he was going to have some fire or something, didn’t tell anybody, so we didn’t have it approved by a fire marshal. He’s in a small, enclosed area, surrounded by flammable drapes, and he fumble-f—, drops the s—, and the drapes are going up in fire.”
Prichard added that the incident spelt the end of Phantasio’s WWF hopes, commenting that his best trick was disappearing.
H/t to Wrestling Inc