{"id":703,"date":"2008-07-08T11:24:06","date_gmt":"2008-07-08T18:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2008\/07\/big-time-wrestling-ban-soon-to-be-enacted-in-arkansas\/"},"modified":"2008-07-08T13:34:33","modified_gmt":"2008-07-08T20:34:33","slug":"big-time-wrestling-ban-soon-to-be-enacted-in-arkansas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2008\/07\/08\/big-time-wrestling-ban-soon-to-be-enacted-in-arkansas\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Collar Brawlin’ Ban Soon To Be Enacted in Arkansas?"},"content":{"rendered":"

from AP via Yahoo News!<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Fake Ark. bouts showing men kissing draw suspicion<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press Writer<\/span>Tue Jul 8, 6:13 AM ET<\/em><\/p>\n

Crowds in Arkansas came for the lure of cage fighting and $1 beer, but police say what they got instead was men ripping each others’ clothes off and kissing \u2014 a stunt suspected of being orchestrated by Sacha Baron Cohen of “Borat” fame.<\/p>\n

“We had a contract for cage fighting. We were deceived,” said Dwight Duncan, president and CEO of Four States Fair Grounds in Texarkana, where the first of two Arkansas fights raised suspicions last month.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Matt Labov, a Los Angeles-based publicist for Baron Cohen, said he had no comment Monday about the faked fights. One of Baron Cohen’s movies is due out next year.<\/p>\n

The day after the June 5 Texarkana bout, Fort Smith’s convention center hosted “Blue Collar Brawlin.'” Fort Smith police Sgt. Adam Holland said organizers told him a character named “Straight Dave” would goad a planted audience member into the ring for a fight.<\/p>\n

The two men would then wrestle, rip away some of their clothes and share a brief kiss reminiscent of one between Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell in the film “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.”<\/p>\n

Producers said “there would be a romantic embrace,” Holland said. “They said it was kind of to essentially make fun, poke fun at wrestling \u2014 two guys rolling around on the floor, all sweaty.”<\/p>\n

An elaborate array of mounted and handheld video cameras caught the crowd of 1,600’s reaction as the two men “went right up to the line” of the city’s morality laws, Holland said. The two men stripped down to their underwear, kissed and rubbed on each other, the sergeant said.<\/p>\n

The audience, as well as local fighters drawn to take part in the show, became enraged. “It set the crowd off lobbing beers,” Holland said. “They had beers in plastic cups. Those things can get some distance on them actually.”<\/p>\n

[ click to read full AP article<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from AP via Yahoo News! Fake Ark. bouts showing men kissing draw suspicion\u00a0 By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press WriterTue Jul 8, 6:13 AM ET Crowds in Arkansas came for the lure of cage fighting and $1 beer, but police say what they got instead was men ripping each others’ clothes off and kissing \u2014 a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mirth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}