The professional wrestling world has long been littered with spectacular personalities and egos alike. To be in such an intriguing business one has to be a little off-the-wall. Sometimes you get the best of people who remain universally beloved, such as Mick Foley or Big E, but you also get those people all over the rest of the scale, from beloved figures on screen who are monstrous in real life, to those who play the role of a heel but are the kindest in real life, and all between. Of course, in many instances, we put a lot of scrutiny on those who reach a certain level of stardom and pick apart their flaws, a la Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair, but there are still stories to be told about those that never made it past the preliminary stage of the card. This brings us to one Harrison Norris Jr., who wrestled for many years in WCW under the name of Hardbody Harrison. A man you’ve likely forgotten if you ever knew him at all…but what a story he has.

Before entering the wrestling business, Norris served in the United States Military for several years, being deployed during the Gulf War of the early 1990s. Upon receiving an Honorable Discharge in 1995 and a failed attempt at a run with the NFL, Norris decided to give pro wrestling a shot and signed up to train at the WCW Power Plant in Atlanta.

Reports vary widely on the man now known as Hardbody Harrison, with some people crediting his ability in the ring and physical conditioning, while others would begin to see some more deviousness in Hardbody’s different quirks. For a plethora of reasons, these two different sides would both enhance and hinder his run on WCW’s main roster upon graduating from the Power Plant.

Harrison made his television debut in October of 1996 on an episode of WCW Saturday Night in a loss to Bobby Eaton. By this point with Nitro and the New World Order running rampant, Saturday Night, the once crown jewel of WCW, had been reduced to a lowly B-show, and it is where Harrison would spend the bulk of his WCW televised career, along with the even lower on the totem pole Worldwide. Speaking of Nitro, Hardbody would make his Nitro debut a few short months later, as one of the early victims in Glacier’s ill-suited initial push. While most likely don’t recall his appearance, his one and other only appearance on Nitro is slightly more memorable. On the March 10th, 1997 Spring Break episode of Nitro, Harrison competed against The Taskmaster Kevin Sullivan in a throwaway match that ended in a double count-out in two minutes, only remembered for Harrison getting tossed into the pool by Sullivan.

While Harrison wore tights that consisted of one long leg and one leg bare (think of what Zack Ryder adopted during his WWECW days) and his colleagues commended his selling ability, it simply wasn’t enough to remain on the big shows, and Hardbody would be relegated to the aforementioned B-shows, as well as even the C shows such as WCW Pro and Main Event, usually only used as enhancement talent. This wasn’t for lack of trying, as apparently good ol’ Hardbody seemed to want to frequently pitch new ideas that would put him in a much better position on the card, as Chris Jericho recalled in his first book, A Lion’s Tale.

“[Hardbody] was in his own world anyway. He was constantly submitting weird angles and stories to the office, trying to get himself a push.

First he came up with the idea of painting his face and becoming Sting's black nemesis, Stang. Then he came up with another beauty that had DDP bringing a special magic diamond crystal to the ring. Hardbody would attack him, steal the crystal, and drop it into a tank of piranhas. This chicanery would force DDP to jump into the piranha tank to retrieve the magic crystal live on PPV. I would've paid to see that one."

As one can imagine from reading those ideas, Hardbody Harrison had a mind that was clearly a little bit out there. And as anyone can imagine, pitching ideas as someone brought on to be a job guy to work with the highest card main eventers, Hardbody quickly became a heat magnet amongst the locker room. And anyone with half a brain can guess that none of these ideas came to fruition, with Hardbody only continuing to work the B and C shows, with house shows spattered in. 

By late 1999 when his contract was coming due and WCW finally starting to trim some of the fat, it was no surprise that Hardbody did not have his contract renewed, with his last reported WCW match occurring at a WCW Worldwide taping in Thibodaux, Lousiana on October 12th, 1999, in a loss to a young Chuck Palumbo, before he would move up and become a member of the Natural Born Thrillers.

Following his release from the company, Harrison would become part of the well-known Racial Discrimination Lawsuit filed against WCW in 2000, alongside 8 others including Sonny Onoo. A lot of bombastic claims were made and the suit dragged out well past WCW’s shelf life, finally ending with settlements made by Time Warner in 2003, with some having reported that Harrison (and assumedly others) netted around $1 Million dollars. While most would consider such a situation a turning point for the better, the story had already taken a darker turn.

Now out of the wrestling business, Hardbody decided that maybe going into prostitution would seemingly be a good idea. He had a large barn on his property which he filled up with gym equipment and the like. Targeting young women who were down on their luck or addicted to drugs, Hardbody used his prior wrestling experience to convince them that he could train them and turn them into the next big wrestling superstar. He would take them in, fix them up and clothe them, but with much more nefarious intentions for his own gain. During the days the women would train and clean around the barn gym and area, essentially working as indebted slaves. Hardbody would warp and manipulate the circumstances so that the women were free to go once their “debt” had been paid, whilst constantly adding more debt to the scenario. The days were easily better than the evenings, where the harem of women was taken around the entire Atlanta and surrounding areas, working as prostitutes under Hardbody’s watchful eye. While he had help with running this ring, he was always the headmaster.

While overseeing these heinous acts, Hardbody also somehow managed to run and promote a few shows, using the money from his settlement and side gig to help fund the events, which were about as outlaw mudshow as one can imagine. Finally, after years of grifting, things would come to a head for Harrison in August of 2004. While taking “his girls” shopping and seemingly spoiling them, but really just dolling them up in hopes of more action, but one of the girls made a run for it, which brought much-unwanted attention to the group. Harrison was questioned along with the seven women he was with and finally arrested on three counts of false imprisonment. It would not last, as Hardbody made the $55,000 set bail the following day, but the damage was done and he was now under the watchful eye of the FBI.

Despite this, Harrison remained confident in his ability to do whatever he wanted, laughing at police questioning him about dildos found in his vehicle the day of his arrest. Sadly it would take another year before police would finally be able to make their move and put an end to the tragic and horrific world these girls found themselves in. It would take another two years beyond that for Hardbody to receive his just desserts, when one of his co-conspirators Aimee Allen, took a plea deal to testify against Harrison. In a move right out of the Ted Bundy playbook, Harrison decided that he could play lawyer and represent himself. It did not go the way he expected and on November 22nd, 2007, Harrison Norris Jr. was found guilty and sentenced to a $2400 fine (a pittance given the circumstances) and life in prison, where he remains to this day.

While nothing could be done to give those girls their lives back, they could now live free knowing their captor was behind bars, where he clearly belongs. An absolutely insane story from a man who clearly had two very different sides, don’t be surprised to perhaps one day see a future Dark Side Of The Ring episode regarding his exploits, but take solace in knowing that such a dangerous and disturbed individual is away from where he can no longer take advantage of vulnerable prey.