Art Barr

Empresa Mexicana de la Lucha Libre (1991–1992) After leaving WCW, Barr was brought into Mexico's Empresa Mexicana de la Lucha Libre promotion by Konnan. The pair were highly successful, as they would go on to win the World Tag Team Championship and become arguably the most hated tag team in lucha libre history.

Death On November 23, 1994, Barr was found dead lying with his child at his home in Springfield, Oregon. Preliminary reports said that he died of heart failure; later reports said that he died under unknown circumstances. Barr did not have heart problems, no aneurysm or internal bleeding, and no ring injuries. He had a mixture of alcohol and drugs in his blood stream.

After his death, Guerrero adopted Barr's trademark frog splash as his finishing maneuver in tribute to him. According to Guerrero, when they began tagging he first used the frog splash as the Jackknife Splash. Barr took a liking to the move, began using it regularly and adopted it as his finisher. 2 Cold Scorpio commented to Barr that he "looked like a frog", thus leading Barr to name his move the frog splash. It has since become a trademark move of several wrestlers in Mexico, Japan, and the United States.

Legacy Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter wrote that Barr and his tag team partner Eddie Guerrero changed Lucha Libre forever. "Art Barr and Eddie Guerrero broadened the style of Lucha Libre, Art opened their eyes to his style and made the young guys like Rey Mysterio Jr, Psicosis and Juventud Guerrera who came up from AAA to WCW into the best workers in the world. He and Eddie had that much influence. Art taught them a whole lot."

Chris Jericho said of Barr in his book, A Lion's Tale: Around the World in Spandex, "I think if Art Barr was still alive today he would be one of the top guys in the business, He had such good personality and the ability to piss people off. He drew such big houses for AAA it was scary how good he could have been."

Personal life On July 16, 1989, Barr pled guilty to the rape of a 19-year-old woman after a PNW card in Pendelton, Oregon; the woman later filed charges. Barr always maintained that he would have beaten the case in court, but was advised to take the plea since it involved no jail time. Also if he lost, the bad publicity would harm the local wrestling business, driving away customers. AAA Hall of Fame (Class of 2016) Championship Wrestling USA CWUSA Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Konnan el Barbaro Pacific Northwest Wrestling NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship (3 times) – with Big Juice (2 times) and Jesse Barr (1 time) NWA Pacific Northwest Television Championship (1 time) Pro Wrestling Illustrated PWI ranked him #62 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1994 PWI ranked him #18 of the 100 best tag teams during the PWI Years with Eddie Guerrero in 2003 PWI ranked him #114 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the PWI Years in 2003 Wrestling Observer Newsletter Best Heel (1994) Feud of the Year (1994) Tag Team of the Year (1994)