Wrestler Death thread

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Big Boss Man
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Re: Wrestler Death thread

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WWE star 'Luscious' Johnny Valiant struck, killed by car in Ross
Matthew Medsger
MATTHEW MEDSGER Wednesday April 4, 2018, 11:03 p.m.

The pedestrian hit and killed by a car as he was crossing McKnight Road in Ross Township on Wednesday morning was former professional wrestler and WWE Hall of Famer "Luscious" Johnny Valiant, whose real name is Thomas M. Sullivan.

Sullivan, 71, was pronounced dead at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh's North Side.

Foul play is not suspected, according to police.

"At this point in the investigation, there is no indication that this was anything other than a terrible accident," Ross Detective Brian Kohlhepp said.

Kohlhepp said the accident happened just before 5:30 a.m. Sullivan was trying to cross McKnight near Siebert Road, Kohlhepp said.

Sullivan had his wrestling heyday in the 1970s and early '80s, when he and his brother Jimmy were known as the Valiant Brothers.

He was inducted into the WWE's Hall of Fame in 1996.

Staff writer Brian Rittmeyer contributed. Matthew Medsger is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-226-4675, mmedsger@tribweb.com or via Twitter @matthew_medsger

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Dr. Zoidberg
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Re: Wrestler Death thread

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Paul Jones passes away at 75

On a day in which we learned of the passing of Bruno Sammartino, news broke Wednesday that another notable wrestler had passed away at some point this week: "No. 1" Paul Jones.

He was 75 years old. As of this writing, no cause of death, nor the actual date, is known. Dick Bourne of Mid-Atlantic Gateway said he passed near his home in Atlanta, GA.

Born Paul Frederik, Jones debuted in 1961 and began working throughout the southern U.S., Japan, and the Pacific Northwest in the early stages of his career. He eventually landed in Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling where he spent the majority of his career, feuding with the top stars like Ivan Koloff, Ric Flair, The Andersons, Jack Brisco, and Terry Funk. In Mid-Atlantic, he won several tag team and singles titles and over his career, he held more than 20 championships.

He eventually became a manager in addition to some wrestling, backing the "Paul Jones Army", a heel faction that included Koloff, The Powers of Pain, "Superstar" Billy Graham, and more. After some years on the indies, he retired in 1991 and opened up an auto body shop.

https://www.f4wonline.com/other-wrestli ... -75-256076

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Big Boss Man
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Re: Wrestler Death thread

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One of the first non WWE wrestling tapes I watched was Ringmasters Great American Bash 85 which featured Paul Jones he was managing against the Boogie Woogie Man IIRC. RIP Paul Jones

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Re: Wrestler Death thread

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It would suck to die the same day as a legend so nobody notices. Like Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson or Chyna and Prince.

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Re: Wrestler Death thread

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Motoko Baba, the wife of Shohei "Giant" Baba and arguably the most important and influential woman in the history of pro wrestling, passed away on April 14th.

She was 78.

The news of her death was kept quiet until today and other details are not available. Her funeral was on Friday.

Motoko Baba and Shohei Baba were together at a young age but for a number of reasons, their relationship was kept secret from the public, as Shohei Baba was one of the most famous sports celebrities in the country and even in recent years was listed as one of the ten most famous athletes in Japanese sports history. The two ran All Japan Pro Wrestling together from its inception in 1972 until Giant Baba's death in 1999. It wasn't until 1982 when their relationship and marriage went public and she was publicly acknowledged as the number two person in the company. It was probably the most successful "mom and pop" pro wrestling company in history.

They had a "good cop" "bad cop" role in the company. Shohei Baba had a tremendously favorable image because all of the bad news fell on her to deliver, to keep his reputation with everyone clean. Because of that, she was often not well liked.

But she, every bit as much as he, ran the business and company in every aspect. The couple had no children, so wrestlers like Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, and others became like their kids. The company was very successful on television in the 70s and 80s, and then had their best box office period in the 90s, peaking in he early part of the decade when they sold out more than 200 consecutive events in Tokyo.

After his death from cancer, she became the majority owner of the company, and Misawa became company president and booker. Misawa wanted to change and expand the business but she was much more conservative about it, and it led to a falling out where Misawa and almost all of the top wrestlers with the exception of Toshiaki Kawada, Maunukea Mossman (Taiyo Kea), and Masa Fuchi left the promotion and formed Pro Wrestling NOAH.

The company did remain profitable, working with New Japan, until she sold it to a group backed by Keiji Muto in 2002. The company faded from popularity over the last 16 years, and most considered NOAH as the surviving branch of All Japan. Her name at times was attached to an attempt at reviving the company in recent years.

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Re: Wrestler Death thread

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Image

Big Bully Busick died from brain cancer at the age of 63. His son is Bellator fighter Branko Busick. I heard once that he quit wrestling in 1992 and became a homicide detective, but I don't know if that's true. Wikipedia only says he was a police officer before he quit to join WWF.

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Re: Wrestler Death thread

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I remember reading an interview with him and Harvey Wippleman in WWF magazine so I'm not sure if they had plans to give him a push or not. Think I only saw a few of his matches and if I'm correct he had a short career in the WWF but I liked his old school gimmick. Sad to hear he passed. RIP

Wiki says he worked as an investigator
[quote]He also worked as a Senior Investigator for Criminal and Civil Investigations[/img]

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Dr. Zoidberg
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Re: Wrestler Death thread

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I hope he still had the mo and hat when he was an investigator.

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Re: Wrestler Death thread

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Re: Wrestler Death thread

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From F4W
Chuck Williams, better known as the Rockin' Rebel, and his wife were both found dead by a family member earlier today at their home in West Chester, PA, in an apparent murder/suicide.

West Goshen Township Police have not released the names of Williams and his wife, but a close friend of Williams confirmed it was him and that the home in question, shown on local news, was his home. Other friends of his have confirmed the story.

The story going around is that the couple's adult son came to the house this morning and discovered both dead.

The police said that an adult male and female were found dead in a murder/suicide and that there are no other suspects and no danger to the public. When police arrived, there were family members at the home and both were found in the living room dead.

Local news reported that police had been called to the home several times.

Williams was 52. He took the name Rockin' Rebel because of being trained by Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson, the Rock & Roll Express, and he started his career in 1988. He first made his name in Joel Goodhart's Tri-State Wrestling promotion, which was the forerunner to ECW. He was the group's champion and wrestled against men like Sandman and D.C. Drake He later wrestled from 1993 to 1995 for ECW, and worked for a ton of different independent promotions and also did matches for both WCW and WWF in the 90s.

He was still on occasion doing independent shows.

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Re: Wrestler Death thread

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Apparently he was nearly given the Stevie Richards Raven's-Dumb-Lackey gimmick when Raven was about to debut. But he did something to cause so much heat on him in the locker room Heyman had to change it to Richards because Heyman thought the wrestlers would be outraged if Rockin' Rebel was given that large of a role. But it's not clear what he did wrong.

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Re: Wrestler Death thread

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Wasnt it ever brought up in shoot(s) what he did?
The West Goshen Township Police Department was dispatched to a shooting in the 300 block of North Five Points Road. West Chester, PA 19380.

The responding officers arrived at the scene and were met by family members in the driveway. The officers searched the home and observed two bodies in the living room of the residence. An adult male and an adult female resident were deceased inside of their home. There are no outstanding suspect and there is no danger to the public. The preliminary investigation has determine the event to be a murder followed by a suicide.

The Chester County Coroner's Office has taken possession of the deceased and will complete their investigation. As soon as the appropriate notifications are made to other family members, the identities of the deceased will be released to the public.

The West Goshen Township Criminal Investigation Unit will be thoroughly investigating the incident and more information will be released as it becomes available and prudent.

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Re: Wrestler Death thread

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Most of the shoots talk about his time on the indies after ECW. The Francine one might since he trained her and brought her to ECW so she'd remember more than most ECW people. But what was said was he annoyed people by always pitching big angles for himself. But tons of wrestlers so that so there's probably more to it.

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Re: Wrestler Death thread

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Ok thanks, yea must be more to the story. No one would get pissed off over an angle.

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Re: Wrestler Death thread

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This is from Mike Johnson's obituary on him
Rebel always pushed the envelope when it came to getting heat, especially on the independents. If he wasn't supposed to grab the mic and cut a promo, but thought he should, in that moment, he would. If he thought he could cross the line to piss off fans, he did it without worrying about what it meant for the rest of the show. There were times he would go deep into some racially-tinged material during his time in CZW and while it was cheap heat to the utmost degree then, if it was pulled now, it likely would have caused a huge uproar. He pushed the envelope, to the point that there were promoters who loved him as a person but who would stop using him, because he couldn't be trusted to do what was asked of him because in the moment, he did what he thought would get heat.


....

Williams was a regular for ECW as an undercard heel, but never received a major push, in part because of his backstage demeanor and in part because while he was fine for an undercard heel, he was never going to be the top-level talent he perceived himself as being and pushed others to see him as. Had he not pushed so hard and had he not rubbed others the wrong way, he'd have been a pretty solid commodity to the company, but just like his inability to just do what was needed of him, he had an inability to just try and be the best in the spot he was given.

One night at an ECW house show in Wildwood, NJ, Williams' rep for pushing himself too hard backfired on him in what was a funny practical joke at the time. Rebel was told privately by Paul Heyman and Tod Gordon that he was going to win a battle royal and then go on to win the ECW title that night from then-champion Shane Douglas, but to keep it to himself. Excited, Rebel did just that. Meanwhile, everyone single other person in the battle royal was told that Rebel was to go out immediately and to go for him. The bell rang, and everyone made a beeline for Rebel who valiantly tried to hang on to the ropes and communicate to this horde intent on throwing him over the top to stop because he was supposed to win the belt. Williams failed in his protests and was dumped to the floor. Jimmy Snuka eventually won the battle royal that night.

....

At one point, Paul Heyman had figured out a role for Rebel and he was to be the second for the soon to debut Raven. For whatever reason, Rebel ended up getting himself in hot water, likely because of the way he carried himself behind the scenes and lost the spot - which he may never have even known he had. Instead, a talent who was showing up regularly having good matches instead got the nod, and the introduction of Dancin' Stevie Richards, clueless putz, one of the hottest heel characters for ECW in 1995, began instead.

In another universe somewhere, it would be Raven and Rebel. In this world, however, Rebel was slowly phased out of ECW. He worked everywhere he could, including dark matches for the WWF and WCW. Williams' Linked In page lists him as working for WCW for a year, although he was never actually under contract there. On the WWE side, Williams had long told the tale that he had been offered a WWF job after a dark match many years ago, but said the wrong thing, giving the appearance that he had a bad attitude and lost the opportunity. Whether there was ever anything to the story is unknown, but Rebel was always a storyteller in locker rooms and it may just have been an embellished story.

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Re: Wrestler Death thread

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Thanks. As for the autopsy, I'm assuming his brain will be tested for CTE. Might explain his erratic behaviour too.

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Re: Wrestler Death thread

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Roughly one month ago, former WWE Tough Enough winner Matt Cappotelli’s wife, Lindsay, passed along the unfortunate news that after his brain cancer had returned in 2017, his medical team determined it was time to discontinue treatment. Sadly, she posted word to Facebook today that Cappotelli died this morning.
Hey Team Capp...I’ve been struggling with what to say and how to say this, and I’ll probably end up rambling, but here goes. Today my love-my strong, sweet, beautiful love-took his last breath at 3:30 a.m. and went Home to be with Jesus...exactly one year after his brain surgery. You think you can be prepared for this when you know it’s coming, but you just can’t. The only person who’s comfort I want right now is the one who can’t give it to me. I miss him so much. I know where he is now is so much better, but it doesn’t change how much I miss him.
Cappotelli won the third season of Tough Enough but was forced to retire just a couple years into his career when he was first diagnosed with brain cancer in February 2006. The original treatment was deemed a success after a years long fight but it returned in a much more aggressive form in 2017.

He was just 38-years-old.

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Big Boss Man
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Re: Wrestler Death thread

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That's really sad news, RIP :(

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Re: Wrestler Death thread

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Masa Saito was been reported by his wrestling friends to have died yesterday at the age of 76.



Most of his early career was in America, but he was arrested with Ken Patera in 1984 for vandalizing the McDonald's that refused to serve them and deported. But his career got even bigger due to that because he had a huge feud with Antonio Inoki when he came in to New Japan as a huge heel because he'd served jail time. But he was allowed back into America again in 1990 and worked with WCW some.


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