On-Topic RIP

[FLips]

Aye I have a soft spot for him because his finisher was dead easy to do on a trampoline. Big old rebound jumping lariat. Great gimmick too, perfect sidekick to the Million Dollar Man.

[Thunderplex]

Thankfully some slightly better news.  Barry Windham stated Hospice, where he should have said rehab facility.  Seemingly Rotundo had a heart attack in September and is  recovering from it in a rehab place.  He’s still not well, but he’s not in end of life care.

[FLips]

Imagine getting the two mixed up. Great news though.

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

You can excuse Big Baz for that one given he’s had his own health scares over the years 

[Abe_Knuckleball_Schwartz]

Don Robinson, who initially wrestled as Dr Death before becoming a promoter in the 60’s and later the chairman of Scarborough, Hull City and Hull Kingston Rovers has passed away at 91

Quite a character, wanted to launch Tiger Cola and wanted Hull City to be the first team to play on the moon in the mid 80’s, also not sure if true but apparently was working behind the scenes of Live Aid

[BomberPat]

absolute local legend in my childhood, but I knew nothing of his wrestling career until recently. Not surprising, as he'd done just about everything else - the story I heard about Live Aid was that he negotiated the rental fee with Wembley and got it at a ridiculously low price. He also owned Flamingo Land and had his hands in a bunch of other zoos, animal parks and entertainment venues, local radio, just about everything you could imagine. He was mad as a box of frogs too, a proper character.

[mim731]

Not 100% on the source's reliability, but apparently former NWA/WCW commentator Bob Caudle has passed away.

95 is a great innings. I know he was a tad dry, but I really enjoyed his work. Had a real legitimacy about his commentary, very sportscaster-esque. RIP.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1GpCXAkF6s/

 

[Chili]

28 minutes ago, mim731 said:

Not 100% on the source's reliability, but apparently former NWA/WCW commentator Bob Caudle has passed away.

95 is a great innings. I know he was a tad dry, but I really enjoyed his work. Had a real legitimacy about his commentary, very sportscaster-esque. RIP.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1GpCXAkF6s/

 

Watching him on a Smoky Mountain rewatch right now actually. As someone who will never get the love for Gordon Solie because it's just not my time or style, Caudle is kind of a palatable version of that call the match style for me. Very dry, but an enjoyable voice and a great foil especially his duo on SMW with Dutch Mantell and his WCW work with Jim Ross. I feel he's probably a bit underrated because there are better versions of what he did out there with Lance Russell etc, but he's good.

[Chico Torres]

Great commentator in wcw and smoky mountain. Sadly his main job outside of wrestling commentary for many years was working for massively racist senator Jesse Helms.

[Wretch]

According to the Blue Meanie, photographer George Tahinos has passed on. All those ECW photos in Powerslam in the 90s? That was him.

His portfolio is up here . . . https://georgetahinos.smugmug.com/

Lose yourself again in those ECW photos.

[Snitsky's back acne]

6 hours ago, Wretch said:

According to the Blue Meanie, photographer George Tahinos has passed on. All those ECW photos in Powerslam in the 90s? That was him.

His portfolio is up here . . . https://georgetahinos.smugmug.com/

Lose yourself again in those ECW photos.

Those ECW photos in Powerslam were what got me interested in ECW as a teenager. He got some amazing shots.

I still remember some of the shots from the Taipei death match and Cactus with the flaming chair.

I believe Joey Styles also mentioned him on air once.

I will be checking those ECW photos out.

Great memories 

RIP George Tahinos. 

[The Reverend]

Ringo Rigby (aka Les Hudspith) has passed away. Although perhaps not the biggest of stars, he certainly was a regular hand and appeared on cards up and down the country as well as on World of Sport.

Teaming with fellow judo champion Chris Adams, the two went to the US in the early 80's wrestling in the LA territory, as well as in bouts in Mexico. It was Adams who stayed and the bigger success though. 

At one time Rigby did a minor jail sentence when he and a team of bouncers set about some trouble makers in a pub he co-owned. 

 

 

[BomberPat]

Roland Bock has passed away, aged 81. A cult figure in Japan for his matches with Antonio Inoki, including one in which he allegedly went into business for himself, in the rare instance of someone shooting on and roughing up Inoki and actually getting the better of him, while in Germany his reputation was much more complicated - something akin to somewhere between Vince McMahon and Big Daddy, as a wrestler and promoter who many blamed for ruining the industry through overreliance on gimmicks, stunts, and fakery over athleticism and technique, despite starting out as an Olympian and as a booker who favoured legitimacy. He was fascinating, either way.

Here's what I wrote about him a while back, after I couldn't find the right place for him in my book:

https://www.patrickwreed.com/blog/ywi3yijbus8ga9w6tqlfh56isokwpp

 

[BomberPat]

The British Black Jack Mulligan has passed away;

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/tributes-showman-wrestler-calderdale-character-33425283?utm_source=yorkshire_live_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=main_daily_newsletter&utm_content=&utm_term=&ruid=3e30eb4a-60d5-4e46-b0bb-2a08bf185e8d&hx=98d496bb55d716b548ac3fe89620863770f1c23313c0bbd68ee8b36868edfacd

 

 

A story I have repeated as fact many times and never bothered verifying is that, because of the trend for British wrestlers and promoters stealing names from American wrestling magazines, "Greg Valentine vs Blackjack Mulligan" happened on both sides of the Atlantic on the same day 

[davertfnewman]

Kerwin Silfies, who probably had a greater, more positive impact than Kevin Dunn, has passed away:

https://itrwrestling.com/news/legendary-wwe-kerwin-silfies-pass-away/