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Posted by: jaderock Mar 23 2009, 04:20 AM

Just when you think the worst was over after Andrew "Test" Martin passed away...now....

As reported by the Wrestling Observer:

Andres Palomeque, better known as Abismo Negro in AAA, was apparently found dead in a river in Mexico. He was 37.

We don't have other news other than a couple of wrestlers in the AAA promotion confirmed the story, but knew no details.

Palomeque was also known as Winners, a masked male dancer, who teamed with Super Calo during the early glory days of the AAA promotin. At the second year's first TripleMania show, Winners formed a trio with Rey Misterio and Rey Misterio Jr., and lost his mask in a feud with Calo in 1995.

He became Abismo Negro in 1997, and was on the 1997 Royal Rumble show in San Antonio that drew 60,000 fans to the Alamo Dome and wrestled on a few episodes of Raw that year.

He also worked as part of Team Mexico in the 2004 World X cup tournament for TNA.

Throughout his career he was plagued by drug problems, and had a reputation for no-showing events.


---

Steve Doll, best known as part of the tag team of the Southern Rockers, passed away earlier today at the age of 44.

Little details are available, although he had a major health scare a few years ago, and was taken off life support systems today.

Doll & Scott Peterson were the most popular tag team in the Pacific Northwest promotion of the 80s. Later, Rex King (Mark Smith) replaced Peterson on the team. Doll & Smith were used as a prelim tag team in the WWF in 1993 under the name Well Dunn. Smith wrestled as Timothy Well and Doll s Steven Dunn.

With King, they held the USWA tag team titles five times and the Northwest tag team titles four times.

Posted by: dodgerblue38501 Mar 23 2009, 03:08 PM

I hadn't heard the story about Negro yet but I read about Doll earlier today. I knew he had been in pretty bad health the last few years. He was only 44 but had major liver/kidney problems I believe.

Posted by: dd316 Mar 23 2009, 03:15 PM

Huh, I didn't even know Test died.

Posted by: jaderock Mar 24 2009, 04:07 PM

As I thought, I did see Abismo Negro on AAA's Saturday TV in which Black Abyss used a flamethrower to "tourch" him...OH my gosh!

He had a good roided up body, decent worker, excellent gimmick.

Posted by: dodgerblue38501 Apr 9 2009, 10:00 PM

Sadly, today the news came out that Martin died of an accidental overdose of oxycodone.

Posted by: jaderock Apr 29 2009, 07:58 PM

For Chad's earlier post:

WrestlingObserver.com reported early this morning that former WWF and Portland Wrestling star Playboy Buddy Rose (Paul Perschmann) was found dead by his wife on Tuesday afternoon.

Rose, who was extremely heavy the last time I saw him in 2005, had been dealing with diabetic issues in recent years.

Rose originally broke into the business in the old Verne Gagne AWA, having been trained by Gagne and famed shooter Billy Robinson. He went on to become a true star heel for Don Owens' Portland Wrestling.

In his 2002 autobiography, Roddy Piper credited Rose for helping put him on the map in the Portland area, providing him a forum to hone his interview skills and become a true main eventer. Piper noted in the book that Rose invited him to come work the territory. Piper initially turned him down as he had been working regularly in Los Angeles, then reconsidered and took the job, setting him off to stardom.

Rose worked for the WWF at different points in his career. He was pushed as a top heel at one point in the late 1970s, including a series of matches against then-WWF champion Bob Backlund.

Rose also wrestled on the first Wrestlemania event as the masked Executioner, losing to Tito Santana in the opening contest, becoming the answer to an immediate trivia question.

Rose's final run with WWF was as an undercard comedy heel who was out of shape, setting the stage for the infamous "Blowaway Diet" vignettes. During that run, he mostly worked comedic opening matches on house show, playing off his weight by doing jumping jacks and other exercises while on offense. The vignettes were so silly they ended up becoming memorable among fans. Rose would always correct the ring announcer when he was introduced and make the announcer say that he was "weighing in at 225 lbs." even though he was obviously closer to 300 lbs.

Rose, who was considered a good talker and great bumper, also held the AWA World Tag Team championships with Doug Somers in 1986, defeating Scott Hall and the late Curt Hennig. They later dropped the belts to the then-Midnight Rockers, Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty. Rose & Summers had some great matches with the Rockers. bloodbaths with awesome crowd heat. I believe one of these matches may have been included on the Shawn Michaels DVD release that WWE put out last year.

What is believed to be Rose's last match took place at the first WrestleReunion convention event in Tampa, Florida in January 2005. Rose, long-time close friend Col. DeBeers (Ed Wiskoski) and Bob Orton lost to Jimmy Valiant, Roddy Piper and Jimmy Snuka in what was billed as Valiant's retirement match.

In recent years, Rose maintained an official website at www.playboybuddyrose.com. The website had noted that Rose was working on a book, although how far into the writing process he was I can't confirm at this time.

Posted by: jaderock Apr 29 2009, 07:59 PM

For me I only got the chance to see Playboy Buddty Rose when he was overwieght ...still a great worker and talker!

Posted by: dodgerblue38501 Apr 30 2009, 10:45 AM

Indeed he was. I still remember his one handed push ups and his schtik making the ring announcer introduce him at 217 lbs. I actually had no idea that he was the masked Executioner at WM I against Tito until I read his biography yesterday. He was one of the most underrated talents of the late 70s-80s.

Posted by: jaderock May 29 2009, 02:57 PM

Reported on WON:

http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/9465/

John Tolos, best known for being the heel counterpart of Fred Blassie in one of pro wrestling's all-time greatest feuds, passed away last night at the age of 78.

The death was believed to have been from kidney failure.

Tolos, one of the best promos in wrestling, was chosen by Blassie to be his opponent in a 1971 match at the Los Angeles Coliseum which was one of the biggest events in wrestling of the time.

In the angle, Tolos, the Americas' champion, was jealous that Blassie was awarded the Wrestler of the Year honors, and threw Monsel's powder from the bag of Dr. Bernardt Schwartz, a boxing/wrestling doctor who used it to close cuts when he was doing boxing.

They sold it was if Blassie's career was over due to blindness, an angle repeated with similar results years later by Michael Hayes and Junkyard Dog which still holds the record for attendance in New Orleans.

Blassie actually was taking time off for knee surgery and to tour Japan, and came back for what is the most famous match in California for a generation of fans.

Tolos had a long career, spanning three decades, working regularly into his 50s. He was known in particular for his conditioning, as he was distance running and remained in great shape well into his 60s. He had slowed down in recent years from a near fatal stroke.

He held championships throughout North America, often with brother Chris, although he achieved his greatest fame after the tag team broke up in the late 60s, as a top star in Southern California, where he was the dominant main eventer from 1971-75, both as a babyface and a heel.

Posted by: dodgerblue38501 May 30 2009, 02:23 AM

I remember Tolos as Mr. Perfect's manager, The Coach, in the early 90s WWF.

Posted by: 5toosweet Jun 3 2009, 08:52 AM

I cant picture him. Does anyone have a pic of him as Mr. Perfects manager?

Posted by: jaderock Jun 13 2009, 06:20 PM

As reported here:
http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/9617/

Mitsuharu Misawa, one of the greatest pro wrestlers of all-time, was declared dead at 10:10 p.m. Saturday night at a hospital in Hiroshima from an apparent heart attack after being being given a back suplex in a tag team title match.

Misawa would have turned 47 on June 18th.

Misawa, the president of Pro Wrestling NOAH, was teaming with Go Shiozaki in a match challenging Bison Smith & Akitoshi Saito for the GHC tag team championship in Hiroshima. Misawa was given the move at about 8:45 p.m. and knocked unconscious. They were about 27 minutes into the match when the referee immediately stopped the match seeing what had happened.

According to eye witness reports, Saito gave Misawa a "routine" back suplex that was described as a "7" in danger on a scale of one-to-ten. He did not get up. It was chaos in the ring as they attempted to revive him using CPR and the crowd was hushed for a while, and began a "Misawa" chant. He turned purple in the ring and was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.

His heart stopped beating in the ring.

The wrestlers were told on the bus that he had passed away.

While it is being reported that he passed away at the hospital, he may have actually passed away in the ring.

Misawa was the Japanese high school national wrestling champion at 187 pounds in 1980, and was recruited by Giant Baba into All Japan Pro Wrestling. He gained his first taste of stardom in 1984 when he was chosen to be the second Tiger Mask. After unmasking in 1990, he became an even bigger star after a series of singles matches with Jumbo Tsuruta.

He was Japan's biggest pro wrestling star of the 90s, and one could make a strong case for him as the top wrestler of the decade. He was the Wrestler of the Year in 1995, 1997 and 1999.

After the death of Shohei "Giant" Baba, Misawa wrestled a little over one more year for All Japan Pro Wrestling, while working as company president. After consistently butting heads with owner Motoko Baba, the widow of Shohei Baba, he and 90% of the All Japan roster quit the company to form Pro Wrestling NOAH.

The movie "The Wrestler" opened tonight in Japan. Because of the finish of the movie, this has become part of the story in some outlets in Japan.

===
If anyone has ever seen Misawa wrestle in his prime in AJPW, you know he was one of the greatest workers. Wow this was sad!

Posted by: osufan2383 Jun 13 2009, 08:19 PM

i remember tolos did he also manage the beverly brothers at one point or am i wrong

Posted by: jaderock Jun 15 2009, 08:54 PM

reported here:

http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/9637/

Ted Tanabe, one of the best known referees in Japan, passed away on Monday in Japan from a heart attack.

Tanabe suffered a heart attack while officiating in a match on a Sunday show for Osaka Pro Wrestling. He was rushed to the hospital and passed away the next morning. He was 46.

Tanabe worked for several independent promotions. He probably gained his most fame during the heyday of Michinoku Pro Wrestling, where he did part of the comedy Lucha routines. He also did a heel ref gimmick during his career.

Posted by: dodgerblue38501 Jun 16 2009, 01:58 PM

That is correct! He managed them before The Genius took over.

Posted by: dodgerblue38501 Jun 16 2009, 01:59 PM

Tanabe also was the ref for one of the Japanese bouts on one of the early ECW PPVs.

Posted by: jaderock Oct 15 2009, 01:34 AM

Captain Lou Albano, long-time wrestling manager and actor who as the father of Cyndi Lauper in the "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" video helped launch the Rock & Wrestling Connection in the 80s, passed away today at the age of 76. He had been in poor health for awhile and was recently moved to hospice care.

Posted by: osufan2383 Dec 4 2009, 03:17 PM

umaga is in bad condition and it is now being reported that he possibly has died

Posted by: aceecards Dec 4 2009, 03:24 PM

Umaga..really?

Wow..

Posted by: jaderock Dec 4 2009, 03:31 PM

Bobby Lashley tweeted "A good friend is gone"

Umaga was only 36 years old.

Posted by: 5toosweet Dec 4 2009, 05:30 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Fatu

Posted by: aceecards Dec 4 2009, 05:44 PM

hmmm

But Im not dead yet!

Posted by: jaderock Dec 4 2009, 05:51 PM

That last paragraph about today has changed 4-5 time already!

Posted by: jaderock Dec 4 2009, 06:31 PM

It was confirmed ... Edward "Umaga" Fatu passed away around 6 p.m. Eastern time after suffering a second heart attack while in the hospital.

Posted by: booth9919 Dec 4 2009, 06:40 PM

Wow Thats sad

Posted by: osufan2383 Dec 4 2009, 09:23 PM

i mean i know he had a heart attack, but could it also be drug related. remember the guy had been suspended for roids and just got back frmo the hulkamania tour

Posted by: dodgerblue38501 Dec 5 2009, 03:21 AM

The family released a statement mentioning that when more information was available they would release it to the public. The statement also mentioned that the family asks that their privacy be respected during this time and not to get caught up in some of the reports out there. Sadly, something about that just doesn't sound right.

Posted by: osufan2383 Dec 5 2009, 11:53 AM

i definitely think people will respect this situation. But i mean there definitely is something more than just a heart attack at play here. Sad situation though since he was such a talented person and only 38.

Posted by: ffman Dec 7 2009, 09:24 PM

Just read about Umaga on IGN.

Posted by: aceecards Dec 7 2009, 09:42 PM

man that is horrible

Posted by: osufan2383 Dec 7 2009, 09:52 PM

did anyone see tammy lynn sytchs comment got blown up by one of the dirt sheets

Posted by: dodgerblue38501 Dec 13 2009, 12:26 AM

I didn't hear about that. What did she say?

Posted by: osufan2383 Dec 14 2009, 10:27 AM

will these guys ever learn or something along those lines and people started reporting it. she has admitted she likes to mess around with the dirt sheet guys at times, but not this time. Her husband died from the life so why would she

Posted by: osufan2383 Dec 30 2009, 07:12 PM

sadly another great died today dr death steve williams

Posted by: jaderock Dec 30 2009, 10:52 PM

Very sad news...I know his cancer came back and unfortunately it was not unexpected...he IS in my top 10 all time favorite!

--
Wrestling legend Steve Williams passes away

We are sorry to report the death of Steve "Dr. Death" Williams, an international star who was considered one of the top wrestlers in the world during the late 80s and early 90s, after a lengthy battle with cancer.

Williams, known in his heyday as one of the physically toughest men ever to compete in the industry, was 49. He passed away last night. He had been battling the disease for a number of years, first apparently beating it even with great odds against him. It came back this year and his health had worsened in the last few months.

Williams formed two of the world's best tag teams with the late Terry Gordy and with Ted DiBiase Sr., as well as a notable team with current WWE Vice President of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis. He was in particular a major star in the 90s for All Japan Pro Wrestling. He was recruited into pro wrestling by Bill Watts and was the 1982 Rookie of the Year.

Watts discovered him at the University of Oklahoma, where he was a star lineman on the football team and a four-time All-American heavyweight wrestler. Many of his peers in wrestling over the years had believed if he had not played college football and concentrated on wrestling, that he would have been a strong candidate for an Olympic gold medal in 1984 or 1988.

Posted by: dd316 Dec 31 2009, 09:28 AM

I literally just finished painting Williams on a signed jersey for a collector and mailed it off to him yesterday! I'll have pics up after he receives.

Posted by: aceecards Dec 31 2009, 10:21 AM

I read it last night !

Posted by: dodgerblue38501 Dec 31 2009, 02:14 PM

Can't wait to see it! I followed "Doc" in the early - mid 80s during his stints in the UWF and NWA. By the time he came to WWE in the late 90s his best years were behind him. If you ever want to see pro wrestling at its finest, get some of his work from Japan as a tag team with Terry Gordy. I'm still waiting for Jim Ross to issue a statement as he and Williams were very close friends.

Posted by: jaderock Mar 1 2010, 05:30 PM

The Harris County Medical Examiners office revealed the death of Edward Fatu, better known as Umaga, on 12/4, was from a heart attack caused by mixing three drugs.

Dan Morgan, the supervisory forensic investigar for Harris County, told Irv Muchnick in an e-mail, "The cause of death is acute toxicity due to combined effects of hydrocodone, carisoprodol and diazepam."

Hydrocodone would be better known as Vicodin, Carispoprodol is better known as somas, and diazepam is better known as Valium. All three are commonly used drugs by a number of pro wrestlers. Vicodin is used for pain killing, Somas as a muscle relaxer sleep aid and Valium for anxiety. They are also used as party drugs.

Fatu, who died at his home in Spring, TX, suffered a heart attack the night before that left him in bad shape, and a second heart attack in the hospital the next day. He was 36.

In June, he was released by WWE after a drug test failure and refusal to go to rehab. He died after returning from an Australian wrestling tour headlined by Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair. At the time of his death, both WWE and TNA were vying for his services and he had told people he had agreed to return to WWE.

Posted by: jaderock Mar 5 2010, 12:08 AM

Angelo Poffo, the father of Randy Savage and Lanny Poffo, passed away this past night in his sleep at the age of 84.

Poffo wrestled for about 35 years after serving in the Navy during World War II. He was a major star in the late 50s when he was the transition of bringing the Chicago-based United States heavyweight title to Detroit while working for Jim Barnett. That was the forerunner of the Detroit version of the title that The Sheik and Dick the Bruiser dominated.

He often teamed with his sons when they were breaking into the business in the 70s. In the late 1970s, the family started a promotion based in Lexington, KY, which ran opposition to the Jerry Jarrett promotion, in one of the most heated promotional wars of the era. Randy was world champion for much of the run and Lanny was his biggest rival. In the early years it was never revealed they were brothers until the feud peaked and Lanny "broke the news," which was a huge angle at the time, with Savage going crazy.

In particular, the Poffo side would go on television and make fun of the more popular Jarrett wrestlers like Jerry Lawler and Bill Dundee, challenging them to real fights. With a crew of tough guys that included Randy Savage, Ron Garvin, Bob Orton Jr. and Bob Roop, there was no possible response from the Jarrett side, although the ICW was never able to rival the more popular Jarrett group. They also tried to same approach when running television in Alabama and bad mouthing the NWA wrestlers in that territory.

Eventually, the sides settled their differences, leading to Lawler vs. Savage matches which drew huge houses everywhere, including setting a record in Lexington, where the promotional war was its hottest.

Poffo was well known in wrestling for saving and investing his money in AT&T stock, and played off it in the ICW when he worked under a mask as The Miser.

Late in his career, he wore a ring jacket with the number 6,033 on the back, because at one time he set an all-time world record by doing 6,033 sit-ups without stopping.

Posted by: jaderock Apr 3 2010, 01:41 PM

Chris Klucsaritis, who wrestled as Chris Kanyon, passed away last night from an overdose of pills at his apartment in the Sunnyside section of Queens, NY, last night. He was 40.

Klucsaritis' death is believed to be a suicide. He had been open about suffering from a bipolar disorder and had talked and threatened suicide many times in the past according to those who are close with him.

He had been talking about going through another bout with depression and taking his life earlier in the week.

Klucsaritis was trained locally in New York by Bobby Bold Eagle, and later in Columbua, SC by Lillian "Fabulous Moolah" Ellison at her home gym in Columbia, SC, and developed into an innovative and underrated wrestler. He debuted in 1992, and wrestled the bulk of his career for WCW.

He started with Mark Starr as part of a tag team "Men at Work," and later developed the Mortis gimmick. His highest profile role, including holding the WCW tag team titles, came with Diamond Dallas Page and Bam Bam Bigelow as the Jersey Triad.

During that period, he also worked in Hollywood on movie sets during a boom period for pro wrestling when the movie industry was interested in films, including on "Ready to Rumble" and a made-for-TV movie on Jesse Ventura.

He was a victim of the demise of WCW, as WWE wasn't really a good fit for him stylistically. Even though he was 6-3, he did not possess the kind of look they wanted. He was also plagued by injuries during that period and was finally released in 2004.

He attempted to get back into the major leagues doing a gimmick as the first openly gay pro wrestler, later admitting to be gay in real life. He tried to garner publicity claiming WWE fired him for being gay, but the publicity went nowhere. TNA was also not interested in the gimmick. He had wrestled sparingly in recent years, had announced a retirement, but still on occasion wrestled.

He was part of a lawsuit with Scott Levy and Mike Sanders against WWE for misclassifying wrestlers as independent contracts, but the suit was thrown out of court because the statute of limitations had expired on filing such a suit.

Posted by: 5toosweet Apr 3 2010, 02:25 PM

Thats really sad to hear. I was a big fan of Kanyon/Mortis.

WHO BETTA THAN KANYON? NOBODY!

Posted by: osufan2383 Apr 3 2010, 08:55 PM

Sad story, as much as this sounds trivia. We gotta thank Dawn Marie for he work with Wrestler's Rescue. With the possibility of these independent contractors getting health insurance maybe we will finally see alot of these guys last past their 40's.

Posted by: Gsil84 Apr 3 2010, 09:05 PM

just plain sad to see alot of the guys I watched growing up die way to young.. On a better not. Watch for me on Monday Night Raw.. I will have a sign that says "Hi Brad"..

Posted by: dodgerblue38501 Apr 4 2010, 02:07 AM

Another sad wrestling story. Kanyon was always underrated as an in ring worker in my opinion. I hope he finds the peace he was searching for.

Posted by: dd316 Apr 9 2010, 03:25 PM

I just saw him at a con not too long ago.

Posted by: jaderock Apr 14 2010, 02:46 PM

Gene "Big Thunder" Kiniski, one of the great pro wrestlers of all-time, passed away this morning at his home in Blaine, WA. Kiniski, 81, had been battling cancer for some time and his death was not a surprise.

Kiniski, a former college football player at Arizona, was a headliner from almost the start of his career in 1953. He made his name as a top heel in Canada through the nationally televised events in the 50s with a legendary feud with Whipper Billy Watson, the biggest star at the time in Canadian wrestling. He was also in the mix with names like Killer Kowalski, Yvon Robert and Edouard Carpentier when pro wrestling's popularity peaked in Montreal during the late 50s.

During his career he held the Montreal version of the world title, the AWA world title, the WWA world title and had his big run from January 7, 1966 through February 11, 1969, when he held the NWA world title. He was generally regarded as one of the best workers in the business during the 50s and 60s. He also had ownership in the Vancouver wrestling promotion until 1983. During the 60s and through the mid-70s, British Columbia had a strong local promotion featuring some of the best wrestlers of that era.

Two of his sons, Nick and Kelly, became pro wrestlers in the 80s.

Kiniski headlined a number of baseball stadium shows in many different parts of the world during his career, most notably a Montreal world title match with Kowalski, an NWA title match with Fritz Von Erich and an International title match at the old Budokan Stadium in Tokyo against Giant Baba, which is often considered the greatest match of Baba's career.

Posted by: yankeesjetsfan Apr 30 2010, 10:41 AM

Sad news. I never got to see Kninski wrestle, just ref a few matches here and there.

Mike

Posted by: aceecards Apr 30 2010, 01:06 PM

I saw kiniski live in person!

Posted by: aceecards Apr 30 2010, 01:06 PM

at least he lived a long life!

Posted by: jaderock May 9 2010, 04:05 PM

Robert "Kinji" Shibuya, who was one of pro wrestling's biggest stars of the 60s and early 70s in California, passed away this past Monday at his home in Hayward, CA, at the age of 88.

Shibuya was a San Francisco wrestling institution, headlining the Cow Palace on numerous occasions, both as a single as well as with tag team partners Mitsu Arakawa and Masa Saito. Shibuya & Arakawa were best known for matches against Nick Bockwinkel & Wilbur Snyder and Ray Stevens & Don Manoukian during the heyday of San Francisco wrestling when the Cow Palace was the hottest wrestling arena in the United States.

He also dabbled in acting, and was well known after his retirement in the late 70s for raising koi fish.

Robert Shibuya played the stereotypical Japanese heel role, but he was actually from Utah, and was a college football star in the 40s at the University of Hawaii.

During the mid-60s, when he held the United States heavyweight championship, he was generally considered one of the top ten stars in the industry.

Posted by: dodgerblue38501 Sep 15 2010, 11:30 PM

This thread hasn't been updated much recently. Over the last couple of months the wrestling world has lost Lance Cade, Luna Vachon, and Mike Shaw (AKA Norman the Lunatic and Bastion Booger).

Posted by: osufan2383 Sep 16 2010, 08:43 PM

bastion booger was not surprising he was a big boy and he looked the same a few months ago at LOTR. the others were though

Posted by: aceecards Sep 16 2010, 09:18 PM

Lance cade died?

when and what of

Posted by: dodgerblue38501 Sep 17 2010, 12:09 AM

I pulled this blurb that I wrote from another site:

Former WWE Star, Lance Cade, real name Lance McNaught, passed away Friday due to heart problems. He had been complaining that he wasn't feeling well lately to those close to him and had mentioned that he had been having trouble breathing. He was 29 years old. Doctors said he suffered from an enlarged heart and he had quite a lot of fluid build up in the days leading up to his death. He is best known for the tag team he formed with Trevor Murdoch that had a decent run including a couple of tag team championships. He was released by WWE last year after an incident on an international flight in which he was "in no condition to perform" at that night's event. He was re-signed this year and sent to WWE developmental in Florida before being released again a couple months ago. He is survived by his wife and three children.

Posted by: dodgerblue38501 Sep 17 2010, 12:11 AM

I also must mention that one of the legendary heel managers of the 70s and 80s, particularly in the Dallas based World Class Championship Wrestling territory, Gen. Skandar Akbar also passed recently. I still remember his heel stable feuding with the Von Erich boys in the mid 80s when I first discovered all these "other" wrestling promotions via our family's new satellite dish.

Posted by: osufan2383 Sep 26 2010, 09:29 AM

El Gigante or Giant Gonzales passed away this weekend at 44.

Posted by: dodgerblue38501 Sep 27 2010, 11:40 AM

That is sad to hear. He had a lot of health issues that lead to his retirement from the industry. I think he was either diabetic or had a kidney disease.