CURRENT WHEREABOUTS AND FINAL RESTING PLACES
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Whatever happened to (insert former WCCW worker's name here)?
The information in this list (last updated
6/22/08) comes from numerous sources, and from several "friends of friends". Any incorrect information is in no way intended maliciously, and corrections or updates are more than welcome.
Brian Adias is no longer involved in the wrestling industry. He lives in the Arlington, Texas area, where he sells exercise equipment.
General Skandor Akbar runs a wrestling school at Doug's Gym in the downtown Dallas area, which showcases a number of his students at various shows around Texas and Louisiana.
Andrea the Lady Giant (Nickla Roberts) currently resides in
North Carolina with her two daughters, and still appears at independent wrestling shows.
Ted Arcidi is living in Manchester, New Hampshire where he owns and operates a gym. He often appears on ESPN doing color and interviews during various "World's Strongest Man" competitions. Ted also resells used fitness equipment and runs a women's gym.
Tony Atlas remains active in competitive powerlifting and works as a personal trainer at a gym in Maine. He promotes local area wrestling shows and is an active volunteer in attempting to keep children away from drugs.
Brian Blair lives in the northern Florida area. In 2004, Blair was elected County Commissioner, District 6 of Hillsborough County, Florida.
Killer Tim Brooks lives in Waxahachie, Texas where he runs a wrestling school. He promotes a number of independent shows and still wrestles on occasion.
Brickhouse Brown continues to wrestle in the independent promotions around Tennessee and Mississippi.
King Kong Bundy still works independent wrestling shows on weekends.
Scott Casey lives in Las Vegas, where he works security for the Luxor. Casey had worked as a trainer for a wrestling school in the city that recently closed.
Steve Cox resides and runs his own business in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He wrestled for the Japan based shoot wrestling promotion UWFi in the early 1990's.
The Dingo (Ultimate) Warrior is now a regular on the college lecture circuit, focusing on college Republicans, and is a motivational speaker.
He is scheduled to wrestle his first match since October 1998 against
Orlando Jordan in Barcelona, Spain on June 25 for the Nu-Wrestling
Evolution promotion.
Bill Dundee still lives in Tennessee and wrestles for various
indy promotions.
Eli the Eliminator is in the construction business in Indiana.
Eric Embry is a licensed electrician and recently ran for jailer in a town in Kentucky.
Stella Mae French lives in the Amarillo, TX area and is retired from the industry.
Jimmy Jack Funk (Jesse Barr) currently
works in the construction business in Portland, Oregon.
"Fantastic" Bobby Fulton is now an ordained minister and runs the Ohio-based Big Time Wrestling
indy promotion. His former partner, Tommy Rogers, underwent hip replacement surgery in January 2007 and has retired from the ring.
Jimmy Garvin and his wife Patti (Precious) live in Charlotte, North Carolina. Jimmy is a licensed pilot, and both he and Patti are involved in a ministry for the poor and homeless. In October 2006, Jimmy was hired as a member of WWE Creative, but resigned after only a few days.
Syndicated TV producer Mickey Grant is now a
documentary filmmaker.
His recent works include the as yet unreleased Gentleman's Choice
(on the rise and fall of WCCW star Chris Adams) and Injection
(dealing with the spread of HIV/AIDS via reused hypodermic needles).
The Great Kabuki owns a restaurant in Tokyo. He is now semi-retired and works behind the scenes for the New Japan promotion.
Michael Hayes currently works for WWE as head writer for Smackdown, and co-hosts WWE 24-7's WCCW rebroadcasts along with Kevin Von Erich.
Rick Hazzard was long believed to be deceased, even by some
of his former
WCCW colleagues. However, according to Dennis Condrey, who says that he
spoke with Rick via phone in April 2007,
the former referee is alive and well and working as finance manager for a Pelham,
AL car dealership. Rick's
name has now been removed from our In Memoriam
page -- which we are very happy to be able to do!
Phil Hickerson (P.Y. Chu-Hi), along with Shane Connor, co-hosts
the Shane and
Phil Hometown Morning Show on WWYN-FM in Jackson, TN.
Manager "Gentleman" Jim Holliday now runs a karaoke business in
Myrtle Beach, FL.
Missy Hyatt works for various indy promotions as a wrestler and
valet, runs several websites (see the Links
page), and writes a regular column for the
Wrestling Observer/Figure Four
Weekly site.
Bill Irwin now lives in Duluth, Minnesota, where he runs a
medical construction business for Mike Morrow (former USWA/GWF
wrestler Mike Blackheart).
Kamala currently runs his own trucking business and still wrestles occasionally.
He has also launched a singing career; a CD of his songs is
available from his official website.
Referee John Keaton is currently an American Airlines
executive. He lives in Oklahoma.
Killer Khan now runs a
restaurant in Tokyo.
Marc Lowrance is a pastor at a Methodist church in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
Al Madril is a security guard at a hospital in the Los Angeles area.
David Manning
is now president and CEO of Traverus Travel. He remains a close friend of the Adkisson family, and was co-host along with Kevin Von Erich for the 2004 Best of the Von Erichs DVD.
Bill Mercer is still active in sports broadcasting.
His memoir of his career, Play-by-Play: Tales from a Sports
Broadcasting Insider, was published in September 2007.
Nord the Barbarian,
until recently, worked for a Minnesota car dealership which,
according to reports, is now out of business.
One Man Gang is a prison guard for the State of Louisiana.
Iceman King Parsons still works independent shows in Texas. He was involved in a serious auto accident a few years ago which severely injured his back, but thankfully seems to have recovered from its effects.
Al Perez made a brief comeback a
few years ago for a Pennsylvania independent promotion. Perez still lives in Tampa, FL where he
works as a delivery driver for United Parcel Service.
Rod Price now works for a plumbing company in the New Orleans
area.
Percy Pringle III lives in Alabama, where he operated Gulf South Wrestling until it closed in May 2007. He is currently signed to a Legends contract with WWE.
The Real Thing (Rip Morgan) currently runs the Kiwi Pro Wrestling promotion, along with "Bushwhacker" Butch Miller, in Wellington, New Zealand.
Butch Reed occasionally wrestles for Harley Race's Missouri promotion, and is still involved in the rodeo business.
Buddy Roberts survived a scare with throat cancer in the late 1990's but, thankfully, is now cancer-free. He currently lives near Chicago.
Steve and Shaun Simpson own a chain of mattress stores in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
Sunshine now lives with her husband and daughter in the Tampa area.
John Tatum lives in Pensacola, Florida where he
and his family operate the Pensacola Interstate Fair. The property is used both for the annual fair and for other exhibitions and events.
Terry Taylor works with TNA as an agent. He currently lives in Atlanta.
Kevin Von Erich, along with most of his immediate family, moved to Hawaii in January 2007. He currrently appears as co-host (with Michael Hayes) on WWE
24-7's rebroadcasts of the syndicated WCCW show. He became a
first time grandfather in 2004 when daughter Kristen gave birth to a
girl; she and husband Joey Nikolas are now the proud parents of twin
sons as well! Kevin still keeps in close touch with his late brother Kerry's family.
Lance Von Erich is still living with his wife in South Africa.
George Weingeroff, who was legitimately legally blind at the
time of his World Class stint, has reportedly had most of his vision
restored via surgery. He now runs a school for the visually
impaired and has a successful vending machine business in the
Nashville area.
Steve "Dr. Death" Williams is currently a WWE road agent.
Gary Young appeared a few years back on the Montel Williams Show, reuniting with a daughter he had not seen in years. He currently manages a restaurant in
North Little Rock, Arkansas.
Chris Youngblood lives in Amarillo, Texas,
where he runs Romero's Academy of Wrestling and promotes shows.
Where are the Von Erichs (or other deceased wrestlers who worked in Dallas-Fort Worth) buried? You may click the links below for information on the gravesites of departed Big Time and World Class Wrestling stars at findagrave.com. Andre the Giant,
Nancy Benoit, Bobo Brazil, Bruiser Brody, Pepper Gomez,
Wahoo McDaniel,
Bob Orton Sr., Johnny Valentine, Tim Woods and Jay Youngblood were cremated; Sylvester "Junkyard Dog" Ritter, according to Dave Meltzer, is buried in a Wadesboro, NC cemetery (the town of "Wallful", listed at Find-a-Grave, does not seem to exist). The remaining performers not shown below are either buried in unknown locations or have no listing on the site.
Chris Adams: Oak Grove Memorial Gardens, Irving, TX Ray Candy (Superfly): Washington Memorial Gardens, Decatur, GA Dan Coates (KTVT announcer): Mount Olivet Cemetery, Fort Worth, TX Tiger Conway Sr.: Houston Memorial Gardens, Pearland, TX Rick Davidson (Red River Jack II): Greenwood Memorial Park, Fort Worth, TX Mike Davis: Holly Hills Memorial Park, Granbury, TX
Fabulous Moolah:
Greenwood Cemetery, Greenwood, SC
Rick "Buster Blackheart" Fowler:
Brock Cemetery, Brock, TX
The Great Goliath: Palm Memorial Park Northwest, Las Vegas, NV Terry Gordy:
Tennessee-Georgia Memorial Park Cemetery, Rossville, GA
Crazy Luke Graham:
Bethesda Cemetery, Lexington, GA
Ray Gunkel: Arlington Memorial Park, Sandy Springs, GA
Gary Hart:
Bear Creek Cemetery, Euless, TX
Lord Alfred Hayes: Christ Methodist Cemetery, Plano, TX Gino Hernandez: Memorial Oaks Cemetery, Houston, TX Hercules Hernandez: Florida National Cemetery, Bushnell, FL
Arman Hussein:
Muslim Cemetery, Krum, TX (no Find-a-Grave listing) Ernie Ladd: Franklin Cemetery, Franklin, LA
Bronko Lubich:
Restland
Memorial Park, Dallas, TX
Chief Peter Maivia: Diamond Head Memorial Park, Honolulu, HI Harvey Martin: Restland Memorial Park, Dallas, TX Sputnik Monroe: National Cemetery, Pineville, LA
Dick Murdoch:
Dreamland Cemetery, Canyon, TX
Jeff Raitz: Haven of Memories Cemetery, Canton, TX
Dewey "The Missing Link" Robertson:
Woodland Cemetery, Burlington, OH
Rick Rude: Green Lawn Cemetery, Roswell, GA Buzz Sawyer: Palm Beach Memorial Park, Boynton Beach, FL Bobby Shane: Laurel Hill Memorial Gardens, Pagedale, MO The Sheik: Mount Calvary
Catholic Cemetery, Williamston, MI
Dave "Angel of Death" Sheldon:
Bear Creek Cemetery, Euless, TX Big John Studd: Fairfax Memorial Park, Fairfax, VA
Billy Travis:
Resthaven Cemetery, Corbin, KY
Fritz, David, Kerry, Mike and Chris Von Erich: Grove Hill Memorial Park, Dallas, TX
...And finally, although he only made a handful of appearances in Dallas-Fort Worth during the era covered by this website, there is one more giant of the sport whose final resting place -- or should we say, final resting places -- are worth noting here. According to Kit Bauman (who assisted the late Lou Thesz with the writing of his autobiography, Hooker), in a post at the Dallas Historical Society message board: A point of interest for some of you is the fact that some of legendary wrestler Lou Thesz's ashes were spread among the empty wine bottles and trash that litter the site of the Sportatorium today. I know it's true, because I'm the one who did it. He was a close friend, and his widow thought it was a fine idea to spread Lou's ashes at the site of many of his favorite wrestling venues. So, with the help of several people, we've left some of Lou not only in Dallas but in Miami, Houston, St. Louis and Hawaii. |