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Chris Candido passes away

Posted: Apr 29th 2005 By: oklastaff

Oklafan was sad to learn of the death of former NWA World Champion Chris Candido. Candido, who made his most recent appearance in Oklahoma at the NWA Oklahoma show in September of 2004, was a highly versatile competitor. He worked in Eastern Championship Wrestling during its early days, capturing the Tag Team Titles as one-half of the Suicide Blondes. A jump to Smoky Mountain Wrestling followed, where Candido and Brian Lee were Tag Team Champions twice, involved in a feud with the Rock-N-Roll Express.

Candido then jumped to national prominence by moving to the WWF and joining with real-life girlfriend Tammy Sytch as the Bodydonnas, Skip & Sunny. Adding Dr. Tom Prichard to their group (as Zip), they captured the WWF World Tag Team Titles in 1996 and enjoyed a 4 month reign. But as Sunny became more and more of a star in the WWF, Candido sank lower & lower. Perhaps his "greatest" moment came when he lost to Barry Horowitz on TV.

Candido would soon return to ECW after this, joining with Shane Douglas & Bam Bam Bigelow to form Douglas? new Triple Threat. Teaming with Lance Storm, they captured the ECW World Tag Team Title from Doug Furnas & Phil LaFon and holding them for 6 months in 1998. The arrival of Tammy Sytch back in ECW began to lead to his downfall there, however.

Candido?s next national exposure was in WCW, when he won a match over 5 other competitors to capture the vacant WCW World Cruiserweight Title. He would lose this title to in a tag team match, where he teamed with Tammy against Crowbar & Daffney.

Candido floated around the independent circuit until he got in touch with Dusty Rhodes and came to NWA-TNA. He was associated with The Naturals there and also had an outstanding match with A.J. Styles. Candido had adopted more of an advisory capacity for The Naturals in recent weeks leading up to their PPV "Lockdown". He suffered a freak ankle & leg injury during a match that opened that show and had to have surgery to insert a metal plate and screws. He was expected to be out at least 2 months, although he stated he hoped to be back in ring shape to compete at the Hardcore Homecoming event in Philadephia and the ECW PPV in June. His injury also took him off the IZW cards in Oklahoma City & Lawton, where he has been replaced by Rodney Begnaud & Jazz.

Oklafan joins the rest of the world in mourning Candido?s death.

Tags: NWA, NWA-OK, ECW, Brian Lee, Rock-N-Roll Express, WWF, Shane Douglas, Bam Bam Bigelow, Doug Furnas, WCW, Dusty Rhodes, TNA, Naturals, A. J. Styles, IZW