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Former Mat Star Escapes Fatal Three Count In Heart Battle

Posted: Feb 13th 2011 By: CMBurnham

Dutch Savage wrestled and promoted in the Pacific Northwest.

That inborn toughness served the 76-year-old well during a recent bout with heart surgery.

Toughness and, he?s quick to add, a little divine intervention.

?I had four stents, four bypasses and two valves put in. This heart was getting old and beat up,? says Savage, now an ordained pastor who teaches King James scripture on public access cable out of Portland, Ore.

Savage, who lives on a farm in the mountains of southwest Washington state, close to Mount St. Helen?s, says he was out in the woods cutting fallen timber when he began experiencing shortness of breath.

?I still feel like I?m in fairly good shape for an old man. But I had to sit down every four of five minutes. I wasn?t paying too much attention to it. And then this gal who?s in my wife?s sewing circle told me I had better get to the hospital because she had just lost her husband because of something similar.?

Persistent ?nagging,? jokes Savage, along with a forceful nudge from his wife, convinced him to follow up on the advice. He was immediately admitted and prepped for surgery after being examined by a cardiologist.

Savage underwent surgery on Dec. 13 and wasn?t told until a week later that he barely escaped a fatal three count.

?They put three tubes underneath your heart when they open up the rib cage to go in to work on the heart,? he explains. ?One tube is to clear the mucous out of your lungs and your esophagus because it produces an extraordinary amount when they?re operating on you.

?Well, somebody wasn?t paying attention, because when they took me off life support and were putting me back into intensive care, a nurse happened to notice that one of the tubes was still in there when they started to pull the tube out. The doctor had already left. The tube slipped and went back down into my throat. All of that mucous went back down.?

His wife, who was watching the procedure, screamed for help as life slowly left Savage?s body.

?My tongue went back into my head and I turned purple,? says Savage. ?Everything stopped. They lost me.?

?But as the Lord would have it, there was a pulmonary guy in the audience watching the operation,? he says. ?This pulmonary expert, who the Lord had sitting there, saved my life. What was he doing there? They didn?t need him. All of a sudden he comes in and he sends a camera down there, finds the mucous and pulls it all out. They get me back on life support and pull me through.?

?The Lord blessed it all. I?m here for a reason,? he says.

Savage, who in his prime as a wrestler during the ?60s and ?70 stood a towering 6-4 and tipped the scales at 270 pounds, has lost 42 pounds since the surgery and is now down to a ?slim? 228.

He says he?s still ?in the recovery process.?

?All the pain has gone. I?m still just a little bit queasy. When they put your ribs back together, they wire them back together, and they go from one rib to the next rib to the next rib, all the way down your rib cage. They pull it together with a machine. The healing process takes about a year for the flesh to grow over the wires.?

-- Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews, who appeared on last week?s Smackdown, told the Colin Cowherd show on Friday that he was more nervous about his WWE appearance than he was about playing in the Super Bowl.

Matthews, who joked that he might have a second career waiting for him if the ?NFL thing? doesn?t work out, added that his WWE ring entrance was more exciting than being introduced at Lambeau Field.

-- Top college football prospect Jadeveon Clowney, who reliable sources indicate is headed to Columbia, sounds more and more like he could have a future in pro wrestling as well.

Not only does the 18-year-old phenom have size and athleticism, he already has shown a flair for the dramatic and is a lightning rod for controversy.

-- Former Oklahoma football great Marcus Dupree was scheduled to don the tights at a benefit pro wrestling show this weekend in his hometown of Philadelphia, Miss.

Dupree was slated to team with Davey Rich against Tommy ?Wildfire? Rich and Doug Gilbert for the local tag-team title.

?A lot of people remember the old Mid-South Wrestling cards when Cowboy Bill Watts used to run it,? Dupree, 46, said. ?I?m trying to bring it back. We are going to start off with one match a month in Philadelphia.?

Dupree, who will play the role of a heel, worked some pro wrestling shows in the early 1990s with Jerry Lawler in the Memphis area.

WWE Hall of Famer and OU?s biggest fan, Jim Ross, recently called Dupree ?potentially the greatest running back that never became a true star.?

?Marcus Dupree was the greatest, college freshman running back that I ever saw play and that includes Herschel Walker and Bo Jackson ... not to mention a kid by the name of Adrian Peterson,? said Ross.

-- Triple H was noncommittal regarding a timetable for his return to the ring during an interview with IGN.com last week.

He said that he?s continuing to promote his new movie, ?The Chaperone,? through the company and he?ll be back ?sooner than later.?

He also said the recent return of Kevin Nash and Booker T adds a nostalgic spark to the product.

?You know, I don?t think either of those guys are looking to do things full-time, but it?s great nostalgia stuff for the fans. If you were a fan 15 years ago or so and Diesel walks out, it?s like reliving your youth. And seeing this guy who you haven?t seen in a long time is great. Kevin?s still in phenomenal shape and so is Booker. So it?s pretty exciting for the fans.?

Trips may have exaggerated slightly, though, with his nostalgic analogy.

?I don?t think it?s something that they want to see them do every day, but if you?re a baseball fan and you get the opportunity to watch Babe Ruth take a turn at bat, you?d be thrilled. You wouldn?t want to see him play the whole game probably, but seeing him take a turn at bat would be a lot of fun. I think that?s kind of what we have the ability to offer people.?

-- The legendary Gorgeous George (George Wagner) was selected as the fourth ?coolest athlete? in Los Angeles sports history according to a list published last week in the L.A. Times.

George, who was described as one of the first TV stars in U.S. history starting in the 1940s, followed Sandy Koufax, Magic Johnson and Johnny Weissmuller on the list.

?Gorgeous George was the original, a professional wrestler who emerged in the late 1940s with an act later ripped off by Muhammad Ali, James Brown and Hulk Hogan,? the article stated. ?Wagner?s magnetism drew crowds outside appliance stores to catch his early KTLA television performances from the Olympic Auditorium. Entertainment Weekly named his 1947 TV debut one of the top 100 televised moments of the 20th century.?

-- Sun Life Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins, will host next year?s Wrestlemania. The announcement was made Wednesday at a press conference at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach.

WWE owner Vince McMahon, along with a number of WWE performers including John Cena, were joined by various city officials, actor Emilio Estefan and former Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino in making the announcement.

Jim Ross was among those who expressed concern about the outdoor event.

?I have mixed emotions about Wrestlemania 28 going outdoors with no dome to protect the event from the elements and to retain the crowd noise,? Ross posted on his blog at jrsbarbq.com. ?I have been to the stadium in Miami for several games and it can get loud there, so perhaps the noise issue may be less of an issue than some perceive. Bottom line about WM28 ... being in South Florida during the last week of March until early April can?t be all bad.?

Over the past three years, Wrestlemania and the events surrounding it has generated nearly $150 million in cumulative economic impact for the host cities. Last year, 72,219 fans from all 50 states and 26 countries converged on the University of Phoenix Stadium for Wrestlemania 26.

-- South Carolina native Big Show (Paul Wight) predicted that former University of Miami football player The Rock will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame next year.

?You look at the impact The Rock had on our industry from the short time he has been in the business to the megastar he is today,? Show told the Miami Herald. ?I think if anyone deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, I?m sure The Rock does.?

?That is a guy who is legendary and deserves every bit of his success. Plus, Dwayne Johnson is one of the finest and nicest people I met in my life,? Show added. ?There are a lot of guys that you meet in this business. There are people you don?t like and people you do like. I have incredible respect for Dwayne and his entire family. I respect the man and the character he has. He?s awesome.?

-- Ric Flair, who suffered a torn rotator cuff during TNA?s recent European tour, has decided to postpone surgery in order to continue his storyline in the evolving Immortal-Fortune program.

-- Sting was removed from the TNA roster page last week, but there?s no definitive word on which way he?s leaning.

Jim Ross continues to downplay rumors of the Stinger jumping to WWE.

?I do not think that Sting is going to sign with WWE and wrestle Undertaker at WM27 ... I?m fairly certain that if Sting and WWE wanted to do business together that it would get done.?

-- UWO (Underground Wrestling Organization) will hold a show 7-10 p.m. Feb. 24 at Palmetto Bar & Grill, 113 Santee Lane, Walterboro. Admission is free.

Main event pits Sterling Silverman challenging Perfection Selection in a ladder match for the UWO heavyweight title. Also featured: Kurtis Spade vs. Asylum in a no rules match; Mike Maddnezz vs. D. Lee vs. L.A. RaZa in a three-way dance; and two tag-team bouts to determine the first-ever UWO tag-team champions.

For more information, call 843-906-9782.