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Wrestling Mourns Passing Of Gary Hart

Posted: Mar 26th 2008 By: CMBurnham

Another wrestling legend has passed.

?Playboy? Gary Hart, a longtime manager, promoter and booker within the world of professional wrestling, passed away March 16 at the age of 66.

While Hart was an influential man behind the scenes, most wrestling fans remember the bald-headed evil-doer as the manager of a host of World Class Championship Wrestling bad guys such as Gino Hernandez and the Great Kabuki.

During his decades of serves to the business, Hart also guided the careers of the Great Muta, Bruiser Brody, Terry Funk, the One Man Gang, Chris Adams, Dusty Rhodes and others.

Hart?s microphone work was beyond compare and his ability to get the fans riled up with the simplest of phrases made him the top of the heel managers at a time that Mr. Fuji, Bobby Heenan and ?Classy? Freddie Blassie were still manning ringside.

While Hart hadn?t been seen on television in many years, he was still a presence. He appeared on both the WWE DVD release ?The Triumph and Tragedy of World Class Championship Wrestling? and the independent DVD release ?Heroes of World Class: The Story of the Von Erichs and The Rise and Fall of World Class Championship Wrestling.?

I?ve seen both and both offer their share of great features. If you want to see Hart at his best, check out the Heroes disc. His emotion in discussing the loss of the Von Erich boys and his former ward Hernandez is true and you can see just how painful it is today to talk about those losses as it was 20 years ago.

Hart was truly a unique individual and it?s a shame they don?t make more men like him. Pro wrestling needs more great speakers whose words, not their actions, can make an angle move.

Tags: Gary Hart, Gino Hernandez, Great Kabuki, Bruiser Brody, One Man Gang, Chris Adams, Dusty Rhodes, Von Erichs