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Gone but not forgotten: Professional wrestling lost memorable names in 2015

Posted: Dec 30th 2015 By: Mike Mooneyham

It?s an appropriate time to reflect upon some of the pro wrestling personalities who passed away in 2015.

Many represented an era that will forever be etched in the memories of longtime fans.

They touched our lives in many ways. For those of us lucky enough to see them perform, we will never forget them.

They were athletes and performers who lived by the credo that ?the show must go on.?

Some lived out of a suitcase, spending more than 300 days a year on the road, working the territorial circuits during a time when the profession was much different than it is today.

Others never got to realize their full potential.

Some died far too young.

The year was a particularly painful one for the pro wrestling community, which said goodbye to legends Dusty Rhodes, Roddy Piper, Verne Gagne and Nick Bockwinkel.

Rhodes, who passed away on June 11 at the age of 69, was one of the greatest characters to ever step inside a wrestling ring. He was much more than a wrestling icon. He was a household name that had long transcended the wrestling business. He was, simply put, a force of nature.

?He was an American hero. He gave us The Dream,? said 16-time world champion Ric Flair, one of Rhodes? most famous ring rivals.

Longtime wrestling broadcaster Jim Ross called Rhodes ?arguably the most charismatic performer of all time.?

?His amazing unique verbal styling will never be duplicated or exceeded. He was exactly what he portrayed on TV: a blue-collar common man, who rose from being the son of a plumber to being a part of American pop culture, whose memory will live forever. Therefore, for many, he was truly the American dream.?

The charismatic Piper, one of wrestling?s all-time great interviews, was only 61 when he died in his sleep of cardiac arrest at his Hollywood home on July 30.

Piper?s phenomenal success also transcended the wrestling business. He became a crossover celebrity whose charisma would attract Hollywood?s attention and would star in a number of movies and direct-to-video action films.

?Rowdy? Roddy Piper trash-talked his way to the main event of the first Wrestlemania and later found movie stardom.

Although pro wrestling had afforded Piper fame and fortune, he had been a vocal critic of what he called ?the sickness? ? the overbearing life of being on the road and addiction to fame, and the industry?s track record of young deaths.

While the wrestling business had a great entrance plan, said Piper, it lacked an exit plan. Some 12 years before his death, Piper predicted he?d never see 65 in an interview with HBO?s ?Real Sports.?

?What would you have me do at 49 when my pension plan, I can?t take out until I?m 65. I?m not gonna make 65 ? let?s face facts, guys,? said Piper, who admitted a 20-year cycle of abusing alcohol, cocaine, painkillers and steroids.

?Piper never won a world championship, but he didn?t need to,? it was written in the New York Times Magazine. ?He was the WWE?s hero, his energy a shot of adrenaline into wrestling?s weary heart.?

Gagne, who passed away at the age of 89 after an extended battle with Alzheimer?s disease, was an Olympic-caliber athlete who excelled in football and wrestling in college, and parlayed those skills to the pro wrestling arena where for decades he was one of the sport?s most celebrated performers and promoters.

The straight-laced, no-nonsense Gagne wore many hats during his lengthy career in the Midwest-based American Wrestling Association ? as president, owner and main-event star. He held the AWA world title 10 times between 1960 and 1981 and was champion for a record 10 years during that period.

Even into his 70s, only Father Time and the changing tide of the wrestling business were able to slow him down. And later, but much more cruelly, Alzheimer?s disease robbed him of his mind and bountiful memories.

Nick Bockwinkel, who passed away Nov. 14 at the age of 80, left behind a huge void in the wrestling business that sadly will never be filled.

Truly one of the greatest practitioners of the past half century, the charismatic Bockwinkel brought to the game a touch of class as well as a masterful artistry and respect that was passed down by his father, wrestling great Warren Bockwinkel, and his trainer, the legendary Lou Thesz.

Bockwinkel understood ring psychology like few others, and his claim as ?the smartest wrestler alive? could easily have been a shoot.

His former manager and partner in crime, Bobby ?The Brain? Heenan, once quipped that if you asked Bockwinkel what time it was, he?d tell you how to build a clock.

Bockwinkel always carried himself like a champion, and was just shy of his 52nd birthday when he battled to a 60-minute draw with Curt Hennig on ESPN in a match that was hailed as one of the greatest of the 1980s.

?Professor? Elliot Maron never worked a wrestling match, but he was a character as unique as the business he fell in love with the night he witnessed his first live match at Madison Square Garden more than 50 years ago.

The Professor, as he was known to his many wrestling friends over several decades, passed away at the age of 64.

Maron spent a lifetime following pro wrestling and its colorful characters ? from world champions like Bruno Sammartino all the way down the card to the enhancement talent whose job was to make the main-eventers look good.

?If it wasn?t for the nobodies in wrestling, the somebodies would be nobodies,? reasoned the self-proclaimed professor. ?I gave that quote to (the late) Ox Baker. Ox said, ?Professor Elliot, I like it and I?m going to steal it from you,? ? Maron recalled.

?Professor Elliot was one of those grand, fantastic characters in our world and he was beloved, believe me, by the boys back then,? said longtime wrestling photojournalist Mike Lano. ?They don?t make them like Elliot anymore.?

?There may be a hundred thousand wrestlers throughout the world, but there?s only one Professor Elliot,? echoed Bruno Sammartino.

Among those we said goodbye to in 2015:

Dottie Downs (Dorothy Lee Johnson), Jan. 8; age 78; Ben Doon McDonald (Drew McDonald), Feb. 9, 59; Tony Charles (Tony Charles Scott), Feb. 13, 75; Tito Carreon, Feb. 8, 84; Perro Aguayo Jr. (Perro Aguayo Ramirez), March 21, 35; Steve Rickard (Sydney Batt), April 5, 85; Ron Wright, April 21, 76; Verne Gagne, April 27, 89; Ashura Hara (Susumu Haru), April 28, 68; Tommy Rogers (Thomas Couch), June 1, 54; Dusty Rhodes (Virgil Runnels Jr.), June 11, 69; Barbara Baker (Barbara Collins), June 12, 82; Cora Combs (Cora Szostecki), June 21, 92; Buddy Landel (William Ensor), June 22, 53; Daisy Mae (Nancy Taylor Lewis), June 23, 85; Karl Von Kramer (Jack Land), June 30, 84; Fred Hornby, July 15, 76; Roddy Piper (Roderick Toombs), July 30, 61; Duke Myers, Aug. 22; Marie Darnell (Sylvia Marie Clarke), Aug. 24, 78; ?Professor? Elliot Maron, Aug. 27, 64; Percival A. Friend (Al Friend), Sept. 23, 70; Robbie Rage, Sept. 28, 54; Bill Bowman, Oct. 6, 82; Donnie Fargo (Donald Kalt), Nov. 8, 85; Nick Bockwinkel, Nov. 14, 80; Oly Olsen (Todd Olsen), Nov. 18, 58; Tommy Gilbert, Nov. 26, 75; Stan Holek, Nov. 29, 82; Hack Myers (Donald Haviland), Dec. 7, 41.