Nikolai Volkoff & Brian Christopher R.I.P.

[lucifer]

WWE reporting that Volkoff passed away at age 70. Multiple online sources report that Brian “Grand Master Sexay” Christopher died at age 46 apparently after hanging himself in his jail cell. Sad day.

[TTX]

Brickhouse Brown passed from cancer as well.

[Justin Case]

Didn't hear about Christopher! 46 is way too young! 😔

[TTX]

He attempted suicide and while it didn't take, did enough damage. Very sad as he was key to connecting FG with Jackie Fargo's daughter.

[Sam Fain]

Over on the KoPW (my podcast) twitter, I put these together. Thought I'd share:

Brian Christopher was the son of wrestling royalty & arguably 1 of the more purely entertaining performers of the attitude era. Lots of cliches & head-shaking will accompany his story's end over the next few days, perhaps appropriately so. But he gave us lots of smiles & laughs & was one of the few standouts in WWE's Lt Hvywt division. Of course, his tag team w/ Scott Taylor & later adding Rikishi will be his legacy. If you watched during the attitude era, they left their mark & you were entertained.

Nikolai Volkoff was literally one of the first heels I ever hated. I was 3 years old when the 5/10/85 SNME aired. And I remember (one of my earliest ones, to be sure) my parents getting me the thumb wrestlers of Hogan & Volkoff to play with while watching the famous Flag Match. He embodied so much of what a cold war heel was supposed to be at a time when wrestling was getting more exposure than every before. He may be the iconic USSR heel for many, though there were others before & better in-ring performers, if you were a child of the 80s, you knew him.

Brickhouse Brown was a top heel in the twilight days of southern territorial wrestling. He even toppled Jerry Lawler in Memphis for the AWA Southern title. He spent time in the USWA & WCCW before working the independents in TN & MS up until being diagnosed with cancer. His death was widely misreported over a week ago, but he seemed to respond with good humor, simply saying he was hungry. Slam has a beautiful article about his recent appearance at the CAC: slam.canoe.com/Slam/Wrestling/2018/05/02/22777427.html

[cruefan68]

Incredibly sad news, RIP to all three and condolences to the families. I have been watching Nikolai Volkoff on WWWF TV circa 1979 on WWE Network and have been enjoying seeing him during that time, prior to his more well known run as partner of the Iron Sheik. Ironically the Iron Sheik is on these shows as well as the Great Hossein Arab with both managed or advised by Fred Blassie, but not teaming, and the same group would reunite for a WWF tag title run in 1985.

[Vegas]

Jul 29, 2018 17:04:53 GMT -5 Sam Fain said:

Over on the KoPW (my podcast) twitter, I put these together. Thought I'd share:

Brian Christopher was the son of wrestling royalty & arguably 1 of the more purely entertaining performers of the attitude era. Lots of cliches & head-shaking will accompany his story's end over the next few days, perhaps appropriately so. But he gave us lots of smiles & laughs & was one of the few standouts in WWE's Lt Hvywt division. Of course, his tag team w/ Scott Taylor & later adding Rikishi will be his legacy. If you watched during the attitude era, they left their mark & you were entertained.

Nikolai Volkoff was literally one of the first heels I ever hated. I was 3 years old when the 5/10/85 SNME aired. And I remember (one of my earliest ones, to be sure) my parents getting me the thumb wrestlers of Hogan & Volkoff to play with while watching the famous Flag Match. He embodied so much of what a cold war heel was supposed to be at a time when wrestling was getting more exposure than every before. He may be the iconic USSR heel for many, though there were others before & better in-ring performers, if you were a child of the 80s, you knew him.

Brickhouse Brown was a top heel in the twilight days of southern territorial wrestling. He even toppled Jerry Lawler in Memphis for the AWA Southern title. He spent time in the USWA & WCCW before working the independents in TN & MS up until being diagnosed with cancer. His death was widely misreported over a week ago, but he seemed to respond with good humor, simply saying he was hungry. Slam has a beautiful article about his recent appearance at the CAC: slam.canoe.com/Slam/Wrestling/2018/05/02/22777427.html

Along with Chad Olson and Tim Dalton, I was in attendance for Brickhouse Brown's speech at the CAC that the article you linked discusses. It was definitely a very moving and emotional speech. I was really hoping he would recover. At Galacticon earlier this month in Pittsburgh, I actually picked up from the offered free DVD stack a DVD of Brickhouse Brown's complete first season of Brickhouse TV.

Very sad news about Brickhouse Brown, Nikolai Volkoff, and Brian Christopher today. RIP.