R.I.P WRESTLING DEATHS 2021

[jimsteel]

Indy and 2nd generation wrestler Donnie York Jr passed away.

His father Donnie York Sr also wrestled

[jimsteel]

Former prooter/manager Tom Cusanto//Royce Prophit passed away at 58

[jimsteel]

R.I.P. LOW'S ANGELO MOSCA AT 84

[TTX]

RIP Angelo.

[Vegas]

RIP

[Bazzy]

R.I.P Angelo Mosca

Don't think I have ever seen Angelo Mosca wrestle . But since playing the legends cards with him . He has impressed me with his winning record . He is managed by Jim Cornette was involved in WCW Feud with Jerry Lynn for Frontier title (US title basically) . Recently he moved to Anarchy UK .

[jimsteel]

R.I.P. Former WCW tag team Champion Judy Bagwell. Buff Bagwell's mother at 78

[TTX]

RIP Judy

[Sam Fain]

Mach Hayato (1951-2021)
[credit Reddit u/KinchStalker]

Mach Hayato (not to be confused with the MMA fighter) passed away today, at the age of 70. I would like to share his story. Hayato's career trajectory has made him more obscure than he should be, as you could argue that he was the first complete Japanese lucha, or "lucharesu" performer.

(This is sourced from a Japanese-language obituary by the puroresu news blog Igapro.)

Shigehisa Hido was a Toyota employee who was inspired to become a wrestler after watching the Yamaha Brothers, but was rejected for his 5'9" frame. When he heard that Gran Hamada (still just Hiroaki Hamada) had gone to Mexico for training, though, Hido bought a one-way ticket to follow his dream. Here, he would be trained by Rafael Salamanca, and debuted as Karate Hayato in 1976.

"Mach" Hayato would come back home for the first time in 1979, working for the turbulent but innovative #3 promotion of the era, the International Wrestling Enterprise. While Hamada had already come back to work Japan by this point, the argument has been made that Hayato was the first full lucharesu performer, going so far as to perform under the hood. By the time he started working fulltime for them the following year, the promotion had entered its death spiral. When plans for an NJPW Hayato/Tiger Mask match in October 1981 (as part of the IWE invasion angle) fell through due to the latter's decision to work overseas during that tour, Hayato would not work in his native country again until AJPW's first two tours of 1984. He would not be long for that company, though, as then-booker Akio Sato had a blind spot for lucha and didn't take well to him.

Hayato was about to return to Los Angeles when he was contacted by Hisashi Shinma. Shinma wanted another experienced lucha performer besides Gran Hamada to work for him in the UWF, and Hayato got Baba's approval to jump ship. He got to meet old co-workers Hamada, Ryuma Go and Rusher Kimura again, but Hayato was most taken by Akira Maeda and Nobuhiko Takada, and Yoshiaki Fujiwara also took a liking to him. When the UWF transitioned from Shinma's original idea into the first shoot-style fed, Hayato was a poor fit, but the man tried his best.
Eventually, Hayato retired on April 26, 1985, with a tag match alongside Super Tiger against Caswell Martin and Talvar Singh. Hayato got the submission from Singh with a triangle choke. During his ceremony, he started to take off his mask, before Sayama stopped him to say he didn't have to.

Hido moved to San Francisco to work as a gardener, politely declining a Mexican offer to step back into the ring. It appears his passing was related to kidney problems.

[jimsteel]

‘DAZZLER’ JOE CORNELIUS DEAD AT 93

News of the passing of “Dazzler” Joe Cornelius, one of the legends of the British wrestling scene, has been slow to reach North America. Cornelius died on October 30, 2021, after suffering from dementia for years. He was 93.

Handsome Joe Cornelius must surely be recognised as the greatest British post-war heavyweight discovery,” reports the Weekly Sporting Review, on November 26, 1954. “Six feet tall, just under 15 st., hard as iron, and as fast as any flyweight, Joe is turning out stuff that has the crowds sitting on the edge of their seats.”

By 1955, Cornelius was in the main mix, facing top names like Bert Assirati. Television really helped propel all the British wrestling scene, and Cornelius was no different; he debuted on TV in 1960

He knew his size mattered. “Why should a ‘heavy’ get more than a lighter man? You buy beef by the pound, mate, but not grapplers. So I’m lucky enough to be a ‘heavy’.”

“The Cockney Cavalier” had a move all his own, noted Walton. “‘Dazzler’ Joe Cornelius promotes a spectacular variation of the head-butt. A flier, often from his own length away. This does not so much as daze and bewilder, leaving the victim if and when he rises, considerably weakened, and sometimes a natural for the ensuing pin-fall.”

In May 1963, Cornelius wrestled Hermann Iffland of Germany at London’s Royal Albert Hall in front of Prince Philip. The UPI report noted “Cornelius was tossed and he landed two feet from the Prince.”

Cornelius also had a hand in helping on the set of the TV show, The Avengers, where he worked with fight arranger Ray Austin to make the fights look good. In 1966, Diana Rigg, who played Emma Peel on the show, credited Cornelius and Austin for teaching her “rough stuff” and added that “It’s fun knocking people about and getting paid for it.” His brother, Billy Cornelius, was an actor, in the Carry On series of films, and a noted stuntman.

Dazzler himself had a major role in the 1970 Joan Crawford movie, Trog (one of her last movies).

In 1967, Cornelius hung up the tights, while he was still the Southern England Heavyweight Champion.