Oooohhhhh Yeahhhhh

When Master Bates and I were little there used to be a couch in our basement that had two 5 foot tall foam pillows. We used to do tag team matches against said pillows. And I remember jumping off the couch doing the Macho Man flying elbow onto one of the prone cushions.

We were big wrestling fans when we were younger, and we thought it was "real." We'd hear the occassional sketchy rumor that Randy Savage was living on Staten Island (true). That he wasn't married to Elizabeth (he was), she was actually married to George "The Animal" Steele and they lived together in Boston where Steele was a Harvard Professor (not true).



Later in life I got into wrestling again when The Macho Man was known as the Madness and part of WCW's nWo alliance which totally reshaped wrestling. No longer were we led to believe it was real, we reveled in the story lines.

Now Randy Savage (Poffo was his real last name and yes Leaping Lanny Poffo/The Genius was his brother) is the latest in a startling trend.

Former professional wrestlers are dying way too young -- and it's happening way too fast.

Savage lived to the ripe old age of 58 before he died in a car crash (though it is believed he had a heart attack behind the wheel) but many other wrestlers had their hearts give out on them at a much younger age:

Brian Pillman
Rick Rude
Davey Boy Smith
Big Boss Man
Eddie Guerrero
Umaga

And these guys all died of other causes, suicide or drugs, but definitely negative side effects to professional wrestling:

Test
Bam Bam Bigelow
Mr. Perfect
Chris Benoit

Here's a very complete list of dead wrestlers.

That list is only going to get longer.