Sunday, July 29, 2018, will go down as one of the saddest days in pro wrestling history. Four people, either former wrestlers or related to wrestling, passed away seemingly within hours.
The biggest name to pass Sunday was Nikolai Volkoff. The WWE Hall of Famer was one of the most notorious villains of the 1980s. He was the anti-American from Russia, the perfect bad guy to the all-American good guy, Hulk Hogan. More than anything, though, he seemed like a really nice person. The reception on Twitter was profound Sunday. Numerous legends and current stars came out and voiced how great Volkoff was as a person. It’s always interesting to see what the response is like online when a legendary superstar dies. It really seemed that Volkoff was an amazing person.
The most tragic passing of the day was Brian Christopher Lawler, commonly known as Grand Master Sexay. The son of Jerry Lawler, Christopher didn’t accomplish as much as his father in WWE, but he was still an entertaining performer during the Attitude Era. It’s the most tragic of the deaths to me because of the nature of his death. A failed suicide attempt while in prison, ultimately dying from the injuries caused by the attempt. He was only 46, too. Such a shame for a guy who was so popular during WWE’s most popular time.
The other two were lesser known, but still very impactful. Brickhouse Brown, a legend for various regional promotions in the 1980s, passed away from prostate cancer. He was a NAWA world champion and a multiple-time tag team champion. Jim Ross on Twitter said there were plans to have him replace Junkyard Dog potentially in WWE, a testament to the star Brown had become in the 80s.
And finally, Tracy Caddell, the father of Impact Wrestling’s Trevor Lee, died Sunday. Matt Hardy took to Twitter to send his condolences, as he, Jeff Hardy and Tracy created their wrestling promotion, OMEGA, in 1993. You could tell it meant a lot to Trevor Lee, as his Twitter feed was full of love and support from people across the wrestling community.
Simply put, Sunday sucked. Four people who all impacted the wrestling world in their own ways left us Sunday, providing for a sad day amongst the wrestling community. There have been many sad and dark days in pro wrestling, and Sunday was one of them. My thoughts are with all four families during this difficult time.