I have plenty of road trips to work on and little time to do them for now but look for a bunch of road trip reports soon.
Three passings from the wrestling world and the most notable to me was that of Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart at the age of 63.
Neidhart was one half of my favorite WWF tag team (The Midnight Express were my favorite on the NWA side) with Bret 'the Hitman" Hart as the Hart Foundation winning the WWF tag titles twice during their tenure together.
The classic Hart Foundation bouts against several teams through their time in the 80's were usually tremendous but will be most remembered for their bouts against the British Bulldogs, which were the best matches in the company at the time.
Neidhart was trained in the famous Hart dungeon and married one of Stu Hart's daughter's (Bret's sister) to become literally part of the family.
While not the technical wrestler of the level of Bret Hart, Neidhart offered a good mix as part of the team with power moves such as tossing his opponent across the ring (Neidhart earned his nickname for tossing an anvil for length), powerslams and football tackles and holding a beaten opponent in a bearhug in the air for a clothesline from a running Hitman for their finishing move.
Neidhart also was a good contrast to the sometimes stoic Hart with his manic behavior during the team's interviews complete with his crazed laugh while stroking his pointed goatee.
Neidhart is reported to have passed from a fall caused by a late-night seizure and was in the early stages of Alzheimer's.
Another WWF star of the 80's passed as Nikolai Volkoff died at the age of 70.
Volkoff was portrayed as more of a comedy wrestler with the WWF in his title-winning team with the Iron Sheik, but his time in the southern territories was shown to be a much more malevolent force as a communist bent on taking over wrestling in the name of Mother Russia.
Volkoff was the top "heel" in the Mid-South territory before going to the WWF and his much more serious style was a contrast to his often buffoonish (Especially after his title run with the Sheik ended) character there.
Volkoff did have two earlier WWF runs in the Bruno Sammartino and Bob Backlund reigns where he was challenging for their title, but might be best remembered in the end for his rendition's of the Soviet national anthem before his matches to most.
My favorite Volkoff memory was his 'cover' of Jay and the American's 1960's hit Cara Mia on the first wrestling anthem.
I've always been a mark for bad singing and covers of hits and Volkoff managed to hit both of those buttons with Cara Mia!
Brian Christopher passed at the age of 46 after hanging himself in prison days after being arrested for driving under the influence and evading police.
Christopher, the son of Jerry Lawler, once was part of the popular team in the WWF (might have been WWE by then) of Too Cool using the name Grandmaster Sexay with partner Scott Taylor (Scotty Too Hotty) that won the tag team titles on one occasion, but was better remembered for their pre-match choreography and post-match dancing.
Christopher was also one of the main stars of the Memphis territory in its last few years, but despite the clear physical similarity to his father, neither would admit in those years that Christopher was Lawler's son.
The reasons were noted as possibly being Christopher trying to avoid being the son of Lawler in a territory that already had a second generation star in Jeff Jarrett or the more likely reason of trying to not expose Jerry Lawler's age as being old enough to have a son of pro wrestling age.
Christopher was a smaller wrestler in a time that bigger wrestlers were in vogue and he ranks as an excellent in-ring performer that was born a little too late to be a big star with the territory years being a time gone by.
From outside of the wrestling world, there were two losses in the inbox.
Adrian Cronauer passed at the age of 79 in a Virginia nursing home.
Cronauer was the DJ that Robin Williams character was based on, although there was a lot of creative license in the film as many of the scenes never actually occurred.
Cronauer didn't rip the film for the differences but would note, if asked, the difference between his experiences and the story told in the film.
We wrap with the passing of Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Dick Feagler at the age of 79.
Feagler was the top columnist for the PD from 1993 to 2009 but wrote and appeared for various Cleveland media outlets since 1970.
Feagler wrote two books that were basically compilations from his columns..
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