Goodbye to Rocky Johnson at the age of 75.
Johnson, who was arguably the best African-American wrestler of the 1970s, is best known today as the father of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, but his career was far more than journeyman status.
Johnson challenged the various NWA champions of his time and teamed with Tony Atlas as the first black WWF tag team champions in 1983 with a win over the Wild Samoans.
Johnson held many titles in several territories, including the Florida and Georgia territories when those two ranked at the top of the most prestigious titles in the nation, but his final run came with the WWF when Johnson was used as a stalking horse for Jimmy Snuka with major feuds against Magnificent Muraco and Roddy Piper that built both heels for an even larger feud for each vs Snuka.
Johnson's best work was before my time and access, but his WWF work was pretty good with his matches with Muraco, who ranked at the elite level at the time, was excellent.
The Piper series that was started in Piper's Pit with the photo above, had plenty of "heat" from the fans, but the actual matches weren't quite as strong as the Muraco series for two reasons- mainly for all of the skills of Roddy Piper, he was never at the level of in-ring wrestler of Don Muraco and the other reason was that the audience badly wanted Muraco to lose the Inter-Continental title and a Johnson title win would have made him the first black champion in the territory as the Muraco series took place before the Johnson and Atlas team won the tag team titles.
Goodbye to Charlie Cook- Age not listed.
I cannot seem to find an age for Cook, who was the proverbial "One Year Wonder" as Cook was pushed to the moon in the Florida territory in 1981.
A journeyman grappler that usually was based in the southeastern part of the country that was described as a former NFL player, although I've never been able to find any proof of such unless Cook played under a different name.
Cook was a below-average performer in the ring, but suddenly in 1981, Cook began to become a top star in winning the Florida title twice, initially over former NWA champion Dory Funk Jr., which was instant credibility in the storyline.
1981 was as good as it would get for Cook, who began to move down the cards the following year and other than a brief title victory in the WWC (Puerto Rico), Cook was essentially finished in wrestling by 1984.
Goodbye to Pampero Firpo at the age of 89.
Firpo was a grappler far before my wrestling fandom as his career started in 1953 and ended in 1981.
Firpo's "gimmick" was portraying himself as a wild and untamed character similar to the Sheik and Abdullah the Butcher.
Firpo was named by former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, who would occasionally participate in wrestling as an enforcer referee, after Luis Firpo "The Wild Bull of the Pampas", who famously knocked Dempsey out of the ring in Firpo's unsuccessful title challenge
Firpo's main territory was the Detroit territory where he had several battles through the years against their two top stars in the Sheik and Bobo Brazil but did have a brief run in the then-WWWF against champion Pedro Morales in 1972.
Firpo had recently returned to the news as part of the beginning theme to the popular podcast "Jim Cornette's Drive-Thru" with the line "Who still remembers Pampero Firpo"?
Goodbye to Hercules Ayala at the age of 69.
Ayala, a barrel-chested grappler, spent almost his entire career in the Stampede territory based in Calgary, Canada and the WWC in Puerto Rico.
Ayala was a star in both places, but his biggest run might have been late in his career after being turned heel against Carlos Colon in one of the final big-money runs for Puerto Rico from 1985 to 1987 that matched the two in many various matches with different rules and stipulations before Ayala lost a Loser Leaves Town match to Colon.
The Ayala-Colon matches were noted for their excessive blood and violence in a territory already known for their violence and even involved Ayala attacking and beating Colon's wife.
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