Many believe the pending divorce and his failing career drove him to the act. Tragically, one spontaneous decision to brave dangerous weather conditions ended with Buddy Hollys plane crash when he was just 22. But the fame hadnt come easy. He had barely graduated himself when he opened for Elvis Presley during a 1955 tour stop in Lubbock. In the WWE, he teamed with "Zip" (better known as Dr. Tom Pritchard) as the Body Donnas. Their pilot, 21-year-old Roger Peterson, also died when their chartered 1947 Beechcraft Bonanza plane crashed just minutes after taking . Let's not include any reference to Fox. At Wrestlemania IX in Caesar's Palace, he defeated Bret Hart to become the WWE Champion for the first time. After a vacation with his wife, Mara Elena Santiago, he agreed to the Winter Dance Party tour. Finnish Superstar Ludvig Borga's stint in the WWE was short, but he had some memorable achievements during his time with the company. Some of them included Johnny Pearson and Erin OGrady The Leprechaun. After nearly 9 years in small organizations, he had the chance to audition for the WWF. The guy was born to entertain and it's a horrible shame he died so young, I would have paid good money to hear shoots from him. Viscera was a loyal and longtime wrestler in the WWE, debuting as Mabel in the early 90s and then being re-packaged as Viscera, part of The Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness, before finally wrestling as Big Daddy V. He was a dominant force as both opposing characters, often entering the Royal Rumble and clearing house as larger than life wrestlers are apt to do. He underwent surgery but after three days, died due to a blood clot that developed during surgery. A number of tributes have been paid to Lockwood. She toured with the Johnny Cash Show in 1962 and played venues like Carnegie Hall. In 1993, he won the Royal Rumble match to compete at Wrestlemania. He gained popularity in Smokey Mountain Wrestling, having one reign as the Heavyweight Champion, and in ECW, being one third of the infamous "Triple Threat" stable with Shane Douglas and Bam Bam Bigelow. During his 4 years with the WWF, Crash won the WWF Hardcore Champion belt 22 times. Accompanying Cline and Hughes were two other country singers, Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas. Instead, Hughes became disoriented in the clouds just thirteen minutes after takeoff. The still-unsolved murder is believed to be over a deal that angered the mafia, but whatever it was, it was incredibly personal given the 17 shots. A prominent WCW wrestler who was one-half of the tag team Natural Born Thrillers, Sean O'Haire came to the WWE after the company purchased WCW in 2001. [4], Lockwood debuted on WWF television as "Crash Holly", the storyline cousin of Bob "Hardcore" Holly, on the August 16, 1999, episode of Raw is War[4] They became known as the Holly Cousins. Instead, he and his tour partners Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson were torn from the skies by wintry conditions six mere miles from the Clear Lake, Iowa, airstrip that pilot Roger Peterson had departed from. A big and powerful bodybuilder, Raymond"Hercules" Hernandez never had much success during his run with the WWE in the 1980s, though he did frequently square off against some of the company's best talent such as Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior. Adonis was with fellow wrestlers in a minivan when the driver lost control of the vehicle while trying to avoid hitting a moose. The Rise Of A Country Music Legend By the time Patsy Cline died in 1963, she had made a name for herself as a country music staple. In his first appearances he would bring a scale to the ring to try and prove his 400-pound status despite the fact he was 5-foot-11 and 212 pounds. An autopsy was performed last Thursday, but the coroner's office needs to receive toxicology reports before confirming a cause . Be the first one to comment on this story. A staff writer for All Thats Interesting, Marco Margaritoff has also published work at outlets including People, VICE, and Complex, covering everything from film to finance to technology. In 1994, he became the NWA World Heavyweight Champion at only 21 years old. On November 1, 2003, Mad Mikey and Rory Fox defeated Quiten Lee and The Human Time Bomb with Ricky Steamboat as the special guest referee for the Heartland Wrestling Association in what turned out to be Lockwood's final match. The Crash Holly death occurred shortly after his final wrestling appearance with the Heartland Wrestling Association. He partnered with Mark Jindark as a tag team and started wrestling on Raw brand. In August 2005, Nora Greenwald, who performed alongside Lockwood as Molly Holly, released an autobiographical DVD titled "Nora Greenwald: Shootin' the Shi Crap", and a portion of the profits from the sale . His toxicology report was positive for marijuana and amphetamines. [10] He wrestled in Monterrey for three months, under a mask, as "The Green Ghost" (a play on the word "gringo"). According to Jim Ross, Cade had a seizure on a plane as a result of prescription pill abuse and was subsequently released. Minor things, you know. on the September 2, 2002, episode of Raw during a match with Jeff Hardy. On October 17, at No Mercy, the Holly Cousins defeated The New Age Outlaws by disqualification. Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson were famously killed in a plane crash on Feb. 3, 1959, which Don McLean dubbed "The Day the Music Died" in the 1971 classic "American Pie" Others, only God knows why they have left us so soon. She was essentially ignored up until her death in 2016, when a tribute video was shown on Raw. Pillman will always be remembered for playing a high-flying and striking cruiserweight with excellent technical skills. Sadly, both men would be dead before 2010. There, Hughes was cautioned about high winds and low visibility. From the start, Crash Holly brought fun to the ring. This article pays tribute to wrestlers that died under 40. [21] This turned him into a crowd favorite and earned him the nickname "The Houdini of Hardcore". One of the stars, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is billing the new dates on the Las Vegas Strip as a new show. [33] He briefly wrestled for Pro Wrestling Iron in Hayward, California. His most memorable moment was his DQ victory against Ric Flair in a match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, and many believed that he was on deck to eventually become champion. His second go-around with the WWE, as Umaga, was a far more successful venture, with the big man taking main event status and even scoring a PPV win over Ric Flair and winning the Intercontinental Championship twice. Crash Hollys family laid him to rest in China Grove in West Central, North Carolina. [32] Mad Mikey was angry at many things, on which he elaborated in promos. I will never forget that gorgeous white chiffon dress she wore, recalled Dottie West, a fellow performer at the show and one of Clines friends. Adrian Adonis joined WWF in 1980 as a no-nonsense and rough wrestler. [21] His most common tactic was to sneak a pin, often after the champion had been beaten down by someone else, and quickly run backstage, away from possible challengers. The next day, Cline boarded Hughess plane at the Kansas City Municipal Airport. Patsy Cline singing I Fall To Pieces on February 23, 1963, a few weeks before her death. Another crash victim, J.P. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mikey's family and friends during this difficult time." Lockwood was born August 25, 1971 in Anaheim, California. TwitterA newspaper headline shortly before the site of Patsy Clines plane crash was discovered. The plane crashed at full speed into the woods of Camden, Tennessee, killing everyone instantly. Holly was frequently attacked by other wrestlers in unlikely locations, including an airport, a funhouse, a circus, and his hotel room. Compounding that was the guilty feeling that I was still alive. Whatever the reason, the plane crashed in a field about five miles from the airport it appeared that the plane's right wing tip caught the ground and the aircraft cartwheeled. He died at just 47-years-old in 2004. A Kansas City resident named Mildred Keith snapped what is believed to be one of the last photographs of the country music star. He was released by the company in 2004 and faced numerous personal obstacles, including various arrests for violent altercations. when a B-25 Bomber made a wrong turn into the Empire State Building. He holds dual bachelor's degrees from Pace University and a master's degree from New York University. The tribute videos were an incredible homage to a wrestling legend which inspired some real emotion from Superstars such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, Stephanie McMahon, and a grief-stricken Vince McMahon standing alone in the ring in the middle of an empty arena. His autopsy report lists his cause of death as "traumatic injuries due to massive blunt-force trauma" consistent with a high-speed impact. After she finished her performance, Cline returned to her hotel. He was also quite an entertaining performer in the mid-card for WWE. [28] This led to a match on the next SmackDown!, which DeMott won. Michael Lockwood debuted as Crash Holly in the WWF in 1999 as the supposed cousin of Bob Hardcore Holly. Lockwood joined the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion in November 1997 after ECW wrestler Taz viewed a tape of a match between O'Grady and Michael Modest and referred him to ECW owner Paul Heyman. [2] He dislocated his shoulder about five times and took 18 months off to recover. Deputy Arthur found an open fifth of Southern Comfort on the kitchen counter and an empty pill bottle. Perfect" Curt Hennig to become the Intercontinental Champion. But although she died young, Cline definitely left her mark on country music. Not so. Patsy Cline may have had death on her mind, but her final days were full of life. Buddy Holly was buried in the Lubbock Cemetery in Texas in February 1959. He has, however, been brought up on occasion by JBL and CM Punk. At Survivor Series on November 18, 2001, Holly took part in a battle royal that would guarantee the winner immunity from being fired that was won by Test. Of all the ill-timed deaths on this list, that of Dino Bravo has to be the most bizarre and strange. Mildred KeithA Kansas City resident named Mildred Keith snapped what is believed to be one of the last photographs of the country music star. In June, the newly formed WWE ended his contract. Copyright 2019 Las Vegas Review-Journal, Inc. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service. In the Attitude Era, there was an angle where Steve Austin invades Pillman's house only for Pillman to aim his gun at him in self-defense. The case was since picked up by Kyros Law, a firm representing numerous retired wrestlers in a head injury lawsuits against the WWE. Although he only had one number one song, Buddy Holly influenced countless music legends. Crash Holly Dead at 32 from an apparent suicide. The spelling changed to Buddy after Hollys first recording contract misspelled it, and the name Buddy Holly was stuck for good. In January 1959, with his new chart-topping hit dominating American airwaves, the young Texan embarked on a Midwestern string of ballroom and auditorium shows called The Winter Dance Party. Crash Holly wrestled under the name Mad Mikey and made brief appearances in NWA Total Non-Stop Action (now known simply as TNA) and the Heartland Wrestling Association. Holly was riding high on Thatll Be the Day, while Richardson was known for Chantilly Lace. Valens had written La Bamba, the world-famous song that would see him posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They took off around 2 pm, stopping in Dyersburg, Tennessee to refuel. What was the cause of Buddy Holly's death? Crash Holly's grave at West Lawn Memorial Park in China Grove, NC. As Crash was Moore's alleged apprentice, Hardy also referred to him as a "Moore-on". He became popular in the WWE after turning heel on Bret Hart at the 1993 Survivor Series. She matched lipstick with pants and cowboy boots, and became the first woman to wear pants on stage at the Grand Ole Opry. His career as a wrestler took a drastic change when he turned heel during a Light Heavyweight Title feud with Brad Armstrong. Along with being a former European, Light Heavyweight, and Tag Team Champion, Crash Holly will be mostly remembered as being the one who started the "24/7" rule after defeating Test in February of 2000. [37] At ECW One Night Stand in 2005, Lockwood was one of the deceased former ECW wrestlers honored in a video package.[38]. As a part of the gag, Crash would take a scale into the ring with him to try and prove that he could qualify to wrestle as a heavyweight. Kerry Von Erich was arguably the most popular wrestler that ever competed in WCCW. As the youngest of four children, Holly relied on his brothers to teach him the guitar. [4] He then wrestled on the independent circuit as "'Irish' Erin O'Grady". 12,000-Year-Old Mastodon Tooth Discovered By Six-Year-Old Boy In Michigan, The Deadliest Mafia Hitmen In History And The Gruesome Stories Behind Them, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. brands, Holly was assigned to the Raw roster, where he had little success. Deservedly, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2006. Holly, 32, was pronounced dead at 2:37 p.m. on Thursday and is survived by his wife and daughter. Lockwood died on November 6, 2003, at his friend and fellow wrestler Stevie Richards' house in Florida. [8] In total, Holly won over 25 championship reigns in WWE. Benoit killed both his wife and son before hanging himself in one of the most shocking wrestler-related incidents ever. The musicians traveled in an unheated bus that frequently broke down. And he left the band in December of that year. [19] They held the title until the November 4 SmackDown!, when they lost it to Mankind and his new partner, Al Snow.[20]. The official investigation by the Civil Aeronautics Board. Crash Holly via wwe.com Michael Lockwood was best known in the WWE as the younger cousin, Crash Holly, to Hardcore Holly. Lance Cade was a rising star in the WWE prior to being released in 2008 in what many have referred to as a big mistake by the company. They were supposed to make an easy hop home to Nashville, Tennessee. [34] They married on New Year's Eve, 1999. The bus often broken down, stranding them on the side of the road to endure Midwest winter temperatures until help arrived.