Category: Tribute Of Sorts

All written and/or video tributes to those who have passed on.

VLOG – Remembering The Macho Man

I was just getting back from personal business when I got the news that Randy Savage had died. It was a shock to hear about that. And perhaps, it’s one that hurts quite a bit… because this was not just a moderately successful superstar wrestler nor is he someone dabbled in the main event scene. This is a legend… one of the true greats in professional wrestling. Someone who was as close to being the Total Package as you can get when it comes to that form of sports entertainment. He had the look, he had the voice, he had the moves, and most importantly, he had the charisma and the personality that really made him stand out and made people take notice… and clearly, a lot of people took notice for him to have gotten the name recognition that he did… and deservingly so.

Whether it was his classic matches or his classic insane rambling promos that half the time we didn’t understand what he was saying but who cares because this guy’s cool… or whether it was his classic Slim Jim commercials that actually got me to try out Slim Jims for the first and possibly last time… or his three-minute-cameo in the first Spider-Man movie nine years ago… or hell, even his rap album that he tossed out around the same time… it was one of those cases where no matter how good or how bad the final product turned out, you couldn’t help but feel that he gave it his all and that he gave it his best shot… and I think that effort and that passion showed in a lot of the stuff he did. For the most part, his stuff never felt phoned in… even during recent years when he was showing off his new action figure at the Comicon or cutting a promo for the WWE All-Stars game.

This is a man who deserved to be in that Hall of Fame of theirs… and the only sad thing is that he never got that chance due to whatever petty politics that held off such a thing.

Thanks for the memories, “Macho Man” Randy Savage. You shall be missed.

Can I get a “Oooooooo Yeeeaaaaahhhhhhhh!”

R.I.P. Captain Lou Albano

July 29, 1933 – October 14, 2009

So I’ve recently heard about the untimely passing of Captain Lou Albano. The cause of death is still unknown at the time of writing. You could read the article I read here.

Captain Lou was primarily known for his success as a wrestling manager, leading several tag-teams to WWF championship gold. I first knew of Captain Lou not as a wrestling manager, but for his work on the Super Mario Bros. Super Show, where he played Mario in both the cartoon and live-action sketches. Yes, this is the guy who did the Mario… and we all loved him for it.

My condolences to the Albano family.

Godspeed, Cap’n Lou.

Billy Mays (1958-2009)

Billy Mays, the energetic bearded pitchman who appeared in six hundred commercials to promote a whole bunch of stuff like Oxi-Clean and Orange Glo, passed away yesterday. The world has lost a talented salesman and a true, hard-working professional in a world that is lacking of such people.

Rest in peace, Mr. Mays. Hopefully, the afterlife will take heed of your loud sales pitches and buy the products you advertise.

Goodbye, Moolah. I Hardly Knew Ye.

Recently, WWE.com had announced the passing of Fabulous Moolah. While I would be able to recount a passing of a legend or old-school star with their accomplishments, Moolah’s only merit of note is being the longest-reigning women’s champion. Actually, all things considered, twenty-plus years as champion without any gaps is actually pretty cool considering how short most title reigns are.

That footnote becomes less cool when you ultimately learn the reasoning behind the long reign, but I’m not going to dwell on that here.

Without any hard footage or pictures of young Moolah in action, people are most likely going to remember her for being the straight woman to Mae Young’s attempts at exposure and giving birth to a plastic hand.

RIP, Moolah.

Mike Awesome (January 24, 1965 – February 17, 2007)

Just found out that former ECW heavyweight champion Mike Awesome recently passed away at age 42. Don’t really want to touch on the means of death, but instead I just want to remember him for all the great matches he had over the course of his career.

I remember when I saw him win the ECW title on PPV back in 99; it was the first ECW PPV aired in Canada at the time. While I was never a big fan of the guy, Awesome had a presence that made him different from other big guys in WW(F) or WCW. Here was a guy who not only looked like he could kick your ass, but wouldn’t have a problem doing it effortlessly either. He wasn’t a gimmick, he was this big bad brawler.

Then he went to WCW and he got all these shitty gimmicks… and then he was in WWE… and let’s forget all that.

His last big match around these parts was at the ECW One Night Stand show (the first one – and quite frankly, the only good one) where he had that last match with Masato Tanaka. Brutal stuff, man. But excellent too.

Condolences to his family and friends.

RIP Mike Awesome.

Eddie Guerrero (1967-2005) – A Tribute To A Champion

The following post is a compilation of individual posts from the old DTM Blog that was eventually combined to its own tribute page on the old DTM Webstation. It has been mostly preserved for the sake of historical context.

Continue reading “Eddie Guerrero (1967-2005) – A Tribute To A Champion”

Christopher Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004)

From USA Today:

Christopher Reeve, the star of the Superman movies whose near-fatal riding accident nine years ago turned him into a worldwide advocate for spinal cord research, died Sunday of heart failure, his publicist said. He was 52.

Reeve fell into a coma Saturday after going into cardiac arrest while at his New York home, his publicist, Wesley Combs told The Associated Press by phone from Washington, D.C., on Sunday night. His family was at his side at the time of death.

I just found out a short while ago and all I can say is… WOW. The phrase “Death of Superman” has never been more truer than it is today. And just when he was on the verge of beating his paralysis… this is truly a sad day.

You’ll be sorely missed, Mr. Reeve. R.I.P.