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Shocking news to report tonight as one of wrestling’s most legendary managers, William Moody AKA Paul Bearer AKA Percy Pringle has passed away. Few details are known at this point, but this is a huge loss to the pro wrestling world as Moody left a legacy with each of his personas over the years.
I personally first saw Moody as Percy Pringle in World Class Championship Wrestling during the mid-80′s. Pringle was quite the mouthpiece for a variety of talents at the time. It was weird a couple of years later to see Pringle as a good guy manager after being one of the companies top heels for so many years against the likes of the Von Erichs.
An even bigger surprise for me was in 1991, as this new manager debuted who would be replacing Brother Love as the manager of The Undertaker – his name was Paul Bearer. Bearer was indeed Percy Pringle reincarnated into a ghoulish over the top figure that would come to be a legendary part of The Undertaker’s history over the years. Bearer was there for so many historical Undertaker moments, including many of the famous WrestleMania matches during “the streak.”
During his long and storied WWE career, Bearer also managed the likes of Mankind and of course, Kane. It seemed like Bearer would always reinvent himself, especially during the Attitude Era, and was always involved in many of the big stories of the time.
Over the past few years, Paul Bearer made multiple returns to WWE as his connection with The Undertaker and Kane lived on. It was apparent Bearer would always be a part of the WWE family, and his legacy will never be forgotten as I’m sure WWE will be giving William Moody more than his just due.
Below, I’ve included an awesome video which is a pictorial history of the career of Bill Moody/Percival Pringle/Paul Bearer. R.I.P to one of the greatest of all time:
