What’s the story?
As per a message posted on Facebook by professional wrestling writer Rock Rims of the Flying Body Press, former NWA Junior World Heavyweight Champion “Rotten” Ron Starr has passed away.
The post can be seen in its’ entirety below:
In case you didn’t know...
Born in 1950 in Atlanta, Georgia, “Rotten” Ron Starr was a regular feature on several different professional wrestling territories in the 70s and 80s. He was a two-time NWA Junior World Heavyweight Champion and had also captured the NWA World Tag Team Titles on several occasions.
Starr was perhaps most famous for his involvement with Stampede Wrestling in Calgary and had also wrestled in Japan as well as for the World Wrestling Council (WWC) promotion, shortly before his retirement.
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Over the span of his illustrious career, Starr won almost three dozen championships in professional wrestling and went by the names Robert Eugene Nutt, Mr Wrestling, Ron Starr and Bobby Starr. He was also one-half of the tag team “Devastation Inc.” alongside Wayne Ferris (Honky Tonk Man) in Stampede Wrestling.
The heart of the matter
As per Rims, Starr was suffering from multiple health ailments prior to his passing and had suffered four heart attacks and four strokes. Rims also mentioned that Starr had “constant pain” in his body and that he had been in and out of hospitals for the better part of the last two decades of his life.
Starr’s wife Jackie, who had previously worked alongside him as his valet by the name of “Miss Peaches”, found him lifeless on the morning of 8th June 2017 at 6:20 AM. Starr was 67 years old at the time of his passing and the cause of his death was reported by Rims as being a collapsed lung, which caused Starr to pass away in his sleep.
The impact
Ron Starr’s passing will be mourned by all old-school fans of professional wrestling territories. There is no information about Starr’s funeral or memorial service yet.
Our Tribute
“Rotten” Ron Starr was one of the unsung heroes of the territory days of Professional Wrestling. The era of territories was one without cable television, which thus required the wrestlers to effectively establish themselves every single time they travelled as every new territory meant a new set of fans who didn’t know anything about them.
In such a time, Starr was one of the most effective heels that territorial professional wrestling had ever seen. He was a solid in-ring technician who could work a great match with just about anyone and really paved the way for a lot of future Superstars to take inspiration from.
Here’s a video of Ron Starr having a match with Mick Foley, known then as “Cactus Jack Manson” along with promo interviews.
Starr was a true hard knocks, old school “tough guy” wrestler and he shall be sorely missed by the professional wrestling community. He was a fighter till the very end of his days and despite him not being with us anymore, the memories of him shall certainly live forever.
Our condolences go out to his wife Jackie and the rest of his family in this difficult time.
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