RIP DEAN RASMUSSEN

[Yo-Yo's Roomie]

Really terrible news. Rest in peace and my condolences to all of Dean's friends and family. 

[Old Goat]

RIP Dean. Your writing and words have been in my head since 1996.

[Octopus]

Absolutely heartbreaking. Dean is a legend and I’m grateful for our conversations. I’m so sorry and I send my condolences to his close friends and family. 

[SturmCRF]

Rest In Peace Dean. I feel so sorry for your family, and everyone here who knew you personally. Absolute legend, you seemed like one of the best dudes ever and it seems pretty unanimous on here that that's because you absolutely were. From now on, whenever the thought even flashes across my mind that I'm watching too much wrestling, I promise to remind myself that DEAN would watch even more wrestling than that, and keep on going.

[username]

I don't really have the words for this right now (Dean will clearly be missed) but when his passing came up on a different forum I saw that someone had saved and posted a few images from his old comix, I figured some here could do with seeing them even if I think most of these examples were actually drawn by his daughter.

https://i.imgur.com/XCnUQqI.jpg

 

https://i.imgur.com/UOSeRNI.jpg

 

https://i.imgur.com/9ViFNVQ.jpg

 

https://i.imgur.com/mr5bWmx.jpg

 

 

[Linus]

As much as it's worth, there was no-one more influential in my wrestling fandom than DEAN~! When I really want to write like I love something - anything! - I write like DEAN~! wrote. And he REALLY loved this shit. Rest in fucking power~!~!~!~!~!

(And I would be ALL OVER a collection of the DVDVRs)

[Mr. Monday Morning]

Damn, crap thing to wake up to. RIP and condolences to his family & friends, in particular those of you on here who knew him personally.

Thank you for sharing your love, Dean. May we all be so lucky to have such a positive influence.

[ThatTCGuy]

RIP Dean. In a time when my wrestling fandom was waning, it was people like Dean who went out of their way to show that there was great wrestling out there, there are like-minded people out there in the corners of the internet and yes it is ok to talk enthusiastically about how much this shit rocks. Thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends and other loved ones

[A_K]

RIP. He had mentioned variously that he was in and out of hospital of late: reading through the Gofundme, and the extent of the adversity, its nothing short of inspiring that he maintained such an uplifting manner throughout. That is true courage. Another who must have first visited the old version of this forum as a small kid some 20 years ago (c. 2005); its stands as testament to one who was instrumental in creating it.

[Shartnado]

What? Oh no! I really should have looked here first. Horrible news. Rest in Peace DEAN! The amount of entertainment this board has given me and countless others over the past two decades or so cannot be measured. This is just heartbreaking. My deepest symphaties to everyone close him. I'm so sorry for your loss.

[J.T.]

I have awakened to the most horrible news imaginable.  My good friend has passed away.  My prayers and deepest sympathies are with his family at this time.  Their loss is my loss.

I was an avid follower of Dean and Hangman Tim Noel's wresting show on public access television and that led to a fast friendship.  The man opened his home to me shortly after my divorce and gave me an avenue to vent out my frustrations about life in a more positive manner and that was taking pleasure in watching grown men beat the shit out of each other for my amusement.  I will never forget those days or how his daughters treated my daughter as if she was their own sister.

It will be hard to get through the day but I will manage. If it is one thing that I learned from Dean, it is that good men find a way to persevere.  If your outlook on life is bleak, you obviously haven't taken the time to examine your life and see how many things you should be thankful for.

RIP.

Edited May 5 by J.T.

[matwarz]

That we should all find passion in life to be that vocal, opinionated and entertaining about. DEAN was a wordsmith; an absolute tower of profanity, hilarity and genuine joy. It’s an absolute measure of the man that he was still lighting up the board as he fought. I hope his family and friends take a little something from knowing how appreciated and loved he was by his avid readers. My condolences to those close to him, his craft will never be forgotten and always remembered fondly with a smile and reverence. Rest easy DEAN, may the fights be HOSS and the blood be heavy. You were the best fucker to do this and you did it with some fucking style my friend.

[Evil Otto]

I am just saddened beyond belief to hear the news.  Dean Rasmussen's love of pro wrestling and the way he was able to express it with such sheer joy was his gift to the world.  Finding the DVDVR site in 1997, and never leaving it since, undoubtedly changed my life for the better.  Through Dean's words, I was forever convinced that what I had been watching for many years up to the point was not just a weird hobby, but truly an art form.  Dean's words themselves were works of art.  Seriously folks, one of the funniest motherfuckers I've ever come across in my entire life, bar none.  

Dean, what you have given to us over the years goes far beyond The Full Worldwide Point.  No sir, with a phrase that I yell at my computer or TV screen every time a match just blows me away and gives me that transcendent bliss that you could encapsulate so well, for the joy and positivity of this crazy thing called The Professional Wrestling that you so beautifully and hilariously shared with us:  A Million Billion Stars!

RIP.   

[Brian Fowler]

I did my best to sum up my thoughts on Twitter. Read it if you want.

 

https://twitter.com/farwell3d/status/1654414736228769792?t=-WjPqAdgehpZztFg9Uar1Q&s=19

[RandomAct]

I've shared a few thoughts on Twitter, but I can't overstate how much DEAN's writing and this website changed how I looked at wrestling as an artform.  I found this site in my mid 20's, and still had that early 2000's message board mentality towards wrestling.  It's funny that I barely watch wrestling anymore, but I hold so reverence for this board, that I still come and find places to post.

 

I didn't interact with him as much as some others did, but every time I did, it was funny and pleasant.

RIP DEAN~! and thank you for saving wrestling for me.

[The Z]

This sucks so much. RIP DEAN.

This is a place with a lot of well-connected people, does anyone have connections to Brett Lauderdale? Would be great and well-deserved, if we could get DEAN inducted into the Indie Wrestling Hall of Fame.

[Technico Support]

Dammit.  I think it was @Greggulator who said something like, “when Dean liked your post, you felt like you’d done something right.”  I “knew” Dean through this site since maybe 98 and never heard a cross word from him or about him.  Just the very best dude.  Hug your loved ones, my friends.  Thank you Dean.  

[J.H.]

After posting the first DVDVR Anime Review, DEAN was the first to comment. It sticks with me to this day because it was someone whose worked I enjoyed indicating they like something I wrote.

In six words he made me feel vindicated for writing it.

"You should do more of these"

And so I did for awhile. Because of 6 words.

James

Edited May 5 by J.H.

[ohtani's jacket]

I've been coming to this site since 1999, so for almost 25 years. There have been a lot of folks who've come and gone since then, but Dean's love for pro-wrestling never waivered. He was still posting about it while his health was declining. Aside from the future he could have spent with his friends and family, the thing that bums me out the most is that he won't get to see the wrestling that's still to come because I'm sure he would have loved it. 20-25 years ago, everyone wanted to be like Dean with the jokes, the amazing one-liners and the personal anecdotes.  But no-one could imitate him. Each new DVDVR was event. You'd run off trying to scrounge a copy of whatever tape they'd reviewed, and as others have said, Dean was generous in sharing the footage, especially when it became easier to share media. There were a lot of flame wars back in those days, but everyone respected Dean. And then he became a vet and gave just as much, if not more, to the younger generations that followed. And he was an old-school message board dude until the end. I played with my kid in the park today and I thought about Dean. I watched some wrestling in the evening and thought about him again. Wrestling won't be the same without him, but it wouldn't have been the same without him either, if you catch my drift. 

[Sublime]

RIP DEAN 

DEAN, in my opinion, is the best writer about wrestling. His humor and overall positive focus on wrestling did indeed rule the motherfucking world.
 

My thoughts go to his family and family. l never met DEAN or regularly interacted with him here, but I’ve even around here for over half my life and he was big reason why and I’m going to truly miss his presence. 

[Mr. Monday Morning]

Doesn't want to embed for some reason (ADMIN EDIT: you're covered - Pete) but Joe has paid tribute

Edited May 5 by Pete
Twittificated the Tweitter link. - Pete

[Matt D]

Going to try to get just a few words down now or else I'll be a wreck all day. More of one. The old and the very recent.

DEAN is why I'm here. It's the Nitro Workrate Reports that led me to finding the board in the first place. I'll be honest that I don't think I found my real voice for wrestling until 08 or 09 but I was here in 98 and 99 in high school and it opened me to be able to appreciate things and have an open mind to things that were against conventional wisdom. I remember thanking him in 2000 or so for being able to appreciate The Barbarian. It was silly. I was 19. It was true. And you could track it forward to requesting bits in the COMIX and me getting random comps of whatever was laying around from him to help support the board all the way cajoling him into creating a bonkers Greatest Wrestler Ever list at the last second in 2016 (Rufus R Jones at 87! Paul Jones at 68!. The high vote for Dick Murdoch (3) and Mocho Cota~!, a few slots above me, even though he hadn't liked his 93 run back during the DVDVRs). 

The outpouring on twitter is amazing, but there's a lot of reminiscing. It's a lot of people who moved on and are looking back at great memories and how they were inspired. In some ways, and I'm being honest here, in this moment, that's a little hard on me actually, because DEAN, even just a few days ago, was a huge part of our everyday life. He was posting CMLL matches on Sunday for everyone! For those people that have wandered back to pay tribute, go and search through the AEW media thread. Go run a search on DEAN's content. Since retiring, he watched every show and wrote up this wild train of thought summation of every match, often just a sentence for each but it was just a glorious block of text and going to read it was the first thing I did after Raw and Smackdown ended. There's so much of him that you haven't even read yet just waiting for you. And it wasn't some static, lifeless thing. Of course it wasn't. He was engaging with the matches, with the wrestlers, and with us preemptively. A couple of weeks ago he tagged me on a Takeshita match knowing exactly what spot would drive me nuts. It didn't drive him nuts, of course. But he knew me and my exact tastes well enough to slip a trigger warning in his real time review. People would drop their reviews after him and he'd pull out text to engage with, things he missed, things he disagreed with or had a rationale for, or just something he wanted to triple emphasize. Because he read and he cared. Every bit of televised wrestling over the last couple of years. And he went back twice with AEW to see the int'l feed! Plus the weekly polls, being the most qualified guy in the world to set them up.

And he was good enough to participate in Secret Santo the last few times. And that was great, because when I was posting the lists each week, the pairings, I knew that I'd be making someone really happy because they got to pick a match for DEAN to review and have him pick a match for them. Even in 2022 that was no small thing. I was already thinking about the next one on the commute home and how I'd rig the first round to have him paired up with someone. I didn't want to post anything because I was holding out hope he'd be back and writing up WOW and IMPACT and that we'd be watching Collision together. It was all great. Two and a half decades of great, but the last few couple of years were especially great. And I don't think they were necessarily a sure thing. I don't think I would have predicted them five years ago. It's been such a hard few years with the pandemic and everything else and having DEAN here on a day to day basis, so engaged, so engaging was the best thing imaginable for everyone here. We're lucky for all the memories, the old ones and especially the new.

[J.T.]

The tributes are pouring in.

EDIT:  Obviously I am so grief stricken that I did not notice Mr. Monday Morning posting the exact same tweet.

Edited May 5 by J.T.

[RIPPA]

From the latest Wrestling Observer

Quote

Dean Rasmussen, one of the key people at the Death Valley Driver web site, passed away on 5/4. We don’t have anymore details other than his wife confirmed the passing

 

[elizium]

My favourite Dean memory was when he got really into European American football leagues. I can’t imagine how many truly shitty football games he subjected himself to and loved. This must have been 10 years ago. He got so into it that he organized a tournament to determine the best logo in all of Europe. To this day, I’ll be going about my day before the thought “The Saxons should have won” will randomly pop in my head