RIP Kevin Sullivan

[Pete]

RIP to one of wrestling's greatest heels and greatest minds.

[Log]

I can still never wrap my head around young, peppy, bodybuilder Sullivan being the same guy as evil Sullivan. Dude actually had a more varied career that he's given credit for.

[Greggulator]

https://youtu.be/paG1FsOZUGs?si=Of6kmTXAz95T6232

[J.H.]

Sullivan passes and the he "He framed Benoit and is the real killer" nutjobs came out in force on social media.

Babyface Sullivan in Georgia is so odd. Him threatening Ole Anderson after the Big Turn with Dusty Rhodes always makes me go "Wzit... what?"

When did he go all Prince of Darkness in Florida?

James

[BrianS81177]

RIP to one of the great minds in the business. 

[No Point Stance]

Awww no. One of my favourites. RIP

[hammerva]

I don't know if was just a product of the times or what but the idea of a team of college All American wrestlers would be easily influence by a Satanic figure to do their dirty work and it actually worked  really well in the NWA is something

 

 

[SirSmUgly]

He looked frail on the Who Killed WCW mini-series, which combined with the news that he'd been ill makes this news unsurprising.

Sullivan was always good for a weird and nutty segment or twenty. Instead of posting the obvious ones from WCW (specifically the story about Buzz Sawyer's mom basically pooping him out in a desert somewhere, but also IT'S NOT HOT), I'll post Sullivan somehow convincing me that Bob Roop is a Satanic cult follower. It's a little more relaxed than typical insane Sullivan stuff, but it's still pretty good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjYlnSV4FsA

Edited August 9 by SirSmUgly

[Elsalvajeloco]

3 hours ago, Log said:

I can still never wrap my head around young, peppy, bodybuilder Sullivan being the same guy as evil Sullivan. Dude actually had a more varied career that he's given credit for.

Hell, this past weekend I watched the 1st part of the Memphis Gang Wars video that I believe Kris Z uploaded. I haven't seen much of Sullivan outside of his work in Florida and obviously his ECW and JCP/WCW stuff. Anything else has just been bits and pieces here and there. And that's 1981 when he's already been in the business for over a decade by then. But yeah, Sullivan as part of the First Family and having a "family picnic" with the Nightmares and Wayne Ferris was riveting stuff.

RIP Sully

[BloodyChamp]

I just heard. RIP Kevin. Him as a heel in FL belongs on any GOAT heel ballot. That was wild stuff. It was typical rasslin territory heat and intensity with a secret ingredient - Kevin Sullivan. 

The Army of Darkness was like The Freebirds. They were so great  originally that they were always great, no matter how watered down they were later. And gosh knows that happened.

 

Edited August 9 by BloodyChamp

[WebConn89]

The man stood 5’8 at a time when the top acts were 6’8 and he found a way to make himself 6’8. He had a sharper mind than he gets credit for, In the late 70’s early 80’s Satanic Panic was all the rage especially in Florida where they had a plethora of satanic cults and Sullivan ran with it and became a top act.

Edited August 9 by WebConn89

[BloodyChamp]

He was a GOAT wrestling mind. The shit he put out since Florida wasn’t a product of his mind as it was just him wanting to keep an easy job in WCW. The 1 thing that did come exclusively from his mind in 1996…I don’t know if I’d call it the GOAT but it was definitely a different heavy take on something that had been poked at in wrestling but never really ran with.

[odessasteps]

Very sad. One of my favorites. Sadly never got to meet or talk to him. 

[ExcellenceofAirPollution]

found out via nypost.com.  It's a scummy right wing tabloid I have a bad habit of checking out a few times a day, but it was a top story so that's something....

I was a pretty big Sullivan fan.  Love the accent.  I know there's stories about him and Nancy and his drug use that don't paint him in the best light but I'm not here to judge him. My first real exposure to him was the stuff with Cactus in WCW.  I was already a big Cactus fan so that made me a Sullivan fan and years later I was able to go back and watch a lot of his classic promo stuff from Florida, the NWA and his WWWF babyface run and really appreciate how unique he was.  I liked the Dungeon of Doom once it got more serious and they had the Horsemen feud.  I always enjoyed him on podcasts....talking to Meltzer....talking to Konnan....his old show with MSL before I realized what a creep MSL was.....he'd do the Opening Day Star Wars 6:05 shows.....

In more recent years he was less coherent when I heard him on pods and I stopped listening because it was kind of sad.  Meltzer mentioned a couple weeks ago that he'd had an accident and then a lot of complications from it and had been in the hospital for months but he'd been asked to stay quiet.  Still, I was pretty shocked by this one

RIP

[odessasteps]

Not sure if the 3rd headhunter in Knoxville is online at the moment. 

[Gorman]

14 minutes ago, ExcellenceofAirPollution said:

I was a pretty big Sullivan fan.  Love the accent.  

I made sure to put it in "King of Atlanta:"

PAGE 25: "This version of the VAH-sity Club won the belts from The Road Warriors ..."

PAGE 88: "Kevin Sullivan disposed of his brother at SuperBrawl and Brutus here, so he was free to answer the call of his FATHAH~! to form the Dungeon of Doom and attempt to destroy Hulkamania."

PAGE 179: "Duggan needed help against the Revolution, so he brought in the VAH-SITY Club ..."

 

[zendragon]

Most of his stuff was a bit before my time. I was just reading David Penzer's book and it seems they where pretty close, gives a good idea of what Sullivan was doing backstage in WCW

Also listened to one of his last interviews with Brian Solomon

[Hamhock]

7 hours ago, J.H. said:

When did he go all Prince of Darkness in Florida?

This match is the heel turn; it's fantastic: https://youtu.be/5k_xw-xMIk8?feature=shared

[nate]

This is some shit fuck.

[WebConn89]

 

[BloodyChamp]

I don’t want to sound like I won’t drop it but another way to look at it is Kevin Sullivan in WCW was like Ric Flair in WCW. He had to work and was going to put up with whatever shit he had to, and gosh knows they both did. And while they were both good in WCW, it’s an injustice to have WCW be how they’re remembered the most. Kevin Sullivan was the top heel in a hot territory for a long time, and it was no coincidence that that territory’s talent headlined the NWA before it even headlined WCW. With that said I still have a soft spot for silly evil WCW Kevin.

 

[Johnny Sorrow]

In 1984 in New Jersey I was 14 and had just become a huge wrestling fan. I started buying all the magazines and the stories and pictures of Sullivan and his Satanic Army blew me away. Within a year, we had not only WWF on tv, we also had Crockett, PW USA, and World Class. A year later, thanks to U68, we had Watts and that lousy California Championship wrestling. All without cable. But we never got Florida. 
I didn't get to see Sullivan on tv until he came to Crockett. Over the years he became one of my favorite wrestlers. 
9 years ago, Sullivan and Bruce Tharpe were guests on our podcast " Titans of Wrestling." They were promoting the NWA Classics channel with the Houston footage. Sullivan was a blast, and definitely seemed as stoned as I was . At one point I told him my idea that he should be revealed as the "Grandfather" of the Wyatt Family with the idea that he got revenge on Blackjack Mulligan by corrupting his grandson.  He laughed his ass off and said he loved that idea.
RIP Devil.

 

Edited August 13 by Johnny Sorrow

[J.H.]

Oh man! 

California Championship Wrestling was the worst!

O always hated that U68 seemed to have everything except Florida!

James

[NikoBaltimore]

2 hours ago, Johnny Sorrow said:

At one point I told him my idea that he should be revealed as the " Godfather " of the Wyatt Family with the idea that he got revenge on Blackjack Mulligan by corrupting his grandson.  He laughed his ass off and said he loved that idea.

This is an absolutely amazing idea and I'm now bummed it didn't happen. For real that would have ruled so much for older fans to get into something current. 

Oh, and of course RIP Kevin. He was dark as one can be but I still chuckle thinking about his thick Boston accent saying satanic messages. Try as many might there will legit never be another like him. 

[Evil Otto]

1 hour ago, Johnny Sorrow said:

In 1984 in New Jersey I was 14 and had just become a huge wrestling fan. I started buying all the magazines and the stories and pictures of Sullivan and his Satanic Army blew me away. Within a year, we had not only WWF on tv, we also had Crockett, PW USA, and World Class. A year later, thanks to U68, we had Watts and that lousy California Championship wrestling. All without cable. But we never got Florida. 

We have such similar paths:  being from New Jersey, 1984 being our first year of fandom, you're only a year older, etc;  However, I will forever feel fortunate that my local cable system had some very low-rate channels.  One of them was CTN, which was borderline public access and despite calling itself the "Cable Television Network", that C might have subliminally been Christian.  I'll never know for sure.  What I do know is this channel is where I discovered CWF in later summer / early fall 1984, and Kevin Sullivan and his Army were in full swing.  It truly blew my mind.  In the best way possible, it felt like something I shouldn't be watching.  Off-kilter and wrong.  Sullivan rambling about the cosmic cookie, the tree of woe, the Purple Haze arriving from the ocean, mind control, guys and gals shaving half their heads, and King Curtis bellowing out half-nonsense, half-truths.  It wasn't professional, it was rough, dirty, and unsettling.  I loved it.  

To me, and not only because of this period but many other examples, Kevin Sullivan had one of the greatest minds in the history of professional wrestling.  He will be sorely missed.