odessasteps Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 You can also hear Austin Idol talk about the plane crash on the Super Studcast he did. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 (edited) If I, or many of us for that matter, had gone through that we would have crumpled. Somehow, Gary didn't. Buddy didn't. Austin Idol didn't. So, they deserve their regard. That's why I felt the need to share that story. Edited March 7, 2021 by Curt McGirt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted March 7, 2021 Share Posted March 7, 2021 15 hours ago, Curt McGirt said: Here is the tale of the plane crash with Buddy Colt from Gary Hart's book. It is harrowing, I warn you. RIP, Buddy. Reveal hidden contents On February 19th, 1975, we had a show in the Miami Convention Center. After the matches, Bobby Shane, Buddy Colt, Dennis McCord, and I left the arena and went to Wolfie’s to get something to eat, and then we went to the airport to board Buddy’s plane – a single engine Cessna 173 - to go home to Tampa. Buddy was flying the plane, Dennis was next to him, Bobby was behind Buddy, and I was behind Dennis. When we had originally flown into Miami, Bobby was behind Dennis, but I asked if we could switch seats going back, because Dennis wasn’t as tall as Buddy, and I could have more leg room. Bobby didn’t mind at all, because it was going to be a “working flight.” As I mentioned in the previous chapter, Bobby was in the process of taking over the book from Bill Watts, and as Bill’s assistant, I was reviewing the TV formats and going over the building managers with him, and I was also going to help him book a few shows during the flight, as well. As we left Miami, Buddy called Tampa control and asked how the weather was over there. They said there were severe thunderstorms moving across the bay, so Buddy decided to change course and land in Sarasota. Before he could change course, an air traffic controller from McNeal Air Force Base in Tampa came on and said that if we wanted to go to Tampa, we could make it, assuring us, “You won’t have any problems, and you’ll probably get here before the storm comes in.” Buddy asked us all if we wanted to land in Sarasota, or if we should head on to Tampa, and we collectively made the unanimous decision to go home. That’s why we were on the airplane in the first place. There was no concern about the storm, because the air traffic controller assured us we would make it to Tampa in time. When we broke through the clouds over Tampa, however, we realized that the air traffic controller had seriously misjudged the storm’s movement, and we were smack-dab in the middle of it. The landing was going to be difficult, and on Buddy’s first attempt, we were high and to the right, so he veered out over the bay to go back in for another approach. As soon as we started over the bay, Dennis screamed, “For God sakes pull up, we’re gonna hit the water!” As soon as I heard him say that, I reached down and unlatched my seat-belt. The next thing I remember was that I popped to the top of the bay, and it was at that moment I realized I had just survived a horrible event. Buddy’s plane had hit the bay cart wheeling at one-hundred-and-eighty miles per hour, and as it broke apart, I was thrown out because, fortunately, I had unbuckled my seat-belt in the nick of time. The plane crashed three-hundred yards offshore, and I was thrown an additional one-hundred-and-fifty yards away from the wreckage. Way off in the distance, I could see a light, but I didn’t see hide or hair of Bobby, Dennis, or Buddy. I started swimming towards the light, and even though it was raining badly and the water was choppy, everything seemed so serene. I started to realize that I couldn’t see out of my right eye, and when I reached up to touch my head, I could feel my skull. Even still, I had no pain, no fear, and no concern. I was completely at peace, and wasn’t afraid. My only ambition was to get to that light, and there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to make it. I swam for a while, and then came upon Dennis. He had gone down with the plane, but being a power lifter, was able to curl his seat-belt to give himself enough room to slip out. I was relieved to see him, but he told me he couldn’t make it any further. I instructed him to lay back and float, and then I grabbed him with my left hand and pulled him along as I swam. At the time, my left arm and wrist were broken, but I didn’t know it yet. I just got a grip on him, and did the backstroke with my right arm until we got to shallow water. At that point I said, “Come on, Dennis, we can walk now.” He just looked at me and said, “Gary, I can’t walk.” Since his feet were caught in the bottom of the plane, they were all torn up and rendered useless. Then, I heard Buddy’s voice out in the distance, screaming, “Is anybody there? Is anybody there?” I told Dennis to stay put, and swam back out in the bay towards Buddy’s screams. I don’t know how far I went, but when I got to him, I immediately asked if he knew where Bobby was. He said no, so I hoped that Bobby saw the light himself and swam on his own. Buddy was severely injured. He had no problem getting off his seat-belt when he sank with the plane, but the rudder pedals wrapped around his ankle and lower leg, and broke his leg in a compound fracture. It was only hanging on by tendons. Just as I did with Dennis, I pulled Buddy to shallow water, and sat the two of them together. At that point, I turned my attention to finding Bobby. I swam back out, and started hollering his name. Of all the guys, Bobby was actually a true friend. Don’t get me wrong - I liked Buddy and Dennis a lot, but I had known Bobby for years, and we lived together when we worked in Michigan. I was very concerned that he wasn’t there with us, especially knowing that Buddy and Dennis went down with the plane. After calling his name for quite awhile and searching to no avail, I made the decision to stop searching for Bobby, and to go get help for Buddy, Dennis, and myself. The light I had been swimming towards was on top of a dock. It was low tide, and the wall from where the water ended to the top of the dock must have been twenty-five feet high. There was a ladder, but there was a good twelve feet between the water and the foot of the ladder, so Dennis and Buddy let me crawl up on their backs so I could reach it. Both of them - with one leg each - stood up so that I could climb on their shoulders and reach the ladder. I climbed the ladder to the dock where the light was at. There was a boat there, so I pushed it into the bay so Buddy and Dennis could climb in and get out of the water. There was also a house by the dock, so I started pounding and kicking on the door. Unbeknownst to me, due to the force of the crash, I lost all the clothes that I had on - my shirt, my pants, my underwear, my rings, my watch, my socks, my shoes - everything. I was standing there completely naked, with caked blood all over me, and my skull exposed. When the people came to the door and saw a naked bloody man pounding on their door, they panicked and closed the door, screaming, “Get out of here! We’re calling the police!” They were freaking out. This was 2:30 a.m., and they didn’t know that a plane had just crashed in the bay. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to kick on the door five more times to make sure that they would indeed call the police. Then, I walked back to where Buddy and Dennis were and yelled down to them, “Help is on the way!” At that point, I sat down under a tree. I still didn’t have any pain or any fear, and was very collected, peaceful, and calm. I heard sirens, and the first person I saw was Bob Roop’s wife, who lived nearby and heard on a police scanner that a plane had gone down in the bay. She wanted to know what she could do for me, so I said, “Call my wife and tell her that I’m injured but alive, and that I’m on my way to the hospital.” The next person I saw was a policeman, and as soon as he saw me he said, “I guess you won’t be at the matches on Tuesday night.” When I was being put into the ambulance, Dick Murdoch – who arrived after hearing about the crash - came running and jumped in the back with me. The ambulance driver started screaming that he had to get out, but Dick growled, “Nobody’s throwing me out of here! He’s my friend and I’m staying with him!” He stayed with me and talked to me during the entire ride, even joking, “That’s the biggest bump I ever saw you take!” Dick was so wonderful that night, and even went into the emergency room with me. I told him, “Dickie, if I should die, tell my wife to cremate me, take me back to Texas, and spread my ashes there.” He assured me he would, and waited with me until my wife arrived. The last thing I remember was that when my wife finally got to the hospital, she started crying on Dick Murdoch’s belly. I went out for three days. When I woke up, I was extremely relieved and thankful to be alive. I told my wife, “I had a dream that Duke Keomuka was here, and he told me that I was a hero the way I saved Buddy and Dennis. He even made a joke that I killed my heat, and that I’ll have to work real hard to get it back. Then, when I asked him about Bobby, he said he didn’t make it.” “That was yesterday,” she said. “It was Duke. He really was here. Eddie Graham and Jim Barnett were here, too.” “I didn’t see Eddie or Jim,” I said. “I only talked with Duke.” “No, Eddie was here,” she replied. “He was in the room with you and Duke. Jim was out in the hall with me, because he couldn’t bear to see you in the condition you were in. Fritz and Doris Von Erich called, as well.” I was hoping Duke’s visit was just a dream, but unfortunately, it wasn’t. I really wanted to believe that since Buddy, Dennis, and I made it - Bobby survived, as well. When my wife confirmed that Bobby had died, it had a tremendous affect on me. I was sent into despair, and all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. After sleeping for two more days, Fritz called again. This time I was able to speak with him, and he offered to send a plane and bring me home to Dallas. I told him that I appreciated the offer, but that I needed to stay in Florida and recuperate. He then passed the phone to Red Bastien, Danny Plechas, and Bronko Lubitch, and I spoke with them all briefly before I went back to sleep. A few more days of sleep later, I started coming back around. At that point I knew I was messed up, because I couldn’t lift my head off of the pillow or raise my arms off the bed. I literally could not move. If I coughed, the doctors would have to give me hard drugs, and if I sneezed –they would have to call the Pope. The pain was just unthinkable. It was agonizing. That’s the only time I ever did hard drugs in my life, and I still hurt. Two-hundred-and-eighty stitches were put in my head alone. The crash knocked out all of my teeth. The tip of my nose was cut off. I lost all sight in my right eye forever. I broke my back, my left leg, my left wrist, and my left arm. I fractured my sternum, my clavicle, and some vertebrae on my back. I was lucky, though, because when I arrived to the emergency room, there was a plastic surgeon on duty who sewed my nose back on and sewed my head up, and I really don’t have bad scars on my face. I do have severe scarring on my left leg, though, because when I went through the top of the plane, I caught it on the metal and steel, and it cut me up quite a bit. Even though all my injuries were on my left side, the entire right side of my body was black, blue, purple, and yellow - every disgusting color you could imagine. When Jim Barnett came with Eddie and Duke that first day, he took my wife to lunch, feeling she needed to get away from the hospital for a while. He told her that he would be sending us $500 a week to cover our costs, and that the Florida office would chip in an additional $250 a week, because we had no health insurance. They took very good care of us. I never held Buddy Colt responsible for anything. The person that put us in that situation was the air traffic controller at McNeal Air Force Base. It was his fault, not Buddy’s, and I consider Buddy to be a very good friend of mine to this day. Buddy Colt would have been a great World Champion, because he was 6’1” and 238 pounds with a fabulous body. He had beautiful blonde hair, was a good looking guy, and the ladies loved him. He was also a good performer and a good interview. Unfortunately, Buddy lost his airplane, a great deal of money, his foot, and his wrestling career that night. He lost it all, but being a marine, Buddy overcame it all, and is as happy today as he ever was. Unfortunately, the crash messed up Dennis McCord for life. I had known Dennis from when we worked in the Carolinas together, and he also wrestled in Australia as Mike McCord, which is where I really got to know him. He was able to recover and continue wrestling, but was forever mentally tormented by that night. I will always have a special bond with him, though, and I even named my first son, Jason Dennis, after him. Bobby Shane, God love him, was finished on this earth. Even though he had only been in the business for eleven years, he made quite a name for himself and has left behind a great legacy. His early, untimely death is all the more tragic because he had such a tremendous career in front of him, given the fact that he had just gotten his very first booking job in the states. I was very depressed over his death, and had tremendous feelings of guilt for not finding him. One of the things that really compounded my guilt was that I had been holding some animosity towards him for when he was seemingly taking Jerry Jarrett’s side in Georgia. Looking back, I now realize that he was only trying to help. The other thing that I agonized about was the fact that I switched seats with him to have more leg room. Yes, I know that I un-latched my seat belt and that was how I survived – but who knows? Maybe if I had stayed in my seat and my legs were up against Buddy’s chair – I wouldn’t have been able to clear the plane – and Bobby would have. Those two things – the grudge I was holding and the fact that we switched seats - really affected me after the crash, added to my remorse, and tormented me for quite some time. Bobby’s parents were kind enough to come and visit me. They knew how guilty I felt, got the coroner’s report, and showed it to me, stressing, “Gary, even if you had found him, he would already have been dead. He only had a tiny bit of water in his lungs.” No matter how hard I wanted to believe that Bobby found his own light that night, what happened was, as we went in the bay, Bobby hit his head on the inside of the plane - and that killed him instantly. As time went by, the knowledge that Bobby died on impact did ease the pain a bit, but it was still very difficult. I eventually talked to my good friend Don Jardine about my grief, and he told me that no one could have done more than I had, and that I shouldn’t feel guilty. He said, “I wasn’t surprised that you were the one who saved them, because you have very strong will power and a very strong mind – but don’t ever feel guilty, because if it wasn’t for you, maybe Buddy and Dennis wouldn’t be alive.” Don’s words were very comforting to me, but I suffered from “survivor guilt” for a long time. It was very hard for me. Dealing with Bobby’s death was harder than the crash and the swim to shore. It was overwhelming. When I think about that night, I wonder how I survived. It’s amazing that I did everything I did: Swimming, getting Dennis, getting Buddy, trying to find Bobby, climbing the ladder, dropping the boat, and kicking on the door - all the while with broken bones. I was truly at death’s door, and for a long while that realization messed me up, as well. However, I survived, and I’m just thankful that I made it through and that I can walk around, enjoy my life, and do the things that I do now. People tell me I’m a hero, but I don’t want to hear that, and don’t see myself that way. I see myself as someone who God gave the strength to get out of a horrible situation. I never attributed that to me. I attribute that to God and a higher power. It was hard to keep that story quiet, because there were articles and pictures about the plane crash and of us in our hospital rooms all throughout Florida. I really had to live the hero image down to maintain my “Playboy” Gary Hart persona, and that took a while. Stories began spreading about that night, and to this day there are so many rumors about the crash that many people have heard distorted tales. One lore, for example, is that the bay was infested with sharks. If there had been sharks in the water that night – with all the blood we lost – we would have been eaten up. Now, I would love to tell you how I had to fight off the sharks that night – but it just isn’t true. I don’t know why people make stuff up about the crash…the truth is horrific enough. Oddly enough, I never suffered from any type of fear of flying after that, and got on airplanes with no problem. If I did get anything from that experience, though, it was a new perspective on life: To live every day like it’s my last, to spend time with the people that I care about, to let them know I care about them, and most importantly, to laugh and have a good time. The true way to happiness is through laughter, because laughter brings love and happiness. Since the crash, I’ve tried to stay as true to those as possible, so in that sense, the crash was, to me, a rebirth. It really speaks to what a tremendous heel Gary Hart was. Body half destroyed and blinded in one eye for the rest of his life from a horrific accident that made national headlines... and he STILL got his heat back. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zendragon Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happ Hazzard Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 RIP Barry Orton I always thought Barry was very underrated. Like a lot of guys he came along at the wrong time, if he'd been 10 years older he'd have had a good career in the territories. WWF could have done more with him, he didn't really lack anything that they looked for. He probably would have benefitted from leaving early on and wrestling elsewhere and then coming back in the late 80s when they were starting to look for new stars. But he did jobs for too long to ever get a push. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 It's the interviews though. Antichristo level. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colonial Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 As a 4th/5th grader, I always got a kick out of Barry O being introduced as hailing from "the Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada." At the same time, I was disappointed that he tagged at least once with Mr. X, and they never went full-time as "Team Tic-Tac-Toe." (I was 10 at the time!) Doesn't appear to be on YT, but there was a 1985 TV match where O and Moondog Spot won a tag squash, with the finish of O walking the middle rope before dropping a knee on the jobber, who Spotty had in the "Demolition Decapitator" position. The finish looked rough (O seemed to be regretting his rope walk as soon as he started it), but I always wanted to see a full-time tag team adopt that finisher. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cobra Commander Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 Before tonight, I didn't know that Randy Orton and Barry O have the same first name (Randal). I also didn't know that Bob Sr/Bob Sr/Randy all have the initials RKO (Robert Keith or Randal Keith). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shartnado Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 (edited) 22 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said: Before tonight, I didn't know that Randy Orton and Barry O have the same first name (Randal). I also didn't know that Bob Sr/Bob Sr/Randy all have the initials RKO (Robert Keith or Randal Keith). Well, that certainly came out of nowhere. I mean all those RKO's. Not that I would have expected to read of Barry O's passing either, which is very unfortunate and unexpected as well. Edited March 21, 2021 by Shartnado Clarification Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ziggy Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 When alot of the bigger televised house shows started surfacing from WWE 24/Classic on demand, I got to see alot of these opening card guys have 10 to 15 minute plus matches. I was impressed Orton alot and he was probably one of the younger guys in that position. It's surprising that they didn't eventually repackage him under a different gimmick like they did with Lanny Poffo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted March 21, 2021 Author Share Posted March 21, 2021 https://www.f4wonline.com/other-wrestling/barry-orton-passes-away-62-years-old-336461 Quote Randall Barry Orton, the uncle of Randy Orton and son of Bob Orton Sr., passed away yesterday at the age of 62. Orton, who wrestled under names like Barry Orton, Berry Orton, Barry O, Superstar Barry O and the masked Zodiak, was best known in wrestling in 1991 and 1992 for being in the media spotlight in talking about issues in pro wrestling and claiming Terry Garvin, who at the time worked in Talent Relations with Pat Patterson, tried to sexually harass him on a car ride while he was a teenager breaking in wrestling in the Amarillo territory in the late 70s This led to appearances on shows like Phil Donahue, Larry King and Geraldo Rivera shows, including two confrontations with Vince McMahon, who tried to discredit him on the air noting he had served time in prison for being involved in an auto accident where somebody had died and was writing a book. Garvin and Mel Phillips had been let go by McMahon shortly before the show aired, and Patterson resigned. He was one of the first wrestlers to befriend Tom Cole, who passed away recently and had claimed Phillips came on to him when he was a teenager working for the ring crew, which Phillips was the supervisor of. Orton foiled McMahon's attempt for a Perry Mason-like moment on the Donahue show as McMahon had planted Cole, who he had just secretly settled out of court in the days leading to the show, in the audience at the show with Linda McMahon and Liz "Elizabeth" Hulette if his name was mentioned by the panel before the show. Cole was to then say how the panel members who made claims about McMahon were lying and that he was Tom Cole. Orton, in the green room, noted that Cole had become incommunicado with him for a few days and had an intuition something funny was up and told others on the show not to mention Cole's name on the air. That largely ended Orton's wrestling career at the age of 33. He was a good in-ring performer and strong talker who was a headliner in 1987 in Stampede Wrestling under a mask as The Zodiak, taking after his father who used the Zodiac name under a mask. Zodiak & Jason the Terrible wrestled all the top babyfaces in the promotion, including Owen Hart, as well as the tag team of Bad Company (Bruce Hart & Brian Pillman) and future Hall of Famer, Senator and Cabinet member Hiroshi Hase, and future legend Jushin Liger as Fuji Yamada. He worked two stints in the WWF, both as a prelim wrestler and television enhancement talent as Barry O. He worked 1985-86, and after spending time in prison, returned in 1990 and 1991 in a similar role. As a wrestler, he held the Americas tag team championship at the age of 19 teaming with Hector Guerrero, and formed a tag team with brother Bob and held the Southeastern tag team championship with the Poffo family's ICW promotion. He also had a run as Jody Hamilton's partner in a remake of The Masked Assassins in Jim Crockett Promotions. He had felt that making public revelations about the industry ended his career and transitioned into acting, where he appeared in a number of movies. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.T. Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 RIP, Zodiak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 (Not even a new page) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Green Meanie Posted March 28, 2021 Share Posted March 28, 2021 Blade Braxton from Wrestlecrap, also known as The Midnight Rose on the indy scene, apparently passed away today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted March 28, 2021 Share Posted March 28, 2021 Did we mention here that Captain Ed George, the Sheiks son, passed away a couple weeks ago? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PetrolCB Posted March 29, 2021 Share Posted March 29, 2021 (edited) . Edited March 29, 2021 by PetrolCB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sex Machine Gun Posted March 29, 2021 Share Posted March 29, 2021 1 hour ago, The Green Meanie said: Blade Braxton from Wrestlecrap, also known as The Midnight Rose on the indy scene, apparently passed away today. This fucking sucks so hard. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Green Meanie Posted March 29, 2021 Share Posted March 29, 2021 56 minutes ago, Sex Machine Gun said: This fucking sucks so hard. Yeaaaaaaah, that one is hitting pretty hard. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt D Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Storied DVDVR poster G. Gordon Liddy has died. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 I thought evil never dies? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 QEPD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PetrolCB Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 I dont know who that is, but he's already cooler than the Goon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
odessasteps Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 The gimmick was a fav of mine when I did online playing in the 90s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zimbra Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 ICE KILLER is goddamned great wrestling name. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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