Obituaries
Mat Matters: For the longest time Big Mac (1941-2024) was Ontario wrestling
I was at a wrestling show on Sunday in Toronto that I could walk to from my home. At the Destiny card, I reconnected with a number of friends. At...
Mat Matters: Mourning the death of my best friend Major DeBeers
It's with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of Edmund Jones -- who wrestled Major DeBeers -- after a long battle with numerous ailments on...
Shooter Tony Jones dead at 53
Veteran wrestler "The Shooter" Tony Jones, who many saw in the documentary Beyond the Mat, has died. Details are still coming in on the cause of...
More Headlines
Hawaiian sumo legend Akebono passes away at 54
Hawaiian-born sumo and professional wrestler Chadwick Haheo Rowan, better known as Akebono or Akebono Taro, passed away on April 11 Japan Standard Time. He was 54 years old. Akebono entered sumo in March 1988 and became a star soon after. Standing at 6-foot-8 and...
Maritimes promoter Al Zinck dead at 91
Al Zinck, a former amateur wrestler turned pro, and a boxing and wrestling promoter in Atlantic Canada, died on Sunday morning. He was 91. Many of the tributes to Zinck, who died on April 7, 2024, after battling dementia for years, will refer to his time as a...
Jackie Crockett, dead at 76, ‘just one of the boys’
Jackie Crockett, who died on Wednesday night, was more than just a cameraman for Jim Crockett Promotions and later WCW. For one, he was the youngest brother of Jim Crockett Jr., and had grown up around the wrestling business, run out of Charlotte, NC, by their father,...
Japanese wrestler Yutaka Yoshie passes away
Yutaka Yoshie, a former IWGP Tag Team Champion, passed away suddenly while wrestling as a freelancer for rival promotion All Japan Pro-Wrestling (AJPW). He was fifty years old. On March 10, 2024, Japanese time, Yoshie took part in a tag team match for AJPW that saw...
Jones family grateful for outpouring of love for little brother Virgil
The silence on the other end of the telephone lasted for at least 15 seconds. Antoinette Jones, her older brother, Donald (“Donnie”), and his wife Delores were floored that their little brother, Mike, made international news upon his death on February 28, 2024....
Mat Matters: Me and Butcher, unexpected buddies
Where to start? Paul Vachon and I have been friends since 2001. Should I start with the in-person dinners? The laughs on the phone? My weak attempts to speak French with him? The fun chats with his wife, Dee, who he called "Sarge" for all her years in the US military....
