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Legendary manager passes away.

Quote:

Source: Pwinsider

ALL-TIME GREAT WRESTLING MANAGER GARY HART PASSES AWAY
by Mike Johnson @ 2008-03-17 09:18:45

"Playboy" Gary Hart (real name Gary Williams), best known for his work managing and booking for World Class Championship Wrestling passed away yesterday afternoon. I don't have much in the way of details regarding his death at this time.

Hart was 66 or 67 at the time of his death. Hart had just appeared at a fan signing and recorded a shoot interview in Pennsylvania before returning home to Texas. He was found at home by one of his sons.

Although he originally broke in wrestling as "Playboy" Gary Hart in the mid-west territories, Hart's legacy in the business will be his role in booking one of the all-time greatest wrestling promotions, Fritz Von Erich's World Class Championship Wrestling, while managing names like Abdullah the Butcher, King Kong Bundy, Gino Hernandez, Chris Adams and The Great Kabuki, among others with a straight forward, devious, gravely voice.

During its strength, WCCW was one of the most emotional, popular promotions of all time. There is not one performer, one company today that comes close to the emotional investment the Texas fans had in their performers during that era in the 1980s. None.

When Fritz Von Erich brought Johnny Mantel in to help with the booking and become a partner with the company, an offended Hart departed. He moved to Jim Crockett Promotions in 1987, managing "The Latin Heartthrob" Al Perez and Larry Zbyszko.

Hart became a central figure during the 1989 feud between then-NWA champion Ric Flair and Terry Funk, showing up unannounced as Funk's manager at the Great American Bash '89 PPV in Baltimore and also managing a young Keiji Mutoh, who was on fire as The Great Muta during a feud against Sting at the time. The storyline was that Muta was the son of Kabuki, who Hart had originally brought to the United States. Hart would become the manager of the J-Tex Corporation, adding Dick Slater and the Dragon Master (Kendo Nagasaki), while Brian Pillman and later Ole and Arn Anderson would join Flair and Sting.

Hart's run continued until the end of 1989, where Flair defeated Funk in an amazing I Quit Match in Troy, NY at Clash of the Champions IX: New York Knockout.

After leaving the NWA, Hart worked on the Global Wrestling Federation, an upstart promotion that had a daily timeslot on ESPN in the early 1990s. Global was bad beyond words, partially because ESPN didn't want violence on the air, to the point Hart had taken to wearing a terrible toupee on the air. After Global went down, Hart, like other stars of the World Class area, worked numerous independent promotions in the Texas area, but never regained the glory of the Von Erich era.

Hart's last work on a national level took place in 1999 during the latter days of Court Bauer's MLW, where he did an angle attacking Terry Funk, still upset over Funk having submitted to Ric Flair during that classic 1989 feud. The plan at the time was to link Hart with Low Ki and Homicide. Hart's son Chad wrestled briefly as well.

Hart was one of the central figures in the two documentaries released on the legacy of World Class, Brain Harrison's Heroes of World Class and WWE's Triumph and Tragedy of World Class, where he received raves for his insight into the company, the implosion of the Von Erich family, and became very emotional when it came to the death of Gino Hernandez during the height of World Class' run.

In recent years, Hart had been a regular appearing at fan conventions in Charlotte, North Carolina for Greg Price. At the time of his death, Hart was working on the finishing touches of a planned book about his experiences in the business. I know one person who had read an early draft that raved about the book.

Our deepest condolences to the family, friends and fans of Gary Hart.

Damn. :(

shit man. you're kidding me. one of the nicest wrestling guys I've ever met. such a teddy bear kind of guy. and he was very intelligent to the business. he knew the business and put together a great show down in Texas for a bit. Also, a very underated manager. He never made it to the WWF, so that's probably the reason you don't hear his name a lot. But you watch him and World Class and in NWA and you'll see how good he was at that position.

I was really looking foward to seeing him again this summer at Fanfest. sucks he's gone. I'll have to get out the autographed picture he signed for me a couple years ago of himself and Abdullah. I'll always remember him smiling and chuckling while saying "look at Abby..I'm going to sign on his belly if you don't mind" when I brought that picture to him

RIP.

<font color=goldenrod>RIP</font> :(

To be honest I don't know him, I think I've heard his name mentioned here or there, but that's it. None-the-less R.I.P.

Quick note: How many wrestling deaths have there been this year? Seems to be pretty good, considering that this time last year there had already been a dozen deaths in the wrestling industry.

J-Tex Corporation lost a head honcho.

RIP Gary.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vastardikai (Post 2084545)

J-Tex Corporation lost a head honcho.

RIP Gary.

Very Underated group and manager. Had WWE died off and not the NWA/WCW line, I think he would be remembered like a Fuji or SLick.

this is from one of the guys over on the fanfest boards

Gary's last weekend

I don't know even where to begin as I sit here in total shock. I just heard the news that "Playboy" Gary Hart had passed away on Sunday afternoon. This hits very close to home with Ken and I as we spent Friday and Saturday with him. Gary was in great mood and seemed to be feeling well on this trip as he spent time with old friends of his Bill Irwin and Skandor Akbar. I'm not going to go over Gary's career here because I'm sure everyone knows how much he did in this business. What I will do is tell you all about Gary's last weekend on the road and as he put it "the good old days traveling down the road with good friends".

The weekend started Friday afternoon as we picked of Gary, Bill and Skandor at Philadelphia Airport and headed for Allentown P.A. This was like a true lovefest between these three old friend as they couldn't stop talking about the good times they spent together. They talked about storylines, talent, friends, foes and whatever you can think of. It was a great time for us as we just sat back and listened to all the old stories which was so much fun. When we got to Allentown, Gary was to be meeting Kayfabe Commentaries to do a guest booker piece but I had to call Sean and tell him that it would have to wait because these three buddies wanted to have dinner together first. The fun continued for us all as we headed for a steakhouse and enjoyed some more old days talk. Gary talked about how proud of his two sons he was and enjoyed the time he spends with them. I wouldn't ev! en know where to start to tell you about all the stories they told as there were so many. After a long fun filled dinner we dropped Gary off to do his guest booker piece and told him we would talk later. Later Friday night Gary called us and said all went well with the piece and he would see us in the morning.

Saturday morning started as we went to pick Gary up at his hotel and sat down for a quick breakfast with him. The first thing he asked me was did I drink and handed me a bottle of Crown Royal which he told me to enjoy. He said it was given to him by Sean last night at the guest booker piece but he had a couple of drinks but couldn't bring it on the plane and didn't want to waste such a generous gift. That is just the kind of guy that Gary was always thinking about everyone. Gary and I had a convesation about how he couldn't understand why the fans would want to hear about booking. I told him it's a side that most people have no idea about and it was a huge interest to the fans. I also told Gary it had alot to do with the way he just mesmerized people when he spoke. We then headed to Carson's Pro Wrestling World for a Meet & Greet and World Class Ringside Reunion Q&A Session.&nb! sp; The meet and greet went great as Gary, Bill , Skandor and the fans had a wonderful time. It was now time for the World Class Ringside Reunion Q&A which went over well beyond anything we could have imagined. The session rolled along great and all questions were answered and old storied were told to the fans. Gary again showed the person he was as he broke down when a question about Gino Hernandez was asked. I spoke to Gary about that and he told me talking about Gino is very tough do to with Gino being like a son to him. The Q&A taping ended with a standing ovation from all in attendance. We headed back to Philadelphia Airport but not before a trip through the drive up at MacDonalds for a quarter pounder with cheese meal for the "Playboy". The ride was once again great as old stories were covered the whole way back. At the airport the three old friends hugged goodbye and Gary told us that he would be it touch soon t! o work with us again another project. As Ken and I headed home a ll we could do is talk about what a great guy and true genius that Gary was. We also talked about how much Gary did to promote this show for us as he truly wanted us to do well.

As I sit here typing this I get a call from Ken and he tells me he just spoke with Jim (Skandor) about Gary's passing. Jim was in total shock as Gary appeared to be in fine health to him also. Jim told Ken that they had a great time on the plane ride home and continued talking about old times. Jim also said that Gary's two boys were at the airport to pick him up which makes me so very happy. Jim said that he and Gary both thanked us for putting this reunion together as it was very special to them both. I think I have covered it all and I hope that everyone can get a small picture of Gary's last days traveling down the road with old friends.

To the Williams (Hart) family: you will all be in our pray's and heart's at this sad time.

R.I.P. "Playboy" Gary Hart

Steve
K&S Wrestlefest

I've never heard of him, but Rest in Peace all the same.