What happens in the WWE is meticulously staged, but professional wrestlers still put their
bodies on the line. Being slammed repeatedly can have serious long-term effects. From heroes
of the Golden Age to mainstays of the Attitude Era, here are WWE stars you may not know had
passed on.
A cousin of WWE superstar-turned-Hollywood A-lister Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, American
Samoan wrestler Edward Fatu, better known to fans as Umaga, died in 2009 at the age
of 36. According to The AP, the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences concluded that
Fatu's death was caused by a mixture of hypertensive cardiovascular disease and drugs. CNN reported
that Fatu had been let go from WWE just six months prior for violating the company's Wellness
Program and not going into rehab.
Though the substances found by the toxicologist were of the prescription variety. According
to Bleacher Report, Fatu had hydrocodone, carisoprodol and diazepam in his system when
he died. Losing the former Intercontinental Champion at such a young age sparked a debate
about the unseen dangers of professional wrestling. Kevin Eck of the professional-wrestling blog
Ring Posts told CNN:
"As it has evolved, so has the need to do more risky-looking stunts. And you can sort
of make the correlation that that leads to more painkillers."
The most famous female WWE star of all time, Chyna, real name Joan Marie Laurer, quickly
rose through the amateur ranks and entered the WWE with a bang. As part of D-Generation
X, the so-called Ninth Wonder of the World competed at the highest level of professional
wrestling and would capitalize on her notoriety in the ring with deals outside of it. She
appeared in Playboy in 2000, but was released by the WWE the following year after contract
negotiations hit a dead end. Chyna told Howard Stern in 2004:
"Are you feeling that you were kicked out of your family, the WWE and you want back
in?"
"No, no, they definitely weren't my family, they fired me."
She started a career in the adult entertainment business and was on several reality TV shows,
most notably on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. E! News noted that:
"Dr. Drew broached the subject [of steroid use] on 'Celebrity Rehab,' and she both denied
that and denied having an addiction problem in general."
Chyna said in a SiriusXM Opie and Jim interview:
"Here's the thing: I was in Hollywood, I drank, I got messed up, I did coke. When I was with
the girls I did a little bit."
She announced that she was going vegan and taking up yoga in an attempt to turn her life
around, but in 2016, Chyna was found dead in an L.A. condo at just 46 years old. The
Los Angeles Times confirmed the cause of death to be, quote, "A lethal combination of muscle
relaxers, painkillers and alcohol."
WWE star Andrew Martin, otherwise known as Test, was just 33 when he died in 2009. In
the last interview he gave before his death, he revealed that he went to eight funerals
of fellow wrestlers in a single year, adding:
"Do I want to join that club? Hell, no, I don't want to join that club. So either you
clean up, straighten up, or lay down beside them."
The Canadian died of an accidental overdose the following year.
According to ESPN, Martin had been released from the WWE after testing positive for testosterone.
His painkiller addiction was also well documented. WWE at one time reportedly stepped in to cover
the cost of a rehab program, but the company later came under fire when experts linked
Martin's time in the ring to his death.
Brain injury specialist Dr. Bennet Omalu told ESPN:
"After repeated blows to the head, at some point the brain loses the ability to heal
itself. The delicate balance of the neurotransmitters, which control moods and drives and maintain
satiety, can be destroyed."
Dr. Omalu added that Martin had been displaying manic depressive behavior prior to his death.
Described as an underappreciated WWE anti-diva by Sportscasting, Gertrude Vachon , who wrestled
as Luna Vachon, got hooked on wrestling when her mother married Butcher Vachon, an industry
veteran who was happy to show her the ropes. After training and spending some time in various
promotions, she made her WWE debut at WrestleMania IX, appearing in the corner of Shawn Michaels.
Despite her pedigree and memorable persona, Luna was never awarded a championship in WWE.
She eventually left the company for some time at WCW and ECW, but came back around the start
of the Attitude Era. She wasn't entirely sold on the new direction WWE was taking with women,
though. As Scarlett Harris wrote in A Diva Was a Female Version of a Wrestler: An Abbreviated
Herstory of World Wrestling Entertainment:
"Vachon left WWE for a second time in 2000 amid growing dissatisfaction with the sexualization
of the women's division."
Harris also noted that there were rumblings of a real-life feud between Luna and the uber-popular
Sable. Vachon was apparently suspended at one point after a backstage altercation, and
went on to wrestle in independent promotions.
In 2010, Vachon died from an accidental overdose at the age of 48. According to TMZ, Police
discovered multiple prescription bottles and miscellaneous unsecured pills at her Florida
home.
His manager waved the flag of Japan proudly whenever Yokozuna was victorious in the ring,
but the WWE Hall of Famer was actually Samoan. Vice reported:
"In reality, Yokozuna wasn't even Japanese. He was Rodney Anoa'i, a member of the Anoa'i
Samoan wrestling dynasty whose cousins included the Rock, Rikishi, and Roman Reigns."
"I started when I was 17. My whole family's in the business. I don't know if you guys
know, uh, The Wild Samoans."
According to Sportscasting, he first went by the ring name Kokina Maximus, with promotions
in Mexico and Japan where he also competed in sumo wrestling. After he joined the WWE
in 1992, Vince McMahon decided to market him as a sumo wrestler instead. Yokozuna tossed
Randy "Macho Man" Savage over the top rope to win the Royal Rumble in 1993, earning him
the right to fight for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania.
Yokozuna won the top title on two occasions, and later held the Tag Team Championship with
Owen Hart. But according to Sportscasting, WWE doctors refused to let his wrestling career
continue because of his weight. Anoa'i carried on competing on the independent circuit and
was in the U.K. for an event when he was found dead in his hotel room. The post-mortem revealed
a pulmonary edema as the cause. He was 34.
WWE Hall of Famer Eddie Guerrero, son of the legendary Mexican wrestler Gory Guerrero,
was found dead in a Minneapolis hotel room in 2005. Today reported at the time that the
38-year-old was scheduled for a WWE event that evening. His nephew, WWE star Chavo Guerrero,
helped security to force the hotel room door open after Eddie failed to respond. According
to his wife, Vickie Guerrero, the cause of death was heart disease. She shared in an
interview:
"The blood vessels were very worn and narrow, and that just showed all the abuse from the
scheduling of work and his past."
Guerrero began his career in Mexico and wrestled in promotions in Japan, before debuting with
ECW. He quickly became a rising star by winning the ECW World Television Championship in his
debut. Guerrero earned a contract with WCW soon after, and would become a dominant force
at the promotion for the latter part of the 1990s. He jumped ship to the WWE in 2000 and
began a run that saw him hold five different titles, including the WWE Championship.
Guerrero was a popular figure, and his death is still mourned years later. Wrestler-turned-actor
Dave Bautista said in a 2018 Instagram post:
"I miss that dude every day."
Wrestling bad boy Brian Pillman almost chose a life on the football field instead of in
the ring. He came to the squared circle when his football career moved him to Canada, where
he would connect with Stu Hart. As the head of the Hart family dynasty, Stu trained some
of the best-known wrestlers, including his sons, Bret and Owen. Pillman was lucky enough
to join that list and excelled right from the beginning. He joined WCW and adopted his
loose cannon persona, which he may have taken too far. According to WWE, he was fired from
WCW for, quote, "revealing confidential information about WCW's management."
In 1996, Pillman made his much anticipated WWE debut. But his life and career were cut
tragically short. The Los Angeles Times reported that he was discovered unresponsive in a hotel
room while on tour with the WWE the following year. Medical examiners concluded that the
cause of death was coronary artery disease, though his widow, Melanie King, believes it
was human growth hormone that killed him. According to King, Pillman had been injecting
the powerful compound once or twice a day to speed up recovery from an injury. She told
the Los Angeles Times:
"I saw him doing it a few times and it scared me."
Hall of Famer Davey Boy Smith began his career in his native England, but eventually linked
up with Stu Hart, boss of Canada's Stampede Wrestling. Hart invited Smith and his cousin
Thomas Billington to join his Calgary-based promotion, where they impressed as The British
Bulldogs. And it wasn't long before the WWE came calling for the young tag team.
After Smith and the Dynamite Kid won the WWE Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania II,
they went to Japan. Smith eventually came back to the WWE as a solo act. He held the
Hardcore and the European Championships before he died in Canada in 2002. Coroners said that
a heart defect was to blame, but Smith's father found that hard to accept, even suggesting
foul play. He told the Manchester Evening News:
"He was so fit and healthy, it doesn't make sense."
The imposing Nelson Frazier went under several different ring names during his time with
the WWE. He joined WWE as Mabel, one half of tag team Men on a Mission, in 1993. He
soon found his footing as a solo competitor. He changed his name to King Mabel after he
triumphed at King of the Ring in 1995.
After some time away, he returned under the name Viscera, Frazier joined the Undertaker's
Ministry of Darkness stable and switched to an all-black get-up. He remained in the role
until he left the company in 2000, but he returned a few years later decked out in silk
pajamas. In an unexpected twist, the purple-clad Viscera reinvented himself as a ladies man
who set out, quote, "to woo some of WWE's most beautiful women."
He reinvented himself once again during the latter stages of his career, adopting the
name Big Daddy V. He remained with that name when WWE broke the news of his death in 2014.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the cause was an apparent heart attack. He was 43.
Industry veteran Scott "Bam Bam" Bigelow was known for his fiery ring attire, his ink,
and his unbelievable agility for his size. According to Sports Illustrated, he left behind
his career as a bounty hunter to get into wrestling and signed up at Pretty Boy Larry
Sharpe's Monster Factory in Mount Holly, New Jersey. Bigelow joined the world of WWE in
1987, and, after some quick detours and returns, ultimately left in 1995.
Though his time with the company was short, it was surely memorable. Bleacher Report recalled:
"He only spent a few years with the promotion, but was involved in some high-profile storylines,
including one that put him in the main event of WrestleMania 11 against Lawrence Taylor."
In his very first year, Bigelow got a chance to team up with Hulk Hogan for Survivor Series.
He never won a title in WWE, but he did nab championships at WCW and ECW. The WWE broke
the news of his death in 2007, revealing that he'd been discovered at his home in Florida.
According to Sportscasting,
"[There was} a mixture of drugs found in his system during the autopsy, including toxic
levels of cocaine."
After winning the WWE Diva Search in 2005, Ashley Massaro went on to establish herself
as a star in the women's division.
"I decided to put my phone number up and just see how it went. I just literally threw all
caution to the wind and said 'whatever' let's just see what happens."
Before long, she was competing at WrestleMania for the women's championship. She made moves
to boost her profile outside of the ring, appearing in the CW series Smallville and
competing on Survivor. She got to appear at WrestleMania one more time before she was
granted leave to deal with a family issue in 2008.
Massaro posted to MySpace:
"I have to make the decision to bow out of WWE for a while and take care of my daughter.
I wish I could do both and that there were more ways to get everything done but with
the severity of the situation I'm going to have to ask for an early release for now."
She fell off the radar until she joined a legal case against the WWE that was dismissed
in 2018. The following year, ten days before her 40th birthday, Massaro was found unresponsive
at her New York home. The Blast reported that:
"The former wrestling ace died after apparently taking her own life."
Massaro's death was met with an outpouring of grief from the wrestling world. WWE legend
Mick Foley tweeted:
"This is just awful news."
Former WWE Diva Layla remembered her kindness. She said:
"Ashley took me under her wing and was so sweet to me. Too young to be gone."
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.