Triumph over tragedy: A journey of 3 wrestlers who ‘cheated death’
Editor’s note: This is Part 1 of a multi-part story of three talented athletes who enjoyed successful careers in professional wrestling, survived near-death experiences, and overcame the odds through sheer will and determination. The three have joined forces to spread a special message.
“When the Cessna 182-J slammed into the cold, dark and murky waters of Tampa Bay, it was certain that the ‘Jaws of Death’ would have their way with me. Still strapped into my front seat, sinking underwater and death waiting to stake its claim, I knew that I only had seconds to save myself from drowning.
“Desperate to survive, I held my breath as the remains of the twisted fuselage continued to sink where it would come to rest on the sandy bottom of Tampa Bay with one body trapped in it forever.
“These were my live or die moments and I chose to live! How many plane crash survivors do you know or have you spoken with? How many plane crash survivors that were also former professional wrestling superstars have you known or spoken with? This is my true story and there isn’t anyone else on the planet that has a story like this.”
— Austin Idol (Mike McCord)
“Nothing I had done or been through could prepare me for these words. … You have throat cancer and the tumor is as big as a large baked potato. If you don’t get treatment now, you will be dead by February 2020.
“My real life battle began there. It was a matter of life or death. I faced difficulties through my chemo and radiation treatment. I nearly lost my life.
“You can make it through whatever this life hands you, no matter the challenge. Weeping may endure through the night, but your joys come in the morning!”
— Bobby Fulton (Jimmy Hines)
“In an instant, my life was turned completely upside down. One minute, I was my normal self, and the next I was left crippled and debilitated relying on a walker.
“After visiting specialist after specialist, it was determined that I had severe spine infection, which was on its way to my brain and would have been deadly.
“Bedridden and screaming in pain for weeks, my future held a lengthy hospital stay and painful spine procedures.
“With the support of my wife and a renewed devotion of my faith, I have fought the odds and am getting stronger day-by-day. As part of my journey to help others, I have documented my ‘Road to Recovery’ in an effort to show step-by-step what healing looks like, and to prove anything is possible with a little faith and perseverance.”
— Stevie Richards (Michael Manna)
Pro wrestling superstar Austin Idol, then known as Mike McCord, had only three years under his belt when tragedy struck during the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 20, 1975, forever altering the course of wrestling history and nearly ending his promising career.
Only 25 at the time, Idol was on a plane with three colleagues returning to Tampa from a show at the Miami Convention Center when a Cessna 182 piloted by Buddy Colt (Ron Read) went down near Davis Island, crashing into the dark, murky waters of Hillsborough Bay. Idol was riding in the front passenger seat, while Bobby Shane (Robert Schoenberger) and Gary Hart (Gary Williams) were in the back seat.
The accident would claim the life of Shane, who drowned when his foot was caught in the wreckage of the aircraft, and effectively ended Colt’s in-ring career.
“Universal Heartthrob” Austin Idol became a brand name in professional wrestling. Photo Provided
Colt, an NWA world title contender, was 39 at the time. Shane, one of the most promising young talents in the business, had not yet reached his 30th birthday.
Colt’s right ankle was shattered in the crash. After later attempting to work three tag-team bouts wearing a steel brace, he never wrestled again.
‘Like a dream’
Idol recalls everything “going in slow motion.”
“It was like a dream, rolling and tumbling, and all you can see was white water,” he said. “The plane was slowly sinking, and I was stuck strapped into my seat belt, fighting to get out of it, but I couldn’t get out of it. I knew if I didn’t get out, I was going to drown. Finally, and I don’t know how, but I slipped out of my boots and pulled my jeans off me when I got out of the seat belt.”
Hart, who managed to swim the 300 yards to shore, helped drag Idol to safety and was able to crawl to a nearby house to summon help.
“We all had to dog paddle to where we saw the lights, and the lights were the residential area there on Davis Island,” Idol recounts. “Once we got into water where it was shallow enough to stand up, I tried to stand up but couldn’t. I didn’t realize the extent of my injuries. Thank God Gary could stand up.”
The crash knocked out all of Hart’s teeth, put a hundred stitches in his head, took away his sight in his right eye and left him with a broken back, left leg, left wrist and left arm. It fractured his sternum, his clavicle and vertebrae in his back.
Idol, who sustained two broken ankles, several broken ribs and severe lacerations to his feet, considers it a miracle he didn’t perish in the crash.
“Bobby (Shane) couldn’t have been more than a foot away from me. Literally I could have been 12 inches from death,” he says.
“If you saw photos of the plane, you’d never think there was anybody who could survive that. When you start to regain your senses, you realize you should have been dead. But reality sets in, and you’re not.”
Idol didn’t wrestle for months before he was able to get back in a ring.
For Idol, the horrific event was a life-altering experience. At the time, he says, it was too difficult to think about ever coming back to wrestling.
“I couldn’t stand up for a long time. It was terrible. Once I was released from the hospital, I said that’s it. I’ll never go back to that business. I am done. I’ll just go get a job doing something else. Whatever.”
Walking through fire
“Now what are you going to do?” Idol asked himself. “Just kind of suffer along and be down and depressed? Say this is my rotten life and I’ll never come out of this? Or are you going to fight? What are you going to do?”
For Idol, the answer took him back to the start of his professional wrestling career in Florida.
“It was a different time, and what I went through was horrendous. I really paid a heavy-duty price to get into the wrestling business, but it taught me something very important. I learned who I really was. I kind of found my core … what my threshold was.
“I really found it at 106 North Albany (address of the former Tampa Sportatorium and home of Championship Wrestling from Florida), where Idol underwent the grueling process of becoming a pro, which entailed being run through a gauntlet and being stretched by shooters the likes of Bob Roop, Hiro Matsuda and Jack Brisco. His dedication earned him a job.
“If I could fight through that for one year and survive it, and then survive the plane crash, then one way or the other I was going to walk through that fire and I was going to make it. And here I am today, thank God.”
Idol says he took two lessons from the ordeal. “First, listen to your inner voice and don’t disobey it. Second, ‘carpe diem’ (seize the day). Nothing else matters. Just today.”
And seize it he did. As the self-proclaimed “Universal Heartthrob,” Idol became one of the most flamboyant characters in the game, winning titles and drawing big crowds in every territory he appeared.
Idol, who celebrated his 50th year in the business in 2022, doesn’t dwell on the crash, but realizes it’s an important part of his history as well as that of pro wrestling. At age 73, he is still relevant in the wrestling industry, working as an on-air talent for Billy Corgan’s National Wrestling Alliance and running his own wrestling college in Greenville, S.C., where he has lived since 2007.
His passion, though, is motivating people, something he says he does every day, be it at his wrestling school or just interacting with the public. It’s the basis for “Triumph over Tragedy,” a program he plans to take on the road along with Bobby Fulton and Stevie Richards, who have also “cheated death” and have similar inspirational stories to share.
Their goal, says Idol, is to turn people’s thinking around. “We want to let people know that just because they’re going through some troubled times, we went through them too.”
And came out on the other side.
Part 2: Spreading a positive message through “Triumph over Tragedy”
OSCW Tag-Team Wars
Old School Championship Wrestling will present “Tag-Team Wars 2023” on July 9 at the Hanahan Rec Center.
Main event will pit OSCW tag-team champions Revolt (Caleb Konley and Zane Riley) against OSCW International champ Crazy Steve and Rob Killjoy. Also scheduled to appear are Impact stars John Skyler and Savannah Evans, former WWE stars Gangrel and Kevin Thorn, and many others.
Bell time is 5 p.m. Doors open at 4:30.
For more information, visit oscwonline.com[1] or call (843)743-4800.
Reach Mike Mooneyham at [email protected], or follow him on Twitter at @ByMikeMooneyham and on Facebook at Facebook.com/MikeMooneyham. His latest book — “Final Bell” — is now available at https://evepostbooks.com and on Amazon.com[2][3][4][5]
Did you know …
The Iron Sheik, who passed away in June at the age of 81, once served as a bodyguard for Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his family back home in Iran.
The Sheik, whose real name was Hossein Khosrow Ali Vaziri, became a national champion in his native country. But after the Olympic gold medal-winning wrestler Gholamreza Takhti died of an apparent suicide in his hotel room in 1968, with some alleging that he had been murdered, Sheik left Iran for the United States and settled in Minneapolis.
The Iron Sheik. WWE Photo
“If Iran is no good for Gholamreza Takhti, the greatest champion we had, Iran is never going to be good for me. So I decided to come to America,” he said.
The Sheik was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2005 after an in-ring career that spanned four decades.
On this date …
The Rock and Roll Express Photo by Eddie Cheslock
Thirty-eight years ago today on this date (July 9, 1985): The Rock and Roll Express (Ricky Morton and Robert Gibson) won their first NWA world tag-team title their first night in the Mid-Atlantic wrestling territory by defeating Ivan Koloff and Krusher Khruschev in Shelby, N.C.
Their reign lasted until Oct. 13 of that same year.
Photo of the Week
The referee checks on Pampero Firpo, the “Wild Man of the Pampas,” during a match at the old County Hall in Charleston. Photo Provided
References
- ^ oscwonline.com (oscwonline.com)
- ^ [email protected] (www.postandcourier.com)
- ^ Facebook.com/MikeMooneyham (Facebook.com)
- ^ https://evepostbooks.com (evepostbooks.com)
- ^ Amazon.com (Amazon.com)