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Sunday, December 14, 2003 
 
Tuite dies from cardiac arrest at age 35 

BY MIKE MOONEYHAM 
Of The Post and Courier Staff 

Jerry Tuite, who appeared in WCW as The Wall and more recently in
NWA-TNA as Malice, died on a tour of Japan last weekend due to acute
cardiac arrest.

The 35-year-old Tuite was found unconscious in a Tokyo motel by All
Japan Pro Wrestling management and several wrestlers who went to his
room to check on him. He was rushed to a local hospital where he was
pronounced dead.

Tuite had just completed a tour for All Japan where he had been
working as Gigantes. Tuite, who had a history of drug problems,
wrestled his last match on Dec. 5 at Budokan Hall in Tokyo, teaming
with (Bull) Buchanan and Justin Credible (Pete Polaco) in a six-man
bout against Nobutaka Araya, Tomoaki Honma and Kazushi Miyamoto.

The Ocean Grove, N.J., native trained at the Iron Mike Sharpe
Wrestling Academy and made his pro debut in 1994. The 6-9, 310-pound
Tuite, with the choke slam as his finisher, was brought into WCW in
1999 as The Wall and rushed into a high-profile angle with Hulk Hogan.
Tuite, however, never rose above mid-card status.

Tuite was sent to WWE's developmental territory following the purchase
of WCW, but later was given his release so he could deal with personal
issues.

NWA-TNA ran a graphic on Tuite's death on the company's pay-per-view
Wednesday night, although no mention was made in the commentary.
Neither WWE nor NWA-TNA acknowledged the recent deaths of Larry Booker
(Moondog Spot) or Mike Lockwood (Crash Holly/Mad Mikey), both of whom
had wrestled for NWA-TNA earlier this year.

NWA-TNA announcer Mike Tenay posted his thoughts on Tuite's passing on
the company's Web site.

"I speak for the entire TNA organization when I say we were saddened
to hear of the passing of Jerry Tuite this past weekend in Tokyo,
Japan. I first met Jerry in WCW where he was known as The Wall, the
bodyguard to Alex Wright's Berlyn. He later became a member of the
Misfits In Action as Sgt. A-Wall. In TNA he appeared on several of our
early shows as Malice, a member of Father Mitchell's New Church. In
the Orient, All Japan billed him as Gigantes. Whatever name you knew
him by, you knew that you were dealing with a man who worked hard to
improve his craft and his look. He was very easy to work with and
truly cared about becoming a better wrestler. Outside the ring, I'd
use the term gentle giant to describe his actions."

-- The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) made a big splash by delivering a 4.6
rating for his quarter-hour segment last week on Raw. Rock, who was
doing production work for "Be Cool," the sequel to "Get Shorty,"
happened to be in the area and agreed to stop by for the skit with
Mick Foley and La Resistance.

Sources say Rock showed up early to mingle with his co-workers and
spent the entire afternoon catching up with old friends and saying
hello to newcomers on the WWE roster.

"Just looking at my calendar, I knew that I had this week open," he
told the WWE Web site. "I was out here anyway, doing pre-production
stuff ... I just wanted to get the ball rolling and have fun now."

Rock later announced that he will appear at Wrestlemania XX in March,
and has even agreed to work a number of shows leading up to the big
event. He is expected to reprise The Rock 'N Sock Connection with Mick
Foley in a special attraction tag-team match at Wrestlemania, most
likely against a pair of Evolution members.

-- Eddie Guerrero and Charlie Haas were involved in a backstage
altercation Tuesday night at Smackdown tapings in San Diego. Guerrero,
who suffered a hyperextended elbow during a match pitting Los
Guerreros against Haas and Orangeburg native Shelton Benjamin, lashed
out at Haas for working too stiff. Punches reportedly were thrown, but
the two shook hands and apologized after Jim Ross and John Laurinaitis
defused the situation. Haas later explained that he was unaware that
Guerrero had been injured.

-- Nathan Jones has officially quit the wrestling business. WWE
released Jones from his contract after he told management that he
wasn't happy and didn't feel like pursuing the profession any longer.

The 6-10, 300-pound Jones, who had been plagued by back problems, told
friends that he didn't feel like he fit in the business. According to
an article posted on the WWE Web site, Jones couldn't handle the
grueling travel schedule. He picked Dec. 6 in Perth, Australia -- the
last day of the overseas Smackdown tour -- as the day he decided he
just couldn't take it anymore. He packed his bags, shook hands with
many of his colleagues and left.

Some pointed to the recent tour -- that included South Korea,
Singapore and Australia -- as the event that pushed Jones over the
edge. It was described as the worst plane ride in WWE history, with
the company-chartered Boeing 757 taking a scary 150-foot drop at one
point and three aborted attempts to land in a blizzard in Russia as
the plane was running out of fuel.

"You couldn't see anything," said Chris Benoit, who called the flight
the scariest one he's ever been on.

Rick Bassman, the head of Southern California's Ultimate Pro
Wrestling, where Jones trained, told the WWE Web site that the Aussie
appreciated the opportunity and genuinely liked his colleagues in WWE,
although he was extremely shy and it may have taken him longer to feel
comfortable backstage.

"At 14 years old, the guy was 6-6 and 270 pounds," Bassman said. "He
didn't have much of a home life to speak of. He was basically adopted,
in all the wrong ways, by a bunch of street criminals ... They were
pretty abusive of him, emotionally and mentally. He was in prison for
eight years. He had the same experience there again. He was in
solitary confinement. I mean, the guy has lived a very odd, different
life. And it may have been those sorts of things that made him shy."

"I think if you actually ran an IQ test on him, without question he'd
be at genius level," Bassman added. "The guy can take apart and build
a computer from scratch. Like Bradshaw, Nathan's been trading (stocks)
for about the past year. He knows the market really well. I know for a
fact that he can discuss American politics better than 95 percent of
the people ... in the audience. He's an extremely well-studied guy.
He's very, very smart."

-- Ric Flair will speak at a Media Day pep rally in Charlotte at 5
p.m. Dec. 26 before the Continental Tire Bowl Game. He'll be speaking
with NFL Hall of Famer Joe DeLamielleure.

-- Kevin Nash, who has pocketed millions of dollars over the past
decade as a result of inflated contracts, said in a recent radio
interview that he doesn't think WWE is going to offer him another big
deal when his current one comes up for renewal in February. The
injury-prone Nash, who has worked only a handful of matches over the
past three years, added that he didn't believe he should have to
settle for less money on a new contract than he got with his last
contract, because he has "a family to feed."

And you wonder why WCW went out of business.

-- George's Sports Bar, 1300 Savannah Highway, will air the Armageddon
pay-per-view tonight beginning at 8 p.m. Cover charge is $5.

-- Roddy Piper made an appearance on last week's NWA-TNA show,
bringing D'Lo Brown as his mystery backup. Brown teamed with A.J.
Styles to defeat Jeff Jarrett and Kid Kash in the main event.

Piper also mentioned that he was the man Hulk Hogan never beat. It
must have slipped his mind that he put Hogan over as recently as WWE's
Judgment Day pay-per-view earlier this year.

-- Sting will meet Jeff Jarrett in Wednesday night's NWA-TNA main
event. This will be the company's final live show of the year due to
the holidays.

-- According to an article Friday in the Hollywood Reporter, WWE Films
has acquired an untitled horror movie pitch from writer Dan Madigan
with plans to develop it as a starring vehicle for "one of the
organization's most popular wrestlers," most likely Triple H.

The lead character, stated the article, is a remorseless, relentless,
vicious and sadistic monster cut from the same cloth as such horror
franchise icons as Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees.

-- Steve Corino was sentenced to one year of probation as part of a
settlement of his forgery case, according to an article in The
Norristown (Pa.) Times Herald.

The 30-year-old Corino was placed in an Accelerated Rehabilitative
Disposition program. The program, which does not require defendants to
acknowledge guilt, allows offenders to clear their records after
probation. Corino brought a $13,100 check to court to cover
restitution towards an ex-girlfriend who brought the charges against
him, as well as her travel expenses to attend a previous hearing.

The decision made by the District Attorney to place Corino into
probation and settling the case, rather than going to trial, was based
on the payment to Corino's ex-girlfriend.

-- William Jones, who worked in ECW as Chilly Willy, recently received
a Purple Heart for service in the United States military while on tour
in Iraq.

The Purple Heart is awarded to members of the armed forces of the U.S.
who are wounded by an instrument of war in the hands of the enemy and
posthumously to the next of kin in the name of those who are killed in
action or die of wounds received in action. It is specifically a
combat decoration.

Jones, who has recovered from his wounds, is scheduled to return home
to the United States in the spring of 2004.

Jones joined the military following ECW's bankruptcy and was sent to
Iraq at the onset of the current conflict.

-- Ric Flair filled in for the injured Kurt Angle, among others, on
the recent Smackdown tour of South Korea, Australia and Singapore. The
company's greatest goodwill ambassador said he was excited to make the
trip.

"I like representing the company, and this is one of the capacities
I'd hope to represent them in," Flair told the WWE Web site. "Even
though I'm wrestling, I kind of think of myself as a spokesperson for
the company when I do this kind of stuff, especially when I do media
like I've done this week for the tour. I think it's important
sometimes to have someone that's been around for a while to talk on
behalf of the company. One of the first questions you get is, 'How has
the business changed?' No pun intended, but if you haven't seen the
evolution of the business the last 20 years, it's hard to explain and
answer those questions. But I have seen it change. I'm just real
excited to be part of the company at this level. It's all very
positive."

"I had no problem with it," he added. "They've been so good to me
about putting my schedule around my kids' athletic events and stuff at
home. It's not in any way, shape or form a heroic move. People say
things like that, but I'm just glad to be going. It's a great bunch of
guys to hang out with. How can you go wrong? And it's not like it's
hard. The length of the trip is the only difficult part."

-- Longtime mat announcer Gene Okerlund plans to double his "Mean
Gene's Burgers" restaurant chain within the next year. There are
currently 234 Mean Gene's restaurants worldwide. The company plans to
open 500 by the end of 2004, Okerlund told the military newspaper
"Stars and Stripes."

Okerlund said he has always envied Harland Sanders -- also known as
Kentucky Fried Chicken's Colonel Sanders.

"He got to do what he truly enjoyed for his whole life," Okerlund said
of the colonel. "And I enjoy this. The interaction with all of the
people, both the consumers and the people who are working at the
locations. That's kind of an exciting thing."

-- Brian Pfohl, son of Lex Luger (Larry Pfohl), has signed a letter of
intent to play basketball at Mercer College in Macon, Ga. The 6-8,
230-pound post player, a first-team Class AA all-state selection as a
junior at Atlanta's Pace Academy, averaged 18 points and 11 rebounds
last season. He boasts a 3.5 GPA and will be eligible after making
1150 on the SAT.

Pfohl also was recruited by Furman, Davidson, Tennessee Tech, Middle
Tennessee, Stetson and several Ivy League schools.

Mercer, the defending Atlantic Sun Conference champion, turned its
record around last season -- from 6-23 to 23-6 -- and the 17-win
improvement was the largest by a Division I school in almost three
decades.

-- The midget wrestler who appeared on a recent Raw was Beautiful
Bobby, the son of former midget world champion Lord Roger Littlebrook
(Eric Tovey).


--- Internet Rex 2.29