Remembering Dominic DeNucci, Bobby Eaton, The Assassin, & Bert Prentice

 Heaven's wrestling federation is growing in size, as we've lost four men who made significant contributions to the wrestling business when we were young.

Last week alone, three of those four men passed in a 24 hour period:

Jody Hamilton, better known as the Assassin, working mostly in Georgia & Florida for a number of years, and became a manager in the 90's. His passing came just a couple of weeks after one of the men he managed, Paul Orndorff, had passed on.

Hamilton's son, referee and part-time wrestler Nick Patrick, announced his dad's passing on social media.

Flamboyant manager Bert Prentice, otherwise known as Christopher "Honey" Love, was a fixture in Memphis in the 90's after a lengthy career that saw him also working in Texas for Southwest Championship Wrestling as the manager of future Hall of Famer Tully Blanchard, currently with AEW as a manager himself. Prentice would later become a promoter in the Memphis area until his passing. 

"Beautiful" Bobby Eaton, 1/2 of the Midnight Express tag team, one of the nicest men in the business off-camera. It is assumed that Eaton and manager Jim Cornette met at the start of Cornette's career in Memphis. People might not remember that Eaton worked the Memphis territory before forming the Express, first with Dennis Condrey, and later with Stan Lane, formerly of the Fabulous Ones, another Memphis icon. Eaton won multiple regional tag titles with the Express, and also, during the 90's in WCW, tagged with Steven (William) Regal and another future Hall of Famer in Arn Anderson.

Ye scribe actually met Eaton following a WCW Clash of The Champions here in town in 1989. A mutual friend tried to have his picture taken with Eaton, with me holding the camera. Didn't work, as I didn't know how to operate a modern camera at that point that wasn't a Polaroid.

And, overnight, we lost Dominic DeNucci, whose career began in 1958, tagging with his friend, Bruno Sammartino. DeNucci also trained future stars Shane Douglas and Mick Foley, among others.

After winning multiple tag titles in the then-WWWF, DeNucci worked jobber matches against top heels at the end of his career with the company. From 1981, DeNucci tags with jobber Angelo Gomez vs. the Moondogs, Rex & King (Randy Colley & Sailor Ed White).

Rest in peace.