I was saddened to hear of the sudden passing late yesterday of former professional wrestler Christopher Pallies who was the best known to the world as King Kong Bundy. No cause of death has been given. He was 61.
Bundy was best known for his run in the late 1980's as an archenemy to Hulk Hogan in the WWE (then known as the WWF). Hogan and Bundy would headline Wrestlemania II in front of nearly 100,000 fans in the Pontiac Silverdome. Bundy also appeared in a handful of TV shows such as Married…With Children and in movies such Moving with Richard Pryor. Unfortunately, Bundy's reign at the top was short-lived and would soon be lucky to wrestle in high school gyms in front of a few hundred fans.
While most of the WWF wrestlers from that era have been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, Bundy would never get his day in the sun. Bundy was party to a class action lawsuit against the WWE for its failure to protect its wrestlers from concussions which was dismissed late last year. Being a party to that suit made Bundy persona non grata to the WWE. This is a shame. Bundy might get inducted posthumously (as they will soon do with Chyna) but fat lot that will do him now.
I first remember seeing Bundy wrestle in Verne Gagne's American Wrestling Association (AWA) as Boom Boom Bundy. They didn't call him King Kong because they had King Kong Brodie. Of course, Brodie was usually called Bruiser, but the AWA had Dick The Bruiser. Unlike his WWF days, Bundy was a babyface who tagged with Jerry "Crusher" Blackwell and faced the likes of The Road Warriors as well as Brodie and Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissie. The AWA didn't use him properly so going to the WWF was the best thing that could have happened to him - at least at the time.
King Kong Bundy was over with the fans in such a way that he deserved at least one more turn in the main event. But to many wrestling fans, Bundy was always a main event guy. R.I.P.
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