RIP: Dave Sheldon (the World Class "curse" strikes again)

I GOT some bad news for ya: 80s mid-carder Dave Sheldon (aka The Angel Of Death) was found dead in his home in Bedford, Texas last weekend.

If you grew up watching the wrestling in the late 80s - or reading about it in the Apter or Napolitano mags - then you came across pics of a tall, bald, evil-looking dude getting the tar beaten out of him. That was Dave.

He worked for practically everyone: Stampede, Bill Watts' UWF (where he was the Freebirds' bodyguard for a brief time), NWA/WCW (under a hood in the Russian Assassins tag team and as one of the many Black Scorpions) and, most notably, World Class.

I remember well the infamous angle shot on Christmas Day 1987 in Dallas where Angel Of Death, Terry Gordy, Buddy Roberts and Iceman Parsons attacked Fritz Von Erich, causing the old cunt to fake a heart attack to gain waning fan sympathy. It didn't work, but the foursome briefly hung out as "The Blackbirds", a poor copy of the Freebirds.

Dave won a few titles for various Texas-based promotions over the years, but was primarily a mid-carder, although he also wrestled on some big cards including World Class's Parade Of Champions in 1988 and Starrcade '88.

Angel Of Death was an ironic name: Dave was supposed to wrestle both Bruiser Brody in 1988 and Kerry von Erich in 1993, but Brody and Kerry died just before they could meet in the ring.

Dave wrestled sporadically up until 2000 before retiring.

And now he's the latest statistic in the World Class "curse" - another guy who worked for the Von Erichs who's died under the age of 50.

Eerie, sad stuff.