Myself and Paul Bearer, AKA William Moody – Wrestlemania 28 Fan Axxess, March 31 2012.
While adjusting to a new job over the last ten days has taken up a great deal of time, and a temporary Monday night commitment has meant we haven’t had the chance to follow wrestling quite as closely as we’d like in the last couple of weeks, especially in this Wrestlemania season, I could not bring myself to not post today.
William Moody, a.k.a. wrestling manager Percy Pringle III, and later Paul Bearer, passed away yesterday at the age of 59. He was predeceased by his lovely wife Dianne, and even from afar as a casual follower of Bearer’s I know he has missed her very much since her passing 5 years ago. This man has worked with some of the biggest names in the business – Undertaker and Kane most famously of course, but also Mick Foley and Leon “Vader” White, Rick Rude, Eric Embry and a host of others. He has played a variety of roles, including a more-complex-than-one-might-think, evolving version of the mortician Paul Bearer. Even in recent years as he has been in poor health, he has still been a fixture at Wrestlemania Axxess, overseeing the Undertaker’s ‘graveyard’ and funeral parlour. I had the pleasure of meeting him, however briefly, last year – the first personality who I met and greeted and received an autograph from on an amazing weekend – and I will treasure that memory even more dearly going forward.
“Uncle Paul” is one of those guys you rarely hear anything negative about – he only had ‘heat’ with a very few, if any, folks in the locker room, and the outpouring of grief, love and respect from the Twitterverse of his colleagues, his ‘brothers and sisters’ in the wrestling industry, and fans alike, show that he was a beloved legend of the game – a real-life nice guy who rung up a 35-year marriage and whose worse vice was perhaps his eating habits, in an industry where that can at times be a rarer find than one might think, and a real gem.
If there is any consolation in this, it is that Moody’s health problems no longer cause him pain and suffering, and I am sure he is overjoyed to be reunited with his beloved Dianna. But those of us left behind – of course his family and colleagues but also his fans – will miss him dearly, and the world is a bit poorer today without him in it. I urge anyone to do what I’ve spent a probably embarrassing amount of time doing this afternoon – check out Youtube for Paul Bearer shoot interviews, particularly the series he sat down for with Jim Cornette, and head over to James Guttman’s “We Want Insanity” page (http://www.wewantinsanity.com) to check out JG’s first ever interview with the jolly mortician. His awareness of how blessed he’s been, his gratitude for his experiences, and the joy he felt in the life he had, even as he faced so much struggle and turmoil through his wife’s and his own health problems and premature deaths, is absolutely inspiring, and even if he can be a bit off-colour in the ‘old school wrestling personality’ variety, he was and is a charmer with a warm heart who is aware of his own potential quirks and shortcomings, and is thankful for those too – and for the love of everyone, friend, family and fan alike, who surrounded him.
Rest in Peace, William/Percy/Paul … ooooohhh, yeeeess.
In This Very Ring 