In the shadow of the grisly news regarding the murder-suicide death of Chris Benoit, his wife Nancy and son Daniel, most wrestling fans may have missed the eerie coincidence that Benoit’s former Stampede Wrestling tag team partner – Biff Wellington – appears to have died the same week as Chris. Wellington, real name Shayne Bower, was only 42.

A graduate of the famous Hart Dungeon, Wellington held the Stampede Tag Team titles with Benoit in 1989. His biggest claim to fame next to his time in Calgary came overseas in Japan, where Wellington (who also worked as Beef Wellington and Bobby Hart) worked classic matches with Jushin Thunder Liger. A tag match with Benoit against Liger and Brian Pillman in WCW at the June 22, 1992 Clash of Champions was likewise rated highly by Wrestling Observer editor Dave Meltzer. Wellington also worked for a time in ECW where, in 1996, he suffered a severe eye injury in a match with Taz which led to an addiction to prescription medication necessary to stem the nerves in the eye from dying. Wellington had suffered multiple strokes in recent years. He was found dead in his bed June 20th of an apparent heart attack. His is survived by a daughter, his mother and father and one brother. He will be cremated.

Wellington was thought to have had shouldered some resentment over partner Benoit making such a big name for himself in the business (while Wellington remained in relative obscurity) but, according to an interview with Slam Wrestling, claimed he overcame it. “It definitely could have been me . . . I made some wrong decisions, got steered by some people I shouldn’t have listened to, being young,â€? said Wellington. “As far as Chris, I don’t have any animosity or nothing. It’s great that he’s doing what he’s doing. But, oh yeah, I could have been there. No problem.”

All of us here at WrestlersRamblings.com extend our sympathies to his friends and family. Mr. Mal rememers Biff Wellington well, having grown up a big Stampede fan back on their days on TSN.

Thanks for visiting WrestlersRamblings.com. All visitors are invited to register in order to get in on the commentary, as well as be eligible for contests and other prizes. Pass this URL to a professional wrestling fan you know – today. Search the web and you just won’t find another wrestling site like WrestlersRamblings.com. We welcome your input on our site.

- Mr. Mal

CLICK HERE for more on the recent death of a Stampede Wrestling legend

CLICK HERE for more on the next generation of Stampede WWE Superstars

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 2:16 pm and is filed under Wrestling History, WWE News and Views, For Whom the Bell Tolls. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.