{"id":22898,"date":"2018-07-29T12:44:49","date_gmt":"2018-07-29T16:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=22898"},"modified":"2021-12-31T16:03:34","modified_gmt":"2021-12-31T21:03:34","slug":"brian-christopher-dead-at-46","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2018\/07\/29\/brian-christopher-dead-at-46\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Christopher Dead at 46"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Another tragedy in the world of professional wrestling, as <strong>Brian Christopher<\/strong>, son of WWE Hall of Famer <strong>Jerry &#8220;The King&#8221; Lawler<\/strong>, and formerly known as <strong>Grandmaster Sexay<\/strong> in the WWE, has died following a suicide attempt last night in jail. It was first reported this morning that Christopher was rushed to hospital after attempting to hang himself overnight in his jail cell. It appears that Brian Christopher has succumbed to his injuries and passed away, at the age of 46. It ends a turbulent year for the former WWE Superstar, who has battled substance abuse and the law on multiple times, with the latest episode occurring just days ago <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbbjtv.com\/2018\/07\/30\/hardeman-co-sheriffs-office-releases-statement-on-brian-lawler-death\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">when he was arrested on charges of DUI and evading police in Tennessee on July 24.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FMemphisWrestlingNews%2Fposts%2F1717660938333051&amp;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"638\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We now have confirmation that Brian Lawler, known in <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WWE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#WWE<\/a> as Brian Christopher, has died in intensive care after committing suicide in jail.<\/p>\n<p>RIP Brian Lawler.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WWE?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#WWE<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/News?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#News<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/EIAsfZ4qUn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/EIAsfZ4qUn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tom Colohue (@Colohue) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Colohue\/status\/1023610086890065920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 29, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Just to confirm, Nikolai Volkoff, Brian Lawler and Brickhouse Brown have all passed away.  Very sad day for pro wrestling.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davemeltzerWON\/status\/1023609122158141442?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 29, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Trained under his legendary father, Christopher debuted with his father&#8217;s Memphis promotion, <strong>United States Wrestling Alliance (USWA)<\/strong> in 1988. Initially wearing a mask as <strong>Nebula<\/strong> in the tag team <strong>The Twilight Zone<\/strong>, he eventually unmasked and became one of USWA&#8217;s most decorated wrestlers &#8211; upon his departure, he was a 24x USWA Heavyweight Champion and 5x USWA Tag Team Champion.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Brian Christopher vs Jerry Lawler - Unified Heavyweight Title Match (1993) USWA Memphis Wrestling\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lJe7qHqr5Jk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>He made his official WWF debut in 1997 as part of the tournament to crown a new WWF Light Heavyweight Champion, making it to the finals where he was defeated by <strong>Taka Michinoku<\/strong>. He would feud with Michinoku over the new title for months, before being paired with another young prospect, <strong>Scott Taylor<\/strong>, in the tag team <strong>Too Much<\/strong>. Too Much had feuds with the likes of <strong>The Hardy Boyz, The Headbangers, Farooq &amp; 2 Cold Scorpio<\/strong>, and <strong>Kaientai<\/strong>, even scoring upsets wins over the <strong>Legion of Doom<\/strong> (Hawk &amp; Animal) on an episode of <em><strong>Sunday Night Heat<\/strong><\/em>. But the two much remained the jobbers of the WWF tag team division.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Michinoku vs. Christopher: Light Heavyweight Title Tournament Final - D-Generation X: In Your House\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RCKc42Q-UbY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In the fall of 1999, the two were repackaged as hip-hop enthusiasts <strong>Too Cool<\/strong>, with Christopher becoming Grandmaster Sexay and Taylor becoming <strong>Scotty 2 Hottie<\/strong>. They won their debut match under this gimmick, with a shocking upset of <strong>Edge &amp; Christian<\/strong> on an episode of <em><strong>Smackdown<\/strong><\/em>. The addition of <strong>Rikishi<\/strong> to make the tandem a trio made them into fan favorites, and the two won the WWE World Tag Team titles in the spring of 2000. Sadly, Christopher was released from the WWE in 2001, following an arrest for bringing drugs across the Canada-US border.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Too Cool &amp; Rikishi vs Road Dogg, X-Pac and Triple H\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4U8b9XJuaBM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Brian Christopher has continued to work on the indie circuit since then, even occasionally making returns to the WWE for appearances &#8211; in 2014, following a hotly received reunion with the Too Cool trio on an Old School episode of <em>Raw<\/em>, Christopher and Taylor reunited for the NXT special <em><strong>NXT ArRIVAL<\/strong><\/em> (the precursor to the first Takeover) in February, where they challenged NXT Tag Team Champions<strong> The Ascension<\/strong> unsuccessfully.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Too Cool &amp; Rikishi vs. 3MB: Raw, Jan. 6, 2014\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4lsy-luukKc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Our thoughts and prayers with the entire Lawler family during this time.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Rest in Peace Brian Christopher&#8230;..Way too young&#8230;..<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Brian Heffron aka The Blue Meanie (@BlueMeanieBWO) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BlueMeanieBWO\/status\/1023607448467394561?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 29, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Praying for the families of the departed now. Brian was special to me at a really special time in my life. Nikolai and my dad were good friends. Brickhouse and my late brother Brad were close. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/RIPBROTHERS?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#RIPBROTHERS<\/a> God bless the families!<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Brian G. James (@BrianRDJames) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BrianRDJames\/status\/1023612178555957248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 29, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another tragedy in the world of professional wrestling, as Brian Christopher, son of WWE Hall of Famer Jerry &#8220;The King&#8221; Lawler, and formerly known as Grandmaster Sexay in the WWE, has died following a suicide attempt last night in jail. It was first reported this morning that Christopher was rushed to hospital after attempting to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":649,"featured_media":22907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,547,3],"tags":[3121,3122,2489,902],"class_list":["post-22898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-in-memorium","category-wwe-universe","tag-brian-christopher","tag-grandmaster-sexay","tag-jerry-lawler","tag-too-cool"],"modified_by":"Alex Richards, LWOF Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/649"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}