{"id":22946,"date":"2018-07-30T10:01:56","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T14:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=22946"},"modified":"2018-07-30T10:01:56","modified_gmt":"2018-07-30T14:01:56","slug":"tracey-caddell-passes-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2018\/07\/30\/tracey-caddell-passes-away\/","title":{"rendered":"OMEGA Co-Founder Tracy Caddell Passes Away"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On a day that already claimed the lives of NWA legend <strong>Brickhouse Brown<\/strong> and WWE Superstars <strong>Nikolai Volkoff<\/strong> and <strong>Brian Christopher<\/strong>, a fourth member of the pro wrestling history books also passed away on Sunday, although his name is far less recognizable that the previous three. Long time wrestling promoter <strong>Tracy Caddell<\/strong>, who co-founded the infamous North Carolina <strong>OMEGA<\/strong> with <strong>Matt Hardy<\/strong>, passed away today. His cause of death is not yet released. Tracey Caddell lived to see his son surpass his own wrestling career, in the form of 3x Impact X-Division Champion<strong> Trevor Lee<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Heartbroken by the passing of my friend, Tracy Caddell, father of Trevor Caddell. Tracy &amp; I founded ECWF, which became OMEGA, together in 92. Tracy was physically limited after a bad accident in 93, so he eventually became @TLee910\u2019s biggest supporter &amp; promoter. RIP, my brother. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MvncKpdewL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/MvncKpdewL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; MATT HARDY (@MATTHARDYBRAND) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MATTHARDYBRAND\/status\/1023638610011029504?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>In 1992, Tracy Caddell and partner <strong>Matt Hardy<\/strong> started the <strong>East Coast Wrestling Federation (ECWF)<\/strong> before rebranding it as the <strong>Organization of Modern Extreme Grappling Arts (OMEGA)<\/strong> in 1997, based out of Cameron, North Carolina. Caddell wrestled under various identities, from <strong>El Hijo del Fuego<\/strong> to <strong>T.C. Brimstone<\/strong> to <strong>T.C. Flexer<\/strong>, but retired in 1993 following a bad accident. Tracey Caddell also spent time with <strong>Carolina Wrestling Federation (CWF) Mid Atlantic<\/strong>. During his time with OMEGA, he helped train such wrestlers as <strong>Hurricane Helms, Shannon Moore, Joey Mercury, Lita, Caprice Coleman<\/strong>, and more.<\/p>\n<p>Many of Tracy Cadell&#8217;s peers shared their thoughts on their fallen friend Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>Our sincerest condolences to the Cadell family and their friends during this time.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/CedricAlexander\/status\/1023617896407330816<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Very sad day.. all the love &amp; support to @TLee910 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OaZQi2fEGP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/OaZQi2fEGP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Chris Hero (Is Back) (@ChrisHero) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChrisHero\/status\/1023664348579815424?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>https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheShannonBrand\/status\/1023639538604941312<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A good friend of mine, the man who along with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MATTHARDYBRAND?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@MATTHARDYBRAND<\/a> created the force that would become OMEGA, and father of one of the best rising stars today, @TLee910\u2026but to me he\u2019ll always be T.C. Flexer. This is him doing his signature pose. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/eDpPgn4ucT\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/eDpPgn4ucT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ted Hobgood (@tedhobgood) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tedhobgood\/status\/1023625946488889344?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\">Tracy was the first person to ask me to make wrestling gear for him, and together we created his masked character El Hijo del Fuego. It was a ridiculous outfit, but he owned it 100% and made it into a great character. Every time I hear \u201cRico Suave\u201d I think of Tracy. \ud83d\ude42 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Q68v9825ZI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Q68v9825ZI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ted Hobgood (@tedhobgood) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tedhobgood\/status\/1023628405064040454?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\">There was only one thing that Tracy loved more than wrestling. And when his son became a wrestler, his two loves combined and he was never happier. He was so proud of you, Trevor. I know you\u2019ll keep making him proud. He\u2019s going to look down and love every goal you reach. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/P2sr8GagBP\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/P2sr8GagBP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ted Hobgood (@tedhobgood) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tedhobgood\/status\/1023632154612379650?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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On a day that already claimed the lives of NWA legend Brickhouse Brown and WWE Superstars Nikolai Volkoff and Brian Christopher, a fourth member of the pro wrestling history books also passed away on Sunday, although his name is far less recognizable that the previous three. Long time wrestling promoter Tracy Caddell, who co-founded the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":649,"featured_media":22954,"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":[2,547,6],"tags":[3130,123,2911,3129,413],"class_list":["post-22946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-in-memorium","category-north-america","tag-cwf-mid-atlantic","tag-matt-hardy","tag-omega","tag-tracy-caddell","tag-trevor-lee"],"modified_by":"Jamie Greer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22946","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=22946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}