TNA star Chris Candido passed away suddenly Thursday evening in New Jersey. Candido, 33, collapsed on Thursday evening. He was rushed to the hospital but was not able to be revived.
Candido was said to have been in good spirits following surgery on Monday, where a metal plate and screws were inserted to fix a dislocated ankle, a broken tibia, and a broken fibula. He had suffered the injury this past Sunday while working the opener of the TNA Lockdown PPV in a freak accident while taking a dropkick from Sonny Siaki. Candido had appeared at the TNA taping in Orlando, Florida this past Tuesday, just 24 hours after the surgery, managing the Naturals from a wheelchair to the NWA Tag Team championships. The episode is scheduled to air today on the Fox Sports Network.
The grandson of Popeye Chuck Richards, who worked the undercards for the WWWF, including Terry Funk's Madison Square Garden debut, Candido grew up around the business, breaking in as a teenager, setting up rings in the New Jersey area with boyhood friend Balls Mahoney. The two would often put together and promote their own shows, even as teenagers, a generation before the term backyard wrestling was popularized. Candido and Mahoney would go on to train under Larry Sharpe at the Monster Factory.
Candido debuted working for the late Dennis Coraluzzo's WWA promotion in the early 1990s with the moniker "Mr. Charisma" holding their Junior championship. Candido was often accompanied to shows by his High School girlfriend Tammy Sunny Sytch, who would later break into the business after accompanying him to Smoky Mountain Wrestling. Whatever the intangible "it" is that creates a great performer, Candido had it from the second he began working professionally, having great matches and showcasing a knack for carrying less talented performers to good matches. He also developed strong mic skills, cutting great promos.
Candido worked the early days of Eastern Championship Wrestling, under booker Eddie Gilbert, where he held the ECW Tag Team championships with Johnny Hotbody as The Suicide Blondes. INXS' "Suicide Blondes" would remain Candido's theme until he returned to ECW in 1996, when he began using AC/DC's "Back in Black."
Candido left the fledgling ECW, then running once a month, to work full-time for Jim Cornette's SMW territory, where he worked singles as a crybaby heel. Candido debuted for the promotion busting out every high impact move he could think of to no reaction from the crowd. Cornette sent him back out during the same TV taping and instructed him to whine and complain about the first bump he took. He did so, and the crowd was on him immediately. Candido was later teamed with Brian Lee, with the pair managed by Sytch, who had moved with Candido to stay with him while he was working SMW and had been turned into an on-air feminist manager. He feuded with Tracey Smothers, Bobby Blaze, and The Rock N Roll Express, among others.
Candido won a tournament in November 1994 in New Jersey to win the vacant NWA championship, defeating Tracey Smothers in the final. Candido later dropped the belt to UFC star Dan Severn during an SMW house show. He was becoming a hotter name on the independents, booked against the other breakthrough indy names of the period like Sabu, Louie Spicoli, and The Tasmaniac (Tazz). After a tour of All Japan Pro Wrestling, Candido was signed by WWF in early 1995.
Sytch had already been signed, doing TV promo work under the name Tamara Sytch. Candido was linked with her once he was signed, briefly given the names "Chris and Tammy Power." The gimmick was scrapped after one TV taping. The pair were re-christened Skip and Sunny, The Body Donnas, doing a heel gimmick similar to the one currently held by Simon Dean, as evil fitness instructors, ripping on the poor condition of the "fat fans." Candido was used in an undercard role with no real sense of upward mobility, with the highlight of the run losing to longtime prelim wrestler Barry Horowitz on TV and then a PPV rematch at Summerslam 95. Sunny, meanwhile, was becoming the precursor to todays WWE Divas, becoming a star as a heel female manager and TV personality for the company.
Dr. Tom Prichard was brought into the act and added as "Zip" (at one point it was going to be Flip) to the act. The pair won the WWF Tag Team championships at Wrestlemania 12 in Anaheim, California, holding them for a short stint and doing programs with The Smoking Gunns and The Godwins. Sunny broke off from the team, which briefly was managed by a transvestite character named Cloudy (Candidos old friend Jimmy Shoulders, who he had broken into the business with). Candido suffered a broken neck while taking The Smoking Gunns finisher, The Sidewinder, in Madison Square Garden. When he recovered, WWF utilized him as a trainer and discussed retiring him and putting him in that position full-time. Candido, at that point just 23 years old, opted out, wanting to wrestle full-time.
Candido heading to Extreme Championship Wrestling, debuting to a standing ovation as a surprise during an October 1996 ECW Arena event, defeating Spike Dudley. Given the nickname No Gimmicks Needed as a play on his forgettable WWF character, Candido received his strongest national push ever as a member of the Triple Threat with Shane Douglas and Brian Lee (with Bam Bam Bigelow later replacing Lee). Behind the scenes, Candido began working with Paul Heyman on a number of backstage duties, including assisting with booking and television production. He had been scheduled to face Lance Storm on the debut ECW PPV, Barely Legal, but suffered a separated shoulder in the weeks leading to the show. The night before the PPV, Candido joked during a speech that he was killing himself just trying to keep up with 53 year old Terry Funk, who was in the main event of the show and was being honored by the company at a banquet.
Candido held the ECW World Tag Team championships with Lance Storm, with the duo breaking up while champions in December 1997. Tammy Sytch, who had been released by WWF, joined Candido in Extreme Championship Wrestling that summer. Once Sytch arrived, the change was immediate in Candido. The pair soon fell out of favor with Paul Heyman due to their personal problems, although he would bring them back several times before finally writing them off. Candidos last run with ECW was early in the promotions run on TNN, where he was paired with Rhino as a tag team.
Candido and Sytch popped up in XPW in California, and began working a number of independent companies including USA Pro Wrestling in New York. After some back and forth wrangling with ECW over their contracts, the pair received releases and headed to WCW for a short run, which included Candido winning the WCW Cruiserweight championship and losing it during some nonsensical Vince Russo era booking. Candido did end up working with one of his heroes, Terry Funk. In a story that was recently recounted in Funks autobiography, the pair had a Hardcore match on Nitro where they had brawled into a horses stable, complete with the horse kicking Funk in the face in a story. Candido suffered a broken arm while working for the company, which upset then-WCW Executive Eric Bischoff. Candido ripped the cast off his arm so he could wrestle despite the injury, only to end up fired by the company anyway after an issue with Sytch backstage. Candido would later publicly say he regretted working hurt and wasnt high on his time in the WCW.
By this point, Candido and Sytchs reputations had been completely tarnished by their outside issues. Candido wasnt shy in hiding he had gone through problems with painkillers and drugs in the period that followed while working independents, often joking about his past and cleaning up while appearing as a co-host for USA Pro promoter Frank Goodmans hotline. A favorite story that was recited and referred to often on the hotline featured Candido ending up at a hotel where workers from Major League Wrestling were staying in Florida, wandering the halls bloody and incoherent.
Candido finally cleaned himself up to the point his matches began looking like the Chris Candido of old and little by little, promoters started to take notice. Sytch as well had cleaned herself up, began losing weight. She had publicly discussed becoming a flight attendant but later ended up running a tanning salon in New Jersey. Through it all, good and bad, the pair had remained together. Candido began helping advising many of the younger workers he was running into at independent shows, and broke his younger brother, Johnny into the business. The two worked a short program for USA Pro.
Over the last year or so, Candido looked as if he was following the success stories of Eddie Guerrero and William Regal in overcoming his issues and making a go of it with his career, as opposed to following the tragedies of Brian Pillman and Louie Spicoli. He was regularly working and having good matches for USA Pro, IWA Mid-South, the International Wrestling Cartel out of Pittsburgh, NWA Cyberspace, Pro Wrestling Unplugged and other companies.
Candido had tried hard to get a WWE tryout dark match at several points over the last year, and at one point was scheduled to work a Raw taping in Long Island, but it never came to pass. He finally hooked up with TNA through booker Dusty Rhodes, who was extremely high on him. He earned himself a regular slot after an excellent match with TNA flagbearer AJ Styles on Impact! Candido continued to have a string of decent matches, was co-hosting the syndicated Xplosion show and was cast as The Naturals advisor.
The injury at Lockdown, suffered while taking a Sonny Siaki dropkick, was horrible timing for Candidos comeback but he still intended to make all his dates despite the injury. Sytch had posted on the USA Pro Wrestling message board that Candido still intended to make all his bookings, doing promos or managing at ringside, because he didnt want to miss any dates. Candido had hoped to return to the ring within six weeks, which given the nature of the injury seemed to be unrealistic. Candido had told many that he was excited for the
