WWE Hall of Fame - Class of 2013

Photo credit: © 2013 WWE. All Rights Reserved.

Mick Foley, Trish Stratus, Booker T, Bob Backlund, and Bruno Sammartino are all part of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2013. Donald Trump was also inducted as a member of the Class of 2013 Celebrity Wing of the WWE Hall of Fame.

Mick Foley - Career Highlights: WWE Champion; World Tag Team Champion; Hardcore Champion; TNA Legends Champion; TNA World Heavyweight Champion, World Tag Team Champion; ECW World Tag Team Champion; WWE Commissioner; Co-General Manager of RAW; General Manager of Saturday Morning Slam; SmackDown commentator; PWI Most Inspirational Wrestler of the Year 1993.

Trish Stratus - Career Highlights: WWE Women's Champion; WWE Hardcore Champion; PWI Woman of the Decade (2000–2009).

Booker T (Booker Tio Huffman, Jr.) - Career Highlights: World Heavyweight Champion; WCW Champion; World Tag Team Champion; WCW World Tag Team Champion: WCW Tag Team Champion; Intercontinental Champion; United States Champion; WCW World Television Champion; Hardcore Champion; 2006 King of the Ring; GWF Tag Team Championship; PWI Most Inspirational Wrestler of the Year 2000; TNA Legends Champion; TNA World Tag Team Champion; SmackDown color commentator, SmackDown General Manager.

Bob Backlund - Career Highlights: WWE Champion; World Tag Team Champion; NWA Western States Heavyweight Champion; PWI Most Inspirational Wrestler of the Year 1977 and 1981; PWI Wrestler of the Year 1982; PWI Most Hated Wrestler of the Year 1994; NWA Missouri Heavyweight Champion.

Bruno Sammartino - Career Highlights: Known as the longest-reigning WWE Champion (for nearly eight years);  WWWF Champion; WWF International Tag Team Champion; WWWF United States Tag Team Champion; PWI Most Inspirational Wrestler of the Year 1976; PWI Wrestler of the Year 1974; Member of the Madison Square Garden Walk of Fame.

Pro Wrestling’s Paul Bearer dies at age 58

Source: WWE, via Reuters

Below is the WWE's tribute to Paul Bearer as seen on the March 11, 2013 edition of Raw.

Also, here is the New York Times article reporting his death: 
CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE
Video source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp1UYmLkEzI

"Dr. Death" King Schultz in Django Unchained?

Schultz, on the Morton Downey Jr. Show, listed as a Bounty Hunter

 "Dr. Death" David Schultz a.k.a. David von Shultz, was a Tennessee-born professional wrestler who wrestled in the 1970s and 1980s. While wrestling for Atlantic Grand Prix Wrestling, he became the first AGPW US Heavyweight Champion on June 26, 1980. However, Schultz's career has been said to have peaked in 1984 while being a "heel" or "bad guy" in the World Wrestling Federation. One of Schultz's biggest matches in a major wrestling promotion came on June 17, 1984, when he challenged Hulk Hogan for the World Wrestling Federation Championship in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Schultz is perhaps best known by the general public for assaulting a 20/20 journalist during a report on the legitimacy of professional wrestling (SEE LINK TO VIDEO BELOW). After a career in professional wrestling, Schultz was said to have become a professional bounty hunter.

Waltz (right) playing Dr. Schultz

In the 2012 Quentin Tarantino film, "Django Unchained," there is a character who kills men for money, named Dr. King Schultz, played by actor Christoph Waltz. Dr. King Schultz was a bounty hunter, and could be perceived as a "good guy" for the time period the film takes place. The professional wrestler, "Dr. Death" Schulz was certainly not known as a "good guy." In fact, he could be categorized as a bully, ignoramus, and borderline racist, which is the exact opposite of the character that Quentin Tarantino created. However, the similarities in names, the fact that they both called themselves "Dr." and worked as bounty hunters, is somewhat interesting and perhaps more than coincidental.

Schultz, courtesy of highspots.com

I wonder if screenwriter Quentin Tarantino thought of "Dr. Death" Schultz, when creating the name for Dr. King Schultz. Either way, I thought it was worth ten minutes of my time to write this post and again share "Dr. Death's" famous 1984 interview from the television program, 20/20.

Click here to watch the videos for the entire report from 20/20: http://prowrestlingresource.blogspot.com/2009/02/blog-post.html