"Wildman" Jack Armstrong, a professional wrestler whose career stretched across more than three decades, has died at 79. His close friend Laura Creavalle shared the news on Facebook, Ringside News and Fightful reported.
Creavalle called Armstrong her best friend in the post and credited him with carrying her through her early days as a struggling bodybuilder. She wrote that he paid for her first posing suit and that she lived with him for years when she was broke and had nowhere else to go.
A final visit
Only days before announcing his death, Creavalle had written that she had traveled to be at Armstrong's side for the first time in 19 years because his health was failing. She said one of his legs had been amputated and that he was on dialysis, but that his sense of humor had survived it all. She had hoped he would reach his 80th birthday.
In that same post, she described a friendship that ran deep into wrestling history. According to Creavalle, Armstrong's best friend was Rocky Johnson, the two shared rooms on the road, and Armstrong had known The Rock since he was a baby.
Many names, many rings
Armstrong broke into the business in 1963 and worked under a long list of identities over the years, among them Lenny Solomon, Super Scorpion, Ali Ben Khan, Black Jack, Red Rhodes and Sailor Jack, according to Ringside News. He appeared in the WWWF and came back during the WWF era, sharing the ring with Ricky Steamboat, Bret Hart, Jesse Ventura, Mil Máscaras and Tony Atlas, and he worked widely in the territories.
Late in his career he landed in Herb Abrams' Universal Wrestling Federation. At a 1990 UWF television taping he partnered with Cactus Jack, the future Mick Foley, in a win over David Sammartino and Jay Strongbow Jr.
His last documented match came at UWF Blackjack Brawl in September 1994, where he beat Mando Guerrero to become the first UWF Junior Heavyweight Champion. The promotion never ran another event, which left Armstrong as the only person ever to hold that title.
Reporting sources: Ringside News, “Former WWF Wrestler “Wildman” Jack Armstrong Passes Away at 79” · Fightful | WWE News, AEW News, Pro Wrestling Backstage News – Wrestling, “'Wildman' Jack Armstrong Passes Away”.