Damn


www.fightful.com/wrestling/darren-droz-drozdov-passes-away-age-54?amp

Sucks. Quadriplegics do not tend to live to a real old age though. Did not realize he played for major teams until now in the NFL.

It's all so sad. Seemed like a great guy before and after the injury. The fact that he lived that long is a credit to the fight he must have had in him. I will also say, the infamous Beyond the Mat clip of Vince yelling HE'S GONNA PUKE is the most endearing Vince has ever looked on camera, just a big kid having fun in his office. Droz is part of history there.

Jul 1, 2023 0:01:30 GMT Kilgore said:

It's all so sad. 

This. 
RIP Droz

Jul 1, 2023 0:01:30 GMT Kilgore said:

It's all so sad. Seemed like a great guy before and after the injury. The fact that he lived that long is a credit to the fight he must have had in him. I will also say, the infamous Beyond the Mat clip of Vince yelling HE'S GONNA PUKE is the most endearing Vince has ever looked on camera, just a big kid having fun in his office. Droz is part of history there.

This is the tragedy, he was a good guy in the era of assholes.  Then dude stayed pretty positive afterwards.

Dude this is crazy I dunno if it was here or just a random post on reddit but I was JUST thinking of D'Lo and how this accident really ended things for him. And then it really happened again for Droz. Haven't thought about him outside of that Dlo post in years. RIP.

Terrible story and really one of the gripping elements of Beyond The Mat showing his whole breaking into the business and knowing how it all worked out. I know back when I was re-watching through 1998 WWF years ago I caught a D-Lo match later in the year where he came really close to botching the running powerbomb and almost dropping his guy the exact same way before catching himself and resetting the move(one of those awkward "lets just start this whole spot over" botches), eery foreshadowing there that there was no way to know about because it was just a 3 minute throwaway match that was forgotten about immediately. But signs were there D-Lo was having trouble with that move. 

Jul 1, 2023 0:46:07 GMT Ness said:

Dude this is crazy I dunno if it was here or just a random post on reddit but I was JUST thinking of D'Lo and how this accident really ended things for him. And then it really happened again for Droz. Haven't thought about him outside of that Dlo post in years. RIP.

D'Lo pops up here and there.  Always felt like he kept blaming himself for the accident and ended up holding himself back as a result.

His Chikara appearance was a lot of fun, as is the norm for all c list WWE guys that go all in on their old gimmicks there.

Jun 30, 2023 20:39:18 GMT c said:

Sucks. Quadriplegics do not tend to live to a real old age though. Did not realize he played for major teams until now in the NFL.

I collect a lot of the NFL Films videos especially the team yearbook episodes, they name drop him in the Broncos 93 tape. I did a quick check of his PFR page and he started 2 games for them at nose tackle in 93(he played in 6 other games). For those that don't know nose tackle is one of the toughest positions in the sport to play you are right up front and center on the line on defense. His page still shows he's alive. Brock Lesnar of all people couldn't even make the final roster in preseason cuts so that should give you an idea how tough that league is to make it, he not only made the team but started a few real games that counted. Had to have been a pretty tough fucker in his day. 

Definitely sad to see Droz go. He did seem to keep pretty upbeat after getting paralyzed, and everyone in WWE seemed to enjoy when he'd come visit the locker after.

RIP Droz

Watched him recently while watching Dark Side of the Ring about the Road Warriors. Seemed like a great guy, very positive all things considering. RIP.