10 ECW Stars Who Died Too Young
6. Chris Candido
Chris Candido was a real 'wrestler's wrestler', in that he was easy to work with, safe and could make anyone look good. Rarely would you see the guy have a bad match, even if he was put in a powder blue singlet and given the name 'Skip'!
Mr. No Gimmick's Needed - yet another of Larry Sharpe's students - debuted in 1986 and took the familiar route of working the New Jersey independent promotions before he found a spot in Eastern Championship Wrestling in 1993.
Although the stint was fruitful, with Candido and his 'Suicide Blondes' stable (also featuring Johnny Hotbody and Chris Michaels) winning the ECW Tag Team Titles twice, it was also short-lived and he was gone within a matter of months.
At this time, Candido's primary focus was Jim Cornette's Smoky Mountain Wrestling promotion. Corny was a big fan of Candido's - and his manager/girlfriend Tammy 'Sunny' Sytch - and made sure they were prominently featured.
They impressed enough that they were signed by the WWF in 1995, debuting in May of that year as a pair of fitness freaks who lambasted members of the audience for being out-of-shape. Candido was soon paired up with Tom 'Zip' Pritchard as The Bodydonnas.
The Bodydonnas won the WWF Tag Team Titles once but their run wasn't too memorable. Candido had problems of his own with influential backstage group The Kliq, particularly Shawn Michaels, who was purported to be romantically involved with Sunny (it wasn't exactly a secret, either).
Candido left for ECW and would enjoy the best spell of his career, having some truly spectacular matches with the likes of Jerry Lynn, Rob Van Dam and Sabu and Lance Storm, before teaming up with Storm in a very successful tag team.
Candido's later, post-ECW in WCW and on the independent circuit years were marred by his and Sytch's drug abuse, but Candido cleaned himself up and got his act together enough that he was given a chance by the growing TNA.
Regrettably, that run came to a sudden, shocking end when Candido broke his leg at the 2005 Lockdown pay-per-view and died from a post-surgery blood clot a few days later on April 28th. He was 33 years-old.