After a 14-year career that saw heights as great as being a championship-level performer in Extreme Championship Wrestling, Anthony "Pitbull #2" Durante (above, right) was 36 years old with a criminal record in Pennsylvania and New York, living in Misaquimit, Rhode Island and working at the Foxwoods Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut in 2003. Wherever life takes you where you're the parent of 21-month old and eight-month old children and you and your grilfriend both overdose on fentanyl - a drug 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine and more potent than heroin - while your children are in the house, is a place in life that could likely either be avoided or be mitigated against with some sort of therapy or governmental assistance. Sadly, Durante was never contractually employed by World Wrestling Entertainment, thus he would be unable to receive the company's drug and substance abuse treatment program benefits.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
