8 Awesome Wrestling Stars You've Never Even Heard Of

2. Luther Lindsay

Luther Lindsay died of a sudden, massive heart attack on February 21st 1972, in the middle of the ring while pinning his opponent, a local wrestler at a show in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was only forty-eight.

One of the pioneers of interracial wrestling, back when interracial wrestling was actually a thing, Lindsay was a significant talent, held to be a genuinely gifted grappler by none other than Lou Thesz. Incredibly popular in the Pacific northwest and mid-Atlantic territories during the fifties and sixties, he was billed as the United States Coloured Heavyweight Champion. Lindsay would regularly team with such notables as Nick Bockwinkel and €˜Bearcar€™ Wright, and would feud with legends of the business like €˜Iron Mike€™ DiBiase, €˜Mad Dog€™ Vachon and Pat Patterson. Those matches with NWA World Heavyweight Champion Thesz took place between 1953 and 1956, usually heading to time limit draws.

Lindsay was the first African American to challenge the NWA World Champion, in an era when a black man being booked as competitive to a white champion was itself practically a revolutionary act.