Following the news of the death of Nikolai Volkoff and Brickhouse Brown, another wrestling death has been confirmed. Brian Christopher died at the age of 46 following a suicide attempt where he hung himself in jail. Christopher was arrested weeks earlier for a DUI and evading the police.
The son of WWE Hall of Famer and bona fide wrestling legend Jerry “The King” Lawler, Brian Lawler adopted the professional name of Brian Christopher and performed for his dad’s USWA promotion for years. It was never acknowledged on USWA television that they were father and son and Christopher would be become one of the top acts in the promotion winning numerous championships in Memphis.
Christopher would debut in the then named WWF where he competed in the Light Heavyweight Division. While they never came out and said it, they did tongue and cheek acknowledge the relationship between Lawler and Christopher, as the latter would often accompany his son in matches. Christopher would team up with Scott Taylor to form “Too Much” but it was a mid-card tag team at best that did not connect with the fans. They would be repackaged as a pair of white rappers now rechristened as “Grandmaster Sexay” and “Scotty 2 Hotty” and along with an alliance with Rikishi, who himself was undergoing another repackaging (last seen as the Sultan) would become a very popular trio.
For all three wrestlers, this was the height of their popularity and for the first time in his WWE career he would see himself appear on main events. Christopher and Taylor would win the WWF World Tag Team Titles and they would remain popular until Rikishi turned on them and they were moved down the card permanently. An injury to Taylor would see Christopher team up with Steve Blackman for a brief time but he would be released from the company when he was trying to bring drugs to Canada across the border.
Christopher would ply his trade in independents the next few years most notably for TNA but he would return to the WWE in 2004, though he would only last a month before being released again. He would work on the indies thereafter though would return on an episode of Raw on 2011 (regarding the Lawler-Michael Cole angle) and would also reunite with Taylor in a surprise Tag Team Title shot against the Ascension on NXT Takeover in 2014.
While Brian Christopher did have success throughout his career, issues with drug abuse haunted him throughout and prevented him from reaching his full potential. Sadly, it was that dependency that killed him in the end.
We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to the friends, family and fans of Brian Christopher at this time.
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