On This Day: November 30, 2002

Today marks the 7 year anniversary of the passing of one of the greats in professional wrestling. On this day Tim Woods better known as Mr. Wrestling died of a heart attack.
He began his wrestling career at the age of 29 using the name "Tim Woods". He was given the name "Mr. Wrestling" by Nebraska promotor Joe Dusek. Mr Wrestling became a major superstar in the Georgia, Florida, Texas and Mid-Atlantic territories. Starting in the Seventies, he would alternate between his masked persona as Mr. Wrestling and wrestling unmasked as Tim Woods, depending on the territory. He had his final match in 1983, teaming up with Mr. Wrestling II against the Road Warriors.

Woodin was involved in the same 1975 plane crash that involved pilot Joseph Michael Farkas (he ended up in a coma and died the next year), wrestling legend Johnny Valentine (broke his back and bone fragments inpacted into his spinal cord, which ended his career), wrestler Bob Bruggers (broke his back and had a steel rod put in; Bruggers could have made a comeback, but he decided to retire), future legend Ric Flair (broke his back, but recovered and returned to wrestling), and JCP announcer David Crockett. At the hospital, Woodin gave them his real name (George Burrell Woodin), and told them that he was a promoter. Since Woodin wrestled under the name Tim Woods, a newspaper article in the Charlotte Observer listed his name as his real name, George Burrell Woodin, and mentioned that he was a promoter. Woodin was the only babyface wrestler on the plane, while the rest wrestled as heels, and this was back in the days when kayfabe was not broken (at the time, Woods was feuding with Flair and Valentine). Eventually, rumors began circulating that Woods was in fact on the plane. Unwilling to risk the exposure of professional wrestling, he got back in the ring two weeks after the crash and was obviously in extreme pain. Flair later said in his book "To Be the Man", that he was more than just 'Mr. Wrestling' that day, he was the man who saved wrestling. Woodin eventually returned to wrestling but retired shortly thereafter.He died in his home in Charlotte, North Carolina at the age of 68.