Today, we mourn the loss of one of the greatest minds in professional wrestling, Kevin Sullivan. His contributions to the sport will always be remembered.  He was 74.

From Boston, Sullivan began his wrestling career in the early 70s and competed across the United States in his first ten years, though usually in the mid-card.  He broke through the main event in the early 80s in the Florida territory, where he developed a demonic cult leader character and led a stable called the Army of Darkness.  He feuded with the top babyfaces of the territory, including “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes and Barry Windham.

In 1987, Sullivan joined Jim Crockett Promotions, where he stayed three years, primarily as the leader of the Varsity Club and feuded with Jimmy Garvin, and later Rick Steiner.  He bounced around independents and entered WCW as Cactus Jack’s tag team partner and later as the leader of the Three Faces of Fear and then the Dungeon of Doom, a group obsessed with ending Hulk Hogan.  Behind the scenes, he served as one of the bookers for the promotion.  He retired in 1997 and concentrated on booking afterward, though he was fired before the end of the promotion in 2001.

In our last Notinhalloffame update of those to consider for the WWE Hall of Fame, Sullivan was ranked at #42.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to extend our condolences to Kevin Sullivan's fans, friends, and family.

The first half of Kevin Sullivan’s in ring career was solid, but fairly non-descript.  He was lean and muscular and was often in the mid card or in tag teams of which ever promotion he worked.  In his mid thirties, Sullivan’s career did an about face with the advent of a devil worshiper gimmick that had never been done before.

We are positive that we are not the only ones who wish that Dan Spivey did not retire in 1995.  This was the year that he returned to the WWE as ‘Waylon Mercy”, which was a persona that he held only for months but is still talked about as one of the greatest “what ifs?” in wrestling history today.  Prior to that, Spivey established his skills in All Japan and in WCW, though in the later he was never able to escape the shadows of other big men mostly that of his Skyscraper partner, Sid Vicious; even though he carried the workload for a then very green Sid.  Had Spivey’s Waylon Mercy character lasted longer, he could have been easily on a Hall of Fame path.