Saturday, April 03, 2010

Wrestler Kanyon dead at 40

Chris "Kanyon" Klucsaritis passed away Friday night from an overdose of pills at his apartment in Queens, NY. He was 40 year old.

The death is believed to be a suicide.  According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Klucsaritis was suffering from a bipolar disorder and had talked and threatened suicide many times in the past.  Another bout with depression had Klucsaritis thinking about taking his life earlier in the week. 

Klucsaritis started wrestling in 1992, and spent the majority of his career in the now defunct World Championship Wrestling promotion. He moved over to World Wrestling Entertainment when that company bought the remnants of the WCW promotion but was eventually released in 2004.

Klucsaritis tried to get back in the mainstream with a gimmick as the first openly gay pro wrestler and later admitted being gay in real life.  He also at times claimed WWE fired him for being gay and was part of a lawsuit, along with Scott "Raven"  Levy and Mike Sanders, against WWE for misclassifying wrestlers as independent contractors.

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