Gary Hart is GONE

from Wade Keller and the crew at pwtorch.com:

Legendary wrestling manager and booker “Playboy” Gary Hart(Gary Richard Williams) passed away yesterday afternoon at his home in Euless, Texas, according to Canoe.ca’s Slam Sports website. Hart was 66.

Hart was best known as a heel manager in Texas and Jim Crockett Promotions, and helped run the office and book the World Class Championship Wrestling territory during the company’s heyday in the early 1980’s.

Hart attended a World Class reunion convention on Saturday in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He had been promoting independent shows sporadically in Texas.

+++++Additionally from wikipedia.com:
Hart created the classic feud between the Von Erichs and the Fabulous Freebirds, as well as introducing memorable characters like the Great Kabuki, Great Muta, King Kong Bundy, the One Man Gang and the Samoan Swat Team.

Hart additionally discovered talent such as Gino Hernandez and Chris Adams. Along with booking, he also managed Nord the Barbarian, Abdullah The Butcher, Al Perez and Jeep Swenson under the stable “New Age Management”, and always feuded with the top faces of the promotion(WCCW). In 1984, Hart managed Gentleman Chris Adams, who turned heel and engaged in a major feud with Kevin and Kerry Von Erich. As a result, Adams was propeled to the top of the wrestling world and eventually won the NWA American title in 1985.+++++

*****I will best remember Gary Hart for his days in World Class Championship Wrestling in Texas with the Von Erichs and when he would come to Jim Crockett Promtions and manage “The Great Kabuki”. The secret mist that Kabuki would blow into an opponent’s face would usually be a deciding factor in the matches.

Gary Hart was once a wrestler but he will be best remembered as a manager and I’ll never forget his look. The bald head, the mustache, and those big dark bulging eyes. Hart talked with a lisp, but it was a mean lisp, not like the western lisp of the plumber’s son, Dusty Rhodes. Gary Hart was a mean, controlling, diabolical manager(like something from the devil) but he was excellent at what he was called to do. Control the situation.*****