Remembering S.D. Jones

*****courtesy of “Diamond Dan” Grondy, article from the Baltimore Sun*****

Conrad Efraim, better known as S.D. “Special Delivery” Jones to wrestling fans in the Northeast in the ’70s and ’80s, died Sunday at 63 after suffering a stroke, according to pwinsider.com.

I grew up watching Jones, who – along with Johnny Rodz and Jose Estrada – was one of the top WWWF and WWF enhancement performers (or preliminary wrestlers, as they were called back in the day).

Despite a less than sterling won-loss record, Jones was popular with fans because he usually got in a lot of offense against the top heels before putting them over, and he projected a happy-go-lucky personality. At house shows, Jones would almost always win when he was matched up against a fellow preliminary wrestler.

I remember Jones getting a minor push around 1981, as he returned to the WWF after being off television for a while and started accumulating victories. Eventually, however, he was back in his old position of jobber to the stars. At one point, he and Tony Atlas (whom Jones inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame two years ago) formed a team and unsuccessfully challenged for the tag team titles.

Until last March, Jones had the dubious distinction of suffering the quickest loss at WrestleMania. He was beaten by King Kong Bundy at WrestleMania I in 1985 in what was officially announced as nine seconds (but it was actually more like 20-some). The record was broken when Kane defeated Chavo Guerrero in eight seconds (legit) at WrestleMania XXIV.

My condolences go out to Jones’ family.