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The passing of former NWA Junior Heavyweight Champion Roger Kirby was announced yesterday by long-time historian and Cauliflower Alley Club executive Scott Teal via the CAC Facebook page.
On the page, Teal wrote, "I don't have the words to say just how broken-hearted I am at this moment. I just got a call from Roger Kirby's wife, Lila. Roger passed away this afternoon at age 79. He fell three weeks ago and broke his hip. In the hospital, they discovered that he had stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He contracted pneumonia and died today. Roger and I traveled together whenever he came to Tennessee. At our reunion here in 2009, he stood up in front of everyone and told them that I had always been his best friend; and that I was the only person who stayed in touch regularly in the years after we got out of the business. We talked regularly, and every time, before he hung up, he always thanked me for being his friend. Many people come in and out of out lives during our lifetimes, but there are only a select few we can truly say we loved. For me, Roger is one those special few. I will never forget Roger or the great times we had together on the road. God bless you, Roger. I will never forget you. Thank you for your friendship. wRESTle in Peace."
Kirby, real name, Willis Kirby, grew up in Indiana and was a Golden Gloves boxer before being broken into the business by The Sheik, Ed Farhat and Dick the Bruiser. Kirby had attended a wrestling event at his former high school and got into a shouting match with a wrestler after getting on the ring apron to stand on it. When he later told his mother the story, she related that his cousin’s husband was a professional wrestler, Cowboy Dennis Hall. Hall introduced him to Sheik and Bruiser and he began training.
Kirby was a renowned tough man and while he didn’t carry himself as such, there were many stories of him being challenged by fans out in clubs, always ending with Kirby winning the fight. He was considered someone you didn't want to cross and was respected a great in-ring worker by his peers at the time.
As a singles star, his biggest title run was easily his time as NWA Junior Heavyweight Champion, defeating Danny Hodge in May 1971, which was the equivalent of being knighted as a top star as Bill Watts had made the call to change the title. Kirby had a long program with Tom Jones before dropping the belt to Ramon Torres.
As a heel, he wore blonde dyed hair and sometimes be billed as “The Nature Boy” playing off of Buddy Rogers’ moniker. Kirby worked all over a number of different NWA territories, including Georgia, the Pacific Northwest, Florida, Memphis and the Gulf Coast. Internationally, Kirby worked in Japan and Mexico as well. In Puerto Rico, he was the WWC North American Champion as well as holding the North American Tag Team titles.
Kirby, who would go on to have a long babyface run as well. also had runs with the Central States Championship and the Pacific Northwest title. He and Les Thatcher held the NWA United States Tag Team titles and Kirby would later win the Gulf Coast Tag Team titles as well as Dennis Hall. The trio were billed as wrestling cousins and worked together for several years.
On his Facebook page, Thatcher paid tribute to Kirby, writing, "This is one of the hardest things I'll ever write. My brother by another mother, my tag team partner, the guy that had my back, my traveling companion. we raised hell together, we drew money togther, we laughed together, and shared so damned much. Roger Kirby one of "The Wrestling Cousins" passed away today at age 79. "Kirb", Dennis Hall and I bonded early in our careers and were joined at the hip for so very long. Even as the NWA Jr Heavyweight Champion never recieved the credit for the amazing "worker" he was. I think it was best said by our mutual friend Harley Race in a documentary when he said "The difference between Kirby and me was I got the breaks". All of us that were lucky enough to share a part of his life are better for it. Thank you for every minute we shared. Go with God as I know he will team you up with our cousin Dennis. Know that I will think of you often and relay some of our crazy stories from the road with so much love and respect. God bless you."
Kirby retired in 1986 after working briefly for the WWF as a wrestler and segueing for a short time into refereeing, deciding that he didn’t want to stay on in a lower level role and opted to exit the business instead. He settled into the Kansas City area.
In 2010, Kirby was honored by the Cauliflower Alley Club.
On behalf of everyone associated with PWInsider.com, we'd like to express our deepest condolences to the family, friends and fans of Roger Kirby.
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