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Angelo Mosca, who went from the Canadian Football League to a massively successful in-ring career as a professional wrestler, passed away earlier today at 84 years old age. Mosca announced back in 2015 that he had been diagnosed with early symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease.
Mosca's wife Helen announced his passing on her Facebook page, writing:
"It is with great sadness that the family of Angelo Mosca announce his passing on November 6, 2021, after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s. Angelo was a loving husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather as well as friend to so many. Angelo was 84 years old. We ask that you respect the family’s privacy at this time. More details will be shared when arrangements have been made."
Mosca, who was born in Massachusets, had a long career playing for the CFL from 1959 through 1972 and was recruited into professional wrestling by Montreal wrestling promoter Eddie Quinn, playing off his CFL career. Mosca was a heel for the majority of his career, a role he played tremendously, utilizing the sleeper as his dreaded finishing maneuver. He worked a number of Canadian territories before eventually turning babyface.
Over the course of his run for Maple Leaf Wrestling in Canada, Mosca challenged Nick Bockwinkel for the AWA title and Harley Race for the NWA Championship. After his run in Canada, Mosca worked for Championship Wrestling from Florida (where he feuded with and later teamed with Blackjack Mulligan) and has several runs for Jim Crockett Promotions' Mid-Atlantic Wrestling here in the States, including a run with the TV title and feuds with Paul Jones and Wahoo McDaniels. Later, Mosca and his son, Angelo Mosca Jr. worked as a babyface team in the Carolinas.
Mosca, back as a heel, migrated to the WWF in 1981, where he regularly challenged then-WWF Champion Bob Backlund.
Mosca also had a memorable feud with the late Pat Patterson, who had been calling him out for his rule breaking from the announcers' table. In response, Mosca attacked him and struck him with a heavy pitcher of water, sparking the feud. Mosca later did color commentating for the company as well, finally departing in early 1985.
Mosca promoted and hosted NWA-related events in Ontario in the mid-1980s under the Moscamania banner. The first event was a massive success, drawing over 12,000 but WWF counter-programming the next event in 1987, running head to head with Mosca, who only drew 3,000. While that number might be seen as a healthy one today, in 1987, it was anything but.
Mosca released an autobiography in Canada in 2011 and made several signing appearances around that time. Around the same period, there was an incident where Mosca was involved in a brawl at an alumni event for the Canadian Football League with former rival Joe Kapp, stemming from issues the two had many years before on the field. In a video of the fight, which you can see by clicking here, Mosca is invited on stage during a presentation and asked to sit next to Kapp. Kapp attempted to literally, offer an olive branch to Mosca, who shoved it away.
When Kapp stepped to him, Mosca smacked him with his walking cane and they had a brief brawl, which ended with Mosca being knocked over. The two were separated, at which point Kapp yelled, "Sportsmanship! That's what it's all about" while showing off his peace offering to Mosca. The issues between the two date back to the 1960s where Mosca, playing for the Hamilton Tiger Cats, took out a British Columbia Lions player in what was considered a cheap tactic. The incident was covered on a lot of Canadian news broadcasts at the time. The incident led to an appearance on Dr. Phil for Mosca:
I believe Mosca's final pro wrestling-related appearance would have been a signing appearance at Greg Price's Mid-Atlantic Legends convention in Charlotte in the summer of 2012.
PWInsider.com sends our deepest condolences to the family, friends and fans of Angelo Mosca.
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