Wrestling Legend & Former WWE Star Tracy Smothers Dies at 58 After Battling Cancer

On Wednesday, October 28, 2020, the wrestling world lost one of its stars after legendary wrestler Tracy Smothers sadly passed away. His death was announced by the World Wrestling Entertainment Network.

Legendary wrestling star Tracy Smothers passed away this week at the age of 58, according to the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Network. The late star has since received many tributes from fellow wrestlers.

Athletes like Eric Bischoff, Ricochet, Edge, Kevin Owens, and many others took to social media to mourn and honor Smothers’ death. According to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful, the late star announced last year via Facebook that he had been diagnosed with stage III lymphoma.

In May 2020, the late wrestler featured on VOC Nation's "In The Room" where he gave an update on his cancer battle. He confessed at the time about how he was really doing stating:

"I'm doing better, completed six rounds of chemo, so that was just a battle."

Smothers explained, at the time, how he’d been done with chemotherapy for a while. He shared how he was staying out of the public eye as his immune system was low and he didn’t want to end up catching the novel coronavirus disease.

The star explained how he had a checkup coming up and revealed that he was making sure to take his medication. He also shared that he hoped things would go back to normal real soon.

Smothers’ wrestling career began when he started taking part in the Florida Championship Wrestling. At the time, the Springfield, Tennessee native was teamed up with the legendary Steve Armstrong.

In the early 1990s, the tag team took part in the WCW; initially as The Southern Boys and then as The Young Pistols. They were well-known for their long-standing rivalry with The Fabulous Freebirds members Jimmy Garvin and Michael Hayes.

The duo held the WCW US tag team championships. In 1992, Smothers moved to Jim Cornette's Smoky Mountain Wrestling where he performed as one of the promotion's top stars until 1995.

During his time there, the legendary star won the SMW Heavyweight Championship two times. When he started wrestling in the WWE in 1996, Smothers went by the name Freddie Joe Floyd for two years.

In the WWE he got to face up to big stars like Triple H and Steve "Stone Cold" Austin. While working for the federation, the star also joined the ECW where he became a part of the Full Blooded Italians (FBI) stable.

Smothers isn’t the only legendary wrestling star to pass away this year.

With Little Guido, Smothers once held the ECW Tag Team Championship. His career with the ECW eventually ended in 2000 but he didn’t remove himself completely from the wrestling world.

Smothers continued to appear in the independent wrestling scene. He also had a brief feature in TNA and in 2005, the legendary star took part in some reunion shows for the WWE.

The star loved the sport so much that he actually continued wrestling well into his 50s. Last September, he partook in a match with the current AEW star and wrestler Marko Stunt in GCW.

Smothers isn’t the only legendary wrestling star to pass away this year, unfortunately. In September 2020, WWE legend Joe “Road Warrior Animal” Laurinaitis died at age 60, as confirmed by the WWE and his family.

In 2011, Laurinaitis was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame alongside his tag team partner Michael “Road Warrior Hawk” Hegstrand. The pair was one of the most iconic tag teams in the history of professional wrestling.