Kevin Sullivan, a renowned booker, wrestler, and speaker, has died at the age of 74 following health complications from a medical episode over the past year.
Sullivan, a vaunted historian of the industry, grew up as a professional wrestling fan after discovering the form at age eight and booked his own matches involving the figures he watched on television before carving a path into the business.
His story began in Cambridge, Massachusetts, born in 1949, and became a follower of the Northeast wrestling scene and watched the influence Bruno Sammartino commanded with his fanbase.
Sullivan maintained the mantra that even if the fanbase was smartened up and knew the industry was a work, there were special personalities that could suspend that belief and prove they were “real”. He saw that in Sammartino, it was a credo that Johnny Valentine subscribed to, and was Sullivan’s basis for Bill Goldberg’s presentation.
He began his career in 1970 in Montreal and cut his teeth working under the name “Johnny West” for the Continental territory on the Gulf Coast. In that territory, he formed a team with Ken Lucas and became the territory’s U.S. tag champions in June 1971 and would later the Southeastern tag titles on two occasions.
Besides WCW, the territory Sullivan was most affiliated with was Championship Wrestling from Florida, and he made his way to the Sunshine State for the first time in 1972, teaming with Mike Graham. The two would have a friendship for the next forty years and were intertwined in the political chaos of WCW together.
In 1975, he ventured to the WWWF for Vince McMahon Sr. as an undercard babyface in the big man’s territory. Sullivan checked off a box wrestling at Madison Square Garden on November 17, 1975, against Pete Sanchez. The sold-out event was headlined by Bruno Sammartino beating Ivan Koloff by disqualification with Gorilla Monsoon as the special referee in a rematch from the famous title change four years earlier.
Sullivan wrestled Jose Gonzalez a.k.a. Invader I on the WWWF’s card at Shea Stadium on June 25, 1976, featuring Sammartino vs. Stan Hansen and airing the Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki match on closed-circuit for the 32,000 in attendance. This was one of the few U.S. markets to run a successful event in concert with the Ali vs. Inoki match, due to the grudge aspect between Sammartino and Hansen after the former broke his neck two months before and realistically, had no business wrestling so soon after the injury but did so as a favor for Vince McMahon Sr.
Toward the end of the decade, Sullivan arrived in Georgia Championship Wrestling, where the promotion had a national presence due to WTBS gaining penetration through satellite technology and Ted Turner being at the forefront of the innovation of cable television. Sullivan won the NWA National Television Championship on January 27, 1980, trading the title back and forth with Austin Idol.
His rise in Georgia would continue that year, when he turned heel on Steve Keirn, winning back the television championship in November and attacking Keirn and opening the floodgates for Sullivan’s character work.
In 1981, he worked a short time in Memphis before returning to Georgia for a program against Buzz Sawyer before a return to Florida for arguably, the biggest run of his career and most influential on future performers.
Sullivan entered the Florida territory as “The Boston Battler” but evolved into the famous “Prince of Darkness” character and assembled his Army of Darkness of Purple Haze a.k.a. Mark Lewin, The Dream a.k.a. Mike Davis, Bob Roop, The Lock, and corrupting a female reporter, who would become Luna Vachon.
The concept was adopted from Satanic rituals and the public’s panic. It drew attention placed on Charles Manson and incidents such as the Tate-LaBianca murders in 1969. Sullivan always maintained that part of the presentation was never uttering the word, “Satan”, but letting the audience draw that connection.
Let’s remember, this was 1982, and they were walking a fine line of what they could get away with through religious and cultish overtones.
During this period, Sullivan was introduced to a local model named Nancy Toffoloni, who was recruited by Sullivan and became “Woman”. The two would begin seeing one another and eventually, were married.
Florida underwent major changes throughout the decade but the loss of Dusty Rhodes as the area’s iconic babyface was a major blow as he accepted a role as booker for Jim Crockett Promotions and served its top babyface with several talents leaving with him.
Sullivan would also leave for JCP in 1987, taking aspects of the “Prince of Darkness” but in a different form with The Varsity Club alongside Mike Rotunda and Rick Steiner. His major program was with Jimmy Garvin and Sullivan lusting for Precious, the valet and wife of Garvin. This culminated with a Triple Cage Tower of Doom match involving teams led by Sullivan and Garvin at the Great American Bash pay-per-view in 1988.
After Turner Broadcasting purchased Jim Crockett Promotions in November 1988, booker George Scott was installed but lasted a few months and was gone after a disastrous promotion of a Clash of the Champions card at the Louisiana Superdome and a booking committee was installed. This included Sullivan among the committee while maintaining an on-screen role.
His contract expired in 1991, and he ventured on overseas tours, including ones with FMW and W*NG, which no doubt, expanded his horizons on what was working in Japan and learning how Atsushi Onita connected and clicked with the fanbase.
He had a short stay with Jim Cornette’s Smoky Mountain Wrestling and headed to ECW, beginning at the UltraClash event in September 1993. The event was the first after Eddie Gilbert left the company with Paul Heyman and Tod Gordon assuming the lead roles after the departure. On that night, Sullivan worked in the main event teaming with Abdullah the Butcher and losing to Terry Funk & Stan Hansen.
Sullivan had a short-lived team with The Tazmaniac (later “Taz”) with the pairing winning the ECW tag titles in December 1993 from Tommy Dreamer & Shane Douglas (subbing for Johnny Gunn).
He wrapped up with ECW in May 1994 with Woman staying in the company and aligning herself with The Sandman.
Sullivan accepted a major role in WCW where he was brought back as a performer and named head booker in September that year. It was a pivotal period as he took control two months after Hulk Hogan joined the company and one year before WCW would launch Monday Nitro.
Sullivan became the foil for Hogan, taking Ed Leslie and John Tenta and rechristening them “The Butcher” and “Avalanche” to feud with Hogan as the trio became the Three Faces of Fear. That unit began the infamous Dungeon of Doom in 1995, which kicked off with Sullivan falling under the influence of “The Master” (Curtis Iaukea) and led to some of the campiest segments of any era.
The Dungeon of Doom bloated itself to include the likes of Kamala, The Barbarian, Ed Leslie as “Zodiac”, Tenta as “Shark”, Lock Ness, The Yeti, Meng, Bubba Rogers, and The Giant among others.
It was a monster factory for Hogan to plow through and taken from the formula that Hogan was accustomed to but led to mixed reactions for Hogan as the audience tired of the conquering hero.
In 1996, he engaged in a well-remembered program with Brian Pillman as the former Cincinnati Bengal was in the middle of crafting his Loose Cannon persona. One of the big moments of that development was getting on the microphone at SuperBrawl VI and ending his match with Sullivan by stating, “I respect you, booker man” and acknowledging Sullivan’s behind-the-scenes role and leaving the audience to question if Pillman was hijacking the match and breaking with the planned outcome.
Next, was the program with Chris Benoit and a part of Sullivan’s booking that has often been cited as life imitating art. During this period, Woman came to WCW and would leave Sullivan in the storyline and align with Benoit. To push the realism, the two traveled together and gave the illusion of being a real couple, and in time, there was no illusion as they did get together and many people quipped over the years, that Sullivan booked his own divorce.
This took a very nasty turn in 2007 after the horrific double murder-suicide committed by Benoit and an online smear campaign that tried to link Sullivan. There was absolutely zero basis in fact and Sullivan was always polite when asked about it in future interviews.
Sullivan was right in the middle of the angle at Bash at the Beach in July 1996 when Hogan turned heel to join Kevin Nash & Scott Hall. Sullivan stated Hogan was hesitant right up until the show with Sullivan stating he hid Hogan in his house to keep him away from anyone trying to talk him out of it.
Sullivan would be removed from television after a loser leaves town match he lost to Benoit at Bash at the Beach 1997 and focused on booking.
After being trained at the Power Plant, Bill Goldberg would make his official debut in September 1997 in black tights and boots. The former NFL player went on a winning streak that led to incredible business for WCW the following year and peaked with his WCW title win at the Georgia Dome. While the automatic comparisons were made to Steve Austin because of the color scheme, Sullivan assigned the inspiration to Mike Tyson in the short black boots and ended his matches quickly and dramatically.
In 1998, Sullivan was still involved with the booking of the show, but at a certain period transitioned to an agent’s role as booking duties were all over the place. Kevin Nash took the role in January 1999 and held it until October when Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara joined the company.
Sullivan maintained a presence and became a political lightning rod when Russo was asked to join a committee in January 2000, including Sullivan.
There was a near mutiny when it was disclosed that Sullivan would be given booking power with the thought that certain talents would see their careers go up in smoke under Sullivan. No one felt they had a larger target on them than Benoit for obvious personal reasons and how he was booked throughout Sullivan’s last stint. A threat was issued by WCW agent Mike Graham, who was loyal to Sullivan and stood to gain his own power with the shift, leading to the departures of “The Radicals” to avoid any legal fallout from the threat.
Sullivan assumed booking duties with a team that included Terry Taylor, J.J. Dillon, and Bob Mould. It was short-lived until Brad Siegel convinced Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff to return in April 2000.
Sullivan stayed until the end of WCW the next year which was his last major role in a national company.
When the racial discrimination lawsuit was filed against WCW, Sullivan was deposed and shared his experiences and what he observed while in the company including racist language being used by officials. There was also testimony from Randy Anderson alleging racist remarks he heard uttered by Sullivan.
Sullivan would make appearances on various independent shows and had a short run with Ring of Honor of 2016 where he was attached with BJ Whitmer and Punishment Martinez (Damian Priest) and playing his Prince of Darkness character. The idea was pitched by Steve Corino and George Carroll, both of whom work behind the scenes in NXT today and learned under Sullivan.
He would make many appearances over the years at fan conventions, doing shoot interviews, booking for independent groups, and worked for several years as a podcast host with the MLW Radio network.
Sullivan was married three times and had four children, Shannon, Ben, Nicole, and Bianca.
This past May he had a major emergency surgery after a medical episode and nearly lost his leg. Sullivan developed sepsis and encephalitis and was placed in the ICU where he was fighting for his life. A GoFundMe was launched to assist with his mounting medical bills after attempting to keep his health situation private.
Sullivan was 74 years old.
