Photos courtesy of wwe.com
Before I begin, I want to give my condolences to Mr. Efriam's widow Kay, his son, two daughters [Donna and Abigail], his four grandchildren and his brother.
Earlier today, I read an article on Slam! Sports that broke the news wrestling legend Conrad Efriam, better known as S.D. "Speical Delivery" Jones [pictured above], passed away on Sunday at the age of 63 in Antigua due to complications following a stroke he had on Wednesday.
His widow, Kay, told Slam! Sports that he had been in fine health and on Wednesday, had been laughing, singing and had just fed the dogs, when he suddenly called her name, showed his fingers and his body went limp. At the doctors office, Kay found out that three-quarters of his brain was bleeding and covered in blood.
Even though he could not speak in the hospital, he could write and according to Kay, wrote 'I want to go straight to New York." Kay went on to say that he recognized her and then squeezed her hand.
Efriam was last seen on a national broadcast at the WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony the night before Wrestlemania 22 in April 2006, where he inducted "Mr. U.S.A. Tony Atlas," his former traveling and tag-team partner in the WWE.
Long-time wrestling fans will remember Efriam as a solid competitor who despite his "jobber" status, could believably get in the ring with the biggest names of the 1980's, such as Randy Savage, Don Muraco and Paul Orndorff to name a few, and come close to pulling off a victory on any given night.
Of course, Efriam's biggest accolade came at the inaugural Wrestlemania event in 1985, where he was defeated in the second match of the night by King Kong Bundy in a record time of "9 seconds," which was the announced time even though the actual time was "24-seconds" from bell-to-bell.
Interestingly, Efriam told Slam! Sports in 2004 that he was concerned that such a beating in front of a national audience would damage his career but Vince McMahon persuaded him that a humiliating loss to Bundy would achieve the company's goal of developing a monstrous rival to the likes of Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant and for his effort, received a very nice payday.
After a 22-year career in the ring, Efriam retired from the industry in 1991, lost a tremendous amount of weight and began working for the New York Daily News, driving newspapers. In Nov. 2007, Efriam retired from the newspaper industry and moved back to his native Antigua.
Being born in 1984, I didn't get to see that much of Efriam in the ring but the things I do remember are his two LJN action figures, one of which featured a red shirt and the other, a tropical shirt [both of which I owned]; his lost to Bundy at Wrestlemania; his cameo in the "Land of a 1000 Dances" music video and being featured as a bonus match from the 1986 WWE Australia tour in the extras section of the WWE Global Warning Tour DVD released in 2002.
Even though I didn't get to see much of him, everything I have read about Efriam has stated that he was one of the classiest, if not the classiest, individuals one would ever meet in their lifetime and was a joy to be around. I have never read one negative thing about Efriam, other than his professional wins and loss record, and will remember him as someone who always put on a great show.
It just sucks that another wrestler I grew up watching, who was a good man and relatively young, has now passed away. The only thing that makes me feel a bit better is knowing God must be a huge wrestling fan to be able to deal with all their egos up there.
If anyone would like to send any emails of memories of Mr. Efriam or notes of condolences, the editor of Slam! Sports will forward them to Kay if you send them to the following address: goliver@canoemail.com
God Bless and may you Rest in Peace Mr. Efriam. You were a good man who touched a lot of lives and will make Heaven a much a better place with just your presence.
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