Posted on by bdamage1
Joe King
Grappling with Tragedy is a series of articles that deal with unfortunate, tragic incidents that have occurred throughout the history of professional wrestling. It is unlike the ‘Wrestling with Sin’ series that deals more with the seedier side of wrestling like arrests, murders and suicides. Grappling looks more at particular tragic incidents that have in some instances altered pro wrestling in some way.
Cameron La’Rue
Cameron La’Rue, born Cornelius Duran Jones, loved professional wrestling since he was a little boy. It got to where just watching on television wasn’t doing it anymore. He would seek out help in getting into the business. Luckily at the time, the Brunswick and Jacksonville region was heating up with promotions such as Thunder Wrestling Federation. He wound up getting trained at The Strike Zone Training Academy by CB Cane(indie veteran and also founder of TWF)and started his career as The Black Tiger(not to be confusedwithEddyGuerrero’s “BlackTiger”). He started traveling and perfecting his craft, wrestling all over Georgia and Northern parts of Florida…eventually becoming “Superstar” Cameron La’Rue. He would end up becoming the longest reigning Thunder Wrestling Federation Heavyweight Champion in the promotion’s history.
He then became co-founder and booker of Down South Hardcore Wrestling(DSHW). They ran shows in both Darien, Georgia and Brunswick, Georgia. There he would have main-event and championship feuds with the likes of Scotty Bullwinkle, FEAR, and The Morbid Angel. He also formed a stable called The Gangsta Nation with E-Dawg. They were a pretty popular stable in the southeast feuding with Big Ghetto Train, The Russian Mafia, and also Ring Lord & Sektorr. Cam was also a notorious ribber and hated cutting promos! His biggest passion besides wrestling was riding motorcycles.
He was a long-time member of the local chapter of the social motorcyclist club, Biker Boyz. One night while speaking to fellow wrestler, best friend, and business partner, the late Dallas Riley, Cam told him that he was getting out of the wrestling business…and that he felt he wouldn’t die until it wasn’t in his blood anymore. The very next morning before 9:00 a.m, just a few hours later, he was struck and killed after his motorcycle collided with a Jeep Cherokee in the southbound lane of US 17 in his hometown of Brunswick, Georgia. He was just 37 years old.