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Brian Damage
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.
Dennis Coralluzzo
Dennis Coralluzzo began a wrestling career n promoting small independent shows in both Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and in his home state of New Jersey. Coralluzzo eventually owned and ran his own promotion called NWA New Jersey. Coralluzzo quickly rose the ranks as being one of the top independent promoters in the northeast and soon was elected as the president of the National Wrestling Alliance.
Coralluzzo would be instrumental in reviving the once dead NWA and helping it grow in the 1990’s. He was known by many fans and friends as “Mr. NWA.” Coralluzzo would often butt heads with other NWA member and owner of Eastern Championship Wrestling Tod Gordon over the violent content that Gordon would promote. It ultimately led to Tod Gordon double crossing Coralluzzo by having Shane Douglas throw down the NWA world title and declaring himself as the new ECW world champion.
Dennis Coralluzzo became the most powerful independent promoter in the United States and is credited with selecting Dan ‘The Beast’ Severn as NWA world champion, making Severn the first pro wrestler/pro MMA fighter to be a wrestling world champion. Coralluzzo was eventually ousted as NWA president due to owing money to a few international wrestlers. Despite that, he remained an integral part of the NWA.
It was Coralluzzo who helped broker a working agreement between the NWA and the World Wrestling Federation. He even appeared on WWF TV awarding Jeff Jarrett with the NWA North American title. Tragically, while attending a wrestling convention in New Jersey, Coralluzzo felt ill and was later rushed to a local hospital. On July 30, 2001, Coralluzzo fell into a coma a died after suffering a fatal stroke. Dennis Coralluzzo was just 48 years old at the time of his death.