Posted on by bdamage1
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.
Heather Savage
Heather McGuire began her wrestling career in 2000. She was trained at the OPW (Oklahoma Pro Wrestling) school and wrestled for the independent promotion for over a year. She wrestled under the ring name of ‘Heather Savage.’ Heather won the OPW Ladies title on two occasions. She then attended the World League Wrestling in Troy, Missouri and was further trained by NWA legend Harley Race. She would win the WLW women’s title twice and feuded mostly with ‘Miss Natural’ Heather Patera.
In 2002, she married fellow wrestler Bull Schmitt and retired from wrestling to start a family. She ended up divorced a few years later. On November 9, 2014, Heather was traveling on a Missouri highway around 10:30 in the morning with her two daughters ages 2 and 6. She lost control of her vehicle and skidded across the highway and overturned. Heather was pronounced dead at the scene and her two daughters were rushed to a local hospital and survived. Heather ‘Savage’ McGuire was just 36 years old at the time of her death.