Ray Candy
| Ray Candy | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Birth name | Ray Canty |
| Born |
December 3, 1951 Decatur, Georgia |
| Died | May 23, 1994 (aged 42) Decatur, Georgia |
| Cause of death | Heart attack |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Blackstud Williams Commando Ray Kareem Muhammad Masked Superfly Ray Candy Super Mario Man |
| Billed height | 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) |
| Billed weight | 340 lb (150 kg) |
| Billed from | Decatur, Georgia, US |
| Trained by | Dory Funk Jr. |
| Debut | 1973 |
| Retired | 1990 |
Ray Canty (December 3, 1951 – May 23, 1994), better known by the ring name Ray Candy, was an American professional wrestler who worked for a variety of different wrestling promotions in the United States, Japan and Puerto Rico such as Jim Crockett Promotions, All Japan Pro Wrestling, World Wrestling Council and others. He also competed as Blackstud Williams, Super Mario Man, Commando Ray, Masked Superfly and Kareem Muhammad.
As Kareem Muhammad he formed a tag team with Elijah Akeem to for the tag team "The Zambuie Express". He also spent time as part of Skandor Akbar's Devastation Inc. group as well as a team known as "The Shock Troops" with Ed Gantner and "The Commandos" with Commando Boone. Canty was responsible for training New Jack for his professional wrestling career,
Ray Canty was trained for his professional wrestling career by former NWA World Heavyweight Championship Dory Funk Jr. before making his in-ring debut in 1973. Starting out he adopted the ring name "Ray Candy", a modified version of his birth name. To start with Candy worked for the local All-South Wrestling Alliance (ASWA) based out of Atlanta, Georgia. In the ASWA he won the ASWA United States Championship early in his career. He later worked for Dory Funk Sr.'s National Wrestling Alliance Western States Sports (WWS) promotion. In WWS he won both the NWA Western States Heavyweight Championship and the NWA Western States Tag Team Championship, teaming with his mentor Dory Funk Jr. By 1976 he was a regular worker for Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF), but also worked for the nearby NWA Mid-America promotion where he held the NWA Mid-America Tag Team Championship twice while teaming with Pez Whatley. In 1979 Candy was invited to work for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), touring Japan several times. On October 12, 1979 Candy and Abdullah the Butcher won the NWA International Tag Team Championship, defeating Giant Baba and Jumbo Tsuruta. The duo only held the championship for a week before Baba and Tsuruta regained them. Candy competed in the 1980 Champion Carnival, where he defeated Motoshi Okumura, Carl Fergie, the Mysterious Assassin and Rocky Hata to earn a total of eight points, enough for eight place.
...
Wikipedia