Rocco Rock

The Weighted Heart

Woodbridge, New Jersey - Rocco Rock's story is one of weight and measure, where the scales of fate tipped sharply towards a life spent wrestling with demons as much as opponents in the ring.

Born Theodore James Petty on September 1, 1953, this 6-foot-2-inch giant of a man would become known to fans as Cheetah Kid, Col. DeKlerk, Mario Savoldi, and Executioner - names that seemed to mirror the turmoil brewing beneath his rugged exterior.

In an era when wrestling was more about grit than glamour, Rocco Rock brought a rough-hewn charm to the mat. A 250-pound all-rounder with a penchant for the unconventional, he battled foes of every stripe, from burly brawlers to lithe acrobats. His signature move, the Table Bomb, left fans gasping in awe as much as his opponents.

But life outside the ring was another story altogether. Rocco Rock's was a journey marked by the weight of his own mortality - a crushing burden that would ultimately prove too great to bear.

For years, whispers of his troubles with boxen circled like a dark cloud on the horizon. The toll exacted by those countless battles took its due, and in 2002, Rocco Rock's life was cut short by a heart attack on September 21st - a cruel irony that would find him succumbing to the very weight he had spent his life trying to defy.

As the curtains closed on this larger-than-life figure, the world of wrestling mourned the loss of a true original. Yet in the annals of Rocco Rock's storied career, one truth stands tall: in the end, it was not the falls or the wins that defined him, but the sheer force of his spirit - a spirit that would forever be weighed down by the gravity of its own greatness.