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Former WWE wrestler Black Bart has died aged 76.
The professional wrestler, whose real name was Richard Harris, was diagnosed with cancer in 2022 and recently had to stop his chemotherapy after his insurance ran out.
His wife Linda wrote on Facebook: ‘You might know him as Black Bart but to me he was my husband Ricky. He left us this morning. He was pronounced at 5:26 this morning. He is Resting In Peace.’
He stopped his treatment in December 2024 after his insurance stopped covering it, while his wife said at the time that he didn’t ‘want any more chemo’.
‘He feels that it’s doing more damage than good and I have to back him up on that,’ she said. ‘He is completely in God’s hands now.’
His in-ring career started in 1975 and he kept wrestling for over 25 years, before eventually hanging up his boots in 2002.
From there, he started to help train wrestlers of the future, and former WWE Champion John ‘Bradshaw’ Layfield was his most famous student.
JBL went onto become a main eventer and Hall of Famer, having transitioned into a commentator role on SmackDown.
Layfield paid a heartfelt tribute to his mentor and tag partner Harris on social media and shared a photo of them together and smiling.
‘Black Bart took me under his wing and taught me how to be a professional wrestler. We were tag champs in Texas-but we were also just buddies,’ he wrote on X.
‘We sat together in the dressing room while Bart spit in his trashcan and constantly joked about everything. Bart meant the world to me. I love you big brother. RIP.’
Dustin Rhodes, best known to WWE fans as Goldust, also remembered Harris and the role his played early in his career.
The brother of WWE Champion Cody Rhodes wrote: ‘Black Bart taught me a ton in my younger years. Loved him to death. He will be missed.’
Over his career, he wrestled in promotions like Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, Georgia Championship Wrestling, and Championship Wrestling From Florida.
In the latter, he worked with Mike Rotunda, the father of the late, great Bray Wyatt, while elsewhere he feuded with the likes of Kevin Von Erich – whose life story was told by Zac Efron in The Iron Claw.
He joined WWE, then WWF, in 1990, going onto make several appearances over the next year, in between stints with World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
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