Former wrestler Chuck Coates has died.
Hi wife Cynthia posted the unfortunate news on Monday:
This is not a post I ever thought I’d have to make. My wonderful husband Chuck Coates took his last breath on earth and his first breath in Heaven at 3:44 a.m. while I held his hand. Please pray for our family as we navigate the days ahead.
He was a native of North Carolina and highly connected to North Carolina State’s wrestling team.
Coates had been dealing with a multitude of heart problems after having a bypass surgery. On Saturday, his wife shared that he had four operations over the previous week.
Coates was an underneath wrestler, primarily for WCW and working on many WWF shows in an enhancement role. He worked against Ricky Steamboat, Sting, Lex Luger, Steve Austin, Bobby Eaton, Andre the Giant, Bad News Allen, and Kurt Angle.
Coates wrestled as a member of The German Stormtroopers team in WWC in Puerto Rico in 1992. Later, he became the Russian Assassin for PWF in North Carolina and SCW out of South Carolina.
Another name he wrestled under was Madd Maxx, where he worked on several OMEGA shows and would get enhancement work as late as 2002 when WWE was in the Carolinas. His last match occurred this past March when he wrestled a tag match for Mid-Atlantic Territory Wrestling, according to Cagematch.
Correction: An earlier version of this article listed the University of North Carolina as the wrestling program Coates supported, but this has been corrected.
