Kevin Sullivan

I'll always remember the first time I ever came across Kevin Sullivan.

It wasn't by watching wrestling on the TV. Nope, it was inside the first-ever wrestling magazine I owned.

My dad bought the publication for me while we were visiting my American relatives when they were stationed in a US Air Force Base in England. It wasn't a typical wrestling mag. It didn't have articles. It just had a a bunch of posters inside.

I think it was called Wrestling All Stars Scrapbook. I still have it. Somewhere.

Anyway, this mag opened me up to American wrestling more than Sky TV did back then. I was used to the stuff from the WWF but didn't know much about the companies outside of that.

There was a photo inside this mag of Kevin Sullivan. He was decked out in satanic looking facepaint and I was intrigued. 

As my interest in American wrestling grew, I learned more about Sullivan and his evil gimmick. I would later find him on my TV as a regular act in World Championship Wrestling once I became a fan of that promotion.

Not long after that, I learned that Sullivan was one of the most important people backstage in the company. As head booker he was one of the main people responsible for WCW's hot period when it was beating the WWF in the ratings.

In recent years, I've enjoyed listening to his career reflections in shoot interviews. He always came across as an intelligent guy. Far, far removed from that first image I have of him as I leafed through that magazine sitting in the back of my uncle's American car as we travelled along the motorway.

Earlier this year, the wrestling world learned that Sullivan had taken ill. News of his passing was announced today. He was only seventy-four years old.