Former WWE star passes away at the age of 64
Michael James Panzer, aka Corporal Kirchner, passed away on Wednesday at the age of 64. However, the cause of the death is unknown.
Kirchner is a former United States Army paratrooper who started the pro wrestling business in Verne Gagne’s AWA. He eventually joined WWE and wrested under “RT Reynolds” before being repackaged with the military gimmick based on his real-life past.
The Kirchner character was reportedly created by the company to replace Sgt. Slaughter left the company to join AWA in 1985. However, After spending several years in WWE, Kirchner had a brief run in the Harts Stampede Wrestling, where he wrestled “Col. Kirchner”.
Corporal Kircher had a run in Japan as well
Kirchner also had brief appearances in Japan with NJPW. During Japan’s W*ING promotion, Kircher created the character “Leatherface”, inspired by a villain of the same name from the movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
However, Kircher was even arrested and jailed for six months following an attempted assault by a fan, which left the fan with severe facial injuries.
When Kircher was in Jail, another wrestler, Rick Patterson, performed the Leatherface character. In 2001, Kircher was announced as a participant in the Gimmick Battle Royal at WrestleMania X7 but was later removed.
In 2006, WWE erroneously announced the passing of Kirchner’s demise because of confusion over his real name, which was believed to be Thomas Spear at the time, which was later corrected by the company.
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