Bruce Reed(1954-2021)

Born Bruce Reed, Butch Reed was an African-American football player, professional wrestler and rodeo cowboy. He played for the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs. He was trained by wrestler Ronnie Etchison. He wrestled for various NWA territories, WWE, WCW, Mid-South Wrestling, the USWA (Memphis), the Global Wrestling Federation (Dallas) and many independents. Among his achievements, he was a 3x Mid-South North American Heavyweight Champion, a former NWA World Tag Team Champion with Ron Simmons as Doom (they were also the first-ever WCW World Tag Team Champions), a former USWA Unified World Heavyweight Champion and a former WLW (Harley Race's World Legion Wrestling promotion in Missouri) Heavyweight Champion. The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes (Michael Seitz) and Jimmy 'Jam' Garvin) defeated Doom for the WCW World Tag Team Titles at WCW Wrestle War (1991), breaking up the team forever and turning Simmons Face (good guy). Simmons defeated Reed at WCW SuperBrawl I (1991), with Reed disappearing for over a year. He returned in 1992, aligned with Cactus Jack (Mick Foley) and The Barbarian (Sione Vailahi). At Clash of the Champions XX: 20th Anniversary (1992), Reed and The Barbarian defeated Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham. Shortly after this, WCW boss "Cowboy" Bill Watts fired Reed for missing one flight, and Reed never worked for a major promotion again. He spent years in the independents, along with a stint as a rodeo cowboy, and finally retired in 2013. He died on February 5, 2021 after having suffered two heart attacks a few days earlier.

While working for NWA Central States in 1986, Bruiser Brody (Frank Goodish) defeated Reed and manager Slick (Ken Johnson) in a Loser-Leaves-Town match, which was merely a formality, since Reed and Slick were all set to go to WWE. WWE dyed Reed's hair blond and named him "The Natural." He won his PPV debut over "The Birdman" Koko B. Ware (James Ware) at WrestleMania III (1987), and was in the main event of Survivor Series (1987) (André René Roussimoff/King Kong Bundy/The One Man Gang (George Gray)/Reed/"Ravishing" Rick Rude defeated Hulk Hogan/"Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff/"Magnificent" Don Muraco/Ken Patera/Bam Bam Bigelow, with Andre as the sole survivor). Randy Savage defeated Reed in the first round of the WWF World Heavyweight Title Tournament at WrestleMania IV (1988), which was Reed's third, and last, WWE PPV match. He later said that he left because of racial discrimination.

Originally denied the story that he was supposed to have defeated Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat (Richard Blood) for the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Title, but that the plans were changed due to his missing shows (which he claimed was due to burnout), leading to The Honky Tonk Man (Wayne Farris) getting the belt instead. In 2018, he confirmed that he lost the opportunity due to missing shows. Wikipedia calls the story that Reed was supposed to have won the title "a persistent myth."