Pencil-Necks Can Finally Exhale

Freddie Blassie, the villainous old-school professional wrestler known mostly (to me anyway) as the performer of the Dr. Demento classic Pencil-Neck Geek, died Monday of heart failure at age 85. According to the L.A. Times obit, sportswriting legend Jim Murray once described Blassie as "the worst villain since Hitler."

Links via L.A. Observed.

Comments

[Anonymous]

Charles Oliver has a tribute on his website, too:

http://expats.blogspot.com/

[Steven]

He was the “Pencil-Neck Geek” guy to me as well.

[James Merritt]

Freddie Blassie was so cool, my grandfather would turn on the LA Spanish channel’s “Lucha Libre” religiously, just to watch him do his thing, despite being unable to understand any of the ringside announcers. As I didn’t watch my grandmother’s soap operas, the weekly wrestling shows were my first introduction to the media process by which a hated villain evolves into a “good guy” (and sometimes back again — as we see frequently in media coverage of politics today — Jesse Ventura’s gubernatorial campaign was a metaphor for the whole political scene!). Blassie went back and forth, but ended up as Wrestlings elder statesman, where he belonged.

He was my favorite “Old School” wrestler, and apparently my son’s too. When I told my 12-year old boy that Blassie had passed away, he actually seemed moved. Then he told me about all the Blassie-related material he had seen on WWE only recently! The “Classy” one cast a long shadow!

At least we still have Rowdy Roddy Piper (who was just a punk kid getting his start during Blassie’s heyday).

Rest easy, Fred.