It has been reported according to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer, that “Playboy†Buddy Rose passed away on April 28.
Rose (real name Paul Perschmann) was found dead by his wife in their home in Portland. He was 56 years old. There is no cause of death at this point, but he had diabetes and was reported to have blood sugar issues. Rose was a fairly heavyset man in his later years of wrestling but he had gained even more weight in recent years.
Buddy Rose was one of the big stars of Don Owen’s Portland wrestling territory throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s where he had long-term feuds with men like Rowdy Roddy Piper and Superfly Jimmy Snuka. He also had a long-term on-air partnership with Ed Wiskoski (more famously known as Colonel DeBeers.) In fact in recent years after his retirement, he and Wiskoski opened a wrestling training school in the Portland area.
He was in the very first WrestleMania match, wrestling as the masked Executioner against Tito Santana. In the mid ‘80s he as a big star in Verne Gagne’s American Wrestling Association, where he formed a successfully World Tag Team Championship team that feuded primarily with The Rockers (Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty) when they were just young wrestlers.
In his later years as a wrestler he gained considerable weight, which became his gimmick. The announcers would announce him by his real weight, but he would make a point to correct them and say his “real†weight was 217 pounds. His last real exposure on the national stage was in 1990 and 1991 in the World Wrestling Federation, where he used primarily as an enhancement talent while promoting his “Blow Away Diet,†that helped him contain his “trim†figure.
Our condolences go out to “Playboy’s†friends and family in this rough time.
