Source: Pwinsider.com
Former WWF and NWA star “Outlaw” Ron Bass has passed away. Bass, real name Ronald Heard, died at the age of sixty-eight. Bass had been hospitalized after suffering a burst appendix and hadn’t realized what had happened, waiting a week before he got medial help. The delay was too much and he passed as a result.
Bass began his wrestling career in 1975 in the NWA as Ron Bass, working several of the organization’s territories. He also worked as Sam Oliver Bass and, in the 1980s, teamed up with Black Bart to form the Long Riders in Florida Championship Wrestling and Jim Crockett Promotions. He feuded with Barry Windham in FCW and beat him in a loser-leaves-town match, only to have Windham come back under a mask as Yellow Dog. He moved on to the WWE in 1987 and worked as a midcard heel, eventually feuding with Junkyard Dog where he choked JYD and dragged him around the ring with his signature whip “Miss Betsy.”
Bass moved on to feud with Brutus Beefcake in 1988, gouging the babyface’s head open with his spurs and forcing him out of his scheduled Intercontinental Title match with the Honky Tonk Man at the first SummerSlam. The Ultimate Warrior took his place and ended HTM’s record run as champion. Beefcake returned and the two feuded until January of 1989, when Bass lost to Beefcake in a hair vs. hair match. He left the WWF shortly after then and worked the indies, retiring in 1991. He would occasionally return to the ring for events, including an appearance at the first WrestleReunion show in 2005.
Bass was part of the current class-action lawsuit filed against WWE in summer of 2016, which claims that the company concealed risks of traumatic head injuries. That lawsuit is still ongoing. On behalf of every here on the website, we send our condolences to the family, friends and fans of Mr. Heard.
