A Friend Of Paul Bearer Says WWE Saved His Life

Kurt “Plowboy” Nielsen, a friend of the late Bill Moody (a/k/a Paul Bearer and Percy Pringle III) recently wrote a column on SLAM! Wrestling talking about the man and how WWE had a positive impact on his life. You can read an excerpt below:

“Due to his weight, and all of the stresses in his life, he was pretty much ready to die at this point,” Nielsen wrote. “A lot of people don’t know how bad it really was. He would tell me little things, and it tore me apart knowing my friend was in such agony. WWE wanted to bring him back several times, but he always turned them down. Mentally and physically, he could not do it. Finally, when asked what WWE could do to make his life better, so he could come back to the wrestling business that he loved so much, Bill told them he had only one thing that could save him: gastric bypass surgery. WWE gave that to Bill as a gift.”

He continued, “I want to stress this fact: WWE did save Bill Moody’s life. They will never truly get the credit they deserve for all the good that they have done for people over the years. The surgery changed everything for him and made him a brand new person, inside and out. I can never thank WWE enough for what they did for Bill. Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, Undertaker and all of WWE treated him as family, with genuine love, care and respect. Placing him in the WWE Hall of Fame is just another example of how highly they thought of him.”