RIP Chris Candido

It's difficult to know how to begin this column. When I woke up this morning and logged onto the Internet, I was probably as shocked as the rest of you when I found out that Chris Candido was dead.

Like most of you, the first two words that came into my head were "f***ing hell". The guy was only 33 years old, the same age as me. I thought at first that this could be a cruel joke played by some sick f**k, like the story that someone put out a couple of years back that Leon "Vader" White had died. But a check on Google's news service made me soon realize that this was no joke.

So just why did Chris die? This may be sound a bit harsh, but given his past problems with drugs, when I first heard the news I thought that he had overdosed or something. But apparently this all goes back to TNA's Lockdown pay-per-view last Sunday. While competing in a tag-team match, Candido was on the receiving end of a Sonny Siaki drop-kick. Siaki landed awkwardly on Candido's leg, and the scene afterwards brought back memories of the infamous moment in WCW when Sid Vicious broke his leg.

Those of us who follow many different sports have seen this kind of injury before, particularly in football. Liverpool's Djibril Cisse suffered a similar injury earlier this season, but recently made his first-team comeback a few weeks ago. When I first heard of Candido's injury, like everyone else I thought that he'd make a full recovery.

Everyone knew of his past drug problems, and many injuries which included a broken neck, many in the wrestling business were pleased that he had finally put his problems behind him, and now had another shot at the big time with TNA. Things certainly looked good for him.

Then came the accident in the ring last Sunday, followed by an operation to repair the damage. He appeared at ringside at the next TNA tapings, acting as manager for The Naturals as they won the tag titles. He wasn't letting a busted leg get in the way of his career, and we were all looking forward to seeing him at the two upcoming ECW reunions, even though competing on those shows was now out of the question. But the fact that he had had some of best matches in ECW meant that he just had to be at those shows.

But who among us would have known that the events last Sunday would lead to his death? The simple answer is that none of us did.

I'm not going to lie to you and pretend that I was a big fan of Candido's work. I enjoyed his matches, but I never really went out of my way to watch them. But this doesn't mean that I don't feel sympathy for his family and friends right now. They've lost a part of themselves, a part of their very being when he died last night.

Chris Candido was just 33 years old. It certainly makes you think about certain things, doesn't it?

R.I.P. Chris. Thanks for the great matches.