WWE Star Ashley Massaro Dies at Age 39

WWE Star Ashley Massaro Dies at Age 39
TV personality Ashley Massaro arrives for the CW Network Winter TCA Party at the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 19, 2007. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Former WWE star Ashley Massaro has died, the organization said on Thursday, May 16. She was 39.

“We are saddened to learn of the tragic death of former WWE Superstar Ashley Massaro,” WWE said in a statement. “WWE offers its condolences to Ashley’s family and friends.”

Massaro was in the WWE between 2005 and 2008, and her death comes two months after she said she’s training to return to wrestling.

“Gonna be bumping around the ring starting next week … super pumped n ready to see what I got left in these ole boots of mine!” she tweeted in March.

Friends, fans and former colleagues shared condolences and memories of her shortly after her death was announced.

“I have no words. Ashley was my tag partner at Wrestlemania. My sometimes road wife. We did countless photo shoots and press days together. It seems like yesterday Ashley was a major part of my life and then our worlds changed and now she is gone. I’m heartbroken for her family,” Maria Kanellis Bennett tweeted.

Professional wrestler Torrie Wilson described her as one of the sweetest people she knows.

“I can’t even begin to explain how devastated I am,” she said.

Massaro also competed on the CBS show “Survivor” about a decade ago. WWE did not provide any details on her cause of death.

‘Silver King’

Silver King, whose real name is Cesar Barron, was performing in a match on Saturday, May, 11 at the Roundhouse in London, when he died from what the Guardian reported was cardiac arrest.

Barron, who at one time was a star competitor in the World Championship Wrestling (WCW), a U.S. federation, was 51 at the time of his death.

NTD Photo
Professional wrestler and actor Silver King poses during a photo call at York Hall in Bethnal Green in London, England, on July 1, 2016. (Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

Disturbing footage shows the moment the iconic wrestler, who also starred alongside Jack Black in the film “Nacho Libre,” struggles to lift himself from the mat, visibly distressed.

Roberto Carrera Maldonado, who was at the show, told the BBC that he thought Barron’s collapse was part of the performance.

“It felt like it was staged,” he said, according to the BBC. “Obviously it was quite normal in the fight.”

But when the referee’s efforts to revive Barron failed, people jumped into the ring to help.

“All of us were really shocked—it wasn’t clear what was happening,” Carrera told the BBC. “I had the impression they didn’t know what to do.”

Epoch Times reporter Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.

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