George 'The Animal' Steele, WWE Hall of Famer, has died at 79

[Inimical]

George “The Animal” Steele, the iconic World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame wrestler, passed away Thursday night at the age of 79, the WWE announced on Friday. Steele reportedly died from kidney failure and had been in and out of hospice care for nearly a year, according to TMZ.

Born William James Myers, the Michigan native received his undergraduate degree from Michigan State and master’s from Central Michigan.

Steele joined the WWE in 1967 after briefly playing football in the short-lived United Football League. Steele feuded with champion Bruno Sammartino before developing the green-tongue, turnbuckle-eating, hairy “Animal” heel gimmick he was best known for.

Steele would have a babyface run in the WWE in the mid-1980s and feuded with the “Macho Man” Randy Savage over the admiration of Miss Elizabeth, Savage’s on-screen valet and actual wife.


Photos: Remembering George "The Animal" Steele



RIP

 

[Inimical]

 

[Inimical]

 

[Ewa PGH Fan]

RIP Animal

 

[Inimical]

 

[Inimical]

 

[Inimical]

 

[ill]

my babysitter had an old WWF video that had Steele and Macho Man fighting over Queen Elizabeth and we must have watched it a million times. Him eating the turnbuckle was always just insane to me.

 

[Inimical]

my babysitter had an old WWF video that had Steele and Macho Man fighting over Queen Elizabeth and we must have watched it a million times. Him eating the turnbuckle was always just insane to me.

Love this, RIP GEORGE!

 

[Inimical]

my babysitter had an old WWF video that had Steele and Macho Man fighting over Queen Elizabeth and we must have watched it a million times. Him eating the turnbuckle was always just insane to me.

My brother used to work at a video store when i was a kid, he always brought back old VHS of WWF. Good memories.

 

[Inimical]

 

[Inimical]

 

[Inimical]

 

[Inimical]

 

[NorEEzta]

my babysitter had an old WWF video that had Steele and Macho Man fighting over Queen Elizabeth and we must have watched it a million times. Him eating the turnbuckle was always just insane to me.

Are you and your babysitter gonna watch it again this weekend? It's smores night isn't it?

 

[ill]

Are you and your babysitter gonna watch it again this weekend? It's smores night isn't it?

I don't even know if she is still alive, to be honest.

It was more of an after school daycare kind of thing, so she would just put it on and plop all the little boys down to watch. It might have been my first introduction to the WWF.

She also let us watch Goonies and The Blue Lagoon, but she would fast forward past the sex scene.

 

[RobToxin]

 

[Inimical]

George "The Animal" Steele passed away

 

[NorEEzta]

I don't even know if she is still alive, to be honest.

It was more of an after school daycare kind of thing, so she would just put it on and plop all the little boys down to watch. It might have been my first introduction to the WWF.

She also let us watch Goonies and The Blue Lagoon, but she would fast forward past the sex scene.

The things we remember. Also, if you wanted to sneak a peek at Blue Lagoon on HBO it had to be at night when they played rated R movies, unlike today. Better not have the volume up too loud when HBO plays this:

 

[Inimical]