USWA Alumnus ‘The Snowman’ Eddie Crawford Passes Away

Eddie Crawford, known as “The Snowman” in the Memphis and Mid-South territory, has passed away. PWInsider reports that the wrestling veteran passed away today after he reportedly suffered a heart attack days ago.

Crawford was trained by Koko B. Ware and Jerry lawler and debuted in Memphis in 1984. He competed as the Snowman and Dr. Detroit there before he moved to Mid-South Wrestling in 1985. He received a quick push there, as he came in following the Junkyard Dog’s leap to the WWF, and won the TV Championship in short order. He feuded with the likes of Dutch Mantel, Tom Prichard and Eddie Gilbert. However, despite the heavy push Crawford did not connect with the audience, much like everyone Bill Watts tried to bring in to replace Junkyard Dog. Crawford dropped the title to Mantel and was gone from the territory in four months.

Crawford began to do interviews accusing Memphis promoters Jerry Lawler and Jerry Jarrett of being racist in their treatment of him and was brought back as the masked babyface known as the Killer. He would exit in 1986 and return in 1987 for a run as The Snowman, before he finally got his biggest push when he returned to Memphis (changed to the USWA at that point) in 1990.

Crawford would go on to win the UWSA Unified Title in June of that year in a famously controversial “worked shoot” angle in which he confronted Lawler and security tried to have him removed. He then said he was buying a ticket for the next show and Lawler pretended to be flustered as he tried to deliver his planned promo to sell it as a shoot. Crawford then showed up and got in a heated argument with matchmaker Eddie Marlin, eventually saying that the company was racist. King Cobra, Lawler’s longtime rival, came out and denied that he had ever dealt with racism in the company, though he had dealt with racist people in Tennessee. Cobra got booed and he fired back at the crowd, with Crawford saying Cobra was only in the company because management knew he wasn’t good enough to be the champion.

Lawler then came out and challenged Snowman to a match the next Monday in Memphis, which Crawford won to capture the title. He would go on to feud with several people, but after a while he walked out of the promotion with the title belt because he claimed he was unhappy with his pay not being what he was promised as well as the fact that he was relegated to the midcard despite being champion. Eddie Marlin would go on to publicly claim that Snowman was being stripped of the title for no-showing half a dozen shows and even claimed later on TV that Crawford tried to pawn the USWA Unified Title belt for drugs. The title would not be used again, and USWA began using a modified version of Lawler’s AWA Unified World Heavyweight belt in its place.

The site notes that Crawford worked as a police officer in Collierville, Tennessee and taught bible studies as well. On behalf of 411, our condolences to the family, friends and fans of Mr. Crawford.