The Heavenly Bodies were generally used as a heel tag team for early matches on cards, where they would often put over babyface tandems. It was the first time where a championship recognized by another organization was defended on the show.
At the 1993 Survivor Series in the Boston Garden, the Heavenly Bodies faced The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express for the SMW Tag Team Championship. While Del Ray was an agile and able wrestler, he had a slightly pudgy midsection that shook, or “jiggled” when he did a taunting dance.Īlongside Cornette, the Heavenly Bodies debuted in the World Wrestling Federation in the summer of 1993, and would challenge the Steiner Brothers for the World Tag Team Championship-they were defeated. During this time with he was branded with the “Gigolo” moniker. Cornette, and won the SMW Tag Team Championship on three occasions. The Heavenly Bodies were managed by James E. He joined Smoky Mountain Wrestling in 1993, where he replaced Stan Lane as one-half of the Heavenly Bodies with Tom Prichard after Lane retired from the squared circle to become a commentator for the World Wrestling Federation. He mostly competed as preliminary wrestler during the territorial days and later on in the independents, as well as in Japan for Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling. He was transported to Tampa General Hospital, where he died from injuries suffered in the accident.įerrier began his career in 1985 for Florida Championship Wrestling, where he adopted the name Jimmy Backlund. on Saturday night when he went over a grass shoulder “for unknown reasons” and crashed into a lamp post. According to Dave Meltzer, Ferrier was driving near the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa at about 6:10 p.m.