RIP Darren Drozdov

At the beginning of tonight’s SmackDown, there will be an In Memoriam graphic for Darren Drozdov, or Droz for short. Multiple outlets have reported his death at the age of 54.

Droz was first introduced during the Attitude Era as Puke, someone whose entire gimmick is that he can vomit on command. (Beyond the Mat showed the brainstorming session behind that idea.) Soon, he was moved to being part of the LOD as Hawk was becoming unreliable. It ended with Hawk attempting to jump off the TitanTron, and Droz either failing to stop him or pushing him or… well, WWF quickly pretended that never happened and Vince Russo has since apologized for ever doing it.

From there, he formed a misfit alliance with Prince Albert and Vic “Key” Grimes, but everything screeched to a halt at a SmackDown taping when he and D’Lo Brown were to have a singles match. While taking a powerbomb from D’Lo, something misfired and Droz suffered severe spinal damage. He would be a quadriplegic for the rest of his life. Droz held no ill will against D’Lo, who was seconds away from announcing his retirement over despondency.

We at the Blog of Doom extend our condolences to Darren Drozdov and his family.