Wrestling is family, and the OVW family suffered not one but two losses this past weekend.
It’s tough enough to lose one, but within a few hours, former OVW stars were mourning the passing of both “Dirty Money” Jermaine Robinson and “Vivacious” Charles Wimberly.
Slam Wrestling had a memorial posted for Robinson within a few hours. You can read that story here.
Charles was a homegrown Louisville talent. He was one of the many dozens of wrestlers who walked into Danny Davis’s building day one and was blessed to rub shoulders with the Superstars of the future during the WWE Developmental era.
I only met Charles once, and let me tell you, Vivacious is a perfect adjective. He was funny, charismatic, and sweet. He and his close friend John Rodman stopped by Half Price Books during a book signing I hosted with Dean Hill. While flipping through a copy of Bluegrass Brawlers, Charles stopped to tell me his grandmother was THE biggest Stu Gibson mark in the world. She loved watching him on TV and saw him wrestle in Louisville many times.
Charles loved wrestling, and he suffered as every other OVW student did back in the day to make his wrestling dream come true. He started at the Quadrangle in Jeffersonville, then a run down, un-air conditioned wreck of a place where Danny and Rip Rogers put students through hell. He talked about the Tree of Woe, a tree just outside the building where students would grab onto a lib and puke their guts out into the grass.
Even these stories, Charles told with a smile. No regrets: he lived the life. He worked and trained with some of the biggest stars in recent memory. He is OVW family, and that family felt the loss.
John Rodman was once a student and worker at OVW as well, and he counted Charles as one of his closest friends. “I knew Charles for almost 30 years, since his baby daughter was 3 days old. Loved his family and his friends he made family. He always wanted the best for everyone no matter what. He thought of himself as big brother not only to me but others. I am going to miss him talking to me daily. Hanging out with him. He had only wish: for simple things that were still beautiful. Walking his daughter down the aisle. Telling his grandkids stories about Star Wars and Transformers. Play chess in the park with me as old people while we acted like the 2 old guys from the Muppet Show making fun of people. I don’t want to be cliché but this applies. The world has been a better person with him and the lives he has touched.”
“Charles was there when I first started OVW as the Kentucky Kid,” says Snake Williams, Jr. “I was actually involved in a match with him on my very first amateur show. He was a very kind guy, very happy spirited. I also worked with him at the county jail in Indiana. He will truly be missed by everyone who knew him.”
“In a business where we meet or work with so many different people, I always recognized Charles when I saw him,” adds Jedediah Blackhawk. “It may have been years between seeing each other, but it was always a pull in to a brotherly embrace after the handshake. There are a lot of good people who are and have done our thing. Charles was one of those good people.”
Vito Andretti described Charles as a young man full of hope. “If he ever got picked, he’d do whatever he could. But Charles didn’t get picked that much. Always got left out. But when all of the other kids in the class were beat down and stuff, Charles was like, ‘No, no, no, this is where we get better.’ He would go to those kids and work with them and fine-tune things because that’s what professional wrestling takes. Charles should have had a shot before. He should have been the number one pick to do whatever on a show.”
And as for Nick “U-Gene” Dinsmore. He managed to find a match to post in his fallen brother’s honor.
Pro Wrestling is family, and this week, OVW is in mourning. Our thoughts are the loved ones Vivacious Charles and Jermaine Robinson left behind. May they find peace in their sorrow and joy sharing the memories of two men gone far too soon.
Visitation for Charles Wimberly will take place on Wednesday, June 12 from 11 am to 1 pm at South Side Church in Louisville. Service will be Thursday, June 13, at noon.