Brian Christopher Lawler Death

Brian Christopher Lawler Death – Suicide

“Too Sexy” Brian Christopher. photo: wwe.com

1972-2018 (Age 46)

Brian Christopher Lawler died on July 29, 2018. He was 46.

The news was first broken in a Dave Meltzer tweet.

Brian Christopher Lawler spent many years with the WWE, his most notable gimmick was working as “Grandmaster Sexay” in the stable “Too Cool” (alongside Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi). The group was hugely over during the height of the Attitude era in 1999.

On July 7, 2018, Brian Lawler was arrested after police spotted his vehicle speeding and swerving. When police attempted to pull him over, Lawler refused to stop. When he finally did come to a stop, police said Lawler reeked of booze and had an open container of alcohol in the vehicle. He was arrested and booked into a Memphis-area jail, his bond was set at $40,000.

On July 28, 2018, Brian Christopher Lawler tried to hang himself in his jail cell. He was rushed to the hospital and put on life support, where he would not recover.

Sadly, Lawler had his demons, as was documented with various arrests over the last decade.

Just last month TMZ reported that Brian Christopher Lawler was arrested after skipping out on a hotel bill.

Early in his career: Brian Christopher in the USWA with tag partner, Jeff Jarrett. photo: kentuckyfriedwrestling.com

Early Wrestling Career

It has to be difficult following in the footsteps of a legend. Especially when you choose the same profession. And especially when said legend is still active in that profession.

That was the position that Brian Christopher Lawler found himself in when trying to break into the wrestling industry in the late 80’s. As we now know, Brian Christopher (as he went by for the majority of his career) was able to find success of his own, but that outcome was far from a certainty.

Lawler would get his start in USWA. He debuted wearing a mask under the name Nebula – one half of a tag team called “The Twilight Zone.”

Christopher would unmask within a few months, at which point he created the moniker “Too Sexy” Brian Christopher.

He would wrestle in this organization from 1988-1997 where he won their Heavyweight Championship an astounding 24 times and the World Tag Team Titles on 6 different occasions – once with Scott Anthony (Raven) and twice with Jeff Jarrett, among others.

Brian Christopher hits WWE’s Light Heavyweight Division

Upon paying his dues, Christopher was signed with the big leagues, WWE, where he was initially brought in to compete in their embryonic lightweight division, as in attempt to compete with WCW’s cruiserweights. Christopher would lose in the finals of the lightweight heavyweight championship tournament, a belt that would first go to Taka Michinoku.

The WWE’s light heavyweight division never fully developed and became an afterthought within two years.

Too Much to Too Cool

Christopher would later team with Scott Taylor to create the tandem, “Too Much.” While wrestling under this name, the team was never given much material to work with and it looked inevitable that the pairing would soon dissolve or just simply disappear from storylines.

Then something remarkable happened in 1999, when Christopher and Taylor would re-debut, this time under the moniker, “Too Cool” – complete with a dancing gimmick. Scotty was nicknamed “Scotty 2 Hotty” with Christopher given the name “Grandmaster Sexay”. If you just read that outloud and asked yourself how the hell this got over, the answer is that you needed to be there.

Brian Christopher: one third of “Too Cool”. The trio were hugely over in the late 90s. photo: wwe.com

Anyone that has watched wrestling for any length of time knows that dancing gimmicks have been prevalent for years, but rarely, if ever do they turn into anything worthwhile, let alone flourish. But, flourish Too Cool did.

The duo were paired with Rikishi, and the three would go on to become one of the most popular acts on the roster.

Although Rikishi was the star of the group, Christopher and Taylor would prosper as well. They successfully won the Tag Titles, and were television and PPV regulars, who would move between the mid-card for nearly two years. The trio would be broken up near the end of 2000, when the front office decided to push Rikishi as a main event heel.

Without Rikishi by their side, WWE seemed to have no plans for Too Cool. Soon after the split, Taylor would break his ankle, leaving Christopher with even less to do. He was eventually released in 2001 when he was caught illegally conveying drugs across the United States-Canada border.

TNA and indies, return to WWE

Christopher wrestled in independent promotions upon his WWE release, and also moved to TNA for a few years where he feuded with Dusty Rhodes. Several times throughout the years on the independent circuit he would reunite with either Scotty 2 Hotty or Rikishi.

Christopher did finally make a return to WWE in 2011, though it seemed the young PG audience barely recognized him upon his first Raw appearance in years.

“Too Sexy” also appeared on the Old School edition of Raw in 2014 alongside former Too Cool members Taylor and Rikishi – they would defeat 3MB.