The following data is compiled from our full list of deceased wrestlers page.
Last updated: 1/1/2019
At some point I’ll make some graphics and charts to put on this page, until then, here’s the raw data:
Total number of deceased wrestlers in our database: 2070
Number of wrestlers who died by decade
• 2010s: 693
• 2000s: 459
• 1990s: 280
• 1980s: 192
• 1970s: 116
• 1960s: 103
• 1950s: 54
• 1940s: 34
• 1930s: 33
• 1920s: 5
• 1910s: 9
• 1900s: 3
• 1890s: 3
• 1880s: 2
Based on 1986 deceased wrestlers with confirmed death year in our database.
Wrestler average age of death
Overall: 61
By decade:
• 2010s: 64
• 2000s: 60
• 1990s: 63
• 1980s: 63
• 1970s: 57
• 1960s: 57
• 1950s: 53
Based on 1740 deceased wrestlers with confirmed ages in our database.
Wrestler deaths before age 50 and 60
Number of wrestlers who died before age 50: 483 (28% of our data set)
Number of wrestlers who died before age 60: 737 (42% of our data set)
Based on 1740 deceased wrestlers with confirmed ages in our database.
Most wrestler deaths in a year
107 (2014)
Most common wrestler death date
December 31st (12)
* Wrestler causes of death summarized
• Heart related (268) 27.8%
• Cancer (186) 19.29%
• Died in ring or after match (81) 8.4%
• Suicide (47) 4.88%
• Stroke (40) 4.15%
• Lung Related and Pneumonia (33) 3.42%
• Murdered (33) 3.42%
• Drug overdose (28) 2.9%
• Diabetes (19) 1.97%
• Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia (25) 2.59%
• Other Brain related (18) 1.87%
• Kidney related (16) 1.66%
• Liver related (15) 1.56%
• Sepsis (Blood poisoning, infection, clot) (7) 0.73%
• Complications from surgery (15) 1.56%
• Parkinson’s disease (5) 0.52%
• Automobile accident (59) 6.12%
• Motorcycle / ATV accidents (7) 0.73%
• Plane crash (6) 0.62%
• All other accidents (20) 2.07%
• Homicide (5) 0.52%
• Multiple sclerosis (3) 0.31%
• ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) (3) 0.31%
• Other (25) 2.59%
Based on the 964 deceased wrestlers in our database that have a known single cause of death. I did not calculate wrestlers who had multiple ailments without a single one of those being known as the primary cause of death.
* It’s important to note that many of these causes of death crossover, but I’ve kept them separated in the above data for the sake of simplicity. Some examples of this:
• Many of the deceased wrestlers who died in the ring, or after a match suffered heart attacks.
• “Complications from surgery” is often connected to another underlying health issue such as heart, brain, kidney, or lung related ailments.
• Drug overdoses and heart issues often crossover.
• Cancer often crosses over to other areas in the list, including “lung related” deaths.
• A stroke could also be categorized as “brain related”.
Again, the data above does not crossover these causes of death into multiple causes, and this should be taken into account when interpreting the data calculations.
• View wrestlers who died this year
• View our page with the most well known deceased wrestlers
• View wrestlers who died before age 50
• View comprehensive list of deceased wrestlers (text only)
• View list of deceased wrestling managers and personalities (text only)
