15. Chris Candido – Age 33
Wrestling is full of second chance success stories, but such was not the case with Chris Candido, a talented performer who found his second chance ruined by a cruel stroke of fate. New Jersey’s own Chris Candido found his career eclipsed by his sex symbol girlfriend Sunny, but after breaking up with her, Candido’s career began to take shape, with him getting a second chance in TNA. Sadly, Candido suffered a broken tibula, fibula, and dislocated ankle during a steel cage match on August 24, 2005 at TNA’s Lockdown pay-per-view. Candido collapsed just four days later from complications following surgery to repair the injuries. Candido was diagnosed with pneumonia and died that night. However, there was uncertainty about Candido’s cause of death with some arguing he died from pneumonia while other speculating he died from a blood clot. This likely resulted from Chris’ younger brother Jonny stating shortly after his death, “I find it only fitting you hear the truth from me about the death of my best friend, brother, and soulmate. Chris died tonight due to a blood clot brought on by complications with his surgery.” This was believed to be the case until Jonny clarified things in a later interview: “it wasn’t a blood clot that killed him. The autopsy said the cause of death was acute pneumonia. We did an autopsy and it turns out that someone, against doctor’s orders, had given him a sleep aid. They said “Here, you need to sleep. Take this.” So he took it and it slowed down his breathing, his lung filled with fluid and he died of acute pneumonia. It’s a fucked up story. It would take me forever to even start getting into it.”
