John Kronus passed away

[Deleted]

Meltzer reporting that John Kronus, formerly one half of the Eliminators with Perry Saturn, passed away.

[KingPopper]

Sadly, I thought he was already dead.

[Flexy Lexy]

The other day I was thinking about an Eliminators reunion

[acressl]

I liked Kronus. I never got to see much of his work but he was just so odd. I couldn't help but like him.

[Chucklehead,baby!!!]

dammit. i swear july 18th is cursed

[shiranui]

Yet another one passes away prematurely. RIP Kronus.

...Just how many people are we going to lose this year? Hopefully no more.

[nisi]

RIP, can't find an age for him but I'm guessing he was pretty young.

[Mayonnaise]

From PWInsider

Former ECW World Tag Team champion George "John Kronus" Caiazo was found dead this afternoon in his New Hampshire home. I don't have further details at this time. I've heard Kronus underwent a knee operation (possibly a knee replacement, which I heard a few months back he was going to have) last week.

Within wrestling, Kronus' claim to fame was working as half of the Eliminators tag team with Perry Saturn. Of the two, Saturn was always considered the more serious, militant, all business type while Kronus was more laid back and goofy. The personality clash often translated into their promos with Saturn cutting deadly serious, gravely voiced promos, followed by Kronus acting goofy and laughing to close them out.

In the ring, one could easily pick up on Saturn calling spots and controlling matches when they teamed. Saturn was the wrestling machine with crisp precision and stiff kicks. Kronus would bleed heavily in brawls and, billed at 6' 3", nail major highspots that were more likely to be performed by Cruiserweights, including a trademark 450, a handspring elbow and a Space Flying Tiger Drop, among others big moves.

The two worked the New England independent scene and had a brief run in the USWA where they defeated Eddie Gilbert and Brian Christopher for a six week Tag Title reign. The duo toured for WAR in Japan in the summer of 1995 before debuting in the original Extreme Championship Wrestling in September 1995, managed by Jason Knight as heels with the idea of feuding against The Steiners, although the team left the territory shortly after the Eliminators debuted.

The Eliminators were promoted by ECW as the best tag team in the world by ECW, meshing brawling with a series of high impact double team maneuvers, including stereo splashes off the ropes, combinations of kicks and their finisher, The Total Elimination, with Saturn kicking an opponent low at the same time Kronus would nail them high with a kick.

The team, which held the ECW Tag Team championships on three occasions, had several notable feuds in ECW against The Pitbulls, The Gangstas and an excellent series against Rob Van Dam and Sabu that ran for months on ECW house shows. The run against Sabu and Van started in the Fall of 1996 and run into February 1997, highlighted by an amazing 30 minute draw at the 1996 November to Remember. That bout was likely the in-ring highlight of Kronus' career as he had gotten into the best physical condition of any point of his in-ring run. It was easily the best match of that year's flagship ECW event, which was a loaded show. The feud continued into early 1997, including several tables and ladders matches.

In the spring of 1997, ECW jumped to PPV and The Eliminators, who had turned babyface due to the fan reaction of their work, made two brief cameos on WWF's Monday Night Raw to help promote the debut show, Barely Legal. The team actually opened the first PPV up, defeating The Dudley Boyz for what would turn out to be their last ECW World Tag Team championship win. The bout was designed to be a highlight reel of major spots to showcase the Eliminators and give Joey Styles a chance to push them to the (theoretically) new viewing audience as the best tag team in the business. The two teams had started their feud the month before when the Buh Buh Ray and D-Von Dudley, who had just aligned after months of feuding with each other, shockingly captured the belts.

By August 1997, Perry Saturn had torn his ACL when slipping in the ring on weapons that were laying on the mat during a brawl in Trenton, New Jersey. He was expected to be out of the ring for an extended period of time. Saturn had surgery but instead signed a deal to jump to WCW as a singles star, leaving Kronus behind. The two never teamed again.

ECW later put Kronus and former foe New Jack together as a team, including a Tag Team title win over the Dudleys. The New Jack/Kronus team would be involved in the weapons and blood laden brawls of the ECW undercard. Kronus was then moved into a lower card enhancement position, including a loss to the debuting Sid Vicious at the Guilty as Charged 1999 PPV, before leaving the company.

Kronus popped up working for Rob Black's XPW promotion in California. While he was never in a major pushed position for that company, he worked more events for the group than any performer not based on the West Coast, working as something of an enforcer for Rob Black's Army. He also appeared for a number of shows promoted by John Zandig's Combat Zone Wrestling including bouts against Zandig, Wifebeater and Charlie & Russ Haas.

Kronus slowly faded away from the indy scene and wrestled sporadically at best in recent years, mostly in the New England area. He returned to the ring at the June 2005 Hardcore Homecoming event at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia, where he and New Jack defeated Ian and Axl Rotten in a bloodbath. The original plan was for he and Saturn to reprise the Eliminators team for the first time since 1997 but the day before the show, Saturn canceled out, claiming neck problems. He also worked the final Hardcore Homecoming event, November Reign in November 2005, losing to Balls Mahoney in what may have been the final match of his career.

On behalf of everyone associated with PWInsider.com, I'd like to express our deepest condolences to the family and friends of John Kronus.

[Deleted]

I remember the sheer awesome that was The Eliminators vs. Doctor Death Steve Williams / Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy. Just phenomenal stuff.

[Dynamite Kid]

One of my all-time favourite tag-team maneuvers.

And jobbing himself out to Sid was awesome.

Plus he could bleed like CRAZY.

[WHATAMANOOOVER]

RIP Kronus...I never saw much of the Eliminators but I remember Total Elimination being a kickass finisher.

[Brother Ike: Thread Killer]

R.I.P.

Does anyone think this will be brought up tomorow on the news shows talking about benoit?

[Seth Drakin of Monster Crap]

I think there is a huge need to do an investigation on this whole death curse for pro wrestling. Some people may talk about a Smackdown curse, but I think pro wrestling all together has a death curse that's very real.

[samachine]

Geeze, I saw him on Hardcore Homecoming, he was out of shape, but he didn't look that ill...

[Lenny: Smooth like Keith Stone]

RIP Kronus. I didn't see all that much of his work.... when I first started watching ECW, the Eliminators were basically done with and I think Saturn was WCW bound. But I did see enough of Kronus to say that he was one of the true ECW originals. When you think of great ECW tag teams, The Elininators will always be on the list.

[Nice Guy Cody]

RIP Kronus. :\

[WWHHHD]

For a man of that size and weight him doing the 450 splash was crazy!!! Lets not forget his work in the Gangstanators... (Oh wait they are mentioned in the ECW DVD) Kronus where did you go? Now you will be forever missed.

[Mongo & Pepe: Back in Black]

Wow. The Eliminators were my favorite tag team during that time period. I loved all of their double team maneuvers.

[Crappler El 0 M]

RIP. I'll never forget the Eliminators.

[joecro]

Nancy Grace is gonna have a field day with this on her show tommorow....RIP John.