Legendary Wrestler Lord James Blears Passes Away At Age 92

The Wrestling Observer is reporting that legendary professional wrestler Lord James Blears passed away this week at the age of 92. The official cause of Blears' death has not been made available as of this report; however, initial reports note that he had been living in a nursing home in Hawaii as of late.

Blears, who was born James Ranicar Blears before officially changing his name to "Lord James Blears," was perhaps most famous for his story of having purportedly been captured by the Japanese while serving in World War II. Throughout his career, Blears took on various roles, including President of the Pacific Wrestling Federation and multiple roles within the American Wrestling Association, including a snooty British wrestler, troubleshooting referee, and announcer/color commentator. During his time as PWF President, Blears would often be brought in to read special proclamations prior to Triple Crown matches taking place in Japan.

As previously mentioned, Blears was perhaps best known for his story of being captured by Japanese soldiers during World War II, which is a story that garnered a great deal of attention with the press later on in his life. As the story goes, Blears was working as a British radio officer on board the S.S. Tjisalak when it was hit by a torpedo and sunk. All of the survivors of the attack were then pulled on board the Japanese I-8 submarine, where passengers started getting beheaded one by one. Below is a quote from Blears regarding the encounter:

"Two Japanese officers were waiting for us, one with a sword and the other with a sledgehammer. When these guys came at us, I kicked with my foot and pulled my hand out (of the rope) right away and stopped the guy and dived off the submarine and dragged Peter (Bronger) with me."

Blears later said that he survived for three days in the wreckage before he was saved and fed canned peaches. He also said that every year after that, he commemorated that day by eating a can of peaches.

On behalf of everyone at WrestlingNewsSource.com, we would like to offer our condolences to the family and friends of Lord James Blears.