News has broken that former paratrooper and pro wrestler Michael Penzel has passed away aged 64 after suffering a heart attack. However, unlike in 2006, when WWE incorrectly reported Penzel had passed away, this has been verified by an official obituary. He is survived by his wife Tina, children Haden, Kyle, Justin, Krystal, and eight grandchildren. The belief is that after retiring from wrestling full-time in 1999 at the age of 42, he was working as a truck driver, although he did wrestle a few further matches up until 2009.
Wrestling fans will best remember Penzel for his time in WWE wrestling as Corporal Kirchner, where he would come in to replace Sgt. Slaughter following a contract dispute. He would go on to wrestle Nikolai Volkoff at WrestleMania 2 before departing the company after failing a drugs test and deciding not to return due to being disgruntled with the schedule. Then after working in Calgary and Portland, he would go to Japan for the first of more than 60 tours.
In Japan, he became a cult icon in W*ING and FMW as Leatherface and Super Leather, a ripoff of the lead character from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise. However, his time in Japan wasn’t without incident, as he would punch a fan so hard that the fan’s face was described as “destroyed,” and he’d serve six months in prison, which resulted in his gimmick being given to someone else.
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