TMZ has reported the sad news that Thomas “Tiny” Lister Jr., known best to wrestling fans as Zeus and Z-Gangsta, has passed away aged 62. The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department performed a welfare check at his apartment in California after friends were worried, having not heard from him since Wednesday night. A cause of death won’t be known until an autopsy is carried out, but he apparently had trouble breathing several days earlier.
Despite being born blind in his right eye he would play for the New Orleans Breakers of the United States Football League but was cut after two exhibition games. He then pursued acting and received mainstream recognition after playing the bully Deebo in the Ice Cube movies Friday and Next Friday.
He would appear in more movies and television series than we could list, but wrestling fans will remember him fondly for playing Zeus in the 1989 Hulk Hogan movie No Holds Barred, released by New Line Cinema in 1989 and financed by WWF. This lead to a Zeus/Hogan feud that saw him partner with Randy Savage in a losing effort against Hogan and Brutus Beefcake in the main event of SummerSlam 89. He’d then be part of Ted DiBiase’s The Million Dollar Team facing The Hulkamaniacs at Survivor Series at the 1989 Survivor Series. His final WWE match took place at a WWF Wrestling Challenge taping. He’d again team with Savage losing to Hogan and Beefcake in a steel cage match, which was aired as part of a No Holds Barred: The Match/The Movie pay-per-view.
After his WWF run concluded, he’d compete for World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico and defeated Abdullah the Butcher by countout. His last involvement in wrestling came at the 1996 WCW pay-per-view Uncensored. He was one of the eight opponents of Hogan and Savage in the Doomsday Cage and competed under the name Z-Gangsta.
