Former WWF Wrestler Jack Armstrong Dies At 79

Jack Armstrong, the journeyman wrestler known for decades on the ring as “Wild Man” Jack Armstrong, has died at the age of 79 after a lengthy battle with ill health.

Armstrong began wrestling in 1963 and worked for more than thirty years across North America and Japan, with stints in the WWF, AWA and UWF among the territories that hosted him. Over the course of his career he wrestled under a string of different names and gimmicks, including Lenny Solomon, Super Scorpion, Black Jack and Sailor Jack — a common practice for working wrestlers of that era who crisscrossed promotions and needed fresh identities for different territories. He also branched into acting, picking up film credits during the 1980s.

News of his passing came from his close friend, former professional bodybuilder Laura Creavalle, who shared the update in an emotional post on Facebook. Creavalle had traveled to Los Angeles to be at his side in his final days after learning that Armstrong, who had undergone a leg amputation and was undergoing dialysis, was in declining health. She wrote that despite everything he was going through, he never lost his sense of humor.

In her tribute, Creavalle also revealed a personal connection that ties Armstrong to one of wrestling’s most famous families: she said his closest friend on the road was Rocky Johnson, the father of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and that the two shared hotel rooms together during their touring days. Because of that bond, she noted, Armstrong had known The Rock since he was an infant — a small but striking detail that underlines just how far back Armstrong’s roots in the business went, predating the current WWE landscape by decades.

Creavalle’s message went beyond wrestling nostalgia, though. She credited Armstrong with helping her during a difficult stretch of her own life, recalling that he bought her first posing suit and let her live with him for years when she was a broke, homeless beginner trying to break into bodybuilding. It’s the kind of story that rarely makes wrestling history books — not a feud, not a title reign, but a reminder of the behind-the-scenes relationships that sustained performers through hard times in an unforgiving business.

Armstrong’s career predates the cable-television boom that turned the WWF into a national phenomenon, placing him among a generation of wrestlers who worked the old territory system, bouncing between promotions and traveling constantly to make a living. Names like his rarely show up in modern retrospectives, but his decades of work — and his personal ties to families like the Johnsons — are part of the connective tissue that built the industry we have today.

Everyone at PW Exclusive sends condolences to Jack Armstrong’s family, friends and the wrestling community mourning his loss.