It is with great sadness that I report that Paul Perschmann has passed away on April 28, 2009 at the age of 56. Paul was better known to wrestling fans as Playboy Buddy Rose. The medical examiner pronounced him dead of natural causes and is unsure if it had anything to do with his diabetes.

Buddy Rose got his start in professional wrestling in 1973 after being trained by Verne Gagne and Billy Robinson and has been involved with professional wrestling for the better part of thirty years. He began in the Pacific Northwest when wrestling was still regional and his biggest feud there was against the “Rowdy One” Roddy Piper. Outside of wrestling for Don Owen in the Pacific Northwest, Buddy Rose wrestled mainly for the AWA and the WWF.

He wrestled In the WWF in the early 1980’s and challenged Bob Backlund for the WWF World Title and has also had some memorable bouts with Pedro Morales. In 1985, Playboy Buddy Rose wrestled under a mask and went by the name of the Executioner and wrestled in the very first WrestleMania match under this guise against Tito Santana. Rose lost this match. However, he would then wrestle in the AWA and would win the AWA Tag Team championship with his then partner, Doug Somers. They would then feud with and eventually drop the titles to the team of Shawn Michaels and Marty Janetty, the Midnight Rockers.

Buddy Rose was an accomplished wrestler and a true professional when it came to the ring. He was always a heel wrestler but was well respected by his peers. Later in his career, he gained a lot of weight and used it as comic relief in the ring. When the ring announcer told everyone his weight, Buddy Rose got mad, snatched the ring mike from the announcer and told everyone that his weight was much lower. He would also do one handed push ups in the ring as well as kip ups and would challenge the more muscular wrestlers into pose downs. He would even do a vignette while in the WWF where he would endorse a “fat removal” product called “Blow Away”. It was a powder that he put on his stomach and then would turn on a fan to “blow the fat away”.

In 2005, Buddy Rose wrestled in his last professional match along with Col. DeBeers and Cowboy Bob Orton against Jimmy Snuka, Jimmy Valiant and Roddy Piper at Wrestle Reunion in Tampa Florida. He then opened up a wrestling school in Portland, Oregon with his long time friend, Ed Wiskoski aka Col. DeBeers shortly after his retirement.