Ray Canty (December 3, 1951 – May 23, 1994), better known by the ring name Ray Candy, was an American

professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

who worked for a variety of different wrestling promotions in the United States, Japan and Puerto Rico such as Jim Crockett Promotions,

All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established on October 21, 1972 when Giant Baba split away from the Japanese Wrestling Association and created his own promotion. Many wrestlers had left with Bab ...

, World Wrestling Council and others. He also competed as Blackstud Williams, Super Mario Man, Commando Ray, Masked Superfly and Kareem Muhammad. As Kareem Muhammad he formed a tag team with Elijah Akeem as the

tag team Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. Tag teams may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of establish ...

"The Zambuie Express". He also spent time as part of Skandor Akbar's Devastation Inc. group as well as a team known as "The Shock Troops" with Ed Gantner and "The Commandos" with Commando Boone. Canty was responsible for training New Jack for his professional wrestling career.

Professional wrestling career

Ray Canty was trained for his professional wrestling career by former

NWA World Heavyweight Championship The NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship is a world heavyweight professional wrestling championship owned and promoted by the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), an American professional wrestling promotion. The current champion is Tyrus, who is ...

holder Dory Funk Jr. before making his in-ring debut in 1973. Starting out he adopted the ring name "Ray Candy", a modified version of his birth name. To start with Candy worked for the local All-South Wrestling Alliance (ASWA) based out of

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...

. In the ASWA he won the ASWA United States Championship early in his career. He later worked for

Dory Funk Sr. Dorrance Wilhelm Funk (May 4, 1919 – June 3, 1973) was an American professional wrestler. He is the father of wrestlers Dory Funk Jr. and Terry Funk, and was a promoter of the Amarillo, Texas-based Western States Sports promotion. Early li ...

National Wrestling Alliance The National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) is an American professional wrestling promotion and former professional wrestling governing body operated by its parent company Lightning One, Inc. Founded in 1948, the NWA began as a governing body for a ...

Western States Sports (WWS) promotion. In WWS he won both the NWA Western States Heavyweight Championship and the NWA Western States Tag Team Championship, teaming with his mentor Dory Funk Jr. By 1976 he was a regular worker for Championship Wrestling from Florida (CWF), but also worked for the nearby NWA Mid-America promotion where he held the NWA Mid-America Tag Team Championship twice while teaming with Pez Whatley. In 1979 Candy was invited to work for

(AJPW), touring Japan several times. On October 12, 1979 Candy and

Abdullah the Butcher Lawrence Robert Shreve (born January 11, 1941), better known by the ring name Abdullah the Butcher, is a Canadian retired professional wrestler. He has a reputation for being involved in some of the most violent and bloody hardcore wrestling mat ...

won the NWA International Tag Team Championship, defeating

Giant Baba , best known by his ring name , was a Japanese professional wrestler, promoter, and professional baseball player. He is best known as a co-founder of All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), a promotion he founded in 1972 along with Mitsuo Momota ...

and Jumbo Tsuruta. The duo only held the championship for a week before Baba and Tsuruta regained them. Candy competed in the 1980 Champion Carnival, where he defeated Motoshi Okumura, Carl Fergie, the Mysterious Assassin and Rocky Hata to earn a total of eight points, enough for eight place.

Zambuie Express/Muslim Connection

In 1983 the Florida bookers came up with the idea to team up Candy with the , , Leroy Brown. Candy took the Muslim name "Kareem Muhammad" while Brown was billed as "Elijah Akeem". Together they formed "the Zambuie Express", which was at times billed as "The Muslim Connection" in some promotions. The duo began to wear camouflage pants and shirts to the ring, adopting militaristic Muslim in ring characters, based to some extent on the

Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Cali ...

. The two toured mainly in the southern parts of the United States where their racially charged characters made them very hated. The team was often managed by

Sir Oliver Humperdink John Jay Sutton (January 16, 1949 – March 20, 2011), better known by his ring name Oliver Humperdink, was an American professional wrestling manager and occasional professional wrestler who worked for Jim Crockett Promotions, Florida Championshi ...

and was part of the "House of Humperdink". In Florida the duo defeated Mike Graham and Scott McGhee to win the NWA Florida Global Tag Team Championship on July 31, 1983. The duo held the championship until September of that year, when it was replaced by the Florida version of the

NWA United States Tag Team Championship The NWA United States Tag Team Championship is a name used for several secondary tag team championship used by various National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) members since 1958. There are eleven different versions of the NWA United States Tag Team Champ ...

. The Zambuie Express were declared the United States Champions, with the storyline being that they won a tournament. Two months later the Zambuie Express lost the championship to the team of Dusty Rhodes and Blackjack Mulligan on November 5, 1983 From Florida the team traveled to Memphis to compete for the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) where they were immediately pitted against the top face team of the territory The Fabulous Ones ( Stan Lane and Steve Keirn). On January 24, 1984, the Zambuie Express were awarded the AWA Southern Tag Team Championship when the Fabulous Ones failed to show up for a match, but the titles were declared vacant instead of giving them to Akeem and Muhammad. The CWA held a tournament for the vacant championship, a tournament won by the Zambuie Express as they defeated the Pretty Young Things ( Koko B. Ware and Norvell Austin) in the final match. The Pretty Young Things won the championship only a week later, defeating the Zambuie Express on CWA's weekly show at the Mid-South Coliseum. Eight days later the Zambuie Express regained the championship. The duo held on to the belts until March 12, 1984 when they lost to Jerry Lawler and Jos LeDuc. The team toured with New Japan Pro-Wrestling in the spring of 1984 and then ended up working for Jim Crockett Promotions based in the Carolinas by the summer of 1984. The team sided with Paul Jones and became part of Paul Jones' Army as they fought against Jimmy Valiant and Valiant's friends. The Express competed on the 1984 version of Starrcade, where they lost to the team of Buzz Tyler and The Masked Assassin #1. The loss to Tyler and the Assassin was one of the last matches the Zambuie Express worked together, splitting up a short time later. He later formed a duo with Ed Gantner, known as the Shock Troops, working for the CWF. On November 25, 1986 Canty, while still working as Kareem Muhammad, defeated Barry Windham to win the NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship, holding it until December 2 where he lost it to Ron Simmons. He later teamed up with Hacksaw Higgins to win the NWA United States Tag Team Championship, although the duo only held it for a day. In late 1986 Candy worked a tour with

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Nakano, Tokyo. Founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, the promotion was sold to Yuke's, who later sold it to Bushiroad in 2012. TV Asahi and Amuse, Inc. own minority share ...

under the ring name "Super Mario Man", a moniker that seemed more appropriate for an Italian plumber than a , African American wrestler. In 1987 he travelled to

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

, working for the World Wrestling Council (WWC) where he won the WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship on June 6from Mighty Igor, holding it for about six months before losing it to

Miguel Perez, Jr. --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to: Places *Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands *São Miguel (disambi ...

In 1988 he took the ring name "Commando Ray", teaming with "Commando Boone" (AKA Grizzly Boone) to for a team known as "The Commandos. Candy's last major match was at the 1988 Starrcade, where he was a part of a Bunkhouse Battle royal, a match that was only seen by the audience in the Norfolk Scope.

Personal life

After his retirement from professional wrestling in 1990, Canty returned to Decatur to work as a dispatcher and supervisor for a local transport firm. He was also responsible for training

Glenn Jacobs Glenn Thomas Jacobs (born April 26, 1967), better known by the ring name Kane is an American politician and professional wrestler. Jacobs has been signed to WWE since 1995 and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021. He has also bee ...

(Kane in WWE) and New Jack. On May 23, 1994, he died at his home in Decatur, after suffering a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which m ...

Championships and accomplishments

** NWA International Tag Team Championship ( 1 time) – with

*All-South Wrestling Alliance **ASWA Georgia Championship (1 time) **ASWA United States Championship (1 time) * Championship Wrestling from Florida ** NWA Florida Global Tag Team Championship ( 1 time) – with Elijah Akeem ** NWA Florida Heavyweight Championship ( 1 time) ** NWA United States Tag Team Championship ''(Florida version)'' (

2 times "2 Times" is a song co-written and recorded by British Italian-based singer Ann Lee. It was released in 1999 as the lead single from her debut album, ''Dreams'' (1999). The single entered and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Outsid ...

) – with Elijah Akeem (1) and Hacksaw Higgins (1) * Georgia Championship Wrestling **

NWA Georgia Television Championship The NWA National Television Championship was a secondary singles championship in the National Wrestling Alliance's Georgia Championship Wrestling territory. It started as the NWA Georgia Television Championship before becoming the National Televi ...

(

) * NWA Mid-America / Continental Wrestling Association ** AWA Southern Tag Team Championship ( 3 times) – with Elijah Akeem ** NWA Mid-America Tag Team Championship (

) – with Pez Whatley * NWA Tri-State ** NWA Arkansas Heavyweight Championship ( 1 time) ** NWA North American Heavyweight Championship ''(Tri-State version)'' ( 1 time) ** NWA United States Tag Team Championship ''(Tri-State version)'' (

) – with Steven Little Bear *Oregon Wrestling Federation **OWF Championship (1 time) *''

Pro Wrestling Illustrated ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publi ...

'' **PWI ranked him # 334 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in 1991 * Southeastern Championship Wrestling ** NWA Alabama Heavyweight Championship ( 1 time) ** NWA Southeastern Heavyweight Championship ''(Northern Division)'' ( 1 time) * Western States Sports ** NWA Western States Heavyweight Championship ( 1 time) ** NWA Western States Tag Team Championship ( 1 time) – with Dory Funk Jr. * NWA Tri-State ** NWA Louisiana Tag Team Championship (1 time) with Steven Little Bear * World Wrestling Council ** WWC Puerto Rico Heavyweight Championship ( 1 time)

References

External links