R.I.P. JC BAILEY - Funeral Information

[anfguy]

For those who haven't heard yet, JC Bailey passed away this morning. I don't know what the cause of death was or any other details.

[Insanity Pro Wrestling]

IPW regrets to inform you that this morning, we recieved word that JC Bailey had passed away. JC was a pioneer of IPW and someone who will be truly missed. As soon as additional information is known, we will pass it along. Our thoughts and prayers go out to JC's family and friends. We lost one of our own today. It is truly a sad day.

Mike Williams
IPW

[srs1fan]

R.I.P J.C. Bailey we will miss you.

[wrestlingfan22]

JC Bailey was one of my all time favorite wrestlers - I can't believe he is gone - I'm praying for his family, friends, and fans - Rest in Peace JC - I'll always have you in my heart

[D2: straightXedgeXsavior]

Why the hell won't this month end?! RIP JC Bailey

[ipwgreg]

I am not going to go into any details about the loss of a friend. I am also not going to get on here and pretend that J.C. and I were the best of friends. I was more likely to spend time talking to J.C.’s dad Joe than be in the back talking with him, the age difference was just too much for us to be buddies. I did however care for his well being and will spend time in prayer tonight thanking the good lord for letting me share a bit of his time here. I will share a J.C. Bailey story or two.

Rumor has it that J.C. may have been involved in the desecration of The Bouncers Ring Truck and his boots as well. To be completely J.C. loved a good rib, and at that point the Bouncer was getting on all the young guys nerves. I remember a night, I think it was Mike who had the video camera going, and Bouncer was bent over his ring working on something, and had quite the plumbers crack going, J.C. got down as close as he could and without doing it looked like he was licking the bouncers crack, just for the camera… to make the boys laugh.

I think it was new years eve 2002, maybe 2001… Most people don’t know that before wrestling I was into the punk rock scene. My band Splinky never played much, but we developed a good friendship with the drummer from Sloppy Seconds. They had a big new years eve show coming up, and Steve Sloppy had the idea that I should promote a wrestling match on the show. Now, there was no room for a ring, but I knew just the guys to do it. I contacted J.C. , Drake, OMG , and Scotty . They were going to do a NO RING Hardcore match at the Emerson… and we went on right before the main act of Sloppy Seconds. These guys tore it up in front of 700 fans at a packed house at the Emerson, which should never hold more than 400 people I say. Now to call the emerson a dump would be insulting dumps all across America. On a hard wooden stage, these guys went crazy, blasting each other with light tubes and slamming on thumbtacs, and I swear Drake took a dive off of the speakers to the stage, or maybe it was to the floor. The punk fans loved it. They made more noise than I had ever heard, and chanted ECW ( ECW had been closed a couple years already, and we were IPW …. Dumbasses.) Then came the finish. I helped J.C. set up a table on the floor, and he grabbed OMG, Piledriving him from the stage through the table to the floor!!! This was OMG’s first hardcore match. There wasn’t much $$ for this match, and I can say the boys did it as a favor to me. Even though he wasn’t born in Indy, I can say this. J.C. was just as much a brother as any of the NapTown Dragons were to each other. He had a heart like no other and I know he cared deeply for his mother whose health has not been good these past couple years.

J.C. you will be missed.

[hollywilliams]

Oh JC , I don't even know where to start. I feel like I've been kicked in the stomach. He was such a charming boy. I remember he was always so polite and made me miss living in the south and that whole southern hospitality thing I miss so badly. We were not best friends or anything, but he always made it a point to talk to me every time he saw me. In recent months he would come and grace us with his presence while we did concessions. He would tell me stories and talk about what he wanted in his life. I'm just sorry that he didn't get to achieve those things because when he told me about them, I wanted them for him. And that boy loved his momma and that is a very telling thing about a man. You can pretty much judge a man by the way he treats his momma, and he was no exception. At the last IPW show he hugged me and humbly told me he appreciated me and that I was more beautiful than I would ever know. And that's just the way he was... he looked and acted so tough, but deep down he wasn't.
I'll never forget him in Martinsville eating sardines in mustard so that he would be farting in the ring lol. What a loss... I'm the same age he was and its hard to wrap my head around it all. I will really truly miss him!


Holly Williams

[oldschool]

Joseph Carl Bailey, Jr., known professionally as J.C. Bailey, was found dead early this morning by his father. A cause of death is unknown. He was 26 years old.

As the son of Bad 2 the Bone Wrestling (BBW) promoter Joe Bailey, J.C. spent most of his life around the wrestling business. Too young to legally wrestle or train in the state of Kentucky, he'd hold backyard wrestling matches with friends and would help out his father at shows before eventually being allowed to train in Evansville, Indiana under Tracy Smothers at the age of 16. Unlike Kentucky, Indiana didn't have an athletic commission requiring promoters, wrestlers, and even managers to get a license. As Bailey went through training he'd would begin refereeing for local organizations, including Ian Rotten's Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South, before eventually making his debut as a professional wrestler in 2001.

His first year of wrestling took place mostly in Eric Acker's Coliseum Championship Wrestling (CCW) in Evansville, Indiana. CCW ran weekly events at the Soldier & Sailor's Memorial Coliseum on Wednesday evenings, which appealed to area wrestlers because it was an extra show every week that they could do in addition to their regular weekend bookings. The weekly shows for Bailey, especially at such an early stage of his career, helped him improve at a rapid pace compared to his local contemporaries that didn't have the benefit of working as often. After turning 18 he'd begin working on his father's BBW shows in Kentucky. BBW at the time was one of the most active independent groups in the country, running sometimes as many as 6 shows a month, making it another group that appealed to wrestlers in the area that were looking for as many bookings as they could get.

Both CCW and BBW were particularly appealing to wrestlers that worked for Ian Rotten's IWA group. The IWA was running weekly out of Clarksville, IN by this point, so working for IWA and CCW alone gave workers at least 8 steady dates a month, plus BBW dates and whatever other bookings they could get in or out of the area. While Bailey had worked for the IWA as a referee and had attended IWA events with his father, who'd help out and even promoted a couple of IWA shows in the late 90s, it was the connections he made through working other shows with IWA talent that helped get him in the door.

Bailey would make his IWA debut against Corporal Robinson on January 4, 2003, in Clarksville, IN. His IWA work would be a stark departure from his high flyer roots, as right off the bat he got thrown into the IWA's vibrant death match scene. He brought a uniqueness to the scene, as he was a small high flyer that did death matches, as opposed to the larger and less athletic wrestlers that fans were used to seeing in those roles. Almost overnight he became one of the IWA's top guys and Ian Rotten, seeing Bailey's potential, took him under his wing. Rotten would tell anyone that would listen that Bailey was the future of death match wrestling and would actively try and persuade promoters to use him. In addition, Smart Mark Video (SMV) owner Mike Burns had become one of Bailey's biggest supporters, something that would help him later in his career.

His innovative style and ability to take ridiculous amounts of punishment endeared Bailey to death match fans who followed him live or on video. With the help of the IWA's distribution deal with SMV, his reputation began to spread outside of his home area of Kentucky and Indiana. He appealed to Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) fans in particular and pretty soon his name would come up whenever fans talked about workers that CZW should begin using. They didn't have to wait long, as Bailey would begin appearing for CZW in the summer of 2003 as a part of an IWA invasion angle.

The IWA invasion angle came about when CZW sold a series of shows to a bar in Dover, DE. While CZW was prohibited from having death matches in their home state of Pennsylvania, Delaware was a different story. To help draw and sell videos, plans were made to have an IWA invasion that would play out over the course of these summer events. By this time CZW was at the forefront of the change in death match wrestling, emphasizing action as opposed to just gore. There was far more diversity in CZW's death match ranks than IWA's and Bailey fit in perfectly. He'd appear several times during the course of the angle, both in death matches and in junior heavyweight competition. Though his initial stint with the company was short, the impression he made on the fans was overwhelmingly positive and fans clamored for his return.

Bailey would return to CZW the next summer as a participant in the 2004 edition of CZW's Tournament of Death, making it to the semi finals of the tournament. Around this time Mike Burns had become heavily involved in CZW's booking, which lead to Bailey getting a full time spot with the company. Bailey would be paired with Chris Cash, Sexxxy Eddy, and Nate Webb in a feud with BLKOUT, a CZW stable that included Ruckus, Sabian, Joker, and Eddie Kingston. The feud would culminate in the Cage of Death that December, where his team were victorious in winning the match and the CZW Tag Team Championship, which would be defended under the terms that any two members of the foursome could defend the belts.

It was during his second run with CZW that Bailey's role in the IWA began to diminish. Rotten was finding it increasingly hard to find buildings that would allow death matches, as he'd ended up getting kicked out of most of the ones that would allow them. As a result he began using fewer death match guys, with Bailey being among those who found themselves with fewer IWA bookings. While Bailey was a capable junior heavyweight wrestler, he'd become associated with death match and hardcore wrestling to the point where a lot of his fans weren't interested in seeing him do anything else, or at least that was the opinion of many promoters. While he'd spent the majority of the previous couple of years finding a balance between doing death matches and being a junior heavyweight, from 2004 on he mostly did just death matches.

His role as a regular with CZW would also come to an end after Mike Burns quit the booking committee. With the exception of the yearly big death match tournaments, Bailey again went back to doing most of his wrestling locally in Kentucky and Indiana.

It was also around this time that Bailey's personal problems with drugs began to cause him both legal and professional trouble. Bailey was arrested in September of 2006 and charged with possession in the first degree for cocaine, attempted burglary in the second degree, possession of drug paraphernalia in the first degree, and criminal mischief in the third degree. He'd spend a year in prison before being paroled and released on August 31, 2007. He'd make his return to wrestling the next day, appearing on an Insanity Pro Wrestling event in Indianapolis, IN. He'd also return to both the IWA and CZW a few weeks later, however his freedom would soon come to an end.

Supporters hold vigil. (2007)
Bailey and another man were arrested in late October after attempting to steal a 27-inch Samsung Slim Fit TV from a Wal-Mart in Bardstown, KY. The arrest received notable media attention locally after an activist group, who after hearing about injuries Bailey sustained during his arrest, held a vigil and lodged a formal complaint to the town of Bardstown on his behalf. Photographs, including his mug shot, were released to the public showing a bloody Bailey prior to his receiving medical treatment at a local hospital for his injuries. It was never reported whether or not anything ever came of the complaint filed. Though only charged with a misdemeanor, his arrest caused his parole to be revoked. He would spend the next two years in jail until he was released once again in December 2009 on parole.

After his release Bailey would return to CZW, which was once again being booked by Mike Burns. The coming year would prove to be one of his most successful, as he would go on to win the 2010 edition of the IWA King of the Death Matches, the Ohio Hatchet Wrestling Death in the Valley death match tournament, and was a finalist at this year's CZW Tournament of Death, where he had arguably one of his career's best performances.

Despite his problems, Bailey was one of the most well liked wrestlers on the independents. As someone who'd been involved in the wrestling business from such a young age, he was highly respected by his peers despite his young age. While saying someone loved the wrestling business has become a cliche, in the case of J.C. Bailey it was the truth. He was someone who loved it even when it didn't love him back, because it'd been all that he ever dreamed about. His unrequited love for the business made it a better place for a lot of people and helped inspire other people's passion for it. That alone should be enough for any fan to thank him and mourn his passing.

[tealpoint5]

I only saw JC Bailey in action, unfortunately twice three years ago. But what I saw when he first came through that curtain was definitely one of the most gifted, talented wrestlers to ever walk through IPW. And those two matches are still one of my favorites today. RIP JC - you will be missed.

[ipwsfirst]

I remember having alot of memorable moments in IPW. Guys like Pondo, Necro,Nate webb, Kick boxer, corp, but the one competitor i looked forward to working with the most was J.C. Bailey! we had alot of fun and good matches, the cage match at the knights of columbus! and several other good matches. J.C. you will be truly missed!

Attachments:

[ipwgreg]

I can still remember the night that the cage match happened and the fan attacked J.C.

[Admin]

The viewing for JC Bailey will be at the Barlow Funeral Home in Bardstown, KY this Wednesday, 1pm-8pm...Funeral services will be Thursday morning, opening up at 9am. If you can't be there and would like to send a donation to the family, please send to 'Joseph Bailey services', Barlow Funeral Home, 2675 E John Rowan Bl...vd, Bardstown, KY, 40004 502-348-2844

Cause of JC's death (Info from a post on czwfans.com)

It is with deep regret and sadness that I share this news with the world.

I have just gotten off the phone with Joe Bailey, JC's Father. Joe asked me to make this statement on behalf of JC, His Family and Friends.

Contrary to the assumptions of many,...assumptions that most wouldn't have made, if they knew the truth surrounding the last couple of months of our brother's life,...JC DID NOT die from drug use. JC had been clean and sober for months now.

JC Bailey has died as a result of multiple concussions and traumas to his brain. These are the official findings of The Medical Examiner assigned to the case.

The last two days have been even more tragic due to all those making the assumption that JC had passed as a result of drug abuse, when all of us close to him knew that this was unlikely. JC really had turned his life around.

Where does this leave us all? Well, the first thing is that JC's Family and friends still have a loved one to lay to rest,...I ask you all to bear this in mind. Can we all be respectful enough to wait until that sad business is attended to before getting on a soap box? Please? JC's family, friends and loved ones implore you.

A few other thoughts that Joe Bailey has asked me to express...

For every harsh criticism of wrestlers who become plagued with addictions to pain killers,...there is also a fan who demanded more, more, more. Is anyone forced to be a pro wrestler? No. Most participate because they love wrestling more than the fans. Most participate to entertain the fans. In that participation, risks are assumed. My brother was well aware of these risks. He took them, and now he has paid the ultimate price for assuming these risks. And you know what? JC BAILEY LOVED PRO WRESTLING. Did he do this for fortune or fame? No,...he did these things because of a burning passion that he embraced. He only loved his family and friends more. He was so dedicated to entertaining the fans that he truly gave 100% every time he stepped near a ring. Ultimately, he has given more to entertain all of you, than anyone can conceive. JC has given his life to entertain us all. Tragic? You bet your ass it's tragic. Should we all stop? NO way. It's not what JC would have wanted.

Do not mourn for JC Bailey,...Celebrate his amazing life, his amazing toughness, his personality, his genuineness and his self sacrifice,...it's what he would have wanted.

[hollywilliams]

Here is a link to the obituary:

www.legacy.com/obituaries/louisville/obituary.aspx?n=j-c-bailey&pid=145022518

[ipwsfirst]

GREG i remember it plain as day in my head, it was a guy named peanut. and jc beat the hell out of him during the match...LMFAO! i remeber him getting back in and me saying J.C. calm down get back in the flow! He was f**king wound up! and ready to kill!

Attachments:

[wrestlingfan22]

JC Bailey - was an awesome individual - I liked him from the 1st time I saw him. Last time I saw him was at IPW and he gave me a hug - I told him I missed him and was glad he was back - I don't understand why - I just know my heart is breaking for the loss of someone so special to so many people - Rest in peace always and forever -