Bret Hart appreciated him, other wrestling idols learned from him: The former wrestling top star Sweet Daddy Siki is dead.
The wrestling world mourns the death of a colorful and well-deserved legend from a bygone era: Sweet Daddy Siki is dead.
Siki, real name Elkin James, died on New Year’s Eve at the age of 91. The two major US leagues, WWE and AEW, paid tribute to the Texan with small obituaries on their digital channels. Siki, who worked for the former WWF a few times, was one of the trainers of Adam “Cope” Copeland and Christian Cage aka Edge and Christian.
A popular provocateur
Siki, born in 1933 during the Great Depression to a poor couple from Texas who were farm laborers, was a top star in the sixties and seventies, especially in Canada, including in STAMPEDE, the league of Bret Hart’s father Stu Hart.
Siki grew up in Los Angeles and served as a U.S. soldier in Korea after World War II. After that, his breakthrough as an extroverted show fighter came: “Mr. Irresistible” teased fans with a big mouth, unusual gaudy outfits and provocative breaches of norms.
“He did everything Gorgeous George did – and then he was black too,” Bret Hart once said, describing what made Siki stand out in the wrestling scene and society of his time, which was even more characterized by racism and prejudice than it is today. Hart also appreciated Siki as a ring performer: ‘I have never seen a bad match of his.’
The aforementioned role model Gorgeous George was America’s biggest wrestling star during and after World War II, the blueprint for all arrogant ring villains – and also an avowed inspiration for boxing icon Muhammad Ali. The fact that Siki mainly competed in Canada had to do with racism in the US scene before the civil rights movement: many promoters were disturbed by Siki’s self-confidence and also by the fact that his wife Anne was white – something that African Americans were not allowed to be, in the eyes of the reactionaries. The rejection was reflected in a lack of bookings and poor pay. Siki therefore emigrated and celebrated even greater successes in the still-thriving scene in the neighboring country to the north.
“A groundbreaking performer”
Siki was also a talented musician and recorded four albums – part rock, part country. After his career, he also organized a regular karaoke night in Toronto until he was very old. This activity only ended after the outbreak of the Corona pandemic in 2020.
“Siki was a groundbreaking performer in more ways than one,” said the Canadian broadcaster CBC, which immortalized Siki’s eventful life in a TV documentary in 2017.
The ring legend died on December 31 in a Toronto hospital. Siki suffered from dementia for years.
