The German wrestling scene once again mourns the loss of a longtime great: Shortly after celebrating his 40th birthday, “Bad Bones” John Klinger passes away
The German wrestling scene is once again mourning the loss of a figurehead who died far too young: “Bad Bones” John Klinger has passed away – just a few days after his 40th birthday and shortly before his planned career end.
The biggest German league, wXw, announced the terrible news late on Monday evening; no cause of death was given. The German portal Power Wrestling reported a “sudden medical emergency” on Monday morning.
German scene shaken once again
Klinger was in the ring just ten days ago at a PTW Polish League event, facing off against former WWE wrestler Flash Morgan Webster. Webster also expressed his shock in a social media post.
Just last November, Klinger’s companion Absolute Andy (Andreas Ullmann), who was also very successful in the German scene, passed away due to a serious illness, also at the age of 40. Klinger was also in the ring many times with the “King of Catchers” Karsten Beck, who died young of a brain tumor in 2020
“Bad Bones” John Klinger was a German scene legend
Born in Bitburg, Klinger had been in the ring since 2005 and was trained by “Headshrinker” Alofa, a member of the legendary Samoan wrestling family Anoa’i, from which Roman Reigns also hails. With over 1000 matches, Klinger was one of the biggest and most reliable constants in German and European wrestling, which was characterized by many upheavals, and rose to the rank of a scene legend with numerous strong ring appearances.
Klinger was World Champion at wXw several times and also in the British league IPW:UK. Although his hopes of a career in WWE never materialized, he did compete in a number of matches for the former second-largest US league TNA.
One of Klinger’s most frequent opponents was the Austrian WALTER, who is currently making a big start in WWE as Gunther – on Monday night’s RAW TV show, he reached the final of the King of the Ring tournament with a victory over Jey Uso. Klinger has also often been in the ring with other German-speaking stars such as Axel Dieter Jr (Ludwig Kaiser), Ilja Dragunov, Axel Tischer / Alexander Wolfe and Claudio Castagnoli (Cesaro). He also competed in many matches with international greats such as Cody Rhodes, Bryan Danielson, Kevin Steen (aka Kevin Owens), El Generico (Sami Zayn), AJ Styles and Will Ospreay – who has now also expressed his condolences via social media.
Klinger had only revealed his plan to end his career in the fall at the beginning of the year. He turned 40 last Tuesday and celebrated his birthday with friends and colleagues on Sunday. Klinger is survived by his wife and a child from his first marriage
