 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Conrad Efraim (1945-03-30)March 30, 1945[2] |
| Died | October 26, 2008(2008-10-26) (aged 63)[2] |
| Cause of death | Stroke |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Roosevelt Jones S. D. Jones[1] Special Delivery Jones[1] |
| Billed height | 6 ft 1 in (185 cm)[1] |
| Billed weight | 275 lb (125 kg)[1] |
| Billed from | "Antigua in theWest Indies" Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Trained by | Johnny Rodz,Killer Kowalski |
| Debut | 1971 |
| Retired | 1995 |
Conrad Efraim (March 30, 1945 – October 26, 2008) was anAntiguanprofessional wrestler best known by hisring name,Special Delivery Jones orS. D. Jones (sometimes referred to asS. D. "Special Delivery" Jones) from his time (1974–1990) in theWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). He also wrestled inJim Crockett Promotions and theNational Wrestling Alliance (NWA), and he won theNWA Americas Tag Team Championship three times.[4]
Before becoming a wrestler, Efraim worked at a telephone company.[4] He also took part in boxing and lifting weights.[5] While there, he began training underJohnny Rodz andKiller Kowalski in the sport of professional wrestling.[4] Upon completion of his training, he quit his job and began working forNWA Mid-Atlantic under the name "Roosevelt Jones" in atag team with his partner andkayfabe cousinRufus R. Jones.[3] While there, they had a memorablefeud with theAnderson family (Ole andGene).[3]
On January 17, 1975, after leaving the Mid-Atlantic area forCalifornia, Jones won his first of three tag team titles, combining withPorkchop Cash to take theNWA Americas Tag Team Championship from theHollywood Blonds (Buddy Roberts and Jerry Brown).[6] The following month, Jones and Cashdropped the titles back to the Blonds. Jones won the title again in 1977, teaming with Tom Jones to defeatBlack Gordman and Goliath.[6] Gordman and Goliath regained the championship, but SD and Tom Jones won the belts back from them on November 18, 1977.[6]
S. D. Jones had his first match in the WWWF on April 25, 1974, facingNikolai Volkoff in Trenton, New Jersey. Jones would continue to wrestle in the WWF (WWWF) as a mid-cardbabyface who would give theheels a hard time but end up losing.[7] He did, however, win quite a few matches on smaller cards against lower card or fellow mid carders like Ron Shaw andJohnny Rodz.[3][8] Jones was often featured in tag team matches partnered withTony Atlas, and the two challengedMr. Fuji andMr. Saito for theWWF Tag Team Championship several times in 1981.[8] On one occasion, the two ended up as the final men in a battle royal and flipped a coin to decide the winner, as seen on the WWFColiseum Video 'Best of the WWF Volume 4' and 'Grand Slams' video cassettes.[9]
S. D. helped put overGreg Valentine at a 1979 TV taping when Valentine locked in his figure-four leglock and refused to let go, leading to Jones doing a stretcher job and subsequently appearing in Madison Square Garden with his leg in a cast. He was also the tag team partner ofAndré the Giant on November 13, 1984, when André's hair was cut byKen Patera andBig John Studd.[10] At the inauguralWrestleMania in 1985 he famously lost toKing Kong Bundy in an official match time of nine seconds, although the actual time from bell to pinfall was seventeen seconds.[11][12] In any case, it would stand as the quickest match inWrestleMania history until Kane defeated Chavo Guerrero in 11 seconds to win the ECW Championship atWrestleMania 24.[13]
Jones was a workhorse for the WWF as he wrestled 240 matches per year during his career and twice wrestled over 300 matches in a single year with (302) in 1978 and (305) in 1984. Despite mainly being used as apreliminary talent in the 1980s WWF, Jones garnered further recognition whenLJN created two action figures of him for theirWrestling Superstars toy line.[4] One was with a yellow shirt with blue palm trees and the other was with a red shirt. He also appeared in the WWF'smusic video forLand of a Thousand Dances.[4] Jones last match was in New York City at Madison Square Garden on October 19, 1990, losing by pinfall againstIron Mike Sharpe.
After WWF, he wrestled forHerb Abrams'sUniversal Wrestling Federation and Universal Wrestling Superstars in New York City. He retired from the sport in 1995. In 2006, S. D. Jones appeared for the WWE inductingTony Atlas into theWWE Hall of Fame.[14] S. D. Jones was added to theWWE Hall Of Fame on April 7, 2019, as a legacy inductee.[15]
After retiring from wrestling, Jones lost a considerable amount of weight and took a job at theNew York Daily News.[4] He died in Antigua on October 26, 2008, following a stroke suffered two days earlier.[2]
Following his death, his wife recalled "On Wednesday, he was laughing and singing and all of that… He went to feed the dogs, and when he came back, he called my name. He said, ‘Kay.’ He showed me his fingers, and the next thing I know, his body went limp. We went to the doctor's, and he had three-quarters of his brain bleeding, covered with blood."[16]
,Cagematch,Internet Wrestling Database