Dave Meltzer reports that Louie Spicolli was found dead at his San Diego home on Sunday morning. Spicolli had just turned 27 on Feb.10.98. Apparently Louie and some friends were home watching wrestling videos, and he was pretty wasted. He was drinking wine and taking prescription drugs (Soma - muscle relaxers), but not an unusually high amount because he had a high tolerance level due to the frequency of use. The story is that his friends have seen him in far worse shape.

Louie went to sleep at about 2am, and he was heard snoring loudly at about 4:15am. At 5:10 his alarm went off and he turned it off himself. At about 8:30, his friend went in to check on him because of a bad smell coming from his room. He found that Louie had vomited all over himself. 911 was called and they arrived quickly, but they determined that Louie was dead for some time.

 The actual cause will not be known for days, but it could be a bad reaction to the wine and the pills, or he could have asphyxiated on his own vomit. Spicolli has had similar scares in the past. In 1995, he was in intensive care for days, and about 4 months ago he was hospitalized again. He was said to have cleaned himself up a few months ago, but after learning that his mother was dying because of cancer, he went on the pills again for which he had a prescription.

 Spicolli was scheduled to be on Nitro on the 16th, and have a match with Larry Zybysco at Superbrawl this past Sunday, the 22^nd. Although he was likely to get some heat from the remarks he made in Oklahoma City on Thunder, where he said something about a "bombshell", it is doubtful that he was going to get in serious trouble. You could say that he was on the verge of getting the biggest push in his career.

This past Saturday at the ECW arena, virtually the entire company, including Paul Heyman, Rob Van Dam, and Tommy Dreamer, paid tribute to Louie before the start of the show. A ten bell salute was given, while the entire talent roster, heels and faces, stood together in the ring. Van Dam wore Louie's "Real Innovator of the Death Valley Driver" shirt, and Dreamer executed the manuver during his match. Several of the wrestlers were said to be very emotional during the tribute. Heyman said something along the lines of, Once you've stepped foot in an ECW ring, you truly are ECW for life. And he proved it with his tribute, far better than what Louie got from WCW last Monday.