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REX KING AKA TIMOTHY WELL OF WELL DUNN PASSES AWAY

By Mike Johnson on 2017-01-10 13:27:00

Timothy "Rex King" Smith, who nationally was perhaps best known as Timothy Well of the Well Dunn tag team in the World Wrestling Federation in the early 1990s, passed away yesterday due to complications of kidney failure, it was announced by his son via Facebook.  Smith had been in ill health for some time.  Smith was 55 years old.

Smith broke into the business in the late 1980s and found his best success as one half of The Southern Rockers with Steve Doll, replacing Doll's previous partner Scott Peterson in the Owens' Pacific Northwest promotion, where they were a cornerstone team and held the PNW Tag Team championship four times. 

They moved on to Memphis for the USWA, where the team held the USWA Tag Team belts.  Doll opted to return to Portland for Don Owens, leaving Smith in Memphis, where he teamed with the late Joey Maggs and later journeyed on to the WWC in Puerto Rico.  The team reunited in Puerto Rico and had another run in Memphis, which actually ended up being their gateway into the WWF.

Alongside Doll, who was re-christened Steven Dunn, the two worked full-time for WWF as an undercard team managed at times by Harvey Wippleman.  They were never given a sizeable push and were used in competitive bouts to get over the bigger stars or used in comedy roles, including a short TV feud with the Bushwhackers.

After leaving the WWF in 1995, Smith was back working under the Rex King ringname, only this time as a singles competitor.  He returned to Puerto Rico, the last territory and held the WWC TV title several times and holding the Puerto Rican championship once.  

King also made a few appearances for the original ECW in 1998.

King also made some appearances teaming with Doll for Bert Prentice's Music City Wrestling, but for the most part left pro wrestling in 2001 following an in-ring injury where he broke his neck while taking an bodyslam and coming down wrong while wrestling Mustafa Saed.  He did a few shots in 2004 but nothing on a regular basis, instead working as a trucker.

Smith was among the former WWF/WWE talents listed as a plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against World Wrestling Entertainment in July 2016, alleging that WWE was directly responsible for their current health issues as well as challenging that professional wrestlers are improperly classified as independent contractors by WWE, when they should instead be considered employees.

We'd like to pass our deepest condolences on to Smith's family and friends at this time.

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