Iconic game show host Bob Barker passes away, leaving a remarkable legacy in the world of professional wrestling

More sad news from the entertainment world: Bob Barker has died. He was 99. From NBC:

“It is with profound sadness that we announce that the World’s Greatest MC who ever lived, Bob Barker has left us,” publicist Roger Neal said in a statement Saturday.

Pro wrestling and WWE isn’t the first thing most people will think of when someone says Bob Barker’s name. That would almost certainly be his decades hosting game shows like Truth and Consequences or The Price Is Right. Or maybe his unforgettable cameo in Happy Gilmore. Perhaps it would be his animal welfare work, for which he closed each Price Is Right episode with the message: “Help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered.”

But for wrestling fans, especially those of us who tuned into Raw during the 2009-2010 stretch when WWE brought in different celebrity guest hosts for their Monday night show each week, he’ll always be the guy who told Chris Jericho to be “a good boy” or he’d take Y2J over his knee…

Barker also shared scenes with Santino Marella, The Bella Twins, and others, told D-X he had two words for them (“spin it”), and doubled Chavo Guerrero over with a punch to the breadbasket before chopping him to the ground during his standout appearance on Sept. 7, 2009. In a sad bit of symmetry with the other losses wrestling’s experienced this week, Bray Wyatt’s father Mike Rotunda (as Irwin R. Schyster) was one of the guests on the Price Is Right skit Barker led while guest hosting.

WWE.com

Barker is not in the WWE Hall of Fame, but not many would complain if he was inducted posthumously.

Thanks for everything, Mr. Barker. Rest in peace.