ROCKY KING PASSES AWAY

 The Cauliflower Alley Club announced this afternoon that William Boulware Jr., better known by his ring name Rocky King, who worked as a referee and later a professional wrestler for Jim Crockett Promotions and WCW has passed away.

King was an enhancement talent for JCP and later was paired with The Fabulous Freebirds in WCW as "Little Richard Marley" in 1989 and 1990.  After the Freebirds turned on him, he began using the Rocky King name as a babyface and wrestled and refereed for WCW before retiring 1998.

Boulware was homeless before he began his wrestling career. He was hired by Jim Crockett Jr. after he would hang around the wrestlers trying to get a job. Boulware, using the ring name Rocky King, started wrestling in 1985 in the National Wrestling Alliance's Jim Crockett Promotions in North Carolina.[2] He began his career in the promotion as a jobber. He quickly improved and was often allowed a lot of offense during his jobber matches. He was a frequent opponent of the Four Horsemen.

After spending some time in Florida, King returned to North Carolina where he wrestled under promoter Pez Whatley In 1987, he teamed with George South.

King was loosely associated with the Dudes With Attitudes in early 1990 during their feud with the Four Horsemen. In late 1990, after Crockett was purchased and renamed World Championship Wrestling, King got a gimmick change and became Little Richard Marley, manager of Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin, the Fabulous Freebirds. He helped them in their feud with the Southern Boys for a couple of months. At Starrcade in 1990, he inadvertently cost the Freedbirds their match against Tommy Rich and Ricky Morton.[3] After the match, the Freebirds attacked him.[3] He then went back to wrestling as Rocky King. King became a WCW referee before retiring in 1998.

In July 1999, he started BWA Professional Wrestling to give fans a family-oriented product on the independent scene. He also formed Boulware Enterprises, Inc. to run his promotion Boulware Wrestling Association. The BWA runs shows for churches, non-profit organizations and private organizations on the east coast. He partners with Bill Heard III of Bill Heard Chevrolet in Atlanta, Georgia to operate Kids Nite Out, a program to keep kids off the streets. King also partners with Frank Aldridge's World Wrestling Alliance 4 - WWA4, and together they run hundreds of wrestling shows every year.