Pampero Firpo relates a story from when he was appearing in the Midwest in the winter time. He was still a sought-after attraction in the New York area, and made many special appearances from his new territory back to the East Coast.
One particular snowy December night, he was working near Milwaukee, and after the match, was booked by Vince McMahon Sr. to appear in Washington, D.C. the following night. To get to D.C., he had to catch a plane out of Wisconsin.
On his way to the airport, he recognized the ring truck that was stuck in a snowbank twenty yards or so from the highway. He stopped his car to see if the ring man needed help getting his vehicle back onto the road. He found that the driver needed more than he bargained for.
Apparently, the ring man driver had fallen asleep behind the wheel and crashed the truck into the snowbank. The driver was unconscious and appeared to be quite frozen from the bitter temperatures. Firpo physically carried the driver from the ring truck to his car, turned in the opposite direction, and headed for a hospital.
Upon arrival, Firpo waited in the relatives' waiting room while the doctors worked on the injured driver. It was over an hour later when he got his first report that the driver was going to be ok, but was suffering from hypothermia. Had he not been rescued when he was, he could have easily succumbed to the cold.
Firpo left the hospital after hearing that his driver friend was going to survive, but realized that his flight to D.C. had departed thirty minutes ago.
The next morning, Firpo woke up, hearing the news on the radio that the flight he was supposed to be on had crashed due to inclement weather and there were no survivors. True story.
