Legendary pro wrestler Pat Patterson who came out as the first gay superstar in WWE has died. Patterson -- who considered himself wrestling's "first gay superstar" was a key part of WWE for decades, widely known as Vince McMahon's right-hand man. He began wrestling in the 1950s -- and finally joined up with WWE in the late '70s, where he famously engaged in a series of awesome matches with Sgt. Slaughter. Pat became the company's first ever Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion in 1979.
Patterson joined McMahon as a WWE executive and in 1988, he pitched the idea for the Royal Rumble. Patterson, whose real name was Pierre Clermont, began his career as a wrestler in 1958 in his native Canada and retired from the ring in 1984. Former wrestler Bart Hart inducted him into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1996. In 2016, Patterson wrote about his experience in the wrestling world as a gay man in his autobiography, "Accepted: How the First Gay Superstar Changed WWE. "Stephanie McMahon, the chief brand officer of WWE, also expressed her condolences and thanked Patterson for teaching her how to "not take it all so seriously." "I'm deeply grateful to have grown up with #wwe Hall of Famer, the first-ever Intercontinental Champion, the father of the #RoyalRumble, and the first openly gay wrestler of his generation," McMahon tweeted. "Thank you for teaching me how to not take it all so seriously. Abooze