names death_date debut birth_date birthname article_title name
james dudley 1 june 2004 1950s 12 may 1910 james dudley james dudley
 james dudley
james dudley

james dudley -lrb- may 12 , 1910 -- june 1 , 2004 -rrb- was an american baseball player , professional wrestling manager , and professional wrestling executive .
he played negro league baseball for nine years but is best known for his time with the world wide wrestling federation .
dudley was the first african-american to run a major united states arena -lrb- turner 's arena in washington , d.c. -rrb- .
he worked with four generations of wrestling 's mcmahon family and was particularly close with vincent j. mcmahon .
at age 74 , he was put back on the company 's payroll to show appreciation for his work for the mcmahons .
he also managed several wrestlers in the wwwf and was inducted into the wwe hall of fame in 1994 .
