A 43-year-old man found dead in his rural Interlake home last week was once a professional wrestler and sumo wrestling champion in Manitoba.

RCMP said Ivan Radocaj died of blunt force trauma and was the victim of a homicide, but are not releasing details about how he was fatally injured.

RARELY SEEN

Someone found his body Friday evening in his home near Inwood in the Rural Municipality of Armstrong.

No one had been arrested in connection with the homicide as of yesterday afternoon, said RCMP spokesman Cpl. Chris Ballard.

Neighbours said Radocaj moved into the home last spring but was rarely seen.

Court records show his wife, Melody Sanford, filed for divorce in late August, a month after she was granted a protection order that prevented Radocaj from contacting her, among other things.

A hearing on the matter was scheduled for Sept. 25.

Sanford could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Many people in the local wrestling industry said they had not seen or heard from Radocaj in more than a decade.

He was famous for his size -- nearly 6-foot-10 and more than 275 pounds -- and added more weight after he quit wrestling, local promoters said.

In the 1980s, Radocaj wrestled in Winnipeg under the names "Big" John Radocaj, the Croatian Giant and Ivan the Giant.

He got his start when, in his mid-teens, his parents took him to New Brand Wrestling promoter Walter Shefchyk in 1981 and asked him to train their son.

Shefchyk taught him the ropes and put him in the ring at events that were taped at Chalmers Community Centre for broadcast on a local cable access channel.

'EAT LIKE A HORSE'

"He was just a big kid. He could eat like a horse," said Shefchyk.

Radocaj also appeared at Central Canadian Pro Wrestling events in the early '80s. He rarely entered a ring after New Brand Wrestling folded in 1984.

In 1985, he became the first champion of Shefchyk's North American Sumo Wrestling. Opponents had a hard time pushing Radocaj out of the ring because of his size.