color commentator, calling the 20-man battle royal at Wrestlemania 2 (which featured NFL players) and then earning a trial run doing commentary for various shows, including the April 1986 show at Madison Square Garden. He was also used as a fill-in for matches on syndicated programming such as WWF Championship Wrestling. Ladd also teamed with Gorilla Monsoon and Johnny Valiant in the broadcast booth during The Big Event at C.N.E. Stadium in Toronto, Ontario. Ladd, Monsoon, and Valiant were the original three-man team for the first few weeks of WWF Wrestling Challenge, before Ladd was replaced by Bobby Heenan and Valiant's role was reduced significantly to only calling matches when Heenan had to be at ringside for one of the wrestlers he managed. Following this, Ladd quietly left the WWF. He wrestled one more match on January 3, 1988 at a WWF house show in Long Island, New York in a 20 man battle royal won by Bam Bam Bigelow. He was inducted into the WCW Hall of Fame in 1994 and the WWF Hall of Fame class of 1995, becoming the first (and for several years only) inductee in both halls. Later years Ladd was a longtime friend of the Bush family and supported the 2000 campaign of George W. Bush. Ladd also owned and operated Big Cat Ernie Ladd's "Throwdown" BBQ Restaurant in New Orleans, Louisiana, until it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005. In the disaster's aftermath, he ministered to Katrina evacuees at the Astrodome. He was a friend of WWE Hall of Fame commentator Jim Ross. Ladd also appeared in an episode of That '70s Show entitled "That Wrestling Show." He was in the locker room with The Rock, who was playing his own father "Soul Man" Rocky Johnson. Ladd was also a basketball coach for young kids in Franklin, Louisiana. Death Ladd was diagnosed with colon cancer in the winter of 2003–2004, being advised he had three to six months to live. He reportedly ignored the doctor's diagnosis, stating “The doctor told me I had three to six months to live…I told the doctor that he’s a liar and that Dr. Jesus has got the verdict on me! I also told him, ‘You’re working with a miracle when you work with me.” The cancer eventually spread to his stomach and bones, and three years passed before he died on March 10, 2007