Wrestling With Sin: 602

Brian Damage

This is the 602nd installment of the ‘Wrestling with Sin‘ series. A group of stories that delves into the darker, underbelly of pro wrestling. Many of the stories involve such subjects as sex, drugs, greed and in some cases even murder! As with every single story in the Sin series, I do not condone or condemn the alleged participants. We simply retell their stories by researching interviews, newspapers, magazines and various other sources of media.

Murder By Suicide?

Blackjack Mulligan once recalled going to wrestle in the Florida territory back in the early 1980’s. Mulligan ended up becoming business partners with Florida promoter Eddie Graham and two other local Tampa businessmen in real estate. According to Mulligan, business was booming for a while and the four partners were making millions of dollars. 

Then, the bottom fell out of the market and the millions earned turned to money owed. The foursome had lenders that were allegedly tied to the Tampa mafia. Mulligan said two out of the three business partners commited suicide including of course Eddie Graham. Mulligan was convinced that neither intentionally tried to kill themselves, but were forced to due to owing the mafia money.

The mafia sent several threatening messages to all four men and Mulligan believes Graham and the other businessman felt there was no other way out other than to end their lives. Mulligan eventually turned to counterfeiting money and went to prison for his actions. 

Indian Giver

In the 1960’s and 70’s, Wahoo McDaniel was one of the highest paid athletes in America. During his days playing in the NFL for teams like the Miami Dolphins and NY Jets, he was earning around 45,000 a year. When he transitioned to becoming a pro wrestler full time, Wahoo nearly doubled his annual income to roughly around 70 to 80k a year.

By 1981, however, McDaniel was forced to file for personal bankruptcy. Wahoo’s reputation for living a very fast lifestyle of partying and buying the finer things had caught up to him. Add to that, he was spending on alimony for a number of ex-wives. It was revealed that McDaniel owed the Internal Revenue Service approximately $3,750, credit card statements that totaled close to $10,000 and various creditors a sum of over $11,000.

Wahoo made the argument that between his living expenses on the road as a professional wrestler and his annual income that he could barely afford to pay off anything. The judge in the case ordered him to pay $500 a month to a court ordered trustee for 36 months until the debt was cleared. If Wahoo missed or was late with just one payment, his personal bankruptcy would be nulled and void and would be responsible for the entire balance he owed.

Head of Stone

While wrestling for the Georgia territory in 1983, Ronnie Garvin allegedly assaulted a fan at ringside. According to reports, Garvin legitimately headbutted a fan, who he felt was too close to him. The fan was hospitalized for his injuries and ended up suing Garvin. The fan complained of broken facial bones and lingering effects from those injuries.

Garvin decided to skip his mandatory court appearance, so the judge ruled completely in favor of the fan. He was awarded a sum of $455,000 for damages. Garvin was able to avoid paying the penalty by leaving the territory and wrestling in a number of other places as an independent contractor making it impossible for the courts to garnish his wages. 

Stryknyn is Poison

Ben Forbes was an independent pro wrestler out of Georgia. He competed under the ring name of Stryknyn. At one time, he was a very popular and in demand wrestler on the indie scene. In 2023, Forbes was caught in an undercover sting where he allegedly sent inappropriate texts and photos to a supposed 15 year old girl. In actuality, the 15 year old was an undercover police officer.

When word got out that Forbes was under investigation, he sent out a message on social media of his mistake and promised to be a better person. He was ultimately stripped of titles he had held and was subsequently blacklisted from several indie promotions he was a regular at.

You can read all previous ‘Wrestling with Sin’ pieces here.