Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
This is the 503rd 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.
Burt Hurt
A scandal that made headlines all over Hollywood in 1994, was the news that actor Burt Reynolds was divorcing his wife actress Loni Anderson. The reason, was because Burt Reynolds was having an affair with a cocktail waitress named Pamela Seals. The two met at a steakhouse located in Tampa, Florida where Reynolds frequented. The scandal led to a very messy and bitter divorce between Reynolds and Anderson.
On a much smaller scale, Seals was also involved in a relationship at the time it was revealed the couple were involved with each other. Seals was dating a professional wrestler. That was wrestler was none other than Barry Windham. They too, split up after the news broke of the affair. Seals and Reynolds stayed together for five years and eventually split up.
After which, Seals accused Reynolds of physically and emotional abuse and Reynolds accused Seals of trying to extort money from him. The two would sue each other and ultimately settle their cases out of court.
Molded Out Of Clay
Jay Clayton was a former United States Marine who fought in the Vietnam War. When he was discharged from the Marines, Clayton began training to become a pro wrestler under the watchful eye of the great Danny Hodge. Clayton and his mentor Hodge were even tag team partners for a time. Clayton wrestled for the Mid South territory and was pushed as a future star by promoters Leroy McGuirk and Bill Watts.
He also wrestled in Florida and Georgia under the alias of ‘Jay Clay.’ Despite being pegged as a future top star in the wrestling business, according to Watts, Clayton couldn’t get out of his own way. He battled alcohol and drug addiction for the majority of his career which began in 1974 until 1976. His addictions made him unreliable and and a hazard inside the ring and promoters stopped booking him.
After Clayton was ousted from wrestling, he eventually got clean and sober and became a therapist for others battling drug addiction. Clayton passed away in 2005 after suffering a brain aneurysm at the age of 64.
Uptown Girl
In the early 1990’s, wrestling manager Bruno Lauer aka ‘Downtown Bruno’ in the Memphis territories and ‘Harvey Wippleman‘ in the WWF met a girl while on a tour named Karen Lee. The woman was a big wrestling fan and her and Bruno had a whirlwind romance that culminated with the two getting married. Karen was slowly introduced into the wrestling business at her request. She became a valet under the name of ‘Uptown Karen.’
According to several wrestlers including the late ‘Brickhouse Brown’, when Karen met Bruno…she was under the impression that since he was involved in pro wrestling…he made good money. Karen found out rather quickly that not to be the case, as he was working for the Memphis based USWA and living in a mobile trailer. Their marriage allegedly quickly soured and Karen began sleeping around with other wrestlers. She was supposedly known in several circles as “Memphis’ Finest Rat.”
The two split up and she was subsequently blacklisted from wrestling in the area. Bruno was extremely bitter over the relationship and refused to talk about her for years after their divorce.
Colon-oscopy
In September of 1997, during a World Wrestling Council show in Puerto Rico, government agents raided the event. They ended up seizing promoter Carlos Colon’s entire gate from the show. The reason behind the agents being at the WWC show, was because Colon had over $18,000 owed to the government in unpaid taxes. Unfortunately, for all the wrestlers that competed that evening, they were not paid for their work.