Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
This is the 369th 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.
House Fly
While the Orient Express and the Legion of Doom were adversaries in WWF rings, in reality, they were pretty good friends outside of it. That was especially true with LOD’s Hawk and the Orient Express’ Pat Tanaka. According to Tanaka, the two teams regularly hung out and party together after shows. Tanaka recalls one evening where he and Hawk’s late night partying almost cost them money and potentially their jobs with the WWF.
The two wrestlers went on a cocaine binge together. They both eventually passed out and when they awoke, they realized they had missed their scheduled flight to the next town the WWF was performing at. The WWF had become strict with lateness…fining those who were late thousands of dollars. They also warned that “no shows” would result in firings. The two tried to reschedule a flight, but there weren’t any available to book. While Tanaka began to panic about getting fired, Road Warrior Hawk simply laughed it off.
At the time, he and his partner Animal were untouchable in the company and did not worry about missing a house show. Tanaka on the other hand, was not as secure in his job. To appease, Tanaka and his growing fears, Hawk offered to charter a private jet to the next town. It cost him over $25,000 to do so, but got the two wrestlers to the show on time.
The Great Me-Fisticuffs
Tommy Rich recalled one of the most brutal legitimate fights he ever witnessed as a professional wrestler. It was between Mr. Wrestling II and The Great Mephisto aka Frankie Cain. Apparently, the two wrestlers had a match where there was a lot of miscommunication. This caused the match to look sloppy and neither wrestler were happy with the outcome.
Once they returned backstage, the wrestlers began yelling at each other with both blaming the other for the awful match. The yelling then turned into a physical confrontation with both men throwing punches. According to Rich, Mr. Wrestling II grabbed Mephisto in a front face lock that Mephisto couldn’t break out of. This led to Mephisto biting Mr. Wrestling II on his side. He bit so hard, that it took a chunk of flesh out of Mr. Wrestling II. It became a very bloody, messy scene. No word if the two made amends or ever wrestled each other again after the fight.
No Gimmicks Needed…For Chastity
The tumultuous relationship between Chris Candido and his real life girlfriend/valet Tammy ‘Sunny’ Sytch has been well documented. Sytch carried on numerous affairs with other wrestlers while Candido seemingly remained oblivious and quiet about the love of his life cheating on him. Many of his friends within the business felt that Chris turned to drugs to ease the pain and humiliation of what he was going through on a daily basis.
With that said, it was recently revealed by Chris’ brother Johnny that Chris wasn’t so innocent either. While Chris and Tammy were working for ECW, Candido allegedly had an affair with another valet from that promotion. According to his brother, Candido “messed around” with Chastity who at the time was a valet for Jason Knight and Justin Credible. Apparently, Chris finally snapped and decided to fool around behind Tammy’s back. Johnny said that the affair was very low key and not too many people knew about including Tammy.
Breaking the Unbreakable
Former Ring of Honor, New Japan and Impact wrestler ‘Unbreakable’ Michael Elgin was reported missing in June of 2021. It was later revealed that Elgin was arrested around this time for violating an order of protection that was served to him by his fiancé. She claims that Elgin was being abusive physically, mentally, verbally, and emotionally. She also states that the wrestler violated that order over sixty times since it was issued back in May of 2021.
Elgin allegedly called his fiancé from fake numbers pretending to be people from her past saying nasty things about her. She says it was all about trying to control her and keeping her under his thumb. She also says Elgin would repeatedly threaten to commit suicide as a manipulation tactic. The fiancé claimed that Elgin would get physical with her whenever she refused to have sex, kept her from her friends and family, verbally berated her in public places and also cheated on her multiple times with prostitutes.
In August, Michael Elgin posted a tearful message of YouTube where he said “goodbye” to his wrestling fans. He also posted a message on social media. He wrote…
“Unfortunately, people don’t mind listening to any side other than the one they want to spread. If they did, more people would be watching. That’s fine, since I left everything to my son. I’m done going through all of this. I stopped caring about someone and that person saying things that are very false. So I’m saying goodbye.
Jax, you are the most amazing thing that ever happened to me. I really love you with all my heart. Rachel, I’m sorry things didn’t go well. You are an incredible woman and the best mother I’ve ever seen. I was lucky to have you in my life, and Jax is the luckiest boy in the world to have you as a mother.
Alex, you may think the worst, but I have nothing bad to say about you. You were a wonderful woman who deserves happiness. Mom, thank you for all your sacrifices to allow me to pursue a silly dream.. Don, you are not my biological father, but you are the only father I ever knew. Thanks for being amazing and helping me through life.
While many worried about Elgin’s mental condition…others have claimed that this was a sympathy tactic as it wasn’t the first time Elgin has threatened suicide.