Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
This is the 499th 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.
Bankrupt
All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling was founded in 1968 by four brothers. The youngest of the brothers was a man named Kunimatsu Matsunaga. Kunimatsu was not only a front office executive for All Japan Women, but also served as AJW’s senior referee under the name of ‘Jimmy Kayama.’ By 2005, Kunimatsu moved up to being named President of the promotion.
Unfortunately, a series of bad investments in real estate and the fall of the Japanese stock market led the Matsunaga brothers to lose millions and in the process, could not afford to pay their wrestlers. Many of which left the company and started rival promotions. After over 37 years in business, All Japan Women folded in April of 2005, under the leadership of Kunimatsu Matsunaga.
In August of that year, Kunimatsu was found dead at his home in Tokyo. His death was ruled a suicide by Japanese authorities. Details surrounding his death were kept mostly private. Kunimatsu was 63 years old at the time of his passing.
Idol-ing
Steve Schumann was a pro wrestler/promoter who began his career in 1978. Schumann wrestled under various aliases including The Star Rider, Ray Evans, Steve Golden and Ray Austin. He is most known wrestling as ‘Lance Idol’ up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for Stampede Wrestling teaming with a young Chris Benoit. Schumann battled drug addiction most of his career.
In 1989, Schumann booked an independent show in California. He ended up stealing the money from that show without paying the wrestlers who performed on it. He did it by faking a suicide attempt after the event and later took off to Puerto Rico where he resumed his wrestling career.
In May of 1991, Schumann returned to California under the moniker of Steve Golden and wrestled at an independent show. During the match, Schumann bladed himself and bled so badly that he passed out and had to be hospitalized. He suffered a heart attack while at the hospital, but was able to be revived by doctors. Schumann swore off drugs and alcohol after the near death experience. Just a few months later, in September of ’91, Schumann suffered a second heart attack. This one proved to be fatal and was believed to have been caused by drug use. Steve Schumann was dead at just 32 years old.
Buffa-blow
In the late 1990’s, ECW was holding a show in Buffalo, New York. Tommy ‘Wildfire’ Rich was booked to go on at a certain time, but asked ECW owner Tod Gordon when his match was exactly scheduled. After finding out, Rich in his full wrestling gear trekked out to the sketchiest part of town to score some cocaine. When his match was finally scheduled to go on…there was no Tommy Rich to be found.
Tod Gordon said he had to shuffle the matches out of order and hope that Rich would return before the show ended. When Rich finally re-emerged, he was high on coke and missing his wrestling boots. Gordon asked Tommy Rich where were his boots, but Rich was too high and happy to remember. Rich had to borrow someone else’s boots to wrestle that night. Gordon said he never found out what happened to Rich’s missing gear.
Porn in the USA
Former WWE star Dolph Ziggler aka Nic Nemeth revealed that the porn company known as ‘Brazzers’ reached out to him on several occasions. Nemeth said the first offer was made in 2015, the offer was to be sponsored by the porn company and wear tights with their logo on it. Considering WWE’s PG programming, that offer was nixed. He also claims that Brazzers offered him $10,000 to star in his own movie with a porn star of his choice. Nemeth is friends with several porn actresses including Kendra Lust, Eva Notty and Bibi Jones just to name a few. Nemeth declined that offer as well.