Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
This is the 370th 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.
Is This Heaven or Is This Hell?
When Stan Lane decided to retire from pro wrestling and leave the Heavenly Bodies, Tom Prichard was without a tag team partner. Jim Cornette reached out to Kevin Sullivan who recommended Jimmy Del Ray. Jimmy Del Ray fit into the Heavenly Bodies seamlessly and worked well in the ring with Prichard. According to Prichard though…things began to go south when Del Ray received more exposure from working in Smoky Mountain Wrestling.
Prichard claims Del Ray lived a wild lifestyle that included lots of women and booze. While Tom Prichard was more low key, Del Ray wanted everyone in the bar or club to know he was a professional wrestling star. Jimmy’s wild ways and partying got so out of hand, that Prichard no longer traveled with his partner on the road. Apparently, Del Ray’s attitude and ego became worse once they started with the WWF.
Prichard said he liked Del Ray as a person and as a partner in the ring, but could no longer tolerate his excessive lifestyle. It ultimately led the two to split up as a team and the duo stopped talking to each other for a number of years after. They eventually spoke and made amends before del Ray died suddenly from a massive heart attack at the age of 52.
Mount Fiji Eruption
During filming of the original Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW) program, a wrestler named Mount Fiji began going into an emotional tirade. She started throwing chairs, flipping tables, screaming at the top of her lungs and acting uncontrollable. At first, the other wrestlers thought it was a part of the show, but they were told it was not and police were called. It took several people to restrain her and get her into an ambulance.
She continued her outburst in the hospital and had to be tied down and sedated. As it turned out, Mount Fiji…real name Emily Dole suffered from bi polar disorder and was having a breakdown. she was eventually institutionalized because of her rampage on the GLOW set. When GLOW producers went to visit her at the mental hospital, she was tied down to the bed. She apologized for the incident and promised to get help with medication and counseling. She eventually was released from the hospital and returned to wrestling for GLOW.
Stan Your Ground
Very early in Stanislaus Zbyszko’s wrestling career, he was competing all over Europe for a traveling circus. It was there where he met a woman named Mariska and fell in love. As it turned out, the woman was already married with a child. Despite this, Zbyszko didn’t care and carried on with the affair anyway.
The husband eventually found out about it and confronted Zbyszko. Instead of just walking away from the situation, Stanislaus challenged the husband to some sort of physical duel. Zbyszko easily one the altercation and carried on his relationship with Mariska. Right before the couple was to wed, Mariska contracted tuberculosis and died. Years later, Stanislaus Zbyszko wrote about it and said it was one of the most devastating moments of his life.
The Small Details
When Arn and Ole Anderson were booked against the Rock N Roll Express in the NWA back in 1986…Ole was not happy about it. According to both Ricky Morton and Arn, Ole hated working with smaller wrestlers. He felt that the matches were not believable and couldn’t draw fans. Arn said that Ole instructed him not to sell moves by the R N R Express because it would make them look bad. Apparently, Ole was ready to shoot on his opponents if they tried anything funny.
As it turned out, the feud sold out various arenas, but Ole still wasn’t going to admit he was wrong. Morton recalled one particular match where he had Ole in a corner throwing a bevy of punches. Ole simply “no sold” all of them trying to prove a point. Angered and frustrated, Ricky Morton decided to step away from the corner and walked to the middle of the ring and took a bump for no reason at all.
Ole then locked up with Morton and angerly asked “What the F are you trying to do?” Morton simply said, “If you won’t sell for me, I’ll sell myself and in the process make you look like sh!t.” After the match, Ole looked pissed off and embarrassed walked up to Morton and Robert Gibson and shook their hands. Morton said Ole respected wrestlers who had the guts to step up to him.