Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
This is the 485th 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.
Carny Crime Boss
Theobaud Bauer was a French born professional wrestler, who found great success competing in Europe. In the 1870’s, Bauer emigrated to the United States and became an even bigger star. At the time, pro wrestling was treated as a legitimate sport by the wrestlers, fans and media. It was a very popular sport to gamble on and Bauer was a pioneer in taking advantage of that. He and his adversary Professor William Miller came up with a scheme to throw their matches against each other. Whomever was the favorite with the gambling odds, would intentionally lose the match to get the most money. The pair took this act across the country, bilking gamblers in every town they wrestled in. By the time fans and the local newspapers caught on…they were in a new city running their con to a new audience.
Bauer had made a fortune wrestling and retired by the 1880’s. He invested a lot of his money in real estate in San Francisco, California and controlled the red light district in that area. He paid off police, judges and politicians to keep his businesses running without interference. Bauer was also an alcoholic who spent the majority of his days completely inebriated. One incident saw a close friend of his arrested for assaulting another man. Bauer showed up drunk to the police station and started fighting cops in a drunken rage. Bauer was continually able to avoid any jail time due to the money and power he wielded in the community.
In April of 1889, a couple were both shot in the head while in bed together. The woman, some believed to be romantically linked to Bauer died instantly. The man was barely alive and told police before he died that pro wrestler Theo Bauer was the shooter. The case was ruled a murder/suicide and Bauer was never investigated in the crime.
Towards the end of the 1890’s….Bauer’s drinking became uncontrollable and started to affect his mental capacity. He would often wander the streets at all hours of the day mumbling to himself. He was eventually deemed insane and committed to a sanitarium where he ultimately died. Theobaud Bauer was in his late forties to early 50’s when he passed away.
Running Wild
In the 1980’s, there was perhaps no bigger star in professional wrestling than Hulk Hogan. On the flip side of that, there was arguably no one more successful in the world of female body building than Corinna ‘Cory’ Everson. She was a six time Ms. Olympia winner in body building competitions and at the very top of her profession. Everson made no secrets that she was a huge Hulk Hogan fan during the late 1980’s. She did photo shoots of her mimicking famous Hogan poses.
The two stars became friends with Everson often showing up backstage at events that took place in the Los Angeles area. According to a former WWF employee Bill Anderson….the two were allegedly a little more than just pals. The two allegedly carried on an affair with Hogan often making “business trips” to LA which always included meeting up with Everson. Both were married at the time with Hulk married to Linda since 1983 and Cory married to fellow body builder Jeff since 1982.
Years later, Linda Hogan opened up about always suspecting Hulk of being unfaithful several times in their marriage and that ultimately led to a very painful, bitter divorce. Hulk Hogan always denied her accusations. Everson and her husband would themselves divorce in 1996.
Ring Around the Collar and Elbow
BJ Whitmer is a former wrestler turned trainer and backstage producer for promotions such as Ring of Honor and more recently All Elite Wrestling. On June 4, 2023…Whitmer was arrested and charged with strangulation in the first degree and burglary in the second degree. He was released on June 12 after posting a 25,000 dollar bond.
The victim was his now ex girlfriend who opened up about the incident, stating she entered her home and saw Whitmer waiting for her at the top of her steps. Whitmer then allegedly attacked her and began choking her while screaming “I’m going to fucking kill you!” After fighting him off for several minutes, she stopped fighting thinking that Whitmer would stop…but he kept choking her which made her realize she was fighting for her life.
Eventually, his girlfriend was able to break free and called police having Whitmer arrested. She has stated that she can no longer sleep at night despite having a police car patrol her neighborhood every day. Whitmer has since been fired by AEW with Tony Khan and the company issuing a statement which read…“B.J. Whitmer has been terminated following his arrest on domestic violence charges. While talent and staff are ultimately responsible for their own personal actions, this behavior is intolerable within AEW. AEW has reached out to offer support to those impacted by his behavior.”
The ex stated, “None of this is okay. No female, no child should ever have to go through what I went through.”
Ace-hole
While on a tour with All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1994, Johnny Ace had an incident with another wrestler named Brian Costello. At the time, Ace was one of All Japan’s top foreign talents…while Brian Costello was best remembered as a WWF enhancement wrestler. The two men did not get along from the very beginning and their heated tensions eventually spilled over to the locker room.
According to Costello, the two wrestlers argued and a physical confrontation immediately followed. The two men brawled as both Abdullah the Butcher and Stan Hansen had to get between them to break up the fight. After the two were separated, apparently Ace began badmouthing Costello to other wrestlers on the tour. Costello recalled getting ready for a tag match that would feature himself teaming with Stan Hansen and John Nord versus ‘Dr. Death’ Steve Williams, Johnny Gunn and Richard Slinger. Steve Williams approached Costello and asked if they was “going to be a problem?” Dr. Death was ready for a shoot in the ring and wanted reassurances from Costello who was now labeled a problem by none other than Johnny Ace. Costello had to prove himself the rest of his time in Japan due to the bad words of Ace.