Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
This is the 437th 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.
Rock Pile
Rocky Johnson’s life as a professional wrestler led him to have countless adulterous affairs while on the road. Some of them have been documented here and here. Johnson had two children from his first marriage, but basically abandoned them after divorcing their mother. Johnson would get remarried…this time to Ata Maivia and had one child in Dwayne Johnson. Rocky would continue being unfaithful and that led to a great deal of tension between himself and Dwayne.
Years later, it was revealed that Rocky had at least five children out of his affairs. Rocky was made aware of all of the kids he had out of wedlock over the years and according to all of them…Rocky refused to acknowledge their existence. The oldest of the “secret” children made numerous attempts to call Rocky only to be repeatedly hung up on by him and never returning her messages to get acquainted.
Rocky promised at least one of the women he impregnated that he would be there for her and the baby and ended up disappearing. Rocky called one of his “secret” children twice when they were young and promised all sorts of things, only to never show and deliver on his promises. The five children grew up without Rocky in their lives causing most of them to deal with abandonment issues and low self esteem.
Rocky’s brother Ricky Johnson (Who also wrestled and was a frequent tag team partner to his older brother) had a bad falling out because of the way Rocky treated these kids. Luckily, Ricky offered to meet up with all 5 of the kids and treated all of them like family. As for their half brother Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, they have pretty much allowed the wrestler turned actor his space and don’t want to be a burden on his personal life with his own family. They would still like to one day get together with him for a family reunion.
Love and Hate
Hartford and Reginald Love aka ‘The Love Brothers’ were a heel tag team that competed in various territories in the 1960’s and 70’s. Their gimmick was that of a pair of hippies. The Love brothers were dressed in bell bottom pants, love beads, goatees and long sideburns. The gimmick enraged many conservative wrestling fans of that era who hated the entire hippie movement. The real hippies who were wrestling fans also hated the Love Brothers because they saw through the gimmick and felt they were not authentic hippies, but a parody of what they believed in.
While the team was wrestling a match in Akron, Ohio in 1971, a fan jumped from ringside, climbed onto the second rope of the ring and pulled out a small hand gun. He was able to fire three shots at the Love Brothers missing all three times, although one bullet nearly missed Hartford Love and hit the ring post behind him. The Love Brothers quickly ran out of the ing and returned backstage. The police were able to detain the shooter and arrest him. Before they took the fan to jail, the police took the shooter to the back and offered the Love brothers to “work him over” before putting him behind bars. The Love Brothers ultimately turned down the offer.
Falling Out Of Love
In October of 1975, a former exotic dancer plunged to her death by jumping from the balcony of a 22 story hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii. The woman landed in the shrubs in the front of the hotel and was pronounced dead on the scene. The woman whose name was never released to the public, was in training to become a professional wrestler under the tutelage of former NWA Women’s champion Mildred Burke.
The woman in question, traveled to Honolulu to meet her husband who was a marine going on leave in that city. Before he arrived, the woman committed suicide. There was no known suicide note and it was unclear as to why she took her own life. The only issue that was reported was that the couple were estranged at the time…despite only being married for six weeks. The newspapers refused to print her name, until immediate family were contacted. Her name was never revealed, as there was no follow up story on her tragic death. She was only 30 years old at the time of her death.
Car-mageddon
“Mr. Excitement” Chazz Rocco was an independent wrestler who wrestled mainly in the Carolinas. He was trained by Buzz Tyler and began his pro career starting in 1992. By 1999, his once promising career came to an abrupt end. Chazz Rocco noticed two men attempting to steal a car near his tanning salon which he owned and operated when not wrestling. Rocco tried to intervene and scare off the would be car thieves, instead they brutally attacked the wrestler.
The men repeatedly smashed Chazz’s head into the car and left him bloodied and unconscious. Chazz suffered a serious head trauma which caused brain damage. The head injuries led him to suffer two strokes. Chazz was able to survive the strokes, but his health steadily declined after the assault. He sadly died in 2005 from what was determined to be heart failure. Chazz Rocco was just 37 years old at the time of his death.