Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
This is the 483rd 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.
Maple Beef
Jack Tunney was not only a figurehead authority figure for the World Wrestling Federation during the 1980’s and early 1990’s, but he has held a pivotal role during Vince McMahon’s expansion of the company. Tunney was in charge of the Toronto, Ontario office and helped the WWF secure bookings exclusively in that area.
When the WWF was transitioning away from the Hulk Hogan era and Bret Hart was considered a wrestler to become a top level star…Tunney was supposedly extremely vocal against it. Apparently their was a long history between Tunney and the Hart family stemming from the territory days. Even though Tunney ran Toronto and surrounding areas in Canada and the Harts ran Calgary, Alberta and those surrounding areas separate from each other, there was still some bad blood between them.
Despite Tunny’s vocal opposition to making Bret Hart WWF champion, the company moved forward with their plans. When Bret eventually gained some power and leverage behind the scenes, it was heavily rumored he used that political power to get Tunney removed as WWF’s head man in charge of Canadian bookings. After Tunney was removed from power, Bret’s good friend Carl DeMarco replaced him in the Toronto office.
An angry and bitter Tunney used whatever power and influence he still had and was able to shut out the WWF from appearing at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens. The WWF was forced to hold shows in other venues around the area. Tunney also attempted to get a job with WWF’s rival WCW, but that never materialized. Years later, Bret was asked if he had any doing in getting Jack Tunney fired and he denied any such doing.
The Reflection of Imperfection
Former AEW wrestler Kayla Rossi opened up about her past struggles with an eating disorder and opioid addiction. She said her obsession with being “perfect” led her down a dangerous road of starving herself and taking drugs to look a certain way. She stated that her addictions prevented her from letting anyone get close to her as a friend or as a lover, mainly because she was fearful of getting caught doing what she was doing to herself.
Her never ending search for perfection led her from one addictive behavior to another. Rossi said she finally hit rock bottom in her life when her weight was at a dangerously low 90 pounds. She was able to start eating properly, get clean and sober and began training with weights. Rossi says she still suffers at times from crippling anxiety and perfection issues…but has much more control over her life.
No Time For Show Time
MLW star ‘The Samoan Werewolf’ Jacob Fatu has been accused by a non profit charity of taking money to wrestle at an event and no showing it. The Wisconsin based charity called Jake’s Network of Hope which raises funds to purchase supplies for underprivileged families said that Fatu called to cancel his appearance due to a “family emergency.” This, after being paid an up front booking fee of $1,030 for his services which does not include money for a flight, hotel accommodations and money for 8×10’s of the wrestler coming to a total of $2,633 total.
While the charity gave Fatu the benefit of the doubt for canceling his appearance, Fatu never returned the money paid to him nor answer calls or emails requesting the money back. After the story ran on the local news…another independent wrestling promotion based in Indiana claimed the same thing happened to them with Jacob Fatu taking money without appearing on their show.
MLW owner Court Bauer addressed the situation by saying…
“What I can say is that we’re watching it very carefully. We take it very seriously. Fatu books himself on third-party shows, we have no involvement with that but it’s something we’ve had meetings on and we’re watching carefully and we’re continuing to monitor it and learn more about it.”
“I think a lot of us, probably, work with charities, so when you see something like that, how does it make you feel? So, that’s something that we are genuinely watching.”
Since this negative story became news…Jacob Fatu has contacted the charity and promised to make good on his appearance next year.
Final Overture
Elizabeth ‘Libbie’ White was a talented, young opera singer from the late 1800’s. A newspaper once was quoted as saying about her singing talents…“Miss Libbie White’s vocal talents are highly appreciated. There are few, if any vocalists better qualified than Miss White.” In March of 1898, while in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada…Libbie White was shot dead in her hotel room.
The shooter, was a collar and elbow professional wrestler named David Evans. After murdering Miss White, Evans turned the gun on himself committing suicide. The reasoning by police for the murder/suicide was “unrequited love.” No other details were given for this incident.