Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
This is the 464th 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.
Shockwaves in Japan
John Tenta had quit the “Slavery of Sumo Wrestling” in 1986 and joined the ranks of professional wrestling. His trainer and mentor was All Japan Pro Wrestling owner Giant Baba. Tenta wrestled for All Japan for two years and was quickly rising up the ranks, when he suddenly departed the promotion and joined the WWF in 1989.
According to Tenta’s tag team partner in the WWF, Fred ‘Typhoon’ Ottman, Tenta’s departure from All Japan wasn’t completely a mutual decision and allegedly didn’t leave on the best of terms. Ottman claimed that John Tenta started dating a Filipina woman while wrestling in Japan. Giant Baba allegedly found this to be a personal insult to him due to race and demanded that Tenta split from the woman…which Tenta refused. Baba allegedly gave Tenta an ultimatum and instead of splitting from his girlfriend, Tenta requested his release from All Japan.
White Collar and Elbow Crime
On December 30, 1958…a Hollywood executive for Samuel Goldwyn Studios named Kenneth Savoy, entered a café in Los Angeles and accidentally interrupted a hold up by two armed bandits. The two robbers were George Scott and Curtis Lichtenwalter and when they saw Savoy enter the café, they demanded his wallet. Savoy allegedly said that if they wanted his money, they would have to shoot him…which led George Scott to shoot Savoy in the stomach with his sawed off shot gun. The shot killed Savoy who had only four dollars in his wallet.
The murder made national headlines and a federal manhunt was conducted to find both Lichtenwalter and the trigger man Scott. A month later in January of 1959, a tip led the FBI to a motel in Texarkana, Arkansas where George Scott was hiding out. The Feds arrived as Scott was making love to his girlfriend…a professional wrestler named Barbara White. When the FBI identified themselves and ordered the couple out of the hotel room, Scott refused and a stand off began.
The motel manager called the room and pleaded for the couple to surrender…to which he heard George Scott ask Barbara if they should commit suicide because there was no escape. A little while later, Scott opened fire through a window at the Federal agents, to which they responded by returning fire. The FBI then threw tear gas into the room and that led the couple to leave the room and surrender. Barbara White was wearing nothing but a bathrobe and Scott was just in his boxer shorts. The two were arrested with the lady wrestler Barbara White eventually released on a $5,000 bond. She was not charged in the robbery and murder of Kenneth Savoy. Her boyfriend George Scott was and was sentenced to death by the gas chamber. His partner in crime…Curtis Lichtenwalter was sentenced to life in prison.
Story Still Developmental
A former WWE developmental wrestler Kyle Rasmussen who competed under the name ‘Conrad Tanner’ was arrested in Detroit, Michigan in October of 2022. According to police, Rasmussen was a backseat passenger in a pick up truck driven by his friend. The two men ended up having an argument, where Rasmussen allegedly grabbed his friend by the neck and started to strangle him.
The friend was able to pull over on the side of the highway and get out of the truck and began to run. Kyle Rasmussen started to chase him. The driver’s girlfriend named Sarah Ratliff…was in the passenger seat and got out of the vehicle standing in the road…when she was suddenly hit by an oncoming car. The car then sped off, leaving Sarah to die on the side of the highway.
Rasmussen was arrested and charged with “assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder.” He was still in jail as of this writing awaiting court. The driver of the vehicle that hit and killed Sarah Ratliff was not been found. Miss Ratliff was a mother of two children and was just 30 years old at the time of her death.
Backstabbing Fans
William Moody aka Paul Bearer in WWE and Percy Pringle III in World Class Championship Wrestling once talked about a conversation he once had with the head Dallas Sportatorium maintenance man. Moody claims that the maintenance man had seen his fair share of incidents that took place in the once famous Sportatorium before, during and after wrestling shows.
One particular evening, after a show, the maintenance man was walking around the building cleaning up and noticed a fan still seated. This, after all the fans had left the Sportatorium. The man seated was slumped over his chair and when the maintenance man approached the fan, he noticed a knife sticking out of his back.