Brian Damage
This is the 548th installment of the ‘Wrestling with Sin‘ series. A group of stories that delves into the darker, underbelly of pro wrestling. Many of the stories involves 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.
In June of 1983, Vince McMahon met with Verne Gagne about potentially purchasing the AWA promotion from him. McMahon made an offer that Verne and son Greg mulled over. Verne came back and told Vince he needed more time to think about the offer and how that would affect the wrestling business moving forward. The Gagnes drove Vince back to the airport, where before McMahon got out of the car, told the Gagnes…“I don’t negotiate with anyone” and left to catch his flight back to New York.
Fast forward to several months later and a number of AWA talents are fleeing the territory to join Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation. Names included Hulk Hogan, Bobby Heenan, Ken Patera, Gene Okerlund, David Schultz and others. According to Bobby Heenan, Verne became extremely paranoid and started interrogating talent about why they were leaving the AWA and who they were in contact with. Gange’s paranoia got so bad, he was convinced that his office was bugged with secret microphones.
One day he and one of his right hand men, BlackJack Lanza tore up his office, turning furniture over and removing ceiling tiles looking for hidden microphones he thought were recording private business conversations. As it turned out, Heenan said that it was none other than Lanza who was working as a mole for Vince McMahon delivering vital information to him about what different wrestlers and talent were making. Lanza himself would eventually leave the AWA and join the WWF as a road agent.
Saturday Night Shakedown
Rogelio Valdés Briones was an independent luchador in Mexico who competed under the ring name of ‘Roy Calavera.’ Aside from wrestling, Briones was a truck driver and ran a liquor business in Puebla, Mexico. It was reported that a local gang were attempting to extort “protection money” from Briones and his liquor business. Briones refused to pay up and on November 9th, 2024, while standing at the corner of his business…two armed men on a motorcycle opened fire.
Briones and a bystander were hit by the gunfire. The bystander survived, but the luchador was not as fortunate. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Briones left behind and wife and a 13 year old son. He was just 40 years old at the time of his death. The police are still investigating the incident.
Jimmy ‘Superfly’ Snuka was one of the WWF’s most popular wrestlers during the early 1980’s. With his popularity came a world of excess that included booze, drugs and women. Snuka recalled trying cocaine for the first time during a party in New York City. He said he hated the feeling, but with the pain he was dealing with wrestling, cocaine and steroids took all his pain away. Before he realized it, Snuka was completely addicted to the drug.
His drug use was so out of control, his mistress Nancy Argentino was found dead in what many believed was a case of murder as discussed here. Gerry Brisco recalled how Snuka would party for over 30 hours drinking, doing coke and being swarmed by various women. He then would hop on a plane and wrestle a match and then go right back to partying. Snuka’s excessive drug use started to affect him mentally. Rocky Johnson remembered Snuka sitting on the edge of his bed in a hotel room talking to himself out loud in the dark. Snuka’s drug use led to several no shows and he was sent to rehab right in the middle of a hot feud with Roddy Piper. His “cousin” The Tonga Kid would replace Snuka in the Piper feud for several weeks while he sought treatment.
Jimmy Snuka did a few tours of the Middle East in 1985 and was arrested twice for different reasons. The first was being caught with cocaine at the airport and the second time, he attacked a man at a hotel. Both times, he had to be bailed out by friend Rocky Johnson. Snuka cited his wife for helping him get and stay clean and sober.
Hand Out
On April 25th, 1960…Nashville police were called to a home for a domestic disturbance. A 20 year old waitress reportedly in training to become a professional wrestler named Beverly Hand was detained and questioned by an officer who responded to the call. That is when Hand allegedly ran back into the house to attack her mother. The officer ran right behind her and was able to tackle her on to a bed that collapsed. Hand then reportedly grabbed a bedpost from the broken bed and hit the officer over the head with it.
The officer was able to recover and continued to chase after Hand outside. A neighbor jumped in and assisted the officer with holding Hand down so she could be handcuffed. That is when the female’s father William Hand intervened and attempted to pull the neighbor off of his daughter. William Hand was arrested at the scene as well and charged with disorderly conduct by interfering with an officer. His daughter Beverly was charged with attempted murder, vagrancy and sent to a local asylum for a mental evaluation. No other information was released in this case.
You can read all previous ‘Wrestling with Sin’ pieces here.
David Fullam
The more I learn about Snuka, the more I hate him. Blackjack Lanza was a total scumbag. Honkytonk Man has some stories about him. Larry Zybysko backed up the Bobby Heenan story. He said the day he came into Verne’s office to look for work, he saw Lanza checking the ceiling for the bugs. Next thing you know, Lanza is in the WWF.