Wrestling with Sin: 572

Brian Damage

This is the 572nd 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.

Tex Mess

Tex Rickard was a very successful boxing promoter and ice hockey owner, who owned Madison Square Garden in New York City. Tex was active in promoting from 1896 until the late 1920’s. Rickard also tried his hand at promoting professional wrestling in New York, going against the top promoter at the time…Jack Curley. Rickard introduced pro wrestling to a wider audience using MSG as the venue.

Rickard and Curley battled each other for control of professional wrestling in the Big Apple. A war that Curley eventually won, when Curley’s good friend Al Smith was elected governor of the state and gained control of the New York Athletic Commission. With Rickard moving past wrestling promoting, he found himself in a huge scandal in 1922.

Tex Rickard was indicted on charges that he abducted and sexually assaulted four underage girls and held them in the confines of Madison Square Garden. The charges forced Rickard to lose his boxing license and relinquish ownership of MSG. After being found not guilty on one of the indictments, prosecutors decided to drop all remaining charges much to the chagrin of the girls families. Despite Rickard being cleared of the charges, his reputation never recovered and his stature as a powerful figure in the country dwindled.

You Flocked Up

After previously being fired by WCW in 1995, Van Hammer was given a second chance with the company in 1997. His friend Diamond Dallas Page convinced Eric Bischoff to give Hammer another opportunity. On the very first night back, Hammer took an assortment of pain pills and passed out on a trainer’s table. Raven and other members of ‘The Flock’ tried to wake Hammer up, but he was unresponsive. After slapping him and throwing water on his face, Hammer seemed to wake up a bit. Raven let DDP know the condition of Hammer and DDP told to him that if Hammer gets caught like this…he will be fired again. 

Raven asked fellow Flock member ‘Sick Boy’ Scotty Vick to take Hammer back to their hotel and let him sleep it off. They got Hammer in Vick’s car, and he drove him back to the hotel. Hammer was still relatively unresponsive and was dead weight for Scott Vick to carry up the hotel entrance steps and through the lobby. By the time Vick got up to Hammer’s room, Vick was angry and frustrated and just dragged Hammer into the room and left him face down on the floor.

Vick recalled a couple of hours later and a revived Hammer came knocking at Vick’s room. When Vick opened the door, Hammer gave him a big hug and thanked him for saving his job with WCW. Scott Vick claimed that after that incident, he and Hammer became friends.

This Emi Goes to…

Emiko ‘Emi’ Tojo was a pro wrestler in Japan from 2001 until 2004. She ultimately retired and became a successful porn star in the country. It was speculated that Emi conducted an interview for a Japanese newspaper after her retirement in 2004 under anonymity, and talked about the financial struggles of many of the Japanese female wrestlers in the business.

In the interview, the self described former wrestler said that many female wrestlers were underpaid…making up to 50 dollars for a show and the women could not afford rent and to live. The anonymous former wrestler said that because of this, a lot of wrestlers turned to selling their ring worn gear, while others turned to acting in porn and a few even became prostitutes just to make ends meet. The former wrestler claimed that the bigger the name in professional wrestling, the more money they could make as prostitutes.

She stated that some “stars” can make up to $2,000 a night selling their bodies, while “superstars” could easily get 5 to 6 thousand a night. The anonymous interview subject did not mention any names. While many believed it was Emi Tojo behind the scandalous interview…the newspaper refused to reveal the the former wrestler’s identity.

Dog Days of Depression

Brandon Holman aka ‘Dick Dynamo’ was an independent professional wrestler based out of Maryland. Holman was becoming a rising star on the indie circuit with both his wrestling skills and infectious charisma. As Holman’s stock was rising up in the wrestling world…he was suffering mentally behind the scenes. Sadly, Holman would take his own life.

A good friend of his took to social media to say that there were a variety of issues that led to Holman’s suicide. One of them being the death of his beloved dog. Brandon ‘Dick Dynamo’ Holman was just 25 years old at the time of his death.

You can read all previous ‘Wrestling with Sin’ pieces here.