Wrestling With Sin: 557

Brian Damage

This is the 557th 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.

The Gift of Gabe

Gabe Kidd has been a rising star in New Japan for a few years now. Kidd joined the New Japan dojo in 2020 and that’s when the Covid pandemic hit. Gabe was forced to remain in Japan and couldn’t go home to his family back in England for several months. Kidd battled severe depression and admitted that it eventually caused his mother to call the police and forcibly have Kidd admitted to a psyche ward against his will.

He went into detail how while in the mental facility he attempted to take his life on two occasions. Kidd talked about in one instance, he wrapped the curtains in his room around his neck and squatted down because he knew that the curtains couldn’t hold his weight. Kidd completely lost consciousness and the only thing he recalled was waking up with eight nurses taking the curtains off of his neck. Thankfully, Kidd survived both his suicide attempts and was able to get the much treatment he desperately needed.

Gabe has confessed that it is still difficult to talk openly about, but does so to create awareness about mental illness. We here on the blog wish Gabe Kidd all the best and to continue to fight the good fight against depression and suicide prevention.

The Shirt Off My Back

Lance Von Erich recalled doing a wrestling tour of South Africa and getting into a bloody fist fight with ‘Maniac’ Matt Borne. At the time, Borne was struggling with drug and alcohol abuse. Lance had made the mistake of introducing Borne to some South African “doctors” that supplied him with pain medication. Lance said that he and Borne were really good friends, but all the pain pills and drinking booze altered Borne’s personality.

An example of this happened when Lance took a woman back to the hotel room he was sharing with Borne. After Lance and his lady friend had sexual intercourse, the woman borrowed a shirt to wear. She ended up taking that shirt home with her. As it turned out, the shirt belonged to Borne and not Lance Von Erich. When Borne returned to the room, he noticed his shirt was missing. Lance said that Borne acted erratically about missing the article of clothing and accused Lance of stealing it. The two got into an argument, which led both wrestlers getting involved in a fist fight in the room. After both men beat each other up and were both bloodied, Lance apologized to Borne and the two remained friends.

Not in the Cards

Fred Sellers was a popular light heavyweight pro wrestler from Des Moines, Iowa. He had taken up residence in Fairbanks, Alaska where he both wrestled and worked as a baker during the long winter months. As a wrestler, Sellers earned the nickname of ‘The Baker Kid.’ In July of 1911, Sellers attended an illegal poker game at The Imperial Cigar Shop in Fairbanks.

Fred Sellers and a Slovenian named Borisa Rakocevich were playing a game with a large group of people. At the culmination of the card game, Rakocevich claimed he had three kings to win the pot. He began pulling in the chips when Sellers interrupted and asked him to show the hand. The cards were flipped to reveal only two kings compared to Sellers’ superior hand with two pairs. An argument ensued after Sellers called out Rakocevich for being a cheater. Rakocevich threw the chips at Sellers and the two threw punches at each other. The owner of the cigar store got in between the two men and the fight was seemingly broken up.

As Sellers slowly back up at the request of the other men at the game…Rakocevich pulled a .32 caliber gun out of his coat and fired four shots at Sellers, killing him. Ravocevich and others scattered out of the cigar shop and Rakocevich hid his gun behind the store. He was quickly cornered by other men at the game and was arrested by police. Sellers mother requested that her son’s body be sent back home to Iowa. It took about two weeks for friends to raise $751 to send Sellers body back to Iowa to be buried. By the time Sellers body returned to his mother, it was badly decomposed and his mother was not allowed to see the body.

Two months later, she wrote a Thank You to friends in Fairbanks. “Oh, dear boys, if you have a mother, don’t forget her and always try to be with her or near her at least. I suppose that by the time you get this, you will know something of the fate of that poor fellow who killed my boy. I hope they do not hang him for that would do no good.” Borisa Rakocevich pled guilty to killing Fred Sellers, but no records were available on what his punishment was. The Imperial Cigar Shop that held the illegal poker game were fined $1,000. Fred Sellers was just 24 years old at the time of his death.

Con-Text

Kevin Ryan is an independent pro wrestler and promoter from the Georgia area. He was accused by an underage female of sending inappropriate pictures of himself to her. He also allegedly told this underage girl that he was just using his longtime girlfriend for her money to help support his wrestling promotion ‘Forever Wrestling.’ When the girl refused his advances, Kevin Ryan tried to convince her to delete the inappropriate pictures. He also told the girl that he just wanted to be friends with her and didn’t mean anything other than that.

The female took to social media to reveal the texts that he sent. Since then, promotions and wrestlers a like have said that they will be cutting ties with Kevin Ryan. While he has yet to comment directly about these accusations against him, one of his last social media posts was…

Like me, hate me, or love me.

Either way, I’m going to be proud of everything I’ve done. I will not let anyone or anything take that away from me.

Self love is important in this life, appreciate who and what you are.

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