Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
This is the 340th 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.
Ladjimi Lawsuit Against Londos
In October of 1929, pro wrestler Gus Sonnenberg was assaulted on the streets of Los Angeles by a fellow grappler named Pete Ladjimi. According to reports, Ladjimi walked up to Sonnenberg and head butted him. Sonnenberg suffered bruises and a busted lip. He did report the assault to L.A. police and named Ladjimi as his attacker. Sonnenberg recognized Ladjimi as a member of his bitter adversary (Jim Londos) circle. Apparently, Londos paid Ladjimi to perpetrate the attack on Gus Sonnenberg.
A few years later in 1934, Ladjimi would actually sue Jim Londos for back pay. The Los Angles Times reported that Londos would pay Pete Ladjimi $600 a week to “feel out” perspective opponents to see how tough they were. Ladjimi claims Londos only paid him $1,600 and owed him over $30,800 in back salary.
No Moore Drugs
Shannon Moore recalled his last stint with TNA back in 2012. He was mentally burned out from the company continually changing their minds to push him and then not use him at all. Upper management in TNA was also in flux, so when his TNA contract was up for renewal….Moore decided not to resign. He said that was one of the worst decisions he made in his life.
As Moore sat at home, he began taking pills out of boredom. The pills led to Moore’s addiction to injecting heroin and fentanyl. He said his addiction got so bad that he was spending $500 to $1000 a day on heroin. When his money ran out, Moore sold his car to purchase more drugs. Thinking his professional wrestling career was over and heavily addicted to drugs….Moore knew that he was either going to end up in prison or dead.
Moore reached out to former WWF star Road Dogg Brian James and asked for help citing he was a week away from either dying or being locked up. Twenty four hours later, WWE contacted Moore and he entered a drug rehabilitation center. Moore says he has been clean and sober ever since and says the Road Dogg and WWE saved his life.
Takin’ It to the Maxine…
In 1986, a wrestler by the name of ‘Mad Maxine’ was wrestling for Bill Watts’ Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF). One day, someone burglarized the women’s locker room stealing some items including Maxine’s camera and wrestling outfit. The next night, Maxine had a match against Dark Journey, but had no ring gear.
Maxine improvised and made a make shift outfit on the fly. The problem was, the new outfit did not fit properly. During the course of the match, Maxine’s top fell off exposing her breasts to the fans. According to Maxine, she expected her opponent Dark Journey to help her block the fans view of her being topless…..but instead Journey continued with the match as if nothing happened.
Angered, Maxine hit Dark Journey with some stiff shots to the face. Dark Journey then retaliated by kicking Maxine hard in the crotch. Mercifully for both, the match was quickly stopped after that incident and the two exchanged words in the back.
Not So Fast Swift!
Swift Eagle was a self proclaimed half breed Native American who was most known for being the sidekick to popular wrestler named Chief Thunderbird. Swift Eagle would accompany Chief Thunderbird to the ring for his matches. He would then bang on a tom tom drum during the course of a match to get both fans and Thunderbird energized.
In January of 1928, Swift Eagle was driving in Washington D.C. and was pulled over in a routine traffic stop. Police would discover that Swift was transporting over 108 quarts of liquor. This was during the height of prohibition and Swift was arrested. He served 90 days in jail and was ordered to pay a $500 fine.