Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
This is the 365th 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 Ted Commandments
Billionaire media mogul Ted Turner owned World Championship Wrestling from 1988 until 2000 when he sold his Turner Broadcasting to AOL/Time Warner. Aside from being a huge supporter of pro wrestling through the years, Ted Turner was a well known womanizer. In college, Turner once said that he aspired to be “The world’s greatest sailor, businessman and lover, at the same time.” Married three times, Turner was suspected of carrying on numerous affairs. At one point, Turner had four girlfriends who he split time with one week per month. Turner had gone on record while married to actress Jane Fonda by saying about the Ten Commandments, “If you’re only going to have 10 rules, I don’t know if prohibiting adultery should be one of them.” The couple divorced in 2001.
Turner cites his own father as one of his biggest influences in life, but admits he was a male chauvinist pig. Hs father was also a philanderer who used to talk openly with young Ted about all of his female conquests. Ted Turner said his Dad drilled into his mind a particular motto that…“All women were like buses….there will always be another one along in a minute”.
While starting his own television station, Turner carried Georgia Championship Wrestling which helped his station grow. In 1972, Turner agreed to also carry GCW’s rival promotion All South Wrestling Alliance run by Ann Gunkel. Gunkel a former model, who made money in the hotel business and later married wrestler/promoter Ray Gunkel, started her own promotion after her husband died. All South Wrestling aired before its competition on the station. It was heavily rumored that Turner and Gunkel carried on an affair during this time. At that point, Turner was married to his second wife. When her promotion folded in 1974, Gunkel was able to get a settlement of some sort from her rivals using Ted Turner’s attorney.
TOMorrow Is Never Promised
Tommy Rogers wrestling career spanned nearly 30 years competing in places like Memphis, Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico and Japan. He is most known for being one half of the tag team known as ‘The Fantastics’ with Bobby Fulton. The Fantastics won several championships across various promotions. Rogers finally retired from the squared circle in 2007, citing numerous injuries as the cause.
On June 1st, 2015, Tommy Rogers was found dead in his apartment in Honolulu, Hawaii by his roommate. According to Dave Meltzer…there was an empty bottle of Somas next to him. Meltzer also wrote that no note was left at the scene (igniting speculation that Rogers committed suicide.) Meltzer then removed that line from his report. Rogers former partner Bobby Fulton dismissed the rumors about suicide…believing Rogers wouldn’t do such a thing.
While Rogers cause of death was never revealed to the public, Meltzer did reveal that Rogers had recently gotten into some sort of altercation with police. Meltzer added that the altercation had gotten physical at some point. Rogers was staring at some serious jail time for the incident and the day before his sentencing…Rogers was found dead. Whatever the true cause of his death was, Tommy Rogers was just 54 years old.
The Lion Tamer
While the WWE was on tour of Europe in 2016, members of the roster were on a bus traveling to the next city. During the ride, Sin Cara was allegedly making a bunch of loud noises that were annoying some of the other wrestlers including Chris Jericho. When asked to stop, Sin Cara ignored the request and apparently kept making noises. It got to the point where an angered Jericho walked up to the luchador and told him to stop or else.
Sin Cara allegedly took a swing and struck Jericho in the face. A bunch of wrestlers separated the two before it turned into a full brawl, but Jericho allegedly bit Sin Cara’s finger in the scrum. Sin Cara was rumored to have been kicked off the bus and had to find his own way to the arena. Sin Cara contends that the entire situation was overblown and the two made up the very next day. He cited that the rigors of traveling and being away from family is probably what caused tempers to flare so quickly. Sin Cara did say that WWE management ended up sending him to anger management classes due to his numerous fights with other stars that included Sheamus and Simon Gotch.
Rocky Lifestyle
‘The Bronx Beast’ Rocky Columbo was a top junior heavyweight wrestler from the 1940’s through the 1960’s. He started his professional career after just two weeks of training. Columbo was considered one of the true innovators of that division with his speed and athleticism. He wrestled for various territories across the country including New York, Canada, Ohio and the Pacific Northwest. Despite his immense talent, Columbo isn’t talked about with other greats of that era.
One of the reasons, was his very toxic lifestyle outside of the ring. Rocky had battled several personal demons including alcoholism and drug abuse. Some say he would drink heavily and do drugs the night before his matches to the point of nearly being comatose. Yet, the day of the show, Rocky would be good enough to compete. In March of 1964, however, the body of Columbo was discovered in a hotel room in Spokane, Washington. His death was ruled an accidental drug overdose. Rocky Columbo was just 35 years old at the time of his death.