Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
This is the 389th 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.
Bye George
While enjoying a resurgence of his wrestling career in the late 1980’s with his feud with ‘The Macho Man’ Randy Savage…George ‘The Animal’ Steele was suddenly forced to retire in 1988. At the age 50, Steele was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease which is an inflammatory disease that affects the bowels. His symptoms were so severe, Steele could no longer travel on the road with the WWF, nor could he continue his teaching job.
Steele confessed that he went into a very deep depression. So much so, one day he sat in his chair, turned on the radio to hear his favorite music and put an entire bottle of sleeping pills in his mouth. Steele was ready to commit suicide and die. He said at the moment before he swallowed all of the pills, he felt enlightened and turned to God for help. He cited that moment in 1988, as his turning point that saved his life.
Don’t Miss the Mark
Vince Russo recalls some of the issues he had while working for World Championship Wrestling. Russo wanted everyone on the roster to serve a purpose and be involved in angles and storylines. That included people like the Nitro Girls and valets like Miss Elizabeth. It was Elizabeth that gave him the most pushback as she was dead set against getting physical in the ring. Russo simply didn’t see what other purpose she would serve just standing at ringside as a valet. Russo admits this caused a great deal of tension between himself and Elizabeth.
It got to a point where Liz refused to meet with him face to face and sent her then boyfriend Lex Luger to speak on her behalf. That caused heat between Russo and Luger who were once friends. In one particular incident on WCW TV, Russo booked a segment where he grabbed Elizabeth and carried her backstage. Russo said that Elizabeth was pissed off and slapped Russo in the face so hard that he dislocated his jaw.
The incident certainly could’ve been a fireable offense, but Russo was a fan of Liz and didn’t want to go that route. He admitted that she probably hated him for his ideas as a booker, but hoped that she respected him enough as a human being and man just trying to do a job. The two didn’t speak after the slapping incident.
A Chair Raising Incident
In December of 1950, a wrestler named Al Williams was competing against Sam Menacker in a two out of three falls match. The falls were split one match to one match…when in the third and deciding fall….the heel Williams rolled out of the ring to the arena floor. While he was catching his breath on the outside, an irate fan grabbed a chair and swung it…hitting Williams on the back of his head.
While bleeding profusely, Williams climbed back in the ring, but could not continue. The match was ruled a no contest and Williams had to be carried to the back and sent to the hospital. No word if the fan was caught and arrested.
Ida Know about this
Ida Alb was a circus performer and professional wrestler who holds the distinction of having the very first intergender match in wrestling history. It took place in June of 1880, as a part of an attraction for the Forepaugh and Sells Brothers circus. 300 fans were in attendance for the then unusual match. Ida only stood 5 ft 3 in and weighed 150 pounds. She usually wrestled her real life sister who was another circus performer/wrestler in ‘Mademoiselle Marcia.’
Ida became somewhat of a celebrity after she defeated her male opponent named Albert Marc. The side show attraction was successful enough that Ida would wrestle another man named Charles Standbrook that same year. Sadly a year later, Ida Alb was found dead at her home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin of an opium overdose. The newspapers at he time reported it as a suicide.