Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
This is the 445th 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.
Just Go AWA
Towards the mid to late 1980’s, the AWA was still stuck using the same wrestlers as their main event guys. They were looked at as Verne Gagne Guys. People that Verne trusted to carry the promotion. A few of the younger talent apparently began resenting the AWA veterans. One of those vets was 4 time AWA world champion Nick Bockwinkel, who often exchanged the title with Gagne himself.
The younger wrestlers led by Curt Hennig…started to mercilessly “rib” or play mean spirited practical jokes on Bockwinkel. Some were hoping that Bockwinkel would get so frustrated, he would simply quit or retire from wrestling. Guys like Hennig, the Midnight Rockers and Scott Hall etc….played a number of “jokes” on Nick Bockwinkel including going to the bathroom on Bockwinkel’s promotional photos and leaving it in the toilet for him to see. Vandalizing his Cadillac by crazy gluing his car door handles and using padlocks on his luggage.
The Midnight Rockers stole his AWA world title and threw it on the roof of the TV studio where they filmed promos. The belt remained on top of the roof for approximately 3 months. Bockwinkel had to wrestle shows without the title, so he and Verne paid to create a new one. While Bockwinkel was in the shower, ‘Playboy’ Buddy Rose allegedly took his new belt and smashed it against the wall…shattering it. His old belt was eventually found when the building’s maintenance crew went on the roof to remove snow and it was buried under it. According to Marty Jannetty, Bockwinkel never lost his temper and always “no sold” the mean spirited jokes played on him.
Feeling Like Garbage
Former WWF wrestler Duke ‘The Dumpster’ Droese has been very open about his past battles with drug addiction. After leaving the WWF, Droese worked smaller independent shows in Florida, as well as moonlight as a bouncer at a strip club. His addiction began to spiral out of control with Droese taking approximately 60 pain pills a day. He would eventually send himself to rehab, where he remained clean for over seven years.
Unfortunately, he had a nagging foot injury from his wrestling days that required extensive surgery with metal plates and screws. He was prescribed pain meds and fell back into the cycle of addiction. Instead of listening to doctors orders and stay off his feet for several weeks, he almost immediately started walking on it which reaggravated the injury. He went for a second surgery and developed a staph infection which ultimately led to his foot getting amputated. Droese would begin selling his pain medication to score stronger drugs.
Droese said it got to a point, where he began injecting morphine into his veins. He was also arrested for selling drugs which we covered here. He eventually got himself clean again, but replaced drugs with food and ballooned to over 400 pounds. Droese finally fed up with himself, went on a strict diet and used working out to replace his addictions. He thankfully remains clean and sober to this day.
Texas Shoot Out
In July of 1983 in Abilene, Texas…a World Class Championship Wrestling show had to be stopped and ultimately canceled due to a wild brawl between valet Sunshine and wrestler Loarraine Johnson. Lorraine Johnson was the wife of wrestler Nick Johnson and mother to future valet ‘Baby Doll.’ While it was exactly unclear what started the fight, it was believed that the two had a few disagreements while representing World Class overseas.
It apparently boiled over at the Abilene, show where the two women threw punches, kicks and hair pulling. Eye witnesses claimed that Sunshine was especially heated and uncontrollable. She was “wild” and allegedly completely trashed the locker room area. She caused around $1,200 -$1,500 worth of damages. An arrest warrant was issued for Valerie ‘Sunshine’ French for felony criminal mischief. No word how this incident was handled by police or Sunshine after the warrant was issued.
Young at Heart
The father of New Japan wrestler ‘No Days Off’ Fred Rosser formerly known as ‘Darren Young’ in WWE, was recently embroiled in a scandal. Fred Rosser II was caught sending inappropriate texts to who he thought was a 14 year old boy. In actuality, it was just an adult decoy from a group called OBL Nation aka Obliteration Nation…that catches child predators in the act. Once the group cornered Rosser in front of his apartment, they confronted him with the texts. Fred Rosser II admitted that he found some minors to be attractive. They gave Rosser the ultimatum to either call his wife and son and admit his problem or the police were going to be called.
Rosser called his wrestler son (currently in California) and admitted his issues. His son said he had no idea what his father had been doing. Rosser then called his ex wife, who said she left Rosser because she suspected something was very wrong with him. The police were eventually involved towards the end of the sting.