Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
This is the 478th installment of the ‘Wrestling with Sin‘ series. A group of stories that delves into the darker, underbelly of pro wrestling. Many of the stories involves 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.
Keeping An Eye Out
‘The Four Pillars of Heaven’ consisted of four of All Japan Pro Wrestling’s top stars which were Kenta Kobashi, Akira Taue, Toshiaki Kawada and Mitsuharu Misawa. Together, all four were the backbone of All Japan and four of perhaps the greatest wrestlers in puroresu history. Whether they wrestled with each other in matches or were adversaries, the Four Pillars were the benchmarks of pro wrestling during the 1990’s in Japan.
In 1995, one of the Four Pillars in Mitsuharu Misawa was dealing with an eye injury. It was reported to be a broken orbital bone and the official statement from All Japan management was it was suffered in a physical match against Kenta Kobashi. The injury lasted for several months, despite the length of time it took to heal…Misawa did not miss any time from wrestling. While All Japan stated the eye injury occurred in a match, some fans and some in the Japanese media were a bit skeptical.
Some rumors had circulated that Misawa was involved in some sort of fight outside of the wrestling ring and All Japan was simply covering up the incident. A few years later, Genichiro Tenryu came forward and revealed that the Misawa injury was not caused in a match, but during a bar brawl with fellow ‘Pillar’ member in Toshiaki Kawada. Tenryu stated that Kawada went after Misawa while all four of the pillars were at a bar. Kawada was allegedly jealous of Misawa’s success in the company and attacked Misawa. The two had to be pulled apart from each other by several wrestlers including Taue and Kobashi.
When word got back to All Japan owner Shohei Baba about the fight and the incurring injury to Misawa, Baba made the claim of a wrestling related injury to cover for two of his biggest stars. Behind the scenes, Baba did not issue any disciplinary actions on either Kawada or Misawa. Baba felt that it was a simple disagreement and fight between brothers and it would all sort itself out in the end. It should be noted, that Genichiro Tenryu (who made the claim about the brawl) was not a member of the All Japan roster during this period of time.
Twitter Me This, Twitter Me That
Former ECW talent Francine and Tammy Lynn Sytch had been friends for over 20 years. That may have come to an abrupt end depending on how you interpret the social media war of words between Francine and the Twitter account of Tammy Sytch. While Sytch is incarcerated on manslaughter charges, she has no access to her account, but her “boyfriend” named James does. It appears that he has been tweeting through Tammy’s Twitter account to lash out against Francine and her appearance on an episode of Dark Side of the Ring.
Whomever is behind Sytch’s Twitter account, took exception to Francine’s comments on the show and went as far as threaten Francine with exposing her as a cheat who had multiple affairs with married wrestlers and promoters. It was an accusation that Francine vehemently denied. Despite that, Sytch’s Twitter account went on to call her a whore and claimed to have proof of Francine’s misdeeds.
Francine responded by blocking Sytch’s account and said that she loves Tammy, but doesn’t like the person she has become in recent years. It is unclear what, if any role the real Tammy Sytch had in this bitter Twitter feud.
I’m Sheik-ing Out!
At the tail end of Ed Farhat’s (The Sheik) wrestling career, he had hit a dark point in his life. Farhat had developed a drug habit which started with pain pills due to dealing with his multiple injuries from his wrestling career and that apparently led to him using harder drugs. With his Detroit territory dying a slow death, money became an issue and Farhat began borrowing money from friends and family to not only supplement his growing drug habit, but also keep his mistress happy.
The Sheik had left his wife Joyce, who was the mother of his children and supported him for decades as a wrestler, for a much younger woman. Friends who normally felt loyalty to Farhat, were suddenly turned off by his antics of abusing drugs and cheating on his wife. He was no longer getting money from people who he once depended on. Promoters began avoiding him and were no longer booking him for shows. Eventually, Farhat broke it off with his mistress and returned to his wife. Despite being hurt and betrayed by her husband, Joyce Farhat took him back.
Off The Rails
On June 4, 1887, while a Passumpsic Way freight train was passing through a small town in Vermont…a bullet went through a train window striking and killing a passenger and injuring the train’s conductor who was passing through that area of the train. The victim, was a professional wrestler named H. M. Duffer. The bullet struck Duffer in his right cheek and exited the other side grazing the conductor’s neck. The conductor survived his injury…H.M. Duffer did not.
After a brief investigation, it was determined that the individual who fired the shot was a man named Dr. Samuel Allen. Dr. Allen claimed that he was in his backyard taking target practice when one of his shots missed its mark and struck the train. Investigators seemed unconvinced of Dr. Allen’s alibi because the target was missed completely wide. In addition to that, it was discovered that Dr. Allen had previously served prison time for killing a man in Boston after an argument.
In that case, Dr. Allen claimed his gun accidentally discharged, hitting the other person killing them. He was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison. Unfortunately the outcome of this case was not disclosed.