Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
As always, the following piece isn’t to condemn anybody within the business. I am not here to judge someone’s mistakes or alleged mistakes. This is the 5th installment in the ‘Wrestling With Sin’ series.
The Joey Styles/JBL Altercation
In 2008, the WWE did a its annual tour of Iraq entitled…’Tribute to the Troops.’ It is a wrestling event created by John Layfield to entertain all the troops during the holiday season. On this particular tour, former ECW/WWE announcer and WWE executive Joey Styles attended. From the beginning of the tour, JBL targeted Joey Styles and hazed/pulled pranks him. The culmination of these events took place on the plane ride home, after Styles finally had enough of Layfield’s shenanigans and punched him square in the face. The punch knocked out JBL and when JBL got back up he was completely disoriented. The two have since downplayed the incident…especially JBL who was reprimanded and embarrassed by his actions.
The Jeff Jarrett/Kurt Angle/Karen Triangle
The events took place in 2008, a year after Jeff Jarrett’s first wife Jill passed away from cancer. Jeff, a TNA co-founder and still part owner met Karen Angle…Kurt Angle’s wife. Both Karen and Kurt were separated, but still trying to work things out. Rumblings began to permeate in TNA that Jeff and Karen were having a fling. TNA president Dixie Carter met with Jeff and asked him if the rumors were true…in which Jeff vehemently denied any romantic link with Kurt’s wife. After awhile, however, the rumors continued to swirl and Jeff and Karen came clean about their relationship.
Jeff Jarrett was subsequently suspended from TNA for the relationship and lying to Dixie. Kurt and Karen officially divorced in 2009 and the real life situation between all three participants was incorporated into a storyline in TNA. Karen and Jeff went on to get married.
The Batista/Melina Affair
Dave Bautista was legally separated from his wife Angie before his affair with Melina transpired. Melina, on the other hand…was still dating fellow WWE star John Morrison. Some accounts had her and Morrison on a “break” during this quicky affair. Either way, the two went at it hot and heavy for a brief period of time. So much so, it got back to John Morrison who didn’t react one way or the other to it. Melina did briefly get back with Morrison and Batista and his estranged wife divorced…but remained good friends.
The Rochelle Loewen Saga
Rochelle Loewen was a contestant on the WWE’s Diva Search competition show. She was offered a WWE contract and on her first day of being on the roster…caught the eye of WWE superstar Randy Orton. According to Loewen, when he introduced himself to her…she admittedly didn’t know who he was. Strike #1! She began a friendship with both Mark Jindrak and Rey Mysterio and became traveling buddies with both of them. Randy and Jindrak were good friends at the time and Rochelle has speculated that that caused Randy to go into a fit of jealousy and caused a rift between him and Jindrak as friends….Strike #2! Randy made several sexual advances to Rochelle with which she repeatedly turned him down…Strike #3!
Despite the urban legend…Randy Orton proceeded to dump self-tanning lotion and baby oil into Rochelle’s gym bag ruining her belongings. While it did appear like feces…Rochelle denies the myth that Orton actually defecated in her bag. She then reported the actions to top WWE executive John Laurinaitis and quit the company.
Former WWE Developmental Wrestler Yuki Takizawa
Yuki Takizawa was under a WWE developmental deal between 2011 and 2012. His ring name during this time was known as ‘Jiro.’ After his release from the WWE, Takizawa returned home to Japan. In 2013, he was arrested after taking up skirt pictures of women at a local mall. The story made the mainstream media in Japan and to save face…Yuki Takizawa along with his boss wrestler/promoter Taka Michinoku held a press conference. Takizawa proceeded to apologize for his unscrupulous actions and shaved his long hair off in shame.
Dawn Marie and Francine
Two former ECW and WWE valets that truly hated each other. Why? Nobody seems to know for sure…not even Dawn and Francine. What we do know is that they just didn’t get along. To make matters worse, the two apparently turned a worked cat fight in ECW, into a real shoot according to Dawn Marie. Dawn has accused Francine of always trying to be the Queen Bee of the locker room and despised anyone who she considered a threat. Francine retorted by saying Dawn was just a miserable prima donna.
A few years later, at the first ECW reunion pay per view called One Night Stand…Francine and Dawn Marie had an opportunity to bury the hatchet. They did…in each others backs. Dawn accused Francine of refusing to shake her hand backstage. Francine said that they both shook hands, but Dawn Marie didn’t like the way Francine came across to her and stormed off calling Francine a bitch before she left. Not even Paul Heyman’s creative genius could figure out a way for these two to co exist in the same locker room.