Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
This is the 520th 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.
Drew Strings
‘Rowdy’ Ronda Rousey revealed in an interview that when she was employed by WWE, fellow wrestler Drew Gulak behaved inappropriately towards her. Rousey said that while she was waiting outside the office of Triple H to speak to him…Gulak walked past her and grabbed the draw strings of her sweatpants, laughed and walked away. She also claimed that WWE executive Bruce Prichard witnessed the incident and acted as if it was a normal thing that routinely occurs.
She said she confronted Gulak over the incident and he allegedly “backpedaled” and thanked her for bringing it to his attention. Gulak responded to the claim by saying on social media…“Backstage at a WWE event in 2022, I saw Ronda talking with a group in the hallway. I stopped to say hi and shake all their hands, and in an attempt to shake her hand, I accidentally touched her drawstring. Complete accident, and one that I had apologized to her for the mishap.”
Since this incident was made public, Drew Gulak was pulled from all WWE events during Wrestlemania 40 weekend and hasn’t been used at all in NXT, where he is a part of a faction called ‘The No Quarter Catch Crew.’ Drew Gulak was eventually released by WWE.
Out From Down Under
Ken ‘Dazzler’ Dunlop was Australia’s first openly gay professional wrestler. Dunlop began his career at 16 years old in 1977. At first, Dunlop kept his sexuality a secret from friends and family due to many parts of the country which outlawed homosexuality. Also, his family…in particular his father was a very old school, hardnosed, blue collar guy. Keeping his secret led to personal torment and depression, which led to a suicide attempt. Thankfully, he survived and decided he needed to be honest with himself and the world around him.
He told his parents he was gay and surprisingly to him, his father accepted it somewhat…but requested that they never discuss it again. As for his wrestling family, Dunlop said that most accepted who he was, but there was one incident where an unnamed veteran called him a faggot inside the ring and physically ripped out an earring he had in his left ear. That caused Dunlop to bleed profusely, but said the match went on as normal. Dunlop stated that the veteran never approached him after that and apologize for his actions.
Dunlop admitted to being a “whore” when he was younger and had many one night stands. It all came to end when the Aids pandemic hit in the 1980’s. Sadly, that is when Dunlop said he was violently raped and had to wait days to find out if he had contracted HIV. Luckily, he did not and decided to take it easy and settle down with one man. Ken ‘Dazzler’ Dunlop is now retired from pro wrestling after close to 25 years as an active competitor. He still is somewhat involved to this day, as he helps train future wrestlers in the industry.
Zzzzz-Man
In 1992, Tom Brandi joined WCW and was paired with ‘The Z-Man’ Tom Zenk by booker Dusty Rhodes. The belief was that Zenk and Brandi (renamed Johnny Gunn) would be the 1990’s version of the very popular Rock N Roll Express tag team. Unfortunately, the team flopped for various reasons and was quickly disbanded. According to Brandi, while he considered Tom Zenk to be a friend and mentor during his time in WCW, he also stated that Zenk was nice, but miserable. Brandi claimed that Zenk was constantly hopped up on different types of muscle relaxers.
That according to Brandi, affected Zenk’s mind and he became very jaded. Zenk repeatedly complained about second generation wrestlers like Dustin Rhodes and Erik Watts getting better opportunities than he did. Zenk also allegedly refused an offer to turn himself and Johnny Gunn heel, because he believed he was going to make the most money as a babyface. That decision, ultimately led the company severing ties with Tom Brandi and he blamed Zenk for that.
Passing the Buck
Tranquillo ‘Lilo’ Nardi was an Italian born professional wrestler who competed in the northeast in the 1920’s and 30’s. In July of 1934, Nardi was arrested along with his wife and two children in Connecticut after passing several counterfeit bills in Providence, Rhode Island. The police discovered $70 dollars in counterfeit bills along with $306 dollars in legitimate money on him during the arrest. His family was eventually released from custody, while Nardi remained in jail and held after unable to post a $5,000 bond.
Initially, Lilo Nardi plead not guilty, but eventually changed his plea to guilty on charges of counterfeiting. He received a 3 1/2 month sentence in prison and had to pay a fine of $100 dollars.