Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
This is the 532nd 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.
To Be Frank
Frank Gotch was one of the true pioneers of professional wrestling here in the United States. Gotch was pro wrestling’s first “superstar” that helped the sport gain immense popularity nationwide in the beginning of the 20th century. With his stardom, came a great amount of fame, fortune and influence. While being on top of the wrestling world for several years in the 1900’s, Gotch let that fame get to his head and developed an untouchable ego. He was a supporter of prohibition and was believed to fix supposed legitimate matches to obtain more money from overzealous gamblers.
Then there was his reputation away from a wrestling ring. Gotch was an alleged womanizer, who carried on multiple affairs despite being married to his wife Gladys for several years. One of those women…a 21 year old shopkeeper from Chicago named Sadie Currie, sued Gotch for ‘breach of promise’ in 1909. She contended that Gotch proposed to her in 1906, when she was just 17 years old. Miss Currie said tht she had a baby boy out of wedlock with Gotch and he promised to take care of her and her son…who she named Frank Jr. Miss Curie was suing Gotch for $25,000, but said she would be willing to drop the suit if Gotch kept his initial promise and married her.
After a wrestling match, Gotch was cornered by reporters who asked him about his relationship with Miss Currie. Gotch was reportedly irritated by the question and stated he had no knowledge of her or her son ever existed. Miss Currie provided the court several love letters that were mailed to her from Frank A. Gotch stationary, where Gotch asked about her, her mother and her baby. He also used several pet names for her like “My Dearest, My Loveliest…etc” Miss Currie told reporters that she had over 100 letters that were similar to the ones she already provided and would present all of them in court. The results of the case are unknown, but believed to have eventually been settled out of court.
Other women eventually came forward stating they too had affairs with Gotch, with the wrestler promising to marry them as well. One such woman was a telephone operator named Ms. Minnie Warner. Gotch died in 1917 at the young age of 40 years old. His official cause of death was Uremia poisoning…but some historians believe the actual cause of his death was Syphilis (A sexually transmitted disease) which was very hard to diagnose at that point in time.
Double Trouble
The Tonga Twins, (Kona and Kaoz) announced in May of 2024, that they were no longer with Women of Wrestling (WOW) and were free agents. They stated that WOW had a toxic atmosphere and were punished by the organization for speaking up about it. They said that in particular, an unidentified new male staffer made some inappropriate comments and used inappropriate behavior around them. When they brought their concerns to WOW management, they claim things drastically changed in their relationship with the promotion.
Not long after, the twin sisters say they were released from the company without a proper explanation. A former WOW wrestler came forward and said that the Tonga Twins had their firing coming. Heidi Howitzer took to social media and said…“WOW can be criticized for many things, but these women stating they’ll “speak out” for the other girls only received favoritism while bullying and injuring others, the entire time crying “sisterhood.” I went to the ER due to their negligence and improper training.” Other active WOW wrestlers like Princess Aussie and Miami Sweet Heat agreed with Howitzer’s take on the situation.
The Tonga Twins said that WOW put those women up to bad mouth them and try to destroy their reputations in the process. There has not been a public response from Women of Wrestling on the situation. The twins were trained by WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi. Since their release, the Kona and Kaoz have been spotted training at WWE’s Performance Center. No word from anyone if they received a tryout or signed a developmental deal with the company.
Dangerous Liaison
Paul E. Dangerously aka Paul Heyman started working for the AWA in 1987. At the time, Heyman was still relatively new to the wrestling business and still getting his feet wet. Marty Jannetty recalled how different Heyman was from working with him in the AWA and then working for him in ECW. Jannetty said the two personalities were like night and day. Jannetty claimed that Heyman was just like one of the boys in the AWA and tried very hard to fit in and be accepted by the locker room. Where as in ECW, Jannetty said Heyman was an absolute prick.
Jannetty said that while Heyman was in the AWA, he was used mostly as a “gofer”, who got whatever the wrestlers wanted. He said that Heyman got in real good during his AWA tenure, because Heyman had a connection that got him an assortment of pills which he shared with all the wrestlers who wanted or needed them. Heyman basically became the go to guy for drugs in the AWA during his time there.
Boo Who?
Edcar ‘Boo’ Thomas was a former amateur wrestler from the University of Oklahoma and a two time tough man competition winner. He was brought into the Mid South territory in 1985 to be a possible replacement for one of the biggest stars of that territory…the Junkyard Dog…who had joined the WWF. According to wrestler Len Denton, Boo Thomas developed an attitude and an ego, because he was sort of the chosen one by promoter Bill Watts. It was that ego that got Thomas into some trouble with the Mid South locker room.
Edcar was traveling from a TV taping to a house show with both John Nord and Hercules Hernandez. Apparently, Edcar got into an argument with Nord and it eventually spilled over to Edcar and Hercules. The two started throwing punches at one another in a moving car. John Nord pulled the vehicle over to the side of the road and both Hercules and Edcar got out and continued to brawl. The rental car was severely damaged and covered in blood as Edcar Thomas got the “Shit beat out of him.” To Edcar’s credit, despite being bloody and battered at the hands of Hercules, he wanted to continue fighting Herc at the motel they were staying at. Edcar supposedly banged on Hercules door and demanded he come out and fight. Hercules came to the door with both hands completely swollen and allegedly told Edcar to come back in the morning, as he was too tired to keep fighting at that time.