Wrestling with Sin: 550

Brian Damage

This is the 550th 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.

Sylva Lining

Phil Sylva wrestled in various territories from 1954 until 1966 under the moniker of Tokyo Joe and The Bandit respectively. Sylva was arrested in 1960 for illegally transporting knives across state lines in Texas with the intention of selling them. Sylva attempted to sell the knives to three United States Air Force members in Amarillo, Texas. The airmen reported Sylva to the police and was arrested. During the trial in 1961, Sylva allegedly threatened to kill two of the airmen if they testified against him. Sylva flatly denied any wrong doing.

Sylva testified that the knives were stolen from a restaurant that his sister in law worked at and his 7 month pregnant wife gifted them to him. When police went to question the wife and sister in law at Sylva’s home, they were nowhere to be found. When asked where his wife and sister in law fled to, Sylva wasn’t sure and guessed Los Angeles. While his trial was going on, Sylva continued his wrestling career around the Amarillo area. He was later found guilty of interstate transport of switchblade knives and sentenced to serve three years in a federal prison.

Sylva was released early from prison in 1963 and once again resumed his wrestling career…this time in the Hawaiian territory. Sylva would get involved as a henchman in organized crime in Honolulu. Sylva was once again arrested and charged and eventually convicted of attempted murder in 1967. He was released in 1972 and decided to become a key witness against the gang he was working for in exchange for immunity from other charges against him. After his testimony, Sylva disappeared and was believed to go into witness protection. Phil Sylva was never heard or seen again.

Hack In Sack

In 2003, Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch went down to Puerto Rico to work for Carlos Colon and his World Wrestling Council promotion. Sytch said the conditions down there were horrible. Not only did fans throw batteries and cups of urine at the heel wrestlers, Colon did not pay the couple the agreed upon fee to wrestle on the island. Despite that, Sytch and Candido tried to stick it out for about six months before they quit and demanded that Colon pay for their flight home. Colon eventually agreed and allegedly had to borrow his daughter’s credit card to pay for the flight as he had no money of his own.

Sytch said that as a last “FU” to Carlos Colon and their nightmare experience in Puerto Rico, the couple stole the promotion’s production truck and hid it down by the beach. Sytch said it took him weeks to locate the truck and severely screwed up their television taping schedule. After returning to the States, the couple lived with wrestler Hack Meyers in Florida for a couple of months while they got back on their feet financially. Sytch said initially living with Meyers was fine, but began to take a turn for the worse.

According to Scott ‘Raven’ Levy, Tammy had sex with Hack a couple of times, while Candido was passed out on pills in the same bed. Hack Meyers allegedly began having feelings for Sytch and started acting like her boyfriend. Sytch said that she finally got out of the house and returned to her native New Jersey because she was sick and tired of being treated like Hack’s “housewife.” Sytch decided to quit the wrestling business and enrolled back in college in New Jersey. Of course, that did not last very long.

Video Game Killed the Wrestling Star…Not Really.

In 1986, the Rock N Roll Express’ Ricky Morton recalled travelling with tag partner Robert Gibson and Chief Wahoo McDaniel. The group were hungry and decided to stop at a Bennigan’s restaurant. Morton said that the place was packed, but were able to get a table right next to a Pac-Man video game. The wrestlers ordered a great deal of food, so to make some room, McDaniel placed a dish of Nachos on the top of the Pac Man game console.

A little while later, a female customer placed a quarter into the video game and removed the platter of nachos from the machine. McDaniel saw this and supposedly became agitated that the female didn’t ask him to remove the plate, she just did it herself. That is when McDaniel allegedly got up from his seat took the plate of nachos and dumped them on top of the woman’s head. The female began screaming and the restaurant manager came running to the scene. After she pointed at Wahoo for dumping food on her, the restaurant manager made the mistake of grabbing McDaniel by his arm to escort him out of the restaurant.

Ricky Morton claimed that Wahoo yanked his arm away and shoved the manager. The manager then said he was going to call the police, but that angered Wahoo further. Morton said that McDaniel chased the manager into the kitchen and allegedly took the manager’s head and dunked it into a sink filled with water and dirty dishes. Morton said that McDaniel nearly drowned the manager. Police were called and arrested Wahoo at the restaurant.

Rich to Rags

TNA star Rich Swann was arrested in June of 2024 for disorderly public intoxication and causing a disturbance in Florida. In the early morning hours of June 8th, Swann allegedly tried to break into a house that wasn’t his. The owner shouted at Swann that he owned a gun and to leave his residence. Swann caused damage to to the door, but eventually left the premises.

Swann was later seen intoxicated and acting irrationally. That person called police and Swann was arrested at the scene. In September, Swan was found guilty of his charges and placed on six months probation and ordered to pay a fines and legal fees of around 500 dollars. Swann voluntarily entered a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center. TNA suspended Swann until they complete an internal investigation into the incident. He was eventually released from his contract.

A statement from TNA Wrestling read…“TNA Wrestling takes any and all charges against its performers seriously, Rich Swann is responsible for his own personal actions.” Unfortunately, this isn’t the first arrest for Swann. Back in 2017, there was another incident involving him and his wife.

You can read all previous ‘Wrestling with Sin’ pieces here.