Wrestling With Sin: 554

Brian Damage

This is the 554th 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.

Beef With Wellington

In 1986, a wrestler by the name of Wellington Wilkins Jr showed up to compete at WTBS’ TV studio for the NWA. Almost immediately, it appeared that Wellington was going to be a headache, as he requested that when he went out to wrestle, he be given the name of ‘Blue Thunder.’ Booker Dusty Rhodes refused that idea, instead giving Wellington the name of ‘Wee’ Willie Wilkins. Wellington was paired with another enhancement talent named Phil Brown to take on the Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Dennis Condrey).

When their match took place, it became apparent that Wee Willie was going into business for himself. He started giving way too much offense for an enhancement talent and began “no selling” the Midnight’s offense. This got under the skin of both Eaton and Condrey, who started legitimately shooting on Wee Willie with stiff kicks, knees and punches. Wilkins tag partner Phil Brown saw the match unraveling and wanted to let the Midnight Express know that he wasn’t in on Wilkins behavior. This was met with Dennis Condrey legitimately punching Brown in the mouth.

After the Midnight Express used their finisher on Wee Willie and pinned him to end the match, Wilkins got up practically no selling the finisher which led to more of a beatdown in the ring. When the cameras turned off, Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express went backstage to confront Wellington and finish what they started in the ring. Before they could get their hands on Wellington, booker Dusty Rhodes intervened and scolded Wellington. According to Cornette, Rhodes put his finger in Wellington’s face screaming…“Motherfucker, you want to make a comeback on someone? Make a comeback on me! What the fuck do you think you’re doing? Get your fucking ass out of my building now!” Wellington did not change, he simply grabbed is bags and left the studio. Wellington would have a career elsewhere in Japan and used as enhancement talent in the WWF…he retired in 2003.

Down in the Dump

Dump Matsumoto was a true pioneer in women’s professional wrestling in Japan. While working as a heel, Matsumoto feuded the the extremely popular team known as the ‘Crush Gals’ of Lioness Asuka and Chigusa Nagayo in the 1980’s. Her heel tactics usually resulted in fans crying in both fear and sadness for the brutality she showed the Crush Gals. While the feud was extremely popular and profitable, making All Japan Women millions, it did take its toll on Dump Matsumoto both professionally and personally.

Matsumoto recalled buying a brand new car and the first day she had it, someone scratched it up with a coin, leaving her in tears. She also had a stalker who followed her around for weeks, when she finally confronted the stalker, he was arrested and confessed that he wanted to find the right time to kill Matsumoto. Her apartment was broken into by a group of overzealous Crush Gal fans who stole money, personal pictures and underwear. She was alerted to who was responsible for the break in by another fan who felt guilty for taking part in the burglary. Dump was able to obtain phone numbers and addresses for the other three fans and called each one threatening them to turn themselves in or they and their families would never be able to show their faces in Tokyo again.

The three Crush Gal fans did eventually turn themselves in to police. Another incident happened after a match against the Crush Gals and over 600 fans rioted and tried to attack Matsumoto while she was being escorted to an awaiting bus. As the fans got closer to Matsumoto, one of the security guards protecting Matsumoto turned around and punched Dump in the face. He was a Crush Gals fan himself. All of these incidents led to real life hatred between Matsumoto and the Crush Gals behind the scenes. Both sides refused to work with each other any longer, until the owners of All Japan Women intervened.

Dump Matsumoto recalled writing a suicide note to her own mother apologizing to her and her family for causing them so much grief due to her Dump character. Thankfully, Matsumoto never attempted to kill herself, instead focused her real anger towards Lioness Asuka and Chigusa Nagayo. Dump would later discover that it was the promoters of All Japan Women that was instigating the hatred between her and her former friends in the Crush Gals. The reasoning was the bitter feud was making the promotion millions upon millions of yen and wanted the feud to look as authentic as possible. They would go back to the wrestlers and make up lies that they were talking badly about one another behind their backs.

The Princess and the Slog

Bob Gregory was a handsome, professional wrestler from England in the 1930’s. Gregory was considered ahead of his time, as his rugged good looks snagged the wrestler to become a pitchman for products such as Alka Seltzer and Vita Grape Juice. He would also hold the United Kingdom version of the Middleweight and Light Heavyweight titles. As Gregory’s popularity was on the rise, he was invited to wrestle an exhibition match for the British Rajah of Sarawak.

After his exhibition, Gregory met with Lady Sylvia Brooke, Ranee of Sarawak who was impressed with the wrestling she witnessed. She was so impressed, she introduced the wrestler to her daughter a princess named Valerie Brooke. It would be a meeting that Lady Sylvia would later regret as her daughter and the wrestler began a whirlwind romance. After a few months of courtship, the couple decided to marry in 1937, much to the chagrin of her royal father Sir Charles Vyner Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak. He threatened to disown his daughter if he married a lowly pro wrestler.

Despite the warning, Princess Valerie married Gregory and was subsequently cut off from her family. Valerie would go on to try and pursue a Hollywood acting career, as her and her husband moved to the United States. The newspapers covered the couple as they trekked across the country as Gregory continued his wrestling career. Some began questioning the true love of Valerie Brooke and Bob Gregory as she would be in tears if he lost a match and disappear from reporters, but if Gregory won a match, she would make herself front and center. Valerie Brooke went on to star in a few movies, but it was heavily rumored that she was missing being a member of royalty.


It was also rumored that the couple each carried on several extramarital affairs. The marriage was called a sham by many with Brooke being accused of using Gregory to launch her acting career. Bob Gregory was also accused of using Valerie Brooke to get himself bigger pay days in wrestling and acting gigs himself. Valerie Brooke would end up leaving Gregory and eventually marrying a Spanish business man. The couple officially divorced in 1940.

What’s Your Angle?

Kurt Angle claimed he asked for an early release from his WWE contract in 2006. Others within WWE claimed that Angle was fired from the company due to his excessive drug use. Regardless of who was really telling the truth, in October of ’06, Kurt signed a deal to work with TNA Wrestling. Fans were split on this decision by Angle and TNA, because of Angle’s known struggles with narcotics at the time, while other fans were excited to see the former Olympic hero in a brand new setting.

On Kurt’s first day at TNA, he sat down to talk with creative head writer Vince Russo. According to Russo, Angle was violently shaking the entire time talking with Russo. Vince said he was legitimately frightened to see Kurt that way, but he knew that Angle was suffering from extreme withdrawals as he was trying to get himself off drugs. Russo stated that Angle got through the interview with Russo and battled through his addiction for the majority of his TNA run. Russo said that it was by the grace of God that Kurt Angle survived the ordeal.

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