Wrestling With Sin: 577

Brian Damage

This is the 577th 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.

Don’t be Rude

In December of 1997, a group of WCW wrestlers were at a bar in Amherst, New York. During the course of that evening, a bar patron accidentally bumped into Scott Norton and he spilled his drink. Some witnesses claimed that Norton was acting like a bully and tried to intimidate the patron. The situation escalated when the individual attempted to hit Norton over the head with a beer bottle. A group of friends then joined in the melee which saw Norton, Marcus Bagwell, Lex Luger, Rick Rude and Arn Anderson get involved in a full bar brawl. One of the patrons suffered a broken nose and several other minor injuries while Lex Luger suffered a black eye. 

When police arrived and began questioning everyone involved, Rick Rude became agitated and confrontational with the cops. Rude was pepper sprayed and physically thrown to the ground where he was handcuffed and arrested. Two of the other patrons were also arrested for their involvement in the fight. 

Swing and a Missy

Missy Hyatt talked about her relationship with a former WWF and second generation wrestler Scott Putski. She claimed that he was a “loser” who had a Ferrari body and a Volkswagen engine. The two had a relationship in the 1990’s, although Putski denies it. He claimed that it was all a work as they were working on the independents together and he doesn’t understand why she would lie and make up stories about a fake relationship.

Missy apparently has a sex tape between the two that she once considered putting online…but has held back from doing it because of legal ramifications. She did state that the relationship tore apart once he cheated on her with his ex girlfriend and got her pregnant. Missy had no idea about it until Scott’s father Ivan told her the truth. Missy said that Scott didn’t have the balls. “Well, he did have balls, but they were like this big. They were like little Gerber balls. I guess that’s why he couldn’t tell me, because he had no balls to tell me.” Scott eventually married his ex and had a son. 

Stranger Danger

An independent pro wrestler named Austin Danger aka Austin Vanwinkle was arrested in October of 2025 after allegedly setting up a meet up with someone he thought was a 14 year old girl. For several weeks prior to his arrest, Vanwinkle had been communicating with a police decoy pretending to be a minor in which he was asking for explicit photos and trying to set up a date to meet with the person for sexual activity.

Vanwinkle went to the meeting location to scout it out for potential police activity. After a brief time near the location, Vanwinkle appeared ready to flee, that is when local police in Kentucky pounced and arrested the wrestler. Vanwinkle has been charged with procuring or promoting the use of a minor by electronic means and promoting a sexual performance by a minor under 16.

Kutsuwada Think You’re Doing?!?

Tomotsugu “Samson” Kutsuwada was trained by Karl Gotch and Giant Baba and debuted in 1967. Kutsuwada and Baba became close friends and Kutsuwada jumped with Baba when he formed All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1972 as an original member. As a close ally of Baba, Kutsuwada was pushed as one of the promotion’s top stars.

In 1977, Kutsuwada did the unthinkable when he found a financial backer and decided to start his own wrestling promotion to rival All Japan. Kutsuwada convinced AJPW’s Jumbo Tsuruta and other members of the roster to join him in this brand new venture. It was all done in secret, behind Baba’s back. Tsuruta eventually caved and realized that he was making a mistake and informed Baba of Kutswada’s plans. 

Incensed and feeling betrayed, Baba put pressure on Kutsuwada’s financial backer until he backed out of his deal. With no money coming in and All Japan’s top star deciding not to defect, Kutsuwada was left with nothing. Baba allowed Kutsuwada to save face and granted him a retirement ceremony. In reality, Kutsuwada was being forced into retirement and blackballed from wrestling anywhere ever again. 

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