Wrestling with Sin: 580

Brian Damage

This is the 580th 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.

Brain Damaged

Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan was a widely respected personality in the world of professional wrestling. Despite the love and respect he earned for all of his years of service, Heenan drew a lot of heat during his final years appearing in WCW. Heenan joined World Championship Wrestling in 1994 for the lighter schedule and the ability to spend more time with his family. In the six years Heenan was employed by WCW, Heenan often stated that it was the worst six years of his life.

According to his broadcast partner Larry Zbyszko, Heenan would usually show up to work drunk and carrying a water bottle with him filled with vodka. His drunkenness eventually got him demoted from calling matches on WCW’s primary show Nitro, to calling matches on their C show World Wide. Apparently, several complaints about Heenan’s drinking habits got to Terry Taylor who made the decision to demote him.

The demotion insulted Heenan a great deal and only made his behavior worse. He began showing up late to do voice over work in no condition to perform his duties or didn’t show up at all. It was WCW executive Bill Busch who made the final decision to release Heenan from his contract in November of 2000. 

Stand Up to Roddy Piper

Mr. T’s daughter Erica is a stand up comedian whose routine went viral when she relayed a story from her childhood concerning the aftermath of the very first Wrestlemania in New York City. According to her, she recalled being in a hotel room with her sister and witnessing Hulk Hogan doing a line of cocaine. Her father’s ribs were legitimately injured due to Roddy Piper going into business for himself and stiffing him during their match.

Erica claimed that Hogan was very upset with Piper for doing that to Mr. T and swore that he would pay back a receipt. She recalled Piper coming to their hotel room and thought he was there to apologize, but instead saw Hogan already high on cocaine, assault Piper in front of her and her sister. It was her father Mr T that allegedly broke the fight up.

Wrestling journalist and historian Dave Meltzer was asked about the incident and while Meltzer confirmed that Mr. T was injured by Piper during the match, he never heard from anybody including Hogan and Piper about a fight that broke out in the hotel room afterwards. Meltzer said he can’t completely rule out that some sort of confrontation didn’t occur, but he would have heard about it at some point.

Lion Tamer

In November of 1987, two of New Japan’s Young Lions Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki went to a restaurant in the Roppongi section of Tokyo. Both Funaki and Suzuki ended up getting drunk, despite being underage. While leaving the restaurant, Funaki jokingly pushed Suzuki down the stairs. Suzuki ended up bumping into a man at the bottom of the stairs which angered the unidentified man.

The two got into an argument and it led to Funaki and Suzuki assaulting the individual injuring him. Police were called to the scene and arrested the two wrestlers. While at the police station, they called New Japan’s office to inform them that they were in jail. Veteran wrestler Seiji Sakaguchi showed up at the station and according to Funaki took Suzuki into a room and beat the Young Lion. Sakaguchi then left the station without bailing the wrestlers out. 

The two were forced to spend the night in jail. The next morning, NJPW executive Takahira Nagasato picked the wrestlers up and took them back to the dojo. Both wrestlers were then individually interviewed by Antonio Inoki. The first to be questioned was Minoru Suzuki, who afterwards left the room crying as he was fired by Inoki. Funaki was next and was going to be punished, but not fired. Funaki insisted that he started the entire situation and if Suzuki was fired, he should be let go as well. 

Instead, Inoki showed both wrestlers mercy and hired back Suzuki.  The two were punished and missed shows. The excuse given at the time was that they were injured in a minor car accident to cover up their indiscretions.

All Her Friends Know the Low Rider

Sadika is a third generation wrestler who has competed for promotions like AAA in Mexico and various independent groups. Sadika was married to fellow indie wrestler named Lowrider. The couple were married for over seven years and had children together. In May of 2025, Sadika revealed that the couple had divorced and the break up was not an amicable one.

She accused Lowrider of cheating on her several times with female students he was training. Some possibly under age. She also accused Lowrider of stalking her after their divorce. He would allegedly have his friends spy on her and then report back to him if she was with another man or went out after matches. 

Sadika basically warned Lowrider to back off and that she now has her lawyers on the case. She told him to leave her alone and live his own life. She also warned women to be careful of Lowrider as he is a serial cheater. 

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