Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
This is the 310th 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.
Gorilla Warfare
In 1976, Bruiser Brody wrestled for the WWWF for a brief time. He was brought in by Vince McMahon Sr as a challenger for Bruno Sammartino’s world title. During a set of television tapings at the Allentown Field House in Pennsylvania…Gorilla Monsoon was put in charge of running the show. Bruiser Brody was used that night to help build him up for his title confrontation with Sammartino.
The TV tapings would usually last a few hours and apparently that agitated Brody. After his match, Brody walked towards the dressing room and Monsoon was standing at the door. Brody allegedly threw one punch to the face of Monsoon…knocking of his glasses. Brody continued to go through the door and backstage. Monsoon allegedly grabbed his broken glasses and stormed into the dressing room slamming the door behind him.
There have been wrestlers and personnel who claim that Gorilla and Brody went at it and Monsoon held his own. Other accounts say that the two were held back from one another by several wrestlers. In any case, Brody finished out his WWWF obligations and then left the promotion…never to return again. Some say he was blackballed by Vince Sr out of loyalty to Gorilla Monsoon.
Cyber-Cide
Hana Kimura was a second generation wrestler from Japan who started her career at the age of 18. Not only was her wrestling career blossoming….Kimura was also becoming a mainstream celebrity by appearing on a popular Japanese reality show called Terrace House. After a confrontation on the reality show involving Hana, countless fans posted insults and negative comments towards Kimura. The endless cyber bullying led Kimura to fall into a deep depression.
She began tweeting out dark and disturbing posts including pictures of her self mutilating herself. She then posted a very dark message that read:
“Nearly 100 opinions every day. I couldn’t deny that I was hurt. I’m dead. Thank you for giving me a mother. It was a life I wanted to be loved. Thank you to everyone who supported me. I love it. I’m weak. I’m sorry. I don’t want to be alive anymore. It was a life I wanted to be loved. Thank you everyone. I love you. Bye.”
The message was read by WWE star Kairi Sane who called a mutual friend to go check on Kimura. By the time she reached Kimura’s apartment…she was dead. Hana Kimura committed suicide by ingesting a poison called hydrogen sulfide. Her suicide made world wide headlines and caused the reality show she was on to be canceled. It also shined a light on cyber bullying and the damage it could potentially cause. Hana Kimura was just 22 years old at the time of her death.
Snake Attack
In 1990, Black Bart and Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts were traveling partners when they were both employed by the WWF. Bart recalled traveling with Roberts to a small town house show. The two stopped off at a convenience store to buy some liquor. When at the store, a group of wrestling fans noticed who Black Bart was and approached him for an autograph.
While Bart was signing autographs…the fans were ignoring Jake because Bart claimed they didn’t recognize him. That apparently infuriated Jake who felt snubbed…especially seeing how he was a bigger WWF star than Black Bart was. After buying their booze, Jake jumped in their rental car and sped off. Roberts chased after the group of fans who were walking on the sidewalk. According to Bart…Roberts drove the car on the sidewalk and attempted to plow into them.
Bart says the only reason they didn’t go to jail for vehicular manslaughter was because the fans were able to jump out of the way. Black Bart was convinced that Jake Roberts had every intention of hitting them with the car.
The Russian Hoax
Aleksander Aberg was one of Russia’s most famous professional wrestlers. Aberg wrestled in the early 1900’s and competed all over the world including Russia, Europe and the United States. In the latter part of his career, one of Aberg’s biggest rivals….Stanislaus Zbyszko was scheduled to wrestle an exhibition match in Saint Petersburg, Russia. According to Zbyszko, Aberg feared him and because of that…informed the Russian government that Zbyszko was an Austrian spy.
Stanislaus Zbyszko was subsequently arrested by the Russian army and interrogated. Luckily for Zbyszko, he was able to convince the interrogators that he was just a wrestler on tour and not a spy. He was released and sent home. Reports had it that both Zbyszko and Aberg were actually friends…but Aberg owed Zbyszko money and therefore concocted the plan to have him arrested and sent out of Russia to avoid paying him.