Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
This is the 316th 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.
Dream Over?
The Velveteen Dream aka Patrick Clark was one of the hottest and fastest rising stars on WWE’s NXT brand. An extremely popular wrestler that seemed destined for big things in both NXT and perhaps the main roster as well. In the Spring of 2020, Dream was accused of sending inappropriate material to an underage fan. The fan alleged that Dream messaged the 17 year old on social media and sent lewd photos of himself to the underaged fan.
The Velveteen Dream denied the allegations and insisted that his social media account was hacked. WWE said that they took the allegations very seriously and would investigate the matter. Later, Triple H who heads up the NXT brand, said that nothing came out of the investigation. In June of 2020, more allegations came out against Dream sending nude photos of himself to an underage female and also having communication with a number of underage males.
As of this writing, The Velveteen Dream is still competing for NXT. Several WWE stars including Nia Jax have voiced their displeasure of Dream being allowed to continue wrestling for the company.
Varsity Club Hazing
In 1988, a lawsuit was filed against the National Wrestling Alliance, Kevin Sullivan, Mike Rotunda and the city of Albany. The person filing the lawsuit was a sixteen year old fan. The suit accused both Sullivan and Rotunda of “torturous acts and personal injury” to the young male fan.
According to documents, the fan alleged that while Sullivan and Rotunda were walking to the ring for a match, the fan patted both of the wrestlers on their backs. The local police, who were working as security for the evening, grabbed the young man…arrested him and brought him to a secluded area in the building. The fan then alleged that both Kevin Sullivan and Mike Rotunda “willfully, intentionally and purposefully assaulted and attempted to commit violent and illegal physical injury” on him and that the police did nothing to stop the beating.
The NWA, Jim Crockett Promotions, the wrestlers and police department all denied the allegations. Unfortunately, no word of how this lawsuit ended up.
Ran Out Of Gus
Gus Kallio immigrated to the United States from Finland when he was just twenty one years old. He was inspired to become a professional wrestler after watching Billy Sandow wrestle. Kallio would be trained by the legendary ‘Farmer’ Burns and make his pro debut in 1916. He would go on to become a five time National Wrestling Association World Middleweight Champion and a one time World Welterweight Champion.
Gus also had great success wrestling in Mexico and won the EMLL Middleweight title on two occasions. Kallio wrestled for close to 40 years…retiring in the early 1950’s. After his retirement from wrestling, Gus became an entrepreneur opening up several businesses including a Bath House, a gym and a roller rink. In 1959, Kallio suffered a stroke and decided to sell off all of his business interests.
By 1962, as his money was drying up and his health continued to deteriorate…Gus Kallio decided to take his own life. Kallio committed suicide by a self inflicted gun shot wound to his head. Gus Kallio was 70 years old at the time of his death.
De-Tessa-ble
Tessa Blanchard is a 3rd generation pro wrestler who was accused of being a bully and racist by several of her female peers within the industry. It all started with a seemingly innocent tweet by Blanchard on the eve of her competing for the Impact World Heavyweight title. Tessa wrote, “Hey women, try supporting one another. Cool things happen.”
That led to former Impact and NWA women’s champion Allysin Kay to respond by accusing Tessa of calling a wrestler named La Rosa Negra the “N word” and spitting in her face. Tessa denied the accusation….but several other female wrestlers chimed in and sided with Kay including NXT’s Chelsea Greene, AEW’s Shanna, Rebel Brooks and Priscilla Kelly. Tessa Blanchard responded by saying….
“Over the last week, I have been accused of calling a fellow wrestler a racial slur. To read this allegation has been personally upsetting. To be clear, I absolutely did not use that word. That word is not in my vocabulary. That word is not in my heart. Racism is not in my heart.
“Yet I know many people have to deal with racism in a way I will never have to. Racism is an awful part of American history, and it is equally awful that it’s still part of our society today. While I did not do what was claimed, I stand ready to use my platform to support the fight against racism however I can.”
That statement led La Rosa Negra herself to comment on the alleged incident. She said,
“When I saw those tweets, I was in shock and impressed because, since 2017, people have been pushing me to speak about something that isn’t necessary. I don’t like to talk about my personal life. I like to keep myself private. Reading all of those fellow wrestlers’ tweets that supported me and reading their names, it surprised me. And reading the non-wrestlers’ comments, I said ‘I have to do something.’ Because it isn’t how it says it was. Maybe people took it wrong. I don’t want to be overexposed with this. The female wrestlers know what really happened and why I didn’t say anything. Now, I want to clear things up.”
“Working in the U.S. and Japan, I didn’t disrespect anybody – no female wrestlers, promoters, sponsors, or any fans. That’s not me. People who know me know how I am. Everywhere I’ve worked, they can tell you how I behave. I don’t like to talk mean about people. I was there supporting people that helped me or didn’t. I don’t expect to receive any apologies. It’s not necessary. I erased what happened. I gave it to God.”
“It saddens me that racism, envy, and bad things exist in sports, it will always be there. As adults, when something bad happens, we can resolve things by talking. There’s always a solution. Mine was to forget what happened on that day in April of 2017 in Japan. I think this was a good experience for me because now, I know I have a lot of backup. It’s impressive. I didn’t know so many people knew about the situation until the Twitter thing. I feel fulfilled. I feel tickled. Nothing will dull everything that I have achieved alone.”
If you thought the drama ended right then and there…you would be incorrect. Allysin Kay would reveal a series of screenshots in which she said that Tessa Blanchard was attempting to dig dirt on Kay as a way to gain revenge.