Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
This is the 375th 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.
The Mafia and McMahon aka The Wrestling Racket
Vince McMahon Sr was highly regarded by many as a very fair and generous promoter. Vince Sr was the first promoter to allow some of his top stars profits from the gates they drew. As Vince Sr was growing in power and wealth as the promoter based in New York City, the mafia supposedly took notice. In particular, the Genovese Crime Family who controlled the unions that worked in Madison Square Garden…..the site where McMahon held his biggest events and made the most money from.
Members of the mafia paid a visit to McMahon’s office and laid out what they expected from Vince Sr and his wrestling group. The mobsters wanted their palms greased every time the WWWF appeared at the “world’s most famous arena.” They would get a certain percentage of the profits McMahon made from the MSG shows. Vince Sr was a wise businessman and knew that failure to pay up would lead the Genovese family to use the unions to either not work the events or cause other problems during the shows. The family also had some ties to the New York State Athletic Commission and could lean on them to make things more difficult in getting wrestlers approved to compete.
Vince Sr allegedly agreed to make payments to the Genovese’s and was said to make those payments in a timely fashion. There were rumors that McMahon was only late with money once and was visited by a couple of associates at the following MSG show. The rumor is that Vince was roughed up just a little to send a message to never be late with paying again. In 1982, when Vince Sr sold his promotion to his son….Vince McMahon Jr…it was Vince who decided to cut his father’s agreement with the mob.
According to Vince Jr’s daughter Stephanie….Vince received several death threats and had a face to face meeting with a “very notorious gangster.” It was once again heavily rumored that a hit was put out on Vince Jr by the Genovese family. The contract was allegedly given to a mob boss up north in New England area named Raymond Patriarca. The hit was supposedly cancelled after a sit down occurred between McMahon Jr and a contingent that included members of the Genovese family and a “high profile” New York figure. This unknown individual was able to convince the Genovese family to lay off Vince McMahon and his company for some other agreement.
Trans-Gender Reveal Party
Nyla Rose is a former AEW women’s champion and the first transgender wrestler to sign a contract with a major U.S. promotion. Nyla has been a lightning rod for controversy during her stint with All Elite Wrestling with many fans and even some wrestlers criticizing Nyla for competing in the women’s division.
Before finding success in AEW, Nyla was an actor who starred in some small budgeted TV roles and a wrestler on the independent scene. A group of photos, with some heavily sexual in nature have since emerged of a young Nyla nude. Whether the pic were leaked by a hacker or were used in some other way remains unclear.
Bleed for Swede
‘Mr. USA’ Tony Atlas recalled a story in which he was working for the Mid Atlantic territory in 1979. The bookers wanted to make him the champion of the territory, but wrestlers like Paul Jones questioned Atlas’ legitimate toughness. One evening, Atlas was invited to have a few drinks at Swede Hanson’s bar in North Carolina called ‘The Ringside.’ When Atlas arrived at the bar, he noticed the place was decorated with a lot of white supremacy items. He also noticed that the clientele were bikers.
As Atlas sat down at a table to have a drink, a stripper decided to sit on his lap uninvited. The woman then suddenly slapped Atlas and screamed “don’t touch me!” Tony Atlas then noticed a couple of bikers who were playing pool, stopped their game and grabbed a pool ball and sticks walking towards him. Atlas knew that they fully intended on jumping him, so he got up ready to fight. It was then that Atlas said he was sucker punched from behind by another biker and was beat with pool sticks. Atlas was able to fight off the three men that attacked him and crawl out of the bar.
When Atlas made it outside, he was met by the bar’s owner and fellow wrestler Swede Hanson. Swede was laughing and helped a bloodied Atlas to his feet and then walked into the bar. Atlas said he saw Swede pay the three bikers that attacked him. As it turned out, it was all a test set up by Hanson to see how legitimately tough Atlas was. The wrestlers wanted to make sure that Tony Atlas was worthy to hold the territory’s title.
A Cat’s Tale
Former TNA and WWE wrestler ‘Wildcat’ Chris Harris was arrested in Kentucky on October 5th, 2021. Harris was officially charged with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol and failure to produce proof of insurance. He spent the evening in jail and was released on $2,500 bail the next morning. As of this writing, Harris was scheduled to appear in court for the offense in November.
This is the second DUI arrest for Harris. He was previously arrested in Florida for a DUI in 2013…as mentioned here.