Wrestling With Sin: 165

Brian Damage

This is the 165th 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.

Twas the Week Before Christmas

At a hotel bar in Amherst, New York around Christmastime in 1997….a bunch of WCW wrestlers were drinking and having a good time. Another bar patron (Not a WCW wrestler) bumped into Scott Norton and somehow the incident began to escalate. The friend of the patron who bumped into Norton hit Scott with a beer bottle.

A full on fist fight broke out with one of the patrons suffering a broken nose and busted lip. Lex Luger was also involved in the fight and suffered a black eye. When police arrived, Rick Rude got belligerent with the cops and got into their faces which led cops to mace him and arrest him at the scene. Rude and the two friends involved in the initial brawl spent the night in jail.

Bye George

George ‘Catalina’ Drake was a pro wrestler who competed and had some success in the AWA based in Minnesota. Drake also wrestled in other territories like Ohio, Arizona, San Francisco, Japan and England. As the story goes, while on tour in Japan…Drake met and fell in love with a Japanese born woman. The two would have a long distance relationship when Drake returned to the states.

George Drake allegedly tried to convince his Japanese girlfriend to come and be with him in the United States, but repeatedly turned him down. One day, his girlfriend sent him a letter and Drake needed someone to translate it. Apparently, the note was a “Dear John” letter with his girlfriend breaking up with him. According to others, Drake became depressed and withdrawn and two days after receiving the letter…committed suicide on December 28th, 1967. It is not 100% proven that the breakup was the reason for his suicide. George Drake was just 39 years old.

Moore or Less

Former WCW, WWE and TNA wrestler Shannon Moore was married to a woman named Crystal who he allegedly cheated on with WWE seamstress Julie Youngberg. The two divorced and Moore went on to marry Youngberg. History apparently repeated itself early in 2017, when Moore cheated on Youngberg with an independent female wrestler named Lindsay Snow. Depending on who you believe, both Moore and Youngberg blamed each other for being unfaithful to the other.

There were even allegations made by Snow’s ex boyfriend….that Shannon Moore struck Youngberg in the face once during an argument. Moore and Youngberg have since divorced and now Moore and Snow are a couple.

That Was Some Funkin’ Weekend

During Wrestlemania 13 weekend, Flash Funk and his real life wife got into a heated argument over several issues. At this point, Funk aka 2 Cold Scorpio aka Charles Scaggs was using hard drugs like cocaine and others on an almost daily basis. While his drug abuse was spiraling out of control, so was his marriage.

Flash Funk’s wife accused him of having an affair with both of his valets in the WWF (Tracy and Nadine) the Funkettes. Funk denied having sex with either one of them…but the couple argued all over the hotel that weekend. The fights involved a lot of screaming, yelling and cursing and hotel security had to be called in a number of times to break them up. Most of WWF’s management and families were staying at the same hotel and heard most of the fighting and inappropriate behavior. It is believed this incident coupled with his ongoing battle with drugs led to Flash Funk losing his push with the company.

New Jack Pity

Gary Yap was a promoter who ran a promotion called Epic Pro Wrestling based in California. In 2003, Yap brought in former ECW stars like Sabu and New Jack to work his shows. According to New Jack, Gary Yap played games with him almost from the start. Whether it was not properly booking New Jack’s flight or paying him the money he allegedly owed for working the Epic events.

Yap insisted he did pay him the money owed…but New Jack was trying to shake him down for more money in advance for working future shows. Gary Yap put his foot down and refused to pay New Jack for work he didn’t already do. Regardless of you believe….one thing was clear…New Jack wanted the money. So much so, New Jack sent a few of his “friends” to pay a visit to a club where Yap’s girlfriend Hailey worked and threatened her.

According to Gary Yap, these friends demanded that Hailey get the money owed to New Jack or she would be raped and killed. Fearing for his girlfriend’s life, Gary paid him whatever fee New Jack was seeking. The two continued to bad mouth each other on social media after the situation was over. Gary Yap would split from his girlfriend /wife Hailey and she would go on to marry XPW wrestler ‘The Messiah.’

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

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