Wrestling With Sin: 242

Brian Damage

This is the 242nd 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.

Rush to Judgement

WWE wrestler/manager Lio Rush had a very tough upbringing. He was raised in an abusive home and often had to have physical confrontations with his own father. Rush was kicked out of his home at 17 years old. He saw several of his friends shot and killed on the streets of Maryland. While training to become a pro wrestler, Lio battled depression and admittedly attempted suicide.

Rush doesn’t remember much about the incident, only that he woke up in a hospital bed with his mother in tears. Rush was eventually admitted into a psychiatric ward to try and help him get his mind straight. In 2017, Lio signed a WWE developmental deal at the age of 22. While training at the WWE Performance Center and competing for NXT, Rush jokingly tweeted about Emma receiving her WWE release.

The tweet set off a firestorm of responses from current and former WWE stars, as well as fans criticizing his comment. WWE management punished him by taking him off all NXT events for a month. While serving his punishment, Rush admitted that all the negative backlash became too much for him and he once again had thoughts of suicide. He decided to try and reach out to Emma to apologize, but never got a response back. Luckily, Paige helped him cope with his depression by offering advice and guidance following her own troubles with social media.

Land of the Rising Hand

Former 5 time IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion Koji Kanemoto was arrested on assault charges in early 2019. The arrest stems from a physical altercation Kanemoto had with his wife. According to reports, Kanemoto’s wife became suspicious that the wrestler was having an affair. The wife took Koji’s cell phone to check if he was talking with any other women. Koji allegedly slapped the phone out of her hand and then slapped her in her head.

She contacted police and Kanemoto was arrested at their home. Koji then released a statement in which he said, “I am certain that I had violence against my wife. I was suspected of cheating because she went through my cell phone without permission. It was a flat handed and one shot hit.”

No Fox Given

Alicia Fox has been the longest tenured female wrestler on WWE’s roster. She was also the first African American Divas Champion. In all her years with WWE, Fox has had her share of troubles and controversy. She had dated former star Wade Barrett for a couple of years before Barrett broke it off. Rumors had it, that Wade just couldn’t stand Alicia’s heavy partying lifestyle and decided to call it quits.

In 2015, Alicia and Paige were drinking at a restaurant when a group of fans wanted to get autographs and take some pictures of the two wrestlers. Somehow, a physical altercation took place between the drunk wrestlers and fans where glasses were being thrown at one another. Alicia and Paige were subsequently thrown out of the restaurant.

The biggest incident, however, took place at a house show where Alicia reportedly showed up slightly intoxicated. Her road agent… Arn Anderson allegedly knew she was drunk and allowed her to compete that night. The WWE did fire Arn Anderson not long after this incident. The WWE then requested that Alicia check herself into rehab and she apparently refused. Instead, it was rumored that she went AWOL for a few days.

Rumors have it that Alicia did in fact go to rehab for a brief stint after WWE threatened to terminate her. Regardless if all that is true, Alicia has acknowledged that alcoholism does run in her family. She admitted that her mother battled the disease for a number of years when Alicia was younger. Here’s hoping that Alicia Fox can stay and the straight and narrow from now on.

Stand Pat

Pat O’Hara was a wrestler turned wrestling promoter who mainly worked out of the Florida territory. In 1964, O’Hara and his wife Elizabeth were sued by various wrestlers and other bookers who worked for him. They accused the O’Haras of mismanaging funds and embezzlement of money. The lawsuit demanded Pat and Elizabeth pay $250,000 in damages. By today’s standards that is roughly 1.6 million dollars.

The initial lawsuit was thrown out of court, but the lawsuit was refiled a year later in 1965. No word of how that suit ended up.