Wrestling With Sin: 247

Brian Damage

This is the 247th 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.

Keeping Up With Karadagian

Martin Karadagian was a hugely popular wrestler/promoter that was based in Argentina. He was considered by many as a cross between Hulk Hogan and Vince McMahon in South America. Karadagian created a wrestling program called ‘Titanes en el ring’…translation Titans in the Ring that was extremely successful all over Latin America. The show was geared towards children and had outlandish wrestling gimmicks like a spaceman and a mummy.

‘Titanes en el ring’ aired all over Central and South America and Puerto Rico from 1962 until 1983. In 1970, Karadagian was in the process of constructing a gym in Argentina when the building partially collapsed. Karadagian was furious and confronted the engineer on the construction project. The engineer refused to take full responsibility for the building collapse and Karadagian allegedly pulled out a gun and pistol whipped the man.

Martin Karadagian was subsequently arrested and went to trial. He was found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison. While in prison, Karadagian wrote new storylines and created new characters for his television show. When he was finally released from prison, Titanes en el ring became an even bigger, more popular show than ever before.

Albright Is Not Alright

When Kevin Steen aka ‘Kevin Owens’ was working for Ring of Honor back in 2007/2008….he didn’t get along with all of the talent. Steen remembers one such wrestler who he called a “bully.” That wrestler was named Brent Albright. Steen claims that Albright never liked him because of his weight and also because he used a few top rope maneuvers. Albright was more of a mat based grappler.

Albright would allegedly take shots at Steen’s weight and claim that Steen wasn’t an athlete. Kevin goes on to accuse Albright of “stiffing” him one time in the ring in a match against each other. Steen said that Albright purposely kicked Steen in the face trying to break his teeth. While Kevin’s mouth was busted open and bleeding, Steen finally snapped.

He says he went after ALbright and slapped Albright across his face as hard as he could. The two needed to be pulled apart. Brent Albright and Kevin Steen still did not get along after that incident.

Robin People Blind

Former WWF Women’s champion Rockin’ Robin only wrestled for a brief five years before calling it quits. After her wrestling career was over, Robin battled drug and alcohol problems. Her substance abuse issies worsened after her husband Harvey Zitron was arrested and charged with filing false tax returns, identity theft and access device fraud. Zitron was found guilty and sentenced to 81 months in a federal prison. Robin eventually divorced her husband and thankfully got sober and started a business in Louisiana.

Full Nelson

Jan Nelson was trained to become a professional wrestler by Verne Gagne. Nelson would compete for both the AWA and the WWWF in preliminary matches in the Mid 1970’s. His career was cut short after only two years in the business. Nelson attended a rock concert and tragically overdosed on drugs in a bathroom at the concert.