Wrestling With Sin: 248

Brian Damage

This is the 248th 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.

Not Too Sharpe

WWF enhancement talent ‘Iron’ Mike Sharpe was known to work very stiff inside the ring. Most wrestlers who competed against Sharpe knew of his reputation. Despite that, Sharpe was one of the most well liked wrestlers back in the WWF locker room. There was one wrestler, however, who was not the biggest fan of Iron Mike’s style. That wrestler was Billy Jack Haynes.

After working a match against Sharpe, Haynes took exception to Sharpe’s stiff wrestling style. Haynes ran right into the locker room and sought out Mike Sharpe. The two apparently had a heated exchange of words and that led to a physical altercation between the two men. While Sharpe was considered a very tough guy, Haynes had an exceptional background in amateur boxing.

From all accounts, Billy Jack beat up Mike Sharpe unmercifully. Not only did Haynes repeatedly punch Sharpe into unconsciousness, once Sharpe was knocked out, Haynes started kicking him in the face. It took Bob Orton Jr and Harley Race to tear Haynes away from from a bloodied and beaten Sharpe. Because Sharpe was such a nice and well liked guy backstage, many of the wrestlers sided with him in the incident.

Billy Jack Haynes was briefly fired from the WWF because of that altercation. It apparently took ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage…who liked Billy Jack, to step up and get Haynes’ job back.

Pay The Piper

In 1982, Roddy Piper was booked on a tour of the Dominican Republic. Piper was mostly there to provide legitimate back up to the then NWA world champion Ric Flair as he faced Dominican wrestling legend Jack Veneno. The feeling was, if things got out of hand in Flair’s match, Piper could help Flair get off the island in one piece. For Piper’s troubles, the Dominican Republic paid him five hundred dollars in cash and a “spittoon” filled with cocaine.

A Poor Royce of Words

In August of 2018, well known pro wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer got into a bit of hot water with some his comments pertaining to WWE star Peyton Royce. Meltzer said this while talking to his co host Bryan Alvarez…

Dave Meltzer: I thought The IIconics had a cool act in NXT and on the main roster I don’t get a thing out of them. I don’t think their promos are particularly good, their wrestling isn’t good. I think they even like… I think Peyton Royce’s transformation to look more attractive… I don’t know, I don’t want to say. But I don’t think that…

Bryan Alvarez: That they were more attractive in NXT?

Dave Meltzer: I thought so, yes. To me, yes. I would say so. But that’s neither here nor there.

Bryan Alvarez: No one’s saying she’s unattractive, by the way, everybody.

Dave Meltzer: I know, no shit. Yeah, I didn’t say it at all. But she doesn’t stand out to me… when she was in NXT she did… she was a lot lighter.

Peyton Royce would respond to Meltzer’s comments by Tweeting:

So what would you have me do Dave…starve myself? This is how nightmares for young women start. The females in your life must be proud.

That set off a storm of tweets from several WWE stars like Ember Moon, Renee Young and Seth Rollins as well as from countless fans in support of Peyton. Many fans claiming that they were going to cancel their subscription to Meltzer’s news letter ‘The Wrestling Observer.’ Meltzer would issue an apology Tweeting, “I’d like to apologize to you. You are an exceedingly attractive woman. I do realize the lengths and pressures on women in the entertainment world to maintain unnatural looks at times and am glad you pointed this out.”

Not Ghent to be

Ghent Wakefield was a former bodybuilder turned professional wrestler from the United Kingdom. Ghent had aspirations of joining the WWE and apparently had a developmental deal in place, when he suffered a torn bicep. The injury ultimately ended his wrestling career. Ghent would continue to train to build up his physique.

Wakefield used steroids to help in his development, but when he wasn’t getting the results that he wanted…Ghent started using insulin for diabetics. Ghent felt that insulin would help in boosting muscle mass and increasing his performance in the gym. In December of 2016, after not being able to be reached…his landlord entered his home and discovered the body of Ghent. An exact cause of death was not determined, but the belief is his abuse of both steroids and insulin caused his untimely death. Ghent Wakefield was just 35 years old.