Wrestling With Sin: 330

Brian Damage

This is the 330th 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.

Bruises and the Beast

Bob Sapp was a former NFL player turned pro wrestler and MMA fighter. Sapp trained at WCW’s Power Plant, but never really got his feet wet with the company before it was sold to WWE. He would travel to Japan, where he wrestled for promotions like All Japan and New Japan and become a megastar in that country. Sapp would win the IWGP heavyweight title becoming the first and only black wrestler to achieve that distinction.

In addition to his wrestling career, Sapp fought in many MMA fights for places like Pride and K-1. He became so popular in Japan that Sapp did a number of TV commercials and came out with his own music album. By the late 2000’s, his career and popularity were slowing down. In 2017, a Japanese tabloid named Shukan Bunshun published a story from Sapp’s ex girlfriend.

The woman who was dating Sapp for close to seven years, accused him of domestic abuse. She claimed Sapp was abusive to her for years. The story reported that Sapp would allegedly hit and sometimes slam his ex to the ground. She also provided graphic photos of her injuries. The woman also provided a screen shot of Sapp trying to allegedly apologize to her via social media messenger. No charges were ever filed against Sapp for the alleged abuse.

Where’s Waldo? Certainly not in Buffalo.

Waldo Von Erich was an active wrestler from the 1950’s until the 1970’s. For most of his career, he had the gimmick of a Nazi sympathizer. During the early 1960’s, Waldo cut a promo that brought a territory to its knees in a real bad way. The territory was located in Buffalo, New York believed to be a part of the National Wrestling Alliance.

Waldo Von Erich in full Nazi mode made a completely tasteless “joke” when he said… “What’s the difference between an apple pie and a Jew? The apple pie doesn’t scream when you put it in the oven!” As expected, the television studio that was hosting the wrestling program received tons of phone calls and letters complaining about the joke. It led the TV station to abruptly cancel wrestling. Waldo moved on to other territories to wrestle, while the Buffalo territory was left with nothing.

Hooker By Crook

Marty Jannetty has had a pretty successful career as a professional wrestler. Along with his success in the ring, Jannetty has also had success outside of it when it pertains to the being with the ladies. The former ‘Rocker’ claimed to have had slept with over 600 women in his life. You would be hard pressed to not see Marty with a woman after his matches.

One former Independent wrestling promoter claimed that Jannetty once showed up to an event with a paid female escort. Jannetty went to the promoter and introduced her as a lady of the evening and he wanted to use her as his wrestling valet. The promoter agreed despite the fact the show was supposed to be ‘family friendly.’ After his match, the hooker would then become Jannetty’s personal photographer and take pictures of Marty with the fans.

Deleted

An independent booker and play by play announcer based out of the North Carolina area named Brad Stutts was considered an up and coming creative genius in wrestling. in January of 2018, he was fired from a local promotion called CWF Mid Atlantic for what was deemed “inappropriate behavior.” Stutts had allegedly propositioned another CWF employee to have sex for money. Stutts was featured in several ‘Broken’ Matt Hardy vignettes as ‘The Scribe’ when on Impact Wrestling.

At first, Stutts denied the accusations and felt railroaded by the promotion after he was fired. He later admitted to the incident and decided to walk away from the limelight of pro wrestling to refocus his life on his wife, family and friends.

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