Wrestling With Sin: 406

Brian Damage

This is the 406th 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.

The Butcher’s Wife

Abdullah the Butcher aka Larry Shreve is a self made success story in pro wrestling. Shreve made millions inside the ring and outside of it as well with several ventures including being a restauranteur and in real estate. He accomplished all of this with only a second grade education. Shreve revealed that he cannot read or write and spent all of his years in wrestling relying on help from clos friends and promoters.

While Shreve was able to overcome his lack of education in his career and life…there have been some who have taken advantage of his deficiencies. One of those people that took advantage was his ex wife. Shreve has been married 5 times, and met his most recent wife while touring Japan. His ex wife is half Japanese, half Korean and was poor when she met Shreve. Shreve brought her back to the United States and the couple got married.

While Abdullah was on the road wrestling in various parts of the country and the world…his wife and her brother allegedly began stealing his money. Abdullah accused her of forging his name and putting all of Abdullah’s assets in her name. This left Abdullah, pretty much without anything. The wife then filed for divorce leaving Abdullah without much to hire a divorce lawyer. Add to that, he lost a 2 million dollar lawsuit which we covered here. Abdullah says he lost the case because he no showed court….not because he didn’t want to bother, but because he couldn’t read the legal documents ordering him to show up. Larry Shreve claims he is currently on a fixed income and sold his WWE Hall of Fame ring to help make money.

Like Father, Like Sons

The trio of Los Park which consists of LA Park and his two sons LA Park Jr and Hijo De LA Park were fired from Major League Wrestling following an incident that took place on Wrestlemania 38 weekend in Dallas, Texas. In a match that involved Jacob Fatu and current MLW heavyweight champion Alexander Hammerstone, the father/son trio were scheduled to do a run in attack both wrestlers.

What transpired was Los Park “going into business for themselves” and legitimately throwing real punches, kicks and stiff chair shots upon the unsuspecting Fatu and Hammerstone. One of the chair shots connected to the back of Hammerstone’s head. Both Jacob Fatu and Alexander Hammerstone were bleeding the hard way. MLW agent Savio Vega ran in to separate Los Parks from doing any more considerable damage to MLW’s two top wrestlers.

When everyone returned to the back, Hammerstone had to be restrained from attacking LA Park. Hammerstone demanded to know why LA Park and his boys did that and Park acted as if he didn’t speak any English. MLW owner Court Bauer immediately fired Los Park and sent them home. Bauer then took to social media to say…“Uh no. The problem was they betrayed the trust of their fellow wrestlers and deliberately hurt them. Someone ended up in the hospital last Thursday night. Zero tolerance for that.” Los Park were booked for a big storyline and after they were fired….Bauer had to scramble to redo plans.

Lights Out

Tom Nash started out his career in 1987 and would wrestle for numerous territories and promotions around the world including places like Florida, Puerto Rico, Stampede Wrestling and All Japan. Nash was most known for donning a mask and teaming with a young David Heath (The future Gangrel) as ‘The Blackhearts.’

After the team split up, Nash decided to walk away from wrestling and found a job as an electrician. While doing electrical work at the home of a customer, police barged into the place and arrested Nash. It was later revealed to him that the person he was doing electrical work was a notorious drug dealer who was connected to several murders. The Feds asked him to testify against the drug lord, but Nash refused.

Instead, he ran off and went into hiding in Costa Rica for over 15 years. He was eventually caught and spent a few months in a Costa Rican prison before being extradited back to the United States. Nash was facing close to 20 years in Federal prison for running away…but because he had a clean record before his arrest…was sentenced to 5 years probation.

The Hate on Kate

Jayne Porter aka ‘Klondyke Kate’ was a menacing female wrestler who is often credited with opening doors for women’s wrestling in the United Kingdom. When she initially broke into the business in 1977, she was booked in intergender matches because of the lack of female competitors. She had to travel to Japan to learn to wrestle other women. She would eventually return to England and became such a big star….that promoters started introducing more and more females to the business there.

As big of a star that she was…Klondyke Kate was extremely hated by fans. She recalled getting lit cigarettes put out on her as she walked to the ring. In one incident, a fan took a large knitting needle and stabbed Kate in the back of her leg. Another fan stabbed Kate in her hand with a pocket knife. These physical attacks, along with harassing phone calls and letters where she was threatened with rape and murder took a mental toll on the wrestling star. She began suffering with anxiety and fell into a deep depression.

With her mental health declining, her physical health was also deteriorating. Promoters wanted her to maintain a certain look and with that demanded that she keep adding weight to her frame. She was breaking down both mentally and physically and would suffer injury after injury in the ring. She suffered six miscarriages and the final straw was the break up of her marriage in 2002. She had had enough and with suicidal thoughts swirling…walked away from the business. She had severely soured on pro wrestling, but eventually returned to it after her daughter became a wrestler herself. Klondyke Kate saw the business change for the better with wrestlers and fans.

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