Wrestling With Sin: 413

Brian Damage

This is the 413th 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.

Clash of Chavo

In 2004, Chavo Guerrero Sr attended the Cauliflower Alley Club’s awards banquet in Las Vegas, Nevada. While in attendance, he met up with former AWA wrestler and owner Verne Gagne. During their conversation, Guerrero asked Gagne to pay him for wrestling at the Super Clash III pay per view back in 1988. Apparently, Chavo and his brothers Mando and Hector were not paid for their participation at that event 16 years earlier. Verne Gagne allegedly gave Chavo a smirk and walked away.

Chavo Sr decided to chase after Verne screaming and yelling. Bob Orton Sr tried to intervene and was cursed out by Guerrero. Nick Bockwinkel, then allegedly came between him and Verne…physically holding Chavo back from hitting Gagne. Chavo Guerrero was subsequently kicked out of the event and banned from any future Cauliflower Alley gatherings.

Chavo Sr actually no showed a WWE event that he was booked on to attend that CAC banquet. WWE ended up firing Chavo Sr shortly after that. Chavo would later apologize for his outburst and insisted it was blown out of proportion despite several other witnesses to the contrary.

Don’t You Dare Be Sour

Former WWE champion and current New Day member ‘Big E’ revealed his severe battle with depression while in the early stages of his wrestling career. Big E said that it got to the point he seriously considered suicide. He cited that he felt alone and that he was never going to make it big.

He wrote: “I wanted to be famous so that when I committed suicide, someone would care. I never thought I could be free of the sheer weight of my depression but here I am—alive and truly happy.” Big E shared his story on his depression battles to bring light to mental health awareness. We here at Ring the Damn Bell do not disparage someone with mental health issues, but to show the darkness that many wrestlers suffer through during their careers.

Fin to the Finn

Aimo Kallio Savuno was born in Helsinki, Finland and emigrated to the United States in the 1920’s. Savuno served in the United States Army in World War II, His wrestling career lasted from 1939 until 1960 where he mostly worked in the Pacific Northwest territory. He used the moniker of ‘the Flying Finn Kellio ‘ during his wrestling days. After he retired, he worked as a Longshoreman in the Portland, Oregon area.

On October 5, 1992, Savuno was stopped by police in North Portland after getting into a physical fight in his car with a man named Bobby Davis. Davis fled on foot and when the police officers approached Savuno’s vehicle, he brandished a semi automatic hand gun at the officer approaching him. The officer pulled out his gun and ordered Savuno out of the vehicle, to which Savuno started to drive away.

Multiple shots were fired by the officer hitting Savuno in the neck and chin. Savuno still conscious put his car in reverse directly towards another officer who also fired a shot through the back window striking Savuno in the back of his head. Savuno died at the scene…he was 78 years old at the time of his death. It was later determined that Savuno was drunk beyond the legal limit at the time of the incident with police. The two police officers were suspended upon further investigation into the incident. They were eventually cleared of any criminal wrongdoing in the shooting by a grand jury.

Bye Bye Bey

In November of 2009, WWE signed former Playboy model Jillian Beyor to a developmental contract. Beyor was Playboy’s model of the year for 2008. She was assigned to Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) in Tampa, Florida where she was training to become a backstage interviewer and ring announcer and potentially wrestle. While under a WWE developmental deal, it was uncovered that Beyor had filmed some adult fetish videos under a different name.

Soon after, Beyor was released from the company in March of 2010. It was believed by some, that the videos were the reason for her release, but that was never officially announced as such.

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