Wrestling With Sin: 430

Brian Damage

This is the 430th 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.

Sky’s The Limit

During a promo on an episode of AEW Rampage, Scorpio Sky mentioned the TNT title and how it was run down by fellow wrestler Sammy Guevara. To do this, he mentioned Guevara’s then girlfriend (now wife) Tay Conti. Scorpio Sky said he would be a fighting champion and that the days of the TNT Championship “being passed around like Tay Conti backstage” are over.

The promo got the attention of Tay who took to social media to blast back at Sky. She wrote…

“The typical ‘let me call her a b***h bc she didn’t wanna f**k me’ Hahahahahahahahaha

The tweet led Scorpio Sky’s girlfriend and wrestler Alex Gracia to respond by saying…“You and your man both have a PROVEN track record of cheating so to even pretend about this is silly. Now do your job and keep me out of your mouth since I don’t even work there. @paigevanzant is the one you need to be worrying about.”

Many were anticipating this to be some kind of work, but Gracia insisted it was legitimate. Gracia never returned to AEW and a mixed match between the two couples never occurred. Her boyfriend Scorpio Sky had complimentary things to say about Guevara before things blew up. Sky said that he respected Sammy as a wrestler and for sacrificing his body the way he does.

The Unorthodox Orthodox

Rafael Halperin was a former bodybuilder turned professional wrestler. His career began in 1952 and ended in 1973. Halperin was an Orthodox Jew from Israel, who wrestled in the United States alongside a troupe of other Jewish wrestlers. His wrestling nicknames included ‘Mr. Israel’ and ‘The Rasslin’ Rabbi.’ He also competed for Vince McMahon Sr and feuded with Antonino Rocca.

With the money Halperin made wrestling, he invested in several ventures back in Israel including a gym franchise and a number of restaurants. In 1962, his business partner accused Halperin of skimming money from a restaurant they both owned in Tel Aviv. Over 50,000 shekels (Israeli money) were stolen and Halperin was arrested and charged with theft. He was also investigated and arrested for not declaring a number of items he collected and brought back to Israel from his wrestling trips overseas.

In 1966, Halperin promoted a show at Bloomfield Stadium in Ramat Gan, Israel. The main event was Halperin versus a wrestler named Fuad the Terrible who was in real life an Armenian from Israel, but was portraying an Arab heel. An angle was booked where Fuad attacked the beloved Halperin after the match. The fans saw this as an Arab attacking a Jew and a riot broke out. A number of fans got a hold of Fuad and began to lynch over the top rope of the ring nearly killing him. The police had to use tear gas on the crowd to to help both wrestlers get to safety. Several officers were injured in the riot and claimed that Halperin did not inform them that the attack was all staged. The police refused to provide security for any more wrestling shows promoted by Halperin.

Lucha’s Underground

In the Summer of 2022, two Mexican luchadors were kidnapped and murdered at the hands of a drug cartel called the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The two wrestlers in question were a luchador named Maremoto and another named Lepra. In the case of Maremoto, his body was discovered at the back of the Mexican National Guard barracks in Irapuato, Mexico.

A banner was next to his body, with the Jalisco cartel taking responsibility for the murders. The cartel claimed that both luchadors were a part of a rival gang that had been battling the Jalisco cartel over turf in the area. The banner read…“To the colleagues of the Lucha Libre profession, the CJNG has nothing against you personally…The events involving Lepra Salvador and Maremoto were direct attacks.”

A League of Their Own

At Wrestlemania 32 in Dallas, Texas in 2016…a match was booked between New Day and the faction known as ‘The League of Nations consisting of Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio, Wade Barrett and Rusev. According to New Day’s Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, seconds before the two teams went to the ring for their match, a fight broke out backstage at the Gorilla position.

The New Day claim that the League of Nations members were all about themselves as individual wrestlers and wanted nothing to do with the group. An argument broke out backstage when one of the League of Nations members lashed out at the New Day. A fight broke out with an unidentified member of the League and a member of the New Day. Alberto Del Rio confirmed that there was a fight, but it wasn’t instigated by him…but another League member who he wouldn’t name.

According to Del Rio…

“Yeah, there was a big fight backstage but on that one, it was not me creating that altercation. The other two and I, we had to put someone in his place backstage before going out. This is one minute before we went out to the ring, and one of us, I’m not gonna say who, one of us had to tell this person, ‘Listen, you mother f. We’re done with you. You’re gonna go out and do this because you’re a this, and you’re a that.’ So yes, one minute before we went out in that huge, packed stadium, an altercation was happening backstage. You know, it’s part of wrestling.”

“One of the members of the League of Nations grabbed this other member of the League of Nations, grabbed him by the neck, and put them against the wall like that. So that’s all I can say about it.” 

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