Wrestling With Sin: 433

Brian Damage

This is the 433rd 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.

Break the Richter Scale

During the early to mid 1980’s, Wendi Richter was a very popular wrestler for Vince McMahon and the nationally expanding World Wrestling Federation. So much so, many compared her popularity with her male counterpart Hulk Hogan minus the large pay checks.

Despite that, Richter became the face of the WWF’s women’s division and competed in several high profile matches for the company. This led to jealousy backstage with some other female wrestlers…with one in particular being The Fabulous Moolah. Apparently, Moolah couldn’t stand that Richter was seen so favorably by McMahon and the WWF.

According to Richter, Moolah decided to try and end Wendi’s wrestling career by “shooting” on her during their matches. In one particular match, Wendi Richter recalled Moolah putting her in a submission move called ‘the Boston Crab.” Richter claimed that once in the hold, Moolah used all of her weight to bend her legs back. Richter said her back sounded like firecrackers exploding and was in extreme pain. She screamed for the referee to stop the match and refused to move from the mat fearing she might cause more damage to herself.

Of course, this wasn’t the last time the two were involved in anything controversial. The two were involved in a shoot at Madison Square Garden in New York City, which saw Richter finally quit the company. We covered that incident here.

That’s A Wrap

While competing for the WWF, Jake ‘the Snake’ Roberts recalled receiving a phone call in his hotel room in the middle of the night. The late night call was from fellow wrestler ‘Ravishing’ Rick Rude and the purpose for his call was to ask Jake if he had any condoms. Angry that he was wakened by Rude, told him no and hung up the phone.

Later the next morning, Jake Roberts was on his way to the hotel lobby to catch a shuttle bus to the airport. That is when he spotted Rude surrounded by police and in handcuffs. The police would not let Jake talk to Rude as he was placed under arrest, so Jake asked hotel employees why his friend was in handcuffs.

He was told that Rude broke into the hotel restaurant and stole a roll of cellophane wrap from the kitchen. Apparently, the reasoning was because Rude couldn’t find a condom to have sex, he broke into the restaurant and stole the wrap to use as a makeshift condom.

Cold Kaye-s

Kathleen ‘Kaye’ White worked as a secretary and an accountant for the Dallas Sportatorium for several years. She first started working for promoter Ed McLemore when he ran the territory and continued to work in the front office with Fritz Von Erich and World Class Championship Wrestling up until 1989.

In 2002, Kaye went missing and nobody could get in contact with her. Police were called to do a wellness check on her at her home in Irving, Texas. It was there where her body was discovered in the trunk of her own car with an electrical cord wrapped around her neck. Her poodle was also discovered hanging from a cord in her shower. Kaye White’s murder remained unsolved for over 8 years.

Finally, with the advancements with DNA testing in 2010, the cold case was reopened after DNA under Kaye’s fingernails matched that with a man named Michael Nadeau. He was arrested at a homeless shelter in El Paso, Texas. Nadeau, who used to mow Kaye White’s lawn, admitted to the murder of White and her dog. He said it was just going to be a robbery, but when White began to put up a fight and struggle, Nadeau said he grabbed a cord and strangled her. He killed the dog to prevent it from barking during the home invasion.

Nadeau ended up pleading guilty to the charge of murder and in doing so, avoided the death penalty. Instead, he received a life sentence in prison and is eligible for parole in 2041. Kathleen ‘Kaye’ White was 79 years old at the time of her death.

Pearcing Words

Former wrestler/booker/trainer ‘Scrap Daddy’ Adam Pearce was hired by Jim Cornette to be the color commentator for Ring of Honor back in 2011. A couple of weeks before he debuted in that role, he was fired by ROH’s parent company Sinclair Broadcasting. The reasoning for his dismissal was due to threats of violence he made to a Ring of Honor employee named Ross Abrams back in 2005.

Pearce would later admit to threatening to use physical violence on Abrams several times in the past, as the two individuals were like “Oil and water.” At the time, Pearce was the acting booker of Ring of Honor, while Abrams worked in ROH’s merchandising department. The two butted heads several times and that led Pearce to threaten Abrams physically on a number of occasions.

When Cornette announced the hiring of Adam Pearce to serve as a commentator for ROH television, Abrams went directly to Ring of Honor COO Joe Koff and issued an ultimatum. Either Adam Pearce be fired or Abrams was going to file a complaint to Human Resources. Koff fearing bad publicity decided to fire Pearce just days before the Ring of Honor TV taping.

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